Chapter Text
"I'm not sure. Maybe I should start homeschooling you Sunny Rae. Teenagers are wild. Vicious, and… do things they should know better than to do." Rohan starts up again. It's the third time this week he's tried to convince himself.
He sits in front of her at the dinner table, his fork scrapping against the plate. He's long finished his salad.
In a minute he'll switch to another topic.
Rohan has never been one to sit in silence, but ever since his new mortal enemy Higashikata Josuke beat the ink out of him, he's started to reconsider his little sister's education.
"It's not safe frankly." It's the only thing it feels he talks about these days.
She wasn't home the time everything went down. Apparently Rohan was trying to gather inspiration for his manga.
This boy Koichi had been coming over to the house for help for a few days. They never did talk face to face. Sunny keeps in her room most days when she isn't at school. She never had the desire to say hello to anyone her age either.
Koichi had come into the house followed by the two boys early that morning. Okuyasu and Josuke weren't even invited. Forcing themselves inside to see their friend.
After Rohan had told them to leave, he couldn't help himself when he pointed out the fact on how the taller boys up-do was rather out of style.
Completely unprompted he was assaulted by Josuke and his stand in a fit of pure rage. Healed and assaulted again.
A whole ten minutes of torture.
Now every dinner somehow spins into the tale to be told. Rohan won't allow himself to let it go.
Sunny looks down to her food. Her green hair sliding onto the table along with her movement. It's length is getting far too long, her bangs need another trim too. A purple polka-dotted hairband can only hold back so much.
The thickness though, is a welcome curtain for times like these.
"…. but that takes time I don't have right now. I need to finis-"
They walk past each other some times on the way to school. It's hard to not notice the boy and his friends who your brother can't seem to shut up about.
The most embarrassing part was considering how Sunny took interest in him first. Figuring out he was the very same boy that littered her sketchbooks paper after a detailed account of his face twisted in anger only seemed to coil her stomach tight.
Really, what are the chances?
Josuke is not even in her class. They don't get close enough to chat. If she's lucky it will stay that way. For Rohan and her own heart's sake. She just had to start drawing that very group who she started walking past more often to create a desire to draw.
Curse those pretty foreign boys, curse her for knowing all about their life because of her brother and his stand, and curse that stupid arrow for piercing her throat. It should of let her bleed out on the doorstep.
Maybe adjusting to Morioh wouldn't be so difficult then. It's better than going back to her parents, and that way at least she won't be a burden to her brother.
Sunny looks down back at her feet as she walks the same beaten road to school. If she didn't focus on the people around her, the less likely she'd be forced into conversation. Blending in was always a better option then drawing attention to herself.
Nowadays students could be cruel to anything different then themselves. They twist it into their own picture of normality. What can benefit them the longest until its run its corse. Until they become no longer of use, she knows all too well.
"Ah! Jojo! you look great today!" The only exception for it really was pretty privilege.
"Your hair is amazing!"
"Do you want to walk with us?"
Step faster. Gosh, do her shoes lead her astray. How does Sunny always happen to run into his course? It's the third time this week.
"Um sorry ladies but I'm kinda already going today with my friends. Maybe another time?" There's a overlap of high pitched whining, a handful of pleas, and then a slow stillness of the schoolgirls.
Sunny's free hand not holding her schoolbag subconsciously smooths over her skirt. Perhaps she shouldn't of even wore frilly socks today. They look silly matched with the pencil studs of her earrings. Yellow is such a bright color.
She's not even sure why she decided to wear the things.
Her head picks up slightly, just enough to see the scene in front of her come to a close. For once, Higashikata Josuke is without his friends (adoring fangirls didn't count. Those always seemed to find him from what she's overheard)
His broad back is turned away from her. The collective group of six block the walkway to cross the street, long even after the sign indicates them to walk.
They surround the male like vultures, faces twisted in disappointed pouts. His hand rubs the back of his neck in a nervous gesture.
They've blocked exactly where she needs to pass.
A shiver runs down her spine. The last thing she wanted to do now was ask them to move and risk the wrath of the towering delinquent… maybe if she just-
Sunny stops in her tracks.
When did she walk so close?
No, she can just find another way to school. This seems like it will be a long back and forth before they leave. The girls have started up again, and Josuke can't seem to find a pause in conversation to shut them down.
Her heels turn back to where she came. She'll most likely be late to school, but dealing with her older brother will always be a better alterative than the boy who beat him for minutes on end, and meet his anger by familial extension as well.
"Oi! Josuke! What are you doing coming down this way? lost or something! I thought we where meeting up with Koichi at the corner store?" Sunny picks her head up fully to see the owner of the gruff voice heading her direction.
It's exactly who she thought it was, which only is worse. Nijimura Okuyasu is barreling straight for he- not to her, to Josuke. His arm outstretched to the sky in an enthusiastic wave to greet his friend.
She should of realized he could never be alone too long. This is only her luck.
Sunny turns her head again. Josuke has met her eyes accidentally halfway. They widen and furrow with a thought.
Has it clicked for him who she is? He sure is staring with an intensity that leaves her almost frozen where she stands.
The boy behind her is becoming increasingly close the longer Josuke holds her gaze. It's getting harder to think, yet she can't find herself able to draw her own away.
Okuyasu has to managed trap her between both of the boys and is now only a few feet from reaching her personal space. The girls still block her path of escape at the crosswalk.
Josuke's mouth presses into a thin line. Something clicks.
He starts to open his mouth to speak, ignoring his friend to address her fully.
"H-" No.
She refuses to confront either of these two today,
No, no. Nope.
She sidesteps off the concrete and slips into the road. There isn't a legal cross from the angle, but going around is the only thing she can think of to do.
Her head checks both directions, and without a second thought Sunny darts across the street.
"Woah! Are you crazy!"
The group of girls squealing is high enough she can't help but cover her ears with her hands.
HONK!!
A car screeches to a halt merely inches from where she was previously standing. Her heart hammers loudly in her chest at the thought of almost getting hit.
"Sunny! Are- ok-" "Di-yo-wha-!" Their voices overlap, she can't make out what they're screaming.
It's too much. It's too loud. It's too much. It's all too much.
She never could stand sounds this intense.
Her head falls to her feet again, safely back on the correct path, as the driver scolds her with insults. Hands pressing into her ears further, though it does nothing for the volume of the noise.
Sunny's steps start once more, quicker this time. She can feel his gaze still on her. If she turned back she knows she'd be meet with the same eyes that slipped and bore into hers seconds ago. Only this time, she's unsure if she can force herself away from the danger beneath them.
She never did like drawing attention to herself, now she's went and painted a picture of a fool. A rather large portrait with a target on her back.
Perhaps Rohan was right.
Homeschooling did sound appealing, if it meant Sunny could begin to wipe the image of that boy out of her head, out of the papers of her sketches.
He was almost nothing how her brother described. Nothing like she had drawn in attempt to rationalize the person she's sketched from afar. Now closeup, Higashikata Josuke did not seem malicious, he was curious.
That which, was worse.