Sakura has always prided herself on her punctuality, and how could she not? She had been taught it since she was 5. Tardiness meant you were disorganized, and being disorganized meant you were sloppy and undisciplined. All being grave weaknesses in the eyes of her dad.
But today her impeccable time management skills are put to the test when Kazuha starts kissing her under the shower, which, in hindsight, they should have taken separately. Although she doubts that it would have saved her from miserably failing that test either way. Since when they stumble out of the bathroom, they very quickly end up on Sakura’s bed, and the concept of time gets lost in between bruising kisses, husky moans, urgent tugs, and eager licks.
As everything comes to a crashing end for the second time, and she lays on her back, with Kazuha slumped on top of her, the hours, minutes, and seconds slip back into her consciousness, and she glances to her nightstand—4:40 pm.
“We need to take a taxi,” she mutters, her voice hoarse and breathless. “And we need to take another shower.”
Kazuha hums in approval against her throat. “Do you want to take it together? Or should I go to my room?”
“And do you promise to behave yourself?”
There’s a momentary pause followed by a way too gleeful ‘No‘.
Sakura chuckles. “Then you have your answer.”
With a quiet groan, Kazuha peels herself away from her, and after pecking her lips, she jumps off the bed and flees to her room. Sakura stares at the door, waiting for her legs to stop feeling like jelly and thinking that Nakamura Kazuha just may be her biggest weakness, but she’s undoubtedly the sweetest of them all.
And she doesn’t mind giving in to her over and over again.
🌸ðŸƒ
After an almost hour-long taxi ride, five angry text messages from Chaewon, and a quick stop at a store for apology snacks, they finally arrive at Yunjin’s and Chaewon’s place.
“Finally!” Chaewon opens the door, her demeanor akin to that of a strict mother whose child has broken curfew, but upon noticing the gifts they carry, her harsh look softens.
“Come in, come in.” Yunjin bounds up to her like the Golden Retriever she is and beckons at them with a grin.
Since it’s Kazuha’s first visit, the blonde grabs her by the arm and gives her a little tour of the apartment. Sakura, in the meantime, follows Chaewon to the kitchen.
“What would you like to drink? We have beer, soju, red wine, and some plum wine,” Chaewon lists while taking out the wines from a cupboard.
Sakura contemplates for a moment, her fingertips drumming on the kitchen table, but decides that drinking alcohol isn’t the best idea. It always lowers her inhibitions, makes her a little too emotional, and she can imagine not being able to keep her hands off Kazuha if she gets tipsy.
“Just water is fine.”
Chaewon lifts an eyebrow at her answer but complies, passing her a glass of water with a ‘suit yourself ‘ attitude while she chooses plum wine for herself.
“Zuha, want some beer?” Yunjin asks as she bursts into the kitchen like a Category 5 hurricane and yanks open the fridge door, making everything inside rattle.
Chaewon doesn’t even flinch. She’s probably used to it.
Following the blonde with contrasting calmness, Kazuha enters the kitchen and stops beside Sakura. “Nah, I’m not a big fan of beer,” she replies.
Hearing the confident statement, Sakura shoots her a questioning look.
“What? The drinking age in the Netherlands is 18.” Kazuha shrugs. “And we sometimes celebrated victories at a local pub.”
Yunjin chortles loudly. “Our Zuha isn’t that innocent after all, hm?”
Sakura chokes on her water. Apparently, she just can’t drink whenever the blonde is speaking.
“You okay?” Kazuha pats her lightly on the back, a subtle smirk curling her lips. “I’ll just stick to soda, thanks,” she tells Yunjin, still not removing her hand from Sakura’s back.
Sakura wipes her lips and catches the odd look Chaewon gives her but ignores it.
“Wait, so since you tried alcohol there, have you also smoked weed?” Yunjin asks, passing Kazuha a can of coke.
The girl takes a swig before she answers, “No, but I did have a brownie with weed once.”
“You did?” Sakura stares up at her, taken aback by the confession.
A bitter realization stirs inside her head that she still knows so little about the girl. Even if at times she feels as though she has known Kazuha her whole life, there are also moments like these when she’s reminded that, in fact, they only met each other just two months ago.
How is it possible to feel so strongly about someone in such a short amount of time? She thinks to herself, looking at Kazuha and the small smile playing on her lips.
“And? How was it?” Yunjin’s giddy voice pulls her out of her thoughts.
