Sorry for the big delay! This week is a major exam week for me, so I might be kinda off-forum, but i'm still gonna check back and forth once a couple days and stuff!
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Chapter 55 Be natural… don’t be afraid to keep your head up! Sayumi took deep, slow breaths as her chest heave up and down at the same pace. Her hand hesitated near the door handle, as though it was trying to decide whether it should slide the door open or not. The bunny had been staring at the entrance to her classroom for quite a while now, recalling all the advices that had been given to her by her yankii friends.
This was it. Today was the day Michishige Sayumi finally made history; not in the world, but at least in her own life. If she actually succeeded in being “nice” to people for a whole day, she would be reaching a significant turning point in her life. She was setting a record. It was something she should be given an honorary trophy for.
Finally convincing herself that she was ready, the pale-skinned girl carefully opened the classroom door. Her ears were immediately filled with multiple voices, laughing and chatting. The usual scene of a typical high school classroom was laid out before her eyes; all the girls were clustered into cliques, talking about the television show last night, the hottest celebrities, and the latest gossips.
“O… O-o-ohayou!” Sayumi squeaked as loud as she could, which wasn’t really all that loud.
“Oha—” A couple of the girls turned to the door to greet the student that had just arrived before their smiles dropped, “—you…”
It definitely wasn’t anger; no, the other girls weren’t mad or anything. The expression on their faces was purely confusion. They were trying to analyze Sayumi’s sudden action of greeting everyone in the classroom, unlike other days. Yes, it wasn’t such a suspicious happening; in fact, it happened on a daily basis as whoever arrived in the classroom yelled out a greeting to everybody else who had arrived first. It was a rather friendly environment. However, the witnessing of the antisocial stuck-up princess greet the so-called commoners—when she usually just ignored everybody and sat down immediately in her seat—was an unexpected experience for everyone.
“Ah… uh… un…” Sayumi mumbled to herself. She tried to keep her head up but the fact that all eyes in the room were on her only pushed her head down even more.
Swfitly taking action, Sayumi shuffled over to her desk and took a seat. The silence in the classroom broke with a couple whispers, which then naturally transformed into the loud chatting that had taken place before the bunny’s entrance.
Sayumi licked her dry lips and breathed slowly to calm herself. She had done it. She had done one nice act today already, and started of the morning that way, just as Junjun had proposed. And the funny thing was, it wasn’t all that difficult. Sure, the consequence of having everyone in the classroom stare at you wasn’t very pleasant but Sayumi found that carrying out the mission itself wasn’t that stressful any longer. She felt like part of a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and maybe, just maybe, her goal may get easier to reach from here on out.
“Kawaii desho~ I told you so!”
A loud, high-pitched voice broke through the bunny’s thoughts and urged her to look up and search for the source. She spotted a tall, skinny girl talking to two of her other friends, a couple feet away from her desk. The girl had her hair up in a high ponytail with a big bow, and had big eyes with long eyelashes that batted like emoticons.
Ah… it’s her again… Sayumi thought to herself, vaguely remembering the loud girl being in her class.
What was her name again? Tsukishima… Yukishima… “Could you keep it down there, Kusumi?” a student from the other side of the room warned. “I can hear you through my headphones!”
That’s right, it was Kusumi... Sayumi thought.
Close enough. She was one of the girls that the bunny had originally chosen not to pay attention to, but still found hard to ignore. She was always talking about something, that Kusumi girl, and her big eyes were like an anime character’s. She wasn’t one of the girls that bullied Sayumi, but she wasn’t a one that would help either. However, Sayumi had caught her watching the bullying scene a couple times with her lips bitten down, as though she wanted to do something, but couldn’t. But she didn’t really care. It was like the girl could stand up to the bullies anyway; she was still much to soft for that, and her friends too.
“Koharu, you really need to watch your volume,” a friend of the tall girl sighed, shaking her head. She had a shorter hair cut and was playing around with a soccer ball by her foot.
“That’s right, Koha-chan, you got yelled at again, see?” the other friend with the longer hair said.
She’s the soccer team captain and the other girl is the school’s number two after Junjun… the bunny wondered to herself again.
What were their names… “Gomen, Saya-chan, Kikka-chan,” Koharu apologized, clapping her hands together. “I’ll be more careful!”
Aa… Kitahara and Kikkawa… that’s right… Sayumi remembered, nodding to herself as she continued to listen in on the conversation. Not intentionally of course; it was just that the tall girl’s voice was still pretty naturally high-pitched enough for it to resonate throughout the classroom.
