Kazumi's POV

I took my cellphone out and plugged in my earphones as I scrolled through my playlist. It was exhausting to fight against a creature as large as a 5 story building.

(Bad Boy-Big Bang; Now Playing)

I don't exactly like or love K-POP but I don't hate it either. I don't know, I admit that their music is okay-ish for me though it lacks something. Okay chill, no haters please. This is my opinion and every person is entitled to their own.

Walking down the street with my hands tucked inside the pocket of my skirt, I kept my face stoic and acted like I didn't encounter any unusual, unbelievable and unidentified large object. Uhh, I'm not obsessed with the letter U okay?

It only took me 3 minutes to reach a convenience store. I was about to go inside but I hesitated and stopped on my tracks when I saw a familiar figure standing by the counter. Haruna Yūka. I'm not mistaken. That pink hair tied in a braid, her golden eyes and that smile; it could only be her.

I didn't expect to see her here in all places. She's even wearing the school uniform.

I detected that she was about to leave so my instinct responded quickly and I hid behind the nearest thing to me which is an advertisement board. She exited the store with a bag of groceries, still smiling.

I watched her figure walk away until it disappeared from my line of sight and that's the time when I came out of my hiding spot. I couldn't reveal myself even if she still doesn't know me. At least, not yet. Not this early.

I entered the convenience store and bought some drinks and snacks before walking out. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't facepalm because I'm using both of my hands to hold the bags.

Kami-sama, please don't remind me of my failure as your creation  that couldn't socialize. I was sweating beads all over and I know that my legs are shaking. Hell, I was rehearsing my lines inside my head before I reach the counter yet I completely forgot all of it when it was my turn!!

I even stood on the counter for a whole minute trying to come up with words!! Ugh, socializing sucks. Maybe it was because of the embarrassment and frustration that my feet did its work without complaining. I didn't even feel tired.

My eyes landed on an average looking house decorated with red and yellow paint with a small garden just beside the metallic door. I'm already home and I didn't even realize it.

Before opening the door, I set down the plastic bags on the elevated ground before pausing the music and putting the earphones inside my school bag.
Like I mentioned before, I bring my cellphone in secret so obviously my family doesn't know a thing about my wrong doings. And they shouldn't even dare try to scold me.

A sermon will be enough for me to blast music from my earphones in full volume while it's plugged in. Some of you should be saying, 'You should listen to your parents. They only want the best for you. You'll be a better person by then'.

Well guess what? It won't work. Sermons don't make me better. They do the very opposite of it. They make me worse. Tell me to stop acting uninterested and bored every family gatherings but you'll see me doing it every time. See? I told you I act bratty. Wait, scratch that, I am.

I went in the house and as usual, I saw my jerkass of a brother laying on the couch in the living room, watching anime on his laptop. For some reason, I don't see his girlfriend anywhere. There are no signs of her things.

All I could see are different kinds of junk food litters scattered on the ground. Nothing new then. Ignoring my brother who didn't bother to greet me like those people in anime or movies, I made my way to my room that's locked. No, it's not that kind of lock, I mean... Uhh.. Okay, I'll try my best to explain this to the very best of my abilities.

Imagine a door with a handle that goes like a letter C or something. Done? Then next imagine a small loop of some sort beside the door. Not on the side of the hinges though. Finished? Now visualize a chain going through the handle and that small loophole and have it locked by a lock. Well bruh what else could you use to lock chains?

That is exactly the situation of the door to my room. Once again, I placed the bags down the floor and took out the key to the lock. Unlocking the lock and the door, I stayed outside for a while longer, admiring the wooden template on the door with my name embroided on it.

Bruh, who wouldn't like the template? My name is written in everybody's favorite font!! That is Comic Sans!! Surprise, surprise!! NOT!

Sighing to myself, I entered my room while dragging the bags and plopped myself into my comfy bed as soon as it was in my reach. I missed my bed so much. If only I wouldn't have to leave it for 8 hours straight...

