" 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 ☆ " // tsukasa tenma angst

ch. 12 " heartache. "

Emu had cried.
Not tears of happiness, from laughing, or from absolute amazement, but from sadness.
Emu had cried tears of sadness.

It had been a long time since she cried because she was sad and upset. The feeling was strange.
It felt like her heart was being squeezed until there was no more love and her mind was being washed clean of everything that made her happy.

But she knew Tsukasa didn't mean to be mean. He didn't mean to make her sad.
But why hasn't he tried fixing the things he caused?

When Emu arrived at her school, she expected her sore throat and pounding chest to have gone away, but it didn't.
She hoped that at least her red-rimmed eyes were gone.

She had cried so much over his words. Emu's heart ached at the thought of the troupe, the shows they did, and especially about the thought of Tsukasa and what he said.

"Annoying"

Emu had heard rumours of the troupe and her being annoying, but lots of people found the group fun, so it never mattered! But to hear it come from Tsukasa?

Tsukasa telling them to shut up hurt more than it should've. It hurt more when he ended the call on them.

Nobody talked to Emu at the beginning of school, and she didn't have the strength to talk to anyone. She knew if she uttered a word, they would turn into ugly sobs and sniffles.

All she could do was smile as bright as her face could let her and wave at everyone.

Tsukasa paid attention to the whispers of the students this time.

"Why isn't he with his friends?"
"Do you think they dropped him?"
"Hah, did he get too annoying for his own friends?"
"Kamishiro looked pissed off, right?"
"Their show got cancelled last minute."
"Who's fault was it?"
"Maybe Tsukasa was so bad, and now Rui's pissed that they have to reschedule."

They kept talking about him.
Everything was about him, and this time he hated it.

How out-of-character of him. He loves attention and the spotlight, but now he feels uncomfortable standing under it. He feels uncomfortable around everyone, especially Rui.

He wouldn't dare face Rui. Not when he's angry and when Tsukasa could accidentally say something hurtful to Rui too. His heart couldn't bare anymore hurting.

But why is his heart aching? He shouldn't be the one hurting when he hurt others, that doesn't make sense. He was the one who made Emu cry, not the one who cried.

He hated how nothing he was feeling made sense.

As the blonde boy trudged through the hallways, he looked through the classroom windows. He found Rui looking back at him with a threatening stare.

Tsukasa walked faster, eyes ahead this time.

Nene gave up searching for Tsukasa the second time. He didn't want to talk and that much was obvious.

She pushed away the nagging thoughts saying Tsukasa was now untrustworthy for making another troupe member cry. She knew he needed another chance.

He was burnt out. That was a fact. Tsukasa refused to accept that fact and Nene knew. Of course Nene was familiar with the signs of burn out, it was an often occurring experience for the girl.

Tsukasa, on the other hand, would refuse to let steam out. He waited until the bottle exploded and he ended up lashing out on his whole troupe, saying things he never meant.
At least, she hoped he didn't mean.

Nene didn't hate Tsukasa. He's a good person. Last time he made one of his troupe members cry, he apologized next day.

His flaw is not knowing when to stop and take care of himself. His well-being was at the bottom of his list of priorities. He won't stop until he physically can't go on anymore.

She hated how he would never change his mindset on that, no matter how many times his loved ones would pester him about it.

As she walked to her class, she listened to all the rumours about Tsukasa and the rest of the troupe.

"You think Kusanagi got tired of Tenma?"
"Why wouldn't she? They're complete opposites."
"God, Tenma can't make anyone happy, can he?"

She didn't have the confidence to speak up against them,
like always.

So instead of punching everyone in the face for the rumours and speculations they were making up, she put her head down.

Oh, how she wished things were back to normal.
Wishing that Tsukasa, Rui, and her would walk in the halls to their classes, discussing show ideas, goofing around, and most importantly, ignoring everyone else's mumbling around them.

Soon enough, he would apologize, like he did to her, and the heartache would be gone.
She hoped.

Rui believed in second chances, but he wasn't sure how much more he could believe in second chances after Tsukasa's strange behaviour yesterday.

He had caused Emu to cry, just like he did with Nene.
He said they were "annoying and irritating", just like everyone else.

Those words wouldn't usually get to him, but hearing it come from someone in his troupe? God, it stung.
Of course he wouldn't let anyone know how much the words hurt him.

He was thinking of the troupe, and noticed Tsukasa outside of his classroom, taking a swift glance around from the window. The moment they made eye contact, Tsukasa rushed away.

"Is he really going to apologize?" The purple haired thought to himself. He sure didn't look like he was going to apologize, especially with the way his pace quickened after seeing Rui.

The mechanic was too absorbed in his thoughts of Tsukasa's intentions to realize the heavier eye bags and red-rimmed eyes that Tsukasa had no energy to hide.

Nene had told Rui to give Tsukasa time. He wasn't sure if he had the patience to wait longer than today.

Of course, he had to listen. For the sake of the troupe and everyone's heartaches, he had to wait for Tsukasa to give a great apology to Emu.

But for now, Rui would avoid Tsukasa. He would treat him like any other person, and not give a shit about him unless Nene or Emu said he's redeemed himself.

— — —

Words: 1073

Reminders: they're minors here guys, don't make weird shit ab them?

Extra Notes: someone had lmk it's been like 5 months since i updated this.. so I'M SO SORRY. 😭