a bunny's heart | karma akabane

024: an old friend

MINA PRESSED HER HAND against the wall, blocking the way of her childhood friend. Gakushu looked up, his eyes slightly widening as he saw the girl glaring at him.
The boy's calm demeanour came back quickly as his eyes coldened again.

"Mina?"

"Gakushu." The brunette answered, looking into his eyes. She hadn't seen them in weeks, months. She waited so long to talk to him that this didn't seem real, and the fact that she was glaring at him right now instead of hugging him or smiling at him didn't seem real either. It made her heart arch.

"That's.. That's asano for you." He mumbled, quietly, after a while, not believing the situation as well.

"Why?!" Mina snapped bitterly suddenly, making the boy look up in shock "Why did you bring back the studying conferences? We decided together, we dismissed them together, why are you betraying me?" She yelled slightly, getting quieter towards the end. Her angry eyes were still glued at him, not seeming to let go any time soon.

"I'm betraying you? I am??" Gakushu's eyes reflected the similar emotion he felt, he felt as she had left him. Even when she wasn't really gone, his only friend felt so far away. "We lost our best student alongside me, and that just because you decided to switch teams for some absurd reason! Did it ever occur to you that we need- no, that we needed you? That I needed you?" His voice became weaker "Before you decided to go into Rebellion? I need to keep up the class average myself."

Gakushu wasn't someone to yell, he wasn't someone to yell at all. But he was an angry child ever since he was six, and that anger, decreasing when they were together back then, and increasing as they're together right now- that anger felt overwhelming.

"I didn't switch classes, gakushu! Why aren't you listening? I got transferred by your father!" Mina's voice got more frustrated by the second, as she let go of the wall now to articulate. She couldn't believe him.

Gakushu let out a quick laugh, which sounded more like a scoff than anything. He looked away before staring at his ex-bestfriend again. "Don't lie, mina. Don't lie to me. Have at least that little bit of pride! I'm the principal's son, I know what I'm talking about. Why did you switch? Why?" The ginger's voice became more pleading as his humanity showed for the first time during their conversation "I genuinely don't know, and I know everything. We could have ruled the school, the world together if you had stayed!- so, what is it, huh? I saw you hanging around akabane weirdly much lately, is it because of him? Did you leave us because of him? He isn't a good person, mina!"

"What? No!" Mina refused immediately, desperate. "Karma didn't do anything!" She felt herself arguing back, and she didn't even know why. For some reason, talking about the red haired boy negatively made her frustrated.

Gakushu stared at his best friend, feeling lost himself. She was the only person in the world he'd consider his friend, and she was conveniently also the best person to consider a friend, his friend. His, his. His.
She was his. She didn't belong In a class full of scum, away from him.

The boy's eyes softened at the thought as he slowly walked closer, holding her face gently. "Let us not argue, mina. I will ask my father to accept, to forgive your foolishness. Just make a written apology, score good in the end of term exams and let me handle it, okay? We will be together soon if you do that."

Mina's eyes kept open, staring into his soft ones unbelievably. She began shaking her head. Slowly, first, and then quicker before she got out of his grip. "You.. you believe your father over me?"

"Mina.." he mumbled after her as her touch left him, frustrated.

"You believe your father over me. You believe your father over me. God, you believe your father over me." She moved back further, shaking her head as she fought back tears, her eyes becoming watery. "Forget it, asano," His last name rolled of her tongue bitterly, almost as if it was an insult. "I won't score good, I will score better than you."

"If I win, you'll come back." Gakushu spoke blunty, making her stop in her steps before walking on.
"Fine."

And with that began war.
____

Mina was determined to win, and her classmates didn't question her coming to school struggling to keep a pile of books in her hands steady either.

"I thought koro-sensei had therapy-talked you out of overworking yourself, princess." Karma joked as she placed the books on her desk, looking at him breathy. "What's with all the schoolbooks?"

"Well, I went to the local library today, okay? Sue me." She argued as she picked up the first book, showing a library sticker. "I won't overwork myself, I promise."

Koro-sensei had talked her out of doing too much- at least on the surface. It's not like she didn't learn anything from their conversation at the mid-terms, but it was more that she learned to hide her immense studying now. From her friends, precisely. Of course her teacher was right, mina knew that. But there was too much on the line right now, she couldn't let gakushu asano win against her this time. Not only would his win end the last bit of pride the Class E, her friends, the red head, had but it would also destroy hers.
His win ultimately would mean that everything that she had told him was a lie, which it wasn't. And that the words out of her mouth were gibberish, which they weren't.

Even when the goal was to enter class A again, eventually, she couldn't let him get the credit for it.
I mean, that's still the goal, right?

Mina didn't tell anyone what she was doing nor about the deal in the week of preparation, but karma noticed something was off. It was too obvious.
She would tell him good night when they called at 9:00 PM, but she texted him good night somewhere around 2:00 and 4:00 AM. She sat with them at lunch, but she didn't eat. She smiled and laughed, but it always had a tint of anxiety that wasn't there before.
What did that main building ginger do?

It's not like the other students didn't study as well, they were evenly determined to get the first places in specified subjects. Isogai had bought main building library tickets- to which mina nicely declined, mainly because of the risk of stumbling over her childhood friend. Her heart couldn't handle it.

However, when sugino and kaede had begged her to teach them with a study session at her place, she couldn't say no. And when nagisa, kanzaki, okuda and the red head (ultimately.) decided to join, she couldn't help but smile.

He was just going to make sure she didn't overwork, nothing more.

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1190 WORDS
FRIDAY, 12TH OF JANUARY
@MIRAI