~ Michi ~
"Sawa, Mine!" I jumped up and down, waving as they approached me.
"Hey!" Sawa grinned and hugged me.
"H-hi." Mine bowed her head, still a bit shy around me after everything that had happened.
I clapped her on the back. "Hey, just relax. We're all friends here."
"Okay." She nodded, smiling back a bit.
"What made you decide to call us both here?" Sawa asked. I'd texted them both earlier asking them to meet up in town with me after Sawa got off work.
I shrugged. "I just thought a girl's day would be nice." Some time to not think about the boys for a while would be a refreshing change. "I also wanted help with something. Uh… You both wear makeup, right?"
"Yeah." Sawa nodded. She mostly wore bold black eyeliner, while Mine usually had gloss on her lips and color above her soft eyes.
"Teach me, senpais!" I declared.
Sawa laughed. "Can't say no to that I guess."
"I mean, mostly I was just thinking that there'd be a way to cover this." I gestured vaguely to my face. The bruises there had only gotten uglier overnight.
"We'll help you!" Mine clenched her fist with determination. "Definitely!"
"Oh, okay. Cool." I followed them, not knowing where to buy makeup.
"You know," Musca began. "Mine's probably so excited about this because it seems like a way to start making things up to you."
I nodded. It made sense. I wasn't even mad at Mine, though. Holding anything against her wasn't productive, and it was a waste of energy to be angry. Her apology had been accepted the second she had offered it. "Mine." I pulled her aside to whisper to her once we had entered a shop. "Really, just relax. Everything is fine. Don't think about what happened. Just think about being friends with me from here on, alright?"
"But…"
"Come on, be calm. Or else I really will get mad," I teased. "By the way, it smells weird in here."
Mine smiled, looking relieved. "That's because a lot of different perfumes have mixed in the air as they've been tested."
"Well, it tastes bad," I grumbled.
"Hey, come on!" Sawa yelled at us from across the store. "Am I the only one looking?"
"Sorry!" Mine called back, then turned back to me. "Um… Thank you," she said softly before we rejoined Sawa. I pretty much sat back and let them do their thing as they decided what kind of concealer would match my skin tone. When they moved on the eye and lips makeup I tried to steer them away, but they were adamant.
"You can't just go partway into transforming your face," Sawa reasoned. "Just let us make you over once and see what you think."
"Fine, fine. I reserve the right not to like it though." They just giggled at me, essentially having won the battle. I was just glad when we were able to get out of there. "Hey, hey, can we go eat first? I'm starving."
"When are you not hungry?" Sawa laughed.
"Never. I'm never not hungry."
"How are you not twice the size you are right now? I have to work really hard to keep a good weight." Mine frowned at me.
"I pace around a lot, and I can't stay still. And I'm not always eating, I just always think about how delicious it would be to eat certain things," I explained. "Like right now, I'd love to be eating a hamburger, but then with some macaroni and ketchup too, and then an ice cream sundae, and lastly a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So then, if I just eat the burger, it seems like a good compromise. Right?"
"That's… I guess if it works for you," Mine sighed. "You're crazy."
"Meh." I shrugged.
"Hey, is that Toma?" Sawa was peering over the crowd. "It is him. Hey, Toma!" She waved her arms at him. Once he noticed her he smiled and waved back, starting to make his way over.
"I haven't talked to him in what feels like a while," I thought aloud. Between Shin and Ikki, I hadn't made much time for Toma. I really needed to be a better friend to him.
"Um…" Mine poked my arm. "Does he know what happened? Because he's going to see your face."
"Ah." I'd told Sawa about it, and the only other friends who knew were Mine, Ikki, and Kent. That was only because they had ended up being directly involved. I really wanted to keep it at that to stop further drama. "Hide me!" I crouched behind her shoulder.
"Hey, what are you girls up to?" Toma greeted us easily.
"Not much, just some shopping. What about you?"
"I was looking around for some books I need for next semester at college." He peered at Mine and frowned. "Is that Michi behind you?"
"No!" I yelled. Crap.
"What are you doing?" He sounded amused.
I covered my face with my hands and straightened up. "Nothing." It was so awkward I wished I had just run away instead. It was a mistake to call so much attention to what I was trying to hide; I should have just escaped the situation.
"Are you okay?"
"Well, it's Michi. You should expect this level of oddness." Sawa covered for me in a backwards way.
"Is it something like… A twisted game of peekaboo?" Toma pulled my hands away from my face. He was smiling. "You're really…" His face fell as he took mine in. "What happened?"
