Chapter Seventeen.

Human.

"Asami!"

Knock. Knock.

"Asami, you know he didn't mean it!" Shoko shouts at the closed door, "And you know you didn't mean what you said either!"

Silence.

Shoko sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose while muttering incoherent curses to herself, "Asami," she tries to turn the knob of the door, "Asami, you need to talk—"

"Leave me alone, will you?" the door is swung wide open, revealing a scowling, puffy-eyed Asami.

Frowning, Shoko gives the girl a sympathetic look, "Asami, he didn't mean what he said," she repeats her words from earlier, "He was angry, and so were you, but—"

Asami scoffs, "But what? What exactly did he not mean, Shoko? Was it the part where he said that he regrets each and every second of being my friend? Or was it where he confessed about pretending to care for the things I'd talk about. How about when he was preparing to belittle my accident... "

Shoko's frown only deepens, unable to find the right words to say.

Asami scoffs, sarcastically placing a finger to her chin, "Oh I know! Perhaps it was the part where he said he hated me."

And it's at Shoko's silence that Asami shakes her head, scoffing once more, "Tch, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day…"

"...I meant every word I said, is what she said," Shoko takes a sip of her drink, "And then she slammed the door in my face," she casually says before looking up at a distressed looking Suguru.

"And you let her?" Suguru gives Shoko a look of disbelief, "You were supposed to talk her into her senses!" he dramatically throws his arms in the air, knowing that the clock was ticking for Asami and Satoru to make up. That's because the longer they continued to ignore and avoid one another, the deeper the rift between the two would become.

"Yeah well, I'm a healer, not a fighter," Shoko shrugs, "And I wasn't trying to get killed! Have you felt her cursed energy? It gives me the chills!" she grimaces at the memory of Asami's spiked energy levels, convinced that she had been knocking on death's door.

Suguru rolls his eyes, "You're being dramatic," he says, resulting in him receiving a small glare from the brown-haired girl.

"Yeah, well I'd like to see you try and talk to her," she challenges him, a playful smirk then appearing on her lips.

Suguru chuckles, quickly accepting the challenge, "I will," he leans against his chair, placing his hands behind his head as he begins to act smug, "Just you wait. Unlike you, I won't be getting a door slammed to my—"

SLAM!

"...face."

Shoko covers her mouth in an effort to suppress her laugh, calmly leaning against the doorframe of her room as she watches Suguru's face redden.

"Asami!" he childishly pounds on her door, "Asami, you can't just do that when I'm in the middle of talking!"

The volume of the music she'd been playing then increases, the message of "Leave me alone," being loud and clear.

"Not so easy, is it?"

Shoko receives a glare of her own from Suguru. The boy then lets out an exasperated huff of air, his string of bangs flying upward as a result.

Preparing to knock once more, Suguru's eyes widen when he feels a chill run down his spine, his closed fist only centimeters away from the rusty wooden door. Gulping, he slowly lowers his hand, a comedic drop of sweat appearing on the side of his head.

"Hmph, and you said I was dramatic!" Shoko crosses her arms, quickly walking alongside her classmate as he practically runs down the hallway, the two then making their way back outside.

"Chicken," she mutters while sitting on one of the school's many benches, pulling out her pack of cigarettes before placing one in between her lips.

Rolling his eyes, Suguru stubbornly pulls out the lighter in his pocket when he sees the short-haired girl motion to him that she needed a light, "Now what," he says, a puff of smoke quickly making its way out of her mouth.

At this point he was accustomed to the smell, no longer subtly covering his nose like he would when he first met her. Hell, the fact that he carried a lighter with him all the time was enough to tell him that he perhaps spent a little too much time with the girl.

Shoko shrugs at his statement, giving him a nonchalant response, "I don't know. You're the one who wants to force them to make up so badly," she says, confusing the boy sitting beside her.

"And you don't?" he asks, eyebrows furrowed, ready to remind her of the incoming weeks they'd potentially face. If they didn't make up now, Asami and Satoru would revert back to how they used to be. Scratch that. They'd be even worse.

Reason being is that they had both declared their "genuine" hatred for each other, exchanging hurtful words that had been deeply seared into their hearts. No longer were they going to be friends who held subtle crushes on eachother, nor were they going to be bickering enemies like they had first started off as. Instead they'd go back to being what Suguru considered to be the worst possible outcome of the whole ordeal…

Strangers.

Strangers who wished to no longer acknowledge each other's existence. Strangers who'd actively go out of their way to avoid one another. And most importantly, strangers who no longer cared for each other.

As a result, it'd change the dynamic of the friend group … forever.

But before Suguru can get his dramatic lecture in, Shoko raises her arms in defense, answering his question from before.

"I do, I do," she says, quickly taking another puff out of her cigarette before continuing, "Butttt, I just think that if they really like each other, then there's no way they won't end up finding their way back to each other … don't you think?"

Suguru raises a brow, still blatantly confused by her statement. Not that her logic didn't make any sense or anything. It was just that hearing it from Shoko, the girl who in the past couple of months had been his partner in crime when it came to playing matchmaker between the two, was quite … ironic.

"All I'm saying is that I think we should let them come to their own conclusions instead of butting in like we usually do," she says, Suguru then placing a finger to his chin, thinking of the different routes they could take in approaching this situation.

"Hmm…" he hums, "You do have a point."

"Trust me, they won't last a week without talking to each other," she adds, making Suguru softly chuckle.

