35 Worlds Apart- No (2/2)
”I could remember the shock in her eyes. I think she was waiting for her boyfriend.” Ruby opened her eyes and stared at the wall before her, as if seeing another glimpse of the past. ”Her eyes never left me until the man took her away under his umbrella. He was with this other girl you knew; Wakaba, was it?”
”Did she call you?”
”Hm? Yes, she greeted me and offered me their spare umbrella. Tohru shared with the man after all.” The queen leaned against the cool table, her uniform already dried from the wind and the time they had spent there.
'Council president?' Ruby remembered the first words she heard from Tohru after almost three years of separation.
”Your fight with her... is connected to this?” Arata hummed as he dug inside his bag. ”The one last Tuesday?”
”Y-Yes. My birthday is in three weeks, and so my father asked me to invite some people from our school.” She hooked some hair behind her ear. ”I'm sorry if I did not prioritize inviting you. I was hoping you were not hard to convince to come.”
”You invited Tohru?”
Ruby sighed and ran her hand through her hair as if finding the mood to attend to it by then. ”Yes. It had been a while; and since you will be there, perhaps she might want to come. The other girls would be there, too, I guess.” She smiled at a small thought. ”I was planning to have a grand one this year because of everything I had achieved. Especially because you are here with me.”
”Tell me when! I'll give you a good gift!” Arata laughed before pulling out two Minis from his inventory. It was the same pair he let Tohru keep. ”I got these from somewhere. Do you want to have them?”
”It's Tohru...” She ignored the other one and took Tohru Mini from his hand. She stared at it for a while before looking at the other one. Ruby twitched as she saw herself as a small stuffed toy. She took it, but she gave suspicious eyes at the man. ”You commissioned someone to make these for you? How shameless.”
”Well, you can say so.” He laughed out. He reached out and took her head and rested it against the crook of his neck. ”I'm sorry things had gone for the worse. If you like, I'll talk to Tohru for you.”
”It's fine. I took her rejection.” She smiled at Arata, before leaning forward to kiss his cheek. ”You're so kind, Arata. You're lucky Attei can stop herself from slitting the throats of all the girls you talk to.”
”Yeah, I'm so lucky she' understanding.” He petted Ruby before staring directly on her eyes. He received a peck on his lips, but it was all he got. It was satisfactory though, and so he pulled away and watched her muse over the Tohru Mini. ”You must have missed her a lot.”
”...She's more than a bitch Attei will ever be, but she's still the person who understood me the most.” Ruby hummed, soon reaching for her bag and dropping the chains inside. ”However, our friendship had been soiled. There's no way for us to be how we were before.”
As Ruby spoke, Arata's gaze went to something else. A woman walked under the roof and stood nearby the maroon-haired lady, listening to her. She then lifted the dripping umbrella and tilted it just above Ruby, spilling some rain water on her drying hair. The queen screamed as she felt the kiss of sold water yet again.
”Ew, seeing you so sentimental.” Tohru laughed out as she swiped the umbrella away from reach of the queen. The jerk lifted her gaze to the man who stood up as the queen screamed. ”Someone called me and asked what I told you, Acchan. She knew you aren't home yet- so I came to get you.”
”How dare you wet me with your umbrella!” Ruby abruptly got up and yelled at her. ”And I don't need you to take me home!”
”Whoa, easy. The cab is for Acchan.” Tohru made the most ridiculing face she could make to rile the queen. ”Who said I came to fetch you?”
Ruby's breath hitched before taking a deep breath. She picked up her bag and hugged it before turning away from the two. ”Alright then. I'll just wait out the rain on my own.”
”I can-”
”Nah, your girl's off to check your house. Go home, god of the living!” Tohru waved her hand as if dismissing the man, even to the point of cutting him off from talking.
Arata glared at the she-jerk to complain, but the look her smug face dissolved into made him quiet. He only sighed and whisper as he passed her by. He ran up to the street and looked at the two women at the wet banks. He stared at their images, hoping that they would only be talking. He had not heard any notifications for a while, so he was scared a Challenge mode might happen.
Honk! The cab sounded its horn, only to make Arata leave them in good faith. He got into the car, and felt it drive away from the Magazine Bay. He brought out his phone and sent a message to Tohru.
The phone in her pocket vibrated. The she-jerk looked down at it, but she only pressed it through the fabric. She looked at the other girl before her. ”Acchan must be very worried. Haha, but he still went to meet his girlfriend. Doesn't that make it feel funny for you?”
”I don't care about what you think.” Ruby huffed, taking a deep breath. She sat on the table they hid and turned to Tohru. ”So why did you stay?”
”...” -Tohru stared at the dark horizon- ”I realized I don't belong next to Keita... so I came to your school to diss on you and your job in the council.” She laughed for a second before turning to face her once best friend. ”It's just now that it hit me... I just kinda wanna see you.” She did an apologetic squirm towards her. ”Do you want to sing the night away, Ruru?”
”How irresponsible.” The school queen sighed with a glare. She huffed as she whipped her hair back and fixed her soaked uniform.
Ruby wore her bag and walked towards the other girl. Tohru opened the umbrella and let her walk beside her as they shared it. They continued to walk in silence, feeling the calmer yet cooler winds of the night.
However, Tohru twitched aloud. ”Damn, I forgot to ask money from Arata!”