"Uh." I looked to Sawa and Mine for help, but none of us were coming up with any good excuses. "You see, I… Fell down the stairs at my apartment." It almost went over well, but I laughed nervously at the end.
Toma just stared at me for a few moments. His gaze flicked down and then back up to my face. "You're lying."
"Hey, don't make such blunt accusations," I ended up speaking lamely because there was no sense in lying about lying. That might just make him angry in the end.
"If you'd fallen down stairs, there'd be bruises on your arms too." His hold on my wrists tightened slightly.
Damnit… "Look…" I took a breath. This would sound harsh, but… "It's none of your business. I have it handled, so… Please don't worry." Was that the right thing to say?
Toma narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips together, and his hold on one of my wrists became even harder just before he started running, dragging me along with him.
"Hey!" I yelled, almost falling on my face while trying to keep up with him and pull away at the same time. "What the hell?!"
He veered into a side alley between two buildings and stopped there, saying nothing while he caught his breath but still giving me the same expression and holding on to my arm even harder.
"You're hurting me, asshole," I snapped.
Still silent, he loosened his grip. It still wasn't enough for me to escape though. "Tell me what happened."
"What? No. I already said it doesn't concern you."
He shook his head and opened his mouth, but then hesitated. His face turned more troubled than angry. "We're still friends, right? I know we haven't talked much since you came back, but…"
It reminded me that I had barely talked to him and that even before that I hadn't communicated with any of my friends because I'd been grieving over my dad's death. Then as soon as I'd come back I'd become preoccupied with others and… Oh man.
"I mean, I think of you as my friend. It's just that…" It was complicated trying to work the pathways, but if I'd put in the effort then I would have been able to find time for him. "I'm sorry. Just… I've been worried about other people, so I neglected you. I'm really, really, sorry."
He looked into my eyes for a little while before suddenly breaking into a laugh. "We sound like a couple having an argument. I didn't mean for the subject to go there. But still… What friend wouldn't worry about this?" He pointed at my face. "It's my business, no matter what you say."
"Oh. Well… If you feel that way," I mumbled. I couldn't just reject him after that. "So, you know how Ikki has those fangirls…?" I went on to give him the gist of what happened, that because Ikki and I were friends I had been bullied a bit, but I had handled it. "Kent and I pulled some awesome super spy stuff. It was great. So, it's all good now," I concluded.
"Are you going to give the video to the police?"
"Only if they don't meet the demand to leave Ikki alone. It's the leverage we have."
"You should turn them in anyways. They deserve no less."
"I think it's better to let bygones be bygones." I shrugged.
Toma shook his head. "You're being too nice."
"I hate the drama of it though. I mean, they tried to pull some major shoujo manga shit on me. I just want it to be over." I put my hands to my stomach, where more bruises ached dully. "No shame in that."
"I guess I see what you mean."
"So, can I go back to Sawa and Mine now? You sort of acted like a maniac."
"Yeah… I'll walk you back so I can apologize."
"You gonna let go of me?"
His hand slipped down to wrap around mine. "I don't want to."
"Ah." I looked down at it. I guess… It was fine to let things continue like this?
Mine and Sawa found us quickly, having attempted to follow and locate us right after Toma had run off. "You jerk, what was that?" Sawa punched his arm.
"Nothing. Sorry for scaring you." He smiled sheepishly.
"Geez. Just go away, okay? You interrupted our mission," she grumbled at him.
"Mission?"
"We're giving Michi a makeover."
"No you're not! Just this once." I crossed my arms, glaring Sawa down as she grinned at me.
"Well... I look forward to seeing it. Send me pictures." Toma laughed as I yelled at his back while he walked away.
"Don't encourage them!" I huffed.
"Come on, dinner can wait. I'm too excited." Sawa and Mine pulled me back to my house for a rather agonizing process in which I had to stay still and not blink my eyes, which are not things I was meant to do.
"Are we done?" I had asked about twenty times.
"Yes, we're done." Sawa sneaked in a few quick pictures on her phone.
"Fine..." I looked in the mirror and blinked at this person who was me but... different. "It... looks good," I admitted.
"Told you so!" Sawa laughed.
"I wonder what the boy you like will think," Mine mused.
"A boy Michi likes? Who?" Sawa asked eagerly.
"I told her I would get her to tell me. I'm still working on it."
"Meh." I stuck my tongue out at her. A boy I liked... Who would I want to see me like this? At this point it was too confusing to think about. Earlier I had been sure, but I wasn't anymore. By the end, there was no telling how I'd feel. But maybe for now, it was enough to look at myself and see something prettier than I had thought I could be.
