I was about to give up until my eyes flickered to the tissues in the corner of the classroom.
I sighed.
"What other options do I have?"
----
• Third Person POV
Y/N didn't know how to react when she interrupted the teacher as he spoke due to her late arrival.
Everyone in her class stared at her in disgust and confusion.
Even Aoi's intimidating, psychiatric friend.
Their gossip is what the sufferer attempted to ignore but failed to.
Ugh… It's the faker again…
Why does she always come late?
She looks so unkempt compared to me…
Tissues with tape as a band-aid? What's going on in her head?
Y/N sighed and asked for forgiveness from her teacher in the state she was in but he just grunted as a response.
Y/N tragically shuffled her way to her desk and she tried to resist their voices as the gossip got louder and louder.
The teacher told everyone to shut up.
That included her. Even though she didn't say anything.
"But Kobayashi, I-" she tried to explain.
"Not a word!" he shouted back at her. "Yashiro-san here has told me you only keep up the act because YOU. SEEK. ATTENTION! So stop it already!"
Nande…
Everyone's accusing me of things I certainly don't do…
My life is already a bust…
I can't keep my grades up…
I have to eat trash to survive on this cruel planet…
Heck, I never even got to know my parents…
And they thought it was a good idea to leave me in the hands of a psycho…
Sometimes I feel like commuting suicide…
But I can't bring myself to do it…
"And that's Mr.Kobayashi for you"
"Ho----no----ri----fics" the demon-daikon lady smirked as she broke the word down.
"But she's lying-"
"Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk, I already told you to be quiet," he commanded.
The poor woman kept her mouth shut.
She was on the brink of tears traveling down her face.
They were threatening to release regardless of how hard she tried to hold it back.
Y/N's tears didn't break its promise.
Now she's whining! Look!
Really? That's what she gets for acting!
Such an ugly delinquent…
Y/N couldn't take it anymore.
She stood up from her seat with her arm in front of her eyes and attempted to run out of the classroom.
Undoubtedly, Nene-chan tried to prevent that.
Everyone watched as Y/N was bracing for impact before she hit the ground.
It seems like Yashiro put her foot in the way. But nobody saw it.
They all just thought Y/N had a problem.
She gathered all her remaining strength to rise up from the floor. When she did, she continued to flee.
Out of the door, into the hallway, at the girls' bathroom, into the stall.
To the old building where nobody went.
She didn't even realize she reached the third floor.
Y/N cried and sobbed and whimpered and wailed.
She sat on the toilet and clutched her knees close to her chest.
"Why…"
She went on and on until break began.
She laid her head sideways as her stomach called out to her.
She had to get going to search in the trash just once more.
But Y/N was afraid to leave the bathroom. She would rather stay in there for the break than getting picked on...
And she'd rather skip lesson…
And get in trouble with the principal…
So she did. Like she always did.
As she sat there, crying and not knowing what to do, she heard the steps of two other people walk in the bathroom.
Her whining curtailed.
She thought it was Aoi and her paranoid ally, but she was quickly reassured due to their voices that didn't match with her classmates.
And they were fully unaware of her presence.
"Try it."
"But I don't want to."
Y/N listened closely to what they were going to say next.
"You want to have your wish granted, right?"
"Yeah, but-"
"Then what are you waiting for? Come on! Vamanos!"
Y/N heard how the girl walked over to the last stall.
She heard how the girl knocked on the door three times in a row.
"Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you in there, " she blurted out.
Hanako-san? She was summoning a genie?
Y/N didn't hear anything after that.
"I told you it wouldn't work! The stupid, dead girl won't appear!"
"I guess you were right…"
After they exchanged their last information, they left.
"Is that some kind of rumor?"
"But which one? A genie that grants wishes?"
Y/N didn't really pay attention to the rumors students spread at her school.
She didn't really believe in them.
So the sooner she forgot about them.
"It didn't work on them, so…"
"Why don't I give it a try?"
Y/N slowly peeped her head out of the stall to double-check if anyone was present.
There was nobody to be seen.
So she slithered out of the bathroom stall and headed to the third one.
Y/N exhaled. "I have many wishes."
She turned her hand around and stuck a finger out preparing to knock.
She knocked on the door. Thrice.
"Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you in there?"
She waited. The door slowly unlocked before her.
Y/N peered to see but there was neither nothing nor no one inside.
Y/N scoffed. "The girls were right… Just another one of those rumors…"
"I beg your pardon?"
She gulped upon hearing a males voice. She felt a hand grab her from behind.
She turned and… a boy?
Y/N glared upon the fellow child and noticed that he was indeed a male.
"Hello!," he grinned.
He bowed like a magician with one arm out. "My name is Hanako."
He lifted his head up to catch a glimpse of her. "And you are?"
She aimed to grab him but her hand passed right through him.
A ghost!?
She stuttered. "W-what are y-you doing here, p-pervert? I thought y-you were a g-girl."
He stood up. "You don't say things like that to new people you meet, do you?" he claimed.
Y/N's knees were shaking due to her discovery. That was what caused her to travel backward and trip.
The ground didn't touch her skin.
But as Y/N opened her eyes, she noticed she was in the grasps of the same ghost she saw earlier.
She felt her heart race as fast as a cheetah could run. She's never been this close to a boy before.
Hanako put her down. Seconds of silence passed as he broke it.
"What an introduction," he thought.
He pouted. "You still haven't answered my question…" he turned to face the opposite direction.
He floated up high and sat with his legs crossed in the air.
Such a child…
"Ehem…" she cleared her throat. "My name is Y/N L/N! I am 15 years old! I am a first-year high school student in class 1-A at Kakome Gakuen Academy! I have a wi-"
"Okay, okay, I only asked for your name…" he scratched behind his ear.
"Sorry, " she apologized. This was the result anytime she would socially interact.
"You must have a wish that needs granting. Or did you just summon me here to have fun?" he let out with a grin and squinted eyes.
She blushed. "Yes, I do…"
"Then you may say it," he announced and roamed back to the surface.
"I…"
Her tongue clicked. She held onto her "band-aid" tightly.
"I want you to be my friend."
1262 Words