215 Chapter one, 2016, rainy days: 7 (1/2)
Kyoko pulled Kuri-chan aside as soon as they left their classroom for lunch.
”What are you going to do about it?”
Kuri-chan didn't answer but for a shrug.
Waiting for their classmates to disappear down the stairs Kyoko held on to Kuri-chan's blazer. ”Please! Our class knows you're going out with Urufu, but the rest of the school?”
With irritation clearly showing in her face Kuri-chan shrugged again. ”Ko-chan, most of the school knows,” she said.
That might be true. With Kuri-chan rising to national stardom the students at Himekaizen were bound to have heard that the photo model had her boyfriend in the other wing. Still, being caught by paparazzi when he left her apartment gave birth to all kinds of rumours, and what was worse, Kuri-chan didn't deny any of them. Rather she had a satisfied smile glued to her face mixed with an aura of absent-minded happiness whenever she spaced out.
”Let's have lunch,” Kyoko said and led her friend to the stairwell. ”Cafeteria mystery food?” The question originated from an occasion early summer when Urufu loudly wondered which specific species of rodent made up most of whatever served as meat. Luckily enough he had done so in English, or the entire gang of friends would have been called to a disciplinary meeting.
They walked down the stairs, indoor shoes slapping against concrete, until they made their way to the main corridor feeding cafeteria, shoe-lockers and vending machines. Sometime during their descent Kuri-chan agreed to the extra mysterious food, and they voided the cafeteria in favour of the vending machines.
Given the taste of what those machines spewed out Kyoko felt rather certain rodents were too high class to make it into the menu, but it was cheaper and quicker than the cafeteria. More so now when she had made certain they'd arrive last of all students.
She defiled a few coins and received something more suitable to use as replacement PE shoes than eating. To her it mattered little as her stomach had always been a good substitute for a recycling unit of hazardous material. Kuri-chan was no better. Despite a life spent with enough money to run a small city her feeding habits were atrocious enough to make Kyoko grimace.
”Classroom?”
Kuri-chan nodded and they returned the same way they had come.
”Look,” Kuri-chan said, ”I understand you're worried, but I'll fight for him some more.”
'Some more?' Those two words birthed a chill in Kyoko she hadn't expected. Kuri-chan and Urufu were invincible. They didn't lose to anyone.
”If they really manage to find a way to destroy our lives if we don't part ways...” Suddenly Kuri-chan's voice was the only thing that disturbed the rhythmic tapping of their shoes on the stairs. ”If that days comes I'll break up and break down.”