Dandelions | Yuki Ishikawa

Cancer

Yuki's POV...

I haven't had a good sleep since Christmas. Every night all I did was think about her... Mio. How is she? Is she doing alright? Is she eating well? Maybe if she answer her phone then I wouldn't be like this. Why am I like this to begin with? I'm with Kasumi, she's moving to Tokyo for university. We'll make this work.

School started and I was going to walk with her to school, but as I rounded the corner to her place, I saw her walking away already. She seemed different. I don't what it is, but there's just something different about her. When we got to school, she was greeted by Atsuki-san, I guess they're friends now. I feel like I missed out on a lot of things.

I entered the classroom and barely recognized her. Her used to be long hair is now short... barely touching her shoulder, it was... asymmetrical... longer in the front, shorter in the back. How did I not notice that earlier? Wait... she has a scarf wrapped around her neck and the majority of hair was tucked in it.

"Mio-chan, you look so cute with the haircut!" I heard someone say from the door. I turned to see Shimada waving at her, she smiled and waved back. Since when did they get into first name basis? How much did I miss?

She sat down on her table and I couldn't help but look back a few times to check her.

"Checking out Mio, I see" I heard Atsuki-san say. I quickly turned around and look at her.

"What exactly happened? How much did I miss? Since when are you two close?" I asked.

"You happened and you missed out on a lot"

"Shimada and her are on a first name basis now? Since when?"

"That was a few days ago, we went to an onsen with a few friends including Shimada and I guess they got close"

"Wait... nobody invited me and her and Shimada?"

She leaned forward and said, "Yeah, we're not dealing with Sato-san and besides... Mio needs to get over you and having you there isn't going to help"

"Get over me?"

"If you still don't get it, then you're stupider than I thought"

Class started and I looked back at her one more time. She looked up and we made eye contact, I smiled at her... I didn't get anything back, no smile or wave, instead she looked back down on her notebook. I have to find out what's going on.

It was lunch when I decided to talk to her. When she was about to leave the room, I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her somewhere.

"Hey! What the heck, Yuki? Let me go," I heard her complain, I was not going to let her go.

We ended up at the rooftop. It was a bad idea since we both don't have our winter coat. I stood by the door just in case she runs.

"What do you want? Make it quick since it's freezing" she said, she was hugging herself, keeping herself warm.

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean 'what's going?'?"

"You and Shimada? Atsuki-san? The hair?"

"Aki-san, Momo-san, and I are friends" she said.

"Last I checked you slapped Shimada and you were beaten up by Atsuki-san's friends"

"People change, Yuki"

"And the hair?"

"I had it cut just because..."

"We haven't really talked since Christmas, is there anything wrong?" I asked.

She smiled and shook her head, "Nothing's wrong, Yuki, I just hope that you're happy... now, can I go inside? It's really cold"