❝the countless versions of me,
made from misunderstandings,
all of them are 'me' in the end.❞
yamauchi shizuka and nishimura riki have never liked eachother. hell, their tension brewed to the point of physical escalation many times before.
but when...
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the heavy slam of the car door echoes in the silence of the afternoon as shizuka drops into the back seat of her stepdad's ancient sedan. the car smells like old cigarettes and cheap air freshener, an overbearing mix that turns her stomach at every rare occasion she gets in. she avoids his eyes, not that he's looking at her anyway. his attention is focused on the road, his knuckles white against the steering wheel, tension radiating from him. it's not the first time this week he's had to pick her up from school, and the resentment lingers in the air like a thick cloud, anticipating it's rainfall.
he doesn't say anything for a while, just pulls out of the school parking lot with a sharp turn, the sound of the engine filling the otherwise oppressive silence. shizuka slumps against the window, watching the world blur past. the scenery outside is familiar—too familiar. the same dull streets, the same cracked sidewalks, the same kids walking home from school with backpacks slung over their shoulders. she wonders, not for the first time, how she ended up here. how her life spiraled into this mess.
her thoughts flicker back to the bleachers, to her conversation with Riki. His plan—starting a burn blog—still feels reckless, maybe even stupid. but there's something appealing about it, too. the idea of hitting back at Kenji, of exposing him for who he really is, makes her head spin dizzyingly with anticipation. after years of putting up with his crap, years of feeling like she was always the target, the chance to finally fight back seems disgustingly tempting, no matter how petty it could get.
shizuka stared out of the window as her stepdad's car crawled along the dimly lit streets. the trees lining the road blurred into a wash of green and brown, their leaves rustling in the chilly autumn breeze. her heart raced, each beat echoing the anxiety that settled in her stomach. she could feel the tension in the air thick enough to slice through, a stark contrast to the cheerful tunes that usually played on the radio. tonight, it was just static, filling the silence that neither she nor her stepdad dared to break.
her stepdad, kenji's favorite punching bag, sat hunched over the steering wheel, the tension in his shoulders evident. shizuka's gaze dropped to her hands, nervously twisting the silver chain on her wrist, a habit she had developed to cope with the rising dread. the last thing she needed was to face his wrath after the fight at school. she knew he had probably heard about it already, the whispers and gossip spreading through the halls like wildfire. her heart sank at the thought of his disappointment and anger, no matter how much she acts like it doesn't affect her.
"you're a disappointment." he finally muttered, his voice low and gravelly, barely loud enough to break through the oppressive silence.
"whatever," shizuka snapped, but the defiance in her voice didn't reach her eyes. she stared out of the window again, pretending the world outside was more interesting than the impending confrontation.
"whatever? you think this is some kind of joke?" his voice raised a notch, frustration spilling over. "you're getting into fights, and you're acting like it doesn't matter?"
