With the growing heat of the days, Summer break arrived swiftly and the first few days of it consisted of Murasakibara lounging around at home.
His motivation had seemingly decreased along with his general interest in anything. Outwardly, he seemed as though he returned to his former self.
The quiet of the morning eased him into sitting and enjoying some of the ice cream Cassie had given him. Despite having gotten it last week, he saved it for the break.
"Atsushi?" His mother called as she walked into the room.
"Yeah?" He said while opening another ice cream.
"You've been home more often... I thought you were really getting into practice."
"Nah, it's kind of boring right now."
She hummed. "Here I thought you were finding your stride, after all, you've been going so often. Especially with the help of that girl. Cassie was her name?" Murasakibara nodded to his mother. "Well, I can't force you, but I'm going out for a bit. If you leave the house, be sure to lock it."
"I will, see you."
His mother went to the front entrance and soon after, he was alone in the house. Murasakibara let out a loud sigh and reached to see the rest of his snacks. The box of pocky was empty and he grumbled knowing he'd have to go out to get more to eat.
He rested back and bit on the ice cream stick. It was more apparent to him now than ever before that he was...
Just then, his phone went off. He answered it and heard Himuro's voice on the other side.
"Where are you?"
"At home. I'm about to restock." Murasakibara looked to the empty boxes on his table.
"Well, I need to ask you something real quick."
"What is it?"
"Did you say something to Cassie?"
"Ha?" He thought for a second. "I might have... oh, that's right, I said she was getting boring." He heard Himuro sigh. "Why? Did she say something to you?"
"No, she actually wouldn't say anything at all. We had planned to meet up so she could help me with something, but... she didn't seem interested in going anywhere. Cassie wasn't her usual self today, she still did what we planned, but I could tell she was agitated by something."
"...what made you think it was me?"
"Aside from the fact that you were the last person to talk to her?"
Murasakibara got up, thinking to head out now. While he aimlessly searched for his wallet, he continued to speak.
"You sound really concerned about her."
"Of course, knowing how close she and Tiga are makes me feel like I have a little sister. Not only that, but she's always just really positive no matter what. So seeing her upset is kind of... worrying."
Murasakibara stopped in his tracks. "She's like a sister?"
"In a way... but look, I'm only calling you to ask that you apologize to her. She doesn't deserve that being said to her, especially not after all she's done for you."
Murasakibara scoffed. "That I didn't ask for."
"That doesn't matter. Just call her or text her, anything to say you're sorry."
Murasakibara sighed. "Fine."
"Thanks Atsushi."
Himuro then hung up and Murasakibara sighed again before dialing Cassie's number.
As the phone rang, he realized he was already ready to leave the house and couldn't even remember his original reason for going out. He brushed that thought aside when the phone went to voicemail. He tried again and he was met with the same result.
By the third attempt, Murasakibara began to get angry and sent her a text before calling her again.
This time, she picked up. "What do you want?"
"Why didn't you pick up the first time?"
"Like I'm supposed to wait by my phone for you to call me?" She sighed. "What do you need? I'm busy right now."
"You weren't busy last week."
"Well, I am now. So what is it?"
Her irritable tone was strange to him. Cassie had never even so much as frowned when something bad happened, but now she sounded like a totally different person than the one he knew.
A part of him felt like it may have been his fault so-with a long pause-he apologized.
"I'm sorry."
She said nothing for a long time. "Besides you guys being really predictable, is that all?"
"Yeah, I didn't mean what I said." Murasakibara practically recited.
"I'm sure you didn't. I'm hanging up now."
With no hesitation, she was off the call the second she was finished. Murasakibara looked at the phone when he realized what she did. He attempted to call her again only for it to go straight to voicemail.
"What?"
He tried texting her and after waiting around for a bit, he realized she wasn't going to respond to him.
Murasakibara was more agitated now by the fact that Himuro would still be telling him to apologize, but what stood out more was the fact that Cassie didn't accept his apology.
