Maybe never

Chapter 2

"And now I will give you back your tests" the teacher ended their lesson, and began to pass the cards to the students. When Rin took her report card, she sighed and put it on the desk. 100/100, as always. Miki would possibly groan about not having a high enough grade, but she wasn't at the school this day. That was very suspicious though, Miki's attendance at school was perfect, she would never skip a day. That was making Rin quite concerned. And even more concerning was the fact that she had no messages from her. Her friend was known for spamming with tons of messages and tiktoks about sweet cats, her celebrity crushes and romance books she wanted to read. But this time - none. A whole zero of any signs of Miki's talkative personality. Rin phoned her a few times, but she didn't anwser. That made Rin quite concerned, but she explained her worries with the fact that Miki was indestructible. No kind of sickness or limb break was enough to stop her from bringing her bubbly personality everywhere she could. She was the truth troublemaker, but always getting up and walking away as if nothing happened after any inconvenience. But Rin was concerned...

Someone was groaning in the background about getting 69/100 and classmates were comparing their results to each other. But then...

"Ichigo?! What is that on your desk?" a cold scold came from the teacher's mouth. All the faces turned to the Ryota's direction. He was looking down, trying his best to not be so obvious about not paying attention to mr. Yang's class. "I'm asking another time... WHAT. IS THAT.?!" the teacher pointed at his desk. When Ryota didn't anwser, Yang simply pulled the thing from his desk. It was a small notebook in a black cover, the teacher went through it and smirks. "Ooh... I see that you're paying more attention to drawing stupid lines than to my lesson" He closed the notebook. "I'm confliscating it. You can get it after your lessons." All that time, Ryota was looking at the ground, Rin felt huge pity for him, after all Yang's scolds weren't the nicest. Her concern grew when she sees that Ryota is clenching his fists.

"Moving on to the lesson... Now, I'm going to point out the mistakes you did at the test" the teacher turned to the blackboard and started writing some definitions on it. After the lesson ended, everyone was about to leave the classroom, but the big group of students was standing next to Ryota's desk and whispering, Rin slowly joins them. She heard loud mutters everywhere. "How brave!" "I would never do that on Yang's test""Look at this sketch!". Rin noticed that the whole attention was on Ryota's test on the desk. Her eyes widened as she saw it. It was made perfectly, with the highest posible result, but on it... man... The test's anwsers were covered by a huge sentence written by a soft pencil multiplite times. "SCHOOL KILLS ARTISTS". And next to it... woah... Rin sees his sketches. One of two hands interwined with each other, and the second one of human eye. Ryota was so talented! Rin's mouth dropped as she saw this. It was a masterpiece. A true masterpiece. Some of the students started to take photos of it while whispering and gasping. Then Rin saw Ryota. He was standing at the corridor, checking something on his phone. He looked pretty neutral. Rin then took the test from the desk, and ignoring the whispers of other students, she walked to him.

"Ryota?" she tilts her head and looks at him. She was wondering if he is okay, after all the scolds from Yang weren't the nicest. She wanted to comfort him, she just didn't know how...

"Huh?" the boy lifts his head up and notices her, then he smiles gently. "O-oh, Rin. Can I help you?" He asked, looking directly in her eyes. Her heartbeat increased, she got really confused and shy. He was looking DIRECTLY in her eyes. "U-umm... you, left it" hands him the test and looks away, so he wouldn't see her blush. His blue eyes got serious for a sec, but then he smiles and nods "Oh um thanks... Honestly, I wanted to keep it in the classroom, so that teach can see what I think about his lessons, but thank you" he gently took the paper from her and smiled, then looked away quickly too. "O-o-oh um, sorry for staring so long..."

"Huh? O-oh no no no... it's not a problem.." her blush increases. She looked away even more, she knew she had to be all red right now. She just bowed to him and walked away quickly.

