Period Two: English

g) Essay

Mamoru stared at the coffee stain now blossoming across his multi-papered essay. He drew in long, laborious breaths. It was okay. He would be okay. It was just an essay. An essay that he'd spent FOUR WEEKS on.

The Odango was busily chattering animatedly to Motoki – she hadn't even realised what she'd done.

"Odango," Mamoru said quietly, though his teeth. He continued to stare down at his ruined work, his hands clenching on the arcade counter.

The Odango ignored him, still swept up in her conversation, her eyes shining, her cheeks swelled from a smile.

"Odango," Mamoru said again, a little louder, unable to unclench his teeth.

The Odango gave a piercing giggle and leaned across the counter, perching her chin on her palm as she listened to Motoki's response. Mamoru's temple throbbed.

"ODANGO."

The Odango turned, the smile still on her face, though it faded when she saw who had been talking. "What?" she demanded.

Mamoru inflated, ready to explode at her. Did this girl have no concept of hard work, real hard work? Did she not understand that he had spent the past month on research and subheadings and sentence structure? Did she not get that this essay was worth 70 percent of his final mark?

He was about to tell her all that, when she twitched her lips, puckering them slightly to show her impatience.

Mamoru's attention was lost on that movement. He forgot about essays and coffee and hell-driven wrath. He wondered instead about the subtlety of the gesture, of the softness of her lips, of the taste of her mouth. He lost himself in strange fantasies – ones he'd never had about this girl before.

She crossed her arms, the movement jerking him from his revere. "What?" she said again.

Mamoru blinked, his mind blank. "Er… nothing."

Usagi rolled her eyes and returned to Motoki. Mamoru stared at her a little longer, then walked out of the arcade, as though in a daze, the coffee-stained essay left behind on the counter to be found another day, when his head wasn't filled with puckering lips and the taste of a certain Odango mouth.