17x24 AU mykr, 09

[ 09. ]

‘Starting over’.

It was such a magical word existed in Maya’s life, it truly is. Even though you had spilled the water, you didn’t need to cry over it – you can always pour another new batch to fill up the glass.

If there’s any mistake, it is better to talk things out rather than keeping it all in.

A broken vase could be pieced back.

It wouldn’t be ‘new’; but it makes you know where to walk without afraid of falling to the same hole of mistake.

.

After that day, whenever Maya woke up to see Claudine in the kitchen, she would greet the older woman and tried to help her. Claudine would always say no (and Maya hoped it’s not because she made the kitchen a mess once), but Maya insisted to stay and help.

Slowly, Claudine is able to teach Maya to order her own lunchbox (and not to discard raw tomatoes aside—well, Claudine won’t know if Maya fed it to a certain Kagura Hikari anyway).

The talk during breakfast time would be quite fluid. The topic would be random, jumping from anything like news or what will they do for the work or school. There’s no longer a long silence between them, replaced with laughter or trying to point out at each other every time someone accidentally created a mess out of fun.

Maya said that they should take turns on making breakfast and/or dinner, but Claudine still insisted that it is okay for her to do the deed. As they are talking, there they would plan out for breakfast and dinner. Maya put a suggestion on what she wanted to try and Claudine either will approve the idea or reject it because she’s busy at the assigned day.

Claudine will ask if Maya struggled to do her homework – to the point that Maya, trying not to show off that she’s the top of the class, declining the offer. Claudine then called her off as a ‘smartass brat’ with a smirk on her face.

The older blonde will see her off first as Maya got a morning archery routine and Claudine will tell when she’s coming back in the evening.

In the evening, they would mostly talk about how their days went. Claudine refrained to tell most of her work and listened idly about a talk of Maya and her friends. Maya always say that they (read: Daiba Nana, Kagura Hikari) are not her friends – so Claudine teased her about it since the brunette seem to cherish her small group of friends more than anything. It reminded Claudine of Karen and Kaoruko as well—how days passed quickly without her knowing it.

.

Once, Claudine ever brought dessert back home from work since she spotted a newly-opened patisserie on her way back. They got an opening discount to her favorite macaron and to the assortment of staple Japanese’s favorite dessert.

Claudine picked Baumkuchen out of whims, because she didn’t know what Maya might like.

Turned out, Claudine just found out Maya’s favorite dessert – and to know her happy expression when enjoying the tree cake.

.


‘Starting over’ is such a nice thing, isn’t it?


.


“We haven’t exchanged numbers, right?” Claudine took out her phone from her pocket. There’s this small rubber Eiffel tower keychain dangling from the side. “So I can tell you if I’m home late.”

How long has it been since they haven’t got each other’s contact information?

“Ah, yes.” Maya produced her phone from her bag. “What should I name you in my contact book?”

“Eh why do you have to ask that,” Claudine had this sheepish grin. Maya has expected she would kick in for a tease. “Even Kuro-neechan is fine if you wish.”

Blush spread prettily on the brunette’s face. “I—I said, it is not my age anymore to call you that.”

Maya does expect the tease, given out how Claudine is—friendly, somewhat playful—then again, Maya doesn’t expect what she would do after that.

It is a gesture that Maya thought already lost within time. A gesture that Maya thought she wouldn’t dare to think of.

Claudine patted her head, ruffled her brown hair to the point that it goes haywire while she already took her time to comb it properly. She wasn’t angry at how Claudine laughed after ruining her hair, it was the other way around.

No, she couldn’t explain this sudden warmth, what name of the flare of nostalgia that alighted inside her heart.

“Sorry I kept you from going to school. Anyways, take care!”

Maya stared on the doorway for a few minutes, before finally dragging her feet to the school, still with warmth filling her heart.


. . .



Maya couldn’t help to think all day, that such simple gesture could affect her so much. Head pat is one thing they would give to a kid. The brunette disliked to be treated as a kid usually but why that gesture feels so different?

