🌸pinkish.🌸 | mitsuba sousuke, reader. 🌸

🐖 貪欲. 🐖

"QUIET DOWN, the first bell has rung, everyone.", the kind-looking teacher called. she clapped a few times to get her students' attention. the idle chatter ceased and they turned their attention towards the front of the room.

"as i've been mentioning for the past few weeks, your semifinal projects are starting today—", the class interrupted with an exaggerated groan. "ah-ah! you guys gotta do at least some work in this class. i've been nice enough with the past hundred or so assignments, since i know that many of you were chosen for photography due to lack of space in other electives."

which, was very true; the class had only been required to turn in simple 2-3 photo collages since the year started. maybe there'd be a scavenger hunt for extra credit thrown in there. easy a! she was right.
the students murmured in defeat.

"yeah, that's what i thought."
she sneered, and continued on to explain the details of the finals.

it was assigned pair partner work (that the students made sure to express their discomfort with), which required a good amount of creativity. each pair would be given eight parts of a popular book. these parts ranged from a single sentence to multiple pages long.

students were required to take a photo that they could relate to the passage with their own words. "the more abstract, the better", the teacher hinted. the photo and explanation was to be presented and graded after a week and a half.

the class went quiet with thought, either hoping for some easy passages or a hardworking partner that would do most of the work.

"oops, i forgot one thing!", she added
"assigned partners are listed outside on the bulletin~"

everyone rushed from their seats, shoving and climbing over one another to get the first look.

♡

caught in the mob, you soon found yourself at the bulletin as well, scanning for your name.
"[ name ] , [ name ] , [ name ] ... ", you mumbled absentmindedly.

' [ name ] and mitsuba sousuke ', the page read.
you looked at it quizzically. you were never one to go out of your way to make friends or talk to acquaintances regularly, but you found it strange that you had absolutely no recollection of that name.
i mean, none.

you looked around the crowd.
"um— sousuke...?"
you called louder.
"where's mitsuba sousuke?!"

somebody behind you shouted back. "she's not here today!"

'cool. just my luck.', you thought. first day of
finals and your partner is a no-show.
'let's hope she's some kind of photography prodigy or something...'

♡   

you spent the remainder of the day asking around about this 'mitsuba' girl.
but, to your dismay, the only info you were able to find was that she was an active member of the photography club.

that was your current destination.

the halls were completely empty, devoid of the usual bustle and energy during the day.
it reminded you of the spirits and apparitions that were rumored to wander the school.

you pushed open a door tacked with a flimsy piece of construction paper, labeled "PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB after school".

inside, there couldn't have been more than three people. fiddling with various cameras, every single one of them would easily fill the role of "shy love interest no. 6" in a harem anime.

a taller guy looked up from his camera; he seemed surprised.

"uh, hi! a-are you here to join? th-the photography club, that is, hah...", he stuttered.
you opened your mouth to speak but he was already talking.
"we don't get new members often, actually. w-we've never even seen the fifth person keeping our club afloat—"

a girl with jet-black hair slammed her camera down on a desk a little harder then necessary.
" [ s ] he's not joining, stupid.  [ s ] he's just here for mitsuba, probably. who isn't here, by the way!" she seethed with annoyance.

"is... that true?", the boy toyed nervously with the hem of his shirt.

"..."

you nodded.

the girl gave a quick "ha!" and very aggressively informed you that "after mitsuba won a fourth photography award for the school, she never came to another meeting. even i myself,  have never seen her. she's that ghost member hiro was talking about before."

dejected, you said your goodbyes to all three members of the photography club.
you checked the time. late afternoon. this entire day was a waste!

you wondered how someone could be an such absolute nobody. she had an indisputable talent for photography, yet had no friends, and seemingly disappeared from her club.

it was as if this mitsuba souske, truly was a ghost.

( original publish date: 10/2020. )
revision date 4:50 pm. 9/28/2022. 781 words. )