Tomorrow, it will have been four weeks since I first resolved to bring Akito and Ren together. I expected the boys to at least be on conversational terms by now, but it turns out that I severely miscalculated.

It's not that nothing's changed; there is some mild progress to be noted. Ren doesn't complain about having to come to the committee shifts anymore, and Akito is slowly becoming more responsive to both of us. It's nice, but all in all, it really doesn't amount to much.

Ren is as stubborn and unreasonable as ever, stomping away the second he hears something he doesn't like, his heart hanging on his sleeve, and I can tell that Akito isn't being true to himself; every word that leaves his lips calculated, his tone practised, stiffly tiptoeing around like Ren is a land mine that he's afraid to set off. Neither of them displays any of the natural ease that should come with the company of your soulmate.

I'm starting to worry a little.

Once lunch break begins, I move through the steadily emptying classroom and plop myself down into the vacated seat before Ren's, depositing my lunch on his table. He glares. "Let's eat lunch together!" I cast a sideways glance at Akito, who's only just looking up from his notebook to take in my arrival, perplexed. Eating together will be good for us, right? Bonding over meals is something people have been doing for a long time. You simply can't go wrong.

Besides, every second they spend together counts. They're deskmates, which is ordinarily more than I could have hoped for, but every time I glance over, I find that Akito is dutifully looking ahead at the teacher, eyes unmoving as he concentrates, while Ren's face is pointedly twisted towards the window, his jaw set. I'm not sure if a single word passes between them when I'm not around to draw it out.

"No," Ren says gruffly, his arms crossed.

"Why? Let's eat together. Eating together is nice," I insist.

"Nice," he scoffs.

"Please? I want to eat with you, Ren."

I smile brightly as hesitation flickers across his face. I've realised that the trick with Ren is to always ask him twice. It's sad that everyone gives up after the first time.

"Fine," he grumbles. "Just don't be too noisy."

"Yay!" I cheer softly, popping open the lid of my lunch box. Ren bites into his curry bread like he's tearing someone's head off, and I giggle at the sight before shifting my attention to Akito, but he's so focused on his book that it feels wrong to interrupt. Akito will only politely refuse if I ask him to go to the canteen with us, so I came here myself. But this will hardly count as eating together if he's only going to be doing math the whole time.

"Akito, aren't you going to eat?" I watch with some satisfaction as Ren's eyes dart to him at that.

Akito blinks, surprised. "Ah, I—no, I've already eaten at home, thank you," he answers automatically. Ren's eyebrows furrow further.

"Are you sure?" I ask gently. "It's been hours since school started. You're not hungry?"

He shakes his head. "I'm fine."

I'm hoping that Ren will say something to argue, but he only turns away, the rapid bites he'd been taking slowing to a furious nibble.

I sigh and move to say something else, but find my words abruptly dying in my throat as I glance upwards. New ones quickly rise to take their place. "H-Hey, Irina, how come you're..." I watch anxiously as she swipes her palm across the empty seat before Akito's and sits down facing me, adjusting her skirt and neatly placing her lunch box on her lap. "...here?" I finish. She studies me with eyes like silently twinkling orbs, cool and dark. I swallow.

"Who the fuck are you?" Ren growls unnecessarily.

"Ren," I hiss. "Be nice, please." I meet Akito's eyes and add hastily, "This is Irina; I'm sure you both know. We're in the same class. A-And Irina, you probably haven't met before, but this is..." I stop speaking when I realise that Irina isn't listening to me at all. She's watching Ren, matching the mute hostility in his eyes.

"I'm here to eat lunch with Rubi," she says calmly.

I feel my heart sink. It's my fault. Using the fact that we were from the same middle school, I've uselessly hovered around her since day one because I had no one else to talk to. All this time, she's probably felt obligated to spend lunch with me. And now she has no one else to eat with. I took that away from her.

I bring a spoonful of rice to my mouth with shaking fingers and tightly clamp my teeth around it, the room around me collapsing into an unending silence that I can't bring myself to do anything about. Tangled among the benches, we sit in a tight circle and continue to eat quietly, and for a second, I wish that I could be anywhere else.

It's Irina who speaks first. "I think you're doing it wrong," she says bluntly, her eyes studying the notebook splayed before Akito on his desk.

