fever dream | miyamura izumi

thirteen

After three weeks, everything went back to normal.

Normal, as in the way things were before the hurricane that was Miyamura came into Kisa's life.

It was back to walking to the coffee shop after school, all by herself; silence instead of laughing. It was back to feeling so alone after her father's fists showed no mercy. At night when she was hurting, the only thing that gave her comfort was the last trace of Miyamura. Their song.

Kisa had Minako, but her best friend didn't know like he did. She wouldn't understand like him.

They were as close as strangers now, as if it had always been like that. It stung when he couldn't bare to even glance her way, but Kisa was trying to be at peace with it, knowing that it was for the best.

The school also moved on, thankfully, and Kisa wasn't the main topic of gossip anymore. Hori's eyes even stopped shooting lasers at her; the girl had switched to ignoring Kisa's existence completely.

But as all the drama was finally dying down, the universe decided to shake things up again.

"You will have partners for this project and when you turn it in next week, I will give you a chance to grade your partner based on the effort they put in. Any questions about the project, I can answer after school," Yasuda-sensei announced, while writing notes on the board.

"Can we pick our partners?" one of the students rose their hand.

"No. I will be assigning them," Sensei answered, a hint of a smile on his face.

The class groaned in unison, and he shushed them.

"I hope we get each other," Minako whispered to Kisa.

As Sensei called out the names, Kisa felt her stomach turn in anticipation. Anyone but Miyamura or Hori. Please. If any divine being can hear me, I'm begging you.

Unfortunately her wishes were unheard by the gods. Or she just had really bad luck.

"And Miyamura, you'll be with Takagi."

Kisa froze up in her chair, and she didn't need to look at Miyamura to know that he was the same. A heavy feeling of dread started to rest in her chest, knowing that she would inevitably have to talk to him for the first time in almost a month.

Sensei had an awful smirk on his face, and she knew that he wasn't completely oblivious to the drama that had ensued. As Kisa was about to protest, someone else had already beat her to it.

"Can I actually be Miyamura's partner? We already know each other's schedule, so it would be easier for us to do the project," Hori spat out some horrible excuse. Kisa resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Yasuda-sensei shook his head. "There will be no partner switches or changes. I chose them randomly, and it'll stay that way."

The look on his face told Kisa that they were indeed not chosen randomly, and he just wanted to make a mess of things out of boredom. Hori sank down into her seat, face red in frustration.

Miyamura leaned forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. He whispered something into her ear, but she pushed him away.

"Now, we have a few more minutes before lunch, so please meet with your partners now to discuss when you'll complete the project."