You knew you weren't normal when you were seven and obsessed over TV characters holding hands and being together in a way that reminded you of something parents do.
It wasn't until middle school that a certain friend gave you a manga and you discovered the world of romantic literature; you were a sap for gut-wrenching, tooth-decaying love.
It's now that you proudly refer to these couples as ships with friends who know what you're saying and don't judge you for doodling your favorite couples on paper reminiscent to a certain comic you're semi-hooked to.
Your name is SeeU and you've become somewhat of a 'real life shipper' in the sense that you love pairing up everyone with each other and seeing what works and what doesn't. It's gotten to the point that your 'shipping chart', a spiral notebook with the cover labelled 'Math' (haha, as if you'd pay nearly as much attention to that subject as you would to this) has so many circles and dashes over names that you're planning on redoing it as soon as you have enough free time.
You don't know when it happened, but at some point in the school year Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Len became your OTP and all you could find yourself doing in your spare time was doodling chibi's of them holding hands and just being the 'adorable cuties' you envision them to be. A week or so later of ULTIMATE SHIPPING you found out Gum Gum Vroom Vroom, codename Gumi, made a Romance Club dedicated to helping the students of your high school get over their awkwardness and finally be with someone they liked. And so, with only a fee of five dollars that Neru snatched out of your hand, you joined the club and became Vice President! (Turns out Neru was the Vice President but gave that job up in favor of being 'Treasurer' -cough cough- stealing people's money -cough-)
It's a wonderful to make new friends, especially if they share your hobby! (Well, only Gumi and Tei really shared your interest, the others were more or less there to waste time or because they were forced). You never remembered having as much fun in school as you did when you were in those club meetings, especially after they designated a time just to hear all about your new ships and judge if they could work or not.
You soon learned Tei detested your OTP and would rather have you ship herself with Len. You also learned that day that you weren't the only one who thought she was yandere. Seems like half the school came to that conclusion after a week of watching her drool over Len (you were too busy shipping your OTP to notice, sadly) even if more than half of those people had no idea what the word 'yandere' was.
You had your own ships centered around her, but you'd never tell lest she pull out those large pair of scissors she keeps in her backpack 'just in case' because 'they might come in handy'. You don't like dwelling on that subject, so you opt to look to Gumi who said they would be the perfect first target for the club, much to Tei and Neru's vexation.
It seems Neru likes him too, but you think her feelings towards the Kagamine are centered more towards that one-sided rivalry between Miku she always goes on about when said girl is mentioned. It's not like you'd say it out loud but you ship her with Miku. Not romantically of course, but more in a 'I-hate-you-I-love-you' sense that isn't so easy to explain outside of your head. The only one who knows about these secret ships you purposely skip over each meeting is Gumi, the same girl who gave you your very first manga all those years ago.
There is one ship even she doesn't know exists, and that's your second OTP! It consists of you and her in a platonic, 'super biffies!' style. It's not like it's a bad ship, and you're sure she'd understand it's not that kind of romance if you explained it, but it's best not to risk it and just keep that little OTP hidden in the second to last page everyone believes is still empty.
You can't even imagine how Gumi would react when she finds out that, after you found out she has this complex friendship with Len that you like to call parasitism (they do only come together to take something from the other in a way that doesn't seem like mutualism), that you started shipping them. You're still not sure if you ship them romantically or platonically, which is alarming considering you always know which way your ships go, not to mention either way it develops it's going to mess with one of your top OTP's. A part of you imagines Gumi might laugh if she learns all of this, but even then you can never tell with her capricious nature.
So, at this exact moment, you find yourself glaring at Len's stub of a ponytail as you walk towards the cafeteria, wondering what exactly it is that makes him so versatile in your charts.
Why is he so unhealthily loved? He's not even that cute.
Well, okay, he's pretty dang adorable, but still! What happened to girls loving the sexy type?
What's next? Are you going to ship yourself with him?
Yeah right!
When all the confusion and anger gets stomped on, you (sort of) feel sorry for him, because sooner or later he's going to have to face all these girls and crush some hearts when choosing the one he truly wants.
And then there's Kaito, the poor boy you know loves Miku to bits yet you'd still rather have the teal-haired sweetie be with anyone but him. Sure, the 'childhood best friend' status earns some 'aww!' points, but that's all he's got going for him. It's just...you don't really see it working out with them. Not that they don't get along, which they have to considering they've been friends for so long, but...how to explain it? You just think it's better if they end up with others?
Yeah, that sort of sounds right.
You spot Gumi not too far away sitting by herself, her head underneath her arms in a way that resembles a hill of green grass. If you didn't know any better you'd think she was sleeping, but you've known Gumi for far too long to brush off her pose as nothing more than fatigue.
You forget who Len even is as you push him out of your way and run to Gumi's table, taking the empty spot to her left. You didn't even notice and won't for a while that Len was heading towards her direction, only stopping because of you. You definitely didn't see a look of disappointment flash in those sky blue irises before he turned around and went to the lunch table he always sat at.
You don't know it as you draw circles on Gumi's back and flash your best 'SeeU sunshine smile' in hopes of cheering her up from whatever brought her down, but you have a feeling this might be something big that could flip your charts off.
What she says to you when she lifts her face off the table is something you never imagined happening and have no idea how to interpret emotional-wise.
Your charts are one-hundred percent flipped now.
A/ n:
The end scene in the cafeteria is set around chapter 5 of Paradox High School Romance, right after the ending of said chapter. If you haven't read that story and like reading silly parody's or cliches then I recommend it to you, but if not then that's fine by me. If you have read that story and are amazed at SeeU popping up now, then no worries, she will also pop up in the future even though her role is minor.
I wondering if anyone caught on to any of those references I put out there. If not, then at least let me mention the name Gum Gum Vroom Vroom came from a fanfic called Dear Gumi written by manateelover777.
Review or no review, I hope you enjoyed this oneshot. Thank you for reading :)