"Why's she so upset anyways? It's not like I said anything that mean anything to her... it wasn't even true." He was grumbling at this point when he realized what he said.
Things had been boring now that Cassie wasn't around him... things had been much more interesting with her around, but his life returned to normal once she was gone.
He clicked his tongue, feeling his frown grow deeper. He left his place and made sure to lock the door before heading out.
...
With Kagami out of the house, Cassie sat on the couch intently staring at her notebook. Her pencil scratched out the old records and she began to replace them with more updated notes. When she reached the edge of the page, she sighed.
Flipping to the back, she checked how many empty pages were left and found it to be less than five.
"I already have to get a new notebook..."
She got up and went to her closet thinking she had one left. She dug through it only to find nothing but one of her old notebooks from middle school.
Upon seeing it, a nostalgic urge overcame her and she was removing it from the closet.
"I'll have to go out and buy another one..." As Cassie said that, she began to hear rain on the window. "Well, that's a sign it's not happening today."
Cassie plopped back down and opened the old notebook. Seeing her old faded writing caused a smile to grow on her face. Her attention went to the notebook. For a while, it felt as if her present life faded away and out came her old one. At the thought, she felt a twinge of annoyance.
Life as a kid wasn't anything she fondly remembered. It bled into her teenage years and Cassie had no hope of her persistent disappointment ever fading.
"He proved that much..."
Cassie tried to ignore the bad memories of her past and focused on the good ones. The times where she felt blissfully happy...
Time went on and it was still raining hours into the afternoon, but her stomach indicated it was time for dinner. When Cassie got up, she heard a knock at her door.
"Huh?" She went over to see who it was, but could only make out a person's torso.
There was only one person she knew so tall that a peephole was stomach height. She sighed and opened it only to see Murasakibara completely drenched from the rain.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Can I come in?"
She gave him a blank expression. "Even if I say no, you still will." She moved out of the way, letting him inside. After closing the front door, Cassie headed to the bathroom in search of a towel. When she returned, Murasakibara was still standing in front of the door, dripping onto the floor. She held the towel out to him.
"So what, you came to apologize to me again?" He shook his head to her. "Then what is it?"
He dried his hair and spoke while doing so. "I wanted to ask why you're upset."
Cassie scoffed. "Won't I just bore you?"
"Just tell me," he said, with a growing irritability.
"Murasakibara, I know you don't care. Himuro noticed I was upset and that doesn't concern me. The only person who cares that I'm upset is me."
"I came over here..."
"Likely because Himuro told you to."
"No, he just told me to apologize, he didn't say how." Murasakibara removed the towel and looked to Cassie now with his hair covering most of his face. "I decided to come over here so I could talk to you."
Cassie's gaze remained the same. Unbothered by his intensity, she locked eyes with him and her once neutral expression changed to a frown.
"Isn't it enough I helped you, gave you all those sweets, and got some pressure off your back? Why does it matter that I'm upset?"
"Because, I didn't mean what I said," he began, "when I said you were getting boring, I just said that because I was getting mad... seeing you focus on... everyone else but me."
"What?"
"I realized it now, but I don't like it when you pay more attention to others... and stuff is boring without you."
Cassie said nothing for a bit, but she let out a sigh after a while.
"Murasakibara... I'm not upset because of you. You did say something that was annoying, but I was mad before that." She touched her forehead. "I guess what you said just made it feel like it was true."
Murasakibara stared at her. "What was it?"
She looked at him. "Do you really care? Or are you just asking?"
"I can't have you back to normal if you're upset-so if talking will help it-I'm willing to hear you out."
Cassie blinked at him before scoffing and a small smile came to her face. "I can't believe how unphased you are. You're so direct with everything it's kind of... refreshing."
"You're like that too."
She let out a small chuckle. Cassie turned and went into the kitchen where she got a bag of chips before returning to him.
"I know you're probably hungry."
He took them, but didn't open them. He simply set them down on the table as they both moved to sit on the floor to talk...