VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter nineteen

Besides, the dance is coming up quickly. It's only one more week. If anything, that's when they can 'make a statement' that they're dating.

So, it's fine.

But she still lowers her eyes back to her sketchbook, finishing a sketch of a lotería card. She may manage to live with it now but she doesn't exactly like having to watch girls come up to him.

"Chris," the girl stops at their table. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Ah, sure," he agrees amiably, setting his pencil down and standing, the chair scraping against the tiled floor.

She waits until they're walking back to the entrance to raise her eyes, watching the swish of the girl's ponytail and the long line of Chris' back as they disappear out the door.

Chiyo sidles up to her desk. "I think you guys should make a big scene that tells the girls he's taken."

"I'm not doing that," she mutters. "That's childish."

"And sulking to yourself isn't?"

"No, because I'm not disturbing anyone else but myself." Amara looks up at her. "Did you come here just to be annoying?"

"No, that was an added bonus. I wanted to know if you wanna come with me, Hiro, Hatanaka, and Chinen to go dress shopping today after school?"

Chris enters the class again, looking composed as usual. Her eyes cling to him.

"Sure," she says distractedly. "Sounds fun."

"Cool." Chiyo turns but before she can return to her seat, Chris stops her.

Amara catches snippets of their conversation, something about a study guide for their entrance exams, and she lowers her eyes back to her sketchbook, shading in another part.

When they finish their conversation, their modern literature teacher enters the class and people start to return to their seats.

Chiyo turns around for a fleeting second, addressing Amara, "Meet at my dorm after school."

Amara nods and she goes back to her seat.

Chris sits down next to her and she puts away her sketchbook, focusing on their teacher as he starts going over the plan for today's class.

"What was that about?" He asks quietly.

"Oh, they want to go dress shopping," she says nonchalantly, flipping open her notebook to a clean page.

"Ah."

"What did that girl want?" She asks after a couple minutes.

He shrugs slightly. "Usual dance proposal." He pauses. "Usual rejection. You know how it's been."

I do.

And she shouldn't be so pleased about him rejecting her, but it makes it easier, for a few minutes, to drown out those reaching voices of self-doubt.

Which makes her miss the long look he gives her after she doesn't respond.

❖

They're halfway to Shibuya when Hatanaka innocently asks about the essay they'd been assigned in English and she realizes her mistake.

"Crap," she groans.

Hiro glances at her while Chiyo tells them that she's halfway done with it.

"What's wrong?" She asks, eyebrow furrowed.