❥ Chapter Three

            I ran. I ran as if a dog of hell was after me and I had a piece of bacon sewed onto my back.

            My hair flew into my eyes, and I kept brushing it back irritatingly. My syllabi for the year kept trying to escape my hands, one after another leaping up into the air, taunting me as I caught each one eventually.

            Just a few more feet and I’d be there. A few more feet and I would break my record of always being late on the first day. But just as I rounded a corner, a girl was walking towards me with her head down, literally only inches away, and I ran straight into her.

            I caught myself against the wall, but didn’t manage to grab all of my flying papers, which eventually sailed down to cover the tiny girl.

            She sat there, dazed. I thought she’d just get up on her own, but after a minute or two of her just staring around at the papers and then up at me a few times, I reached forward to help her up.

            That seemed to snap her out of it as she pushed herself back onto her feet.

            “Sorry,” she muttered, before brushing past me.

            I sighed, not having been able to apologize, before staring at the mess in front of me.

            “Damn it.” I don’t think I’ll be making it to class on time. Brushing my hair out of my eyes for the umpteenth time that day, I bent down to start picking up the multiple pieces of paper. I could feel it already: today would be one hell of a long day.

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     She could feel herself begin to hyperventilate, her heart began to thump heavily against her chest, and her tears threaten to spill for a simple, ridiculous reason.

            Mitsuki could see flashbacks as she sat on the ground, with papers covering her. She remembered the scene from a bit over ten years ago, when she was in the same predicament, except the other person was also on the ground covered with papers.

            In that moment, when she was on the ground only a minute ago, and she looked up at the guy who had crashed into her, Mitsuki had nearly gasped. He looked almost exactly like Akio, with a slim body, narrow face, and a cheeky glint to his eyes. His hair was slightly longer, hitting his eyes, and his nose was a bit taller, but the resemblance was so shocking, she couldn’t help but stare stupidly.

            When he awkwardly offered his hand to her, she shot up and walked away as quickly as possible, not caring that she was going in the opposite direction as her classroom. As soon as she turned down a random corner, she leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, crouching in an obviously uncomfortable position.

            Clutching the bottom hem of her shirt, she tried to slow down her breaths. Her shoulders trembled, her fingers shook, but she finally stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in her shirt and skirt before checking the time on her cell phone.

            Nearly scoffing at how ridiculously late she was (how had the time completely escaped her mind?), Mitsuki quickly shouldered her tote bag and sighed before calmly walking to her next class, hoping that the extra few minutes without human company would slow down her racing heart.

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            “Taeho, I expect you to be on time tomorrow,” said my professor, trying to give me a disapproving look. It was quite obvious he was struggling, since he had to slightly tilt his head up to look at me.

            I nodded and flashed a bright smile. “No prob.”

            His eye twitched at the informal language but nodded and looked back down at his papers, a sign for me to leave.

            “Hey! Didn’t think you’d show up. What took you so long?” asked Yun. He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked beside me as we headed towards the cafeteria.

            “Ran into someone earlier.”

            “Who?”

            “No, literally slammed into someone.”

            He laughed. “Seriously? What happened?”

            “I was trying to be on time,” I said, grinning sheepishly.

            Yun sighed and rolled his eyes. “You should know that’s never gonna happen.”

            “Can’t a guy wi— Ah, sorry!” I said, almost pushing the door into a girl’s face.

            She stumbled back a bit, headphones securely pulled over her ears. She looked up, confused. At first, I almost cringed away from the cold gaze she fired at me, but then, there was a jolt in my heart as I looked into her black-lined eyes.

            “Dude,” muttered Yun, as I kept staring at her.

            I flinched and quickly apologized again. “Seems like I never look where I’m going. Sorry about that.”

            “It’s alright,” she muttered. “I wasn’t looking either.”

            Before I could say another word to her, she walked out through the door beside me, leaving as fast as she had when I first ran into her.

            “Who was that?” asked Yun as we headed into the packed cafeteria.

            “The girl I slammed into this morning.”

            He glanced back at her retreating figure through the transparent door and back at me. “She’s tiny; did you send her flying into a wall or something?”

            I glared at him and punched his arm. “What do you think I am? A giant?”

            “Well… I mean, you sorta wer—”

            Punch.

            “Hey!”

            “Let’s go grab something to eat. I’m starving.”

            “Since when aren’t you?”

            I slung my arm over his shoulders and dragged him with me to grab some food. But the entire time, I kept thinking back to the girl’s eyes. There was something in them… something that just seemed… I don’t know. I feel like I saw this glint in her eyes that seemed so… familiar. It was only there for a second, and she looked away too fast, but I swear, there was something behind the layer of coldness. There was something there that I feel as if I’ve seen somewhere before.

            “Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Yun, pointing to my plate still full of food. “You’ve been sitting there for half an hour and haven’t even touched your food.”

            I glanced back at it and shrugged before digging in. “Just thinking,” I mumbled through a mouthful of food.

            He rolled his eyes and handed me a napkin. “Hey, nobody wants to see the chewed up food in your mouth.”

            I childishly stuck my tongue out, causing him to fake a gag.

            “Just finish your food or you’ll be late to your next class. I gotta go,” said Yun, standing up and grabbing his backpack.

            “Where’re you going?” I said after swallowing.

            “Study date.”

            “Oh! Does little Yunny finally have a date after three years of college?”

            He sighed and slapped the back of my head. “I’ve gone on dates before.”

            “No, you planned dates and ditched last minute because you were 'busy.' Those don’t count.”

            Yun simply sighed and got up to walk towards the door. “Later.”

            I sighed, slouching as I shoved a spoonful of rice into my mouth. I ignored the fact that my best friend was finally going on a date, and returned to my previous thoughts. I couldn’t forget the girl’s eyes. It was as if she never felt emotion, didn’t want to. But I knew she did. That small glint of suffering in her eyes hinted at that. It was something I knew wasn’t ordinary sadness, or mediocre pain. And something about it was so familiar, like I saw it often. But did I? Probably not, right?

            “Excuse me, but we’re closing up the cafeteria for lunch soon. You’ll have to go in about five minutes,” said one of the chefs, awkwardly tapping my shoulder.

            “Oh! Sorry! Just spaced out. I’ll be out of here soon.” I smiled before she turned to leave, and quickly shoveled the rest of my food down my throat (which, in all honesty, took five seconds).

            Sliding my backpack over my shoulder, I sighed again, mind refocusing back to the mysterious girl. It seemed so similar to something I’d seen somewhere before. Yet, it seemed so strange to see it in her eyes.

            Only when I glanced at myself in the glass door for the mere second before exiting did I realize what it was. The pain in her eyes was an exact reflection of the hurt I saw in my own eyes every day.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm back my loves <3 Hope you guys liked the quick update! Like with all of my other stories, I'll try to update on the same day, once every week. Please comment, subscribe, and/or upvote if you enjoy the story so far :3 See you guys in my next update! Thanks for reading :D

~DespisedSecret

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