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"And this is why I told you to check who you're rooming with beforehand," Nobara says with a sigh. "It's not too late to request for a room change."
"How was I supposed to know that my roommate was so weird? I don't even know the guy and he's acting like we've been best friends since we were in diapers!" Yuuji complains. Nobara puts the phone away from her ear, rolling her eyes at his whiny voice. It's hard to feel sympathy when she and Megumi warned him about this three times.
Still, because Nobara is ever so benevolent, she says, "Fine. Do you want to get ice-cream together later? After I unpack."
At that, Yuuji barks out a laugh. "Sure, that'll be awesome! You're rooming with Maki, right?"
"Yep!" It wasn't something Nobara had chosen on purpose, because she was on a vacation when dormitory applications were open and she couldn't access the website without local connection. However, when she entered the building, she had checked the dormitory listings and was pleasantly surprised to see Kusgisaki N. & Zen'in M. on the board.
She just texted Maki about it in excitement as she made her way over to her room, but she didn't get a chance to see her reply before Yuuji was calling her about his situation. Now, she's almost at her dorm number, 267, and aching to put her things down and begin unpacking.
"'Kay, I'll text you again. Try not to die by your roommate's hands or whatever."
"At this rate, I just might. You should see his muscles," Yuuji says rather miserably. Nobara chokes on her laughter, ending the call and tucking her phone in her pocket.
She comes to a stop in front of her dorm room, noticing that the door is slightly ajar. Maki must already be here. Smiling to herself, Nobara runs a hand through her hair, puts her hand on the knob, and swings the door open with a cheerful, "Surprise, Maki!"
The other woman in the room looks up, her eyes wide with surprise. Nobara freezes the moment they make eye contact, her hand falling to her side in shock.
The air goes still. A beat passes, then two, and then—
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asks, her lips pressing together.
Zen'in Mai stands inside the room, her arms crossing over her chest as she purses her lips. She looks no more enthusiastic than Nobara. In fact, she somehow manages to make her expression look even more reluctant, which Nobara thinks she shouldn't—it's a very ugly face.
"Nobara," she greets sweetly, and Nobara thinks about decking her in the face. "Sorry to disappoint, but you're rooming with me."
Nobara feels all the hairs on the back of her neck stand. She tugs her suitcase in, shutting the door behind her and leaning on it. Her eyes trace the dorm as she speaks, taking note of the space. It's quite a small dorm, with just enough space for two beds pushed to the sides of the room and two desks in the middle. There's a bathroom near the entryway and a small kitchen on the other side, and Nobara groans at the thought of having to share.
She refuses to greet Mai back, out of mere principle than anything else. Instead, she says, "Why didn't you request for a room change when you could?"
Mai raises an eyebrow. "I didn't bother checking who I was rooming with. I didn't think they'd be any important, and it seems like I'd be proven right."
Her eye twitches. Don't take the bait.
"Why didn't you request for a room change?" Mai shoots back at her.
"I wasn't in Japan at the time," she huffs. "Besides, I thought you were Maki."
Mai scoffs. "Yeah, whatever. She's rooming with Okkotsu. They booked a room early." She gives her a faux sympathetic look. "It's too bad you don't have any other friends, I guess."
Nobara swears that her grip on her suitcase goes so tight she hears a dangerous creak. "Alright, then," she hisses out through her teeth. "Fine by me."
She storms her way in after taking off her shoes, shoving her suitcase beside the bed that's not taken yet. Mai has already begun unpacking, as seen from the things on her desk. There's some stationery, a portable charger, her laptop, and a water bottle.
"Is that all you brought?" she can't help but ask.
Mai gives her an irritated look. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing," she mutters, unzipping her suitcase. She plugs in her earphones after that as she gets to work, and oddly enough, Mai leaves her alone, heading out. Nobara doesn't care to ask where to.
