If there was one person that Akemi would have liked to avoid, coming home with her head this heavy and this swollen, it was her older sister. A few complaints from her parents about the time she was coming home had reached her, amidst the sweet words of the argument they seemed to have, in as usual, but they didn't seem to pay any more attention to her condition. Misaki, however, had frozen in the upstairs hallway when she saw her.

"Did you get run over?" she asked, squinting at the bump on the right side of her black hair.

"Ah, ah, how funny. I only hit my head."

"Hit? Wait, you threw yourself on a wall, y'mean?" Misaki added, breaking the meter that separated them to put her hand on the skull of her younger sister.

The pain woke up at this rough and not delicate contact, and it was the grin that stretched her sister's that finished to stir up Akemi's annoyance. However, this evening, she surely did not want to use the small amount of energy she had left in a stupid and useless brotherly quarrel.

"Yes yes, I threw myself on a wall," she surrendered in a sigh. "Now move, I'd like to go to my room and die there, please."

A laugh escaped Misaki's lips; less mocking and more compassionate, which harmonized the features of her face, just as those of the younger Fumiya were gradually relaxing. Two years older than her, the physical similarities were as obvious as they were disturbing. Whether it was their azure eyes, their slim noses or the dimples that appeared above their cheekbones with their facial expressions, everything seemed to indicate the blood link that united them. Almost everything. It was often while observing her sister's long, black, and well-groomed hair that Akemi regretted having to keep hers short enough to play volleyball during her middle school years.

Especially since Misaki seemed to be the only one to have inherited an adequate size for this sport. Because if she had been lucky enough to exceed one hundred and sixty-five centimeters, a more than correct size for a girl, Akemi, as for her, had never reached the meter sixty.

So with all that, she was just her sister's scale model.

"So you won't tell me what happened?" Misaki asked empathetically.

"It's no use, it's nothing serious, don't worry. More important, won't you tell me why mom and dad are quarrelling again?"

The high school girl pushed open the door of her room at these words, as if to enjoin her sister to tell her more about the situation, away from the ears that might be lurking around – ears that were not paying the slightest attention to them, as they well knew.

"I don't know, they were already arguing when I got home not long ago. I think dad left his stuff lying around or something... Gotta admit I slipped away upstairs without trying to figure out."

"They're such a pain, they look like teens," Akemi said, putting her bag on the chair of her desk.

Misaki just shrugged her shoulders in response. They were both used to it by now. For the past few weeks, or even months, this was the rhythm of their daily life at home: a few words that were anything but delicate would sound from the first floor, only to be replaced by silence, before starting again.

"Well, you still don't want to tell me what you did to your head? Because you're whiter than an aspirin tablet, you're kinda worrying me."

"I got hit by a volleyball," the youngest admitted after long seconds of hesitation, before slumping down on her bed. When she raised her head to look at Misaki's face, she didn't miss the mocking quiver of her lips.

I knew I shouldn't have told her.

"Was it Ricchan?"

"No, someone from the guys' team. A fucking spike serve".

"Your language, Akemi."

She rolled her eyes. This conversation was already beginning to drain her last strength. She might as well cut it short now.

- Yes, yes. Well, I'm gonna sleep a little, I got a terrible headache, please wake me up for dinner."

Misaki agreed with a significant nod of her head, before heading for the bedroom door. She stopped in the doorway as her sister, aware of her presence, opened her eyes to observe her. Her lips opened and closed several times, a sign that she obviously had something to say before leaving the room.

"Grandma invited us to dinner this weekend. I accepted, so don't plan anything."

All of Akemi's implied complaints and protests echoed through the long sigh that escaped her at these words. It was clearly the news she didn't need to know, or at least not tonight, and that was enough to finish her off.

"Only the two of us, I guess?"

"As usual," Misaki answered with a shrug, before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

It wasn't that Akemi didn't get along with her maternal grandmother; it was rather that the words she was entitled to, every time they ate there, used to cut her appetite. Whether it was the sometimes rather acerbic words about the "not very feminine" sport she was playing in middle school, the fact that she still didn't have a boyfriend, or even simply the situation between their two parents – who were never invited to their side since the family quarrels that had broken their family years ago: Akemi usually left with her head ready to be used as a piñata.

Exactly as it was at this very moment. So she could say with certainty that she was not ready to undergo it again.


