SHSL writer Mikan Tsumiki part 2

- Love
    - Mikan’s first instinct is to avoid this Enoshima girl at all costs. She doesn’t want to be saved. But she’s curious. There are too many unanswered questions and too many plot holes. She attempts storyboarding it all out on paper and creates a character profile on the girl.
    - She knows she has to research her characters in order to flesh them out and give them the dimension they deserve. Enoshima is no different. Mikan googles her and is only slightly surprised to find she is a model. Go figure. She scans through interviews and photoshoots, taking in the small details. Sometimes interview scripts can be misleading; annunciation is key to understanding what someone really means. Mikan watches for any signs of extraneous emotions on the many faces she finds.
     - When she is finally done her study it is nearly morning. She goes over her work, attaching notes to where she would need to double check her facts when she had a more clear mind. She slumps back in her chair and sighs. There was so much conflicting information that was present. Apparently her savior was an enigma. Mikan couldn’t make heads or tails of it. From what she could gather, Junko Enoshima as an egotist, a narcissist, and the girl that apparently everyone wanted. Her interviews we sharp and to the point. The girl didn’t seem to like waiting for things, evidenced by video interviews Mikan had binged. Sometimes she was polite about being bored, and only offered a pursed lip and a clenched jaw that only the most discerning eye would be able to pick up on. Other times she was loud and had no issue telling her reporters to fuck clean off. What frustrated Mikan the most was that there was no real distinct trigger for the more emotional responses. There was nothing she could find on the interviewers that would make Enoshima act this way. Nor were the questions asked much different. Sometimes she would even give a different answer to the same question. When she did that, Mikan could spot a twinkle in her eyes. She was fucking with them and she was enjoying it. It was beautiful and powerful and Mikan admired her for it. She adored the way Enoshima seemed to have everyone on a string.
    -Enoshima also was incredibly smart. The interviews didn’t tell Mikan this. But those eyes did. She saw this look when Enoshima was staring at her in the nurses office. Analyzing her. She was used to people doing this to her, but usually it would quickly turn to sneers and catcalls. Junko Enoshima was different. She kept looking. Her face was nearly unreadable; a blank sponge just absorbing as much information as she could on Mikan. For the first time, it felt like someone had seen Mikan. She wasn’t sure how to feel about this.
- On top of all of this research, however, were her own personal observations from the brief moment they met. It was nothing like the interviews. She was nothing like her model persona. Mikan mulled over the possibility that Enoshima would keep a separate personality for her private life, but something did not add up. Primarily, the reports of Enoshima’s private life were dubious at best. Instagrams with fans would state that she was using what Mikan dubbed the “model personality”. But which one was that? Was there a real one? There were the times that Enoshima was loud and rough, was that her true personality? Was it the smile that she saw Enoshima give her when she left her?
- Mikan remembers Enoshima’s laughter. She remembers it sounding almost devious. She frowns. Why would Enoshima save her? Something clicks in the back of her mind and her subconscious screeches to a halt. She was just like them. She was a bully and planned on being mean to her. Enoshima must have saved her not out of pity, but out of malice. She was laughing at the broken animal that was desperate for a release from the pain. Enoshima has denied her a happy ending and it was funny.
- Mikan wanted to be furious at this girl. How dare this fake valley girl steal away her moment. She hates her. She despises her. Almost as much as the girl in the mirror. Almost. But she needs closure. On a fresh sheet of paper, she quickly writes out a confrontation with this Enoshima girl. She doesn’t bother editing it. It would hardly matter.
- Mikan balls the paper up and stuffs it in her pocket. Her heart is racing. Can she really do this? It was exciting, writing the climax of her stories. The protagonist could be the confident hero and she got to live through them. She knew what heroes were supposed to say, how they were supposed to look. Forcing herself to look in the mirror, Mikan tries pulling her shoulders back and standing tall. She furrows her brow and tries to snarl. Her face looks so foreign and strange. Mikan didn’t believe the girl she saw. She felt silly and dumb. She sighs, and shoves the paper into her pocket and gets ready for homeroom.
- During her classes, she reads and rereads her speech and attempts to memorize it. She’s never had to read any of her work out loud in front of an audience.
- Classes ended and somehow Mikan managed to avoid being noticed. She sneaks out to the fountain. She’s alone. Mikan sits down at the edge of the fountain and clutches her note tight. She waits. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes pass. She knew it. She knew this was a prank. She’s so stupid to think that she could be a hero.
- She gets up to leave, and a tap on her shoulder nearly makes her fall into the fountain. She spins around and is face to face with those eyes. She can’t look away, she feels trapped in her gaze. It’s paralyzing and enchanting and her mind is blank.