12 Roses

19 | Definitions of Family

You sat at the bleachers while watching Maki and Yuta spar on the field. Toge appeared behind you, pressing a can of iced coffee against your cheek to gain your attention.

"The Kyoto Goodwill Event is soon," you told him as he opened the can for you.

"Are you worried?"

"Not sure. I heard that they're pretty strong, but we've survived worse." You patted where you had gotten injured and smiled. "We'll do great. Especially with Yuta getting so much better now."

You paused, eying Maki for a long while before adding, "And Maki has something to prove."

•••

You stared at the bulletin board in the school forum, where a poster for the upcoming school event with your school's sister school was hung by two red push pins. You tilted your head, knowing it sounded very familiar but not knowing from where.

Maki's arm wrung around your shoulders. "You wanna sign up?"

Your eyes travelled to the list of activities and shook your head. "They're all sports." You looked at the sign up sheet. "I see that you, Panda and Yuta are doing it, though."

She nodded.

You weren't surprised by Maki's name being amongst those who believed that they could fight against the equally prestigious school of Jujutsu Tech Kyoto. Its ideals were like an outdated version of Jujutsu Tech Tokyo's, but they were more sport oriented than your school, while yours was more academically oriented.

Maki was always for a challenge.

"You can volunteer." Maki pressed her finger against the paper pinned on the board on the opposite end, where fewer names were listed. You hummed, nodding slowly but not quite agreeing until you saw Toge's name on the list.

Your lips pursed, then you picked up the pen hanging from the side of the bulletin board and signed up your name and school email. Maki smiled before patting your back. "Let's head to class."

•••

After school, as you sat with the Tsumiki at Koko's bakery, both of your homework sprawled out on the table along with a halved blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee for you.

She sat with headphones, staring determinedly at the math equations in front of her while you wrote out your essay on your laptop.

A notification popped up at the bottom corner of your laptop and you saw that it was from Haibara. It was his school email, so you knew that it had to be something related to the sports event that was coming up. After all, he was the gym teacher.

You clicked on it and it opened up a long list of what the volunteers could do, as well as information about the sister school in Kyoto.

There was a list of participants from Kyoto, which was mainly for the person giving out name tags, and one caught your eye. Mai Zenin. Maki's sister.

You stared at the name for a long while, then looked at Tsumiki, who was punching numbers into her calculator. Picking up your phone to text Maki, you saw that she had already texted the group chat with you, Toge, Panda, and Yuta.

Mai signed up for the sports event, was all it said. You couldn't read between the lines to see what her heart said about it, how it made it beat quicker or slower; you couldn't read a facial expression, a noise of anger or relief or sadness. They resided in the same house, that was probably how she knew, yet they seemed so distant from each other.

They seemed like simple enemies that met at school.

You felt Tsumiki knock on the table and looked up. "I'm finished," she told you. "How far are you?"

"Far enough," you answered, not even looking as you shut the laptop.

The both of you packed your things into your backpacks and walked out of the bakery.

"Is something bothering you?" she asked.

"...If you had a sibling, what would you think of them if they were completely different from you? Not even complimentary, just like they seemed to combat everything about you?"

Tsumiki hummed, you could see the sound leave her, like you could see the cogs in her head turn. Then she smiled at you, as sunflowers do with the sun. "I'd love them still."

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to ask Tsumiki. She wasn't like Maki, thorny and stiff. Perhaps you'd ask Nanami.

You walked past Suguru's tattoo shop and peered inside to see if Nanako and Mimiko were out front, but instead, there was a boy, about your age, maybe younger, sitting on one of the waiting chairs and staring down at his shoes.

You didn't think much of it. Suguru was a really good tattoo artist and people came in from outside of town all the time.

Except, but as you tried to walk by, the space beside you was now void and Tsumiki was no longer there. You looked back and she stared into the window like it was a painting, craving to be understood.

"Tsumiki?" you mouthed, but no noise came out.

You stepped over and took her shoulder, pulling her out of her trance. "You know him?"

"No. I don't think so."

But you knew that was a lie. Tsumiki never forgets a face.

•••

"Megumi!"

The boy heard his name from inside the shop and looked away from his shoes, watching Gojo and Suguru walk out from the room in the back. Gojo didn't have a tattoo on him, unless he got butt-naked and had something on his ass.

"Ready to go?"

They had visited this place twice before and both times it was a yelling match. This time, Gojo brought takeout that he insisted was Suguru's favourite and it turned out he was right.

Megumi let out a sigh and stood on his feet, opening the door and shutting it in Gojo's face.

"Nice guy, isn't he?" Gojo said with a grin.

"He's yelled at you twice."

"That's his love language."

Megumi scoffed and turned towards the car parked on the side of the road, then paused, seeing two girls walking off with their school uniforms still on despite how late it was in the day.

One of the uniforms was from Jujutsu Tech, he knew, but when they both turned to face each other and he could see their faces, all he saw was the girl in a dark red uniform with her hair up in ponytail of brown.

He didn't know who she was, yet he did at the same time, like a distant memory.

"Megumi?"

"What?"

"I thought you wanted to leave."

Megumi nodded distantly. "Yeah." He followed Gojo into his car and watched as the car passed the two girls, neither of them thinking much of him. He stared at the rearview mirror, watching them turn on a street, and longed to follow them for even a few more steps.

For a moment, something glowed. It was familiar. Warm.

He wanted to follow it.