If You Burn

The whispers were near immediate.

“Wait, Kagayaki knows Riku?”

“How? Eccentric, loner-by-choice Riku? How did their paths even cross??”

“Now that the Ice Princess mentioned it, he is kinda cute…”

“Waitwaitwaitwait,” Naomi cried as she shook her hands frantically. “He just mistook me for someone else, I swear! I’d never be friends with a guy like—”

“With a guy like what?” Riku challenged. He didn't even have to raise his voice to halt her desperate retreat.

She’d been so caught up in her world, she forgot the one rogue element in her whole equation: Riku's stubborn refusal to play her game.

Naomi expected this to go so differently. She’d changed so much—from her looks, to the expensive clothes, to the perfectly modulated voice—all to reach the pinnacle of Japanese showbiz stardom. And now, she was reverting back to her panicked childhood self.

How convenient.

“Wait, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…! I meant... I meant a guy who... who disrupts the class! A-And who has messy hair! It's... unprofessional! It is a miracle I am even entertaining him at all!"

"Of all things, my hair?" Riku deadpanned. Honestly, he was right to question that. The unkempt hairstyle was done exceptionally well.

“I meant that our friendship is… well…” Naomi fidgeted with her uniform skirt.

“What could you possibly mean, Naomi?”

Naomi swallowed. “I… Improper.”

Her heart gave a guilty thump. Why?

It was an answer that should be expected of an idol. What could she possibly be ashamed about? He was the one in the wrong for confronting her!

…Right?

“I see,” Riku simply acknowledged. “Since you clearly detest me, we have nothing else to talk about.”

The finality of his words hit her harder than her fasting days.

No! That wasn't how this was supposed to go. He was supposed to be angry, impressed, something.

Naomi very obviously panicked. “B-But I am a K-Pop idol now. The foremost rising star; what more did you want from me to make you satisfied? You wanted greatness, I delivered it! Now acknowledge it!”

Then, a hand shot up from Naomi’s right, and she couldn’t stop in time—!

”Ooft!” Naomi cried as she almost doubled over from the impact on her waist. “Hey, who do you think you—"

“After all these years, Naomi…” That voice was so… achingly familiar. “I cannot believe how entitled you still are.”

So achingly annoying.

“Hana…” Naomi growled.

Hana did a remarkably good job of suppressing what she really felt. But you couldn’t suppress the fact that her hands and face were buzzing. Hana's heart was pounding so hard she was sure the whole class could hear it.

This was Miss Kagayaki, the second coming of K-Pop Jesus Christ, and Hana had just shoved her.

“So... you do have a brain,” Hana spat, recovering once she remembered who she was fighting for. “And some conscience, apparently; then you’re not dead inside after all. Which makes your betrayal all the more potent, doesn’t it? It was a choice.”

All the while, Satomi-sensei was still nowhere to be found. If she didn’t come back soon…

Things could get ugly.

“What did I do wrong this time?!” Naomi questioned. “I didn’t lay a finger on either of y—”

“There you go again!” Hana’s voice cracked. “So self-centred, you can only think from your perspective. What about ours? You are the scamp who abandoned our multi-year-long friendship. You disappeared without a trace. You didn't leave any of us contact details. We felt abandoned. We thought you hated us.”

Hana took a sharp breath.

“Riku was depressed for three months. Three. He didn’t leave his house except for school. And when he came back, everybody hated him—they all remembered him as the guy who drove Naomi-san away. Eventually, he withdrew himself from everyone, even me. All because he thought it was his fault.” Hana’s heart ached at the memory, at the nights she’d left homework by his door, hoping he’d just… come out. “But now that you, selfish Ice Princess, are here… the truth could not have been more obvious.”

At this, Naomi flinched. His... fault? She'd assumed he just... forgot about her. The thought that she had hurt him...

“Hey, back off.” Another challenger entered the ring… and this time, it was one of COMEDOWN’s other members, Bukit. “It’s high school. Act civilized.”

“You don’t know her like we did.”

“And clearly, Naomi didn’t find your knowing her very emotionally fulfilling, did she?”

“Thank you, Bukit, but I don’t need defending,” Naomi sighed. “Before you make any assumptions, I left because it’d be better for everyone. I wasn’t at my best, and you didn’t deserve me at my worst. Well, now, I’m here. I also refuse to be the nail that gets hammered down just because I stick out. Your ‘argument’ reeks of jealousy.”

“It was never about you being the best or about jealousy,” Riku said out of nowhere.

Naomi bristled as her eyes darted back toward him. “H-Huh?”

Riku stood up.

Wow. Now that Naomi thought about it Riku was rather tall…

Riku then leaned down. Suddenly, he took up all her personal space. “You were perfectly fine just the way you were.”

Naomi’s heart lurched. While she loved the flattery… it didn’t make what he said any more correct.

Back then, Naomi was a well of untapped potential. But now, she was a damn-near water fountain! “My millions of fans would likely say otherwise. I would have never amassed such a following if I stayed the same. I am the best version of mys—”

“You were already more talented than me.”

Naomi’s mouth went dry. He had just conceded that to her… freely? “Eh…?”

“Better-looking.”

Her meticulously trained brain stopped processing language. A flush of heat, entirely unwanted, crept up her neck.

“Fact was, you were smarter than me; than all of us.”

“Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you saying…?”

“But most of all… you were happy. You had nothing to prove. I just wanted the best version of you,” Riku said. “This… isn’t it, Naomi.”

Her mind was a blank, static-filled screen. Why couldn't Naomi say anything? Didn’t she plan for the better part of seven years what would play out in this scenario? 

A slow, creeping heat started in her chest and flooded her cheeks.

Then… Naomi did what no one could have expected. What she never could have expected. Her body moved on its own.

Naomi surged forward and… snatched his cheeks.

Her heart caught up a second later.

Thump-thump-THUMP.

Her hands… her hands were on Riku’s face.

She could feel the warmth of his skin under her palms, the faint resistance of his jaw. It was real. He was real.

After seven years, she was touching him.

“Riku…” she seethed, her nails digging in. “You self-aggrandizing… holier-than-thou… loser.”

The crowd loved that one. “Ooooohhh!!”

Riku’s eyes widened.

But as he looked at Naomi—whose cheeks were flushed and hands were shaking as they held his face—he leaned back in his chair, that infuriatingly knowing smile playing on his lips. “There you are.”

“What does that even mea—”

“I was wondering how long the 'Ice Princess' was going to stick around.”

“Wh… You… YOU…” Naomi, naturally, kicked his shin. Riku wheezed from the pain. “You’re impossible!!”

They were so locked onto each other, Naomi’s heart hammering against Riku’s proximity, that they didn't notice something that, in hindsight, was quite obvious.

There was a very visible kid in the third row, angled by the window for the best light.

They didn't see his phone, propped perfectly against his textbook, the screen bright. And they didn't see the little red icon in the corner.

But Satomi-sensei did.

Her face, which had been red with anger at the disruption, went pale with a totally new kind of horror.

“You are recording?!” Satomi cried.

“Nah,” the boy said sleazily. “I’m streaming.”