Another week has passed.

She hasn't spoken to Oikawa since that night.

In fact, she doesn't know what to say to him.

She's afraid she'll say the wrong thing and it'll blow up in his face.

So she keeps her distance, saying hi whenever she can and running off to the library to study and overthink. Mostly overthink.

After he had blurted that out, what resulted was profuse blushing from the both of them, awkward bits of dialogue, and nervous bursts of laughter. This continued until 11:30, when Oikawa excused himself for the night and went back home. She said her goodbyes, wished him well, and went to her own room to bundle up and overthink.

If there was a contest for excessive overthinking, she'd be reigning champion.

Mitsuha doesn't think she slept that night.

All throughout, he's been on her mind, and she's been extremely fidgety. Things like his smile and his scent. How he kind of sings some of his words and the way he hugs. The way his voice is soft yet ever-changing. Little things in Oikawa Tooru she never expected to matter so much to her.

She's sitting at the piano now, her fingers aimlessly trailing across the keyboard, as she waits for the rest of the band to finalize a couple of things. They're nearing the end of their scheduled practice of the day, and she's tired. She's been busy all day, finalizing preparations for the band's cultural festival stall, and attending all these practices and avoiding Oikawa as much as she can.

It didn't help that they're all in the same class: Makki, Mattsun, Hajime, Oikawa and her. She's kept to herself the entire time this past week, even though it'd been a great struggle to not do the usual things she did around Oikawa, like ruffle his hair or tease him.

But she has to hold herself back, because she doesn't want to hurt him.

She spoke about it to Hajime one night, because he caught her in the kitchen at one in the morning making rice paper rolls. She blurted everything out like a tide breaking across the shore; everything from her feelings and their conversations. He had simply sat there and listened, asking questions when he could.

That was the most of it. Other than that, she never connected emotionally with herself. She resorted to overthinking, sitting down in the library and trying her best to engorge herself in a random book (she kind of got the hang of the basics of engineering, but after a while the physics made her brain hurt).

"Mitsuha-san, are you looking forward to White Day?" one of the violinist girls asks, her sweet voice cutting through her thoughts. Mitsuha's fingers accidentally slump against the keys hard and she jerks back, completely surprised. The girl looks at her, in shock.

"W..white Day?" Mitsuha stutters, as she straightens herself and smoothens out her skirt, fidgeting with the edges. "Not really, no. What about you, Nika?"

The violinist, Nika, bursts into a smile. "Yep! I think my crush is gonna confess to me~" Her eyes are dreamy and full of hope.

Mitsuha musters up the courage to smile in response, despite the sudden emptiness that's taken residence in her stomach, and fights back the urge to let tears roll down her cheeks.

*

White Day has arrived.

Aoba Johsai's third year corridors are decorated with white flower garlands and little stars the decoration team put up during the weekend. Banners of sports and arts clubs are hung around like flags at a consulate, with various members plastered on them, and a few words of thanks written in teal. It's their last White Day all together, so it's understandable why they're going all out.

Mitsuha walks past the band club banner, smiling shyly when she sees the image the decoration team has used. It's her being held up by two of the other members, and they're trying to do a star. They took that picture when they won the district qualifiers.

The volleyball club's banner is loud and very much out there. The Fantastic Four-Oikawa, Matsukawa, Hanamaki, and Iwaizumi-are blown up in size, with the words "Thank you for your hard work!" emblazoned across their chests in a bright aqua with teal shading. Crowds of girls gathered there to no surprise, clicking photos with Oikawa's image.

Mitsuha walks to her locker, and opens it to find nothing inside there. She's not surprised, she's not exactly the talk of the town when it came to most things, one of them being on the list of cute girls.

She does however, want to admit that she feels a bit hurt.  A small part of her was expecting something from Oikawa, like a letter. But she understands why there's nothing there, and she supposes it's better this way.

She feels an unnerving presence and looks up. A pair of eyes peep at her from above her locker door, making her yelp.

"Yuki!" Mitsuha hisses, closing the door shut and punching her friend's arm. "What the fuck?

Yuki howls with laughter, grasping at her sides. "Oh god, you shoulda seen yer face!" the other girl exclaims, with tears practically forming at the corner of her eyes. "You look like you'd been spooked."

"Of course I've been spooked, I don't always expect eyes looking at me from my locker," Mitsuha grumbles, as she and her friend start walking to their class.

Yuki is still chortling, going on about how she was really glad to have scared her. Inside, Mitsuha's glad for the little scare, because it took her mind off Oikawa and the emptiness that had been building up since last week.

"Are ya thinking about him?" Yuki asks, her voice cutting through her train of thought.

Mitsuha looks at her sternly. "Can we not discuss him today? I just want to go about on our last White Day doing what we do best: nothing at all," she replies, tossing her head. Yuki laughs again, wrapping an arm around Mitsuha's shoulders and pulling her closer. "You're so incredibly obvious it's cute," Yuki comments, with a cheeky smile. "No wonder he likes you."

"He doesn't."

"Oh, he so does," Yuki drawls, raising her eyebrows at her. "He's so whipped for you."

