Paper Rings |Tanjiro x Muichiro|

butterfly girl

It was the last week of middle school and Tanjiro was even more popular than he used to be. Muichiro hadn't really made any more friends but his relationship with Tanjiro remained good and the red-haired boy prioritized his shy best friend over everyone else who talked to him.

Despite being a social butterfly, Muichiro was the only person Tanjiro never got tired of talking to, while he eventually needed to excuse himself from conversations with others at school.

The blue-haired boy kept to himself at school or hung out with Tanjiro, and was doing really well. He had A pluses in all his classes without too much effort and didn't spend that much time doing homework. When he was at home, he texted Tanjiro or helped the guy with his homework, as he struggled a bit more with school in general.

Yuichiro was still a pain, but had matured a little more since the earlier years and mostly kept to himself as well, even though his interactions with Muichiro still mostly consisted of glares, or not very nice comments. Muichiro still considered it an improvement that his twin hadn't told him to end his life in a few years which he had gotten tired of hearing, especially when the only reason he had to live was Tanjiro anyway.

Muichiro had since gotten a little more confident in himself, and treated himself better but still didn't really talk to anyone, except hi to teachers and the occasional sorry when bumping into someone in the hallway.

Tanjiro tried for years to get Muichiro to talk to other kids, but he realized after many many failed attempts that the blue-haired boy was just shy and was happy with only one person that he liked to talk to and confide in. Tanjiro was happy to be that person if it made Muichiro happy.

They were walking to class on Monday, the last Monday they would have school of that year. "I can't believe the year is almost over" Tanjiro said, eyes wide. "It flew by so quickly!"

Muichiro made a small nod. "Yeah. Were gonna be high schoolers next year. Crazy" the smaller boy replied as they walked into the English classroom. The teacher greeted them as they walked in and they each responded appropriately before settling into their desks. Tanjiro and Muichiro normally sat in the third row of seats because it was easy to see and hear but less likely to be called on for question answering during class.

Muichiro was stretching his arms before the bell rang, when a girl walked over to them, not an uncommon occurrence, especially because Tanjiro was so popular. Muichiro was pretty used to it. This time it was Kanao, a nice person and a social butterfly. "Hi Tanjiro!" She said sweetly. "Can I sit next to you?"

Tanjiro nodded politely and pulled out the chair for her. For some reason that bothered Muichiro but he wasn't sure why. Kanao sat down, humming as she pulled a note book and pencil out of her bookbag. She ran her fingers through her long black hair and played with the butterfly pin keeping it up waiting for the bell to ring and class to start in a couple of seconds.

It was a work day, so everyone was working on their presentations. It was a group project, and Tanjiro was working with Muichiro, as always. Tanjiro was good at speaking despite all his claims of being nervous. Muichiro was better at making the presentations so they both carried a little more weight in their respective areas and it worked out great.

Kanao was working with Aoi who was sitting on her other side. As they got to work, Muichiro was talking to Tanjiro quietly about some things he'd researched for the project. Tanjiro was focusing and understanding, before they started working on the next slide of the PowerPoint. "So if da Vinci was left handed, but his right hand got paralyzed then it doesn't matter right?" Tanjiro asked, trying to clarify.

"Well you'd think that but he didn't finish the Mona Lisa because of paralysis so it did something" Muichiro shrugged.

"Ohhh I guess you have to be right then. Kind of odd" Tanjiro said, as he started typing that into the slide, while Muichiro found a photo to go with the information.

Suddenly Kanao tapped Tanjiro on the shoulder. "Tanjiroooo" She sung. "Who are you doing your presentation on?"

"Ohh Leonardo da Vinci with Muichiro" He replied looking away from the power point respectfully. He always thought it was better to look someone in the eye when talking to them instead of continuing to do something else.

Muichiro noticed that Tanjiro stopped typing as he went to paste the photo into the slide, and huffed, slightly annoyed but not really, and then continued the sentence where his older friend left off.

"Oh that's cool. We're doing ours on Michelangelo" Kanao said, glancing at Aoi, who nodded, and then looked back at Tanjiro. She proceeded to showcase what they'd made so far in their presentation, and he complemented their work before quickly getting back to his own power point.

Muichiro thought they would be able to work in peace now, but throughout the class Kanao, kept poking Tanjiro and making small talk or asking questions that Muichiro would have thought she knew the answer to but apparently not.

At one point she said "Tanjiro I'm confused. I'm trying to make the font size bigger and I don't know how. Can you help me please?" Muichiro rolled his eyes as Tanjiro clicked her key pad a couple of times.

"There" He said before getting back to work once more. Then a couple minutes later she tapped Tanjiro again.

"How do you change the font color?" She asked this time. Muichiro was getting fed up with what was obviously flirting, and Tanjiro not noticing.

"Highlight it and then right click. It should be there. We've done presentations before you know?" Muichiro said. Tanjiro and Kanao looked up in surprise. Muichiro hardly every said anything to anyone who wasn't Tanjiro.

"What?" Muichiro asked, clearly annoyed.

"Uh nothing. Thanks" Kanao said smiling awkwardly and she got back to work. She didn't bother Tanjiro anymore throughout the rest of class, but when the bell rang she grabbed Tanjiro's hand.

"Hey...do you wanna maybe hang out sometime?" Kanao asked somewhat shyly.

Tanjiro looked taken aback for a few moments, but after he recovered he looked up at her. "Yeah sure" She smiled and then turned back to Aoi, and Tanjiro turned to Muichiro.

The blue-haired boy was throwing things in his bag hurriedly. "Hey slow down Mui wait for me" Tanjiro said playfully but Muichiro didn't respond.

He just walked out of the classroom ahead of Tanjiro without a word.

He was furious. And suddenly he remembered why. Their promise.

Their promise with paper rings. Tanjiro said he would never forget.

But maybe he'd forgotten.

It was a while ago after all....