Emi sat on the floor diagonally across from another, longer pair of legs, struggling with a fairly large hairbrush at the unruly red mop atop Rin's head.
"You should really clean up a little bit, Rin!" she argued to the unresponsive redhead.
Rin looked directly through the wall behind her substantially shorter friend and opened her mouth halfway.
"Why?"
She asked to the empty air.
Emi answered for it, even though the question was seemingly rhetoric.
"It's your big day, Rin! This is like, your one chance in the spotlight and stuff! You should dress appropriately for the occasion!"
Rin tilted her head about fifteen degrees to the left, moving to acknowledge this comment.
There was a long pause.
"... I don't see the need for anything like that."
But her friend clearly did, and took it upon herself to express its utmost importance.
"Rin, this is your very own art exhibition! People from all over Tohoku will be coming to see your paintings! Aren't you excited for your special day?"
A stout shake of the head, all too blatantly killing Emi's excitement that she was apparently having in place of her armless companion more than for herself, accompanied by a single comment to completely debunk this state of mind.
"Not really."
She hung her head with her eyes shut, the silent equivalent of a demoralized slap to the forehead, and continued her unfortunately failing but noble efforts to straighten out the locks of hair that refused to be straightened out, notwithstanding the truly impressive amount of force she was applying to the hairbrush.
Of which said force prompted a painful wince as it was yanked from the culprit's nape.
"Ah..."
Rin let out a tiny gasp as the brush was freed from her modest tuft.
"Emi, you're hurting me," she said with not so much of a change in expression nor tone, other than that it may have been slightly quieter than her regular form of speech.
"Sorry," the pigtailed girl replied, adhering to the basic social conduct of apologizing for one's misconducted actions and also out of genuine guilt.
Defeated, she tidied up the mess of hair as best she could and tightened the black tie around her collar.
"You should at least try look presentable for everyone..." she uttered dejectedly.
Without even looking at her, Rin bluntly stated her thoughts on this.
"I don't think it's that important."
Emi had a mini-explosive hissy fit, making a deep backthroated noise and pressing both hands against her head. She tried very hard to supress the urge to grab Rin's shoulders and shake her until she came to her senses; granted that she had any at all.
The girl remained aloof and unsuspecting, much to Emi's dismay. She wanted so badly to implement her rather agreeable beliefs unto her dazed acquaintance, but she knew it was hopeless. There was no getting through to her, regardless of the amount of energy and persistance of which her persuasion was delivered. Emi reluctantly accepted this and unraveled the tie she'd just fastened, undoing the buttons on her shirt and removing it gingerly.
"I'm going to go iron your uniform. At least you can't stop me from doing that."
Rin silently accepted this fact.
"And don't go wandering off with no clothes on again! I got an earful last time for not keeping an eye on you!"
No response, but she now seemed to be distracted by a caterpillar slowly crawling across Emi's window sill. Assured that she wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon, she made off with the shirt and a pair of pants and set to work.
Ten minutes later saw her dressing Rin in a freshly ironed shirt and pants, re-adjusting her tie and trying again with her hair, which insisted on remaining somewhat messy no matter how forcefully it was brushed.
"Aargh! I've had it with this hair, Rin!"
She tossed the brush towards the bed for emphasis.
"I have an idea. How about we tie it up? Make it look nice. Then it won't be in your face as much, either."
Rin shook her head slightly.
"I don't mind it like this, Emi."
Emi pouted.
"Aw, come on, Rin! It'll look so cute!"
She brought out the puppy-dog eyes as a last resort. Whether or not they would work was beyond her. For all she knew, Rin could be too smart to fall for that trick.
"Pleeease?"
Rin pondered for a moment.
...
And gave her a submissive shrug.
Emi decided to take that as a yes.
"Yay! Thank you, Rin!"
She hugged her a little too tightly and picked up the brush again, also grabbing a large clip and a couple of hair elastics on the side of her table.
She gathered the materials and moved behind her friend, brushing this way and that and trying to pull her short and messy hair into some sort of order.
She managed a small ponytail that veered off to the side a little. It wasn't perfect, but somehow it seemed to fit her.