"You think so?"

She nods.

"I don't know," he says, still a little skeptical about leaving things to be.

Side-eyeing the curse manipulation user, Shoko throws her cigarette to the ground and crushes it with her foot, "How bout this, if they don't make up by the end of the week, then we'll go with whatever plan you have in mind."

"Fine," he says, ultimately agreeing with her idea, "But just one week," he adds while raising a finger, recalling the days where he'd have to hang out with his friend on separate occasions, sometimes watching the same movie twice in one weekend. No way was he going to put up with that again.

Shoko smiles, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she laughs, feeling quite confident in her proposal.

1 Month Later.

"Shoko—"

"Just give it another week, okay?" the healer says to a sighing Suguru, for the boy was now reaching his limit when it came to letting Suguru and Asami "come to their own conclusions."

Clearly the two stubborn idiots had reached their own conclusions a long time ago. Four weeks ago to be exact. Four weeks of nothing but complete silence from the two.

Hell, they weren't even letting Masamichi force them into situations they didn't want to be in, nor did the buff man even try to. That's because he also knew that this time around, things were on a different level of tensity. The two had truly become strangers to each other.

"You've been saying that for the past month," Suguru harshly whispers to her, Satoru having just walked into the small classroom.

Nodding at his friends, the white-haired boy quietly makes his way to his seat and pulls out his notebook, not bothering to join in on his friends' conversation, something which had become the norm since his argument with Asami. No longer did he walk into class with his infamous lopsided smile, nor did he purposely get on his friends' nerves anymore. He was just… there.

To him, all that mattered was getting his work done and calling it a day. Nothing less, nothing more.

Swoosh.

The classroom door accidentally slides open a little too roughly, causing a sharp shrilling noise to pierce through the students' ears. Squirming in discomfort, the three student's quickly cover their ears.

Muttering incoherent curses to herself, Asami struggles to push the old wooden door with her free hand, the other one currently holding onto a stack of books and papers. With the door refusing to budge, Asami becomes increasingly frustrated, deciding to give it one final push.

Sadly, the careless action only backfires on her. Running a hand through her hair, Asami internally cries when she sees her papers scattered all across the floor, having lost both her grip and balance in the push.

Crouching down, Asami, as well as Shoko and Suguru, quickly begin to pick up the number of papers off the floor. Handing them over to the red headed-girl, Asami groans to herself, cursing her compulsive need to bring each and every one of her handwritten notes to class. Not to mention they were thorough notes, meaning she used more paper than the rest of her classmates.

Beginning to count her papers, Asami quickly scans the content of the sheets in her hands, frowning when she realizes she was missing one. Still in a crouched position, Asami spots the final paper under someone's foot.

And perhaps it was due to her subconscious mind irrationally telling her that it was Suguru's foot, that she had gone ahead and reached out for the piece of paper. Or maybe it was due to her partially forgetting where she and the white-haired boy stood. All she knew was that by the time she was reaching forward for it, a large hand had already picked up the thin sheet of paper.

That's because just like how Asami had forgotten about where they stood, Satoru did as well.

And for a small, everlasting moment, they stare at each other. Nothing but a tense silence filling the room.

Lips slightly parting, Asami's unable to say or do anything, having completely forgotten just how … intense … the boy's stare could be.

Meanwhile, Satoru holds onto the piece of paper while focusing his gaze on the girl's flushed appearance, unaware of how intimidating he appeared. Studying her features, Satoru notices how her nose and cheeks tinge pink, the corners of his lips twitching upward.

It'd been so long since he looked at her this up close, if not at all. It wasn't till right now of course that he realized just how exhausting it was to always have to actively avoid the girl, and just how easy it was to lose himself in her.

"I hate you."

The words begin to echo in Satoru's mind, crashing down on him like a ton of bricks, and breaking him out of whatever trance-like state he was in. Immediately turning away, he continues to hold the piece of paper out, his gaze no longer focused on her, but instead on the green chalkboard in front of him.

Slowly getting up from her crouched position, Asami gently grabs the piece of paper from his hand, politely bowing in the process, "Thank you Gojou-san," she whispers before quickly walking to her seat, trying her best to maintain her strong demeanor, despite knowing that deep down her heart was aching.

'No, this is what you wanted,' she tells herself, forcing herself to ignore the heavy feeling in her chest. She chose to say those … words … to him. She chose to put the blame on him. And most importantly, she chose for things to be like this.

And at the end of the day, there was just no taking back what she said. The same way, he couldn't take back his own choice of words. But each and every day in class, where there was now nothing but dull silence always filling the room, she found herself dwelling on her actions of that day, almost as if she ...regretted ...what she said.

Especially the days where the silence would become a little too much, and she'd remember just how much she used to look forward to coming to class, the sound of a certain someone's laughter never failing to make her day just a little brighter. Softly smiling, she recalls a memory from not too long ago…

Bubbling in the final bubble to her exam, Asami smiles in satisfaction when she reviews her answers, confident that she's gotten every question correct. Preparing to turn in her test, Asami raises a brow when she hears the sound of a scuffling chair, feeling as if she was being stared at.

Immediately frowning, she side-eyes the boy next to her, wanting to catch him in the act. Pretending to change an answer, she purposely leans over to her left side, knowing Satoru would stretch his neck out if it meant getting another question correct.

BOOM!

