SPRING, April 30th

“I don’t care how many months it’s been since he’s turned you down Mie, it doesn’t change the fact he’s a bastard who spends every opportunity given to him prancing around and playing with other girls’s hearts!”

Her friend shouted angrily, slamming her fists onto the desk in front of her and ultimately causing the food placed on top to shake immediately after as a result. As the sound of a supposed crowd passed by the classroom of which they occupied, she let out a loud, irritated groan—not even bothering to hide how she felt at that very moment as she gave each and every individual within the group an obvious glare.

“See?!”

She practically screamed out this time, swiftly standing up from her seat.

“Chinatsu, it’s not like that at all! He just—”

Before Mieko could finish what she was saying, the other had spoken up once more. Without a second thought, she carelessly continued on with whatever else she had in mind, and in the process was only insulting the boy further.

“Give any guy even the slightest bit of attention from a good-looking girl and it’ll inflate his ego into the universe and beyond…”

Chinatsu huffed, standing up from her seat and sticking her head out of one of the indoor windows to get a better look at the people who’d just walked by. Though she could only really see their backsides, it assisted in spiraling her rage to new heights never thought to have been possible previously.

“Hope that extremely average guy and his dumb harem heard every single word…”

The girl crossed her arms, reeling her upper body back inside.

“So much for the prince-like train guy… I can’t believe such a detestable person managed to deceive our sweet Mieko!”

She finally finished, sitting down with a thunderous crash as she threw herself onto the chair without any regard for the fact it could possibly fall.

“Looks like they’ve placed a curse on you.”

Another within their small cluster remarked. The individual in question being a much shorter girl with the words, ‘Kageyama A’, printed onto a tiny white tag on the jacket she wore.

“Not funny, Atsuko!”

Chinatsu had replied as she pushed herself up off the ground, brushing off any dust on her body once she was standing properly.

“Kind of.”

An uptight appearing miss promptly followed up, concealing the giggles which left her as she assisted her friend.

“Argh..! Kotono..!”

…

“Ah..”

Mieko joined in, with Atsuko being the last to do so as she was far too occupied with her juice box to bother.

While Mieko had remained quiet for most of this chaotic conversation, she eventually said something once all was sorted out and Chinatsu was no longer complaining about how much her backside hurt.

…

“I’m happy to see you being so passionate for me but,” she paused momentarily, pursing her lips as she considered how to put it in a delicate way, “everything you were saying about Miyamoto isn’t true at all. He’s very popular, however—…”

Her head grew fuzzy all of a sudden, and she soon found herself playing with the ends of her peach colored hair.

“Hmph, you can defend him all you want, Mie. But I’ll never be convinced.”

…

“Besides, how the hell does he have so many girls in this school after him all at once?! That doesn’t make any sense, this isn’t a manga for gods sake!”

They all went dead silent at this, with Kotono even dropping her chopsticks as she thought long and hard.

“… I was going to say something about how you’d made a good point, but then I remembered just how desired I am.”

“You shouldn’t have even bothered answering if that’s all you had to say!”

Mieko simply laughed lightly upon witnessing this interaction between the two—blocking out their bantering that came after—and as she reached for an egg roll in her lunch, she realized there was nothing to be found.

Where did it go?

Her gaze shifted to Atsuko, who was happily chomping away. With a close mouthed smile which seemed to show surrender, she pushed the rest of her meal to the other.

“You should at least eat properly, an endless supply of juice will never equate to a meal.”

Meanwhile, Atsuko not-so subtly glided her eyes away from the scene. Putting on a blatantly innocent act whilst merely replying, “What do you mean? I’m perfectly fine.”

The sipping of her juice box grew progressively more headache inducing as it grew emptier. The girl continued even if it‘d seemed as though the whole school could hear the sound it produced. Mieko tried not to make her annoyance too obvious, and thus opted to leave it out in the open until the other gave in. Turning the opposite direction of her in doing so.

From that point on, she began to daze off.

Stolen novel; please report.

Her friends’s voices gradually faded into white noise, as did the gentle whooshes of the breeze as wind flowed in.

For a long time she stared out the window, watching as different figures came in and out of view. It was peaceful, so much so she was sure she’d be able to fall asleep—but in spite of the fact she felt herself gradually slipping into unconscious, the loud booming voices of all three of her companions combined brought her back to life.

“Mieko!”

She jumped, but was otherwise able to maintain her position in the chair. As if nothing happened, she organized herself and cleared her throat—plastering another closed-mouth smile on her features.

“What is it?”

The other three—Chinatsu, Atsuko, and Kotono—met her eyes with a blank stare. Then, out of nowhere—

“Mie, wanna go to a mixer with me?”

Chinatsu asked, her hands clasped together and eyes pleading for the girl to answer with the words, ‘Yes’.

“Huh?”

“Please, pleeeeaaaase Mie! I’ve managed to find other people to join but—we just need one more girl to balance it out!”

…

“I don’t mind going in that case, although, when exactly is it?”

“Today after school.”

…

Mieko’s head slowly drooped down at this, even as she tried not to make such gloom apparent.

“There’s no way I can make it if that’s the case.”

Kotono then advised—

“Just ask your parents right now.”

However, Mieko shook her head. She occasionally glanced over nervously at the school bag closest to her, only to return to her friends.

“I shouldn’t risk it.”

With a sigh, Atsuko pushed a now empty lunch box aside—reaching her hands in too quickly to be stopped.

“You’re always so paranoid.”

She uttered, lightly tapping against the screen.

“Just keep watch for me. I know your parents are strict, but surely they won’t think about it too much.”

