Sora

(Akane's PoV)

—

As we walked, Sora followed without asking why I was being so kind.

Behind us, the school was emptying into the streets, students spilling through the gates with their bags and boring half-finished conversations. Somewhere beyond the gym, a trumpet was warming up. Whoever was playing had a lot more confidence than talent.

Sora walked on my left with her folder tucked under one arm and the shopping bag in her other hand. Every few steps, the carton of strawberry milk sticking out of it knocked against her knee.

As we passed the gate, two first-years stopped and bowed so deeply that their bags nearly slipped off their shoulders.

"Good afternoon, President!" They both said in unison.

"Good afternoon," Sora replied, giving them a perfectly composed nod.

'Impressive, considering she'd spent part of her morning shredding evidence.'

But when they saw me, the girls hurried away almost immediately, whispering something I couldn't understand.

"Oh, I didn't expect to meet your fan club," I said.

"Well..." a small sigh. "They're the girls who bring me forms."

"That's what a fan club is, actually." I giggled.

She opened her mouth, thought about it, then closed it again.

"Oh come on, there's nothing wrong in being the most popular idol in school, you know?" I said, giving her a friendly pat on the back.

"Sometimes it's a living hell..." She sighed.

Then, a few steps later, she looked down at her shopping bag.

"Hey, Akane, do you really think she'll like strawberry milk?"

"Hoshiko drinks energy drinks that should probably be illegal in several countries. Trust me, she'll drink anything." I giggled, remembering a funny event from our past. "Well, she once drank 10 coffees in the span of two hours, you know? And after the last one, she directly drank an entire big can of Cola."

"Ah... right... well..." A small pause. "I read somewhere that tattoo artists prefer..." She stopped.

I looked at her. "Prefer what?"

"Nothing. I didn't read anything." She sighed. "I was trying a cool lie to cover the fact that I panicked in the shop and bought everything within reach."

"Hahaha...!" I couldn't help but laugh. "I noticed. There's also dried squid in there, one of my favorite things, you know?"

"That one's for me," she replied with remarkable dignity. "But I bought an extra portion for you, because Shin had told me that you love it."

"Oh? Really? So you two talk about me?" I asked, curious. 

"Yeah... Shin speaks about you most of the time, especially during our tasks." She smiled, but she looked away for an instant. "You two are really close, aren't you?"

"We are," I said without hesitation. 

Then, she shifted the bag to her other hand.

"S-So..." She cleared her throat. "Should I bow when I walk in? Would that be too formal? I've never visited a tattoo studio before, and my mother has rather strong opinions about those places."

"Your mother and pretty much everyone else's mother. Bow if you want, but Hoshiko will probably hug you before you start speaking." My voice softened.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. And she'll give you a nickname within five minutes if she likes you, and don't bother fighting it, because Hoshiko always does whatever she wants in the end." I sighed, while a small smile appeared on my lips.

"Uhm..." she rubbed her chin. "What kind of nickname?"

"Something unforgivable. For example, she calls me 'baby wolf', because I'm scary and cute at the same time." 

"Wonderful." Sora laughed, though it faded sooner than I expected.

For a while, she watched the pavement as we kept walking.

"Thank you for today, Akane," she said eventually. "Really. I really wanted to experience a day like this, with a friend."

I glanced at her.

"People usually just don't talk to me like I'm a real human, you know?" She said it almost casually, like she was complaining about the weather. Then she looked up and gave me that bright, practiced smile of hers.

Too late, President. I'd already seen your face.

In that moment, I had decided that today I would talk to Sora about a very important topic.

I'd been trying to figure out how to have this conversation ever since Takaneda-sensei started talking about random things.

There were at least four different openings scribbled in the margins of my notebook, and I'd crossed out every single one.

Most started with 'Listen,' and almost no one ended with threats.

'Yeah. Excellent work, Akane.'

Gentleness wasn't exactly something I'd been taught growing up, and my father had made sure of that.

Whatever little I knew about it, I'd mostly learned from a certain idiot who could calm me down just by running his fingers through my hair.

Unfortunately, Shin wasn't here to do the talking for me, and Sora deserved better than another one of my interrogations. After what she'd done that morning, especially.

She'd put those photographs through a shredder without asking for anything in return, risking her entire school career, and she hadn't even made me feel guilty about it.

Well, not intentionally.

I owed her a proper conversation, at least.

Halfway to Hoshiko's studio, we passed a small park tucked between the buildings. Three benches, a gravel path, a vending machine humming against the wall, and a dead tree.

The place was empty apart from a pigeon dozing on the fence.

'Perfect.' 

I stopped near the entrance while Sora kept walking for another couple of steps before realizing I wasn't beside her anymore.

"Akane?" She asked, blinking her eyes.

"Sora. There's something I need to talk to you about." I said, trying to keep my voice soft.

But despite that, the color drained from her face. Her shoulders stiffened, and she pulled the folder tighter against her chest.

