PRESERVING - PERSISTENT SEQUEL

09

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Sugawara's car smelt just like him, along with hints of the cherry air fresher that hung on his rear view mirror. His car was an old white Corsa that he obviously kept in very good condition. [y/n] thought it looked much cleaner than her car (which smelt of old cigarettes and had random items scattered in the back seats) but it wasn't like she was inspecting his car's cleanliness.

[y/n] in the front seat of the car, her eyes watching the streets pass by. Despite the fact that she had literally made out with the guy beside her last night after not talking for years, the drive was surprising comfortable and there was a pleasant silence in the air. She couldn't help but compare it with the last drive she had, which was terrible, no doubt about it. A stark contrast. Strange how so much changes even in a few hours.

"Hey," she said, averting her eyes from the window. Sugawara's eyes shifted from the road ahead to [y/n] and then right back to the road, there was a smile on his face once he heard her voice.
"Yeah?" He replied.
"Do you have a new phone number?" [y/n] asked, "or is it the same as its always been?"
"I got a new phone a little while back so yeah, I have a new number," Sugawara answered, "why do you ask?"
"Why do you think?" She smiled.
"I'll give it to you once I stop the car, okay?" He struggled to fight the large smile on his face.

Sugawara thought for a moment while he stared at the road.

Or is it the same as its always been?

While Sugawara, pondered over this. [y/n] felt an awkward silence coming on and it was killing her so she scrambled to say the first thing that came to mind.
"Do you still keep in touch with anyone from high school?" She blurted out, "besides Makoto, obviously," she laughed to herself. Sugawara hummed.
"Just my old volleyball teammates and I see Ami occasionally," he answered with a reminiscence smile. "You?" [y/n] snorted.
"Besides Makoto and Ami, not really," she laughed, awkwardly, "I wasn't particularly liked by most people."
"I know you never believe anyone when they say this; but you were not that hated," Sugawara spoke, "you were just really intimidating."
[y/n] laughed again and sighed. "Sometime people see that as the same thing."
"Not anyone I know." [y/n] jokingly rolled her eyes.

"You will not believe who reached out to me though," she said, picking at her nail beds. Sugawara raised an eyebrow.
"Who?"
"Yukio Sugimoto."

"What?" Sugawara almost shouted with a laugh. [y/n] let out a puff of air and shrugged. "How'd that go down?"
"Nothing went down, he just messaged me and I never answered."
"Probably for the best," Sugawara said. The thought of Yukio made his stomach churn. All the things Yukio did that [y/n] told Sugawara about. All those things he said, it made him want to throw up. If [y/n] had told him sooner, all those years ago, he would've probably punched the guy.

"I dunno," [y/n] said, bringing up him back to their conversation. "Maybe I should reply, he might have something he wants to say."
"He was an asshole, [y/n], especially to you," Sugawara said, sternly, "you don't owe him anything." [y/n] shrugged again, her eyes trained on her lap.

"It's not like I was any good of a person those days either," [y/n] said. She chuckled before continuing, "it's funny, every time I smoke nowadays, I think of him. I used to look down on him for smoking in high school and now look at me. Maybe we aren't so different."
"Why would you ever think that?" Sugawara asked, there was a sadness in this voice. [y/n] seemed in sink into her seat.

"I feel really weird about hating him. If he was an asshole in high school to me and he still makes my blood boil to this day — god — I cant even imagine what some people think about me now," [y/n] began to explain. Her words seemed very thought out, as if this was something she had wanted to say for a while. "Neither of us were exactly evil or whatever but we weren't exactly good people either."

"[y/n]," Sugawara spoke up, placing a hand on her thigh. She looked up with a hum, eyes staring right back into his. "You're nothing like that guy, I promise you." [y/n]'s lips turned up into a sad smile.
"Thank you," she said with a soft, shaky voice as Sugawara pushed on the breaks of the car.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I still need your number, Sugawara," she poked her head through the now open car door, looking at Sugawara who had not moved from the driving seat.
"I'll find some paper," he said, leaning over to dig through the glove box that was over filled with random items he couldn't be bothered to deal with. There had to be a pen in there somewhere. He found a scrap of paper, an old flyer for a restaurant that someone had left on the windshield of his car a while back, cheaply made and white so you could see the writing of the black pen he had found hidden under the flyer.

His hand scribbled down the number as quick as he could, then held it towards, [y/n] who stood outside the car door. His handwriting had changed. It basically screamed elementary school teacher. Perfectly spaced out and easy to read.

"Can I ask you something?" Sugawara said as he was still typing.
"Of course," [y/n] smiled.
"How'd Yukio get in contact with you?"
[y/n] shrugged with an embarrassed smile.

"I never changed my number."