By the time Nobara is done, it's late afternoon. She decorated as much as she could—she brought a bunch of posters and polaroids to hang up on the wall, and she also bought a set of fairy lights to tie everything together. Her desk is filled with little trinkets, such as a little bunny figurine, an alarm clock with cat ears on top of it, and a stand for all her jewellery. She gathers her toiletries, about to go put them in the bathroom, when Mai returns with a plastic bag in her hand.
She stops in her tracks, and even through her music, Nobara can hear her comment. "You have so many things. What are you, thirteen?"
Before Nobara can answer, she sets her things down and walks over to where she is, crossing the imaginary line that Nobara has been drawing in her head and invading her side of the room. Mai leans over her bed, peering at the pictures, and lets out a light, mocking laugh. "I can't believe you're still friends with those two idiots."
She points to a polaroid of her, Yuuji, and Megumi after they graduated high school together, all of them holding out peace signs and showing off their graduation certificates.
Nobara bristles. "Shut the fuck up," she replies, "at least I have friends. Look at your end. It's miserable as hell."
She knows she's probably hit a nerve when Mai clenches her jaw, but she doesn't say anything else, continuing to look at Nobara's set up. Her eyes land on the pink dinosaur plush on her bed and she picks it up, squishing it. "Please. It really is like rooming with a little kid."
"Cry about it," Nobara mutters. She enters the bathroom, noticing that Mai has already placed her things inside. Her toiletries and shower stuff are all on the right side of the sink or the shelf. When she opens the cabinet, she sees that all of Mai's things are pushed to the left.
Nobara just has to roll her eyes. Why would Mai take up the right side, then take up the left side? Where's the consistency? The imaginary line they have to draw between all their things? This damn idiot.
She doesn't hesitate before shoving all of Mai's things to the right, where they rightfully—pun intended—should be. If she complains, Nobara will give her a piece of her mind. Then, she kicks the bathroom door shut and goes to pee.
Here's the thing about Nobara and Mai: Technically, before this, they've only met once. They didn't go to the same high school, for Mai attended one in Kyoto while Nobara, Tokyo. Nobara knew Maki first, and it was only after an exchange event between their schools that led to her learning that Maki had a twin sister. A very irritating, cocky, and rude twin sister, in fact.
Nobara could tell that their relationship was strained from the start, and of course she's on Maki's side. It isn't hard to pick when Mai is the way she is—mocking Nobara's things at any given opportunity and acting like she's so above everyone else and making the worst, most infuriating faces and ugh.
So, Nobara doesn't like her. Not one bit. She never thought they'd cross paths again, especially because she chose to attend university in Tokyo, but it seems like the Zen'in twins ended up at the same school without her knowledge, and just her fucking luck, she got the one she doesn't like.
When she reenters the room, she sees that Mai has left her things alone now, and is laying on her own bed, scrolling through her phone. Nobara still does a little head count of all her plushies. Just in case.
“I’m heading out,” she says, grabbing her wallet and a small purse.
“I don’t care,” comes Mai’s immediate reply, and Nobara clicks her tongue in irritation.
Whatever. Literally whatever.
“Oh, that’s unfortunate,” Megumi says when Nobara finishes her rant.
She bristles, pointing at him with her index finger. “Nobody asked for your sarcasm! Why the hell are you even here?”
“I invited him!” Yuuji says happily. He takes another spoonful of chocolate ice-cream and shoves it into his mouth. A bit smears onto his bottom lip and Nobara wrinkles her nose in disgust. “But hey, on the bright side, at least you got someone you know.”
“How is it a bright side if I hate her guts?” Nobara deadpans. She stabs into her own strawberry ice-cream with a little more strength than necessary.
“You don’t have to make small talk. You can just avoid her,” Megumi suggests.
“We don’t even have separate rooms! That’s impossible!”
A pigeon trots by, pecking at Nobara’s feet. She nudges it away with a hiss and Yuuji snorts. “Maybe your classes are different. What’s she taking?”
Nobara narrows her eyes. It’s something she hasn’t figured out yet, mostly because she doesn’t care, but if Mai happened to take fashion design just like her, then she’s going to lose her shit. She does not need to see Mai any more than she already has to.