Focusing back on their conversation, Sakura makes a mental note to later ask Kazuha in detail about her time spent in Europe.
The girl gives another offhand shrug. “I was all giggly and had a huge appetite.”
“So nothing new.” Chaewon snorts, amused.
They all chuckle in unison.
After their little chit-chat, they retreat to the living room, where Yunjin suggests they play some games. They begin with Jenga but quickly grow bored of it and move onto a series of speed action games. With their competitive spirits clashing, there’s a lot of screaming and shouting, but just as much laughter.
Chaewon huffs in frustration whenever a game isn’t going her way, and each time, Yunjin has to convince her not to give up and keep on playing. Sakura, on the other hand, tries hard to focus on playing instead of thinking about how cute Kazuha acts whenever she gets to score a point, grinning from ear to ear and doing her little celebrations.
After almost two hours of playing, they decide to take a break before they lose their voices.
“Why we’ve never done this before?” Sakura asks Chaewon as they’re lying on the carpet side by side, after Yunjin and Kazuha go to the store for a refill of snacks and wine.
“Well, it’s not like we hadn’t been trying to invite you, but you always had better things to do,” Chaewon points out, glancing at her. “I was actually surprised you agreed so easily to this.”
Sakura looks away from her friend and stares at the ceiling.
Right. She almost always had her training sessions with her dad on the off days. Not to mention that she was kind of used to rejecting her friends’ proposals to hang out.
It was another of those things that had been ingrained in her ever since she was a kid. She was always too busy with either school or training. The only respite from that were the occasional Sundays at the arcade. But when friends would invite her to their homes for sleepovers, she would always turn down their offers. She had to be up and running at 6 am. Otherwise, dad would accuse her of slacking off.
Yunjin really didn’t exaggerate that one time when she implied she lived like a hermit. And if not for Kazuha, she would most likely persist in that habit of secluding herself, even from her own friends.
She’s really something else. She smiles to herself and suddenly feels the weight of Chaewon’s gaze on her.
“What?” she asks, met with her friend’s suspicious squint.
“You know, I’ve been so caught up with Yunjin lately that I feel like I’ve missed something.”
“Missed something?” Sakura tries to mask her nervousness behind a facade of confusion.
“There’s something different about you.” Chaewon leans in closer, causing Sakura to flinch away from her.
“You’re imaging stuff, Chae.” Sakura again tries to downplay her friend’s accurate observations and returns her gaze to the ceiling.
Chaewon sighs defeatedly, lifting herself to a sitting position. “I’m not. But that’s the thing with you. Even if something has changed, you won’t tell me. You’re always so secretive about your life. I guess I wish you could just trust me more, you know?”
Sakura sits up to look into her friend’s surly eyes. “I’ll tell you when I’m ready, I promise,” she says, mustering a smile.
She knows it comes off as weak because she can’t help but wonder, when will she be ready? After they get drafted into the national team together? After they win the World Cup? After her dad finally tells her that he’s proud of her? After her mom stops hating her? What has to happen for her to let go of this fear that the bond she shares with Kazuha will eventually lead to their ruin?
Hell! They met Coach Ikeda today and he clearly implied he would want them both on the team, so why is she still so damn scared?
“Fine,” Chaewon concedes with an eyeroll.
They lapse into awkward silence, the conversation weighing heavily on Sakura’s mind. So much so that she pulls her legs up to her chest and decides to share at least a fraction of her doubts with her friend.
“Aren’t you afraid that what you have with Yunjin will end one day? ” Her voice is so quiet that she can’t be sure Chaewon has heard her, but when she looks up and finds her friend’s perplexed gaze, she knows she has.
“Why would it end?”
“I don’t know.” Sakura shrugs. “Maybe something bad happens, or maybe one of you simply changes her mind and decides to leave the other?”
Chaewon’s frown deepens. “Why would I waste my time thinking about something so depressing instead of enjoying my time with her?”
“Because things like that happen,” Sakura retorts, a little too quickly and too harshly for her own liking, so after a brief pause, she adds in a softer tone, “All the time.”
“Maybe, but so what? I love Yunjin, and I want to be with her for as long as I can. And if, by some bizarre twist of fate, this will change one day, then that’s for the future Chaewon to deal with. The present Chaewon is just happy that she has finally overcome her irrational guilt and stopped hiding her true feelings.”