He falls to the floor, catching the attention of both his teacher and classmates, "Everything okay, Mr. Gojou?" their math teacher, who was over at Shoko's desk helping answer a question of hers, looks at the white-haired boy suspiciously,

Nervously scratching the back of his head, Satoru eagerly nods while giving his math teacher an enthusiastic thumbs up, "Everything is fine, Ohara-sensei!" he returns to his seat, face now red with embarrassment.

"Stop cheating off my test," Asami quietly hisses at him, disappointed in the fact that he hadn't been studying like she had told him to.

Sensing her disappointment, Satoru tries to defend himself, "I was too busy studying for the upcoming science exam that I let math completely pass by me," he says in a hushed tone, careful to not grab their teacher's attention.

Narrowing her eyes at him, Asami tries to detect if he's lying, stubborn to admit to herself that he wasn't. He had been working his ass off for science recently, so it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that he may have been focusing a little too much on it, while also forgetting to maintain his studies all-around.

"Come on Asami, just this once," he pleads to her, giving her the puppy dog eyes in an attempt to get her to agree.

Turning to where their sensei stood, Asami sees that the brown-haired woman was still too preoccupied with answering Shoko's question to pay attention to them.

"Mm," Asami mumbles, contemplating whether getting a potential 0 on the test was something she could afford. Then again, she was passing with an A plus, a 99% to be exact. Sighing, she rolls her eyes before tilting her paper in a way that gives him a better view. Not bothering to say anything, she lets her actions speak for themselves.

Grinning from ear to ear, Satoru quickly writes down the answers, while also purposely filling some bubbles in wrong. Reason being, was that he didn't want to raise any suspicions from their teacher when she was grading.

"I owe you," he whispers to Asami, giving her an even wider smile.

"Hmph," she quickly turns away, knowing her cheeks were on fire, "Just make sure you start studying more," she adds, making a mental note to add another tutoring session with him for later in the week.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, soon I'll be passing science and math with flying col—"

"I take it you two are done?" Mrs. Ohara towers over them, snatching their exams from their desks.

Eyes widening, the two students quietly nod, gulping when they see her review their exams.

"Hm," Mrs. Ohara's eyes narrow as she tries to look for any signs of cheating, glancing at her two students' nervous expression before pursing her lips.

Feeling a shiver run down their spines, Asami and Satoru prepare to admit to their wrongdoings. But when the strict-woman in fact points her finger at an unsuspecting Suguru, to say they were shocked was an understatement.

"Mr. Geto, hand me your test, right now," she commands, placing a hand to her hip.

Getting up from his seat, the curse-manipulation user hesitantly hands her the test, his jaw falling to the floor when she rips it into several tiny pieces using her own cursed energy.

"W-What the—"

She hops onto one of the many empty desks and begins to remove one of the ventilation lids, Suguru immediately begins to sweat when he realizes he's been caught red-handed. That's because as she removed the lid, a tiny fly-head flew out. A fly-head that only a certain curse-manipulation user could control….

"Just because I'm not a gifted sorcerer like you four, doesn't mean my abilities to sense cursed energy are any lesser than your own," Mrs. Ohara says, letting out a frustrated huff of air.

"..." Suguru gulps, awkwardly forcing the fly-head back into one of his little black curse balls, "Think I can have a make-up exam?" he hesitantly chuckles, and almost immediately Satoru's laugh could be heard from all corners of the room.

"YOU IDIOT!" Satoru wipes the forming tears from the corners of his eyes, receiving a harsh glare from his best friend, "Using a curse to cheat?! On a teacher who works with sorcerers! HA, everyone knows you have to use the good old method of—"

Asami quickly kicks Satoru's foot as a way to get him to shut up, the boy clearly unaware that he was about to rat himself out.

Shooting her a confused look, Satoru furrows his brows before meeting his teacher's glare.

"Good old method of what?"

He gulps, "Um … good old method of um… not cheating?" Satoru avoids eye-contact, hoping his answer was enough to have her hop off his back.

Sighing, the young woman places a hand to her temple, deciding she already had her hands full with Suguru's disregard for rules.

And so while Mrs. Ohara begins to give the young boy a loud scolding, Satoru and Asami attempt to hide their snickers by covering their mouths, teasingly sticking their tongue out to their friend as he receives an earful.

And to think this was only their first class of the day...

"Asami!"

The red head blinks in surprise, the tip of a yardstick being tapped onto her desk, catching her by complete surprise. Looking up, she sees a scowling Mrs. Ohara, who had been calling out to her for several minutes now.

Looking around, Asami's face reddens when she realizes that class had begun long ago, "I-I'm um," she stutters, feeling as if all eyes were on her, "I'm sorry, I um … zoned out for a bit…" she admits, knowing there was no way of getting out of this situation without telling the truth.

"Mm," Mrs. Ohara hums, deciding to continue on with the lesson, "Well as I was saying..."

And from there, the brown-haired woman continues on with her lesson, Asami still finding herself unable to focus. Attempting to scribble down some notes, Asami frowns when she sees a tiny doodle on one of the corners of the pages.

A doodle of a chibi Asami sitting next to chibi versions of her three other classmates, with things such as stars, rocket ships, and UFO's surrounding them. On the corner of the said doodle, were the initials "G.S"

"Gojou Satoru," Asami quietly whispers the name to herself, slowly turning her gaze to the boy she once called a friend.

