Chapter 2 - Akira Shinohara

📖 Chapter 2: Akari Shinohara

 Lunchtime , Classroom

The cafeteria buzzed, but Yukinoshita Mizune sat at her desk, quietly stabbing a rice ball with inverted chopsticks. Her eyes darted between her food and the "specimens" in the class.

Then came the sound of heels — too fashionable for school.

Akari Shinohara, self-declared queen of class gossip and glitter, strutted over, phone in hand, flanked by her two loyal followers.

Akari: "So, you're the one who cold-shouldered my friends yesterday in the locker room."

Mizune: "...I don't recall pushing anyone."

Akari (frowns): "Not literally, princess. I meant you turned them down."

Mizune: "Ah... I see. Perhaps I should've accepted their offer. I now understand a follow request is not someone tracking your location."

Girl A (whispers): "What the hell did she just say—?"

Akari, arching a brow, raised her phone:

 "Do you at least have Insta? Or do you write your diary with a feather quill?"

Mizune (tilting her head):

 "Instagram... is that where people upload... stories? Must I bring a plot twist?"

Akari blinked.

Once. Twice.

Then suddenly burst out laughing.

Akari: "OH. MY. GOD. You're not cold. You're just… totally clueless!"

Mizune (serious): "I have been referred to as emotionally unavailable. Is that different from being clueless?"

Akari (mock sighing): "You're a DISASTER lol."

With dramatic flair, she tapped her phone and shoved it toward Mizune.

Akari: "There. I added you as a friend. Now you have one. Congratulations."

Mizune: "...Is this... legally binding?"

Akari: "NO! What is that even supposed to mean!!!"

"Anyway if you need help In anything, Contact me got it?."

while akari was almost on her way back from the mess,

Yuki: (shouting across the hallway with zero hesitation)

"Akari Shinohara! I require clarification about this!"

Akari: (blinks, annoyed)

"Huh? What are you, my mom now?"

Yuki: (genuinely confused mumbles to herself)

"How many children do I even have…?"

(Pauses, completely serious and blunt as ever ask akari)

"Anyway… what is a friend?"

Akari flabbergausted. Her eyes twitched.

Then she launched into a full-blown rant:

Akari: "A friend is someone who helps you pick outfits, shares their fries, doesn't leave you on read, and makes you feel like you belong—even when you're weird as hell, which you definitely are!"

Before Mizune could ask what "leave on read" meant, the school bell rang.

Akari (grinning): "Saved by the bell, Ice Queen. But listen — if you're ever confused about friendship…"

She turned, striking a pose.

"…Just think of me."

Mizune wonders to herself with her pupils widened like never before,

"what is this tingly feeling of my skin tiny hair particles?

Is this called the feeling of goosebumps"

(after a long time wondering she comes to a conclusion that...…)

"Am I gonna die ?"

Narrator: For her, who have never experienced goosebumps, thought it was just a malfunction in her body that will ultimately leading to her dying some how

As the bell rang she stuffs the rest of her rice balls down her throat and She spots hinata staring out the window at the abyss, she creeps on him and goes on….

Mizune (monotone, direct): 

"What did you mean when you said… 'I'll be in your care' yesterday?"

Hinata blinks, caught off guard.

Hinata (rubbing the back of his neck): "…It's just how people talk . Kind of like… 'let's get along.'"

Mizune's eyes narrow slightly.

Mizune (serious): "But why would you need to be in someone's care? Are you injured?"

Hinata (deadpan): "…No. It's just a greeting. A cultural habit. Like waving. Or sneezing and saying 'excuse me' even if nobody noticed."

Mizune (writing in journal): "Phrases that sound empty… but aren't..interesting"

She pauses, glances up.

Mizune: "…Is it always like that? People saying things without meaning them literally?"

Hinata shrugs.

Hinata: "Pretty much. Social life's like… a multiplayer game with no tutorial. You fake it till it stops being weird."

Mizune (pensively): "That explains a lot. In that case I have… no tutorial."

Hinata chuckles softly.

Hinata: 

"You're doing alright, though. Bit eccentric, but not boring."

She blinks. Then quietly scribbles another note.

Mizune: 

"…'Eccentric' – potentially positive insult?"

He peers over curiously.

