𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐒 - 𝐒. 𝐊𝐈𝐓𝐀

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄

TWELVE
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The night before this very day, Sayo didn't drink from the cold bottle that she used to always find herself doing before, and it brought this light burst of pride that swelled up inside of her upon knowing the fact that she was not as dependent on that intoxicating liquid as anymore.

And maybe it was because she was starting to learn how to find little pieces of happiness everywhere; from the cool gleam of the Moon that she used to not notice, or maybe even the car wheels that used to screech by her ear annoyingly now reminded her of the cityscapes – wherein the blurs of light did not remind her of how streetlights looked like when she had tears covering her irises like a foggy sheet of plastic while she sat by their fairly small porch.

For once in her life, from the moment of the time she started living her teen years, she was able to see everything clearly – that the worries she thought about before did not swarm her mind, and she long for this feeling to last longer – for it to never end.

Though, it was all too good to be true, so she was not going to hope too much, and she would not end up feeling as despondent as she used to feel when something did not meet her expectations – but hell, all she wanted was to feel alright and that didn't come as easily as she would have wanted.

All she wanted was something so simple, and even that she could not completely acquire.

She would be damned to have high expectations for herself again.

Today, as Sayo had her black lunch box over her shoulders that barely even contained enough food that other people would deem to make their stomachs full. She did not have much appetite, and it was probably because she was used to only eating left-overs or instant food to save money and time.

She walked towards the Wisterias, and for the first time, she touched its petals despite her coming to that place several times already. Sayo let her lips curl upwards though only minimally whilst running the pad of her index finger gently over one soft bud of a Wisteria flower.

She glanced to the right to see that Shinsuke was already there, gazing directly at her figure, and Sayo could never seem to tell what he was thinking with the plain expression that was always on his face. She raised her brow at him before approaching the bench that he sat on, before taking the vacant seat by him, though leaving a space between the two of them.

"Good afternoon, Kai-san." He greeted her monotonously with a short nod, before going back to consuming the lunch that was left on the container over his lap.

"Uh hey, Shinsuke." Sayo responded lazily with a silent yawn right after, before adding, "You know, you could just call me 'Sayo', right? I mean, I already call you by your first name. Oh, and drop the 'san' while you're at it."

He glances up from his food then says, "I did not consent to you calling me by my first name, though. But alright." He averts his attention to his food once again, whilst Sayo had also started to eat in silence.

Sayo gives a shrug then says, "In the other countries, people call each other by their first names even if they had just met." She pauses before taking a bite out of her onigiri, then continuing while having food inside her mouth, causing her voice to come out quite muffled, "Besides, we're friends, aren't we?"

Shinsuke stopped his movements abruptly, he looked down at the chopsticks that had rice between its tips while his heart dropped against the back of his ribcage. He frowned when he felt a slight pain, though he was sure that it did not come from the person beside him because it had instantly disappeared as soon as it came.