CLASSROOM

"So you didn't really wanna see that?" Miyako said to Yuno a short while later in the classroom. Class had yet to start.

Yuno was resting her chin in her hands, looking away from Miyako. "Would you have wanted to?" she said humorlessly.

Miyako took her seat beside Yuno and began poking through her bag, pulling out what she needed to get ready for the school day. She then glared sidelong at Yuno.

"I think I'll tell Yoshinoya-sensei that you wanted to pose nude for our next figure study lesson."

Yuno froze. Her stomach tightened. Knowing Yoshinoya-sensei, she would push her to do it, too, if she were to hear something like that from Miyako. Yuno fought down the urge to snap back, 'Don't you dare!' at her. A show of vulnerability like that would only give Miyako the upper hand. Yuno figured she'd better push back.

"You know, for someone who was supposedly starving ten minutes ago, you sure aren't very grateful to the one who fed you," she said, turning to Miyako and leaning back in her chair, arms folded.

"You threw the onigiri on the ground, Yuno!"

"...Well, was it good?"

Miyako said nothing. She only sighed in disgust and put her face in her hands.

The girls were silent for some moments before Miyako spoke again. "If I get sick from that onigiri I'm gonna go throw up in your bathroom," she said through her palms.

"What're you talking about?" said Yuno. "I used good rice."

Miyako threw her eyes at Yuno. "Do you seriously not get what I'm saying here?"

"Just go buy yourself a red bean paste bun and leave me alone, willya?" Yuno said wearily.

"I can't afford it!" they both said in unison. Miyako earnestly; Yuno while rolling her eyes.

"I knew you were going to say that," Yuno muttered.

"Well, 'scuse me, Little Miss Rich Girl - - and I do mean little."

"I'm not rich."

"Aha! But you can't deny you're little!"

"So what."

"Little, little, little!"

"Piggy, piggy, piggy."

"Eh? Piggy?"

"You eat everything in sight."

Miyako puffed herself up with pride, unashamed of her mighty appetite. "Hehn! At least I don't have to worry about my weight like Big Buns."

"I'm surprised your parents could afford to feed you as a kid."

That burst Miyako's pride bubble. "...Well...I'm surprised your parents didn't accidentally step on you as a kid!" she sassed back.

"Ha, ha. My height is my height; teasing me about it won't work."

"...Hop! Hop!" Miyako bubbled, grinning.

Yuno's face darkened. "That's different," she said in a low voice. "And see, you're not sorry at all."

"I was sorry, really, but I took it back after you threw the onigiri on the ground," Miyako countered.

"Liar."

"Do you know how disgusting it was to eat that?"

"I didn't make you eat it."

"It was like eating food outta the trash!"

"Wouldn't be the first time somebody like you's eaten food outta the trash, would it?"

Miyako shot fiercely to her feet, her chair loudly clattering backward. She looked ready to punch Yuno in the face. Yuno involuntarily gasped and shrank back, eyes widening. Everyone else in the classroom turned their direction and went silent. The atmosphere in the room hung still.

Gradually, however, Miyako's face softened. For a moment - - just a brief moment - - the tough, icy exterior Yuno usually put forth had cracked, and Miyako saw the small and weak Yuno she still knew existed underneath. A bemused smirk grew upon her lips. She bent down close to the smaller girl's face.

"At least I can still scare you, too," she said.

Yuno's eyes hardened, but she said nothing, and looked away. Miyako recovered her seat and sat back down, feeling rather pleased with herself.

Yoshinoya-sensei came in, and class started up, but Yuno appeared not to have noticed. She stared idly out the window, her thoughts having turned bitterly sour.

So...it doesn't mean anything to her anymore now...does it? That time when Sae came up to my room...and Miyako had gotten scared, too! But now she's all like it doesn't have anything to do with her! Well, fine. She wants to be stupid, let her be stupid.