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"More importantly," Sayori started. As the two walk down the hallway together, she turns her head to face Natsuki, smiling just a touch wider and closing her eyes. "I have to tell you about my new boyfriend."
"Huh!?" Natsuki exclaims, shock painting her face with a tinge of horror in her eyes that lasts for but a moment before she comes to her senses. "Oh! From the manga!"
Natsuki relaxes just a touch, realizing she had lost step with Sayori, who still has her eyes closed and was keeping their previous pace, her head now facing forward. She quickened her steps to meet the coral pink-haired girl at her side once more. "Wait, I need to guess who it is!"
Sayori opens her eyes and looks forward, only glancing slightly at the pink-haired companion at her side, the smallest signs of a smirk tugging at her already smiling lips as she adjusts the school bag's strap on her shoulder. "You definitely won't be able to guess."
The two continue walking down the hallway together. Natsuki breaks into a wide grin, her excitement visible. "Oh my god, we have so much to talk about." She leans forward, looking to her side now as they round a corner. "Darn, I should have told you to save the last two chapters so I could see your reaction to the big reveal!"
"Aw, you wanted to enjoy it with me!" Sayori squeed, smiling a genuine, adoring smile that reaches her eyes, even if only slightly. "That's so cute!"
"Oh, shush." Natsuki playfully dismisses, a blush coloring her cheeks, before Sayori could begin to overthink the comment considering Natsuki's previous apprehension to the descriptor.
"Ehehe." Sayori let out a playfully bashful chuckle of her own at the comment. Perhaps, Sayori figures, it was fine now.
"So?" Natsuki asks, head titled and a more neutral expression settling on her features. "Who's your new crush?" A smirk creeps onto her face, unable to resist the temptations of teasing.
"Natsuki!" Sayori declares gleefully, marching on towards the school's exit, which isn't too far from them now.
Natsuki, however, feels her blood run cold for a moment as she stops, standing stock-still in the school's hallway, shock plaguing her face once more, before her blood began working overtime to make it's way to her face, sliding it from a pale white to a feverish red in moments as her brain began to decode what she heard, and in what context it was meant to be taken in.
"Oh," Natsuki said hollowly. "From the... manga..." She had practically began to trail off before she finished, the embarrassment being completely outweighed by the crushing realization of what she interpreted it as first, even after making the same mistake minutes prior.
Sayori had stopped to turn towards Natsuki, eyebrow cocked and looking at her quizzically. She smiles nevertheless. "Yep! She's my boyfriend."
Natsuki shook herself out of her daze, rushing to meet Sayori's side again and started on a much slower walking pace than their enthusiastic selves a few moments ago. "Sayori, that's not-" Natsuki pauses and looks over at her friend puzzlingly. "Wait, even after the reveal?"
Sayori, unphased, smiles even brighter, the contented closed eyelids returning to their natural resting place over her eyes. "Yep! I was super surprised, but that was a really good twist! I'm glad I got to experience it."
As Sayori reopened her eyes and went back to looking ahead, the gears of Natsuki's brain start their return to a normal working pace from the grinding halt of before. "Yeah. It's a great twist on the prince trope. It helps that they made her, like, the most good looking one in the whole book."
"Hmm..." Sayori suddenly has a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, the main girl was cute, too!"
Natsuki was going to die. She was sure of it, in the moments between Sayori saying that and the words setting in.
"What!?" Natsuki assured herself, no matter how loud that exclamation was, this was her holding back.
Sayori looked back at Natsuki, who was once again paces behind her, this time turning to face her completely. A small smirk played at her lips, making Natsuki question if this was an innocent misunderstanding or intentional torture.
"Natsuki, do you just not like girls?"
Torture. The answer had to be torture, at this point.
Natsuki didn't think it was possible for all of the blood in your body to pool in one place, but was proven wrong swiftly, the sensation of her face burning with embarrassment and her knees feeling weak consuming her. She looked down, at the floor, unable to even turn to the side as if her flushed head were the red light telling her she was not allowed to move.
"Sayori..." Natsuki practically grumbled, voice slightly hoarse.
"Hm?" Sayori tilted her head, seemingly unaware of the complex Natsuki was experiencing right now, and of the butterflies in her stomach this friend gave her; this friend who was trying so, so hard to accommodate just for her, to be someone Natsuki wants at her side, to be someone she can share so openly with, despite Natsuki's apprehension towards everyone and everything. Sayori, so caring and all-seeing as she is, prayed this part of her was invisible as she pushed it down, deep, because she was not going to rush these feelings, and she certainly wasn't going to run away this time.
"We're getting ice cream." Natsuki said, trudging forward, head still downcast as she gazed up if only to know where she was going. She spotted Sayori's caring eyes on her, the smallest hint of concern in them. But, Sayori knows that Natsuki would tell her; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow,
But as Sayori celebrated the cold treat awaiting them, and Natsuki huffed and let a genuine grin creep onto her face and her shoulders relax, they both can recognize that at some point, they'll be ready to be in the happiest place in the world.
Together.