“I don’t know,” she grumbles, burying her face in her hand. “Can we not talk about this anymore? I thought we were going to complain about your roommate.”
She points her spoon to Yuuji, who brightens up significantly. “Ah, it’s okay! We worked it out. We’re best friends now.”
She tosses her hands into the air. Megumi just hides a laugh behind his palm.
Nobara stomps up to Mai, still with a towel wrapped around her frame and her hair dripping puddles onto the floor from her shower. Mai is on her bed, and when she looks up, she gives her the most appalled look.
That, of course, doesn’t deter Nobara, who states with stunning clarity, “You took my last face mask.”
Mai’s expression paints the picture of innocence. “I didn’t.”
“You did!” To prove her point, Nobara shoves the empty box into Mai’s face. “I had one left. I know I did. And now it’s gone, you bitch!”
“Please. Like I would use a brand as cheap as that.” Mai turns her nose up and away. “Can you put on some clothes? You look like a heathen in my dorm.”
My dorm. Nobara nearly crushes the box in her hands. “Just you wait,” she hisses, stomping back into the bathroom.
After she dries and clothes herself, Nobara digs through the cabinet and finds Mai’s box of face masks. It’s a new, unopened one, that she rips open with no regret and snatches one to use.
When she walks back out, she has a cooling, jasmine-scented face mask on her skin. She hears Mai click her tongue and she beams to herself as she hops onto bed, grabbing her phone and relaxing.
“Are you really going with that outfit?” Mai sneers as Nobara grabs her bag, slinging it over her shoulder.
“I’m not designating that with a reply,” she says primly. She grabs a comb and runs it through her hair one last time. “I have places to be.”
“Yeah, like a dumpster, maybe.” Mai rolls her eyes. “The shoes don’t match at all. You should wear your red ones instead. Idiot.”
Nobara opens her mouth, falling for the bait anyway, but she stops when she catches a look at herself in Mai’s floor-length mirror, which came in the delivery a few days ago. She envisions her red shoes on instead of the current white ones she has and realises, with devastating agony, that Mai might be right.
But Nobara refuses to give her the win, so she grits her teeth together and gives her a sweet wave. “The only shoes I’ll be wearing are the ones I’m going to kick your lights out with. Bye bye.”
“That shirt is hideous, by the way!” Mai calls on her way out, and Nobara seriously considers punching her as she slams the door shut.
“Why don’t you just ask for a room change?” Megumi suggests.
It’s the third time this month that they’ve met up as a trio, and each time, Nobara comes blazing with more complaints about her irritating roommate. It’s like it gets worse each time, both of them working harder and harder to provoke each other, as if it’s turned into some sort of game.
“Because, Fushiguro, that means I lose,” Nobara replies, crossing her arms and falling back onto her chair. "It's a battle of willpower, and we all know I'm stubborn."
"I'm sure," he replies sarcastically, earning him a whack on the shoulder.
"So you're actively trying to provoke Mai-san, and it's not working?" Yuuji asks. Before Nobara can tell him to zip his mouth, he adds, "Why don't you try being nice to her, then?"
"I…" She blinks a few times, trying to process that. "Why on earth would I do that."
Yuuji grins. "Reverse psychology! If you're really nice to her, she probably wouldn't know what to do about it and get really freaked out. Then, she'll either request for a room change or leave you alone, which means you win!"
Megumi makes a judgmental face. "I don't think that's how reverse psychology—"
"You do have a brain in there sometimes," she gasps, ignoring him. "That's awesome. I'll do it!"
They share a high-five across the table. Megumi sighs, muttering about how this wouldn't work, and Nobara kindly kicks him from under the table.
It starts off with a simple, civil act.
Nobara walks into the dorm room, two laundry baskets in her hand. Normally, it'd make more sense for them to do their laundry at the same time, so as to reduce the number of times one would have to head down to the laundromat, but ever since Mai stole one of her skirts, Nobara has refused to share a washing machine with her.
This time, though, she brings both hers and Mai's laundry up to the room, sits on her own bed, and folds them all.
