monophobia ( A HARUMI/MASURI ONESHOT

monophobia

You could always keep your mask up, no matter what situation you were in. Obviously, you were never the happy-go-lucky, light-hearted girl people often saw you as. Nor were you truly as cunning as you let on. All your 'brilliant' ideas were just spar of the moment thoughts you never truly inspected. The winter air was harsh and cold but you didn't have the brain power (or energy) to care tonight. All that was on your mind was the soft, warm touch of Harumi-senpai that, despite the fact that you two had parted only a few minutes ago, were already craving once again.

The house was empty, but that wasn't really anything new to you. Mom and Dad were never really home at all anymore. You hated them for it. They were more married to their stupid jobs that they were to each other! Marriage was supposed to join two people who were totally in love, right? You could feel the numbing feeling of your jumper hitting the cool leather of the sofa and you felt... oddly relieved. You couldn't really describe your feelings. It was a mix of relief, emptiness and.. other things you really couldn't describe.

A few hours passed. Maybe it was only a couple minutes, you couldn't tell with your phone still in your pocket. The music you had put on while walking was still on, the final boss music to your favourite RPG was still quietly playing into the speakers, the sadder tones filling you with second-hand sorrow. You pulled your muscles to actually take your phone from your pocket, pause the soundtrack and push yourself up to trudge to the kitchen.

Food, luckily, was never an issue for you. Even if Mom and Dad were never home, you always got your allowance to buy the necessary things like food and other... things. Despite the pretty large allowance you got, you could never bring yourself to buy more than snacks, too many packs of ramen and the occasional big meal. Tonight, you were having another pack of ramen. People would normally call you weird for just eating ramen and the few better things when you went out with friends, but when they learned of your living conditions, they understood and you silently, mentally, applauded them for it. It wasn't everyday someone actually gave you a drop of respect anyway. Pulling the ramen packet out of the cupboard, you pulled out the pot you always put with it all and filled it with water. With the amount of times you had done this, you could probably do it with your eyes blindfolded and the most complex song playing through the speakers of your headphones. It wasn't something you were proud of.

With the water boiling, you let your mind drift to earlier in the day, when you were hanging out with your lo- your favourite person in the world (in Japan, to put it into simpler words), Harumi-senpai.

--

"Look. She's bad news and you know it Yuzuchi!" Harumi covered her mouth so she could talk to her friend in relative silence, Matsuri was somewhere else in the arcade, probably playing that game again. Where did she even get the money to play that so much anyway? "She's not that bad Harumin! Just give her time to get comfortable with you and you'll see her true colours! But I gotta go. Talk to you later!" Harumi felt her ever growing anxiety get a boost at those few words. She knew that the pink haired girl was bad news. The phone hung up and Harumi was forced to move back to where she left the high schooler, a calmer look on her face than before.

She looked to where Matsuri had moved, or, where she hadn't. She was still shooting at the virtual zombies, her score racking up with each shot. Matsuri looked over to the plum haired girl who began walking over, a small flush appearing over her cheeks. She let herself die before pulling her headphones down and turning to Harumi. "Heya Taniguchi-senpai! Welcome back!" She felt instant regret after saying that, her posture stiffening a bit. "It's getting kinda late Mizusawa.. We should start heading back. Don't you think?" Matsuri looked over to Harumi's phone, where she had the time up. 8:36pm. Normally, the pinkette would stay out until the arcade stated that they were closing, but she decided to follow what Harumi was saying and packed her things up. She didn't have all that much to pack up in actuality, only her school bag and a few packs of candy she brought after school had finished. She stood, waiting for the taller girl to pack her stuff by scrolling through her past messages on her phone. "Alrighty! We can head off now." Matsuri inwardly grinned and grabbed Harumi's arm, pulling her to the exit. Harumi was warm, Matsuri liked the warmth.

--

You could remember how warm she was. You could think about her for hours on end, you would if you were given the chance. Now? Now was sadly not that chance. You looked down to the pot to see that you had overboiled the water. 'dumb.' was your only thought was you poured the water down the sink and refilled the pot with cold water, to cool it down a bit. You could make ramen later.