There was a nostalgia in it, like distant past is coming to greet her after so long and it enveloped her with the same warmth. There also a different tug in her heart as the pleasant warmth settled in; seeing the usual big grin coming from Claudine and the fingers running on her scalp, ruining her neat hair. She didn’t expect it to come, but part of her expected it to come.

Just what is … /this/ warmth?

“You look even happier today, Maya-chan.”

“Am I?”

Maya was sure to refrain herself for looking like idiot for the day but guess it went … failed. Nana has her own quirk to know about anyone just from a glance. Hikari is like that too, to notice the smallest change and pointed it out.

It takes to be extra careful around them to avoid questioning, but here Maya is: Nana interrogated her.

“You too didn’t decline our request to go out and buy cakes together.” Nana added.

Oh, because of that, huh. Maya mused. She must’ve been absent-minded when Nana shot up that question today. Usually, she would go straight home. “But why do we have to wait until Kagura-san finished with her supplementary lessons here?”

They were sitting by the bench nearby the shoe lockers. Nana was keeping Maya company with her Banana muffin as they waited for Hikari to be done from her supplementary math lesson. It is strange to think that a person as smart as Hikari (well, at first glance she /is/ smart, Maya must say) is weak in math. Logically, mathematics in every part of the world should be the same – using numbers instead of kanji.

Maya can relate to her when it comes to art class, though.

“You made a lot of Banana muffin, Daiba-san. For Hoshimi-sensei?”

Nana beamed, she nodded happily at the mention. “A token of gratitude for always helping Hikari-chan.”

Hoshimi Junna-sensei also happened to be their homeroom teacher. Maya acquainted Junna-sensei longer because of archery team, but it always looked to her that Nana is admiring her for some reason. Nana is not that athletic and have little to no interest in archery, maybe Nana just looked up to her because her strict way of teaching and how she won’t give up easily until the student understood the formula she’s teaching on, much like how everybody says about the bespectacled teacher.

A click of heeled shoes echoed on the hallway. Both of them peeked to the source of the sound to find it is Junna-sensei walking. On her left hand, she brought a thick math book. On her right hand, she dragged a lifeless Kagura Hikari, who’s mouthing something between incoherent math formula and Mr. White.

Nana was the first one to come to Sensei’s stead, followed by Maya.

“Ah, Daiba-san and Tendou-san. Here is your friend.” Junna-sensei offered Hikari casually for Nana to catch. Nana quickly handed the raven-haired girl to Maya.

“Good work today, Sensei. Here, Banana Muffin for you!”

“Thank you as always, Daiba-san.”

Junna received the packed muffins eagerly. Maya could imagine Nana is smiling ear-to-ear now. The brunette would listen to small talks between the teacher and the student for some time while she’s trying to snap Hikari out of her zombie state.

“Oh, right. Tendou-san? Can you come with me now to the teacher’s lounge?”

The three of them blinked.


. . .


Out of the three, Maya would be the least to be called to the teacher’s longue. The three of them are not a problem student per se, it just happened the three would count how many times they would be called in there – it would be their lunchtime talk topic, too.

Hikari would be called out because she sometimes sleep through classes, or she needed supplementary of Math. Nana and Maya were kind enough not to ask what happened during the supplementary lesson – seeing the raven-haired girl after the session already an enough projection for them to imagine how harsh mathematics is if you don’t understand.

Nana has in her to help everyone; she is called to teacher’s longue to help with bringing books or distributing papers. Nana is a part of Seishou’s Drama Club, a proud director, must Maya said. Nana and her Drama Club friends are proposing for a lot of activities to the school, so she is quite often to be in teacher’s longue to catch teacher-related or student-related gossips.

As for Maya, she is an honor student. She never get in trouble to be in teacher’s longue or being a helping hand like Nana. She never once to go to student counseling either. She is an aloof, unapproachable girl that even teachers found Maya is hard to be approached. Except for her homeroom teacher slash archery team supervisor, Maya rarely found herself talk to any teacher.

Maya wondered if something bad happening that she doesn’t know had taken place.

Junna-sensei brought her to her cubicle, asking Maya to grab any vacant chair so she could sit beside her.

.


What the teacher said to her rendered her to painful silence, unfortunately.

“Tendou-san, what do you think of overseas' scholarships?”