Kabedon: Part 2 of A Tanabata Story

Chapter 7

 "Ohayo gozaimasu, Miyamoto-san."

Miko approached the boys with caution. Jacks friends were as weirdly cheerful as ever, but Jack's eyes held a look of worry or embarrassment, or perhaps even disappointment...maybe? Whatever it was, the look of wonder had gone from his eyes. Miko's heart fell.

She realized that he had never joined in with his friends' morning greetings. Aside from that one moment on the bridge in the park, he had never exchanged words with her at all. And now it seemed that moment—and whatever potential there might have been for some...thing to exist between them—had passed.

Miko dropped her head and hurried away fighting back tears. Yazawa Ai, Kitamura Rio and several of the girls in her classroom wished her a good morning in less formal tones than before. At any other time, she would have been delighted by that progress. Today, it was like a consolation prize. She rarely took second place in any contest, but when she did it always felt like a condemnation, as if the judges were saying that she was no good.

"Good morning," she choked out and fled to her desk. She hunched over it breathing deeply and struggled to recall her technique for stuffing her emotions down. She had been too lost in this strange happiness to notice. How long had it been since I've had to do that? When did all this start? She felt like she was losing control. More than any other quality, self-discipline had always defined her.

Ai and Rio exchanged glances and hurried over to her desk. "We're so sorry Miyamoto-san," Rio said. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

Sorry? How had they known? Their anxious faces swam in Miko's vision. A single tear slid down Miko's cheek and they were horrified.

"We've tried to tell them it's not true!" Rio blurted. "—that it's only a false rumor."

"It only made the problem worse," Ai added mournfully. "Some are saying that if we're denying it so much, then there must be some truth to it.."

"What?" Miko couldn't imagine any rumors about her and Jack that might be whispered about.

The classroom's pocket door slammed open and shook the wall. Junko entered, her face prepared for battle. She took one look at Miko's expression and her face clouded even darker. "You've heard."

"Junko-chan," Miko struggled to keep the quaver out of her voice. "Tell me."

Junko hesitated and looked as if she might, for once, refuse her something. She looked away. "Some of the third year boys have been spreading rumors."

Rumors? About me and Jack? Why would anyone...

"They're saying that if you become the student council president, you'll have the student council declare a swimsuit day and that you and all the girls would show up to school in bikinis."

For a moment, Miko felt as stunned as Ai's and Rio's expressions.

It's not about Jack? she thought. Miko choked back a laugh and quickly covered her smile with a hand. Misunderstanding her reaction, sympathy gushed from her classmates.

Junko scrutinized Miko as she said, "Of course this means that—if they hadn't before—every boy in the school now knows your name." Many are now saying they'll definitely vote for you."
 She ignored Ai's and Rio's outraged gasps, her narrowed eyes remaining fixed on Miko.

Miko's short-lived humor drained away. What will Jack think? If he was the type of person she hoped he was, this would not impress him at all. If he hadn't hated her before, he would now.

七夕

The geometric graphs in Miko's math book blurred and twisted into decidedly non-geometric shapes. She hadn't slept much at all the night before. While she had long ago adapted to minimizing sleep in order to study, it hadn't been her studies that kept her up.