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He wore plaid like a cat wore black, and pretty eyes cast the sun overhead into a fit of clouded depression while the river in his path slowed to a standstill to watch him pass by.
She made steamed rice sound exotic, and her limp hair and the uniform skirt covering her gangly legs were a favorite victim of the jeering wind. The ground scoffed at her with every step. But Tome Kurata pressed on, her eyes focused on the boy shining before her eyes. “Hey!” she called. “Hey!”
Teruki Hanazawa sauntered on, bag slung over his shoulder and the bright purple of his uniform demanding the attention of not only Tome, but the whole universe.
“I said, hey! Don’t ignore me!” Tome reached out her hand for Teruki’s sleeve. She found only empty air in her grasp a millisecond later.
Teruki continued to stride forth with eyes focused forwards, only now an inexplicable ten feet in front of his prior location. He ran a hand through his hair as carefully as a carpenter would adjust a level, and then tossed his bangs away from his forehead.
“You wouldn’t ignore a lady, would you?!” Crocodile tears welled up from behind Tome’s spidery eyelashes, and the pitch of her voice rose like an unbound helium balloon as she hurried after him.
Teruki produced a phone from his jacket. As if on cue, a girl’s name displayed prominently on the center of the illuminated phone screen, and he held it above his shoulder and into Tome’s line of sight. Then, Teruki flipped it shut with a pointed, ostentatious gusto and banished it back to the dark depths of his pocket.
Tome stomped along behind him, her tears evaporating into the atmosphere and leaving her with narrowed eyes and a soured expression. “If you don’t stop and listen to me, I’ll use my telepathy to implant images of retirement homes into your head so that you’ll never be able to think about anything except for adult diapers, prunes, and the stink of that weird old person smell ever again!”
Still, the rubber heels of Teruki’s shoes greeted and departed from the dirt at the same pace as before. In fact, they picked up their tempo.
“I could do it! Psychic powers are totally a real thing!” Tome shouted, her arms pumping at her sides as she sped along behind him. “Don’t pretend like you think I’m crazy! I know you’re Mob’s friend, too!”
Suddenly, Teruki stopped in his tracks and graced her with a turn of his head and a quirk of his lips. A sliver of sunlight peeked out to shine off of the gold of his hair and light his face. “Yes?”
At first, Tome balked as Teruki batted his gilded eyes at her, but her teeth cut across her face in a jagged smile that smoothed out with each centimeter of the closing distance between them. “Hi. I’m Tome Kurata,” she said, holding out her hand. “Mob tells me how great you are.” She fluttered her eyelashes back at him, though the graces of nature completely ignored her efforts in favor of lavishing more lighting upon Teruki.
“He does? Kageyama talks about me?” Teruki’s deep blue eyes widened and sparkled like an ocean at the end of a summer day.
“All the time,” Tome lied. “Say, would you help me with--?”
“What does he say?” Teruki asked, tilting his head and leaning into Tome’s space.
“U-uhhh?” said Tome, stranded in the middle of Teru’s deep blue stare with neither raft nor boat to keep her afloat.
“About me. What has Kageyama told you?”
“What has Mob told… me?”
Teruki nodded. “Yes. You said he talks about me. What does he say?”
“Oh. Right. Well, you know, he talks about how, um,” Tome surfaced from Teruki’s gaze and searched the sky and the boy in alternating glances, “how, uh, how good of a friend you are.”
“Really?” said Teruki, pressing forward. “He said that? Does he say anything else?”
“W-well, uh,” Tome fumbled.
“Please,” Teruki urged.
“He says you, uh, you go to Black Vinegar.”
“Yeah, well. Besides that.”
Tome searched her imagination behind her tight smile. “Y-you have, uh, you have blue eyes.”
“And?”
“A-and he talks about your, um, blonde hair.”
“...What about it?”
“How, uh, nice, and um,” Tome bit her lip. “How, uh, thick? It is?”
A chilled wind leftover from the previous winter passed through. Tome’s hair and skirt fought to stay down on their own while Teruki restrained his hairstyle with a rigid hand, an obscured countenance, and utter silence.
Then, he turned on his heel and walked away.
“Uh,” said Tome, “wait a minute! I told you what you wanted to know, so you should help me, now!” She kicked up her heels and jogged after Teruki. “Y’know? You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours? That kind of thing?”
“Stop,” Teruki said. “Please. I feel ill. I need to go nurse my pride.”
“B-but it was all good things! You’re really, uh, handsome! Yeah! And you’re really, uh, helpful! And stuff!” Tome trotted along at Teruki’s side, her hands moving as confidently as her mouth.
Teruki covered his face like the clouds covered the sun. “Please, don’t try and sugarcoat it. It hurts enough to know that the only thing he told his girlfriend about me was my,” he sighed, “my shame.”
“Girlfriend?!” Tome screeched. “What?!”
“Yes. I know who you are now. I remembered when I saw how plain your face is.”
“Huh?!”
Teruki nodded. “I saw the two of you on a date. Don’t play dumb- I understand that you think you aren’t good enough, but there’s nothing to be done about the distance between you, except to be thankful that he actually acknowledges you.”
“Excuse me?!” Tome cried. “I-! You-! I’m not good enough?! I am not good enough?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?! Have you seen Mob? You think he could handle all of this?” Tome gestured to herself, and then shook her rapidly paling face until the blood flow came back into it. “No way!”
Teruki lumbered along, his expression cradled between his palms. “You can pretend all you want, but I know how hopeless it is to try and stack up to Kageyama, even if it’s only in the illusions of your own little fantasy world.”
Tome stirred up a cloud of dust as she blocked Teruki’s path and leaned down level to his covered face, her hands balled into fists and firmly on her hips. “What is even wrong with you?! I’m not Mob’s girlfriend! Ew!” She snorted. “We were looking for more Espers! Espers, you hear me? I need to find someone who can help me contact the aliens with telepathy!”
“Oh,” Teruki said, the tide of his eyes peeking out over the sandbar of his fingers. “Is that why you wanted to talk to me?”
“Yes! I only said all that stuff because you wouldn’t stop walking!” Tome huffed and crossed her arms. “I figured, Mob said he didn’t know any other Espers, but you knew Mob, and your hair was all,” She held up her arms and shaped the air above her head like a potter would clay, “out of this world, that one time, so I thought maybe you might know someone or something that he overlooked.” Tome looked over at him, and then looked him over. “I liked your tall hairstyle better,” she appraised.
“Is that a fact.”
Tome nodded, and absently swung her bag back and forth by her side. “So, do you know any? Psychics, I mean. You’ve gotta tell me if you do- Mob doesn’t tell me anything. It’s like there’s nothing happening upstairs sometimes, you know?” She poked her own forehead. “I thought you might be different.”
Teruki’s eyes gleamed up at her like the curved, smiling edge of a knife. “No. Sorry. I’m afraid I don’t know of any others.” His hands fell away from his face and smoothed down his jacket as he straightened his posture. “Not a single one.”
“Aw, really?” Tome said. “Man, that sucks!”
Teruki smiled at her with teeth as bright and unyielding as stainless steel. “But I wish you luck.”