STONE HEARTS ❨ ushijima wakatoshi ❩

「 EIGHT 」

CHAPTER EIGHT

"She acts superior but in all honesty, she's just the worst."

"Watahara's just a bitch, trying to suck up to the boys' team,"

"Did you hear? She's messing around with the captain of Seijoh?"

"She's just pretending to be injured. Just look at her, letting good girl Sai suffer with her,"

Trying to pretend she wasn't able to hear the rumors going around, Hara just kept walking with Sai by her side. Her vice captain, however, furrowed her brows in disgust because of the students not minding their own business. Sai couldn't understand how Hara could allow herself to listen to those words without telling them off. The vice captain was pissed, not liking the rumors one bit, but Hara's expression told her not to meddle.

"Uhm, Sai, you can go now. I told you I'm fine," Hara said, voice coming off as a whisper.

"Just give me a message, I'm willing to help you walk to the cafeteria later. Hara, you really should stop overworking yourself this time. And... take care of yourself. You can tell me anything," said Sai, but the captain just pretended not to hear. "I'm free to listen if something's bugging you. I promise."

Sai started walking away, and Hara was left standing by the door of her classroom. As she watched Sai's figure disappear into a corner, she felt as if she was a heartless person. Her heart broke into pieces as she heard Sai's caring words. Sai was unchanging, always so caring and understanding. She felt heartless pushing away someone precious like her.

All this time, she distanced herself from people, only showing them little to nothing of herself. Sai had always been by her side, not only as a vice captain but as someone who wanted to be beside her... a friend. But Hara shrugged it all off from the start. She felt so cruel.

"Watanabe, homeroom is about to start," one of her classmates informed her, so she just nodded and walked towards her seat.

"No, just sit there. You'll hurt yourself," little Ushijima said, holding a ball with his left hand.

"No, I said I wanna play," Hara insisted, furrowing her brows and pouting as she glared at Ushijima.

"Why are you so stubborn? I said you'll get hurt. Watanabe said you have a frail body," said Ushijima, shaking his head. "You'll hurt yourself."

"Then why do you hang out with me if I just sit around here and do nothing? Why don't you just-"

Before little Hara could finish her sentence, Ushijima was already playing with the ball and ignoring what she said. Furious, the little girl just sat down on the side and glared at the little boy while secretly admiring him. She wanted to play volleyball, but he was right. She had a frail body. And he was so damn good at playing that she wanted to try it out for herself.

"-be!"

"-nabe!"

"-tanabe!"

"Watanabe!"

Hara blinked rapidly and then stood up abruptly from her seat, gaining the attention of her classmates. Some snickered to themselves, but most tried not to. She was definitely dozing off.

"Yes, ma'am?" Hara asked, and the teacher folded her arms across her chest.

"You were dozing off. So I'll let you answer this question. What was Einstein's contribution to the quantum theory?" the teacher asked, and Uehara sighed.