3 broke(n) souls

Chapter 4

Mondays were always weird.

Sayori thought her eyes and ears were playing tricks on her.

"Wait what? Our schools are merging? Today?" Shuling exclaimed, her jaw dropping. Jiyong nodded, giving her a sarcastic, slow clap. She punched his shoulder and darted over to the other two girls.

Sayori was at a loss. The Sports school merging with the Arts School? They missed such a big announcement on Friday!

However, the thing that worsened Sayori's mood was that even after changing classes, she ended up in the same academic class as Flora. How 'fortunate' of her. She wanted to just fold into herself and curl up in her bed. Pretend nothing ever happened. Pretend she didn't get shot. Pretend she didn't die. Pretend Flora never copied her and never ruined her social life in school. Pretend that her artwork was seen as the best in the world.

Pretend that everything was perfect.

She couldn't even picture a perfect world. One day, she always told herself, one day everything will work out and she'll become the famous artist that she longed to be.

Sayori glanced at her two friends. The quieter and calmer but oddly the youngest, Wilma. She always tried her best to keep her cool and think about how to solve something, but was never able to voice it out. And then the reckless and hot-headed Shuling, who always jumped to conclusions and was in fact, the oldest, but she was always concerned about others and a giant worry-wart.

"Helloooo, Sayori. Are you zoning out?" Shuling snapped her fingers in front of her eyes. Sayori was startled back into reality. "Y-yeah," she managed to utter. "Is everything alright?" Wilma whispered. "Yes," replied Sayori, hoping she sounded firm enough to convince Wilma. Wilma nodded understandingly and didn't question her any further.

Sayori squinted at the poster before them, ignoring the sound of bickering emitted by Shuling and Jiyong. Class 2-A.

She spotted her name, plus Flora's, and her two best friends' names too. Jiyong was also in their class. Alright, sounds about right.

"Why are you even here?" Wilma muttered. "Oh yeaaaah, I have my own friend group. Bye," Jiyong waved and scampered away without a moment's hesitation. Right, Jiyong was part of Flora's friend group. Who would have thought?

Sayori and her two friends navigated their way through the busy corridors and arrived in the Classroom of 2-A. The floor was mopped so much that it shined, and the tables were nailed to the ground. Thankfully the chairs were not. There were legitimate sinks at the back of the classroom and a math textbook wide open on the teacher's desk.

What caught Sayori's attention was the names that were imprinted on the table. She spotted her own name, with giant black letters, imprinted on the leg of the table. On another leg was her name but in her mother tongue, which was Japanese.

She climbed into her seat and placed her bag down. She tried to sit as straight as possible, since she didn't need to attract attention to any bad posture.

Next to her, was a table labelled Shimizu Ryuk.

Japanese too, huh? Cool.

Hold on, Shimizu Ryuk? She heard the name before. She remembered when Shimizu Ryuk rose the ranks of popularity for his fashionably good looks and his excellent poetry. He could even play the flute and the violin. Girls and guys crumpled at a glimpse of him. Just a single glimpse.

Everyone assumed he was going to end up dating Flora. Popular and popular, the dynamic that every single student craved for. There was gossip revolving around them for days when Ryuk helped to pick something up for Flora. And weirdly enough, Flora chose to date Junghyuk, some irritating boy from the Sports School that Shuling used to like.