• our fading futures • akitoya • REWRITE BEGINNING SOON

• square one •

'TW: mentions of suicide'

[ pov: toya ]

{ Two months after the unfortunate death of Mizuki Akiyama }

[Takes place just after the pjsk characters move one year up, even though I don't play JPSekai so I dunno what's happening]

Mizuki Akiyama. A person who had a love for clothing, and a hate for studying. I'd know- when I tried to help them with a topic, they insisted they were fine... and failed the test.

Memories like that always felt so fleeting. Even now, I still occasionally hear whispers of Mizuki's name down the long corridors of Kamiyama High. Of course, nobody really respected their gender. All assumption and speculation.

My class felt so much more empty with them gone.

A specific rumour captures my attention today, the use of 'they' cluing me in as to who it was about. The rumour was that someone had a crush on Mizuki- a male, and that whoever it was was having a hard time with their mental health.

I shrug it off as I turn left, walking towards my locker. Suddenly, I'm stopped in my tracks when I spot An. She was doing hall monitor duties- however, didn't seem to be doing much herself, and was lounging against a wall.

I walk over to her with a small smile. "Hello, Shiraishi. How are you?" I ask, as my words alert her to my presence, her face grinning back at me. She seems ecstatic- but why? I don't see her with this much energy every morning.

"Toya! Guess what happened after training!" She says, practically bounding out of her position to greet me. I shake my head. "Did you do something with your dad?" I say, guessing extremely generally.

She shakes her head. "Nope! A clue- it has to do with me and Kohanee~" An gently elbows me, and I think it's to do with their relationship that she'd been fostering recently.

"You're... dating?" I ask, and An shakes her head. "Not yet, hehe. But- we kissed! It was too late to focus on making it official, you know." I smile at her, approving of her love life. "Congratulations, An." I say, noticing Akito was approaching us.

When I catch his eyes my stomach does backflips and I feel my heart soaring higher and higher, into the sky. It was a more recent thing- previously, this only happened when he gave me affection- like praising me or sometimes hi-fiving me. However... this week had changed my opinion on Akito.

I... had a crush on him.

I smile gently, feeling my cheeks heat up as he smiles back. "Hey, Akito. An has some news." I look back at An, and she smiles at Akito. "Me and Kohane kissed last night!" She says, her wide smile reappearing on her face.

Akito smiles softly. "That's good. Even so, it was kinda obvious that you liked her." He says, seemingly trying to keep his cool persona intact when talking about his friend's love life.

An flushes red, and I laugh gently. "Hey! We didn't do that much cuddling before! ...Actually, yeah. We did." She sighs in defeat, and I laugh gently at her statement, proven false.

"You two should get going to class. Unlike me, you don't have an excuse to be late for." An says, obviously concealing her embarrassment. "Okay, then. I'll see you around, An." I say with a gentle smile.

I look to Akito, and he nods in agreement, as if he has realised we should be going. "Let's go, Toya." He says, affirming my statement. "Okay."

We start walking down the hallway, and a thought slips into my mind. 'Akito and An have recovered so much after Mizuki's death.'

I remember, a month or so ago, when they were wallowing in the depths of depression... however, I myself was too.

Mizuki was my classmate... or at least they were supposed to be this year. I'd noticed them behaving a bit odd, before the day that they left school, and the day after that I was notified of their successful suicide attempt in class.