Kido Tsubomi was invisible.
It was not in the physical sense per se. When she looked in the mirror, or pinched herself, she was still, by definition, there. There was even one incident where she bumped into a fellow student and they gave her an irritated, eye narrowing look before turning on their heels and walking away. No, she was still here, just nobody truly acknowledged her.
Tsubomi sat in the front of the classroom. It was rather ironic really that a person not noticed should be in the place that is acknowledged the most. Her desk was also at the end of her horizontal row, propped up next to one of the classroom walls and the desk right in front of the door. But even with this she still went unnoticed.
It wasn't like she never tried to get peoples attention. Whether it be the person in the desk next to her or someone at the table in the cafeteria she'd say hi politely and shyly, trying as best she could to remain in the person's field of vision. Sadly all these attempts met with failure and also much embarrassment on Tsubomi's part.
Tsubomi also got very good grades. During class she was always quiet and attentive, never talking with other, but always paying attention to the lesson no matter how boring it was. Then when it came time for a test, while the other students groaned and muttered among themselves, she accepted it with silent indifference and worked quickly, usually always among the first to finish.
Whenever she received a perfect score she would feel a great mixture of pride and accomplishment stirring inside her. She was able to keep a straight face on the outside, but was practically bursting at the seams on the inside. Yet still, even with these perfect grades and perfect behavior, Tsubomi still went unnoticed. There was no "Good job!" or pat on the back from anyone, not even the teacher. It didn't matter how hard she tried, how hard she worked, or how genuinely good of behavior she had, she was still invisible. Her existence was just like air; whether she was there or not, she would go unnoticed and seemingly unneeded by everyone. Just a ghost passing through, the only thing left behind being the vague, dissolving feeling of human presence.
Eventually Tsubomi gave up. She was tired of trying. What was the point if she was just destined to fail anyway?
Not much changed after that. Even with her lack of concern over whether people acknowledged her, she never broke her study habits and continued to get perfect scores. The only difference now was that she wasn't expecting anything in return. She passed her days silently, sitting alone, never talking to anyone, so much so that she seemed to have lost the ability to speak completely. She walked around like she was in a daze of sorts, and the days all seemed to blend together.
Today again, they were getting their tests back. Tsubomi stared down at the gigantic 100 written in red ink on her paper. She glared at it, wondering how such a thing had seemed like a great accomplishment. But that seemed like a lifetime ago. The side started to crease as she continued to hold it until Tsubomi finally decided to stuff the useless piece of paper away in her bag.
"Hey, you got 100%, that's pretty cool." Tsubomi jumped as a voice sounded right in her ear. She whipped her head around to face the person and at the same time some of her hair slapped them in the face. When she did she saw a blonde boy leaning his elbows on the desk behind her, his own test paper in his hand.
He blinked a few times after the feeling of Tsubomi's hair had died away. "Sorry, did I scare you?" he asked with a grin on his face. Tsubomi just stared wearily at him still. She'd had no contact with people really and couldn't seem to find her voice. There was silence as the boy continued to meet her gaze with strange yellow eyes that reminded her vaguely of a cat.
"Your not much of a talker, are you?" the boy broke the silence, and on Tsubomi still not making any further comment, his grin widened. "Well that's okay; I'm not much of a listener myself. But you're awful smart huh? Judging from that score I'd say so, I mean, just look at mine." He then shoved the paper he'd been holding in her face. Tsubomi blinked a few times before actually adjusting her eyes to look at the paper in its close proximity. A 77 was written clearly at the top right hand corner, with a few other markings on the answers gotten wrong.
"Pretty terrible, huh?" the boy said and pulled the paper back while shaking his head. Tsubomi wanted to say that it wasn't a bad score and was around a B or C at best, but for some reason her words continued to fail her. Even so the boy didn't seem to care. "Y'know, since you're so smart, you should help me." he suggested, "Yeah, I think that's a great idea~" Just then there was some sort of beeping going off in his pocket. He pulled out a touch screen phone, and after sliding his fingers over the screen a few times, it went silent.
"Well, I gotta go now." he said and looked back up at her. "It was nice talking to you, you're actually really cute when you don't look all depressed and stuff. I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Tsubomi-chan~" And with that he was gone out the door, bag slung over his shoulder.
This left Tsubomi alone in the class, utterly dumbfounded and confused. She stayed like that for several minutes, pondering if what had happened was just some wishful daydream of hers. But then she thought back to his last words of him calling her "cute" and "depressing". She flushed a little in anger and embarrassment. Standing up from her desk with a determination blazing in her eyes. Tomorrow she was going to have to set him straight.
Inspired by Imagine Kagerou Project on Tumblr