[I, Shiina Taki, am super happy!]
Just sitting there, Chiose was as beautiful as a statue of the Venus de Milo. Taki didn't dare look straight at her, so she studied her out of the corner of her eye instead.
She saw that Chiose's little face had gone bright red, and that her eyes held a flicker of unease and awkwardness.
That small-animal reaction hit Taki square in the chest.
[Really?]
[Really. I want to be friends with you, Noshiro. Is that okay?] Taki wrote.
[Friends?]
Surprise flashed through Chiose's eyes.
[Yes. Friends.]
[Someone like me, can I have friends too?]
Chiose pointed at herself with one small finger, uncertain.
Taki felt frantic, and the frantic feeling did her no good at all. She wished so badly that Chiose could hear her voice; passing notes back and forth was such a slow, roundabout way to talk.
The hearing aid! Where had her hearing aid gone!
[Of course. I really want to be your friend, Noshiro!]
"Eh!"
Taki heard it clearly, the small, adorable gasp that escaped Noshiro Chiose.
[Then, call me Chiose, Shiina.]
"!!!"
[Just call me Taki. I like it better when my friends use my given name instead of my surname.]
[Taki...]
Chiose's hand stalled halfway through writing Taki's name, then she gave her head a small, apologetic shake.
[What is it, Chiose?]
[It's just, something came to mind, and I don't know if I should say it.]
[Eh?]
There was no way that halfway through a conversation Chiose had suddenly remembered that Taki was the one who'd cost her her hearing all those years ago. Right?
The thought straightened Taki's spine until she sat like a criminal waiting on a verdict.
But what Chiose wrote next was the last thing Taki expected.
[It's just... what I wanted to say is, your name, Taki, sounds so much like "shiitake."]
"Ha. All that buildup for something like that. She nearly gave me a heart attack."
Shiina Taki actually hated eating shiitake mushrooms, konjac noodles, garlic chives and grated yam, all because classmates used to tease her about how close her name sounded to those words.
Coming from Chiose, though, it didn't sting at all. And when Chiose saw that Taki wasn't angry, only resigned, she stopped holding back her laughter.
She laughed until her shoulders shook, and it was beautiful. Taki had no idea why Chiose found something so trivial this funny. Was her daily life really so empty that even this counted as entertainment?
Taki propped her chin on her hand and waited until Chiose had laughed herself out, then decided to write one line of gentle payback.
[Chiose, your laugh sounds exactly like a crow's, you know.]
The moment she lifted the pen she thought she'd gone too far, but Chiose's eyes lit up and she grabbed Taki's hands.
"Mm, mm... ah..."
She was trying to speak, and failing, probably because she was too worked up. In the end she had to go back to paper and pen to get her feelings across.
[I love crows! Thank you for saying something so nice, Taki. You're the best person I've ever met!]
"Eh?"
I'm not, though. I'm not nearly as good as you think I am.
Shiina Taki was reaching for the pen to write something more when she saw the girl hurriedly gathering up her things.
Noshiro Chiose left the notebook and the pen with Taki, sent her one last message on her phone, waved, and ran off.
She vanished so fast, so suddenly, that Taki was left hollowed out, as though something had been taken from her.
If she breathed in carefully, she could still catch the scent Noshiro Chiose had left behind in the Brass Band Club room.
She looked down at her phone screen:
[Chitose: Something came up, sorry! Talking with you today made me so happy. See you next time!]
Staring blankly at the piano in front of her, Taki could almost still see those flying fingers dancing over the keys, but all of it had dissolved like a dream.
Right to the very end, Shiina Taki never managed to put the apology buried in her chest into words.
And she already half understood: if their paths crossed again in the future... no, they would cross again, definitely. And the deeper those paths ran into each other, the harder it would be for Shiina Taki to ever explain herself.
But it was already too late for that.
"What a crow of a girl."
Just flying off like that, free as anything.
A pity Taki wasn't the sort of person who got to be free.
Ever since meeting Noshiro Chiose that morning, she had spent the entire day with her head somewhere else entirely.
She wanted to message Chiose, but she was afraid that reading and replying would strain the girl's eyes.
Taki didn't know what was wrong with her. She just wanted to see Chiose again, right now.
Wanted to watch her play the piano again. Wanted to watch that long silver-white hair sway loose with the music.
And wanted to see that pure, unguarded face of hers.
[She's so beautiful.]
Shiina Taki thought.
"What's the matter, Taki? Something on your mind?"
Haizuka turned in her seat at the next desk, golden irises fixed straight on Shiina Taki.
It sent a crawling chill down Taki's back.
"It's nothing. I just don't feel great."
Haizuka paid no attention to the deflection and carried on talking as though to herself.
"Oh, you're not feeling well? Get better soon. And here I thought you'd run into something special, like I did."
"Something special? Me? Come on. My life is completely ordinary."
Maybe making a friend like Chiose had lifted her mood a few notches, because on a normal day Shiina Taki wouldn't have said this much to the people sitting around her.
Usually the second class ended she put her headphones on and sank into her own world, keeping everything outside from touching her.
"You never know. Today in the bathroom I saw a girl getting ready to open her wrist with a razor blade. A white-haired girl. Quite pretty, actually."
"Oh, that kind of thing. That's pretty normal in this country, isn't it."
Taki waved a listless hand, and then, an instant later, snapped bolt upright.
"What did you say? What color did you say that girl's hair was?"
"Don't grab my hand. That hurts."
Haizuka pulled her wrist back with a wince, but her eyes stayed just as calm.
"I said, long silver-white hair. Rare, isn't it."
"Haha... yeah. Really rare."
Taki shook her head, not wanting to keep turning over such strange thoughts.
She'd only known Noshiro Chiose for a single day, but her instinct said Chiose was a very gentle girl.
Hurting herself? An angel like that? Don't be ridiculous.
Taki dug the scratch pad she and Chiose had talked on out of her desk and savored the words on it line by line, letting the time bleed away.
But when she absently flipped backward, past the pages of their conversation to the ones that came before, her pupils gave an involuntary tremble.
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