And perhaps he had felt her stare, or maybe he had been thinking about her, just as much as she was thinking about him. All she knew was that for a small moment they were no longer strangers like they had declared themselves to be. They were simply Asami and Satoru. Two stubborn teenagers who used to share laughs with each other and bicker till the sun went down, now refusing to admit to their faults.

But as quick as the moment came, the faster it went away. Soon they were back to writing into their notebooks, preparing for their upcoming math exam, strangers once more.

Taking a deep breath in, Asami keeps her head lowered, understanding that this was just how things were now. And no matter how much she hated it, she was just going to have to deal with it because at the end of the day, this is what she had asked for. This is what she had wanted.

Ding. Dong.

"Okay, that's the bell everyone," Mrs. Ohara announces, her first-year students immediately packing their things up as they prepare to go to their next class.

Fixing her stacks of papers, Mrs. Ohara is suddenly reminded of something, quickly calling out to her top student in the class, "Asami," she says, grabbing the young girl's attention.

Placing her final book into her bag, Asami motions to Shoko to go on ahead without her, not wanting the girl to wait around for her.

Casually nodding, Shoko walks over to Suguru and Satoru, the trio then making their way to their science class, leaving Asami to herself.

"Yes, Ohara-sensei?" she politely asks, walking over to the woman's podium.

"I was hoping I could ask you for a huge favor," she begins, piquing Asami's curiosity, "As you know you're one of my top students in not only the first-year class, but all three years," she says, the redhead unable to stop herself from feeling a little smug.

"And based on Satoru's test scores these days, you also seem to have a knack for education and teaching others," Ms. Ohara adds, having once spotted Asami and Satoru during one of their tutoring sessions.

Softly blushing, Asami quickly denies the comment, "I um… I don't tutor him anymore," she feigns a laugh, "I haven't been for a while actually, so any high scores he's gotten have been based on his own merit."

"Ah I see," Mrs. Ohara says, chuckling when she notices the girl's flustered behavior, deciding to then move on with the conversation before her face gets any redder, "Well anyways, I was hoping that I could send you to tutor some students at Nakano Middle School."

Asami tilts her head in confusion.

"I have an old college friend who works for their after school program and he was telling me that recently, one of their tutors had quit on them. He asked if I knew anyone who could potentially fill in, and well the first person I thought of was…"

"Me?" Asami asks with uncertainty, lowering her gaze, "I don't know Mrs. Ohara…"

"It'd only be for two weeks at most. Just in the meantime that he finds someone else to fill in full time," she adds, having forgotten the most important part of the favor, "So, what do you say?"

Quietly sighing, Asami thinks of just how busy she already was.

Aside from all the missions and chaos going around her all the time, she still had to study for her winter finals which were about a month or two away. Of course, regular high school students got to study a week or two before, but because of her hectic schedule, Asami, along with the rest of her classmates, were always recommended to study several weeks prior to the exam date.

Did that mean they actually followed the recommendation? No, of course not. Well at least Suguru, Satoru, and Shoko didn't. Asami on the other hand, liked to get on top of things whenever she had the chance.

Then again, she was already passing all of her classes. It wasn't like she couldn't afford a mediocre test score. Not only that, but it was only for two weeks. Two weeks which would probably go by in the blink of an eye.

Sighing once more, Asami nods, ultimately deciding to take on the favor, "Okay, I'll do it," she says, a rare smile appearing on Mrs. Ohara's face.

"Great!" she makes a small clapping motion, "Tutoring starts at 4, so I'll meet you at the school parking lot at 3:30," she says, offering the young girl a ride.

Giving her teacher a small thumbs up, Asami smiles when she sees how enthusiastic her usually strict teacher becomes.

"Just a fair warning, these students are in tutoring for a reason," Ms. Ohara says, making Asami laugh.

"Eh what's the worst that could happen?" the red head says, not taking the woman's comment seriously, "Trust me, if I could handle Satoru, then I could definitely handle some…"

"...middle schoolers," Asami's eyes widen when she sees a pencil get thrown her way, immediately catching it with her fingers and throwing it back.

Hearing the group of boys laugh, Asami glares at them, ready to shout something from afar, "WHY YOU F—"

"Okada-sensei, we're done," the young girl, named Sora, says. Sitting beside her was her best friend Ryuu, a boy who Asami had learned in the past two weeks, was practically glued to Sora's side.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" Asami sighs, "It's not like I'm that much older than you guys, nor am I a credentialed teacher. Calling me Asami works just fine," she says, honorifics genuinely making her feel old. She was only what? Two years older than them?

It's not like they were toddlers. Then again, based on the pencils that had just been thrown at them, these kids definitely weren't fully fledged teenagers yet. You see, that was the thing about middle schoolers. They were in the middle transitioning to teens while still being stuck with the mentality of elementary kids. It was why shit like throwing pencils was still funny to them.

Grabbing Sora and Ryuu's practice tests, Asami skims through their answers, smiling when she sees they've gotten all of their answers correct. Offering them a high five, they glady connect their hands with hers while grabbing a piece of candy from her bag of sweets.

"Well, if I'm being honest, I think you two are more than ready for your final exams," Asami says, reviewing her mini gradebook and seeing their improved scores, "I'm really pr—"

Swoosh.

Asami covers her mouth with her hand in shock, disgusted by the spitballs in Sora's hair, "Oh my goodness…" she whispers, truly at a loss for words.

