Sugar-coated Love (Kuroko no Basuke Fanfiction)

10: Pain and Change

Fujima Yumi's POV

"Another letter?" Tatsuya asked with a frown as he peeked through my shoulder to see what I was holding.

Heaving a deep sigh, I stashed the piece of folded paper inside my bag then carefully closed my locker. "Yeah."

Seeing love letters in my locker had been kind of normal ever since I came to Yosen a few days ago. I wasn't really expecting a peaceful high school life, but I didn't know it would be this hard being at school every day.

Tatsuya hummed. "Must be tough, huh?"

Since becoming a model was a choice I had to make for Ethan and not really for myself, yeah, it was indeed tough. And actually, at first, I really had a hard time coping up with this kind of life because I was used to being treated like a dirt or a pathetic kid who couldn't do anything by herself. But now, it's different. Like suddenly, everybody was dying to please me.

"Not if she likes it. It's pretty amazing how cheap models gather so much attention just by posing for the camera. Keep up the good work, Stalker-chin."

Both of us turned to Atsushi in surprise when we heard what he said. But before one of us could say something again, he left and ignored Tatsuya's calls.

"Seriously," he muttered as he glared at Atsushi's retreating figure, "Where did that come from?"

I forced a sly smile on my lips, ignoring the pain that was starting to build up in my chest. "Just let him. Maybe he got annoyed."

"With what? It's not like he's the one receiving love letters, though. You are."

I pondered for a good minute, realizing that Tatsuya did have a point. I should be the one getting annoyed, not Atsushi. In any case, he was gone now and maybe he went to the convenience store again to buy snacks.

"Sometimes, I really don't get him at all," Tatsuya added, shaking his head with a completely disappointed look on his face, "I thought he still cares about you even after everything that happened in the past, but the way he's been treating you now is way too cold. And calling you 'cheap'? That's unforgivable."

I averted his gaze and decided to finally make my way to the basketball gym for practice. Tatsuya followed.

Just when I thought that I've finally softened up his heart, Atsushi started to treat me even more colder than usual. The last conversation we had was that time we exchanged text messages when I invited him and the others to play basketball this weekend. Then the morning after that, it felt like there was a big iron wall I couldn't climb in between us. He suddenly seemed so far out of reach.

And I didn't know why...

"I can't blame him," I said, "After all, it's my fault."

"You suffered, too. Both physically and emotionally." He sounded so mad that it was starting to worry me. "I was there, I saw what you had to go through. When you left Atsushi, you practically died."

I came to an abrupt halt as hot tears blurred my sight.

"Even from the start, you've been so unfair. You didn't tell him the truth so he wouldn't worry, you tried to endure all the pain so he could keep smiling, and now you're trying to take all the blame to keep him from finding out the truth that he was a big idiot for not noticing your suffering back then," Tatsuya added with force, stopping on his tracks and giving me a worried stare, "But who will worry for you, Yumi? I do. Stop sugarcoating every little thing and situation for Atsushi."

Tears streamed down to my cheeks as I struggled to keep my sobs at bay. "Am I stupid for doing this?"

"Yes."