Chewing on her bottom lip, Sakura ponders her friend’s words. But as much as she would like to leave all the potential concerns to the future Sakura, she feels like too much depends on this current Sakura. Not to mention that her fears feel very real.
“Just to be sure, we’re talking hypotheticals here, right? It’s not about the soft goofball who’s probably recording TikToks with Yunjin at the store right now.”
“No,” Sakura mumbles against her knees, avoiding her friend’s gaze.
Chaewon scoots closer to her, resting her head on her shoulder. “Remember how you’ve told me I deserved to be happy? You deserve it too, you know?” she says softly.
Sakura leans her head against her friend’s and closes her eyes. “I know.”
“I may not know everything, but I can tell she makes you happy. I’d never seen you smile so much during a game like you did yesterday.”
Sakura remains silent, suddenly reminded of what Kazuha told her in Osaka, how she wished Sakura would smile more like she used to. Was this her plan all along? To remind her of that joy she once felt? Or maybe it was just accidental? Maybe Kazuha never planned for this to happen, but it just sort of did? And does it even matter? In the end, what Chaewon says is true; Kazuha does make her happy.
“But she won’t wait for you forever, you know?”
Sakura tightens her embrace around her legs, pulling them even closer to her chest, like she wants to fold into herself and disappear. She imagines Kazuha having a similar conversation with Yunjin right now, and how absolutely awful she must feel because of the lies and half-truths she’s forced to tell her friend.
She’ll leave you. For one reason or another. Whether you’ll tell everyone or no one. You can’t do anything about it.
“Saachan, look!” Kazuha’s cheerful voice jolts her out of her brooding thoughts. She looks up and sees the girl standing on the threshold of the room with a bag of chips in her hand. “They had your favorite flavor.” She runs up to Sakura and kneels beside her on the carpet, while Chaewon scoots away to sit propped against the couch.
With just one glance at Kazuha, Sakura can already tell the girl is internally panicking over her slip-up. The corners of her lips twitch as she struggles to keep her smile natural and intact. Sakura would love to just kiss her right now, but instead, she throws her hands around her neck and hugs her, hoping this will also alleviate her uneasiness.
“Thanks, Zuha. You’re the best,” she says as she pulls away from the hug and grabs the chips.
Kazuha’s grin is now firm on her slightly reddened face.
“Huh, if only I knew,” Yunjin says as she leans against the door frame, “that all I had to do to get a hug from the Miyawaki Sakura was to buy her a bag of chips, I’d—”
“Huh Yunjin.” Chaewon crosses her arms over her chest, and if looks could kill, the blonde would be as good as dead already.
“I’d still not buy it, because I have a lovely girlfriend who hugs me all the time.” Yunjin runs to Chaewon and, dropping to the floor, wraps her arms around her.
Chaewon doesn’t budge.
“Yunjin, how about you put on that horror you wanted us to watch instead of trying to rile up your girlfriend, hm?” Sakura teases, watching as both their friends’ faces turn crimson.
“Ah, yeah, s-sure,” Yunjin stammers.
All four of them snuggle up on the couch, and Yunjin turns on the movie. It’s a silly, B-class horror about some vengeful ghost and its curse. Not particularly scary, but Sakura in general isn’t afraid of ghosts. It’s humans who are the scariest.
Yunjin is of a different opinion and swears she saw a ghost once at her childhood house, so she’s by far the most invested in the story out of all of them. She screams her head off, sometimes even during moments when nothing scary really happens, confirming Sakura’s theory because it’s her voice that gives her the most jump scares.
That being said, Sakura uses every such moment as an excuse to cling to Kazuha. And although she can tell the girl is genuinely terrified herself, she also has the biggest grin on her face whenever Sakura grabs onto her and buries her face into her arm. After the movie ends, they decide it’s time to go back home.
But before they leave, Chaewon approaches Sakura in the kitchen as she puts the empty wine glasses in the sink.
“Hey, sorry for earlier,” Chaewon says, giving her an apologetic look. “I’m such a hypocrite for telling you all that stuff while it took me almost two years to confess to Yunjin.”
“It’s fine, Chae.” Sakura smiles at her. “Don’t worry about it. I understand. Really, I do.”
If someone is a hypocrite, it’s me, she thinks bitterly to herself as she watches Kazuha goof around with Yunjin in the corridor.
