Calculated Chance

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They don't know each other, not on a personal level anyway, but for two people who've never truly met, their eyes have been well acquainted.

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Wine-like reddish browns to Brilliant bamboo-thicket greens.

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Neither are from here, Hokkaido, which both can't seem to like for different reasons.

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The girl who's name carries the blue vast skies and surf of summer is by equal definition hot and cold, walking with a personal breeze that makes everyone around her part like an ocean wave.

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Her foot taps to a one per second beat, as she waits for the train to come by, willing the world to work faster because she's used to the speed of Tokyo.

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Bright, fast, exciting and convenient Tokyo.

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Where her 16 years remain a phantom walking each time the thought of her passes someone she used to know. Or in most cases, someone who knew her.

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The other who is in every sense her total inversion is a magnet, with an invisible pull that invites conversation and company of people taking comfort in the warmth of her words that sound like a softly strummed koto.

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Traditional, calm, beautiful and richly complex, very much like Kyoto, the place she used to call home.

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Like any true magnet however, she repels those with a similar polarity, creating an unbreachable tension that sits between her and the girl who cuts crowds but conversely draws eyes, some of which are her very own.

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The train flies up to the station, with a wind following close behind, playfully whipping hair and loose clothing in chaotic frenzy, Shizuru, who looks mildly ruffled in the wake of it and Natsuki, looking equally tousled with her length of midnight coloured hair and yellow plaid skirt in disarray, like every morning of calculated chance, find each other.

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But unlike every other day, the gap closes just a little, when without meaning to, and before she could even think to stop herself, Shizuru's lips break into a smile, and Natsuki, cheeks and ears luminous with the rush of blood from the wind chill, in a show of uncharacteristic humour, smiles back.

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TBC

Sachii: Testing a simple idea out, I don't know if there are stories of them in small towns living normal lives yet, so here it is! Planning on having this be a short multi-chapter one.