IV.

. . .

The three of us; Diana, Goryo, and I were all walking in the hallway. Goryo had the bathroom pass for his classroom, which made us look less suspicious.

“I’m severely confused on why you look like that,” Goryo chuckled as I blushed.

“Tch! Shut it!” I groaned as I looked at Goryo. “I mean… it’s been what? Six years?” I responded as he chuckled.

“Yeah, it has been. Surprised you even remember me,” Goryo teased as I crossed my arms in front of my chest and huffed.

“How could I not?” I sighed as Diana spoke up.

“What’s your name? I know King said ‘Ryo’ but… what’s your full name?” Diana asked as Goryo turned to face her.

“Goryo Takahashi, I have a sister too. Her name is Ume,” he spoke. If I was being totally honest, I didn’t even know his surname.

“Oh, nice!” Diana giggled, “you two know each other from Shibuya, right?”

“Yeah, …we went to school together…” Goryo sighed as I glanced at him, he glanced back, we were both blushing insanely.

“...you’re both blushing,” Diana chuckled as we blushed even more, our eyes widening as we broke eye contact.

“...do you want to come over to my house tonight?” I spoke. “...I know it’s been… probably about three minutes but… yeah,” I sighed.

Goryo almost instantly responded, “yeah, I do. Not like my mother will care if I do.”

“Oh, that’s a little… depressing actually,” Diana spoke as I sighed, I already knew his mother wouldn’t care.

“Where you live?” He spoke, his tone a little more deep than it usually was.

“...Hojimi,” I let out as Goryo’s eyes widened. He turned to face me as he spoke.

“What? You live on Hojimi?” He spoke, sounding really surprised. I chuckled lightly without responding. His expression changed even more.

Diana was trying so hard not to burst out laughing as we all kept walking.

“Do you have a phone?” I asked him as he calmed down slightly, still caught off guard about where I live.

“No, I don’t, too poor to afford one,” Goryo sighed as I did as well. He let out a groan as I spoke up again.

“That’s okay, I mean, you gotta have a computer for school, right?” I asked as he glanced at me.

“Yeah, I do have one, …we do have the internet so I could text you through there…” Goryo spoke softly, his tone low.

“Well, why don’t you just… come over right after school? Would your mother care about that?” I suggested.

“No, actually, she’d probably prefer that,” Goryo sighed again. I felt bad for him, really bad.

. . .

Diana and I were sitting in the classroom again, the teacher wondering what took us so long. Diana said she just had to use the bathroom quickly while we were gone and there was one right near us so she decided to run in quickly.

She fell for it, since she was a sweet woman, and said not to worry about it.

I sighed a large sigh of relief when she said that, I glanced at Diana, an expression of joy on my face.

“You look really happy,” Diana spoke as I chuckled right after she said that.

“I am extremely happy, I’ve wanted to see him again for a really long time…” I spoke gently, trying to keep my composure. “He was my only friend after you had left.”

Diana sighed as she smiled. “I guess reuniting is just something you get naturally, haha.” She chuckled lightly as I started chuckling too, waiting for the bell.

I stared at the palm of my hand for a moment before tracing my finger down to my vein, which was underneath the hem of my sweatshirt. I poked it gently with my nail, it didn’t hurt, nothing ever hurts.

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“I can’t wait to go home…” I let out, “...can’t wait for this school year to be over too.” My body felt slightly… numb when I said that, I’m not sure why.

Diana gave me a small smile as she sighed and glanced down. “...I don’t want it to end. I don’t like being at home.”

I glanced at her as I spoke up. “Why’s that?” She had a gloomy look on her face as she inhaled and then exhaled.

“...I’d rather not talk about it.” she responded, glancing at me once again with a cold expression on her face. I sighed as I readjusted my posture as I went back onto my phone.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to.” I reassured her, opening my messages and texting Akane. “Can you text Hibiki to meet us at the front of the school after? He never gave me his number.”

Diana sighed as she nodded. Her phone was already on her desk and she turned it over to text Hibiki. I glanced back at my phone and sighed, class was almost over, only about twenty more minutes to get through.

I didn’t talk to Diana as I scrolled mindlessly through TikTok, I found some interesting stories about mythical creatures and that sort of stuff.

One of my favorite stories is the story of the sea witch.

