Chapter Text
Throughout her entire life, Yua Yoshida lacked friends. Nobody bothered to talk to her. She cared more about her studies and hobbies than socializing. She had a few friends, but they practically went no-contact the moment she enrolled in Akedemi Academy. It wasn't too much of a change other than she had nowhere to sit during lunch, so she adopted the habit of walking around in the morning before classes and during lunch. After cleaning time, she'd always just leave school or go to the library.
Disregarding her social awkwardness, her main worry was being targeted by bullies, which greatly disencouraged her from talking to anybody.
It's not like anybody wants to be her friend in the first place. She believes that, anyway.
Her first year proved underwhelming. No friends meant no drama. No club meant nothing to worry about after classes.
Though, at some point, a student from class 2-1 named Gita Yamahato founded a music club. Yua decided that the club could be good for her. She could find other people who enjoyed playing instruments.
“Yeah, you can join the club!” Gita told her with a smile. “I'm Gita Yamahato. This club pretty much just exists to have some fun with friends, you know?”
“As long as we play music, then I'm fine with it…” Yua muttered, her hands clasped in front of her.
“Yeah! It's a music club, you know. We're going to play instruments. Do you know how to play one already?” Gita inquired.
“I do.”
“Which one?”
“Trombone.”
“..Trombone?” Gita hesitated for a second.
Yua nodded. “The trombone.”
“I wasn't expecting that.” Gita chuckled.
Within the next few months, the club collected four other members: Beshi Takamine, Miyuji Shan, and a few other third-years that will never be mentioned again and thus don't have a name because they've graduated by the time the main story actually begins. Out of all of them, she got along with Miyuji the most. Miyuji acted shy, and Yua liked how she didn't have to try to match energy with her.
One day, Miyuki showed up to school with an entirely different personality and a new appearance to match. She now acted extroverted, loud, and outgoing with a punk aesthetic complete with piercings and black lipstick. When questioned about her sudden personality change, she only gave joke answers and changed the subject.
Miyuji would suggest plans for the club that implied that she wanted the club to actually go somewhere, so being the friend that she is, Gita transferred club ownership to her. Now, the club had a direction and a genre.
Yua felt out of place again.
It was obvious, though. The other members quickly threw out the seed of doubt that Yua had planted in herself and made sure that she knew how important she is to the group.
“Oh my goodness, Yua! I can't believe you left us yesterday. All of our songs sounded off without you,” they'd comment.
One particular day, Monday, March tenth, Yua realized that morning that she actually couldn't go to school that day due to a dentist appointment that she had in the middle of the day, so at around 8:11, she left the school building with her bag and trombone case. Despite carrying both of these items, she also carried her phone—a bright red flip phone—in her right hand.
She may have been distracted by texting Miyuji to tell her that she wouldn't be there today, but she wasn't distracted enough not to notice the sudden thudding in front of her.
She looked up, and her jaw immediately dropped. The student that she recognized as Osoro Shidesu stood above the gang of ten people, rubbing her knuckles. Yua stood there for a moment, clearly gobsmacked. Then, she quietly stepped towards the side gate door.
Yua pushed the door open, peeking her head around the corner to see if Osoro was looking. Upon noticing that she was not, Yua quickly hurried pass the empty space between the tree and the gate. She hid behind the tree and looked behind it to look at the blonde woman.
A moment later, she pointed her phone up and snapped a quick photo, hiding away again the second the shutter sound came from her phone. After waiting a minute, she quickly ran past the line of trees and bushes, not looking back until she had reached the bottom of the hill the school was built on and turned the corner.
Tuesday, March eleventh, Yua barged into the music club, approaching her usual spot before she sat her trombone case on the floor.
"Guys!" Yua exclaims while she turns to face the group. "You're never going to believe what happened to me yesterday."
"Hm?" Gita hummed, looking up from her guitar that she was just tuning. "What is it, Yua?"
"Yesterday, when I left for that dentist's appointment- Oh, that was awful! Did I tell you? The tools-" she began to rant before being cut off by Miyuji.
"Yua," she interrupted, holding back a small chuckle. "You were saying? What unbelievable thing were you talking about?"
In an instant, Yua's expression turned sheepish. "Right!" She hesitated to say, but she quickly turned confident again. "So, I had forgotten about my dentist's appointment that morning, so I left at around eight, right? I looked up at the gate and saw Osoro freaking Shidesu beating the crap out of an entire gang!"
"Well, that's not exactly a first.." Gita muttered.
"Yeah," Beshi agreed from her spot on the floor. Yua couldn't quite tell why she was sitting there. "Isn't that kind of what she's known for? Kicking butt?"
"It was just so bizarre seeing it happen in front of me!” Yua vociferated, her finger sticking up in front of her. Her other hand laid on her hip, her body leaning forward as if it would get her point across faster. “Yeah, I've heard the rumors, but it's scary seeing it up close! Like, what if she saw me and beat me up to make sure that nobody found out?"
"Okay, okay," Miyuji held her hands out in front of her and spoke calmly. "I doubt she'd beat you up. When have you ever seen her beating up another student unprovoked?"
"I haven't seen her do anything. I don't look at her. She scares me," Yua said with a firm voice.
One of the third-year students spoke up next in his usual calm way but with a subtle smirk. "You're blushing."
"Pfft!" The girl stifled a laugh. "Just because I'm afraid of her doesn't mean it wasn't hot. That crap is attractive, you know."
"We know," Gita deadpanned, but not even she could hide her smile.
"You really find that attractive?" the second third-year student finally piped into the conversation, spinning a drumstick around her fingers. “Like, intimidating people?”
"Duh." Yua placed both of her hands onto her hips. The others in the room chuckled.
"I suppose we should have seen that coming," Gita said, going back to tuning her guitar.
With that, Miyuji began to look through and organize the mess that is her music folder, and Beshi went back to stretching, for whatever reason. Yua decided to check her phone.
Despite her general dislike of video games, she had found herself enjoying playing Tetris on her phone whenever she had nothing better to do, such as right then. She can't stand doing it for any longer than half an hour, though.
Once the next school year began in April, she wasn't the most surprised that Osoro had immediately been suspended for seven weeks. She didn't know the reason, but she assumed it had something to do with Osoro knocking an entire gang unconscious in front of the school gates. It's safe to say that she was decently bummed out that she couldn't see her new found crush at school.
As the two third-year students graduated, they welcomed in two new music club members: Kiba Kawaito and Dora Tamamoto. Yua and Kiba instantly got close, given that Kiba had a calm but friendly personality; Yua, as mentioned previously, likes those types of people. Yua and Dora also got close as Dora managed to befriend what feels like half of the school during the entrance ceremony.
Life seemed great. She wished it would have stayed that way.