Briefly, their eyes meet, and Kazuha gives her a small, soft smile, almost as if telling her ‘it’s okay. I’ll wait‘.
🌸ðŸƒ
November comes with harsh winds and rainy days.
Sakura buys Kazuha a windbreaker for their morning jogs, one that isn’t cropped for a change. She gives it to her one morning like it’s no big deal, but Kazuha looks at her as if she has just saved her life or done something equally moving and heroic before she engulfs her in a bear hug.
The next day, Kazuha mysteriously vanishes in the evening, only to return carrying a box with a Nintendo Switch. Sakura tries to argue that their gifts aren’t even remotely equal to one another and that she can’t accept it, but Kazuha doesn’t want to hear any of it.
“You were so happy that day at the arcade, but we don’t always have time to go there. With this, you’ll be able to play games at home whenever you like. We can play together, too. Though honestly, I’m content with just watching you as you play and have fun.”
Hearing this, Sakura feels like she’s about to melt on the spot. She pulls Kazuha in to kiss her silly, grinning mouth, then mutters a flustered ‘thank you‘.
From that moment on, they spend the rainy evenings snuggled together on the couch, either talking about Kazuha’s childhood and her time spent in Europe or playing Mario Kart and other games.
“The bread there was so delicious,” Kazuha says, showing photos of a cafe she visited regularly when she played in the Netherlands.
They sit on the couch, Sakura in between Kazuha’s legs and wearing one of her hoodies, while the blustery wind howls behind the windows.
“I can’t wait for us to finally leave for Paris. The croissants there must taste even better,” Kazuha concludes as she reaches the last photo on her camera roll.
Gushing with a grin at the comment, Sakura looks over her shoulder. Kazuha’s confidence in them qualifying and going to France together never fails to make her smile. It’s just so endearing.
“Hm?” Kazuha tilts her head to the side, giving her a questioning look.
“Nothing.” Sakura cranes her neck and kisses her cheek.
“Want to play some Mario Kart?” Kazuha suggests. “I swear this time I will defeat you.”
“Oh really?” Sakura lifts an unimpressed eyebrow. “With what kind of tactic? Tickling? Or by stealing my joycon?”
“You’ll see.” Kazuha’s eyes sparkle with unabashed mischief.
It doesn’t take long for her brilliant strategy to be revealed—kisses. It’s always the kisses.
Kazuha starts sneaking them in after she loses yet another round of racing to distract Sakura. A peck on the cheek. Then another on the corner of her lips. And a lingering one on the neck. And before Sakura knows it, their little gaming session turns into a session of a much different kind…
🌸ðŸƒ
Despite the awful November weather, their team continues their streak of sweeping victories, cementing their place at the top of the table, with Sakura and Kazuha emerging as the clear contenders for this season’s Top Scorer title.
Sakura always knew it was possible.
She had already envisioned it once, after they made their promise to win the World Cup together. She and Kazuha as the formidable striker duo that no defender or goalkeeper can stop.
They try to, sure. No one can deny them that. But the gap in skills always proves to be too great to overcome, even after implementing various strategies.
Yet, it still surprises Sakura just how intoxicating and exciting of an experience it is to achieve this level of absolute domination on the field. But perhaps that’s because when she first imagined their crushing victories, those visions didn’t include any of the flirtatious banter that became their staple in every game.
Sometimes she wonders whether others can see it. The unmistakable tension between her and Kazuha, which often proves just too overwhelming to be concealed in its entirety and manifests itself during their moments of euphoria after yet another effortlessly scored goal.
Just a while ago, Sakura felt mortified when Kazuha as much as hugged her, but these days, she’s so completely lost in the addictive thrill of winning and dominating their opponents that she finds herself caring less and less about what people may think about them.
One time, after she manages to score a hat-trick within the first half of the game, she leaps into Kazuha’s arms, wrapping her legs around her torso, and almost kisses the beaming girl right then and there. In front of the whole stadium. In front of her dad, of all people. But Kazuha miraculously keeps her cool and bumps their foreheads hard enough to bring Sakura back to earth in an instant.
It’s their fourth victory in a row since they became a couple. Something that has never really been stated by any of them, but Sakura figures that at this point it doesn’t need to be.
They win 5:0. At the locker room, Yunjin asks them whether they changed their diets or started smoking something because they play as though possessed by the spirit of soccer itself. To which Sakura replies that they’re simply that good, and Kazuha seconds her statement.
