Mishiro and Tayoura

Untitled part for untitled feelings

Maki never thought herself as an insecure person but she was feeling more overwhelmed than usual. She had a constant feeling of worry in her stomach and it made very difficult for her to focus on anything. 

Because of her unnecessarily complex childhood, her friendship with Akio had always been the only stable thing in her life. She was around 4 when she first saw him, her mother had been missing for about 3 months and she was staying at her grandparents' house with Takai, her father. Akio had a simplicity and kindness she never knew back then, he never asked difficult questions to her. 

Takai Sora used to be better, he was devastated, yes, because he loved his wife dearly but he wasn't particularly paranoid as he was about to be. Maki didn't find this story interesting as her classmates claimed. According to Takai, he just couldn't find her in bed in one morning and that was it. There were neither any suitcases nor any traces of a break-in. The door wasn't pushed hard, the windows weren't damaged, everything was fine.

However, Takai didn't stop looking for clues though because he simply couldn't bring the pieces together in his mind.  They were in a happy marriage, her daughter was the cutest little girl ever existed and their life was going smoothly. Unfortunately, the more he asked questions, the more it all got out of hand. He had certain theories that made Maki's grandparents... uncomfortable. Nobody believed him and Maki was only 6 when they put him in a hospital. Unexpectedly, he didn't resist.

It was very unfortunate for Makai who had only her grandparents with her, and she made every little effort not to be pitied by others. So she matured early for her age and kept very minimum amount of friends by her side. Akio was her ultimate best friend, even after her mother's disappearance he would listen to her and he would never, not once, push her to get answers. In a way, he would make her forget the fact that she had become an orphan even without losing her parents.

Without Akio, she knew the loneliness would have made everything unbearable.

Girls in her class didn't like her, even though Maki looked scary and cold on the outside, she was also very intimidated by them. She knew they would ask questions about her and her family, so she had never felt the need to confront them. Her grandparents didn't like that kind of talk in the house, it was tragic and that kind of negativity was to be avoided. 

Maki believed them with all her heart.

She always thought that  they -Akio and her- would be the two of them against the world, no matter what happens. Akio was always by her side when she had her first anxiety attack, when she pierced her ears, when she was afraid to jump into the school pool. People used to treat them as a couple during the middle school and yes, maybe she liked that idea. She told some stories to girls who approached her to ask about questions. 

Her imagined boyfriend didn't like to hang out with other people in middle school, he was overlooked and very insecure around strangers. 

 So this made it easy for Maki to act like they were a couple just until Nakata joined their little group. 

Ugh, Nakata. Maki never liked him. Ever. He lacked the maturity, the responsibility and the common sense. He would mock her all the time and prank Akio in the weirdest ways possible. In middle school, it seemed like he would never grow up neither mentally nor physically.

 First of all, she had her reasons, okay? He had basically stole her best friend, then made him go to random parties and socialize with unnecessary people. Second of all, because of him everybody's sugar income was at the highest, seriously, nobody could eat this much of a candy except Nakata. He even lost Akio -his supposedly best friend- in a forest, outside of the borderline. He left Akio all alone until the guards found him and they shot him for caution. The first time she heard of this nonsense she was almost going to faint. Thank god, he had only injured his leg. His parents were so worried that he was grounded for a month. She could never understand how Akio could claim that Nakata didn't have a fault.

What an idiot.

He was certainly a bad influence for Akio and yes, she was jealous of how they got this close in the last year of middle school. Akio was her closest person but she wasn't sure if she was his now, just because of good-for-nothing Nakata.

Don't even get her started about the high school, she was already considering herself as the insignificant one in the group and now, as if everything was great, Akio became a jock. And a fairly good one.

He became pretty athletic without realising and actually became one of the cool people in a very short amount of time. It wasn't just Maki who found him cute, it was practically every girl. His silky brown hair would shine under an afternoon sun while running on the school's backyard and he would come see Nakata and Maki after the game, his cheeks all red, with a big smile.

Her admiration to Akio was making it very hard for her to just isolate and never talk to them again. Since she also couldn't stand being left out by Nakata -intentional or not-, she decided to go with the flow. What did she had to lose anyway?

That was why, she was in a train to Tayoura, in the middle of the night, with her two -very much- drunk friends. Was she feeling anxious about this sudden trip and about the fact that her grandparents had no idea? Yes. Did they have enough money? No. Could they come back until Monday for school? Probably?

She gazed at Akio who dropped asleep on Nakata's shoulder, his hair was laying on his forehead and covering a part of his eyebrows. His face was looking peaceful -thanks to being completely drunk- even if he was sitting uncomfortably on the train. A tremendous wave of worry washed over the young girl, making her more hopeless than she already is.

**