Windborne wanderers / kazuscara

15

kazuha stood there, still as a statue, in the halls while he was recalling heavier conversations they've had.

"...oh shit..."

"must've been an earth shattering realisation to have you swear."

that's right. that day, kunikuzushi trusted me enough to cry on my shoulders. he shared his story to me, no matter how uncomfortable he might've felt. the only people he smiles around are me and... heizou?

"heizou."

"what's up...?"

"i think kuni trusts me as much as he trusts you. did he already tell you his childhood before he told me?"

"you are a sharp one."

"then what are you to him? what am i to him?"

"...i wouldn't possibly know that."

huh? what's this raging feeling in my chest? no, i must keep my cool. heizou's done nothing wrong. why am i getting irritated?!

"...sorry, heizou. you head back to class first. i'll be in the bathroom."

before heizou could get a word out, kazuha dashed in the wrong direction.

"fuck... did i meddle too much?"

——

one could say that kazuha was having quite the crisis in the bathroom stall. he sat atop the toilet, and was stuck deep in thought. kunikuzushi's been hanging around heizou an awful lot lately, and if his senses didn't deceive him, he knew that they were much closer than they appear to be. they looked comfortable telling each other all sorts of weird stuff, while kunikuzushi's a bit more closed off towards kazuha. he only relayed his childhood because kazuha pushed him to. am i not good enough of a friend? why doesn't he trust me more? these irrational and annoying thoughts kept circling his head like a pest.

"it's only normal that he has other friends... so why am i getting jealous over this?"

it then hit him like a truck.

"is this the raw and repulsing feeling of... love?"

——

kazuha decided to avoid kunikuzushi for the time being to clear his thoughts. this newfound love of his was doing nothing but pushing his rational thinking away. to get his shit together, he decided to find a spot in chinju forest to sit down in. the place was as quiet as ever, and as dark as ever. however, this environment no longer provided comfort for him— it made his heart race. the scattered and inconsistent noises of nature were piercing him in his ear. the cold wind was stabbing his bare face and hands. the humidity felt like it was there just to drown him in disgusting stickiness. the leaves were being blown too hard. the grass under him was unusually prickly. the stones were seriously stained. the water was polluted. everything was not the beautiful and ethereal vision he used to have. it had all turned into a pile of moss and garbage.

now, was this the forest's fault or was it kazuha's fault?

did he only see his surroundings in such a nasty light because he was having a bad day himself? his thoughts were all jumbled up and incomprehensible. it was a rather disturbing mixture of "oh crap, i actually like this guy" and "oh crap, why do i like him?"

kazuha's always been open to new challenges, but this particular hurdle proved to be a few sizes too big and seemed to strip him off his carefreeness. he wanted to run away. the wall was impenetrable. it was too big.

kazuha was determined to find away around it, but he already knew that the wall was infinitely long.

he would try time and time again to think it through throughout the night, but he couldn't.

what was the reason kunikuzushi would even misunderstand that statement? does he not trust me enough? does he have no faith in me?

was the only way out of this to smash this seemingly unbreakable wall into smithereens?

——

growing up, kazuha was also thrown from one school to another. he somehow landed a place in his particular one in inazuma city, and enrolled at the age of 14.

he was a rather closed off child, until he met heizou when he was 7. they went to school together, and ended up together on a project. their innocent little friendship blossomed from there. they've constantly helped each other with everything, and went through the same phases at similar time frames.

heizou definitely helped kazuha to open himself up and become more like a human instead of a robot. but, his caretakers would never struggle to avert him back to his soulless state.

so, he started faking his carefree personality at the young age of 10. but, it got to him so much that it just kinda became his personality. that was when he slowly started to find out that everything in life shouldn't be treated too seriously, and every challenge is an adventure. with his now solid mindset, he marched into his newest school with confidence. there, he made many friends and connections, while keeping his relationship with heizou as it was.

"follow the flow of the wind, and don't dwell too much on your next course of action."

he was fine until he heard kunikuzushi's story, and a wave of his suppressed childhood memories came flooding his mind.

"i'm... i'm scared."

he had always known kunikuzushi to be a special existence ever since their first meeting. everything about him just sparked something within him, but he didn't know what. he felt the wind guiding him towards kunikuzushi.

the day he hugged kunikuzushi— that was on pure impulse that kazuha himself didn't understand. he saw how broken the other looked and couldn't help but to want to console him.

was this the relationship they were meant to have?

was their relationship destined?