Dear Hagiwara-san

Misaki stared at the white, voluminous clouds through the window, hand supporting her chin. It really was beautiful outside, sky a vibrant, serene blue, and wind rustling gently through the trees. 

The final bell chirped and the clamor of people rising from their chairs filled the classroom.

Eventually the din started filtering out into the hallway like a babbling river. She waited in her seat until it was quiet and sighed, smoothing out her dark pleated skirt and grabbing her bag from beneath the desk.

A light tap on Misaki’s shoulder had her looking up. Her eyes landed on a boy a few inches taller than her with ruffled brown, shoulder-length hair that framed tawny eyes. A single, silver earring hung from one of his ears.

He was shifting his weight discreetly, swaying gently from side to side.

“Excuse me,” his voice was familiar but she couldn’t connect it to a name. “Are you Hagiwara-san?” She nodded, loosening her grip on the bag’s straps.

“And you are?” He blinked as though the question caught him by surprise.

“Uh… Mirahara. Given name Kyosuke.”

Mirahara actually was a name she recognised. If the girls weren’t the ones drooling over him, it was the guys idolising him or asking for help. He was one of the popular kids, and decidedly not the kind of person who talked to her.

Well.

Technically, he was now.

She smiled at him as politely as possible, hoping to ease the awkwardness. “Sorry. I’m not very good with faces.” 

He smiled back.

“Probably because yours is always pointed towards your desk.” She blinked at him, and the smile quickly faded. “Sorry, I… woah, okay. What I meant was it's refreshing to meet someone who isn’t falling all over me… Wait, no, that sounds— ahhh…” he blushed slightly. “A-anyway, I was asked to give this to you.” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket like a magician revealing a flock of doves and held it towards her, slip-up quickly forgotten. Her name was written on the outermost section, and she took it.

“From who?”

“Rin.” There was a brief pause before he followed it up with, “Dirty blonde hair, about yea high? Plays, like, fifteen different sports?”

It took her a second, but she said, “Yumehara?” and he nodded.

“Anyway, now that I’ve faithfully completed my delivery, I must away. Have a good day.”

“You too,” she said absentmindedly, pocketing the note and pulling on her bag onto her shoulder. They left the classroom, heading their separate ways.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Misaki groggily blinked awake to the twinkling sound of a notification. Stretching, she rubbed her eyes and slowly cleared away the pages of homework she had evidently fallen asleep doing. The notification had come from her laptop, and she opened the email, blue light of the screen illuminating the dark room.

Her eyes skimmed it briefly before the words registered and she had to go back to read it properly.

Dear Hagiwara-san,

I am so sorry about this, but I wanted to profusely apologize regarding the contents of the letter I gave to you yesterday. Like I said then, the note was from Yumehara-kun, and I didn’t open or proofread it before passing it to you. This was an oversight on my part and I take full responsibility for it. It was only after I had completed the delivery that he admitted to what it held after much prodding. Please accept my humble, sincere apologies.

Thanks, and sorry again,

Mirahara Kyosuke

She stared at the email, bemused. It barely even sounded like Mirahara, not with all of the apologies and formalities and awkward undertone. Strange…

The letter! She hadn’t even opened it yet; it was still sitting in her uniform's pocket.

She dug it out, flipped it open… and was equally shocked. It was a completely over the top love confession. The page was decorated with red and pink hearts and XOs, and it started with ‘To my most dearest darling Hagiwara-chan~’. She could hardly believe such a thing existed, much less sat in her hands. It had been signed off ‘your secret admirer (M.K.)’ and she almost went to report Mirahara until she remembered the crucial bit of information his email contained. 

He hadn’t been the one to write it.

She might’ve felt annoyed, but truthfully was more relieved than anything that it had turned out to be just a prank. Misaki chuckled to herself, rereading his email. She could imagine him flushed and panicking, trying to send it as soon as possible lest she misunderstand.

Carefully, she set the letter down on her desk and started typing out her reply.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Misaki pulled her bag closer to her chest and ran a hand through her hair as the train rattled quietly on the tracks. She mentally prepared herself for another day of school and fought the urge to groan aloud. She leaned the back of her head against the window instead, sighing.

“Hagiwara-san?”

Her eyes flew open, feeling just as bewildered as he sounded.

“Mirahara?”

“What are you doing here?"

“…I’m going to school?

“Right.”

“Have you always ridden this train?” He shook his head, paused, and then nodded.

“Well, I ride in the mornings and normally in a different car, but I’ve been riding since middle school, yeah.”

“Oh.”

There was a pause before Mirahara’s eyes blew wide.

“Oh! I’m so sorry about yesterday and the note and everything!! I promise I had no clue what Rin had written in there. If I did I never would’ve given it to you, I swear!” She had to hold back a laugh, raising a hand to wave it away.

“No, it’s totally okay. I got your email and everything, and honestly I hadn’t even read it until you mentioned it.” He scratched the back of his head, flushing slightly.

“Sorry about that too. I normally wouldn’t send an email, but I didn’t have your number, and I didn’t want to wait till today in case you already read it and thought I was weird or something. I don’t know…” he trailed off.

“You can tell Yumehara-san that it was mission accomplished.” She grinned at him, and he returned it.

“Sure thing.”

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

“Misaki?”

“Huh?” Misaki blinked back to reality to find Hinata waving a hand in front of her face.

“I asked why you’re staring at Yumehara-san? You have a crush on him or something?”

Actually, she had been staring at Mirahara before she zoned out, but they didn’t need to know that. All of the awkwardness from their precious interactions had seemingly disappeared without a trace, and he was fully animated, laughing loudly with the other popular boys like normal.

“I wouldn’t blame her if she was,” Suzume sighed fondly, and Misaki pulled her gaze away from Mirahara.

“No, you can have him,” she replied, trying to focus on the worksheet.

“Anyway, do either of you know who you’re gonna work with on the project?” Hinata asked, tapping her pen against the edge of the desk.

“I don’t know,” Suzume said. “Shouldn’t we wait until he gives out the rubric so we can get an idea of what the project is even about?”

“Yeah, but we only have so long to work on it. It’s good to get at least a bit of a headstart.”

The conversation continued over her head, and slowly but surely Misaki’s attention drifted back over to Mirahara.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Misaki watched Mirahara intently as he tried to avoid her gaze. They had said the customary good mornings when the train departed from his stop, and he took the empty seat next to her, but they’d sat in silence since then.

“Why do you do it?” She asked finally.

“Do what?” He replied, startled, still refusing to meet her eyes.

“Switch like this. At school it's all the teacher can do to get you and your boys to shut up, but then all of a sudden you’re quiet and awkward around me. Which one’s real?” He stared at her for a second before letting out a half-laugh, half-sigh.

“…I guess, both? Kind of? Well, one more than the other but that’ll take some explaining and— Long story short, both. Like, I don’t put on an act or anything, but—”

The chiming of the train cut him off, announcing they had arrived at Kaori Station and they both scrambled to put their things together.

“Y’know what? Why don’t we finish this tomorrow?”

“Or… I could come to your place after school and we could talk then.”

He gawked at her, blinking in shock. “If you’re busy, it’s no big deal, but I seem to remember you delivering a pretty salacious note to little innocent me. I dare call it lecherous, really.” She was joking, but he seemed to deflate and sighed.

“Okay. After school, meet me by the side of the gym. I’ll walk you to my house.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

She grinned at him and he smiled softly back as they alighted from the train together.