Mai isn't back from her classes yet, which means this is the perfect opportunity to ambush her with an out-of-character, freaky, generous act. As Nobara folds the clothes, she can't help but hum to herself, stuck in a good mood with her perfect plan.
When she's done, she takes the pile of Mai's clothes and sets it on her bed. She then puts away her own clothes, just in time for the door to open, signalling that Mai has arrived back.
"Hey," Nobara greets, struggling to stamp down an evil smile. "How was class?"
Predictably, Mai casts her an irritated look. "Why do you care?" she grumbles, tossing her bag onto her chair. Nobara waits.
She sees the exact moment Mai spots the clothes by the foot of her bed, confusion flashing in her eyes. Mai looks from the clothes to the two baskets on the floor and where Nobara is standing at her closet, and even a numbskull like her could piece two and two together.
Instantly, suspicion fills her eyes. "What did you do to my clothes?" she accuses, reaching over to the stack and looking through it, as if Nobara could somehow hide a bomb in between the fabrics.
She beams. "I just felt like doing you a favour. You're welcome!"
Mai makes a strangled, confused noise. Nobara escapes to the bathroom so she can laugh to herself in peace.
The next time she does it, it's much more inconspicuous.
She's in the bathroom getting ready for the day when her hand accidentally bumps into Mai's facial cleanser. The bottle falls over onto the ground, and the sound it makes echoes noisily across the bathroom.
Muttering a curse under her breath, Nobara bends down to pick it up, only to realise that the bottle is lighter than she expected. She peeks inside, noticing that it's almost empty. Last she checked, Mai doesn't have any more in stock in the cabinet either…
Grinning to herself, Nobara sets the bottle back on the edge and forms a new plan.
A few hours later, she returns from her errands and spots Mai by her desk, pouring over something on her laptop. She ignores her in favour of turning into the bathroom, digging into the plastic bag in her hands for a brand new bottle of facial cleanser, the exact same brand that Mai uses.
She replaces the empty bottle, tossing it into the trash, giggling to herself the whole time. Nobara also makes sure she doesn't peel off the plastic wrapping it came in, just to drive home the point that this is a new bottle. Mai is sure to notice it.
Later that night, when Mai walks out of the bathroom, she has an uncomfortable frown on her face, and Nobara cheers to herself.
"I think it's working," she gushes to Yuuji over the phone. She's on her bed, laying on her stomach, phone held between her ear and shoulder as she fiddles with the sheets absentmindedly. "She's so freaked out. I'm definitely going to win."
"That's awesome! I'm so glad!" Yuuji says. She can hear him shuffling around and a few cabinets opening. He's probably looking for a midnight snack. "Hey, isn't she with you right now? How are you talking to me?"
"Nah, she went out for a party with her old high school friends." Nobara wrinkles her nose, remembering the outfit Mai was wearing before she had left. It was a dark green, shimmering cocktail dress, bringing out the deep colour of her eyes. Her makeup was smoky too, and she looked, as much as Nobara hates to admit it, really hot. "I don't know when she'll be back."
"Maybe she's crashing at her friend's dorm, then," Yuuji suggests.
"Maybe she's at a stranger's place," comes a new voice. Nobara makes a face.
"Am I on speaker? Is that Fushiguro?" she demands.
"Yeah. He brought mac and cheese. Do you wanna come over? We have enough for three."
"No," she huffs, and then she registers what Megumi said. "Hold on. Mai would not take someone home. Or, well, be taken home. No way."
"Why not?" Yuuji asks. "She's quite pretty, and— ow!"
From the sounds of it, Megumi must've hit him on the head. Nobara chews her bottom lip, trying to imagine Mai with some faceless stranger, clinging onto their arm for the whole night. Mai did leave with pink gloss spread over her lips. It wouldn't be too ridiculous to…
God, ew. Nobara is going to gag if she thinks about this any longer.
"It doesn't matter if she's pretty. No one will like her with her horrible personality," she says.
