rubatosis | s. todoroki

4 | damsel in distress

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Saito Emi

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She sighs loudly and quite dramatically for the she-doesn't-know-how-many-because-she-lost-count-after-one times.

Trying again, she squints at the text and again the letters push against each other unnaturally like they couldn't bear having any space between them. She looks at another page and the letters suddenly fly away from each other as though disgusted by the other. She groans. This isn't working at all. And asking dyslexia to work with her is like asking the wall to talk back. It's just not happening.

She stands up, wincing at the pain in her hips earned from this afternoon's training. Opening the windows, she's happy to see her nine-year-old neighbour having his curtains and window wide open. He's playing video games as usual, but this is the only time that guilt won't be eating away at her as she takes him away from his favourite pastime.

"Psst! Takumi!"

The black-haired boy snaps his head towards her in surprise, his glasses almost flung away from his face. Cute. Adorable. Naïve. Main terms to describe this little genius. He abandons his game within the moment he sees her and comes up to the window with a wide grin.

"Emi!" His cheeks flush and Emi almost giggles at the small crush he has on her.

"I kind of need help with something." She clears her throat and holds up a paper. "Want to be my hero and save me from my distress?"

"I'll be there in two minutes!"

He's actually there in less than two minutes but Emi chooses not to comment on that. Panting, he almost unconsciously takes off his shoes at their doorsteps as he did countless times before. They sit on her bed, and he shifts until he's comfortably leaning beside her on the too many pillows.

"Do you want me to..."

"Read each sentence twice and I'll try to repeat from memory or at least the meaning." She sits straighter and prepares her brain for storing so many information. "I need to have all of those memorised by the end of this week."

"But, but Emi," Takumi complains as he counts the pages. "That's too much!"

"Well, sometimes we have to work hard to get what we want. Right, Kumi?"

His chubby finger goes to push his glasses further up his nose bridge and his cheeks burn up. "I'll help you get what you want Emi! I promise!"

She pinches his cheek in response. "You better keep that promise, love. Now, let's start!"

By the end of two hours, her brain's fried and some of it is melting out of her ears. Her throat is dry, and her tongue feels like sandpaper. She's sure that Takumi isn't any better. They also got a bit distracted which ended up with Takumi falling asleep and her just plugging in her headphones and listening to music.

Notes and goosebumps-inducing voices flow into her ears and at that moment, everything felt right and it's like she's living her life like a normal girl. She tries to listen to the background voice or background sounds that aren't usually noticed. As she continues to listen to deep resonating singing, she keeps on imagining in this whole new dimension she made just for herself and her characters. One of her characters is her, or at least, what she wished to be.

She sees nothing wrong with having far-fetched goals.

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