“Okay, so keep talking now,” Sayaka encouraged. “How much were we able to raise?”
“Definitely enough to save a couple more animals,” Koharu said proudly. “I think we should keep doing this; the market is obviously good in school.”
“I’m just glad we can do something for the animals,” Yuu sighed. “They all deserve nice homes.”
“Okay, okay, so we’ll continue taking orders during free periods, cool?” Sayaka grinned, giving a thumbs-up.
“Cool!” Koharu and Yuu said in unison, also putting their thumbs up.
“Now let’s put all these back into the bag before class starts,” Yuu suggested, as she started to pick up the little trinkets laid out on Koharu’s desk. “Koha-chan, could you get the bag?”
“Hai~!”
As the smiling girl bent over to pick up the plastic bag, her elbow accidently knocked a couple of the accessories to the floor. One of the cell phone straps tumbled over to Sayumi’s desk, where the bunny stared at it on the floor for a while. Acting on impulse, she quickly picked up the cell phone accessory and stood up from her desk. She observed the key chain, turning it around in her hand; it had a purple string that could be pulled through the cell phone hole and at the end of the string was a very tiny stuffed teddy bear. The whole thing itself was the epitome of cuteness.
“Wait, where’s the bear?” Sayaka asked, examining all the cell phone straps that Koharu had dropped and picked up.
“Ano… eto…” the tall girl mumbled, searching the ground. Her eyes wandered over to Sayumi’s desk and then up to her hands. Koharu blinked a couple times, her face wiped of all emotions like a blank slate. Her eyes still showed obvious signs of confusion and caution. Sayumi stared back with a similar face, the cell phone accessory still enclosed in her hands. As though she had decided, the tall girl started to march over to the bunny.
Eh? Eh? Eh? Sayumi thought as she started to panic.
Oh my gosh, she’s coming over! What do I do? What do I do? Hold yourself together, Sayumi! “Ano… Michishige-san?” Koharu called carefully when she came face to face with the bunny, who was looking up at her with wide eyes. “Uh… that’s my cell phone—”
“This!” Sayumi interrupted, dropping her head down and shooting her arm out with the cell phone strap in offering. “Um… I, uh… picked it up.”
“Ah… un…” Koharu mumbled, touching the accessory. She was obviously finding this situation quite awkward.
If you see something you like in the classroom, Junjun’s previous advice echoed in Sayumi’s head,
and it belongs to someone, tell them that you like it. It’s that simple. “…K-kawaii…”
“Eh?”
“Kawaii…” Sayumi said a little louder, her head still slightly bowed but her eyes working its way up to Koharu’s surprised expression. “I-it’s… really cute…”
“… Arigatou!”
Sayumi slowly lifted her head to have a better vision of the girl’s face. Koharu grinned as she received the cell phone teddy bear; her eyes were filled with curiosity and interest now as she assessed the previously stuck-up ice princess. She turned around and started to walk back to her two friends before freezing and taking a couple steps towards the bunny again.
“Ano!” she called, as Sayumi’s eyes widened with nervousness and surprise again. “… Do you want one too, Michishige-san?”
“… Can I?” Sayumi asked in a quiet voice, her heart beating faster with excitement.
“Of course!” Koharu smiled. “But you have to pay like everyone else. All proceeds go to the Kirarin Animal Shelter. Do you want one?”
“Y-yes!” Sayumi nodded determinedly, smiling subconsciously. “I would really like that!”
“Okay, then,” Koharu continued, “what’s your favorite color?”
“P-pink,” Sayumi answered shyly.
“What’s your favorite animal?”
“Usa-chan!” Sayumi yelled out subconsciously with a huge smile. Koharu jumped a little as she blinked a couple times from the sudden charcter change by the bunny. Realizing what she had done, Sayumi immediately closed her mouth and mumbled in a low voice. “I-I mean… rabbit…”
“… Michishige-san, you’re a kawaii style, aren’t you?” Koharu asked curiously.
“N-not at all!”
“Ah, you’re a tsundere too.”
“That’s not—”
“Okay, pink and rabbit, got it!” Koharu cut her off, laughing. “I’ll get it to you as soon as possible! You can pay then.”
Before Sayumi could say anything more, the hyper girl twirled around and danced back to her two friends, who were looking back and forth from the bunny to Koharu. Sayumi quickly sat back down in her seat before she could feel anybody else’s stares and ducked her head down.