Pleased with her work, Emi skipped off to find a mirror and held it up in front of her.
"What do you think, Rin?" She asked.
The wide-eyed girl looked at her reflection in the mirror with mild curiousity, as if she had just discovered mirrors for the first time and was not entirely sure how they worked. She made a few minor movements and shook her head around a little, as if to test out how it felt. Perhaps the shift of weight was just significant enough to be noticed.
She looked up at Emi...
... And shrugged her shoulders.
This was enough to satisfy Emi.
"Okay! Let's get you to that exhibition!"
She grabbed Rin by her arm stump and pulled her up, dragging her across the hallway to get her sandals and made a beeline for the gallery.
The 22nd Corner was quiet and bereft of any signs of life, but Emi was quite confident that it would soon be bustling with happy people who had a craving for artistic inspiration. She quickly glanced at her watch to make sure that they were, in fact, fifteen minutes early.
"Why are we here at a quarter to seven?" asked Rin, glancing over her small friend's shoulder. Emi put her hands on her hips and gave her a look that would make anyone believe that it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"To beat the rush, duh!" She answered all in a huff. "You need to go prepare and stuff, right? Go look for the teacher!"
But no sooner had the words slipped her mouth than did Nomiya and the gallery owner come in from the side near the counter, exchanging idle chatter with one another about something exhibition-related. Nomiya noticed the two and reeled back almost theatrically, as though he had rehearsed this very action for this particular event.
"Tezuka!" He belted much too dramatically. "What a pleasant surprise! And your, er... friend..." He struggled with the words, unsure how to adress the pigtailed girl standing beside his star student.
Emi filled in for him.
"Emi Ibarazaki, of class 3-4? I'm her buddy, remember?"
Nomiya cleared his throat with about as much enthusiasm as the rest of his actions thus far and cleaned his glasses on his sleeve as if to adjust himself after his self-presumed faux-pas.
"Ah, yes, of course. My apologies, Miss Ibarazaki. I have trouble remembering students who don't take art."
She waved a hand in dismissal.
"Don't mind, don't mind!"
Almost immediately she turned to both him and the woman beside him and jounced up and down a little on her prosthetics that were disguised by a pair of kneesocks.
"So when's it gonna start? Is Rin staying down here and answering questions and everything?"
She asked even though she knew the answers. She didn't care. She was too excited to stay and talk leisurely about whatever middle-aged men and gallery owners talk about on their free time.
Nomiya let out an endearing chuckle.
"All in good time, girl! The dozens of curious art connoisseurs will be pouring in any minute to see the incredible works of my protegée here! Isn't that right, Tezuka?"
He patted her head to emphasize.
Rin shrugged her shoulders, apparently seeing no difference between an art gallery and an art gallery with a substantial amount of people inside it.
"Why don't you two wait up in the atelier? It's a little small, but you can hang out there until the exhibition starts," Sae suggested, still trying to get a handle around this sudden and unexpected encounter. "It's up the stairs, through that other door outside by the gallery. We'll come up and let you know when the guests start arriving."
Emi nodded her head.
"Sounds good! Come on, Rin!"
Nomiya chuckled once more, watching after the short girl pulling Rin excitedly towards the wall and out the door. The two seemed so contradicting of each other, Emi's incredible energy completely overshadowing Rin's quiet and detatched demeanor, yet they seemed so close; so perfect for each other.
"She must truly be her friend, that girl, eh?" he muttered to Sae. She gazed at them for a while too, disappearing into the distance. She smiled as a worn, weathered woman such as herself would smile.
"I suppose so," she muttered back, mimicking Nomiya's warmhearted laughter.
The two trotted up the stairs, stopping when they reached the door as Emi remembered that Rin had they key to it.
She grabbed it out of her pocket and unlocked the door, witness to see the cluttered room in shambles, the place where Rin had spent the vast majority of her time up to this point, making her art. She felt dazed.
"Rin..." she began, unsure how to form the words to express her thoughts properly and for that small moment wondering if that was how Rin felt most of the time.
"Is this where you've been working all month...?"
Rin did not turn to look at her, only stared off into the distance without changing her expression.
"Yes."
It came out like a dull clang from an empty bucket that had been kicked lightly by an unsuspecting foot.
