Where Her Name Should Have Been

The light under Natsuki's door stayed with me until morning. It was quite brilliant, and shaking it off my mind wasn't that easy. I look through my bag and sneak a glance at its contents, only to see the English workbook at the top. Yesterday was so scary with how Natsuki was acting, but weirdly I felt a bit closer to her.

Approaching the gate of the school, I notice Natsuki was already there. I see her looking at something, but I chose to call out to her. She came up to me jogging happily.

"Yo, so are you ready for the test?"

"Yeah somewhat, but I am a bit more confident given the honours student decided to provide me a private one on one session." I take a step forward as I part the bang that was lying over my eyes, so I could see Natsuki a bit more clearly.

"Oh, you got this now. Just try not to sleep in the middle of the test, alright?" She snickered seeing my dark circles, which had only grown. Although now for a completely different reason.

As we were about to enter together, I heard someone calling out for Natsuki. She came running and stopped in front of us. It was a classmate of ours.

"Hey Natsuki, we need your help in something. Can you come real quick?"

Natsuki took a quick glance and me, and then to our classmate.

"Oh, yeah sure." She took her leave, but she gave me a quick wave as if to signal a "bye" of some form, but it was so weirdly formed it looked like a hand signal. I waved back, trying my hardest to stop a chuckle.

I traced my step backwards, to where I saw Natsuki stand for quite a long time. It was the bulletin board, which had a vast variety of posters and notices from all kinds of clubs. As it was the festival season, everyone wanted to flaunt what they were good at, and weirdly enough I understood them. The posters overlapped each other, trying to get your attention, but some of them were shining more than the others.

The music club were doing a concert of some sort, with a combination of rock and jazz? That was ... intriguing. The drama club were doing an original play of some sort, in collaboration with the literature club. Neat. But the one that caught my attention the most was the basketball club. It was just a friendly match with the teachers, with most of the bench players given the time to shine against the adults. Creative, to say the least. But this was not the reason it caught my attention.

"It would be great if senpai can join in too."

I jumped in fear, as I look behind me to see the junior from the basketball club that Natsuki was talking to. She carried a ball by her side, maybe came back after morning practice. Uh, what was her name again?

"Hello, Saya-senpai. I'm Asuka, from the basketball club." The gaze was fierce, and the voice ... slightly condescending. But it was nice of her to introduce herself. But how did she know my name? I don't remember ever interacting with her.

"Oh, hello. I was just looking at your club poster. It would be interesting to watch you all in the festival."

"Yeah" Her cheeks fell to the earth. I just couldn't hold myself.

"I heard Natsuki was invited to play" Just a probing question, to appease my ever so growing curiosity.

"Yeah. I did" She tightened her fingers on the ball, trying to stop it from slipping away.

"Did she say she can't join because of exams?" I just had a hunch.

Asuka laughed at my question, which didn't quite look like a joke to me.

"Mhmm, of course she did."

Her reaction and how she felt so condescending in her voice really irked me. It was so different from the gentle Natsuki.

"I didn't mean to pry," I said.

"Then don't."

Asuka looked away first, but her grip stayed tight on the ball. It looked like she was being pricked by a cactus alive. The pain looked contagious as well.

"Sorry," she muttered. "It's just annoying."

"What is?"

"Watching someone pretend she doesn't miss something."

Before I could ask anything else, Asuka scorned and turned toward the gym.

The ball hit the floor once beside her shoe.

Hard. The sound reverbated across and filled my ears.

Then she caught it again and walked away.

I stayed in front of the poster, staring at the empty space under the team list where no one had written Natsuki's name. But I couldn't quite dwell on it a lot, I had something to tackle myself.