a/n: an anon on tumblr came up with the idea of reina and shuichi being in the same class and then it somehow became this
also i'm planning on doing a kumirei supervillain au after this so. Be Prepared
Kumiko was not in the same class as Shuichi.
This, to her, was a relief of the greatest kind, because it meant that she didn't need to entertain his antics until band practice. Still, she couldn't help but envy his homeroom for an entirely different reason - Reina was a part of it, too. Reina, with her elegance and her pride and her stubbornness, every part of her that Kumiko loved more than words could describe, hardly saw her in the day. It was because of this that the two found themselves meeting for the too-fast moments of lunch and breaks every day, talking over the events as of late and the band, fleeting touches of hands that didn't last long enough, unspoken questions on both of their lips.
"Your friend - the trombone player - has been . . . eyeing me, somewhat. It's unsettling, to say the least."
"Shuichi?"
"Who else?" The day was clear, for the first time in what felt like weeks, and Kumiko and Reina sat atop a hill with their lunches all but forgotten, talking about anything that happened to cross their minds. "Do you have any idea why?" Kumiko shrugged.
"Everything he d-does is a mystery to me," she admitted. "He's, uh, kinda weird. He's also really clueless, y'know. 'I'm a lesbian,' I say to him. 'I'm not attracted to men at all,' I explain. Does he listen? Nope."
"I can understand where you're coming from," Reina said, idly plucking at a blade of grass. "There are people who simply can't take a hint, no matter how blunt a person is about their intentions." Kumiko stiffened, her thoughts stabbed through by fears and anxiety, endless questions of what if she was talking about me? curling into every corner of her brain. "Taki-sensei, for example. I've made my feelings more than clear." Kumiko didn't know whether to be relieved or to be more frustrated.
"Y-yeah. Right. Him." The thought of Reina confessing to the teacher, hands clutching the hem of her skirt as she stuttered out words to a man who couldn't reciprocate, made Kumiko want to throw up.
"Kumiko?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you . . . bothered, by Taki-sensei? You tend to act uncomfortable every time I bring him up." Kumiko gulped. She could confess now, she knew - she could tell Reina everything, spill her feelings out on the grassy hillside for everyone to see, but it was a mundane day, a boring day, and she knew that confessions were meant to be said in important moments.
"Nope!" Kumiko lied. "Sure, he's a bit strict and stuff, but why would that bother me? Nope, he, uh, doesn't bother me at all." Reina held the grass between her fingers like a cigarette.
"Not in the slightest? I suppose you wouldn't care either way, considering how little you thought of your words at that competition at the end of middle school. Terrible, Kumiko, you're truly terrible sometimes."
"I'm j-just neutral on him, that's all! He's, uh, a great teacher and all, b-but . . ."
"It's a more personal reason, isn't it?" Reina murmured softly. Kumiko found herself nodding. "Are you afraid that he'll pull the band apart? Because he won't, I know that. It doesn't matter how strict he may seem, he knows what he's doing." Reina had taken on a defensive tone, one that made Kumiko flinch, and she didn't have the heart to tell her that the band's dynamics were the least of her worries when it came to the teacher. "If he doesn't know what he's doing, then I've devoted myself to someone undeserving for too long, and so I can't let that happen." Kumiko chuckled, despite the situation.
"You're really stubborn, y'know that?"
"I have to be. Otherwise, what else do I have?"
You have me, Kumiko wanted to say, but the words fell short on her tongue, and so she remained silent.
"People are horrible sometimes, Kumiko, and that's why you can really only pick a few to admire in your life, or you'll get hurt."
"I, uh, don't really follow."
"I trust Taki-sensei. I have to trust Taki-sensei. That's all there is to it." Reina turned away, intently staring at a dandelion that had sprung on the field.
"I trust you," Kumiko murmured, in a voice she thought too quiet to hear. Reina's shoulders dropped, her regal aura slipping away as she picked up the dandelion and flung it away.
"I suppose that makes one of us, then." Kumiko tentatively reached for her hand, trembling as she did so. Reina didn't move. "I've known Taki-sensei since I was little, I've told you that, right?" Kumiko nodded. "I used to think that he was perfect, that he could do no wrong. That's one of the trials of growing up, I suppose - you realize that the people you've admired so much are just people."
"You don't n-need him, though!" Kumiko blurted out. Reina turned, eyes wide, shoulders still tense like a deer in highlights on a busy road. "You . . . you don't, alright? I dunno how long you've admired h-him or whatever, b-but that's okay! We don't have enough time-" Kumiko looked to the large minimalist, metal clock ticking away on the school wall "-not for anything, really, y'know? We d-don't have enough time to get hung up on stupid stuff like that."
"I don't quite follow, Kumiko."
"We don't . . . we don't have enough time to keep secrets." Kumiko took a deep breath, hands clenched into fists on her lap as Reina blinked inquisitively. "Y-you probably don't want the truth, but . . . I like you, Reina." Kumiko felt as if all the breath was being pulled from her in that moment, stringing her words along in the wind. "I'm jealous of Taki-sensei b-because you care about his approval so deeply." To Kumiko's surprise, Reina chuckled - a light, wonderful sound that seemed to fill the entire hill.
"Jealousy? That was all it was, Kumiko? I was expecting something a bit deeper than that." Reina leaned against her shoulder, her weight feeling like it should've been there all along, as if Kumiko had been waiting for a long time for this moment to happen and it had always been written into the stars, in the red string of fate and anything else that people called destiny. It was as if time itself stopped to honor that little moment as Reina (without hesitation) put her hand on Kumiko's leg, and Kumiko (with a bit more hesitation) held Reina's hand, content to just sit and let the unspoken words be heard between them.
Time, as it turned out, still went on, and soon everyone was called inside. If it hadn't been for the strange mix of happiness and relief spreading through her body, Kumiko would have laughed at how dramatic Reina made their separation, holding her hand until the very last second, and even then letting her pale fingers linger and slip away slowly from Kumiko's, mouthing an I like you too as she slipped back into the classroom with Shuichi crouching at his desk with a raised eyebrow. Kumiko would have been lying if she had said that she didn't feel an incredible lightness inside, practically dancing through the halls, and for once time wasn't on her mind in the slightest.