Emi gazed at the wreckage all in a haze, feeling for a moment very lost and uncertain of herself and her friend.
"..."
She looked up at her.
"Are you okay, Rin?"
The question seemed alien to her.
...
She was very quiet for some time, as though pondering how to form an answer.
"Yes. I'm okay, Emi."
Emi didn't seem to think so.
Just what the hell had she been doing up here?
"Oh, Rin...!" she wailed, sounding very distressed.
"I knew I should've come anyway! Look at this place! You were working for hours on end without any sleep, and you couldn't have been eating properly spending all your time up here!"
She motioned to the sea of organized chaos at their feet.
"You were working yourself to the bone and you didn't even think of telling me! Friends need to come to each other when they're having a hard time!"
Rin gave a brief shake of the head.
"I wasn't having a hard time," she stated, though untruthfully, unbeknownst to her.
"Aaaaargh!"
Emi pressed her fists lightly against Rin's chest. She looked hurt.
"How could you, Rin? You told me not to come and I trusted you, but then you start lying to me and telling me you're okay when you're not! This is why I need to stay with you!"
She put her hands on her head and flopped bottom-first onto the couch nearby like a sack of potatoes. Rin came over to her and looked down at her dismayed friend. She knelt down beside her and gave her a look that showed a few small signs of guilt and remorse, the visible equivalent of an apology. Emi's gaze softened at hers.
"... You know, Rin... I know that you can do things on your own. You don't need me around all the time."
And with a wink, she added "except for when you need to pick up a can of paint."
A ghost of a smile lingered on Rin's lips.
"But it's okay to come to me sometimes. If not for help, for a hug or a talk, or some venting. Friends aren't just there to help you get dressed in the mornings. They need to be there for support, too."
The edges of Emi's lips curled up into a smile that was just a little sad, her eyes glistening in the twilight with a thin lining of moisture.
"... Like now."
Rin gazed at her friend, finally understanding why she had gotten so aggravated. She closed her eyes and leaned on her, nudging up against her chest and opening her little arms as wide as they would go.
Although it did not physically feel like a hug by any means, the warmth of one was still there. And that's how she recognized it for what it was.
Emi hugged back, wrapping her arms gently around Rin's torso, pulling her in close and stroking her auburn hair.
"I'm sorry I made you worry," Rin murmured into her shirt. Emi just smiled and hugged her tighter. She was glad to have her friend back.
Fifteen minutes had passed, and the exhibition was in full swing. The two stood in a corner somewhere, not completely in line of sight but not so hidden away so as passersby wouldn't notice if they were being fairly observant of that particular area. The art people scuttered here and there, buzzing happily in the lull of the showroom.
Sae provided all the guests with drinks and light conversation, alongside Nomiya who, although dressed rather colorfully, somehow blended himself into the crowd via "art-talk".
A couple of gentlemen stopped by where Rin and her small friend were standing, seeming to take an interest in a painting that they were fairly close to. One of them spoke up.
"Fascinating," he mused. "It's refreshing to see one so young dabble in abstract, no?"
The other turned to the artist in question.
"What do you call this piece?" he asked.
Rin shrugged her shoulders.
"What about this one?" asked the man beside him.
Another shrug.
"And this one?"
She shrugged once more.
This seemed to be her default answer for all questions.
Emi gave her a small jab in the side with her elbow.
"You should answer him, Rin! With words!" she half-whispered.
"It is called whatever you want it to be called," she said nonchalantly. The man looked vexed.
"Whatever I want it to be called?" he echoed. Rin tried to explain.
"Well, you see, if I painted a cloud and called it an octopus, it would be different than if I painted a cloud and called it the end of the world..."
As Rin babbled on about whatever she was babbling on about, Emi checked her watch on reflex, although she wasn't entirely sure why.
"... So it would be easier if people just called it whatever they think it should be called rather than what it is called, or what it is not called..." she continued. The man seemed to understand, or at least nodded his head in such a manner as though he did, but it was around this point that Emi had finally started to realize what she'd unleashed.
"It's... all just a part of the complex thoughts in an artist's mind," she interjected, hoping this would satisfy him. A small beam of enlightenment seemed to light up his face in understanding.
