Popuko was at a loss. Her mortal enemy had seen her huddled under the stairs, punching the wall and/or crying her eyes out. She had no energy to be angry, yet too proud to be sad. What the hell was she supposed to feel here?

Maybe if I stay still, she'll just go away…

With that in mind, Popuko stared at the elder girl, only moving to remove a stray tear. Even after half a minute, the elder girl showed no signs of moving.

"Popuko-san, are you all right?"

There it was: that melodic, perfectly-pitched voice she hated so much. With a snort, the smaller girl folded her arms and narrowed her yellow eyes.

"How much did you see?" She snapped.

"I saw enough."

What kind of answer is that? Popuko thought. If you saw me cry, go ahead and say it!

"Did something happen?" Pipimi asked.

Popuko shot the girl an icy glare. If she wasn't going to move of her own accord, she'd have to make her. The last thing she wanted was a pity party.

"What's it to ya?" She said. "It's n-none of your…"

Crap, I stuttered!

At that moment, all chances of intimidating her fell flat. What kind of badass stammered her threats?

"What I do I-Is… I mean… Uh…"

The tears were coming back, this time with company. No matter how many times she blinked, they kept on coming. She couldn't let them out. She couldn't let Pipimi see them. But if she stayed here, then surely…

"Oh, forget it!"

Popuko turned on her heel and broke into a run. Despite her tiny legs, she could move quickly when she had the right motivation. And if this wasn't a battle to run from, she didn't know what was.

"H-Hey! Wait!"

Pipimi's voice shot down the hall and into her eardrums. Popuko took that as a sign to pick up the pace. She zoomed down the hall and jumped down another flight of stairs. All her aggression was pumped to her legs, spikes of adrenaline sending her onward. She couldn't stop, she wouldn't stop. Not until she was home and could pretend all this never happened…

It was about halfway through her run that her body gave in. Her legs felt like they were about to collapse and her lungs were begging for breath. Popuko complied and bent over, trying to catch a single breath of oxygen. No matter how strong her will, she couldn't move another step. When her heartbeat slowed, she realised she had stopped right next to an empty playground. The sun was already setting, spreading beams of orange over the equipment. It was quiet, the only sound being that of her own breath.

"Hah…Hah… Dammit…" She panted.

Popuko was sweating like a pig, her legs were aching, and she felt like she could faint at any moment. But at the very least, she had escaped Pipimi. Once she had her breath back, she would go home and fake an illness for the next two days. That would give her enough time to recover from her trauma. With a grin, she stumbled into the playground. It took the last of her energy to haul herself onto the tunnel-den. It was a large dome, full of holes for little kids to climb through, clearly not designed to be sat on. Nonetheless, it was warm from the sunlight and in a quiet spot. If nothing else, she could sit for a while.

"Geez… The shit I have to put up with…" Popuko sighed, throwing her bag off her shoulder. "At least I…"

At that moment, time seemed to stop. Her bag was wide open; she must have forgotten to zip it closed earlier. That meant that while she was running like a madman down the street…

"Oh no…" She whimpered, digging through her bag. "Oh god, please no…"

Her folder full of drawings was missing. Not content with rejecting her dream, perhaps God had orchestrated her to lose the work entirely. Her work was apparently so bad, it had offended the heavens. Too tired to scream, Popuko made do with lying back and flipping off the sky.

"What a shitty god…"

A little part of her wished for death: perhaps a nice spear to the heart. Without her art or dream, was life even worth living anymore?

"Popuko? Popuko!"

A familiar sound echoed through the park. Popuko didn't even bother to look up. She hadn't asked the girl to follow her, so why should she give her a warm welcome?

"Go away!" She spat, over her shoulder. "I don't wanna see ya!"

Regardless of her words, the sound of footsteps came closer. Then they stopped. Soon enough, Pipimi was leaning over her, eclipsing the sun.

"Thank goodness. I finally caught up…" She muttered in-between breaths.

"What do you want?" Popuko asked, arms folded like a spoilt child.

"You dropped this," the other girl said softly, holding up the missing folder. "I thought you might like it back."

Popuko's heart skipped a beat. In one swift movement, she leapt up and grabbed her bounty, clutching it tightly to her chest. Her eyes reluctantly met Pipimi's, then looked down at the plastic platform.

"Thanks, I guess…" She muttered. "How'd you find me?"

"I chased after you."

The smaller girl wasn't sure what to think. Her classmate, someone she took special care not to talk to, had chased her out of the school just to hand back her artwork? That couldn't be right; there had to be an ulterior motive.

"Why?"

Pipimi looked confused.

"Why what?"

"Why did you do all this for me? We're not even friends!"

The words came out a little sharper than she'd meant them to. It wasn't that she was ungrateful; Pipimi had just saved her skin after all. No, what irked her was why someone she ignored would do this for her.

"Because it was the right thing to do," Pipimi said. "I couldn't leave you alone when you were at your lowest."

"But… But I hated you!" Popuko screamed. "I never liked you! I was always rude to you, and scoffed at your work… I just… I just don't understand!"

She wasn't crying, though part of her wanted to. Frustrated and confused, Popuko looked away, anything to avoid looking at the oh-so-perfect girl in front of her.

"You're always top of the class, you're popular… Why are you wasting your time with me?"