Although she wanted to stay nonchalant like she always had, Sayumi couldn’t help but smile. Her lips curved up little by little until it felt natural to show a little bit of her teeth. Her cheeks turned rosy pink from the excitement and joy of being acknowledged. Her heart was racing from the adrenaline rush of talking to someone other than her girlfriend and her lackeys.
That was the first... the very first time Sayumi was actually able to converse with a fellow peer without losing control over her poison tongue, which had ever so prevented her from fitting in. It seemed like the Koharu girl was pretty nice, offering to make the cell phone strap for the bunny. Sure, she still had to pay but she was nice enough to make the effort to offer the deal to the antisocial new girl.
Maybe this new game wasn’t so bad afterall…
** ** **
“Usa-chan! Let’s go eat lunch outside!”
Junjun burst into her girlfriend’s classroom, expecting to see the cute bunny glare at her for using such a loud voice. Instead, she only spotted the empty chair as the rest of the students noticed her. She turned to look at her two lackys behind her, who only shrugged and shook their heads.
“Ah! It’s Junjun!” one of the girls exclaimed, immediately skittering over to the yankii leader with a couple of other girls tagging behind her.
“Hello, ladies,” the panda grinned, as the other girls giggled to look their cutest. “Have any of you seen my girl around here?”
“No,” one of the girls said, smiling. “But I can be your girl, if you want.”
“No, me!”
“No, pick me!”
“Sorry girls, I’m already taken,” Junjun laughed. “So none of you have any idea where Sayumi went?”
“I saw her walking towards the cafeteria,” Yuu said. All the girls that were fawning over turned and glared at the girl. But Sayaka instead stuck her face in the way of their leering and shot a mean look right back.
“Thanks, Kikkawa,” Junjun grinned. “You girls have a nice day, alright?”
“Bye, Jun!” one of the girls yelled.
“Come visit again!”
“See you later!”
The yankii leader turned and took a couple steps away from the door to address her two lackeys. Unlike her confident expression from before, Junjun now had a confused face on.
“What’s wrong, senpai?” Aika asked.
“Don’t you find it weird?” the panda said, raising an eyebrow.
“Find what weird?” Linlin inquired.
“That Usa-chan went to the cafeteria,” the older panda answered. “She usually says cafeterias are too crowded so she hates it… and she has a bento anyway, so why would she go there?”
“You think something bad is up?” Aika suggested.
“No, not bad,” Junjun continued. “But… maybe too good to be true? I really think Sayumi actually went there to buy lunch. In an attempt to be more social. Am I making too far-fetched of an assumption here?”
“Well… usually when someone goes to the cafeteria… it’s to get food,” Linlin shrugged. “I think it’s a reasonable assumption.”
“Huh. Maybe Usa-chan is enjoying this a bit more than she thought she would…” Junjun smirked. “Okay, I’ve decided. I’m going to stay away from her for the whole day today, just to give her a chance to really go all out.”
“Is that really okay, senpai?” Aika questioned. “I mean, those bullies are still in her class…”
“Then you two keep an eye on her for me,” the Junjun ordered. “Don’t be too obvious about your presence, but if something happens, then you have my permission to butt in. Just make sure she doesn’t get into too much trouble.”
“Roger that!” Linlin grinned, saluting her leader.
“We’ll take care of it,” Aika smiled.
** ** **
Sayumi walked down the hallway in a straight line, carrying the tray of food in her two hands carefully. She had been determined to buy food in school for the very first in her life, but still couldn’t bare to be in the crowded cafeteria, so she had decided to take her food back to the classroom, which a lot of students had been starting to do. As she walked, the bunny examined the various types of food on her tray. There were things that she had heard of before, but had never really seen. At home, her family didn’t eat food like this; only expensive and professionally-cooked food had touched their lips. But school lunch seemed pretty interesting too, which the rice and all the sidedishes divided into sections. Sayumi had never seen anything so peculiar.
She finally reached her classroom again, and faced the closed door. Holding the tray with one hand, Sayumi reached out and opened the door.
Then, she felt something hit her head and tumble down to the floor. Sayumi cringed for a while and then looked up to see the smirking faces of a couple of the girls across the room. They were laughing at her now, and high-fiving in the success of their practical joke. The bunny looked down and saw two chalkboard erasers with white powder around it. She touched her head gently and looked at her own hand to find the chalk powder caked on her skin already.