Mouth open in shock, Sora bites her lip before turning around and yelling at the group of boys, "HAHA very funny!" she glares at them, knowing she was completely defenseless. Ignoring their laughter, she begins to pick out the small pieces of paper from her black hair, Ryuu quietly helping her.

Frowning, Asami shakes her head, having already told the group of boys to leave Sora alone ever since she began to tutor here. They just simply didn't care. At times Asami wanted to scare them off with her cursed energy, but sadly she couldn't afford to rat herself out.

Instead the most she could do was…

"We should go to put in a report at the main office," Asami says for the hundredth time in the past two weeks, making Sora roll her eyes.

"Tch, like they care," she mumbles, "As long as Takashi," she glances at a caramel-colored hair boy, "is the principal's son, they won't ever call them out Okada-sensei."

Sighing, Asami shakes her head, not a fan of the blatant injustice, "Ryuu," she calls out the young, quiet boy.

Turning his attention to Asami, he politely waits for her to say something.

"Why don't you call them out on what they do?" Asami asks. The reason she was asking him was because Ryuu, despite being extremely quiet, had quite the intimidating appearance. Standing at 5'9, the boy already towered over the rest of his classmates despite being in the early stages of puberty. Not only that, but he had an extremely deep voice, almost reminding Asami of The Terminator.

"I'm sure if you were to say something, they'd leave Sora alone," Asami adds, the boy lowering his gaze.

"I-I—"

"It's not Ryuu's job to protect me," Sora interrupts him before he could speak, "But I'm sure if there's ever a situation that calls for it, Ryuu will be more than willing to protect me. Isn't that right, Ryuu?"

Ryuu determinedly nods.

Asami only remains silent, choosing to ignore the twisting feeling in her stomach. Glancing at the time on her phone, Asami sees that their time was up, "Well, it looks like that's all for tutoring today," she says, the two students immediately packing their bags and bidding farewell to the highschool girl.

"Thank you for all the lessons," Sora says, bowing to the red head, Ryuu following her lead, "We'll miss you," she adds, making Asami smile.

"I'll miss you two as well, and good luck on your upcoming final!"

From there, Sora and Ryuu run out the door, along with all the other students who'd stay for tutoring, some of them bidding farewell to the red-head and others simply walking past her.

Exhaling deeply, Asami begins to pack her things away, the sound of rain utterly catching her by surprise.

"Damn it," she mutters to herself, completely forgetting to bring a jacket. Not to mention, she had to take the bus back home, for Mrs. Ohara only gives her rides to the school, and not back. Walking towards the window, Asami takes a moment to enjoy the view, watching the rain splatter onto the cement floor, its light color becoming a dark grey.

Splish. Splash.

"I told you guys to leave Ryuu and I alone!" Asami overhears Sora's voice through the opened window, her gaze then landing on the short girl and her best friend, the group of boys who'd been bothering them now taunting them on the campus quad.

Eyebrows knitted, Asami observes the scene outside, heart racing when she sees one of the boys grab onto one of Sora's pigtails, taunting her for the childish hairdo. From there, Takashi, the principal's son, whispers something into Ryuu's ear, leaving him completely frozen in fear.

"So how'd you like our little gifts?" Takashi tauntingly asks Sora, referring to the spitballs.

"Like I said, very funny," she rolls her eyes, trying to get through him and his group of friends. But of course, they block her way.

"Oh look," Takashi grabs a loose strand of her hair, "You still have one…"

Snap.

Asami feels her heart drop when a black chunk of hair falls to the ground, the young boy having hidden a pair of scissors under his sleeve. And it seemed that Sora was in just as much of a state of shock, because for a small second, all she could do was stare at the wet piece of hair on the ground.

Unable to move Asami looks over to still-standing Ryuu, "Why isn't he doing anything," she whispers to herself, desperately wanting him to do something, for his best friend was now being ridiculed.

But from there the sound of a soft chuckle grabs Asami's attention, Sora now looking up at Takashi with a small smile on her face, "Well let me return the favor," she says, and before he knew it, he had spit on the right side of his cheek.

Squirming in disgust, the boy's green eyes practically become a furiocious color of black, wiping the spit from his cheek before saying, "You're gonna pay for that."

Eyes widening, Asami then hears the sound of scissors being played with, knowing exactly what the group of boys were about to do. Immediately running out the door of the classroom she was in, Asami zooms down the stairs, finally shaking off her state of shock.

Running down to the quad, Asami shouts from afar, "HEY!

Turning around, the boys' quickly make a run for it, the damage having already been done. Finally reaching Sora, Asami prepares to ask her if she was okay, but before she actually could, the newly short-haired girl was grabbing Ryuu's hands.

"Are you okay?" she frantically asks him, completely disregarding her own state of being.

Keeping his gaze lowered to the ground, Ryuu only remains silent, tears rolling down his cheeks as he pats Sora's hair, "Hey it's just hair," she reassures him, wanting to make sure that he was okay.

"Sora," Asami calls out to the girl, still unable to believe what she was seeing, "W-Why are you—"

Sora turns around, barely noticing the girl's presence.

"Aren't you mad at him?" Asami asks in complete disbelief, unable to stop herself from continuing to speak, "He just watched it happen," she says, no longer speaking as a tutor, but as a regular 15 year old girl, "He just let you get your hair chopped off!" her voice shakes, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"Why would I be mad at him?" Sora asks in confusion, "Like I said, it's not Ryuu's job to protect me," she reminds Asami.

"But he could if he wanted to! I mean look at—" Asami stops herself from continuing.