But just two days after that match, Sakura’s suspicions are confirmed. As they enter the locker room, with Yunjin and Chaewon walking ahead of them, the goalkeeper suddenly whips a newspaper out of her bag and starts reading.
“F.C. Tokyo secures another sweeping victory thanks to their star strikers, Miyawaki Sakura and Nakamura Kazuha, scoring three and two goals, respectively, and losing none, thanks to their incredibly talented, hot, and sexy goalkeeper, Huh Yunjin.” The blonde makes a poignant pause as she ambles through the room. Chaewon, next to her, shakes her head. “It was an outstanding performance from Tokyo’s team, with the Golden Duo leading the way. With such a dominant display of offensive power, F.C. Tokyo will undoubtedly be a team to watch as the season progresses. Meanwhile, Miyawaki and Nakamura may soon have a chance to prove their skills in front of the international crowd during Japan’s next qualifying match.”
Reaching the middle of the room, Yunjin spins around, shoves the newspaper under her arm, and starts clapping and cheering, with the rest of their team joining her.
Sakura exchanges a meek look with Kazuha, both of them blushing at the praise.
“I don’t know if you guys are aware, but people are going crazy over the two of you,” Yunjin tells them. “During the last game, hashtag Golden Duo,” she makes a sweeping motion with her hand as if the words were to magically appear in the air before them, “was the 2nd trending topic on the Japanese Twitter. There are even fan clubs dedicated to just the two of you.”
“Seriously?” Sakura asks, somewhat dumbfounded by that information.
But then again, she was never one to check their team on social media. She only watches the TikToks Yunjin and Kazuha sometimes shoot during the training sessions.
Also, she wonders who came up with the Golden Duo name since only one of them is ‘golden ‘—Kazuha with her U-20 trophy. But she guesses it’s more about the future expectations their fans hold for them than their past achievements.
“Yeah, there are fans writing fan fiction about the two you right as we speak.” Yunjin points the rolled-up newspaper between Sakura and Kazuha.
“There’s fan fiction about soccer players? I thought it was like a Harry Potter thing,” Kazuha says, eyebrows knitted in confusion.
Sakura can’t help but giggle at how cute she looks before the meaning of Yunjin’s words fully sinks in and she pauses.
Oh…so people did notice…
“Zuha, my sweet summer child.” Yunjin approaches the girl and throws an arm over her shoulder. “There’s fan fiction about everything.”
“Everything?” Kazuha echoes, even more perplexed.
Yunjin slowly blinks her eyes, nodding with a barely contained grin on her face.
“Okay!” Sakura claps her hands, startling them both back to reality. “Enough of the fan fiction talk. Let’s focus on the training.” She pushes Kazuha towards her locker with a pointed expression.
However, that whole situation, as ridiculous as it was, gets Sakura thinking all throughout the week.
Is there really a point in hiding her relationship with Kazuha if everyone around them, more or less, already suspects them of it? Not to mention that nothing bad has come out of it.
Her dad is still attending her matches, which leads her to believe that he begrudgingly accepted that he had been wrong about Kazuha. And they’re clearly being considered as strikers for the national team since all the newspapers and sports channels confirm them as the top candidates for the spots.
None of Sakura’s bleak visions have come true, and now she just finds them all to be incredibly silly. Like, why the hell wouldn’t she tell Chaewon and Yunjin that Kazuha is her girlfriend? She should be shouting that from the rooftops. And she wants to, although, admittedly, it would be mortifyingly embarrassing and dangerous.
As she lays snuggled up to Kazuha in a tiny hotel bed in Sapporo after their third-to-last game before Christmas break, while the snow blankets the rooftops outside, she finally comes to a decision. No more hiding.
She turns around so she can look Kazuha in the eyes. They shimmer under the soft morning sunlight and she gets lost in them for a moment before she says, “Zuha, let’s tell Yunjin and Chaewon.”
Kazuha blinks, wide-eyed. “You mean—but like, are you sure?”
Sakura nods. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“When do you want to tell them?” Kazuha asks, now smiling widely.
Sakura ponders for a moment. “Maybe we could go on a double date tomorrow? How about that? I have a feeling it’ll be a double celebration by then.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Kazuha says, leaning in to kiss Sakura softly on the lips. When she pulls away, her eyes drift towards the window behind them. “The weather seems nice. Let’s go for a walk before we have to leave for the airport, hm?”
