Why She's Silent.

"S-Sora-s-san, I'm s-sorry but I c-can't talk with you." Hino said those words in her heart.

On the corner of her left eye, she finds Sora, who has just sat at down at his seat. She was the first student in class that day, and now that Sora is here they were the first two. Simply turn her head to the left and they would easily meet each other.  

But.

She has to avoid him.

Thinking of Sora only reminds her of her mom's words that day. And those thoughts only lead to memories of her being punished by her mom. Being punished means losing her books. She tells herself that her mom would not probably even know if she talked with Sora. But even with the slightest thought of talking with Sora, she could not move a single inch with the haunting presence behind her.

Another reason she why she wouldn't dare to talk to him is because of the book he lended her. She could not possibly tell him that his book was slammed to the ground.

The conclusion she came to was to simply avoid him. Hino simply sat and stared at her phone.

The sound of the door opening startled Hino.

"S-Sora-s-san, why did you come up here?!" Words which again only remained as thoughts. "I-I d-don't want to think about you S-Sora-san."

A reminder of their times together against the warnings from her mother. A tug of war between Sora and her mom, where she was the rope. It hurts being emotionally dragged between the two sides, not wanting to betray any one of them. And her chest feels even more suffocated the closer Sora is to her and the closer the hope of having a nice conversation with him is to her.

She has to settle the indecisive feeling. And she chooses to remove Sora's place in her heart. She kept on convincing herself to simply ignore him. And just read her manga. 

Lucky for her, it helped that he decided to sit far from her.

The bell rang marking the end of school for the day.

Instead of instantly getting up and leaving class Hino kept on sitting on her chair for a little while longer. 

"I don't wanna go home." She said to herself.  

Starting today she has to take private lessons directly after school. "But I already studied in school..." She gave her argument, although there was no one there for her to argue with. 

But despite prolonging it, it was inevitable that she has to go take her lessons. 

After a while she stood up from her seat and began walking, her movements slower than usual. Normally she would be immediately rushing out of her class, but today her body was lifeless and demotivated. 

As she turned from her seat, she noticed that Sora had already left class. He's probably heading to the café as usual. Good. She doesn't have to think about him now. At least that's how she tried she tried to convince herself. Though, her heart throbs slightly as she kept on telling herself it was better to avoid him. 

"I-I'm home." Her voice so low it would not even reach a person three meters away. 

She reached the dining table and was met with her mom sitting on their table with a woman seemingly to be the person who is going to be tutoring her. "Ah Hino you're finally here. Come, sit here. This is Kinokawa-sensei. She's the one who will be helping you study for your exams. Hino, come here, say hi to Kinokawa-sensei."

"H-Hello..." She lightly spoke.

"Hino-chan, nice to meet you." Her teacher tried to gave her a warm welcome to relieve the tension.

"U-um-m... n-nice to meet y-you too.."  She stuttered with her words.

"Excuse us for a moment Kinokawa-sensei." Her mom dragged her by her hand out of the living room and out of Kinokawa-sensei's sight. 

"Hino listen here!" She straightened her words. "I'm paying for your lessons, to help YOU with your exams. And these lessons are NOT cheap. This is all for YOUR future. So, you better get your act together and take your lessons properly!"

Hino didn't give her a reply and just stared down at the floor. The music still playing through her earphones helped calmed her down from her mothers' scolding.

However, her mom told her next, "If you fail your exam, Hino, I'll take away your earphones."

Hino instantly turned to look at her mom, mind and body completely paralyzed.

Something else will be taken away from her? Now it's her earphones? Why... What did they do? They have only helped her calm down and have fun... She quivers in disbelief.

"Now take your earphones off and go study," Her mom shoved her to the living room. "Kinokawa-sensei, thank you once again for taking your time. Hino might be a bit shy and quiet so please bear with her." Her mom gave Kinokawa-sensei a polite smile alongside those words. One which Hino rarely sees.

"I'll just leave you two to it then. I'll just be in the next room in case you guys need anything."

"Thank you. Okay, Hino-chan, let's start with a little test..." 

Her heart still panicking from her mom's threats. 

Without her earphones, things will get loud. Noisy. Irritating.