Trust Me | Tsukimi Shin

(Part Five)

Shin pushes the door open with his shoulder, letting out a small yawn as he entered the lecture room. It was still half-empty, which was a surprise, but it made sense since there had seemed to be a lot of traffic on the roads anyway. He lowers the bag that was previously slung over his shoulder onto his desk and slides into his seat.

"That bastard..."

Shin's head whips around upon hearing such a thing come from the girl who sat farther down the aisle. The woman with black hair and tired eyes. He had seen her before, but hardly knew a thing about her. All he knew is that their eyes would meet often enough for it to be taken note of, but it was hard to tell if it was a coincidence or not.

She rakes both of her hands through her hair which, for once, wasn't in a long braid. It was ruffled and wild, seemingly un-brushed, and when she barely turns her head to the side to search her bag, he sees that the bags under her eyes are significantly darker than usual as well. She looked like she hadn't slept a wink.

The woman grabs out a granola bar from her bag and once she unwraps it, her attention returns to her phone. She holds the granola bar in her mouth so she could use both hands to type.

Then the other half of the granola bar breaks off and falls onto the floor, and Shin watches as the woman goes frigid, fingers unmoving and hovering over the screen. She drops her phone onto her lap and throws her hands into the air before scoffing.

It seemed to have been a long day for her.

It wasn't long before the professor decided to finally stroll in and begin the class. During nearly his entire lecture, Shin kept finding his eyes drifting to the girl. Her head was leaning on one of her hands, her pen in the other, and her pink eyes glaring daggers into the back of some guy's head. Shin knew that if she ever looked at him like that, he'd freeze up and apologize on the spot, so he was wondering what the hell the guy did to have her so mad.

She ruffles her hair and sighs to herself, going back to scribbling down notes. Every once in a while, her head would suddenly drop off her hand and she would flinch back to attention before nodding off once again. Shin could tell from the hooded look of her eyes and the frantic blinking that she could hardly stay awake. The guy she was previously glaring at looks over at her all of a sudden, shoots her a grin, and she clicks her tongue in response, giving him a narrow-eyed sidelong glance.

When Shin sees the man's face, he realizes he had been seeing him on the streets when Shin would walk to his night-shifts. The guy would always be having the time of his life outside bars, partying with his friends, and Shin always thought it was a bit odd considering they had a massive project due in a week.

But it dawned on him that the girl that was currently glaring daggers at him was his assigned partner. All the pieces fit together in Shin's head, and it all made sense why she seemed so tired, so irritated, and so pissed at him.

The man reclines and throws his arm back, flattening his hand on the table diagonal from him, which was her's. He shoots her another wide grin and she glowers at him once again. He sighs, voice quiet as to not attract the professor's attention. "Come on, Chizue, don't be so pouty. You're so much prettier with a smile! And maybe if you got some sleep..."

She doesn't smile, obviously. Her glare hardens. "Takahashi to you. We are not on a first-name basis. And I would have gotten plenty more sleep if it wasn't for you, Sato-san." She hissed his name with a venomous tone. Sato recoils and slaps on an offended face. "Hey, I'm fuckin' sad right now, alright? My family dog just died and I've been pretty sick lately! Can't you cut me some slack?"