I reached for my school bag and opened its zipper, feeling the contents inside for any signs of the thin rectangular object. When the phone came in contact with my bare hands, I snatched it which made my bag fall because of the force.
Yeah force.

I turned my phone on and immediately went to messenger and as expected, it's already full of messages.

●The Nitwits 💯

HIS NAME IS PEPITO: Hi friends!!

PERST HONORS AND THIRD PARTY: Hello

DAH BRUH/LOL QUEEN 👑: Eyyyy! Is Hadzuki here?

GLORIA BORGER, A FUJOSHI TREE🌴🌳🎋: Wut

DAH BRUH/LOL QUEEN 👑: Congrats for the over 200 reads on Wattpad!!

GLORIA BORGER, A FUJOSHI TREE🌴🌳🎋: WHAT?! OVER 200?!

DAH BRUH/LOL QUEEN 👑: Lol it's true tho. Anyways ttyl cuz Imma read!! Sayonara!

I gently set down my phone at the side of the bed, taking a deep breath when I feel my eyes wanting to rest. Even though I feel sleepy, I know myself that I'm going to be stubborn till the end. I mean, who needs sleep?? Sleep is for the weak!! Now I just have to sit back and read-

"KAZUMI!!!!"

Oh great. My idiotic brother is calling the queen. What does he want? I grumpily left my bed and made my way to the living room, a frown creeping up to my face.

Kazuo, still laying on the couch, didn't bother to glance at me as he spoke. "Wash the dishes, will ya?"

He grabbed an empty plate from a small table nearby and gave it to me. I was reluctant to obey his orders since I'm not even sure if he does his chores. If he doesn't then why should I?

Growling, I snatched the plate from his hand and walked to the sink as he resumed watching anime. I might as well get this done.

***

"Hey Kazumi!! Hurry up here! I have some juicy news to tell you!!" Haru's loud voice irritated my ears and he even emphasized the word 'juicy'.

"I'm not interested," I answered in a low tone. Damn, now I really regret finishing a book with 60 chapters + epilogue in one night. I'm having a hard time thinking straight.

"What happened to you though? You look so out of it," Hideo asked as he came out of nowhere and waved a hand in front of my face. Come to think of it, Hideo got here first before me when usually he's the last one among the Nitwits to arrive.

"Uhh, you know how much I love staying up late."

What I said is a 100% true. I stayed up until 3 AM reading the book. I can't help it, it's just that the moment I read the description, I found myself not wanting to let go of it. I envy authors like those. They're so good that they can hook up their readers with just a several words. Unlike me who's having a hard time transcribing my thoughts into text.

A knock interrupted my thoughts and I looked at the door. I couldn't see much because of my position though. I'm too far back. "Excuse me, can I please talk to Hiroyuki for a minute?"

Hmm? Don't tell me that's...

"NICE ONE MAN!! HA, YOU'RE IMPROVING!"

I saw a blush make its way to the girl's face as she met my classmate's eyes, Hiroyuki. I tried to keep myself busy with making random doodles on my notebook to keep myself from looking, well jealous to my classmates' eyes.

Hiroyuki and I are being shipped together and my oh so wonderful friends were the one who started it. Soon, the others joined in for fun.

I know that Hiroyuki likes someone else. Sure, I may not be that smart but I'm also not that ignorant. I know when someone likes someone else, and this is an example of it. Before you say anything stupid, I'm going to tell you that I DON'T LIKE HIM and will never do. And mind you, I'm not jealous.

The two took their time talking with each other as I got bored of doodling. I need something else to do. Might as well write a story. Grabbing my pen from my bag, I started writing down whatever that comes into mind. I just wrote random names for the characters. After a bunch of scribbling, I finally finished writing the story.

"Wait Leon!!" I called out. I reached out for him but he's already too far away. With one last glance, he smiled at me and muttered words which broke me.