"Ah, yes... art is a complex thing, isn't it? Indeed, it can be quite perplexing at times..."
He gave Rin a little pat on the head.
"Perhaps it shall become clearer to you when you're older, hmm?"
He gave her a jovial smile, though she did not seem to register it.
"Fantastic work you have, here. Fantastic..."
His voice trailed off as he seemed to become lost in the various paintings surrounding him.
"Keep up the good work, girl. Most excellent."
He sauntered off, disappearing back into the crowd of people examining her various other unnamed artwork. Emi turned to her friend.
"Why don't you like to name your art, Rin?" she asked, confused as well. Rin turned to her in a sage manner.
"Emi."
She began, lowering her eyelids.
"Art doesn't need names to tell people what it is."
This was unexpectedly wise, and touched Emi in a way she never thought it would.
Emi closed her eyes and smiled in understanding. Even if she didn't, she was glad to have learned this interesting lesson about art.
"I don't know if that means anything, Rin, but if you believe it, then it has to be true somehow."
She hugged her from the side, patting her shoulder a little in lieu of her head, which was just a bit out of her reach.
Rin smiled as well, accepting her friend's response.
"Thank you, Emi."
Emi giggled and released her from her half-hug, as it were.
"It feels kinda stuffy in here. Let's go outside for a bit."
She grabbed hold of her shirt sleeve and towed her out the door and into the cool evening breeze, not waiting for an answer of any sort. Rin didn't seem to mind, in any case.
To her surprise, they ran into another familiar figure who just so happened to arrive the minute they stepped outside.
The smile on Emi's face grew as she waved to the messy-haired intruder.
"Hey, Hisao! You made it!"
Hisao gave a friendly grin and approached the two girls outside the building.
"Good evening, Emi. Rin," he said, nodding in their direction.
"Hello, Hisao," Rin replied, turning her head slightly to acknowledge him.
"How's everything going? I came a little late, but it looks pretty busy in there."
Emi giggled again.
"Yeah, it is! We just came out to get some fresh air. It was getting a little crowded."
"So I've noticed." He looked over his shoulder to watch the guests stroll to and fro, caught up in the excitement of the exhibition.
"So you're allowed to be outside?" He asked, giving Emi a suspicious look. "I thought the artist was supposed to stay in the gallery, hosting her exhibition."
Emi winked at him and stuck her tongue out playfully.
"We're not, but we snuck past the teacher without anyone noticing," she wispered, looking a little guilty.
"I won't tell," he said, playing along. "But you owe me."
Emi gave him a playful punch in the arm.
"Ass."
She winked again, wrapping an arm around Rin's shoulders and beaming proudly.
"Look at our little artist, already having her very own exhibition! One blink and she'll be rich and famous, off making millions in some fancy art school!"
Hisao let out a dry chuckle.
"It might take a little more than a blink," he teased.
"Hey! Don't underestimate Rin's artistic abilities!" She teased back.
"I knew it. You are a cynic," said Rin, a playful smile on her face.
"I prefer to think of myself as a realist," Hisao retorted.
"Isn't that just the word for what a cynic calls himself?"
Hisao gave up at this point. He was just happy to see her alive and kicking, after the scare he had with her before she finished painting. The change he saw in her was drastic from the last day he saw her pale, ghostly figure in the atelier, brush in foot, working away like a madman. He wondered if it was because of the return of Emi's presence.
"You look well," he said, wondering if either of the two would notice.
But they seemed to be distracted by something or another. Or Rin, rather, looking up at the night sky and tilting her head, with Emi looking up there too and trying to figure out whatever it was Rin was trying to figure out. He let out a soft chuckle and approached them slowly.
"Think it's time we headed back inside?" he asked, motioning to the doorway.
"Oh, shoot! I totally forgot!"
Emi scampered towards the glass door and grabbed hold of Rin's shirt sleeve.
"Teacher will probably come looking for us if we don't go back in! We might get in trouble!"
Rin was nonchalant, shrugging in such a manner that came off as disinterest or perhaps not quite feeling that getting into such trouble was as big a deal to her than Emi seemed to think it was.