(She doesn't bring up the fact that Mai hasn't antagonised her in a while, or that she already finds Mai pretty in the first place.)
"To be fair, I think one night stands don't depend too much on personality— ack, Fushiguro, stop hitting me!"
"You're in the way," comes Megumi's smooth reply, followed by a tired, "Kugisaki, stop sounding like you're going to retch. It's not that far-fetched. We're in college."
"I hate that the two of you are suddenly experts on Mai's love life," she grumbles, hanging up. Whatever. She'll just go to bed. Who cares if Mai comes home or not tonight? Not Nobara, that's for sure. She really, really couldn't care less.
Mai comes home at around ten in the morning, stumbling in through the door. She kicks her heels off, and Nobara catches sight of bloodshot eyes and smeared gloss on the edge of her lips, before Mai is disappearing into the bathroom without saying a word.
Nobara, despite having zero qualms about who Mai hooks up with or what she chooses to do with her life, feels a little queasy at the sight. She sits at her desk, pretending to work on an assignment, when really, she's thinking of anything but the essay she's supposed to be writing.
She hears the sound of the shower running and gets up, heading out of the dorm. Just because she's distracted doesn't mean she's going to forget about her original master plan to Get Mai Out Of The Dorm By Being An Angel To Her. She needs to be undeterred.
A little while later, Nobara comes back with two packets of soup ramen for lunch. She opens the door to find Mai sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall with her knees drawn up to her chest. Her hair is still wet from the shower, but her face has been wiped clean of any makeup and she looks relatively comfortable in that sweater—
"Is that mine?" Nobara asks with narrowed eyes.
Mai glances down at the pink sweater she's wearing. She shrugs. "Might be. It was in my closet, though."
Nobara is pretty sure she just stole it, but the idea of Mai raiding her closet for no reason is a bit far-fetched. Especially when Nobara hasn't been provoking her recently, why would she go out of her way to do such a thing?
Whatever, never mind. Mai's a piece of shit. Maybe she just felt like irritating her again even though Nobara has been so kind to her, and will continue to do so until she can't stand it.
"I bought you lunch," she says, setting one of the packets onto Mai's table. She reaches inside to open the container and a puff of steam rises out as she does so.
Mai peers inside, taking a look at the contents. "Oh," she mumbles, and it lacks her usual snark or judgement. "Thank you."
What.
"Th-Thank you?" she repeats, aghast. The Mai she knows doesn't have manners. What the hell? "...Don't thank me!"
Mai casts her an odd look. "Don't be nice to me, then."
She clicks her tongue. This is why they can't get along. "Fine."
She moves to her own desk, opening her own packet of ramen and breaking open a pair of chopsticks. There's silence for a bit as they both eat, and Nobara scrolls on her phone for something to distract herself with from the awkward air.
This isn't how it's supposed to be. She's not supposed to feel…
"Uh," Nobara says, staring resolutely at the wall in front of her. "Where were you last night?"
There's a few beats of silence. "I told you I was going to a party?"
"But you didn't tell me that you weren't going to come back."
"Hah… Why does that matter? You're not my parent," Mai huffs. She sets her chopsticks down, reaching over to poke Nobara's shoulder, prompting her to look up. "I was at Momo's, if you must know. She let me crash with her and Miwa."
A bone-crushing relief settles in Nobara. "Oh! Oh. That's… That's nice."
"What is wrong with you?" Mai scoffs. Ah, there she is again, Nobara has almost missed this version of her. "You're acting like I cheated on you or something."
"I'm not," Nobara denies, ignoring the growing feeling in her chest. Mai is glaring at her, but there's no heat behind her eyes, and her lips are pursed together in a way that has her struggling to keep her gaze away. What the hell?
"Then stop being moody. It's weird," Mai grumbles. She looks away, a bit of her hair falling over her eyes as she turns her attention back to the food. "Just… Let's just go back to hating each other. Like usual."
"Who said I didn't hate you?" Nobara huffs. She winces when she realises how little conviction she said that with. "The sound of your voice makes me wanna puke."
Mai only laughs softly. "Same here."