"Look at what? His size? His gruff appearance?" Sora furrows her brows, knowing exactly what Asami was trying to insinuate, "Ryuu go wait inside the building," Sora instructs him, the tall boy only nodding and walking away.

"You said it yourself, that if the situation came he'd protect you!" Asami says, her hair now becoming a dark shade of red due to the heavy pouring rain.

Sora scoffs, "Yeah, but I'm also not going to put the burden on him either!" she frowns, and Asami finds herself unable to say anything, this situation hitting a little too close to home.

"You know, just because he looks big and strong, doesn't mean Ryuu doesn't have his own weaknesses," she says, "He was scared and I can't blame him for that! Because at the end of the day, he's human too! And I'm not going to force him to do things on my behalf either!"

"I mean really? What's the point in having those eyes of yours if you can't bring yourself to finish the job."

And by then, Asami was unsure if the water rolling down her cheeks were from the rain or the corners of her eyes. All she knew was that in that moment, everything had changed.

"He's human too."

Asami slowly walks down the hallway to her dorm room, unable to shake off the young girl's words.

Hair still dripping from the rain, Asami finds herself too tired to even open the wooden door, instead choosing to slide against it and slump down to the floor.

Running a hand through her hair, she presses her head against the door, biting her lower lip as she remembers her words to Satoru and just how selfish she had been.

"People must forget you're human sometimes... " is what she had once said to him, and yet somehow, in the midst of it all, she had thrown those words out the window, allowing her anger and selfishness to cloud her feelings of empathy and morality.

She had been so focused on herself, that she completely disregarded what he must've felt. And in the end she had treated him like the one thing everyone else around him would see…

A weapon.

"Satoru wasn't raised like us. If anything, he was put in a golden cage of expectations and rules the moment he was born."

But he was still …. human.

A human who could feel guilt and compassion. A human who had likes and dislikes. A human whose laugh never failed to make Asami smile. A human who despite being the strongest sorcerer in the world, could be weak.

And weakness wasn't a bad thing. In fact, it's what made him human.

"None of this would've happened had I not chosen to trust in you. Had I not chosen to rely on someone ... so weak."

Asami buries her head in her hands, cursing herself for making him believe that was something to be ashamed of. God, was she an idiot. A completely selfish idiot.

"Asami?"

The red head looks up to see a worried Shoko.

"Is everything okay?" she asks, having just woken up from a nap.

Remaining silent, Asami attempts to suck up any forming tears, deciding that this wasn't the time to cry and dwell on her own stupid words. If anything, right now she needed to go see him. She needed to apologize.

Getting up from the floor, Asami smiles while wiping away the escaped tears, "I think…" she pauses for a moment, her cheeks softly blushing as she stubbornly forces the words out of her mouth, "I think I'm ready to talk to him," she whispers, catching Shoko by complete surprise.

Lips slightly parting, Shoko's eyes remain wide, "B-But I thought you were adamant on not speaking to him?"

Asami softly chuckles while shaking her head, "I was being stupid," she simply says, exhaling deeply as her eyes become glossy, "Stupid, selfish, idiotic, and the list goes on and on," she laughs, making Shoko smile, "And in the process I threw away something that was special to me."

That special thing being her friendship with Satoru.

A friendship she missed.

She missed the laughs. She missed the jokes. She missed the playful bickering. And most importantly, she missed … him.

Every single little thing about him. From the idiotic jokes to the smug attitude he often carried. He was simply one of a kind, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

DING.

Asami grabs her phone from her pocket, furrowing her brows when she sees that she's received a text from an unknown number. Quickly reading it, she finds herself taken back.

Tilting her head in confusion, Shoko waits for Asami to say something, choking on her own saliva when she hears her next couple of words.

"Satoru's gotten a new number?"

'Oh no,' Shoko thinks to herself, 'He didn't! Damn it, I told him to wait another week!'

"Him", in this case, being none other than Suguru.

"W-What?" the healer stutters.

"Yeah, he just texted me … I think. Told me to meet him at the rooftop in an hour," Asami explains, trying her best to ignore the fluttering feeling in her stomach.

Internally squirming, Shoko debates whether to tell Asami the truth, not wanting to kill the girl's elated mood, "Um…" she gulps, "...Yeah, I think he did. I overheard him saying something to Suguru about getting a new phone," she decides to stick with her partner-in-crime, making a mental note to smack him upside the head later on.

Attempting to hide her smile, Asami tries her best to act composed, her lips twitching upward, "I see…" she clears her throat, "Well then, I should change," she says, looking down at her wet clothes, "Wish me luck," she says before entering her room, giving a small wave of goodbye to her friend.

Hearing the door click, Shoko immediately sighs in relief, "Finally," she whispers to herself, knowing that things were finally going to go back to normal.

One Hour Later.

Anxiously waiting on the rooftop, Asami bites her lip as she glances at the time on her tiny flip phone, noting that it was five to eight. Knowing Satoru, he'd get here late despite it being him who had made the plans to begin with. That's because no matter who or what it was, you could always count on him to find some kind of excuse for his tardiness.

Tucking the loose strands of hair behind her ears, Asami tries to distract herself by focusing on anything but the door across from her. Walking around the square perimeter, Asami presses her feet onto the gravel floor, the emitted crunching sound being oddly satisfying.

To say she was nervous was an understatement. Even now she still had a million questions running through her head. Trying to calm herself down, she inhales a deep breath of air, telling herself that everything was going to be fine.

