Takane Enomoto sat at her desk with music blaring in her ears. She twiddled idly with the cord to her headphones, not even paying attention to her only classmate, or the absence of their typically late teacher. It was fine that she wasn't paying attention to the aforementioned student, for he was caught up in another one of his elaborate drawings. The classroom was currently residing in comfortable silence. Well, that is, until the girl's classmate decided to break this silence.

"Takane, you haven't said anything in a while," he pointed out in his usual cheery voice.

Since said girl was still indulged in her classic "headphone act" there was no response from her. She merely rested her chin on her propped up hand, nearly falling asleep right then and there. Typical. Though, her classmate sometimes proved to be just as stubborn as she was.

"Takane... Takane. Takaneee!" the dark-haired boy whined as he leaned toward her without moving from his seat.

Still no response, not even a single word or gesture. He pondered what to do for a moment, before settling on an idea that would surely get her attention. He slowly reached out and gently moved the headphones off of one of her ears. There was an almost instant reaction. Takane's head snapped up, causing her short twin-tails to follow her movements.

"Haruka! What was that for?!" she practically shouted at the poor boy, who recoiled in fear after noticing her death glare.

"I just wanted to talk to Takane," her unfortunate classmate, Haruka Kokonose, whimpered.

"You can talk to me some other time, I'm busy," the crabby girl answered curtly, fixing her headphones until they were back in the correct place.

Haruka looked a little disappointed, which she guiltily noted, but it only lasted for a moment. Both the girl's guilt and the boy's disappointment.

"Okay, Takane. I'll just go find Mr. Tateyama so we can start class," he stated with a smile before standing up from his chair.

Takane grumbled something like an "Alright", then he exited their tiny, cluttered classroom. The black-haired girl sighed and once again rested her chin on her palm. Haruka's so annoying, she thought with a scowl, everything about him is. His irritating cheeriness, his obnoxious laugh, his stupid grin... She stopped there and, albeit hesitantly, corrected herself. His stupidly captivating grin. The headphone actor halted her thoughts before they could go any further, because she absolutely did not want to ruin this sweet moment of solitude with her own idiotic fathoms. She closed her eyes with another long sigh, looking forward to this golden opportunity for an undisturbed nap.

She woke up sometime later, a little dazed at first. Though, the first thing to draw her attention wasn't the time, no, it was the remaining absence of her fellow student. Takane jolted to attention upon seeing that Haruka had left around twenty minutes ago. Surely... Her thoughts trailed off, this time without her telling them to. She was immediately on her feet and making her way to the door. Oh god, how could I have let him go off on his own? I really am an idiot! The twin-tailed girl thrust open the door, dashed out, and promptly collided with something. She and this thing tumbled to the ground, exclamations of surprise coming from both. Takane groaned as she used her arms to push her upper body off of whatever she had landed on, which she noted was far too soft to be the tiled floor.

"Takane, are you alright?" an extremely familiar voice asked from below her.

Sure enough, as soon as the blurriness in her vision had cleared, she was staring down at the very same boy she had set out to find.

"H-Haruka?!" she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice she was embarrassed to call her own. By now, her entire face was what her close friend called the "color of heroes".

Haruka only gazed up at her with his innocent eyes, clearly not seeing why she was freaking out. It was then that his companion realized she was still on top of him.

"Ah!" Takane screamed, scrambling to remove herself from the confused boy.

She stumbled over to settle in a spot a few feet away from him, and was hiding her even redder face in her hands. Haruka sat up as well, seemingly lost in thought. There was awkward silence between them for only a moment before he spoke.

"I've never been that close to Takane before," he commented somewhat airily. "... It was nice."

"I-Idiot!" the ebony-haired girl shouted before punching him (not too harshly) on the arm. Even still, he winced.

Haruka rubbed the sore spot on his left arm with a whimper, and his flustered classmate could see the tears threatening to escape his eyes.

"Ah, Haruka! D-Don't cry! Did I really hurt you? I didn't mean to!" she immediately forgot about all of her own problems and became fretful about the weak boy.

She knew about his condition, and she knew that his health was deteriorating with every attack, yet she still insisted on injuring him further. Why? Why was she always so stupid and selfish? Takane scooted closer to him until she was once again right beside him.

"A-Are you okay, Haruka?" she questioned in the gentlest, albeit somewhat shaky, tone she could muster.

The aforementioned boy flashed her one of his endearing smiles, the tears from before almost nonexistent now. "I'm always fine when Takane's around!"

Though, instead of being reassured, the twin-tailed girl could only lower her head in guilt. What have I ever done to deserve someone like you, she wondered. You should hate me by now, you should hate every fiber in my being for how I treat you, Haruka. She could feel her own tears brimming in her eyes. The salty drops of water trickled down her face and dripped onto her hands, which were clasped firmly in her lap.

"Takane...?" Haruka began somewhat quietly, having noticed the said girl's rapidly forming tears.

Without warning, the crying girl lunged at him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

"Stop being an idiot..." she muttered with her choked voice.

Haruka chuckled at this and returned the embrace whole-heartedly. "I'm sorry, I'll try harder next time."

Takane wanted to punch him again for his continued ignorance and optimism, but at that same time she was just glad that he didn't hate her, and she honestly never wanted him to change. Ever. Yet there was really no way for her to know that fate would be undeniably cruel to them, and that her beloved classmate would change far more drastically than she could ever imagine. Though, for right now, she was content silently crying in Haruka's arms.

A/N: Happy August 15th everyone! I felt like writing something for my OTP, so this is what I came up with. I originally typed this at like almost three in the morning, so it's probably not the best. Oh well~ Anyway, I didn't plan for it to be that sad at the end but... it just happened, I guess. :/ I hope you enjoyed and...

Have an awesome (and hopefully safe) August 15th/whatever other day you're reading this on.