gureshin - the lavenders that grow on your porch

assessment

[shinya's pov]

It's the day of the summative assessment and I need nothing. Honestly, I was prepared for that much.

I managed to enter the classroom early so I could sit at the back of the room, so I didn't need to see anybody's faces. I was wearing a hoodie, and I pulled the hood over my head.

A few minutes later, the other students started filing in. They were all familiar faces - Mito, Norito, Shigure, Sayuri, Kureto, Aoi, Seishiro...

...Mahiru...

...Guren.

Despite trying my best to blend in with the wall, Guren stopped when he saw me. Our eyes met, whether I wanted them to or not, blue meeting violet. It was almost impossible to tear my gaze away from him.

Guren's hand lifted a fraction to give me a small wave. I finally mustered the strength to look at my sneakers. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew his face fell.

Everybody shuffled to their seats. I deduced that Guren was probably the last person seated. At first, people were chatting here and there, but the clamoring grew quiet. And the silence grew so loud.

Probably because it was my first day back from school after my... break, if you will. I figured I had that affect on people.

The door opened sharply. Ms. Rikudo marched into the classroom, clipboard and all. 

"Good morning class," Ms. Rikudo said briskly, "it's good to see you all today. Especially the ones who have been absent. Mr. Shinya."

There was a lot of shuffling noises when every single head in the class turned to look at me.

"It's good to be back," I mutter dryly.

"As you all know, you all are having your summative assessments today." Ms. Rikudo said.

Many people groaned, no doubt hoping that she would have forgotten the due date.

Ms. Rikudo took out her laptop, "Whichever group goes first will be determined by the wheel of happiness." (that is what my english teacher called it when we had to preform speeches in front of our class. simply hilarious i know)

As if she wanted to create suspense, Ms. Rikudo's laptop volume was on the maximum, so we could here the sound affects of the wheel turning. 

The noise started to slow.

And then it stopped.

Silence for about three seconds.

Ms. Rikudo's mouth stretched into a thin smile. She looked up from her laptop.

"Mr. Kureto, Ms. Aoi, Ms. Raimei," Ms. Rikudo said. (raimei is raimeiki's birth name. i was desperate and since i already included byakomaru i figured why not raimeiki lmfao)

I let out a breath I hadn't been holding. Why was I so nervous? It was not like I was going to actually do the speech. I hadn't prepared anyway.

It turns out, their group's topic was about music. Nobody in the group had ever touched an instrument in their life, but the speech turned out okay. It was pretty amusing to see Kureto try to keep a straight face while he was describing life like a piano. 

Norito, Mito, Kakuze, and Kagutsuchi (yes, norito and mito's demons) preformed a speech about loyalty. They were the only group of four and I heard that they had numerous arguments over the speech. But so far their speech was my favorite, probably because Mito was acting so nervous it was hilarious.

Shigure, Sayuri, Kukuri (sayuri's demon i am genius) talked about freedom. Their speech was pretty touching and made a few people cry. Ms. Rikudo may or may have been among those people.

The three foreign intern classmates, Kaeya, Diluc, and Jean (i am soRry my friend suggested and i had no MORe Ideas. i apologise) talked about identity. It was pretty depressing, especially since I was losing my sense of identity. Kind of. 

We whizzed past the speeches. All of them were great, I'm not sure how Ms. Rikudo would mark all of them.

I lost track of time until Ms. Rikudo glanced at her clipboard, "And finally, may we have Ms. Mahiru Hiragi, Mr. Guren Ichinose, and Mr. Shinya Hiragi's speech."

My mind was jolted back to reality. Mahiru had already pulled Guren out of his seat, obviously eager to preform. Guren looked less confident, fingering his cue cards. There seemed to be more of them then we planned... 

They probably changed the speech a bit, I think bitterly, of course they did.

Ms. Rikudo looks up from her clipboard at me when Mahiru and Guren arrive at the front of the class, "I take it that Mr. Shinya Hiragi is not participating?"

I nod and look at my sneakers, my face heating up.

Ms. Rikudo makes a clicking noise (yknow those ones when teachers are disappointed in someone) brought out her notebook.

"Your topic is?" Ms. Rikudo readies her pen over a notebook, as if she forgot the topic she gave us.

"Love," Mahiru announces proudly. Guren looks as uncomfortable as ever.

A ghost of a smile whisks across Ms. Rikudo's face, disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared. She motions for them to start.

Mahiru cleared her throat. She recited the script, hardly even glancing at her cue cards. Her confident voice reached every corner of the room, and she was positively shining with amazingness. (im sorry i cant anymore) 

She was perfect.

Guren hadn't said anything yet, so I guessed that Mahiru was doing a part one and Guren was doing the part two. A part of me was glad that I wasn't up there with them, being the third wheel. 

A king to her queen, I think bitterly, a part two to her part one. 

The words Mahiru had said went into my right ear and out my left. I stared blankly at the front, watching her mouth move with words I couldn't absorb. My gaze flickered to the left, a little bit, and a pair of eyes met mine.

Violet meeting blue.

Time seemed to slow down, but I could feel my heartbeat speed up. It felt as if Guren and I were the only people in the world. Mahiru's would-be moving speech simply became background noises.

I don't know how long I was staring at him, but Mahiru stopped talking and motioned for Guren to start. The corner of Guren's mouth twitched upwards, flashing me a somewhat sad smile.

It took all of me to tear my gaze away and focus on his words. 

I assumed that the first sentence was the ones we rehearsed months ago. I was ready for that much. For Guren and Mahiru to be a matching pair, to never be apart, even in assessments.

But the first sentence that came out of Guren's mouth was shocking.

At first I thought maybe they changed the speech when I was gone.

But deep down, I knew that that wasn't the case.

This was something more. 

More than being a part two. More than being half of a matching pair. More than being the poor and simple boyfriend of a rich and beautiful girl.

The first sentence that Guren said was shocking.

And it was this.

"There are lavenders growing on my front porch."

a/n: someone tried to pay one of my classmates money just to find out the username of my wattpad account.