Sakura hums in agreement.
They get ready and grab a quick breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant before they leave the building. Outside, the air is crisp and fresh, carrying a subtle scent of pine from the nearby forest. The trees’ frosty branches sparkle in the soft glow of the morning sun.
They head out towards the forest, the snow crunching pleasantly under their boots.
“You know what I’ve been thinking lately?” Kazuha suddenly breaks the silence between them. “We should go on vacation once the season is over.”
“Vacation?” Sakura asks, amused.
“Yeah, you’ve mentioned you’ve never had a proper vacation due to your parents busy schedules and the training sessions, so let’s go together next year, okay?”
Next year, Sakura repeats in her head.
Somehow, the fact that Kazuha considers such distant plans fills her with so much giddy anticipation that she wishes for all the snow to melt away and summer to come already.
“That sounds nice,” she says, and after exchanging smiles, they lapse into comfortable silence again.
Just as they’re about to reach their destination, Kazuha slows down her steps and when Sakura stops to turn around and check on her, she’s greeted with a snowball to her chest.
“You did not…” she mutters, and despite the clear threat in her voice, there’s a smile hidden behind her scarf.
“I’m afraid I did.” Kazuha shoots her a cheeky grin before reaching to scoop some more snow and shaping it into another white ball.
This time, however, Sakura is ready and easily dodges it, retaliating by also throwing a snowball at Kazuha.
That’s how their morning walk devolves into a full-on snowball fight as they start chasing each other through the snow-covered fields.
Eventually, Kazuha catches up to Sakura and pins her against a tree, their breaths mingling in the cold December air.
“Saachan… I… ” Kazuha whispers, looking at her as if searching her face for something.
“Kkura! Zuha!” Yunjin’s loud voice startles them both, and Kazuha jerks away from her. “What are you guys doing here? We’ve been looking for you for the last half an hour,” the blonde says as she approaches them.
“Sorry. We went for a walk and lost track of time,” Sakura admits, hoping she sounds at least a little apologetic.
“Yeah, I can see that.” Yunjin gives them a wry look. “Come on, we’re going to be late for our flight.”
They start walking back to the hotel in silence, Sakura observing Kazuha out of the corner of her eye. She doesn’t ask her what was that thing she wanted to tell her.
She has a hunch that she already knows what it was, and that’s all that matters to her.
🌸ðŸƒ
The next day at the locker room, Sakura sits next to Kazuha as their team waits for Coach Takahashi to join them.
Her dad hasn’t texted her about the squads this time, which she considers a good sign. She guesses he probably can’t bring himself to write that she and Kazuha were both chosen as the starting strikers.
Finally, the door opens, and their coach steps in with a bright smile on his face. Sakura shares a quick glance with Kazuha as nerves and excitement bubble inside her.
“I have some exciting news today to announce,” the coach says, taking his spot in the center of the room. “Yunjin. Congratulations. You’ve got offers from both the USA and South Korean national teams.”
Yunjin’s jaw drops in disbelief, and it’s the first time Sakura has seen her rendered speechless. A brief applause follows before Coach Takahashi’s gaze moves to Chaewon, who sits beside the blonde.
“Chaewon. The team wants you again on their squad.”
The team starts clapping again. Only Yunjin seems to be still processing Coach’s words as she stares bankly at the floor.
“That’s not all the good news I have for today,” Coach says as he motions for silence.
Sakura holds her breath. Her hand clasps atop Kazuha’s, which rests between them on the bench.
“Kazuha. Coach Ikeda wants you to join Japan’s team as the starting striker. Congratulations. We can discuss the details tomorrow,” the man says, and after another round of cheering, he moves onto other topics.
And Sakura waits, feeling like she’s about to suffocate. Her chest painfully constricts while Coach Takahashi keeps talking, but none of his words register in her mind, drowned out by the incessant buzzing white noise.
That can’t be all…Surely, he forgot…
She wants to say something, call out to him when she sees him leaving the room, but no sound escapes her lips. Because what is she supposed to say—what about me? You forgot about me—like a kid who didn’t get a part in a school’s play?
The door to the locker room shuts, the sound rattling Sakura’s insides, and she realizes her hand no longer holds onto Kazuha’s; instead, it rests clenched in her own lap.Â
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