Kyoko wasn't one to believe in fate — let that be made perfectly clear — and destiny had always seemed like a contrived thing to her, nebulous and an easy way out to justify patterns of humanity's own making, but it was hard to deny the coincidence of running, literally, into that girl from before when Kyoko went outside to get the mail.
It set her heart at ease to see her look a little healthier, having gained some weight from being fed properly and no longer looking like death warmed over… But the look in her eyes was troubling — depressed, manic, fretful — and Kyoko felt something like heartache stir within her.
(she called it sympathy and concern, because surely that's what it must have been, right; that was why she had been thinking about the girl for the past month, why plum-colored hair with azure eyes haunted her thoughts doggedly; Kyoko was worried because she hadn't encountered someone in such dire straits before… Right?)
"K-Kyoko?" The other girl breathed, face lighting up in recognition between gasps for air, worn out from what looked like a long distance run.
"Ah, you remember me?" Came the distant reply as the blonde frowned. Really, the clothes the other girl was wearing weren't the best clothes to work out in, far too nice to mess up with such a vigorous activity. Still, she wasn't going to question the other's choices. "It's good to see you again…?"
"Minoru," she answered the unspoken question quickly, as if she couldn't get the word out fast enough. "Sorry, didn't mean to hit you."
"O-Oh, no, it's fine, I didn't see you either. It was an accident!"
There was a wince and Kyoko didn't much care for the haunted look in the other gi… Minoru's eyes. They were blue enough as it was without the dampened mood behind them.
Automatically, unthinkingly, she offered, "Do you want to come inside?"
Minoru accepted, and now the strange girl that had been doggedly appearing in Kyoko's thoughts was now in the Sasagawa household. Just what were the chances?
Thank you to my two faithful reviewers and Beribboned, you three are what keeps this story going.