Completely ignoring the gesture, she dragged her back inside with Hisao in tow. They entered just about as unimpressively as they arrived, slithering their way through the substantially more impressive crowd of people gathered in the art gallery and making their way back to where they were initially standing, managing to avoid catching neither head nor tail of Nomiya or his female associate.
The three remained in Rin's little corner, watching the patrons scutter to and fro in the energy of the building. Everything was a little noisy, but Rin didn't seem to mind. Her eyes flickered across the room as she watched the people stare at the paintings on the wall, exchanging words with each other in friendly conversation. Sometimes they'd float up to the lights on the ceiling and linger there for a while, until they'd travel back down and blink a few times in varying speeds, as if to experiment with the afterimages of the spots that danced around in her retinas.
After standing there watching the exhibition progress (and little else), Hisao broke the silence amongst themselves.
"You look nice, Rin."
She turned her head to acknowledge him, but Emi seemed to take the compliment for herself.
"I know! Doesn't she look great? I tied her hair up all by myself!" She replied proudly. Hisao let out a chuckle.
"It looks very nice, Emi."
She beamed.
"Thanks! It's not all the time I can get her to look this good, y'know."
She gave a playful wink.
"Does that mean I normally don't look good?" Rin interjected. This made Emi giggle, seemingly for no reason. If there was one, apparently she didn't know it, either.
"Hehehe! Well, you know, I..."
Her cheery smile faltered a bit as she stumbled, unsure how exactly she could respond to that.
"Umm..."
Hisao decided to step in, noticing her distress.
"She meant it as a joke. You always look pretty nice by yourself, only tonight more so."
This seemed to clear Rin's confusion, or at least assuage Emi's worry.
"What he said! You always look good, Rin," she echoed, making a miraculously quick recovery.
"Thank you. I think. That is a very nice thing to say. I think."
The three idled about their musings until Nomiya spotted them and brought Sae over to check on the artist in question.
"Here she is, the lady of the hour!" Nomiya exclaimed in a rather raucous manner, directing the attention of several patrons in the general vicinity to the apparently armless girl sandwiched between her two friends. Rin's eyes widened like a deer in the headlights, looking rather bewildered by this sudden focus of attention. Emi gave her an encouraging nudge.
"This is your time, Rin!" she ushered. "Go on, go get 'em!"
But Rin remained still, like a person that was frozen and turned to stone on the spot just as they witnessed a rather frightening ordeal. She appeared to be terribly dumbfounded.
"So, tell us about your work, young miss," a woman from the crowd prompted.
"My work is..." Rin began, but was cut off by another question.
"What is your technique? How do you paint?"
"I... ummm..."
It soon became clear that Rin was beginning to get uncomfortable.
"Where do you get your ideas?" a man inquired.
"That's the fourth, I mean fifth worst..."
"How do you do all this with your feet?" another man pressed.
"Will you be pursuing a career as an artist after school?" a disembodied voice persisted.
"What's it like to paint without any arms?"
"Who helps you with your artwork?"
...
Rin became very silent, almost pale. Her head tilted backwards ever so slightly, her stance faltering, and...
Thump.
Rin's knees buckled, making her body lean back and fall to the floor with an ungraceful thud. Almost immediately, Emi and Hisao rushed to her side. Emi placed a hand on her shoulder and Hisao pressed one of his gently against her back to steady her.
"Rin!" Emi cried, clearly distraught over her friend's sudden collapse.
"Are you okay, Rin?" Hisao offered, trying to remain calm. He felt that she'd perhaps had enough stress for one night.
"Oh my goodness, are you alright?" A woman in high heels asked in a hushed murmur.
"Tezuka? What's wrong, girl?" Nomiya asked all in a panic.
"I don't know... I don't know what's wrong..." Rin replied in a fairly low mumble, as though she was talking to herself rather than the teacher.
Amidst the frenzied whispers that stirred the silence of the gallery, Hisao decided to take action and carefully gripped one of Rin's arm stumps firmly. He motioned for Emi to do the same and together they gently helped her up off the floor.
"Would you like some fresh air? Okay, let's go outside for a bit."