In Japan, there was a girl who got into a lot of trouble by stealing from and sometimes hurting other people. She was sentenced to execution by drowning but some sea creatures took her and used their powers to transform her into a sea monster. And now she roams around under the disguise of a girl. It’s a really interesting story.

Diana got my attention by tapping on my arm, weird how she didn’t say anything but still. I glanced over to her and let out a small hum to let her know she had my full attention.

“Hibiki told me to tell you to add him to your contacts,” Diana spoke gently as she grabbed my phone from my grasp.

“Hey! Give it-” I spoke to no avail. “...fine, just… make his contact photo… uh… jellybeans.” I sighed as I pouted slightly, trying to make sure if anyone was concerned they would know it was just playful banter.

“Jellybeans? Seriously? I mean, okay…” Diana sighed as she changed his contact information on my phone. She gave it back to me. “Just text hi or something, I don’t know.”

I took a deep breath in as I proceeded to message Hibiki. I wasn’t exactly certain why I felt so nervous about it, but I was.

Maybe it was just the adrenaline rush considering his social status at this high school, or just the fact my reputation was on the line depending on how I talked to him. Either way, I couldn’t make it awkward, so I’ll just take Diana’s advice and message him with a simple “heyy”, or is that too many y’s? Fuck it, it’s fine, he doesn’t care.

I glanced at Diana, showing her the message, her face shifted to one of amusement when the message almost immediately went to read. And then he started typing. “You might want to pay more attention to what that ginger is typing to you rather than the expressions my face is making,” Diana chuckled as my face went blank. I swiftly moved my phone back to my face and read what he typed out.

He said he was going to go to his house to grab extra clothes for sleeping in and also an extra pair of clothes for school on Friday. I messaged him back saying ‘okay we’ll just go to the shops around town while waiting for you’.

It didn’t even occur to me that he just invited himself over to sleep over before Diana mentioned it.

“Did you ever say he could sleep over?” Diana asked, my face went pale again before I chuckled nervously, responding back to her with a shaking voice.

“Eheh… no… b-but my mom really won’t care… you should sleep over too!” My voice still shook as I continued chuckling with a guilty expression on my face.

Diana sighed as she finally began chuckling with me, alleviating some of the stress and anxiety that latched onto my back. “Okay, okay… I already have clothes at your house so… I’ll just call my mom after school,” she responded as she glanced at the clock. “What are we going to do while waiting for Hibiki?”

“I was thinking maybe we could go to the shops around the coast and maybe grab a bite or something at a snack shack…” My voice continuously trailed off into nothingness, Diana was used to that.

I liked the plan I had quickly came up with in such a short notice considering Hibiki just waltzed his ass over and is now sleeping at my practically mansion now? Oh hell yeah! Oh hell… no? Maybe this is a bad idea, oh well, I’m too focused on the fact that people might actually acknowledge my existence now, look at that world, I win!

I glanced at the door, I don’t know why, but I started observing the way it looked and the way it would feel against my hand when I pushed it open after turning the handle. The way the wood would stare at me as I finally escaped for the rest of the day, the way the covered window would tell me, ‘hey, stay here! You’ll be safe!’, the way I would be smiling, telling myself it would all be okay once I got home and could hang out with my friends, the way I would walk through the doorway and forget about everything that I should remember. Everything that might help me in the future, and only remember the fact that I have a ginger twink coming to my house, and that he might post on Snapchat, and that I might actually become popular and-

“King!” Diana shouted, getting me out of my own racing thoughts, I turned her to her quickly.

“What?” I spoke, my voice kind of stuttery, my face probably looked like I had just woken up from a nap or something of the sort.

Diana pointed to my phone. Hibiki had texted me again, this time talking about how excited he was to hang out with me. Though, I feel like it’s just him trying to get into my house.

I responded saying that I was excited too, I didn’t know what else to say other than that. I was excited, maybe a little too excited. But he’s excited too so maybe my excitement is fine. But is he actually excited?

Fuck it, he’s excited and that’s final… but what if he isn’t actually. What then… argh, King just go with the flow goddamnit!

Then the bell rang, everyone flooded out of the room as I sat there for a moment before grabbing my bag and standing up.

“Alright! Let’s go to the front to find Akane!” I chuckled as Diana and I left the classroom, giggling together and joking around about what would happen tonight.