Nobara does not expect to be one-upped at her own game, but unfortunately, Mai loves to be an absolute thorn in her side.
She stares at the folded pile of clothes on her bed, and even though it's just fabric, it feels like the clothes are mocking her to hell and back. There's a sticky note laying on top of the pile, and when she picks it up, the bright pink glitter gel pen it's written with almost makes her laugh.
I'm grabbing lunch with Miwa! Don't miss me too much! xoxo
"That brat," Nobara hisses, crushing the note in her hand. Her heart flutters and she curses out loud. "Fuck!"
One note tossed into the trashcan and one pile of clothes returned to her closet later, Nobara picks up her phone and dials Mai's number with barely any hesitation. It's almost embarrassing how little control she does it with, but Mai picks up immediately, so she's not the only loser around here, it seems.
"Nobara," Mai greets, her voice saccharine sweet and sending shudders down her spine. "What's wrong?"
This bitch. "I just wanted to tell you thank you," Nobara replies through gritted teeth, matching her tone to the best of her ability. "You're too nice to me. Shall I make you dinner to show my appreciation?"
Mai barks out a laugh, and despite herself, Nobara feels her lips twitch upwards at the noise. She hangs up before Mai can reply, tossing the phone to the bed and determination coursing through her veins.
Mai wants to play nice? Fine! Nobara will play the nicest. She refuses to back down.
"I'm home," Mai calls just as Nobara is doing the finishing touches, sprinkling some parsley on the two plates of carbonara she's managed to make. The kitchen is a bit of a mess, but Nobara has gotten better at cooking ever since Yuuji taught her in high school, and so she's pretty confident that the food will taste good.
She shifted all of Mai's things onto her desk and moved it so that they could form a makeshift dining table beforehand. The tablecloth is something she stole from Megumi by running to his dorm and grabbing it before he could say no. Their chairs have also been dragged out, and two plates of steaming hot carbonara are at each end.
Nobara crosses her arms proudly. Let's see Mai one-up this.
"Welcome home," she sings, turning towards the entrance, but her voice dies down when she sees what Mai is holding.
A bouquet of pink roses greets her vision as Mai walks up to her, pushing the flowers rather forcefully into her hold. Nobara's heart betrays her as it skips a few beats, her cheeks turning warm. She hears Mai's surprised noise at the display behind her, but she doesn't get to see her reaction, too busy staring at the roses like they hold the secrets to the universe.
She reboots a few seconds later, whipping her head around to jab a finger into Mai's shoulder. "This does not mean you win. You don't. I'm still going to defeat you."
"Defeat me in what?" Mai asks, a small smile playing at her lips as she slides into one of the chairs. "I think I've succeeded in charming you."
"What?! That's not the competition!" Nobara protests, but she pauses when the words sink in.
Is she trying to charm Mai?
"I'm not trying to charm you. I'm trying to piss you off," she scoffs, following suit and sitting down.
Mai raises an eyebrow. "By being nice to me?"
"Yes. No shit." Her voice wavers when she realises how odd it's coming out. "Shut the fuck up."
"No, no, I'm sorry for getting it wrong," Mai snickers. She shouldn't be allowed to look so pretty when she laughs. Nobara almost forgets where she's at. "I'll work harder to piss you off, too, then."
"Hah! There's no way you can be as nice as me! I'm an angel."
Mai hums. "I think I'll try anyway. Let me take you out tomorrow and I'll show you just how nice I can be."
Nobara stiffens. Her cheeks flush again. Mai looks no better, a smattering of red across her nose and cheeks, but she's looking directly at Nobara, and there is not a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Ah, Nobara thinks. Maybe I'm losing this one.
She snatches up a fork, ignoring the little voice in her head. "Eat the food I made before you talk about taking me out," she grumbles, looking away.
She doesn't need to look up to see the grin on Mai's lips, smug and self-satisfied. "Fine by me," she agrees, and Nobara sweats to god, she absolutely hates her guts.
(She thinks she might like her, too. Just a little bit.)