At exactly seventeen-thirty, Ms. Fujioka stood and excused her class, ushering the group of bored twenty-somethings out into the hallway. The students chattered to themselves as they filed out of the auditorium where their English lessons were held, their voices all blending together into one loud, droning jumble of incoherent phrases. Backpacks unzipped and shoes shuffled against hardwood floors, the silence that followed nearly deafening as it marked the end of another lesson.
Only one of the room's occupants still remained—she was a young woman with a flashy appearance, unable to be more conspicuous if she tried. Her two-toned blonde and pink hair was styled with an array of girly clips, light purple eyeshadow on her lids complementing the periwinkle of her eyes. As she leaned over her desk to write something down, the professor approached, a concerned frown tugging at her lips.
"What are you still doing here, Satou-san? Class is over."
Yui looked up from her paper, an apologetic smile on her face."Sorry, Sensei, but could I stay here a little longer? I was hoping to get some more quiet study time in."
She didn't miss the way the older woman took in her apparel, clearly finding it distasteful. What was so bad about her crop top and skirt, really? Sure, they were both a little short, but it was hot outside. Who could blame her for trying to cool down? "You can go to the library for that. This room is closing for the day."
Stern as ever... She thought, sighing softly as she packed her belongings into her zebra print handbag. She'd been the one to design it herself for one of her classes, and she was pretty proud of how it turned out. The hot pink trim and gold accents were extremely cute, in her opinion.
"Alright, alright. See you next time, Fujioka-sensei."
Waving goodbye to her unimpressed teacher, Yui strutted out the doors in her three-inch platform boots, idly pulling her phone out of her back pocket as she did so. She admired her Sanrio phone case for a moment before struggling to unlock the screen with her long press-on nails. Yes, they were inconvenient, but a wise philosopher once said that beauty is pain.
Upon checking her notifications, her face fell when she saw that one of her clients had messaged her earlier, his text making her insides churn.
16:04 How much for you to come over to my place and fuck?
Sickened, she shoved the device back into her pocket and tried to ignore the dreadful feeling building in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't the first time a client had asked about sexual services, but it never felt any less dehumanizing. Just because she wore makeup and dated men for money didn't mean that she was some cheap whore who'd let herself be used in place of some creep's body pillow.
Besides, she'd be too expensive for him, anyway.
On her way down the hall, she spotted a pair of girls who she vaguely recognized from her photography class. They were leaning up against a bulletin board, iced coffees in hand as they shared the latest gossip, probably about some stupid frat party or how the economics teacher was pregnant again. Shaking off her unease, she sent them a smile and a wave, watching one of them make eye contact.
Instead of waving back, the brunette nudged her dark-haired friend until they were both staring at her, leaning over to whisper to each other and giggling profusely. Flustered, Yui put her head down and started walking faster to escape their judgmental gazes.
What's their problem?She thought, her legs shaking as she rounded the corner and finally slowed to a reasonable pace. They don't know about the dates, do they? No... they couldn't.
She hadn't told anyone, and as far as she knew, nobody from Shusei had ever spotted her while out, either. Sure, there had been a few close-calls, but Tokyo was a pretty big place. The chance of somebody she knew walking in on one of her "business meetings" was next to none. She placed a hand over her chest to calm her rapid heartrate, writing it off as just the two of them being catty. That was nothing new for her, after all.
Yui pulled her headphones up over her ears and turned MIYAVI up to full volume, wanting nothing more than to just drown it all out. The stares, the cliques, the drama... it was all so pointless, so juvenile. She'd come here to pursue her passions, not make a bunch of frenemies and feel like shit every single day.
Music continued to blast in her eardrums as she made her way to her locker and stopped in front of it, her mind distracted by the day's events. She twisted the lock and entered in the combination, pulling out her textbooks to cram them back inside for tomorrow. A university having lockers was strange, but she couldn't say they didn't come in handy. With how big the campus was, getting a locker or a cubby in each major building made it so much easier for her to go between classes without having to carry a million heavy books all at the same time.
The minute the slatted metal door popped open, Yui was greeted with the sight of a person standing in her locker.
Or rather, falling out of it.
"Kyaaaaa!"
She let out a shriek, her books scattering to the floor as they flopped out of their hiding spot and knocked right into her. Both her and the stowaway went crashing to the ground, their limbs tangled up together in an awkward and uncomfortable imitation of a pretzel. As she glanced up with a groan, she caught sight of blue-black hair and sharp brown eyes that seemed rather unfazed by the whole situation.
"S-Sasaki-san?!" Yui recognized the goth girl immediately—how could she not? Like her, they had a unique, eye-catching style. And also, much like her, they were a frequent target of bullying and the subject of many a rumor. In some ways, she was lucky to at least have fake friends, but she only ever saw Mizuki alone or getting harassed by dickhead jocks and their bimbo girlfriends. "Wh-what were you doing in my... Oh, my god! Are you okay??"
After she got over the initial shock, she looked them over and realized that they were absolutely covered in bruises and... was that dried blood? "There's no way you got this bruised up just from a fall! Wh-" She paused and cut herself off, able to guess at what probably happened without having to ask. Besides, they'd already made enough of a scene; she didn't need to embarrass her classmate further by bringing more attention to their predicament, certainly not where everyone could see them.
"Well, never mind that. Come on, let's get you to the nurse. This is serious!"
Hurriedly stuffing her dropped books back into her bag, Yui reached a hand out to Mizuki, offering them support to get back on their feet. Before, she'd always avoided them like everybody else, curious to know more but afraid to get close and bring even more unwanted attention to herself. By doing this, she could very well be opening up Pandora's box and inviting the wrath of her fellow students like never before—she could practically already hear them coming up with all kinds of inane theories about how she must be dating the 'emo freak' and how they were probably fucking in the bathroom, or something like that.
But that was neither here nor there. Right now, the most important thing was that she had someone in need of medical attention right in front of her, and she wasn't heartless enough not to at least take them to get help. "Can you walk on your own? Don't worry, there should be some ice packs and painkillers in the infirmary."
At least, there always were whenever she got dragged into a fight or 'accidentally' hit in the face with a ball during gym practice.
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