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about an hour later, y/n raised her head from her bed's pillow at the sound of the doorbell going off. she looked around constantly— her eyes puffy and red— what time was it? she groaned as she sat up, rubbing her eyes slightly. "taeko must be here..." she reminded herself of their hangout, sniffling. she then groggily made her way down the stairs, the aggressive knocking at the front door making her frustration rise.
"yeah, yeah, i hear you!" y/n shouted before swinging the front door open, revealing taeko, who jumped forward and embraced her friend tightly.
"i hope you don't mind, but i'm sleeping over," taeko said suddenly, squeezing y/n before pulling away to bring her bags inside.
"okay...just put your stuff by the stairs," y/n mumbled, her voice tired, as she closed the door. she still felt exhausted, and emotionally drained from the earlier confrontation. in hindsight, she should've texted taeko and told her to raincheck them hanging out, so she could recharge her social battery.
taeko did exactly that, placing her bags by the stairs. when she turned around, her smile vanished. "y/n..." she whispered. "have you been crying?"
y/n hesitated, caught off guard by taeko's perceptive question. "Um, yeah, a little," she admitted reluctantly, avoiding her friend's gaze. "it's nothing, really." she then added.
taeko's expression softened. "well...alright then. you know you can always tell me what's wrong. but if it's nothing," she started, turning around to dig through her bags. "you can at least do one thing for me..." she trailed off and the anonymity of the statement piqued y/n's interest immensely.
"yeah, okay? and what is that?"
once taeko found what she was looking for, she hid it behind her back as she inched closer to y/n. when she was a few feet away, the dark-haired girl took a knee. "would you, y/n l/n, do the honor..." she pretended to like it was a proposal, prompting y/n to debate whether or not she should fight herself from laughing or sighing with annoyance because of how much taeko is testing her patience. before she could figure out an answer, taeko revealed what was behind her back. "of humoring me for a second and reading this?" she asked.
"what is that?" y/n looked at what was in her friend's hand once more. it was just a stack of papers with the word 'labyrinth' written on the top one.
"what does it look like? it's a script," taeko said matter-of-factly as she rose from the ground. "—of the play our school is doing this year." she added.
realizing that this was just taeko's way of trying to persuade y/n into joining the drama club, the h/c-haired girl eagerly shook her head. "forget it."
"pleeease?" taeko frowned, doing her best to make her eyes as big as possible to look more vulnerable/to make y/n feel guilty about rejecting her. "do it for me?" she begged. "i won't ask for anything ever again!" she exclaimed, jokingly and y/n couldn't help but chuckle.
