Your Song

Chapter Twenty | The Slime That Pushed Him Away

"Yo, Miya." Yu plopped down next to the boy, the others following as they sat in front of and beside him. "You doing okay?"

"I'm fine."

Nora looked down in her lap. "...We got tickets to Y/N's concert. Do you want to come?" She doubted he would answer "yes." He didn't seem like the type that would try and hold on to something that's already pushed him away. You doing so quite literally.

"I got tickets of my own." He held up his phone, showing a picture of his tickets.

"I wasn't expecting you to want to go." Hina tilted her head curiously. "Is there any particular reason for wanting to go?"

He stared at his phone for a moment, his eyes fixated on your name on the ticket. "She speaks that way."

Eiji looked a Yu, then at Miya. "What do you mean?"

"She never says anything directly. Not anything remotely connecting to her anyways. You just have to listen." He shut off his phone. "And only those who truly care will."

Kaya smiled and swatted her deep blue hair out of her face to prevent it from sticking to her dry tears on her cheeks. "Miya..." She put her hand over his, her long nails gently placing themselves on the back of his hand. "I'm glad Y/N found someone like you. She has a tendency to push people away."

She lifted her hand. "Like with June's brother, right Nora?" Miya's ears perked up. "June's brother?"

"It seems like you have an idea of what happened." Hina sipped her drink, giving a serious look to Nora and Kaya, both of them giving a similar expression back. "It was something that was brought up at a sleepover. Care to explain, Nora?"

Nora hummed. "It's not really a long story. June was one of Y/N's close friends she met in Grade 1. But Y/N was way closer with her older brother, one year apart in age. But there was an accident. Car accident. They were out after practice and Y/N wasn't paying attention. There was a drunk driver ramming down the road and he took it upon himself to push her out of the way. It happened two years ago, but she hasn't forgotten... ever."

"But neither has June." Kaya sighed. "It wasn't even Y/N's fault, but June hasn't spoken to her since the incident."

Miya furrowed his brow. You had told him the story, and they basically said the exact same thing. But you never mentioned a name. "June..." His eye twitched at the sound of the name coming from his mouth.

"You know, Miya." Nora looked him up and down. "You kind of look like Jake. June's brother, I mean. There's just one thing." She poked his forehead. "Your eyes. His were dark blue. Yours are green. And there's just something... something Jake didn't have."

She leaned back. "Whatever it is."

Miya let his eyes travel to the floor of the cafe. "...I have homework. I'm heading out."

•••

"The teacher said for me to give her the homework." Miya said to Langa, holding out papers at the doorsteps of your house.

He examined the worksheets and sighed, handing it back to Miya. "It's probably better not to bother. I don't even see her at home anymore. She says she's just rehearsing but Kotaro never makes her work from dawn to dusk."

Miya stood there for a moment, remembering Shindo saying that Kotaro was out of the country. Did Langa not know? "...Right. See you."

He walked away, half hoping you'd suddenly appear at the front door and call out for him, grab his hand, and assure that you were actually alright.

He wanted to stop caring. He didn't care for the slimes that left him just because he got famous. He didn't care for the slimes that tried to embarrass him. But why was he caring for this slime that was pushing him away when he was trying to help?

"...Caring for people is tiring."