blackbox | kirishima eijirou

02 | bittersweet hearts

Hazelnut eyes lazily flickered around the confined space around her, feeling light bumps among the crowd, swaying along to the movement of the train. Her empty gaze eventually made its way to the reflection of the window in front of her, eyes slowly flickering across her features.

Brows furrowed slightly, the corners of her lips curling downwards a little, the faint visible dark circles under the gaze looking so barren and worn. Heavy eyelids trying to let the darkness conquer her as she tries to be wide awake, surviving another cycle with only four hours of sleep with no breakfast.

Midnight blue strands were all tied together in a half-assed ponytail when she woke up that morning only to realize she was a tad bit late for school, grabbing whatever she needed for school as fast as possible, not caring about her appearance for a moment.

After a few bumps in the shoulder as she finally reached her destination, minutes of brisk walking to school under the sunny sky, changing her sneakers into slippers, she finally entered the classroom, almost forgetting to put on another deceiving smile.

"Sakura!" She hears one of her friends calling her from the back of the classroom, glancing at them to see the three of them waving with their signature smiles.

"Hey," she strolled towards them, greeting them each with their made-up handshakes, taking a seat that coincidentally happened to be around them.

"You're just in time before the teacher comes in," Riku says as he slouched in his chair.

"She's always just in time like any other day," Sakura glanced over to Yui, who had one of her hands propping her chin on the table. "Woke up late again?"

"...Yeah. I couldn't sleep last night as usual." She simply smiled.

"Nightmares?" Sora asked.

"No."

"Homework?" Yui tilted her head.

"No."

"Insomnia?" Riku then swung his legs over the table.

"No!" She gives the three of them an incredulous look. "It's just—I'm still trying to adapt to my new schedule now that I'm working part-time."

"What was it again? Blackboss?" Sora questioned.

"It's Blackbox, dumbass." Yui rolled her eyes before flickering her gaze back at her. "Why'd you work there again?"

"There's not much of a reason," she shrugged. "Independence, I guess?"

Okay, that was just half of the truth.

Sora suddenly faked a sob as he wiped off an invisible tear off his eyes, placing a hand on his chest. "Sakura's growing up so fast..." And then he got off his chair, getting on his knees in front of me and grabbed her hands.

"Don't forget about us when you get rich, Sakura." Another sound of fake sadness escapes from his lips as the latter rolled her eyes at his antics and find Riku snorting at his actions while Yui just shook her head.

The school bell rang out of nowhere, indicating that class was about to start. She pulled her hands away from Sora's, groaning in disgust at his annoying antics though they were amusing at the same time which never fails to lift her spirits up whenever she's with the three of them.

Oshiro Riku—the somewhat delinquent of the class yet excels in his studies which just seems unbelievable the first time Sakura met him. He's got the looks like those typical bad boys she'd see in cliché high school movies, but in reality, he's just another simpleton like Sora.

Sasaki Yui—the laid-back girl of the group, but can be helpful and observant sometimes which deep down Sakura hopes she doesn't get any weird ideas about her because so far so good, nobody's asking.