STAR-CROSSED, t. keita

✩ SEVEN

No, no, no. Hiro mentally repeated as her partner approached closer and closer. Naomi and Mashiho were already separated into their respective groups, leaving Hiro to fend for herself.

All she could think about was her mother's warning. Being in the same class as him risked Hiro's education at this school, and now they were expected to work together. If her parents ever found out she would be forced to leave, she didn't even know why.

"Look, if this is too weird for you, I can ask the teacher to let us switch partners." He didn't look at her as he spoke, voice devoid of any real emotion, but the girl's fingertips still tingled.

Hiro pushed herself into a stand, keeping her gaze down as she moved past the boy. "No, I'll ask him myself."

She didn't know why she was scared to look at him after that first meeting in the hallway. "Scared" wasn't the word she wanted to use, but it's the one that fit. Hiro was afraid to look at him as if that would unlock some hidden memories from their past.

Clearing her throat, Hiro walked until she stood in front of her teacher's desk. "Mr. Toyonaga, about our partners—"

"No trading, Miss Kojima!" He said without looking up, his voice as chirpy as usual.

"But Mr. Toyonaga—"

"No buts! Those are for chickens." He laughed at his joke, but Hiro couldn't stop twisting the striped sleeve of her sweater to try and relieve her upset stomach.

"Mr. Toyonaga, please—"

The said teacher looked at her this time as he said, "Kojima, I insist that you find your seat."

Hiro's teeth sank into her bottom lip to refrain from talking back. Walking back to her seat, she could taste blood on her tongue.

"You okay?" Naomi hovered a hand over Hiro's back, afraid she'd react to her touch. Hiro let out a breath and placed her elbows on the desk as she rubbed her face with her hands. She wasn't thinking about the boy anymore; she was thinking about what to do after her parents pulled her from the program.

Where would she go? There were no science schools in the area besides the one she was attending, and moving away wasn't an option for her, financially.

Keita had drifted away to chat with his friends while Hiro talked with her teacher, but now that she'd returned, he was slowly making his way back to his original seat.

"No luck?" He asked. Hiro couldn't dissect his tone. She rolled her shoulder back with a breath and begrudgingly stared at the boy she'd been assigned to partner with. "Let's just get this over with."

She could tell Keita wanted to say something, but when she turned her face back to the assignment, he closed his lips and sighed. She didn't want to hear anything he had to say—her parents' warnings swimming in her head like a mantra.

The words only broke their repeated cycle when she felt Keita staring impossibly hard at her. She dared a glimpse of him, only to find his eyes narrowed suspiciously at the side of her head. "What?" she spat in a relatively unkind manner.

She watched a Keita shrugged. "Nothing. Just trying to figure out what I did to make you hate me so much."

Hiro's entire body stiffened. She didn't want to allow herself to think about it, because if she did, she wasn't sure if she'd find an answer. Not one worth crying in a bathroom over, at least.

"Let's split the paperwork part of the assignment," she said finally, changing the subject as she pushed her marked paper towards him. "I'll do 1-12, you do 13-24. We'll both observe the sky, and we'll discuss later for the short essay and excel assignment."

This time, Keita didn't give her a chance to cut him off. "Fine," he rushed out. "What about meet ups? We might have to exchange numbers."

Huffing in agitation, Hiro grabbed a pen and scribbled her phone number on a blank page in his notebook and tapped it twice. "Here. Don't call me and don't text me unless it's about something scjool related."

The class dragged on after that, and Hiro was out the door the second Toyonaga dismissed them. She was halfway down the hall when she felt a hand on her shoulder, the jingling of backpack keychains revealing the culprit.

"Dang, you're really fast when you want to be," Naomi managed through her heavy breathing. Hiro cracked a grin at her and slowed for the shorter girl and Mashiho to catch up.

"Dude, you were, like, a total bitch to that guy." Mashi said with a grin, which earned him a shove. Hiro shook her head. "Whatever. I can't help but hate him."

The boy seemed slightly taken aback by that, having missed the conversation the girls had that previous day. "Hate is a strong word, don't you think? Were you two rivals at a previous school or something?"

Hiro sighed and pushed open the main exit doors, momentarily closing her eyes to feel the cool breeze against her face. "Not exactly."

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