Her rant finished, Popuko looked down at the green, plastic den. A long silence followed. Had Pipimi gone home? Had she left her, mid-speech? Reluctantly, the smaller girl peered upwards The blue-haired beauty was still there, staring at the large folder.

"Because I think I know what happened."

"What?"

Pipimi let out a long breath and wrung her hands. Popuko, her interest now perked, leaned in closer.

"I saw you leave the newspaper club room. If I had to guess, you were trying to get your manga in the newsletter, right?"

Popuko's mouth opened. Then it closed. So, she had seen more than she'd let on! Still, there was no use denying it.

"Yeah…" She sighed, forcing the words out her gullet. "They're just casuals. They didn't get it…"

"Can I have a look?"

Popuko's body grew cold. Her arms wrapped tightly around her folder, pushing it close to her chest. Usually, she wouldn't be so protective; her artwork longed to be set free, to be seen. But what if her audience didn't like it? There was no way someone as proper and mature as her would understand. Popuko wasn't sure she could take two rejections in one day.

But then again, she owed her one. If all those drawings had been lost…

"Fine, just a quick look, OK?" She muttered, pushing it towards the girl before she could stop herself.

Pipimi took it gratefully and flipped open the first page. Popuko's heart skipped a beat.

"Pop Team Epic?"

"Yeah. Cool name, right?"

she moved beside her audience, just so she could read her face. Any warning of hate and she could make a run for it.

The two looked down at the first page. A miniature version of Popuko lay on the ground, slacking off and reading a book. In the next panel, a winged man in a tatty gown fluttered towards her, complete with a spotlight.

"I be the god of idlin'… And ya show some promise," He said. "What do you say? Why don't ya follow me an' become a god of idlin'?"

The pair looked down to the final panel, in which Chibi-Popuko had done the unthinkable. She had flipped a god off.

"Forget it! Too much fuckin' trouble! FOOOOL!"

Popuko looked over at Pipimi. Her hand was over her mouth, laughter escaping through her fingers.

"This is… I can't believe you just flipped off a god!" She chuckled. "I was not expecting that!"

"Th…Thank you…" Popuko muttered, rubbing the back of her head. God, I feel like such a tsundere… She thought to herself.

"Can I read some more?"

"Go ahead!"

And with that, Pipimi turned the page.

A strange man was doing something called "Extreme bike sitting", which seemed to involve falling onto a bike seat from an incredible height. Before he could land, however, Popuko removed the saddle. The man still fell to the bike…

Only to get a metal rod shoved up his rear.

Pipimi sat there for a moment, mouth wide open. Her delicate body began to shake. She screwed up her lips like she'd just bitten into a lemon.

Then, without warning, she exploded with laughter. Her body shivering with joy, she lay back on the den. Her hand was soon slapping against the plastic, loud thuds filling the once-empty air.

"Bwahahaha… Oh god… Oh god… My sides!"

She was no longer the uptight girl that Popuko knew. She had been transformed into a wild animal, controlled only by her impulses. And right now, those impulses were telling her to laugh.

And laugh.

And laugh some more.

"Y…You really like it?" Popuko asked.

Pipimi regained enough self-control to sit upright. She wiped her mouth free of drool and let out a deep sigh.

"Sorry about that. I just… Got a little carried away."

"Eh, no biggie," Popuko said. "You saw me crying after all, right? We'll just call it even."

"Thank you," Pipimi sighed. "It's just… I've never seen anything like this before. It's so different from the manga I usually read."

"So, you're a fan, huh? That makes you the first."

"First so far," Pipimi corrected. "You should post this online. It's really good!"

"You're… Not just saying that to be nice, are you? I see people flocking to you every day in art class…"

Pipimi shook her head. Strands of blue waved in the wind before she pushed them back into position.

"I know. To be honest, they're kind of a nuisance. They just wanna be friends with me because they think I'm perfect. It's exhausting; it means I can't really be myself." She let out a long sigh and stretched her arms. "I mean, your art is so much more creative than mine. I just paint by numbers, while you add all sorts of fun stuff to your paintings. You don't even care if you get in trouble for it, you just keep going."

It could have been her, but Popuko thought Pipimi looked almost... deflated. Like the air that kept her upright was rapidly draining from her.

"Then, why don't ya? A scolding or two's not the end of the world!"

"It's not that simple…" Pipimi sighed. "When you're in the student council, everyone expects you to be perfect. You're like…" She paused for a moment, hands waving aimlessly. "A symbol. Everyone expects you to be perfect and be on your best behaviour. You never get to let loose like in your manga…

Popuko crossed her arms and nodded. Her face twisted into that of a wise old man's.

"I see…" She said, deepening her voice. "And do you know what I do to people like that? This!"

In one swift movement, Popuko had flipped her arms over and extended both middle fingers to the sky. Pipimi looked ashen.

"Give it a try!"

So, with shaking hands, the other girl copied her. Her middle fingers slowly extended, soon forming the familiar sign. It wasn't long until the pair were in another fit of giggles.

"See, ain't that better?" Popuko said. "I know plenty of foreign swears too. Wanna hear some?"

"You bet!"

The rest of the afternoon drifted by in a sea of swearing and manga-reading. By the time the sun vanished, Pipimi had ten new words under her belt, not one of them non-vulgar. Popuko, meanwhile, had just gained a new friend and her first fan. Perhaps there was a benevolent god after all...