The silent snickering soon burst into laughter as the bullies hollered at the pale-faced girl; the rest of the class was silent, as they were too busy staring at the new girl. The top of Sayumi’s head was white with chalk powder now as she held her food tray and stood in place, frozen. This definitely wasn’t their worst pranks; it had taken Sayumi a good decent while to get a new desk from the storage room after all the graffiti had been put on her original schooldesk. So perhaps it was natural that she didn’t feel all that angry about this matter. She still wouldn’t mind give those bullies a piece of her mind and a couple foul words as well, but she knew how to handle this better now.
Sayumi lifted her head and looked straight at the girls who had pulled this prank on her. She felt the strong energy of confidence climbing up her back and locking her joints to keep her from backing down. Her heart was thumping loudly with nervousness, but Sayumi tried to think of it as excitement instead. The excitement of being able to voice herself, to change herself.
“May I put this down for a moment?” Sayumi asked, placing her tray on the nearest desk.
“Uh… no problem…” Sayaka answered awkwardly. Koharu watched with much curiosity while Yuu just stared, her eyes filled with worry.
Sayumi whipped around toward the group of girls who had pranked her, who smirked and waited for her usual reaction of pouring insults. But instead, the bunny calmly walked a couple steps forward, bent down, picked up the two chalkboard erasers, and walked straight up to the queen bee of the bullies. The girl stared at her with unwavering eyes.
Then, Sayumi
smiled at the bully, confusing everybody in the room. She then took a hold of the girl’s wrists, flipped her hand open, and placed the erasers in her hands.
“I believe these belong to you,” she said, smiling pleasantly. “Don’t misplace it again.”
“… What kind of a sick joke is this?” the girl asked, scowling. She, including all the other students, was incredibly confused by Sayumi’s odd actions.
“That’s my line,” Sayumi said innocently. “I don’t know why kind of joke this is, but putting chalkboard erasers on top of the door… I haven’t gotten that one since kindergarten. Congratulations, you brought back some good old childhood memories. Thanks.”
The students started to giggle as the bully’s face scrunched up even more in confusion. That was all she was going to say? Where was the antisocial girl’s poison tongue? All the horrible insults and her high-and-mighty narcissistic character? Something was really off. The entire class was entertained by Sayumi’s cool way of handling the situation.
The black-haired girl smiled once more before turning around and going back to her seat. She sat down and started to dust off chalk powder in her hair, with not much success. The class just watched her with curiosity in silence, still trying to figure out what had happened to the original stuck-up princess.
Then, Koharu’s lips spread out into a big smile from ear to ear. She grabbed the bunny’s lunch tray from Sayaka’s desk and walked over to Sayumi, despite all the other students’ eyes on her. She placed it on the bunny’s desk and skittered back to her seat. She dug through her bag for a while and took out a water bottle and a handkerchief. Sayumi looked up in surprise as Koharu walked back to her with a smile. She wet the red cloth with a little bit of water and offered it to Sayumi.
“The chalk dust won’t come off like that,” Koharu grinned. “Use this.”
“… Arigatou,” Sayumi said quietly, smiling a little. As she patted her hair down again with the wet handkerchief, she could feel herself blush with joy again. This girl was being really nice to her. Everybody else in the class was still staring at her, but not with contempt like before. Now, their eyes were filled with curiosity and genuine interest. She had been given a chance to recreate herself.
“Nee, let’s eat together!” Koharu suggested.
Without even waiting for an answer, she went back to her desk, grabbed her lunchbox, and zoomed back to the buny’s desk. She pulled up a chair from near by and sat across from the black-haired girl. The entire class was watching her, but they all knew Koharu wasn’t the type of girl to feel pressured by such a thing. In fact, if anybody was going to attempt to be social with the “princess”, they figured it would be Koharu. And because her friends knew this too, Yuu and Sayaka just sighed and shook their heads with a smile. Then, they also took their own lunch and dragged their chair to Sayumi’s desk and sat on each side.
“Itadakimasu!” the three of them said in unison, clapping their hands together.
Sayumi blinked in disbelief. These girls were willing to eat lunch with her? They were willing to forgive her for all her past rudeness? Sure, they had never really gotten directly involved with each other’s businesses but they also saw how Sayumi was the stuck-up little rich girl that everybody hated, right? So why would they even want to befriend her so quickly?
“You know, I always thought you were a nice person, Michishige-san,” Koharu said, grinning her toothy grin. “It’s just that you don’t know how to show it. Does that creep you out?”
“It’s creeping me out, I’ll tell you that,” Sayaka groaned. “You’re so weird, Koharu.”
