Are all that matters.

=10=

"I'll see you later then Subaru. I'll update you on what happens." Mahiru said as she happily dragged Nozomi off to Principal Moroboshi's office for her punishment, leaving Subaru and Yume alone in her room.

Laying on her bed, stirred from her slumber by the noise. Yume's eyes fluttered open, her throat felt incredibly sore from the lack of water consumed. The first thing she saw after the ceiling was Subaru standing in her room with his fists clenched. Seeing Subaru reminded her of all the repressed memories she had recovered.

For each second that passed by, more questions popped into her mind that needed to be answered immediately. Not knowing what almost came her way just now, she just laid there quietly until Subaru snapped out of his anger and realised that she was finally awake.

"I shouldn't have left if I knew this was going to happen. I'm sorry I left you, how are you feeling right now?" He asked as he sat down next to Yume.

"You didn't... again." She mumbled to herself.

"What?"

"I said. You didn't add in the word 'again'. Shouldn't it be "I'm sorry I left you again."?" She said bitterly.

"W-what? Did you remember?"

"What did you want to say on that day? Why did you just leave me with that bitter smile? Tell me Subaru, tell me." Yume sounded incredibly desperate, she sounded like she was going to cry.

But as much as she wanted to cry, she doesn't regret remembering those memories again. She'd rather be sad after finding it out than living her life with Subaru inside her life again without knowing that they were once friends. She waited for the answers she wanted- no, needed.

"I..."

"Just answer my questions."

"I wanted to tell you I was going to leave, but when I thought of how sad you would be when I told you, I couldn't bring myself to tell you. That's probably why that smile looked so bitter to you. All I wanted for you was to keep on smiling and stay as you were. At that point in time, I really didn't think that me leaving without notice would make you feel so down, If I did... I would have told you."

"So why didn't you just tell me the truth that day?"

"Like I said, I only wanted you to-" His words were interrupted by Yume.

"That's not what I want to hear from you. You're not telling me the truth. I'm sure you did mean what you say, but you're not telling the entire truth."

Yume took a deep breath and made a decision there and then, "Just go. Until you decide or figure out what your entire truth is, don't talk to me. I honestly don't understand why you didn't tell me the truth back then."

What Subaru heard hurt him deeply, not only did Yume say those harsh words directly to him, she refused to look at him in the eye when she said them. He knew, he knew very well that what Yume felt towards him right now wasn't anger or frustration. It wasn't an aggressive emotion. All she felt was disappointment.

Never would Yuuki Subaru would have thought that Nijino Yume, his childhood friend (and probably so much more), would feel disappointed at him. He wanted to say something, anything would have been fine for him, but he felt like saying anything in this situation would feel like an excuse.

He held onto his tongue and turned away, leaving Yume's room quietly, moving the door stopper aside so that the door locks completely, leaving her alone in the room and creating an imaginary indestructible wall between them there and then.

The physical distance may have been less than a metre, but it felt like they were miles away from each other.

~

Two weeks have passed since then, and most of Yume's injuries have recovered, there were only one or two that was still recovering. She started going back to the main campus for lessons again, and she did realise that most students were staying away from her. Apparently from what she was informed by Mahiru, students who harmed her -- regardless physically or verbally -- was suspended for four days.

So the minority who was not suspended had very peaceful days for four days and the teachers had it pretty easy too. Of course, by the time Yume was back, everyone who was suspended had finished their suspension and was back to school. On the first day she was back, all students were to assemble at the hall. She sat down at where she sat down the first time she stepped into the school and everyone did the same as well.

Principal Moroboshi walked onto the stage and had a mic in his hands. There was a table for two behind as well. He said into the mic in a serious tone, "As you all may know, our school does not tolerate bullying at all even if it's a school that only cares about results. In this school, results are all that matters. BUT, for the lot of you that bullied our top student in the school, you must've been gutsy. After much interrogation and investigation, we found out that the instigator of this whole incident was none other than Hoshizora Nozomi, our Rank 10.

Since suspending her or expelling her won't do any good with what she reasoned me with, I have decided that we will be holding a challenge between Hoshizora Nozomi and Nijino Yume. Neither of them is allowed to decline the challenge since it is held by the school. The conditions for if Hoshizora Nozomi wins is that they will both switch ranks. Nijino Yume is allowed to decide on hers. Now, if you'll both come up."

Yume clicked her tongue as soon as Principal Moroboshi finished his announcement.

Tch, I just returned to school after that whole ordeal and now I have to do another one of those challenge things? As if I haven't done enough of those since I arrived.

She got off her seat, ignoring all the stares that she was receiving, especially from Subaru. If it was physically possible, she was sure it would burn a hole through her. She thought about the condition that she wanted and standing in front of the crowd, she made up her mind. She took the mic that was handed to her by Principal Moroboshi and announced, "Hoshizora Nozomi is to fall to the bottom of the ranks and be suspended for a month. Last but not least, she is to keep a distance of 1 metre radius at all times."

Both of them took a seat and got their phones out, they turned on the app and was brought to the starting screen on the challenge. Being the host of the challenge, Principal Moroboshi said, "There is no specific subject or topic to this quiz. Every single topic every taught up until today will be tested. Regardless of your attendance in the school, your final score will not be affected. Now... let the challenge begin!"

The whole hall's atmosphere in a second and everyone was watching the screening which was connected to Nozomi's and Yume's phone, it showed their progress. The whole hall thought that Yume would be at a disadvantage and that Nozomi would win because she hasn't been attending classes lately. But the results proved all their thoughts wrong. Everyone but the top 10 was shocked at the winner projected on screen and the loser's expression when she lost.

Winner is Nijino Yume.

Duration: 5 minutes and 30 seconds

Points: 100

[To be continued...]

Written on: 6 December 2019

I was this close to running late! 😂😂😂 Writing overseas is a bit hard when you're doing a bunch of stuff at one time. Hope you like this chapter~

Tell me what you thought about it! See you in the next one~

Next update: 14 December 2019