Ink Stained

02: yamajijii*

It was not that they just forgot her because so much time passed; it was like they never knew her to begin with.

Her favourite middle school teacher, the friendly baker who always smiled when she walked by his shop, the owner of the café Midori liked to study at...not a single person remembered Pai or her family. It was like the Momozono's once existed, and then they didn't, and everybody forgot about them.

When Pai went to the baker, under the pretence of buying bread, there wasn't a flicker of some recognition in his face, nor his wife's. The same cordial non-recognition met her everywhere she went, trying to find some piece of her old life, and failing at every turn down the streets she grew up in.

What was more, during the years she was missing, Shiori's parents died in a car accident. Shiori and her little brother now lived with their grandmother at Ayashi House – Ryu was the only survivor of the accident that claimed their parents' lives.

Pai was glad that Shiori wasn't alone in those years. Back then, despite her saying otherwise, she knew that Shiori hadn't been able to make any friends in middle school because of her ability to see things other people couldn't. She was teased for always looking at things like something was there when no one else could see it. Shiori would stubbornly declare that she didn't need anyone, but Pai could see how sad she was whenever she picked Shiori up from school and saw her watching her fellow classmates walk off together in giggling groups.

Pai had been her only friend, back then.

"I...am sorry, Shii-chan." Pai said quietly, laden with guilt.

Shiori gave her a blunt look. "Why are you apologizing?" she shook her head. "It's not your fault. Whatever happened to you, it's not your fault. And besides, you're back now, right? You're here, so it doesn't matter."

It did, though. It did matter to her, so much – but Shiori wasn't at fault for thinking otherwise. Pai had been careful not to let on how desperately she wanted to remember, to know what happened, to her and her family. She didn't want to be anyone's pity party.

Instead, she asked, "How did you explain to them about Kouta-sama and the others?"

Shiori's eyebrow twitched in a frown, and she glanced down at her shoes. "They...don't really know. About him. I don't want them to be weird about our age difference." Her head shot up as she quickly added, "I mean, they know I'm seeing someone, but they've never met him or anything."

Pai arched her brows at that. "So you have deflected them every single time they ask about him."

"Pretty much. Anyway," Shiori said, trying very hard to sound too chipper. "D'you know what club you want to join?"

Pai eyed her for a moment, but went along with it. She could see why Shiori hadn't told her friends anything of her relationship with Kouta. It would be difficult to explain it to them without revealing too much, and far too easy for them to get worried, considering the age gap. Pai had been like that too, in the beginning, before she saw how Kouta and Shiori were together.

And the not-so-little fact that Kouta was a little more different than he outwardly appeared.

Pai sighed. "I have no clue. Do you think I can use health issues as an excuse not to join any?"

"Are you joking?" Shiori said. At Pai's blank look, she groaned. "Oh come on, Pai! You've got to participate, you know?"

"No I do not know, and no I do not want to." Pai replied bluntly.

"Too bad, you actually have to. If you try to wiggle out of this by saying, 'Oh no, I can't because I'm ill', I will call you out on that. You're in high school, make the most of it!"