Without a word, he led Rin (and Emi, by extension) out the glass door and into the cooling night air. They walked a distance from the gallery and stopped by a streetlight up against the stone wall.
Rin looked up at him silently under her short bangs that still somehow managed to hide her deep, green eyes.
"What happened in there?" he finally asked her, after some time. Rin looked at him in a jumbled mixture of confusion, worry and sadness.
"I couldn't say anything," she said, her eyebrows arched in a way a very distraught person's would be. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's okay. Everyone gets nervous sometimes," he said tenderly. "It wasn't your fault."
Her eyes flickered under the streetlight, changing yet again into something deep and fretful.
"What do I do now?" she asked.
For any other person, this would be a rhetorical question, one of hopelessness that had little chance of being relieved. But coming from Rin, her question was genuine.
He gazed at her, her eyes yearning, searching.
"... Don't worry about it," he said at last, offering her a small but very genuine smile.
"Who ever truly needs to do anything? If you're scared, who am I to tell you what to do? Just do what you feel is right. No matter what you decide, we're here for you. Right, Emi?"
He turned to Emi, who was standing beside Rin, a hand still steady on her back. She looked up at Rin, then back at Hisao, and smiled.
"Yeah, we're here to support you no matter what, Rin," she concurred.
Rin looked at the both of them, looking dazed and rather puzzled on how to respond.
"... Okay."
It came out in a very quiet murmur, as though she was unsure herself of what exactly that meant, but she was almost smiling, or at least seemed to have calmed down significantly.
Emi decided to step in, giving Rin's lower back a few pats.
"Do you wanna go back to the school?" she suggested rather persuasively. Hisao cut her off for a moment.
"The school? But wouldn't she get in trouble if she left? Nomiya wouldn't be too happy about that."
Emi shook her head in a very confident manner.
"I'll explain to him that she wasn't feeling well. He'll let her off the hook. He is the art teacher, after all."
Hisao didn't seem so sure, but he had to admit to himself that Rin probably needed to go back to the school, for some rest and to get away from all the stress this whole ordeal had caused her. He was beginning to see hints of the worn, drained, unwell Rin who was working away all month in the atelier, pushing herself to the point of exhaustion and nearing the self-destruction she was so persistent on. He couldn't let that happen again. He was terrified to see her this way. Although he worried for her possible yelling at from the teacher, he knew that tonight, he needed to let her go.
"... Alright. Take her back to her room, make sure she gets some rest. I'll talk to the teacher."
Emi smiled warmly. He was doing this for Rin. He cared for her. He understood.
She grabbed his shoulders and grinned an Emi-exclusive grin.
"... Thanks, Hisao."
She detached herself from the sleeves of his jacket and made off with Rin, slowly disappearing into the night until they were nowhere to be seen. He rubbed the back of his head and mentally prepared himself for his confrontation with Nomiya.
The two made it back to the school safely, walking up the stairs and back down the hallway where chaos had ensued, tiny strands of auburn hair and bobby pins strewn about in little nooks and corners of the floor that served as memorabilia of their hectic afternoon involving preparation for the evening they had just witnessed.
Emi herded Rin to her room, sitting her down on the bed and making sure to undo her little ponytail before unbuttoning her shirt and loosening her tie, placing it on the night table somewhere.
"Are you okay, Rin?"
She was unresponsive for a moment.
"... Yeah," she replied after some thought.
"I will be fine. I am fine. ...What's the word for that feeling when everything goes kind of fuzzy and then not and you sit on your bed and feel like everything is going to be okay?"
Emi just smiled and laughed.
"... That's called freedom, Rin."
She looked quizzical.
"Is that what it is? I guess that makes sense but I always thought that would feel kind of different from that. And less fuzzy."
Emi laughed again and tucked her into bed.
"Goodnight, Rin."
She stroked her hair and gave her a small kiss on the forehead before turning the lights out.
"Emi, wait."
She stopped at the door and turned around.
"..."
She hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words.
"... Thank you. For being my friend, I mean. Being support."
Emi smiled wide, going back over to Rin and giving her a warm hug, planting another kiss on her smooth, pale cheek.
"Don't mention it," she whispered. "That's what friends are for."