red strings | mitsuba sousuke

prologue

       "Ne, Rin? Do you have time to meet up at the rooftop during lunch break?"

A raven haired male looked up from his class notes and directed his attention to the girl who had been standing in front of his desk. He directed a slight smile at the said girl and asked, "Why? Is there a special reason?"

"No reason! Just met there, all right?" The girl glanced away with a slight blush on her cheeks. Although faint, the blush was still obvious enough for the eyes of the male to see, causing him to show a wide grin plastered on his face. With no other thought in mind, he chimed in a more than a happy agreement to the girls' request.

"All right, I'll meet you then. Now, go to class before you're late, dummy!" 

"Okay, meet you later~!" The 2nd year middle-school student waved an enthusiastic goodbye before rushing out of the classroom and mumbling giddily to herself. Happily, she walked to her designated classroom and waited as the clock ticked away before the long-awaited midnight dreams would finally become a reality.

↭

It was time.

The adolescent girl sat on a bench that was perched against the rooftop walls. A warm feeling in her chest, she couldn't help but grin as she thought over how her confession would go. Perhaps he felt the same way as she did about him. If that were the case, what would they be afterwards? Would they simply continue being friends or maybe something more? Or did he not think of her that why? Were her actions to go in vain? 

The more she thought, the more anxious she started to feel along with a gut-wrenching sensation in her stomach and heart.

Fujioka Rin: the boy she had admired since elementary school. He was the ideal love. Always kind and selfless, willing to help others with no hesitation. Intelligent, ranking high on all the tests. Gentle and respectful, thinking of other's thoughts and emotions. Along with that, he was also quite popular with both girls and boys in their division.

Worried, she looked at her watch for the time.

It had been approximately 9 minutes since their lunch break had started. Where could he be? Did he change his mind and won't be showing up? Before she could allow herself to think negatively, she shook away her pre-mature anxieties and tried to come up with reasonable explanations.

Maybe he is being held up because of one of his fans? Yes, that has to be it. A few are quite a troublesome bunch at times, making the excuse reasonable enough to believe.

But as more time passed by, she questioned if that truly was the case. Despite the progressing uncertainty, she would make up more excuses for the previous ones as a way to hold on to hope. Of course, hope would die and lead to despair. 

Frustration. The feeling of distress and annoyance. It all felt as though she were drowning in a pit of rage, held down by nothing more than a few flimsy chains which were bound to break sooner rather than later. 

Having in a deep breath the girl reminded herself, 'it will all be fine', and exhaled. Repeating the set of actions multiple more times, her annoyance soon blossomed into disappointment. Disappointed in both herself for even considering that she had a chance, and in Rin for giving her false hope at a chance. She knew it was petty to blame Rin, yet for just a moment, she wished she could. In her childish mind, these inconvenient affections she had been experiencing were all his fault.

Emotionally exhausted from the whirlwind of feelings she had flashed through, the girl let out a sigh. Standing up, she wandered towards the railings of the roof and propped herself against it. With a vacant stare, she observed the tiny buildings that had circled the school. The buildings—homes of people—that she had never bothered to look at before.

Just below the building was a small pond that she could not seem to recall any memory of. It gleamed, seemingly out of place for the dreary mood that had encapsulated the girl. Examining the pond, the student decided to amuse herself as she thought how if she were to jump off the building, she would land in the body of water. The pond, from her point of view, looked to be nowhere near dense enough for her to drown, even against her inexperience in swimming.

That is at least theoretically, of course, based on what her little head could see from such tall heights. She could easily be wrong. Dead wrong.

Not before long, boredom struck her and os she turned around and started to head back to her classroom. Strangely enough, just as she began to turn around, she sighted a tiny light in the pond from her perpetual vision. It was a luminous red light that flowed around the water in a thin string-like behaviour.

Facing the railing once more, subconsciously, she etched towards the railing and tried to reach down for the glowing light. Slowly, yet steadily, her body tilted over the railing, one foot rising off the ground. Although she knew in her mind that she would never be able to reach it from this height, she could not hold herself back as she felt a strange tug towards the red light.

Leaning closer and closer, her second foot left the ground as she balanced herself on the railing. As her weight shifted further to the half of her that was dangling off the roof, she could feel herself start to slip off. 

The now physical, supernatural-like pull towards the light had caused her to completely slip off the rails and start to dive headfirst towards the pond. But before she could progress much through her fall, a hand hastily wrapped itself around her ankles, hauling her back up onto her two feet.

Once safely back on the ground of the rooftop, it was as if she had been snapped out of whatever spell she had cast upon her. No longer could she feel the peculiar pull that had almost lead to her demise. Still in shock, she absentmindedly stared at her saviour, lost in her racing thoughts.

Soft hands then carefully caressed her face, snapping her out of her daze. Hazel brown eyes looked into hers with an angry flame to them. Eyes that the girl dreamed off every night, sending her heart into a frenzy, completely forgetting about the situation at hand.

The boy who she had assumed would not show up had saved her life.

"What were you thinking? You could have died!", the raven-haired male shouted at the flustered girl, furiously. His eyebrows furrowed as he glared and waiting for an excuse. Yet, the girl just stood there and stared at the boy strangely, as if he was ill.

With a slight red tint on her cheeks, slightly laughing, she asked, "What are you yelling about? I was just standing there when you suddenly grabbed me." Cocking an eyebrow at him, she gave him an amused grin, wondering if the boy had gotten himself a concussion of some sort while she had been waiting.

The angry look on his face softened until it had been blank of any emotion. Letting go of her face, his hallow eyes mindlessly stared into the girls for a moment before he too, shared an expression of confusion. Reluctantly he asked, "Eh, sorry, what were we talking about again? It seems I forgot." He gave her an apologetic smile as he scratched the back of his head nervously, one hand still holding a side of her face. 

He hurriedly removed his hand before peering towards the exit that leads back into the school building. Diverting his attention back towards the girl, he waited for an answer. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before shrugging her shoulders, "I guess I forgot as well~!"

With that he said and done, the two continued to converse about trivial subjects as they headed inside the school once more. Holding each other's hand in a friendly manner, they simply thought nothing of the odd incident, as if nothing had ever taken place. 

Perhaps it never did.