PRESERVING - PERSISTENT SEQUEL

01

☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ1. A Friend's Stupid Plan

❝Whether you like it or not, she was — and probably still is — important to you❞

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I'm meeting a few friends for drinks after work, you should come," Makoto offered out the blue as she placed down the final box, filled to the brim with different coloured text books, onto the desk with a sigh of relief.

Since high school, Makoto Hamasaki had barely changed. Her hair was still curly and still the same length, long enough to reach the just below her neck. Her style of clothing however; had become more tame due to working in an elementary school but there was always hints of her high school self leaking through the professional outfits she wore, like the recent coat of black nail polish on her fingers. Her personality was almost completely unchanged too, still as confident as she always had been and her talents in bringing people out their shells had helped her find her path in the teaching profession which in turn, found herself in the same college course as Sugawara. Then, thanks to their luck, the same elementary school. This
made them almost as close as [y/n] and her had been in the final year of high school. Almost.

"Drinks?" Sugawara lifted his head from the box he was digging through to look up at the brown skinned woman across the room from him, who had a large smile on her face and her hands on her hips.
"Drinks, like alcohol? You know what that is don't you?" Makoto joked, squinting her eyes at him with a large smirk on her face.
"Yes, I do but it's not like you usually offer me to go out for drinks," Sugawara replied, pushing himself on the ground and dusting off his knees. "it caught me off guard is all."
"You don't seem like a big drinker and don't get many offers to go out either but it's a special occasion," Makoto said, a smirk still obvious on her lips. Sugawara narrowed his eyes at her smug expression. He had known her long enough to know that when she struggled to hide a smirk, she was up to something. Though it was hopeless to call her out on this he had learned, she was good at getting herself out of difficult situations.

He sighed. "It's not like I have much else better to do," shrugging his shoulders. Makoto grinned brightly walking up to meet him half way in the middle of the classroom to pat his shoulder.
"It's not like you ever do," she teased.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

Sugawara had been staring at the flickering light of the old bar sign for almost 10 minutes. He couldn't remember the last time he had went out drinking, being busy with work and all. He also had no idea who was behind these doors beside his crazy, curly haired coworker. It's was natural to be nervous, he told himself. A deep breathe left his lips and he found a tiny slither of courage to push the door of bar open.

The bar wasn't that big. A few red leather seats trailed against the walls with 4 or 5 tables dotted around the room. A bar was visible at the right side of the room parallel to the chairs and tables. It looked like a classic bar you'd find in England or something. Like the ones in those movies or the boring brittish tv soup operas, that's what Sugawara thought at least. The bar was relatively quiet too, a few separate groups of people, spaced out. The quietness was to expected due to the size of the bar.

Suagwara scanned the room for any sign of dark, curly hair only to spot someone else. A [h/c] woman a few paces away from the bar, a drink held in both her hands, it was resting near her lips, which had a large smile plastered on them after whoever was beside her had said something to make her laugh. Sugawara felt an almost electric feeling travel up his spine, a feeling that made his entire body freeze in one spot. The only part of his body that any sort of movement was his eyes, which had ripped away from that familiar face to another familiar face. A face that had an infuriatingly large smirk on their lips.

Sugawara eye twitched at the sight of Makoto, who sat at the bar, legs crossed on a stool, fully aware of his distress. Sugawara found his legs stumbling over to the empty stool beside her, clumsily taking a seat.

"Why would you do this to me?" He said, almost a whimper, keeping his head low and a hand in front of his face incase of being spotted by the pretty girl not so far away.
"I'm reconnecting two people; who once upon a time were very important to each other," Makoto answered with ease, a slender finger of hers tracing the rim of a glass in front of her. Sugawara said nothing and just stared at her like she was the biggest idiot on the planet. Makoto pressed her lips into a thin line. Maybe Ami's 'forcing movie scenarios onto real life' had rubbed onto to her after being together for so long. This wasn't her best idea but she'd have to go through with it now and with confidence.

"You're in your twenties, this isn't high school," Makoto explained, "you can talk to your ex girlfriend." Sugawara's expression did not change, he still looked at her as if she were insane. "Whether you like it or not, she was — and probably still is — important to you. I know [y/n] still sees you as important too. I want my two best friends to talk to each other again," Makoto rambled with eyes begging him to give this a chance. She was willing to try anything to make Sugawara's expression to change, which it did, almost immediately after she said that [y/n] still saw him as important. It made his heart skip a beat. Makoto felt hopeful at the sight of the change in his facial expression.

"Whatever," Sugawara sighed, gathering his senses back. "Just give me a second to get some air," he said, using the bar to push himself up to stand.
"Okay but you should talk to her by the end of the night," Makoto said sternly, pointing a finger at him. Suagwara did not reply.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Hope you enjoy the first chapter!
Sequel time lets go