She couldn’t bring herself to tear the device away, and instead watched with trembling hands. Initially she had held them outward, but later found herself with them shut tightly by her sides.

“Sorry, Mie. I know it must feel like we’re forcing you to go but—”

“It’d be good if you found someone new. You’ve been hung up on such a boring guy for so long!”

“K—Kotono—!”

“Besides, I’ve heard the guys from Hazakura High are an absolute catch. You won’t regret it at all, just live in the moment and enjoy yourself, Mieko.”

Her clenched fists loosened gradually, though the rest of her body was still tense. For sometime those words lingered in her head, and as the end of lunch neared, she’d almost forgotten to bid her friends farewell.

With a wave which appeared to have lasted an eternity, she watched their silhouettes disappear among the rest in the halls—their identities slowly becoming less comprehensible the further they became.

She’d only broken out of that trance when a familiar face came into view, the face of her first love—or well, former—Miyamoto Kaito.

This year, she and her bestest companions were not fortunate enough to have been placed into the same class. Although, as for she and the boy she once liked…

… The same could not be said. It was hard whether or not to say this could be considered luck, after all, some days seeing him brought a strange sense of happiness to her—yet on others, she felt absolutely miserable. Every part of him and his hero-like self was a cruel reminder of the rejection she faced just three months ago in the midst of February.

Even more, he happened to be seated right next to her.

A perfect view of him from such a close range.

She wondered if she’d be able to fall deeply in love with him once more, but would his answer remain the same as the previous time she confessed?

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“You’ve been hung up on a boring guy for so long!”

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Miyamoto was far from being an uninteresting boy, at least in her eyes. She was definitely acting biased, though how could she ever bring herself to think of him so poorly when he’d saved her just the week before their first year of high school began?

Everytime her mind recalled how he’d shielded her from that scary man, her heart skipped a beat.

The train was always a crowded place, so she made sure to be wary most times…

… Though, strangely, she didn’t regret not doing so that one day. After all, she wound up meeting him.

But maybe it was truly time. She knew things didn’t last forever, and love was no exception. If she never got over it now, then how did she plan to live her life forever hung up on a hopeless romance?

That’s why, with a defeated expression, she gave up on these blossomed feelings—and let them wilt.

…

The school day progressed much slower after that. Was reality purposely trying to torture her by prolonging the amount of time she spent near Miyamoto?

… Regardless, she was happy it was all over now. Except, it wasn’t really. There was still cleaning time which had to be attended to, much to her dismay.

She couldn’t ditch her duties as a student of this institution however, so while she wanted to leave as soon as possible, she made sure the classroom was spotless—getting rid of every piece of gunk she saw within each and every single little corner until the place was practically sparkling.

Mieko had done her best to avoid Kaito in the meantime, but by some slip of luck…

… She was always bumping into him?!

Last year she would’ve celebrated this deep inside her heart, although now…

… She seriously wanted to cry. This was a sick game the world was playing on her soul…

If not for the moral support of her friends, she was sure she would’ve given in to the remnants of her rejected affections. More than anything, if Chinatsu hadn’t ran over as soon as the day ended—she was sure the emotions in her would’ve overflowed out of her control.

Mieko didn’t want to worry them. Something troublesome would surely come out of it if she did after all.

As she was putting together her belongings, the reverberating steps of an eager young woman shook the halls.

She did her best to ignore it, but before she could properly zip up her bag, an arm was now dragging her towards the nearest karaoke establishment. Mieko tried to slow Chinatsu down, however, all she’d gotten in return was—

“We’re going to be late! Laaaate!”

She only had a brief moment to read a bright notification on her phone before setting it down, their out of sync steps suddenly coming to a halt as the two took time afterward to catch their breath.

Thank god. Mieko thought, feeling relieved that all the energy they’d spent rushing over here was not about to go to waste.

“Sorry—I’m sorry—”

Mieko, as exhausted as she truly felt, could only bring herself to laugh. She patiently waited for her friend to recover from the feat they accomplished before heading inside, offering the panting girl a hand for assistance.

Despite the sorrow she was experiencing deep down, she buried such pitiful feelings beneath a newfound outlook. Not wanting to bring down the mood of the pumped up Chinatsu and just in general overall, she made sure there was a gleaming expression on her before they stepped into the booth where the rest of the participants in the gathering were waiting.

She took a seat after Chinatsu, and in doing so greeted the new—boys from Hazakura—and familiar—fellow schoolmates—faces.

Kotono was definitely right about the guys, although, would she really be able to fall for any of them?

That much… certainly depended on what sort of people they were.

“Eh? Why are you guys late for? We even got here before you!”

One of the girls commented in a lighthearted tone with a soft giggle. Mieko recognized her as someone in their year from another class, except she didn’t know her name…

“I had to do something real quick before we left. I didn’t realize until just a few minutes before the designated meeting time!”

Oh, right. Chinatsu had gone to use the…

“It’s fine, it’s fine. We just barely entered anyways.”

The final girl among them reassured, waving her arm in front of her to motion the both of them closer. She shared the same home room as her.

“What do you want to order?”

She asked, pointing at the menu.

“Oooh! I want—”

…

“And I want—”

Seeing how her friend ordered so enthusiastically brought a smile onto Mieko’s face. When asked if there was anything she wanted, she simply requested an iced tea and nothing more.

The mood was warm and welcoming.

For a moment, she’d forgotten about Miyamoto Kaito.

Maybe she could be swept off her feet by someone else instead…

Only in this rare instant of bliss could she feel her previous worries be washed away.