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'That's What I Like About You'

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'That's What I Like About You'








The morning after yesterday's events, Aiya felt indifferent to the grinning sunlight. The air felt dull as she took a heavy breathe in, the floral linen spray smelt like pure melancholy and her room seemed to be ever-so suffocating the more she mulled over her thoughts on the bed that did nothing but swallow her figure, collapsing in on itself like a dying star. She's contemplated over this all throughout the night and again the moment she opened her eyes and decided that it was best if she toned herself down a couple many notches.

Aiya realized that even when she tried to live her life true to herself, there was always something wrong with her. Too noisy, too excited, too vivid or too dull. No matter how hard she strived or even how much she didn't try, some form of flaw would keep making itself known in the smallest crevice. It often came with an inexplicable urge that told her to live up to everyone's expectations and be someone that people liked and wanted to be friends with.

She looked at herself in the mirror that day, trying to muster up a smile. But it just didn't feel the same anymore.

It was difficult to try restricting and, for lack of better word, shutting herself up in daily conversations with everybody she knew, but surprisingly easy to blend in with the common chatter. The people she hung out with half the time at school were quite rambunctious on their own and the constant noises that lingered around when they gathered helped Aiya's situation a little bit more.

The more she stopped acting so vivacious and chipper, the more left out she felt. It was like she was estranged from the group; a far cry from what it would've been with her old self. But.. this was for the better, right?

Aiya thought things went smoother than she expected. And it hurt. 

However, throughout the days there had been kind people who gave her questioning looks when she'd offer less lively responses, like Tendō, Yua and some of the volleyball club members she's grown close with whenever they would converse in passing.

It truly warmed her heart knowing her friends knew her well enough that they noticed something different about her. She almost reverted back to loud, cheerful Aiya, but the fear of rejection was not something that easily went away.

She thought she was safe from her sharp-eyed boyfriend, but oh how wrong she was.

The inevitable happened one afternoon when Ushijima confronted Aiya at last. Two days had passed since she stopped speaking so excitedly about anything and everything to him. It started to concern Ushijima deeply that something had drastically affected his girlfriend that she looked so sullen and seemed to quail whenever that wonted, dazzling light shined in her eyes. In the span of those surreal hours, he watched as the Aiya he knew died right in front of his eyes, saw the way she slowly became a shell of the bright girl she once was.

MONSOON, ushijima wakatoshiWhere stories live. Discover now