the tabby by the sakura tree

4

"Good morning, Rei-chan!"

"G'morning, [Y/N]-chan! I missed you!" Rei greeted me with one of her signature bear hugs. She beamed at me after letting go and pushed her chair closer to mine.

"How are things with you and Sakamoto-kun?"

"Great! We went to the karaoke place a few blocks from my house the other day. He even sang me Sanji Hiro's 'Pretty Summer Girl'. He sucked, but it was so cute seeing him try so hard that to me, he sounded just like Sanji." She gushed, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her right ear, almost like Sakamoto was just a crush, not her boyfriend. I tried my best not to comment on the fact that this was the first time she referred to Sanji Hiro as just Sanji. Maybe Sakamoto wasn't as temporary as Rei wanted to let on.

"That's adorable. Imagine him singing it at your wedding someday." I teased, giving her a slight push on the shoulder. Her face contorted in disgust. But it was the kind of disgusted look that you used when you pretended not to like what you had just heard, which made me laugh even more.

"No! He's not the Hiro-kun who's gonna be singing at my wedding. Sanji Hiro will." She protested, crossing her arms in the process. I could see right through her, but didn't want to push her buttons any further. There was still a good 15 minutes before homeroom, so I took out my notebook and pencil case.

"Hey, [Y/N]-chan. Did you ever end up talking to Sano-kun like I told you to?"

I dropped my pencil case, quickly picking it up before one of my classmates could accidentally kick it further from my seat.

"I'll take that as a no. [Y/N]-chaaannn!" Rei whined, tugging at the sleeve of my uniform. I ignored her and proceeded to doodle random stick figures on the back page of my notebook. We stayed like that in silence for another minute or two.

"I need to tell you something." We said at the same time, shocking the both of us.

"You go first." I blurted out, too scared to tell her about what my brother and I talked about a few days prior.

"Oh, well okay! Um, I think I've been a bad friend."

"What-"

"Let me finish! I was a bad friend because I thought that leaving you alone for a bit would help you talk to Sano-kun."

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably, nodding as a signal that I was still listening, no matter how much it jarred me while I did it. This whole morning, Rei had stopped referring to him as Mikey and opted for Sano-kun instead. It creeped me out. She said it with such finality, as if I actually would end up talking to him. Or worse, befriending him. Kkura was already a reminder of that day. I loved her to bits. Whenever I was at home, I was with her. She'd sit on my homework and tear it up if I kept ignoring her. Kkura would wake me up in the middle of the night, laying on my chest as if she knew that depriving me of air would make me give her more attention. She was more than enough. I didn't want another entity depriving me of air, yearning for my attention.

I most certainly didn't want it to be Mikey.

"I should've asked you first if that was what you wanted. But I didn't. And I'm sorry for that. I just wanted you to find happiness in real people. Not shoujo manga boys or J-POP girl groups. I'm going to ask you right now, [Y/N]-chan, do you want to find happiness in real people?"

Rei was hitting me with all the things I didn't want to hear at 7'o clock in the morning. Or at any time of the day. My mind took me back to the pharmacy and my talk with Satoru. Why was pretty much every person important to me telling me that I needed more people in my life? I wasn't ready. I didn't know if I'll ever be ready. If anything, I wanted to prove to them that I didn't need any other people in my life so that they'd stop pushing me away. A small part of my brain knew that I couldn't prove them wrong, but I didn't want to believe it.