Notes: Yeah, pretty short I know. I would write something longer, but sadly enough, this is the best thing I've got right now.
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"Now, here we go! Ten! Nine! Ei—"
Click.
It's like this every year. Not that he really cares, mind you.
---
"Happy New Year!" Loudly, from the apartment above.
It's not as if he actually wishes to attend those parties. This is what he tells himself as he lays in bed, pillow over his head to muffle the sounds of other people enjoying themselves a few feet above.
---
Soon a slow song begins, and he knows she is dancing close with someone else on the other side of town. He tells himself it doesn't matter and that it is not as if he cares. He also tells himself his eyes are just reacting to the nonexistent dust in his room.
---
It's just not logical, he tells himself with forced contempt on his face when he wakes up in the morning and sees the fallout from last night's welcoming of the new year when he opens his door.
---
He sees them together through a large store window on his way across town later that day. He tells himself the blush on her face means nothing, and that he is just becoming tired from his walk, why else would he be so out of breath? He also tells himself Kurosaki's slightly reddened expression means nothing as well. She had probably just spilled something on his shirt. Yes. That had to be it. He turns away just in time to miss the look of love in her eyes and pointedly ignores the entirely different way the two now interact.
---
He tells himself it doesn't mean anything. He tells himself she's only a classmate. He tells himself it doesn't matter. He tells himself it makes no difference who she is with.
He tells himself he never had a chance in the first place.
Yes, Ishida tells himself many things.