"He is most definitely not," Mitsuha says disapprovingly. "We're just close friends, that's all-"

"Do close friends hold hands that often?" Yuki interrupts, taking off her arm so she can cross them in front of her chest. "Do close friends stay out very late at night, and have ramen eating contests after study sessions? Does that sound like something close friends do?"

"We do that!" Mitsuha exclaims, annoyed. "We're more touchier!"

"Okay, first, don't say touchier out loud, it gives the wrong vibe," Yuki corrects, as Mitsuha's cheeks redden. "Secondly, Mitsuha, I'm gay and you're straight, and everyone knows that, so we don't look like a couple. Thirdly, we don't have ramen eating competitions, we have CAKE eating competitions, there's a difference. And lastly, I didn't say I want to stand beside you on the world stage, or whatever that means."

"How do you know about the world stage thing?" Mitsuha asks, her voice dropping to a low whisper as they reach their class and enter. Students are still filing in when they get to their desks and sit down.

"Because Iwaizumi talked to me about it," Yuki replies nonchalantly, reaching in her bag to take out her textbook. "We discuss things, as intellectual people do."

"You discuss Oikawa and I?"

"Sometimes, we need to discuss the little things in high school life. Also, he does a part-time job at my mom's store, so we talk a lot anyway." Yuki gives a smile and pats her head. "Not to worry, nothing bad. We're just overly concerned about you."

"How overly concerned do you have to be that you discuss my relationships with my cousin?" Mitsuha hisses, but Yuki hushes her, pressing a finger to her mouth.

"Class is starting, so no talking."

*

The rest of the day passes by peacefully, but Mitsuha is still tired by the time she reaches her last class for the day, Applied Mathematics. Despite her best efforts at trying not to look at the time on the clock, it drags on forever.

She looks at the empty seat on her left, where Oikawa would have been. It's just one of the days where they don't share any classes together, and while she's quite used to not seeing him there, it hits differently today.

Mitsuha blames herself entirely. If only she'd be confident in herself and her feelings from the start, if only she sorted herself out internally, maybe this could have been avoided. If she hadn't acted so awkward and cowardly this wouldn't have happened.

The last bell rings and the scuffling of chairs and feet fill the air, overlapping the shrillness of the bell. Goodbyes are said and promises to watch a drama are spoken into existence, but Mitsuha pays it no mind as she quietly packs her things into her bag, and leaves the classroom, bumping into Yuki as the latter walks in.

"There ya are!" her friend exclaims, enveloping her in a hug. Mitsuha reciprocates, and this is the probably the only warm feeling she's experienced in days.

Yuki ruffles her hair, before pulling away. "You got your scheduled band practice today, don't forget," Yuki reminds her, as they both turn away from the class and head in the direction of their lockers. Mitsuha nods, yawning as she does so.

"Sorry," she says sleepily, as Yuki waves it off. "Haven't got enough sleep in a while."

"I would say skip today's band rehearsal but we only have a couple of weeks left until the festival, and then graduation," Yuki says, giving her a sympathetic look. "And as much as I would love for you to get sleep it's also equally important for me to be behind your back, pushing you and not giving you an excuse to slack off just because you won the national band competition."

"That's alright, I'll just nap when I get home," Mitsuha replies, stopping at her locker when they come to it. Yuki's is right opposite to hers, so she turns around to go to her own.

She unlocks hers, as she has always done, but for some reason it won't open. Mitsuha shoves it using her side, trying to get it to swing open. She does that another two times, until she feels pain shooting up her arm.

Yuki comes over, clearly intrigued as to why her friend was continuously slamming into the locker door. "Why are you expressing all of your unresolved sexual tension into that door?"

"Oh ha ha, very funny, Sugimoto Yuki," Mitsuha sneers, before giving her a look. "Can you check if it's been jammed in the hinges?"

Yuki sticks her tongue out at her but does it anyway. She peers through the small gap between the locker door and the rest of the compartment, and nods. "There's a letter stuck-OW!"

"Sorry," Mitsuha apologizes, as Yuki nurses her red nose. "Got excited." Yuki mumbles something inaudible as Mitsuha shoots her a sheepish smile. 

"Ya got a pin or something? I'll try poking it to make it move."

Mitsuha hands her the band room key instead, stating that she doesn't carry pins around. "What kind of woman are you, to not carry pins?" Yuki mutters, her eyes on the letter as she tries her best to shove it with the key. "Ya never know when you're gonna need to break into things like this."

After much struggle and cursing, Yuki sighs in relief. "There, I've pushed it so it's fallen into your locker. You can open it now."

Mitsuha thanks her profusely before opening her locker and taking out the letter, which had fallen on top of some music sheets. It's a light blue envelope, with little stars indented. A white star is stuck on the flap.

Yuki peers over her shoulder. "That's kinda cute," she says in a low voice, as Mitsuha nods. Quietly, she takes it and places it inside her bag, and takes the music sheets that were under it.

"What time does the bakery close?" Mitsuha asks, turning around and closing the locker behind her as she does so.

Yuki looks at her questioningly. "Six o'clock, why?"

Mitsuha gives a warm smile, one Yuki hasn't seen in a long time. It's a genuine one, one that lights up Mitsuha's entire face and persona, like a star.

"I need to buy milk bread."