“Maa, maa, let’s just eat in peace now, shall we?” Yuu chided. “Michishige-san, I’ll formally introduce myself. I’m Kikkawa Yuu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”
“And I’m Kitahara Sayaka,” the tomboy said energetically. “Yoroshiku!”
Sayumi looked around her desk one more time at the three people that were sitting by her. She could tell they weren’t completely open with her yet. But they were the first ones that were willing to give her a chance. The ones that wanted to get to know the real Michishige Sayumi that was hiding underneath the poison tongue character.
“… Michishige Sayumi desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu,” Sayumi said quietly, smiling geniuinly. She was determined not to lose this chance.
Meanwhile, there were two pairs of eyes, peeking into the classroom through the door. They backed away to the wall and sighed a breath of relief.
“Well, that ended surprisingly well,” Aika shrugged. “A little too well, actually. I’m kidn of surprised.”
“I guess Shige-san really doesn’t need our help for this,” Linlin smiled. “I think she’s getting the hang of it.”
“Yeah… or maybe that Koharu-senpai is just way too friendly of a type,” Aika suggested.
“Well, I hear Kitahara Sayaka-san and Kikkawa Yuu-san are pretty trustworthy… a lot of people like them too,” Linlin said.
“I guess we can stay behind the scenes and just keep watch for a little longer, just like Jun-senpai suggested,” Aika grinned. “I think Shige-san will be fine now.”
** ** **
Sayumi quickly walked towards the school gate with a light spring in her step. The day had seemed so normal yet now, she felt so different. She hadn’t had to say a single rude thing for the entire school day, and was able to even really smile a couple times. And the joy wasn’t brought forth by Junjun or Aika or Linlin. It was either from her three new friends or from her own self-satisfaction of feeling the change occur inside her. And it was amazing.
When she got close enough to the school entrance, she spotted three familiar figures, waving at her with grins plastered on their faces. Unable to stop her own feet, Sayumi immediately sprinted towards her girlfriend and jumped into her open arms.
“Junjun!” she yelled happily, laughing.
“Woah, you seem pretty happy,” the panda chuckled. “Did something good happen?”
“I didn’t say a single bad thing today!” the bunny said excitedly, looking up at her girlfriend with a certain sparkle in her eyes. “And these three girls started to talk to me today and we even ate lunch together! And nobody bullied me in the afternoon too! I… I actually did it!”
“It seems like you’re pretty satisfied,” Junjun laughed. “Maybe I should leave you alone for the entire day more often.”
“No, not that!” Sayumi said quickly, shaking her head. “That was one thing I didn’t like… You weren’t there for me at all today.”
“Well, technically not, but I did dispatch my little troopers here to keep you safe,” Junjun said, pointing towards her two lackeys. “There’s no way I would leave you out of my radar completely, Usa-chan.”
“Yeah, we were pretty much everywhere today, Shige-san,” Aika chimed in.
“We were watching you…” Linlin said in a creepy tone.
“But we felt like you didn’t really need us that much anyway,” Aika grinned. “Congratulations on taking the first step in Usa-chan Revolution!”
“We should celebrate this!” Junjun said. “We can go to my house again.”
“Um, actually,” Sayumi interrupted, swallowing hard, “I thought that… maybe… you guys can come over to my house… today…”
The three yankiis stared at the bunny in surprise. They looked at each other in search of answer for this sudden offer, but found none.
“… Is that okay?” Junjun asked carefully. “I mean, what brought this on suddenly?”
“… There’s nothing strange about it, right?” Sayumi said quickly, squaring her shoulders. “I mean, you three are my best friend and Junjun’s my girlfriend… It’s normal to invite you over to my home, right?”
“I suppose…”
“Then it’s settled!” Sayumi decided. “We can just walk there; it’s not too far.”
Junjun slowly smiled as her eyes shined with curiosity. Then, she just laughed softly before putting her arms around Sayumi and walking out through the gate. Aika and Linlin trailed behind, whispering to each other.
“Where does Michishige-san live anyway?” Aika asked her girlfriend.
“I don’t know,” Linlin shrugged. “But… isn’t she like… really rich?”
“Well, we know she’s an ojou-sama and all…” Aika mumbled. “I thought her parents were some big business people?”
“Yeah, I think I heard that too,” Linlin agreed. “So… where does she live?”
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Next up... will be a fun chapter, which i'm keeping a secret
^ I'm actually still brainstorming, but the concept itself is interesting already
Topic: Chigatte mo Iin da yo! ~Mainly TanaKame, TakaGaki~ [FINALE - Ch. 93 - (1/30)] (Read 408960 times)