"Oi, Rin!" she heard behind her back, so she quickly turned around. She sees him smiling slightly again "Thank you, you're very nice". Rin's eyes began to sparkle, she just nodded and walked away quickly. She was trying her best to calm her blush down. "W-what is going on with me...?". Millions of thoughts were racing through her head and she didn't know how to stop them. Does she... does she... have a crush on him? She nodded and walked away quickly, it was way too much for her. What if he noticed the bruise? She quickly checks her bangs and make up, nothing suspicious. It was one of the last lessons, the sun was shining pretty nicely. If only Rin didn't have so many topics to study, she would go on a walk. She looked with longing at the sun and the adorable weather outside. Those were the last warm days of October, the weather forecasts spoke of strong cooling and soaring rains. The 19 degrees were about to low down drastically. Rin knew it was the time to pull out her coat from the wardrobe and her oversize sweaters which she bought secretly, when her parents didn't see. She knew they would freak out if they saw an oversized striped sweater from a thrift store. She loved the warm temperatures, but the rain and cold weren't that bad. She could wrap herself in a fluffy blanket while studying, or add some cinnamon to her study coffee. Oooh and of course cinnamon rolls, and leaves collecting! And going to the cafe or library to study, which meant being away from that house longer! That was actually a pretty pleasant thought. A small smile appeared on her face as she thought of that. The bag with books stopped being that heavy, the thoughts of last afternoon not that burdening. LESS TIME AT HOME. That was a thing. She was that happy that she actually wanted to go to Miki and tell her about it, which was pretty rare. Miki always started the convo. But this time she wasn't at school.

"Rin-senpai!" she heard and got away from her thoughts. She looked up and saw Koyuki - Miki's younger sister, she looked just like her, just smaller and her eyes were more upturned than her sister's. She looked devastated and miserable. Rin's happiness vanished immediately as she saw her state.

"Koyuki-chan? What...what happened?" she looked at her with concern. "R-rin-senpai..." Koyuki all of sudden clings to her "M-Miki-nee... Miki... had an accident... yesterday..." she cried. Miki had an accident... MIKI HAD AN ACCIDENT... Those few words were enough to make Rin stiff and of worry and guilt, even if it wasn't her fault. "What...? How?" She asked. "Yesterday, s-she was hanging out with one of her friends" Koyuki sniffed. "A-and she... she was hit on... on the crossing and went to the hospital" she cried on her shoulder. "Miki... Miki is in coma!..." she was bawling her eyes out. But Rin didn't seem to notice that, her body began to stiff even more, her facelook went blank, and the only thought was crossing her mind. "I could stop her... I could stop her..." was yelling in her brain, small tears formed in her eyes. Koyuki looked up and looked pretty concerned. "Rin...Rin-senpai?" she let go. Rin nodded, while mouthing "I understand" and she walked away quite quickly, leaving a clueless younger girl there. The thought of protecting Miki and not doing that was taunting her, her hands began to tremble, she felt as if she went into a coma herself. All of that, an argument with her parents, two bruises on her face, several more scars on herself, Miki's coma... It was too much, and the thought of being able to prevent all of that, just by studying harder and going there with Miki. Tears began to flow from her eyes. "You are... a true failure... They were right in every aspect of what they were saying..." she muttered to herself with a teary, strangled voice. She didn't even sense where she was walking. Rooftop. She didn't even know how she got there and what rooftop was it. Step...step...step...Miki, parents, bruises, scars... Her eyes were like two depths, there wasn't any light or sparkle in them. "Failure failure failure failure FAILURE" Only 5 steps... Only 3 steps... Only 1 step...

"RIN!" she heard behind her back. It kinda woke her up again. Before she could turn around and see who was the caller, she felt a strong grip around her shoulders. She tried to get out of it, but was too weak to do that. Her short height, small body - it wasn't helping. Suddenly she felt a quick sting in her neck. Her eyes widened even more, she became anxious and scared, her body began to fade away and stop listening to her. The grasp loosened and she felt as if someone was stroking her hair gently.

"It's okay Rin... It's okay now..." she heard before drowning in the dark.