(hinata cant but ask about the journal she have been writing the whole time)

Hinata:

 "What are you even writing in that thing?"

Mizune (quickly closes it): 

"Classified."

She starts to walk away. Then stops.

Mizune (turns back): "Oh. Hinata."

He looks up.

Mizune: "Can you… be Akari?"

He blinks. Looks at her. A beat.

Then—surprisingly—he gives a short nod, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

Hinata: "…You mean you want to be my friend on Insta?"

Mizune freezes. Eyes narrow just a little.

Mizune (suspicious):

"I didn't say that."

She takes a step forward, tilting her head.

"How did you know?"

Hinata avoids her gaze. He rubs the back of his neck, visibly flustered.

---------------Flashback to earlier that day—--------------

Hinata at his desk, realized mizune has left her journal out in the open

he grabbed it only just to place it back in her bag BUT

his curiosity get the best out of him

 He'd only meant to check whose it was… but his eyes caught a few lines:

Some girls asked me to be friends I have to figure out the details of the contract. And WHY do they want to FOLLOW ME? Are they interested to see my house? I should invite them home to complete the contract.

2 .The boy next to me asked me to take care of him He mistook me for his mom… I think. Or could… he be my lost son from the past when I was a child?

Anyway, I have to keep this specimen under keen observation.

"I-a-am being treated like a ZOO ANIMAL Now"

He nearly died trying not to laugh in class 

quietly sliding Mizune's journal back into her bag where she'd left it behind

------------------Back to present—---------------------

Mizune eyes him curiously.

Mizune: "Your expression just changed. Did you remember something strange?"

Hinata (turns away): "Nope. Just… thinking about my long-lost mom." 

She doesn't buy it. Not even a little.

Mizune (squinting): "You're acting... different. Did you eat expired food?"

Hinata (defensive): "No! Just... it's nothing."

Mizune: "Nothing is suspicious. nothing is something in disguise."

Hinata tried to keep a straight face.

Her eyes dart to her bag—and finds her hair pin replacement slightly off position.

She figured out exactly what had happened,

Mizune: "...You read it, didn't you?"

Hinata (panics): "I—I didn't mean to! You left it out! I wasn't spying! Okay maybe I peeked but—"

Mizune (dead serious): "So... you ARE my lost son?"

Hinata blinked. Then burst out laughing — a real one this time.

Hinata: "God, you're weird."

Mizune (blinks): "...Was that a compliment?"

Hinata: "…You tell me, mom."

Hinata: "I was going to put it back! You forgot it, and I didn't read all of it."

Mizune: "…but You still read till the part where I thought you were my son from a past life?"

Hinata groans softly.

Hinata: "I tried to stop reading there, I swear."

She stares a beat longer—then closes her eyes.

Mizune: "…I should report you for data theft."

Hinata laughs—an actual laugh, quiet and real.

Mizune: "…Did I say something humorous?"

Hinata: "Sort of. You're... unintentionally hilarious."

Mizune (writes): "New emotion: Accidental Comedy."

Hinata (softly): "Don't stop being weird." Mizune blinks.

She turns her face slightly away.

Mizune:

"i changed my mind I'm gonna report you to fib"

Hinata

"please don't do that to your own son,Would you?" he chuckled in a long

the teacher enters and their final homeroom for the day gets over and…..

in they end they both forgot they were talking about adding each other as friends in insta and left home soon

-------------------MIZUNE JOURNAL:-------------------

9/7/2018

3 .Akari Shinohara :

 possible canditate for shipping of the friends

she is quite scary and watching her made my skin tingle

after research I decided im not dying anytime sooner

so it was just her being......cool? Is that a thing?

She said Friend = Akari?

4. the boy called hinata is quite the intresting specimen and.....a data heist front liner

gotta be careful to place some trap if someone tries stealing my data

5. apparantely people say things that they don't mean

and he is not my lost son

it was worth observing the specimen called Hinata Hikaru It was Fun-ny

Emotion Log Entry #29 — "Scary" (?)

Akari

Emotion Log Entry #30 — "Goosebumps" (?)

I thought I was having a terminal illness ,have to be careful not to be mistaken in future

its happens when u see something…cool

got it.

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 END OF CHAPTER 2