He nods grimly. "I'm having some trouble."

I gratefully rush to take the opening, pushing all other thoughts aside in favour of Akito and Ren. "Can I see? Maybe I can help." Akito reluctantly hands his notes over to me, and I blink down at his crisp, loopy handwriting, attempting to clear my head.

"Take the derivative of the equation and equate it to zero." I jump slightly, Ren's sudden proximity taking me by surprise. He's leaning forward in his chair, examining the symbols on the page that I'm holding open. "That always gives you the maximum value. This shit is basic." He snatches the pencil right out of Akito's grip and presents us with the answer in less than a minute. The messy scrawls on the page are barely legible, but the solution makes sense.

"So you're one of those people," I say slowly.

"Hah?"

"Who can solve anything just by listening in class."

"He doesn't always listen in class," Akito helpfully points out, making all heads turn to him in surprise.

"What the fuck?" Ren scowls at him. "I do listen, and I study at home."

I feel the beginnings of a smile on my face as I watch them look at each other, but the sight of Irina sitting before me, her clear eyes set on the boys as she picks at her food, makes it stop from going all the way. She's sunken into the foreground, like she sometimes does, watching. Guilt pricks at me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you have to be here. I'm not sure if Akito responds after that. My world has narrowed to Irina and how unfair all of this has been to her.

Once lunch break comes to an end, she sets her gaze on me, intent and steady. "Will you go home with me today?" she asks again.

"I'm sorry. There's committee work and—"

"The hell? You said we didn't have to show up on Fridays."

Thank you, Ren. "Oh, right," I manage. My brain rapidly searches for a replacement for the excuse, but Irina doesn't give me a chance to use it. She stands up, and my heart starts to overflow. "Then I'll see you after school."

━━━━━━━⊱✿⊰━━━━━━━

"It's not very crowded by the shop over there; do you want anything?" Irina asks as I drop my bag onto a bench on the platform in preparation to wait for our train, which might take at least another fifteen minutes to arrive.

"No thanks." It's a fairly chilly evening, a quiet time of day in the railway station—the normally bustling crowd of travellers reduced to a trickle of students and office workers who managed to get off early. The night lights are yet to be switched on, and the bright display of advertisements on the screens overhead glares into the depleting sunlight.

Irina sits down beside me, and I move over to give her some additional space.

I pull my phone out and tap on the first number I see under my call history, saving it under the name Jerkass. I somehow managed to get Ren's number out of him today, though he threatened to ghost me forever if I so much as sent him a text without good reason. A smile tugs at my lips.

You (5.17 p.m.): This is Rubi. You better save my number, alright?

All that's left to do now is get Akito's number from Senpai. I could put us all in a group chat or something and tell them that it's for staying in touch about the committee work. I lower my phone and look straight ahead to see Irina watching me. "You're smiling," she observes.

"I...am? Sorry, I was just thinking about..." I trail off, unsure how to respond.

Her fingers dig into her lap, and she sighs, turning away from me. It's such a soft sound, but it makes my heart freeze over. Irina is always in utter control of herself and of every aspect of her life. She doesn't waste her breath on anything. She doesn't sigh. "It's them again, isn't it?" she breathes, agitated.

I don't say anything. When she lifts her eyes to mine again, the look in them is almost pained. "I want to join the committee too," she says upfront.

"What? N-No," I falter, fighting the rising wave of panic in my chest. "I mean," I amend. "If you're doing it for me, you really don't have to."

"I want to."

I don't understand. "Why would you want to? They make us work our asses off."

"Rubi," she says, her voice uncharacteristically impatient. "I'm jealous of Akito and Ren. Do you understand?" Stunned into silence, I just watch her, my mouth slightly agape. "You always look so happy around them, around Kurumi-senpai too, and I feel like..." She shakes her head, voice softening. "I want to spend more time with you. Please." She sounds achingly sincere.

When I'm with Ren and Akito, it's never about me. But it's different when I'm with Irina. She doesn't need me like they do. She's so self-sufficient. All we've ever had to offer each other is our company.

