Stardust Soul

1

It's another day in school again.

I slowly walk on the streets as the cherry blossoms gently sway with the wind. Spring was coming, and more of it are in bloom today.

As usual, I always go to school alone. I'm not the socially outgoing type, but rather I'm timid and shy, and I don't have a lot of friends.

I envy people who are always around everyone. How did they do it? How do they make people like them? Somehow it has been solid 16 years and I still couldn't even stand up in front and introduce myself in front of the class without shaking and stuttering. Whenever someone comes up and tries to make friends with me, I shake them off. Eventually, they'd leave me alone.

Because of my silent demeanour, people then began to misunderstand me. They'd make fun of me, spread false rumours, and keep distance away from me. I'd like to stand up and defend myself, but because of my inability to find the right words to say, it feared me more that I might say something wrong leading to a much worse situation.

I'd rather try my best to stay away from conflicts as I can, for the sake of peace.

"Oh, it's Kumiko," a female voice murmured from behind.

I looked back to see two girls from my class, Hiroko and Risa, stare at me with a disgusted look.

"That weirdo again?" Hiroko said in acrimony as she grabbed Risa by the wrist, "Let's hurry up to school. We might get caught with her 'weirdo' virus."

And there they go, hurriedly walking by past me.

Am I really that repulsive? I don't know what I ever done to them, but whatever it is, I'm very sorry for my existence.

I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking until I tripped onto something. I lost my balance as the things in my bag were sent flying around and I was about to hit the floor.

I closed my eyes for impact, but nothing happened. When I opened my eyes, my things were back in my bag and I was standing like nothing happened.

"W-what just happened?" I asked perplexed, "I was just about to hit the floor and my things flew around and EEK-!"

I gave a shriek when I realized that my diary was lying on the ground, open. I immediately covered my mouth to avoid attention. Then a gust of wind blew, and sent an enclosed piece of paper flying.

Oh no! I thought to myself. That wasn't a piece of paper, it was a photo – a private one! If someone sees that before I could catch it, my peaceful life would come to an end. The wind kept blowing it away as I chased it around, getting nowhere. Geez, what am I going to do?

As I kept chasing it around, I tripped onto something, again. But before I could fall, someone caught me on the waist. The photo that was sent flying in the breeze was flawlessly caught by another hand.

And I wasted my time chasing it around. Why is the world so unfair?

I looked up to see who my saviour was. He stood 195 cm tall, has a large and well-built physique for his age, and has a golden chain attached to the collar of his uniform. His taut and rigid expression was accompanied by his green eyes. He was looking right at me as he bought the photo to his face.

It's Jotaro Kujo!

I looked at him surprisingly as he gently puts me down to the ground. I have been appreciating him ever since I started high school. We have been in the same class for 2 years now and I secretly admired him from afar. Of course, many girls would always trail behind him every day on the way to school, clutching on his arms and showering him with compliments. But whenever the girls start to fight behind him, he'd always get ticked off and shout, "Shut up! I don't like girls freaking out!"

He's a bit scary and he's been going wild nowadays, but to me he's the most wonderful and charming person I have ever known in my life.

And this is the first time I have ever been this close to him.

Jotaro waved the photo in front of me, "Here's your photo."

I was speechless. All I could do was to retrieve the photo he caught, my brain buffering from the fact that he actually spoke to me for the first time in like, ever!

My attention was at his direction as he walked towards my diary, picked it up, and approached me again. "I suppose this is yours as well."

I just nodded, grabbed the diary and stared blankly.

"Yare yare," he sighed, "You should pay attention to where you're going. You already tripped twice, you clumsy girl."

He turned his back towards me, puts his hands on his pockets, and began to walk away. Could it be that he was the one who saved me when I tripped the first time? If it really was him, then how did he do that? He even managed to catch all of my things at once, return them in my bag safely and impeding my fall like nothing even happened.

How bizarre. Yet it just made him even cooler.

I watched him walk away from me. Just how did he do that? As far as I know, that was impossible.

Jotaro then stopped at his tracks and turned to face me again, "By the way, you're a good photographer," he uttered and then turned away for the second time.

I could feel the stern eyes of Jotaro's trail of girls pierce at me like several knives thrown simultaneously, but I didn't even mind because I was so shocked that Jotaro engaged a conversation with me. I thought it would never happen, but this is a blessing. God finally answered my prayers!

But what did he mean that I was a great photographer...?

Wait... don't tell me.... He actually saw the photo?!

My cheeks heated up in embarrassment as I buried my face onto the photo while trying my best to muffle my squeals.

It was a stolen photo that I took of Jotaro while he was reading a book in class.

EDITED: 05/17/18, 20:55