It was subtle at first, and she thought it was just her imagination. The small glances he'd give her; Onodera Kosaki. Chitoge thought she just happened to walk by his line of sight, and not because he purposely picked her out in the crowd.
But once she became aware of it, she'd catch him doing it more and more and —
"He looks at her an awful lot," Chitoge said, leaning on the railing of the school rooftop.
Marika froze for a split second before releasing an annoyed grunt. It had been a while since she made her advances towards Raku obvious. Chitoge had wondered why; this was the girl who was bedridden from a sickness unknown, this was a girl controlled by a mother with no empathy, this was a girl with the appearance of a damsel in distress but a personality and will stronger than anyone Chitoge knew.
This was a girl who wouldn't have given up if it wasn't for a good reason.
And Chitoge knew, in the way Marika reacted, that she had just found the reason.
"He does," Marika said simply. She bit down on her sandwich and chewed almost furiously. "It's frustrating, isn't it?"
"I think," Chitoge sighed, gripping the milk carton slightly tighter. "It's unexpected."
"Is it really that unexpected?" Marika looked at her. "Raku-sama is quite an open book."
"Yeah," Chitoge smiled, finally turning to look at Marika.
Marika's expression changed to something of distress but it was gone in the next second so Chitoge thought it was simply her imagination. She was never very perceptive, she supposed, so this could be another thing she misread.
"We can be happy without him," Marika said a few heartbeats later.
Chitoge looked at her, surprised at first, but understanding settled in immediately.
"You're not the type to give up," Chitoge said, sipping the rest of her milk away.
"And you're not the type to cry over something so trivial," Marika said. She reached into her pocket and took out a handkerchief. "Here."
"Well," Chitoge looked at the piece of cloth, before finally realizing that she had, indeed, been crying. "This is unexpected."
"Yeah," Marika smiled but not quite.
"I'm sorry," Chitoge looked at her. Her blue eyes glistening sadly under the sun. Marika knew she wasn't talking about the crying, or the fact that she had to offer her personal belonging for her to wipe her sorrows away.
She was apologizing for the times their (oddest kind of) friendship was hilariously threatened by a man who was never theirs.
"Me too," Marika said, feeling like crying but she'd done her crying months earlier.
The next time Chitoge caught Raku looking at Onodera, she smiled and squeezed his hand slightly tighter.
"What is it?" Raku asked, an unamused and slightly impatient expression plastered to his face.
And Chitoge never thought the day would come for her to (not-so-willingly) let go of his hand. Because she supposed it was one thing to realize that the man you love is in love with another, but it's another to realize that the man you love just couldn't tolerate you any longer.
Raku was kind, and he held her hand and kept her grounded on days when she needed it. He helped her with things that mattered the most and she will always be grateful to him for it.
So she supposed it was unfair for her to chain him to her this way. With the possible war between families coming to an end, there was simply no reason for them to be together. And he knew. So Chitoge supposed he was just being nice, or maybe he was a coward; waiting for her to end it because he didn't want to be the one to.
There were many things for her to suppose, but in the end —
"Go to her," Chitoge smiled, pushing him gently towards Onodera. "That's where you should be."
she supposed she was never in his line of sight.
a/n
n'aw so that was pretty depressing for a first chapter. this fic will contain various themes, from romance to angst to (maybe) humor. but i think romance and angst will be the main themes (because i love writing angst even though it hurts me).
marika might be a bit ooc here but i just love that passive aggressive rival / friendship thing between her and chitoge.
— dd.