Kurumi-senpai is one of the few people I can really let loose around without having to worry too much. There isn't much of a difference between the way she would treat a close friend and a stranger on the street. She will always smile at me, soulmate or not. Irina isn't like that. She isn't friendly by nature, and she really doesn't like being around other people. One wrong move, and I'll further weaken the slim chances I have of keeping her in my life. I've been so careful. I could lose her forever.

And yet here she is, at her most vulnerable. Confident, brilliant Irina. Telling me that she wants to spend more time with me when I've already taken up more of her time than I deserve.

And the explanation for it is so simple. Irina hasn't gotten to meet with any of her soulmates yet. She doesn't know what that sort of company feels like or how alive and refreshed your soulmate could make you feel. It's why she's always willing to settle for me, and I've repeatedly taken advantage of that fact to continue to stay by her side, but this needs to stop.

The next second, the red string leading away from Irina's ring finger lights up, as if responding to my line of thought. I breathlessly follow it with my eyes. It floats invitingly in the air before us. This way, it seems to sing.

"Rubi," she says again.

"Come with me," I mumble, and rise from my seat, pulling my bag over my shoulder.

The thread goes taut as Irina stands up, now nothing more than a thin line beckoning for her to cross it. Close the distance. Come. Come. She cannot hear the call of fate, but she follows me as I make my way towards where the string tells me her soulmate is, till I see her standing by herself behind the safety line of the platform, her back to us. This is what I'm meant to do.

A long white coat rests on the girl's shoulders, marking her as a medical student. Springs of deep brown curls hang down her back, tamed by a clasp. I inhale deeply and tap her on the shoulder. "Excuse me." She turns around slowly, allowing her strikingly familiar face to come into view. Her matching brown eyes widen at the sight of me, and time freezes in the space between one heartbeat and the next.

"Rubi...?" she asks in disbelief.

"S-Sayu?" I stutter, my childhood nickname for her rushing to my lips before I can think better of it.

Irina's nose crinkles slightly as her eyes dart between us.

The girl regards me warmly. "How are you? It's been too long."

"Y-Yeah." My senses turn numb. Of course. Who else could it have been? Growing up, Sayuri was everything I could never be. The way she'd effortlessly snag the attention of those around her, demand their adoration, and keep it seemed unachievable to me. The kids in my neighbourhood flocked to her side in waves while I struggled simply to be seen.

Sayuri is...she's amazing. I can't think of any other way to put it. She's amazing. Her raw talent and efficiency will complement Irina's, her outgoing energy working to draw Irina out of her detached little cacoon. She has to be the one.

Her eyes glide past me and land on Irina. "Who's this?" she asks with a curious smile.

"O-Oh, this is Irina, my..." Irina's eyes flick to me. My what? "Classmate," I finish, an empty pang resounding in my chest. Irina turns away, her face blank.

"I see, I'm Sayuri; I grew up in the same neighbourhood with Rubi. It's wonderful to meet you! I'm a first-year at Sohma University of Medical Sciences, currently finishing up a course on relationship counselling and therapy. How about you?" Done with her lengthy introduction, she looks expectantly at Irina.

Irina's eyes narrow with interest at that. "You're a psychology major?" she asks evenly. Irina rarely shows an interest in anyone. To me, the hint of curiosity in the question that just came out of her mouth is enough to seal the deal.

These two will be happy together.

The rattling sound of an approaching train fills the air in the distance.

I stagger backwards. "Ah crap, it looks like I left my train pass back at school."

Irina looks back at me, her face pinched with worry. "Do you want to go back and get it? I'll come with you."

"No, no." I laugh nervously. "That, um, won't be necessary. You should go ahead with Sayuri. I'll...go by myself." I whirl and quickly walk away through the parting crowd waiting to board the train. Irina doesn't follow. I ignore the hollowness in my chest. Of course she doesn't; she's found her place now.

To seven-year-old Rubi, who had a very limited understanding of fate and the mechanism of the strings, the red threads had always been something to admire. Eight threads, and you were a queen. Six, and you were a princess. Four, and you would be welcomed to court with open arms. Sayuri had eight threads. I had none.

My phone pings with a text, and despite everything, fondness pools in my chest when I read it.

Jerkass (5.38pm): Fuck off, don't message me or I'll call pest control.

Be careful, a little voice in my head whispers. Don't get attached.

END OF CHAPTER