Limerence

Chapter 10: Unwanted Feelings

Media: "Perks (Of Being Me)" by Ashestoashesjc and stuff I drew. Also I guess "Thank You" by Jason Chen (FFFFFFFFF THESE SONGS BRO) works too so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It might be better but both songs are great so... just listen to both or something idfk I'm just here to write trash.

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---Saturday---

He got the notification on the way back to the house from the studio.

GreenTeaArt updated their blog!

Dyrus smiled and opened Tumblr once he saw the message. Lately, he's been looking forward to seeing the art she posts almost every day since all of her pieces are so interesting and beautiful, especially her landscapes. But this time, it was different. The piece she posted was a gray scale painting of a lone figure in an open, barren field. Compared to her other paintings, which were usually full of color, this felt  so out of place among her other works. The painting had a caption:

Lost. Unwanted Feelings #1

Dyrus shifted in his seat; something was wrong. Mizuki posted another gray scale sketch not long after, this time of a girl with her head in her hands. 

Stress. Unwanted Feelings #2

Dyrus was worried now, this wasn't like her at all. Something bad happened-- something really bad-- for her to start drawing stuff like this without any mention of a special project or anything of the sort. 

"Hey, Loco?" Dyrus spoke out and looked up from his phone. "Can we postpone the review meeting until tomorrow? I, uh, just remembered I have something to take care of, and I don't think I'll be back for the meeting in time."

"Alright, but that's the first thing we're doing tomorrow. Got that?" Loco said after thinking it over for a moment. Everyone stated their agreement, no one really up to argue against him. Once Loco turned back to his phone, Santorin moved closer to Dyrus to ask him what happened.

"Something's up with Mizuki, and it doesn't seem good, so I'm gonna go over to her place to help her through it," Dyrus sighed.

"Good luck with that then. I ship it." Santorin said the last part under his breath with a smile.

---

Once Dyrus got out of the shuttle, he dashed up to his room and dropped off his gear before heading back outside, saying his goodbyes just before leaving the house. He knocked on Mizuki's door, and it opened after a few moments. Once Mizuki looked up at him, she let out a sigh of relief and nearly collapsed into his arms. Dyrus's initial shock from her state wore off as he caught her. He quickly brought her upstairs, Mamoru trailing behind worriedly, and sat next to her on the bed.

"Hey, Mizuki, what happened? I saw your Tumblr and--" He was cut off as the girl pulled him close and hid her face in his chest.

"God, Dyrus, I don't know if what I'm doing is right," she choked out through muffled sobs. 

"W-what do you mean?" he said quietly. His arms wrapped around her comfortingly as she spoke and held her closer. 

"I had this realization that what if I don't have enough will power to go through with engineering? Like, I know how hard the classes will be, and back then I thought I could get through them, but now that I think about it, I might not be able to. Getting the job I want is hard enough also, but if I just go with art, I don't know if I'll get enough commissions to live off of or--" The tight squeeze Dyrus gave her brought Mizuki to her senses and silenced her.

"Oh, come on. You're talking nonsense and bringing yourself down way more than you should be. If you have enough will power to go to college in general, you can do anything really," he said reassuringly. Usually, Dyrus was the kind of person that would say what you want to hear and not really mean it, but as he said this to her, he was really sincere about his words. He really believed that she could do anything, and he wanted her to think the same. "Now about those drawings... I'll show you how real art looks like."