'It's not like anything has changed between us..' she lies to herself before deeply sighing. Who was she kidding? A lot had changed between the two. All because of her.

Inhaling deeply once again, Asami this time appreciates the crispiness of the air around her, the petrichor scent never failing to soothe her. By now her fingers were clammy at the thought of facing him, unsure of what she'd say or do.

Where would she begin? What would he say? Would he forgive her? Why did he reach out to her first? All of these questions ran in her mind, and yet none of them mattered. That's because to her all that mattered was—

The door suddenly opens.

Turning around, Asami is shocked when she sees Satoru standing in front of her. Not that there was anything different in his appearance. You see, the reason Asami was shocked was because Satoru was here ... early.

7:59.

Silently staring at one another, Asami studies the hardened expression on Satoru's face, a tense silence filling the air as they both find themselves unsure of what to say or do. This was the first time since their argument that they were seeing each other face to face and not due to some paper on the floor.

Gulping, Asami decides to go ahead and say something first, "So…" she avoids eye contact with the boy, "You um … wanted to talk?" she asks, Satoru's eyebrows immediately furrowing as a response.

"Huh?" he asks, his tone coming out ruder than intended, "You were the one who texted me," he says, Asami eyes widening at his words.

"I did?"

He scowls, "Yeah, you did," he pulls out his phone, showing her the unknown text message he had received, which read….

"Hey, it's Asami. I was hoping we could talk tonight at the rooftop. Meet me at 8."

And it's only then that Asami begins to connect the dots, recalling Shoko's change in behavior when she had asked about Satoru's phone number. Internally sighing, Asami tries her best not to show her disappointment, feeling a small tear in her heart.

"Ah, I see," she whispers to herself, but still loud enough for Satoru to hear.

"What?" he asks, still confused by everything.

"It's nothing," she hums.

"Mm," he mumbles, deciding not to press her on it.

They had been tricked. That much he understood.

And despite Asami having already come to the conclusion that she wanted to apologize, now that she knew Satoru wasn't here out of his own free will, she couldn't help but feel bummed out about it. The fact that he had been tricked into coming here made her feel wrong. It made her feel as if he was forced to be here.

Sighing, Satoru awkwardly looks around, not exactly wanting to stay here, but also not wanting to leave, even if her text message had been some kind of mistake. But after several minutes of silence, Satoru comes to the conclusion that it'd be best if he left.

Preparing to walk away, he opens his mouth to say goodbye, "I'm gon—"

"Still think we can talk?" she interrupts him before he could continue, deciding that if they were going to talk, it'd be because he wanted to be here just as much as she did. She was reaching her hand out to him, but in the end, it was up to him to grab onto it.

And for a small second, Satoru seems genuinely surprised by the question, his eyes widening by the slightest bit before returning to their cold gaze.

Stubbornly looking away, Satoru crosses his arms, "About?" he huffs, making the redhead quietly chuckle under her breath.

"Us," she says, "I understand if you don't want to though," she lowers her gaze to the ground, causing Satoru to internally groan. Damn her.

Remaining silent, Satoru begrudgingly makes his way over to the edge of the building, plopping himself to the floor as he finds himself unable to deny the girl.

Staring at the boy in shock, Asami practically runs over to him, sitting right beside him as she dangles her feet.

Flustered at how close she was, Satoru awkwardly clears his throat before saying something, "So…" he keeps his gaze ahead, staring at the view of the forest, "How have you been?" he asks, deciding to make small talk.

Laughing at his awkwardness, Asami smiles at him, "I've been good," she answers honestly, "And you?"

"I've been good as well," he says in return, "I hear you've been tutoring some brats," he mentions, having overheard Suguru and Shoko's conversation in class.

"I have," Asami chuckles, "Today was my last day though," she says, "But I have to say for a final day, it was quite … eventful."

Satoru subtly raises a brow, "What happened?"

"I don't really want to get into the details. What I will say is that it reminded me of a certain situation from the past," Asami says, Satoru immediately understanding the connotation to her words.

Remaining silent, he sees the way her eyes water, the guilt that had been accumulating since the incident beginning to reappear in his heart, "Asami—"

"I'm sorry," her voice shakes, tears threatening to spill from her eyes as she asks for forgiveness, "For everything," she shakes her head, refusing to cry in front of him.

"Asami," he sighs, "You shouldn't—"

"No," she cuts him off, "I was angry," she says, deciding that she was going to tell him everything.

"I was angry because I thought that by having you kill that woman, I'd get to be free of the burden of killing. I also thought it'd be okay to be selfish and hand you the burden because you are the strongest. But it's not," she states, recalling her feelings from that day, "Because at the end of the day, you're human. Just like me."

Satoru clenches his jaw, recalling how confident he'd been in his willingness to kill, "But I'm also a sorcerer," he says, "A sorcerer whose job is supposed to be killing curse-users," he tightens his fist, still disappointed with himself for his hesitancy.

"Curse users who are trying to kill you," Asami corrects him, "Not the ones who are trying to kill me," she says, giving him a soft smile, "I had told you in our argument that my mistake had been relying on you. And though at the time I said it with a vindictiveness, I still stand by my statement."

Satoru furrows his brows, his ego taking a slight hit.

