Minako panted and leaned against the wall, right outside her classroom door. She'd just come back from lunch late and had to sprint halfway across the school to get to her damn Economics class. Straightening her posture and unsticking her bangs from her sweaty forehead, Minako turned the doorknob and was ready to get a verbal ass beating from her teacher.
As soon as she opened the door, all eyes were on her. She smiled nervously at her teacher, who grunted in irritation.
"You're late, Aino." He grumbled under clenched teeth. "Get in your seat."
Minako nodded quickly and dashed to the back of the classroom, dropping down into her chair. Class resumed as normal, and the blonde teen let out a sigh of relief. It could've been worse.
Looking up at the teacher, who was blabbering Economical nonsense, she had no idea what they were doing in class. She had no notes either, only Rei's notes from the last class, which were proven useless as she realized they were moving on from the subject of currency drop in Southeast Asia.
She closed her eyes and put up two fingers to massage her temples, while her elbow was resting on the edge of her desk. Minako opened one eye, and that one eye looked over to her left side, at Rei.
She really didn't want to be a bother; however, she was never going to survive this class without Rei's help, she was the only person who sat near her that fully understood the subject. And while she was at it, she might as well find some common ground with the other girl. In fact, Minako felt like she had to talk to Rei in order to cope with this class.
Maybe, just maybe, this time Rei might actually hold a proper conversation with her. Because Minako felt like she needed it.
She leaned in her chair just close enough to tug at Rei's jumper sleeve. Once she had the girl's undivided attention, she began speaking.
"What is he talking about? What work are we doing?" Minako asked, her hand still gripping Rei's sleeve.
Looking the blonde up and down, and snatching her sleeve back, the raven gave Minako her usual pissed off expression. "Perhaps you would know if you didn't come into class late."
Boom. A rock fell on Minako's head, and she just died. Okay, not literally, but it felt like it. This girl was impossible, she wouldn't even tell her what they were doing in class.
"Why won't you just tell me? I was late for…" Minako bit her thumb nervously. "Uh, reasons. It wasn't my fault I had to sprint halfway across school."
Rei shrugged and looked Minako up and down. "And that's my concern because…?"
Minako could feel her eyebrow twitching. She usually didn't get annoyed, but this girl was kinda pushing her buttons.
And weirdly...She slightly enjoyed it. Probably because it was more interesting than doing actual work.
However, Rei was being distant as usual, and it was about time Minako confronted her about it.
"Why are you always so like, distant?" Minako asked her, twirling her pencil in her fingers. "As in, you're so reserved from everyone, it's kinda scary. You look so unapproachable...Don't you want friends?"
Rei furrowed her eyebrows and clenched her jaw tightly, and it was visible from her slick jawline.
"So what if I'm distant," she said through gritted teeth, in a low voice, "why do you care?" Rei asked, gripping her jumper sleeve tightly as her eyes darted to Minako's cerulean ones.
She nervously played with her red bow that was standing out from the mane of blonde hair at the back of her head. She shrugged.
"I don't know...cause maybe I want to be your friend?"
Rei didn't say anything back, but her hard expression became slightly softer. And she released the tight grip she had on her jumper, too.
"I don't like being close with people." Rei eventually grumbled moodily.
Minako was on the edge of her chair. "Why not?" She asked, pushing the other girl to answer.
Rei's eyebrows scrunched together, and she was kinda frowning. The raven wasn't so keen on telling just a random girl one of her biggest fears. But then again, it wasn't like Minako was going to tell everyone.
So Rei folded her arms again and tightened her jaw.
"It's because I don't want to feel the fear of losing them." She kept her voice low and steady, but really, she was breaking down on the inside. Childhood memories of her family sparked in her head...enjoyable times all came to an abrupt end when her mother died.
Rei shook the thoughts out of her head and straightened her posture.
Minako raised an eyebrow. This girl probably had some personal problems or trust issues in order to say something like that.
Rei had her head down and was looking at her shoes. Her eyebrows? Once again, furrowed.
The blonde girl leaned closer to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" Minako questioned.
The other girl flinched at her contact and didn't look at her when she replied. "Whatever, I'm fine." She answered, immediately, which made Minako think that she really wasn't okay. However, she wasn't going to push it.
Minako backed off and sat properly in her own seat. Giving Rei a glance one more time, she looked back at the board.
But while her mind traveled somewhere else, she still couldn't ignore the tingly feeling she felt in her hand from making contact with Rei's shoulder.