"I'm sorry, but I never loved you.."

My feet gave up running and my legs collapsed along with my heart. How could he do this to me? How could I be so dumb and blind?

My heart ached so much that I'm having a hard time breathing. Am I not enough? What did I do wrong? We swore that we would never leave each other... And that we would never lie..

Realizing the hurtful truth, tears finally streamed down my cheeks and dropped to the cold ground. In the end, it's my fault. I hoped that he's taking our "relationship" seriously although he doesn't do anything at all.

I'm so stupid.

Love truly is blind.

My sea green orbs blinked when I finished reading. What the hell?? Why the heck did I write a romance story? And the main character's even broken hearted!! And it's just... Full of cringe!! Ugh!!!!

"Good one Kazumi.. Are you inspired??"

I jumped on my seat when I heard a voice behind me. I turned around to see Haru wriggling his eyebrows, flashing me a smirk. Ugh, I wanted to wipe that smug grin off his face.

"No, I'm not inspired. I'm Kazumi."

Haru rolled his eyes and gave me look. What? I just answered his question.

"I know what you're thinking, young lady," he said, frowning.

"Excuse me but, I am NOT a lady.
And how did you even know what I was thinking? Are you a creep that snoops into other people's thoughts just to satisfy your curiosity?" I asked, sarcasm lacing my voice as I rolled my eyes at him.

He shrugged his shoulders and said no more, probably debating internally whether he should reply to me or not. Well whatever, I'm not a mind reader so I obviously have no ways of knowing what's running on in his mind right now.

I turned my attention to my notebook once again, rubbing my temples in frustration. I better get rid of the evidence. I tore the paper from the notebook and was about to crumple it but I realized that it would be found easily if I left it like that.

I tore the paper into bits of pieces before crumpling them all together and stood up to go to the trash can. I passed by Hiroyuki and his group of friends but I ignored them. I swear I saw some of them gave me a smirk from the corner of my eye and I couldn't help but click my tounge.

I threw the paper on trash can and luckily, it all went inside of it. I don't want to go and pick the remaining pieces if ever some of it didn't go inside. I walked-more like stomped-my way back to my chair and slumped on it. Several classmates of mine gave me puzzled looks although majority of them gave me teasing looks.

"Someone's jelly~!!" My classmate Izayoi shouted from the front, rolling his tounge when he said the word jelly. His group of friends looked at me and snickered. "Ayiieee~!"

I almost slammed my fist on their faces. Yes, almost. If it weren't for Haru who's sitting beside me and blocking the only way to get out, I would have done it.

I sat quietly on my seat and tried to block out the noises by covering my ears but of course, I failed. Those guys swallowed some microphones so I can't do things in peace. I didn't bother replying to their teasing looks and words because that will make me obvious.

Kazumi's Anti-teasing tip 101. Don't and I mean DON'T reply to those who are teasing you and don't let them know you are affected by it, well if you are. It's better to let them be. If you answer in a harsh tone or what, most of the times they'll think you're bitter even if you're not. Well just let them think whatever they want. After all, you're not affected, right? Or are you?

"Awww... No response."

Take that. I just want the noise-free classroom so I could do things peacefully. If only I could scream right in front of their faces to shut the hell up, I would've done already. But of course I can't do that for several obvious reasons.

Feeling my second enemy challenging me, I let out a snort when I found nothing great to do. Boredom. Boredom is going to kill me someday. Why does noise and boredom have to team up against me anyway?

My eyes fell on the ring on my left hand. Smiling sadly to myself, I averted my gaze from the silver ring embroided with foreign letters. I don't want to think about the times when I'm at my worst.

After all, past is past. You've got to move on, Kazumi.

=====

Hmm, Kazumi's stuck on her past. Mind voting to let her know that she has to let go and embrace the present? You can also voice your thoughts in the comments! :)

~Kazumi_Nyay624