"I-Is it about this morning?" she asked immediately. "Because if there's a problem with the report, I can redo it tonight and rewrite the entire statement. I know the wording was a little weak, but if Tanaka-sensei asks, I've already prepared another version that—"

"Sora." My voice cut, but not enough.

"...a-a-and the shredder, I know using it was technically—"

"Hey... Relax." I touched her arm, softly. "Seriously. It's nothing like that."

She stopped talking, though it took another few seconds for her breathing to settle.

"Okay..." She swallowed. "T-then what is it?"

I tried smiling with a smile that didn't look like I was about to ruin somebody's life.

"I'll be really honest, Sora." I said before taking a deep breath. "I've noticed the way you look at Shin."

The vending machine hummed behind us.

Sora stared at me with wide eyes, and then her entire face turned red. And I mean bloody red.

It started around her collar and spread up her neck until even the tips of her ears were burning.

"N-No! I... It's not...!" Her free hand began making desperate little gestures between us. "He's my assistant! And my friend! I would never—Akane, you..."

"Sora..." 

"...y-you're my friend too, and I swear I've never—"

"I'm not angry," I said, my voice calm.

She stopped.

I slipped my hands into my pockets and looked at her. "Seriously. Look at me. Do I look angry?"

She hesitated.

"You would've known if I was angry, trust me."

A tiny, nervous laugh escaped her, and she immediately pressed her lips together, apparently ashamed of it.

Good. At least she was breathing again.

"I started noticing some time ago, and I also noticed some particular behaviors on the rooftop," I continued. "Whenever Shin and I get affectionate, you suddenly find something else to look at. Remember when I sat on his lap on the roof? You spent the next five minutes admiring that railing like it was a national monument."

Sora lowered her eyes.

"And whenever somebody, or even I or yourself, mentions him, you smile before you even realize you're doing it. And your voice changes, too. It softens like it's something natural." I scratched my cheek. "I'm not blind, you know?"

Sora swallowed some saliva. She looked miserable, scared, and she took one step back.

"But I've also noticed something more important." I smiled. "You've never tried anything with him. You've never crossed the line, and you've gone out of your way to respect our relationship." I paused. "So you can stop looking at me like I'm about to execute you."

Sora tried to answer, but her lips only trembled.

Her gaze then dropped to the gravel while the hand gripping her folder began to shake, and she held it so tightly that the edges bent against her blazer.

I recognized that look. Waiting for someone to get angry. Trying to guess what you'd done wrong before they told you. Wondering how badly the conversation was going to end.

'God... I'm really terrible at this.'

"Listen..." I sighed and scratched the back of my head. "Okay. If I'm being honest, I was jealous at first."

Sora looked up.

"I won't pretend otherwise. You're smart, kind, beautiful, always polite. You've got the grades, the perfect handwriting, the whole student council president package, and everyone in school loves you." I gave her a awkward smile. "The first time I saw you and Shin together, I actually thought, 'Ah, there she is. The girl someone like him is supposed to date.' No, wait, maybe from the first time I saw you in that bakery."

Her eyes widened. "Akane..."

"Let me finish, President. I'm struggling enough here."

She closed her mouth.

"I'm really, but REALLY possessive and jealous when it comes to Shin. You probably figured that out already. And yes, knowing one of my only two friends has feelings for my boyfriend isn't exactly something that makes me happy, I must admit." I looked at her properly. "But you're a good person, Sora. I also know that. You've never given me a reason to doubt you, and I would never hurt you over something you can't help feeling."

Her grip on the folder loosened a little.

"So this stays between us. I'm not telling anyone, and I'm not going to start treating you differently, I promise."

That could be the only secret I could not tell Shin. He and I shared practically everything, sometimes to an embarrassing degree. But Sora's feelings weren't mine to confess. If she ever wanted him to know, that was her decision.

I then took one hand out of my pocket and offered it to her.

"Friends?" I said, with a warm smile on my face.

Sora stared at my hand, and for several seconds, she didn't move. Then a tear slipped down her cheek.

'Oh, come on. Don't do that. Or I'll feel guilty for real...'

She placed her folder on the nearest bench and took my hand in both of hers. Her fingers were freezing.

"Y-yes..." Her voice shook. "Friends..." She swallowed some saliva. "And Akane... please forgive me..."

Before I could answer, she pulled me into a hug. A proper one.

I hadn't expected it, so my arms were still awkwardly hanging at my sides when she buried her face against my shoulder.

Then she started crying.

Not loudly. Just those little hiccuping sobs people make when they're desperately trying not to cry and failing.

After a few instants, I rested a hand between her shoulder blades.

"Hey... So—"

"I never wanted this," she whispered into my blazer. "I didn't ask to feel this way. But..."

She pulled back, wiped her cheeks with both hands, and tried to straighten herself.

There she was again. The student council president trying to put herself back together in front of an audience of one.

