𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝔽𝕖𝕒𝕣 𝕔𝕒𝕟 𝕕𝕠 ✁𝔸𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕞✁

II.XIX

     "Wah~ he's handsome, smart, and athletic?"

     "Almost too good to be true," some girl sighed in the locker room.

     Isn't that what you keep saying about Gakushuu and Sakakibara, thought Kato a little resentfully. She forced herself to remember not to glare as she listened to the girls squeal and whisper vehemently among themselves, though her gaze was directed at the inside of her locker room.

     They all ended up teaming up with Sasaki and some other male classmates for soccer, but it was mostly them in pairs kicking the ball back and forth between each other. One of the girls behind her ended up partnering with Sasaki, stealing him very quickly, and they spent the majority of the time talking. The P.E. teacher only caught them once, but they both giggled it off. Kato accidentally slammed her locker door harshly at the thought and rushed out before anyone could stop or say anything to her.

     She wasn't jealous. There was no reason to be, considering she hardly ever initiated conversations with Sasaki during class when he wasn't swarmed by girls. And he'd never find her at her spot during lunch. But she couldn't stand it when those girls talked about those guys all the time like they were Heaven's gifts. The other two were polite at best, and most of the time intimidating unless you dismissed Sakakibara's flirty tendencies.

     And Sasaki...So far, he'd only ever been kind to her. And it wasn't his fault that he was naturally magnetic, garnering attention by just standing there.

     She remembered watching him often during P.E., and just the thought of him made her feel flustered as she walked along to her next class.

     But that wasn't it. She never cared that the girls gossiped about him often. Why wouldn't they? Maybe she didn't see enough appeal in Gakushuu or Sakakibara, but Sasaki?

     She huffed to herself. Why were some people born so lucky?

     Kato passed by one of the many vending machines in the quieter halls of campus. She lightly slipped her hand over her stomach and gulped. A drink wouldn't hurt. It wasn't like there were chunks to make her look bloated...

     She sighed in content to herself when she saw the drink she wanted was in stock, though the grape soda was very well-known to be unpopular around school. She continued her way down the hallway when she heard noises nearby. Normally, she'd turn the other way, but she recognized the second voice to be Sasaki's.

     Her feet froze when she heard him ask, "What do you mean? What's up with Kato?"

     "Everyone just thinks that you shouldn't be talking to someone like her."

     This wasn't anything new, but that familiar drop of her heart to her stomach was just as heavy as it had been the first time. Recognizing it immediately nowadays didn't make a difference.

     "Sorry, Suzuki, but that still doesn't really make sense to me."

     Anytime her name came up, it was strung along by a series of gossip she was never able to escape from elementary school. She grew up with only some of those kids, but it ran deeper the more they grew up. She was running on an endless treadmill of expectations for her downfall even when living quietly under the shadows of her peers.

     So sneakily, she slipped down the hallway on her tip-toes and realized that there were trees and bushes in front of Sasaki and Suzuki, some girl from B-class if her memory was right. Timidly, she crawled behind the bushes before her humiliation inhibited her. Kato crouched underneath the bushes, not needing to see them. She could already imagine some girl looking up at Sasaki all doe-eyed as she confessed.