Autumn was a strange season, and so were the changing moods it provoked in everyone. But if there was one weather phenomenon that everyone more or less agreed on, it was the gloom of the rain. Akemi had watched the droplets fall on the windowpane almost all morning. Far from the storm she hated; sometimes so loud that they partly covered the teachers' voices, sometimes much quieter, just to remind their continuous presence.

And even now, they kept falling, oozing with rapidity along the windows of the cafeteria, in front of which Akemi was waiting for Nagano Ritsuka. And she didn't have to wait long before her best friend's chestnut hair passed through the crowd of more or less hurried students. With a smile on her lips, Ritsuka reached her, her emerald eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

"Oh, you've tied your hair."

Too quickly for Akemi to have time to react, she put her hand to pat the bun made in order to hide the bump of the previous day – because yes, despite all her prayers, it had not deflated during the night. The pain until then stifled, although attenuated, was felt throughout all her head at this contact, however innocent, and the grimace which stretched her face did not escape to Ritsuka.

"What's wrong? You're hurt?"

"You don't wanna know," Akemi sighed, even though she knew her friend would want to know about it, as they entered the cafeteria to find an empty table.

The hubbub of conversation mingled with the din of the deluge outside, to bring an even more autumnal and darkened atmosphere to the place. Both in two different classes because of their one-year age difference, they used to often meet for lunch. Sometimes in the cafeteria, like today, sometimes outside when the weather allowed it, and sometimes, as a last resort, in Akemi's classroom.

"And so?" Ritsuka asked as soon as they had found a table.

Her green gaze slid towards her friend's black bun, heavy with meaning. A pall of worry shaded her face for a few seconds, and it didn't take Akemi long to figure out what she was thinking: with all the arguments her parents had been having over the past few weeks, Ritsuka was obviously worried that something might happen to her inadvertently – and even if it didn't, she at least deserved an explanation.

"I didn't plan on telling anyone about this, but well," she surrendered in a sigh. "Yesterday after school, I went to get my train card that I forgot in the locker room... And I got hit by a volley-ball when I entered the gym."

She frowned as she saw her best friend's jaw clench, a sign that she was obviously holding back from laughing.

"Right when I came in!" she tried to defend herself by swelling her cheeks. "A spike serve..."

"So you're hiding a big lump under your bun?"

"Basically, yeah."

A spontaneous laugh escaped Ritsuka at the thought of the scene that must have taken place, as soon as it crossed her mind. A few faces turned in their direction at the noise that had obviously pierced the din of the cafeteria, so she quickly regained her composure, uncomfortable at the idea of drawing attention to themselves. However, in front of the tense and sulky pout of an Akemi undoubtedly offended, her smile did not die out for all that.

"You're laughing but I could have died!"

"Ain't you exaggerating a bit?"

"Maybe a bit, like a little little bit. I mean, I'm ashamed and I feel like I vaguely remember it, but I think if Kita-senpai hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have done.

Ritsuka's face froze instantly at her words. The smile that had stretched her lips a split second earlier vanished, as she blinked repeatedly.

"Ricchan?"

"Kita-san was there?"

"Of course, he's the captain. Ricchan, what's with that face? What's wrong with Kita-senpai?"

In an almost imperceptible way, the older girl's cheekbones turned pink, which immediately drew Akemi's attention. Ritsuka tended to be rather reserved, but after all these years spent by her side, she was the most willing to read through the expressions in her eyes.

And this expression, she had no doubt about what it meant.

"Nooo... Don't tell me you have a crush on Kita-senpai?"

Ritsuka didn't even have to bother to formulate an answer: the intensification of her blushes spoke for her. And even though nobody around them seemed to pay any attention to their conversation – the rain was covering their voices anyway – she covered her best friend's mouth with her palm.

"Not that loud, Aki!"

"Wait, but for real?"

The look on her face was very meaningful. Ritsuka had also been hit by a volley-ball, there was no other possible explanation for this revelation out of nowhere.


Hey! I'm glad I can finally present Akemi a little bit more, as she kinda had time to recover hehe~ I'm also happy to introduce her best friend, Ritsuka! I hope you'll like them c:
And I hope you liked this chapter :D don't hesitate to fav/follow, and to leave a review, it would mean a lot for me :)