Tangerine ~ Bullet Train

4 - He is overwhelmed by a strange feeling

Tangerine has never felt the urge to talk to a stranger so badly, but he didn't know what he could say. He found himself sometimes secretly looking at her through his eyelashes, but he couldn't really stop it. Still, he didn't want to give her the feeling he was lurking at her, so he did his outmost to stop looking at her. It didn't make the strange feeling in his stomach vanish though.

Dawn was rising, which made Yuina look outside with a calm and peaceful expression on her face. She didn't know why she felt so in place at the moment, because she never did feel that, no matter where she would go. Being with her aunt's family was the closest she got to peaceful, and she wouldn't even be going there for four more days. Then why did she feel that way now?

As for Tangerine, he was also experiencing something he rarely did in his days. He hadn't been able to think about his upcoming mission for a long time now. That should lead him to worrying, but he couldn't bring himself to do that just yet. All he did was experience peace and quiet, just like he intended to when he bought this whole four-seater. He was quite sure him worrying would come later, and that it would bring disastrous consequences. Oh well, Lemon and he always came up with a good strategy to execute their missions. It surely would be fine, wouldn't it?

Yuina shook out of her calmness when she felt her phone buzz. A slight annoyance came back right away, even before she saw who was calling her. It only became worse when she didn't see a name of her aunt's family on the screen. She decided she would just ignore Himari's call. Tangerine, who had seen her annoyance when she looked at her screen, looked at her with a questioning look on his face. 'Don't you want to answer it?' Yuina shrugged. She didn't really want to, but she guessed she had no choice. She wouldn't want their group of "friends" to think she was purposely avoiding her. No, that was incorrect. She didn't want her mother finding out she was still being bitter about going to this festival. No, that was also incorrect. She just didn't want to give her parents a reason to kick her out and make her homeless, but she was getting really tired to live for them. She wanted to live for herself.

'Would you mind?' Yuina asked whilst looking at Tangerine with a questioning look. Part of her hoped he would mind, so that she didn't have to take the call just yet, but he shook his head. 'No, go ahead,' he said. Still, she hesitated a bit longer before picking up her phone. 'Unless you want some privacy,' he therefore added. She shook her head and prepared herself for playing an act before taking the call.

'Hi, Himari,' Yuina said in a light-hearted voice, as convincingly as possible. 'I'm sorry I didn't pick up right away, I was just getting out of the bathroom.' Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tangerine looking at her. He had a slightly amused expression on his face. He of course knew she was lying, and it seemed to humour him that she did. He didn't say anything. 'The bathroom on the train, yes?' Himari specified.

Yuina could never make out the tone of her peers when they would call her, but she caught them more than once implying that they didn't really like to have her near them. It seemed like Yuina liked to be around them just as much as they liked to be around her. Still, they would never turn down her mandatory attempts to make contact with them, because Yuina's mother was a very influenceable person in their parents' field of work.

'That's correct,' Yuina replied, 'I'm on the train right now.'

'So you will be able to make it?' Himari asked. Yuina could detect a slightly disappointed tone in her voice. 'Yes,' she answered light-heartedly still, 'I will be able to make it.'

'Good,' her fake friend replied, 'then we'll see you this afternoon.' They only just greeted each other goodbye politely when Yuina smacked down her phone on the table whilst sighing. No, not only sighing, she couldn't help but let out a frustrated groan.