"You and Shin are the only people at school who've treated me like a normal person," she said.

I listened.

"Since I became president, everyone has been polite to me. Everyone greets me, asks me for help, thanks me for my work..." She looked down. "But nobody stayed or talked to me like I was like a normal girl."

That one hurt to hear.

"And then, out of nowhere, you two started spending time with me. We ate lunch together. You talked to me about things that had nothing to do with school, you made jokes, and sometimes you even made fun of me."

"Mostly me," I admitted, raising my hands up.

She laughed weakly. "Yes. Mostly you." Her smile trembled. "For the first time, I felt like I actually had friends..."

I kept my mouth shut, carefully listening to every word.

She deserved to finish.

"And Shin..." She looked away for a moment before continuing. "He has such a wonderful heart, Akane. He's always helping people, even when nobody asks him to. He's helped me with difficult student council reports, with so many little things..." A faint smile appeared on her face. "And half the time he doesn't even realize how much he's doing."

Yeah. That sounded like my idiot.

"I tried to keep my distance," she admitted. "So many times. I even thought that if I stopped spending time with him, eventually these feelings would disappear." Her fingers curled against her skirt. "But whenever I saw him again, and whenever I heard him calling me by my name, my heart would start racing non-stop. I'd spend the whole day thinking about him, and then I'd go home and cry." She looked at me. "Do you know why?"

"Why?" 

I already knew the reason, but I wanted to hear her say it.

"Because I felt guilty," she whispered. "Every time I looked at him, I thought about you. You're my friend, Akane. You've been so kind to me, and I was..." She swallowed hard. "I was falling in love with your boyfriend."

There was no point pretending those words were pleasant to hear. They weren't, but I let her continue.

"And the worst part was..." Her voice broke. "I could see how much he loves you."

I blinked.

Sora gave me a sad little smile.

"Every time he looks at you, his whole face changes. He gets this expression I've never seen him give anyone else." She pressed a hand against her chest. "Sometimes I'd watch the two of you together, and I wonder what it would feel like if he looked at me that way. Even just once." Another tear rolled down her cheek. "But something like that will never happen. In his eyes, there's only you, Akane." She lowered her head. "And it hurt. It hurt so much, and I hated myself for feeling that way. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me."

I stared at her, and for a moment, I couldn't find anything to say.

There had been a question bothering me, one I'd carried through dinners and every conversation where I pretended to be perfectly fine.

'If Shin gets his family back, what happens to me?' I'd been too much of a coward to ask him. Too afraid of what he might say.

And here was Sora, a girl who loved him enough to cry over it, telling me something she'd had every reason to keep to herself.

'In his eyes, there's only you.'

I believed her. God help me, I believed her, and a small laugh escaped before I could stop it.

Sora looked up, startled.

I shook my head, still laughing a little, and dug through my bag for a tissue.

"Jeez, you beautiful Idol. Wipe those tears already." I pushed the tissue into her hand. "How the hell could I hate you?"

"Akane..."

"Seriously. You bought dried squid for me and strawberry milk for a girl you've never met. You covered my ass in front of the entire school this morning, and you've spent the last ten minutes apologizing for having a crush." I smiled. "You're probably the least hateable person I know."

Then I pulled her into another hug. This time, I was ready for it.

"Listen to me, Sora. We're friends. We're going to stay friends. And I'm not throwing that away because your heart decided to be an idiot."

She laughed against my shoulder. A wet, miserable little laugh.

"Thank you..." She sobbed, clinging tighter to me.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." I gently patted her back.

"Really, Akane. T-thank you..."

"Oi. You've already said that." I sighed.

"Thank you so much..."

"Oh, my God." I held her anyway.

The pigeon on the fence opened an eye, decided we weren't worth the trouble, and went back to sleep.

Over Sora's shoulder, I looked toward the road.

Shin really had no idea, did he? He just went around helping people and somehow ended up collecting them.

Hoshiko, Daiki, and Kurone, in her own completely disastrous way.

And now, a student council president admired by the entire school. That idiot probably thought he was just being helpful with homework.

Eventually, Sora stepped back, wiped her face with the tissue, blew her nose rather dramatically, and then looked at me with red, swollen eyes.

For once, she looked her age. Just Sora.

"Akane... no matter how strong these feelings are," she said quietly. "I swear. I'll never try anything with him."

"I know."

She looked at me as though she expected more.

Then I picked up her folder from the bench and handed it back.

"I know, Sora," I said.

She hugged it to her chest.

We stayed there for another moment. She needed a little time to recover, and I wasn't in a hurry.

Then I picked up the shopping bag from the gravel and hooked its handles over my wrist.

"Anyway..." I cleared my throat.

Sora blinked.

I nodded toward the road.

"How about we get moving? Hoshiko's waiting, and we've got a lot to do tonight."

She looked at me for a second before laughing again.

Still a little teary, but much better.

"Okay..." And she fell into step beside me.