Sensing his disappointment, Asami grabs his hand as a way to reassure him, "It's not that I don't want to rely on you Satoru," she says his name for the first time in weeks, "It's that I know I shouldn't. The same goes for you relying on me, though, I doubt a situation like that will ever arise," she jokes around, his lips slowly curving upwards.

"As sorcerers, we have to fight for ourselves. And I think the reason you couldn't kill her was because she wasn't threatening your life, she was threatening mine. You didn't have the drive in that moment, but I'm sure the day you do, it'll come easy to you," she says, "Of course not that I want you to kill anyone or anything, but like I said, it's inevitable that the situation will arise. And when it does, you'll know what to do, and it'll feel … right."

'Incredible,' Satoru thinks to himself, because just like that, the massive weight he had felt on his shoulders for the past several weeks was gone.

"You know, I think I'm starting to realize that to be a jujutsu sorcerer, we have to be cold-hearted, not heartless," Asami softly chuckles, "Don't you think?"

And like music to her ears, Satoru laughs, a lopsided smile appearing on his face, "Maybe, maybe not," he teases her, making her shake her head.

Tugging at his hand, she guides their conversation back to topic, "Satoru, I said things I didn't mean that day I came back from Okayama. And I can't force you to forgive me, but I truly am sorry. And I would want nothing more than to be your friend again, if that's okay with you?" she stares at him with soft eyes, unaware of just how wrapped she had him around her finger.

"Hmmmmm," he places a finger to his chin, "Let me think," he says, pretending to be in deep thought.

Rolling her eyes, Asami only laughs.

But as he pretends to think, something does come to mind. A three worded sentence that had genuinely hit him in the core. Enough that he was convinced he had a newly found heart of steel.

"I hate you."

"Asami," he turns to face her, wanting to carefully observe her reaction to his question.

"Yes?" she asks, noticing his solemn expression.

"Do you hate me?"

And almost immediately, Asami frowns. It was in a moment like this that Asami was sure actions would speak louder than words, her eyes unable to help themselves from glancing at his lips.

'One step at a time,' she tells herself, reminding herself that they had to officially make-up as friends before jumping into other things. Especially considering she wasn't sure if her feelings were one sided or not. So instead, she'd choose to convey her personal feelings in a more "friendly" manner.

Having been silent for a moment now, Satoru feels his heart slightly twist, wondering what was taking her so long to respond, and if her silence equaled hatred.

"Satoru, I could never hate you," she says before throwing herself at him and wrapping her arms around his neck, whispering, "I missed you," into his ear, his face burning red as a result.

Slowly warming up to her touch, Satoru hesitantly places his hands around her waist, before gently squeezing back, catching a good whiff of her strawberry-scented shampoo, "I missed you too," he says, two idiotic grins appearing on their faces when they finally pull away.

"By the way," Satoru decides to add one final thing, "I know you said that as sorcerers we fight for ourselves and I get that, I won't interfere with your missions," he states, "But if a situation like that ever comes up again, I promise, I'll be sure to save you, each and every time."

Asami sighs, knowing promises like that would only lead to problems, "Satoru—"

"I'm being serious," he cut her off, making Asami laugh.

"Fine, whatever helps you sleep at night," she leans her head into the crook of his neck while swinging her feet back and forth. And just like that their night ends, together once more...

That's because through it all, Asami and Satoru would always find their way back to each other.

SMALL BONUS SCENE:

"So what happened that was so eventful?" Satoru asks, still curious to know about the tutoring session.

"Do you really wanna know?"

Satoru nods, and from there Asami explains everything, Satoru frowning as he listens to the story.

"So …. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Asami asks, and Satoru only smirks.

"You betcha," he gives her a toothy grin….

"Ha, I still can't believe you cut her hair," one of Takashi's friends says while walking alongside the middle school bully.

"Yeah, well," Takashi nonchalantly shrugs while taking off the wrapper to his dango, "Come on you guys'. Let's take this shortcut," he commands his friends, entering an alley.

But the moment they do, a death-creeping chill runs down their spine. Turning around, their eyes widen when they see a tall boy with white hair and blue eyes blocking the entrance.

"W-What the," one of the boys' stutter, the group of 5 preparing to make a run for it. That is until they turn around and see their tutor, who was technically … no longer their tutor. Right now, she was just a high schooler who was two years older than them.

Simultaneously gulping, the boys' see the two teens crack their knuckles, immediately knowing they weren't getting out this so easy…

Clutching onto her stomach, Sora pulls out her flip phone to take a picture of the sight in front of her, Ryuu quietly laughing alongside her.

"Dad, it hurts!" Takashi yells at his father, who (along with the school staff) were currently figuring out a way to get him and his friends off the school poles, having been given the ultimate wedgies by "unknown culprits." Or at least that's what they were scared into saying.

Shaking her head, Sora smirks while thinking of a certain red-head, "Not bad," she whispers to herself, "Not bad at all."

A/N:

Yay! They've made up and are back to being friends! Told yall it wouldn't stretch out too much lol. It's currently 3 AM where I live so apologies for any grammar mistakes, I already double checked most things, but since I'm like half asleep, I'm sure some things went missed by my naked eye/ear (since I use a TTS reader to read back to me). I wanted this chapter to focus on their friendship and just how important it is to both of them, but mostly on Asami's side. Rather than that, I don't have much to say on this chapter, just hope you guys enjoyed it! :) I am now providing chapter progress updates on my profile, so if you're curious to know how a chapter is coming along and when it'll be posted then please head there! This should lower the number of "When are you updating?" questions lol!