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moonchild-things · 1 year

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Chapter Twelve: Butterflies

Summary: Shōyō Hinata loves volleyball! There is no doubt that all he really thinks about is volleyball. His sister, however, isn’t the same way. Sakura is ready to start her first year of high school at Karasuno with her twin brother and doesn’t really want to do anything, unlike Shōyō. Though she can’t help it when she gets dragged into the antics of the volleyball club.

Word Count: 5497

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THERE WERE TWO DATES THAT WERE CIRCLED in red on the calendar hanging in the kitchen. The first is obviously today while the other is for tomorrow. Two big days for Shoyo and Sakura. To say that Sakura is nervous would be one of the biggest understatements. Sure, on the outside she was trying to keep her composure as she got herself ready in the morning with her family. However, on the inside she is simultaneously extremely excited, and nauseated at the same time.

Since today is Tuesday, the first of May, it is the big day that Sakura has been worried about. The gallery. Her nerves were so high that she just about had the idea to skip on breakfast, to make sure that she didn’t end up getting sick at school. It’s usually Shōyō’s thing to get sick, not her. Though Natsu had encouraged Sakura to eat something, she even offered to share her own breakfast. Little Natsu wasn’t going to let her big sister leave the house on an empty stomach! Not wanting to upset her baby sister, Sakura agreed to eat a little bit of something.

“Have fun at your gallery, Sakura,” their mother said and kissed her eldest daughter on the head. Once Sakura had been practically fed by Natsu, their mother came over to clean up after them. “I might be able to stop by later in the day when they let parents go see it.”

Sakura shrugged her shoulders, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to okaasan.” She didn’t look up to her mother, already knowing that her mother was looking at her with a coy expression. Sakura didn’t have too much of a quelm with her mother going to the gallery. The teen has been pretty hush-hush about what her photo is for the gallery, so she understood the reason for her mother to go see it. Though she’s just a bit too embarrassed to admit that she was actually giddy for her mother to go see it. Her mother has been very supportive of her in every endeavor that Sakura has done, so she isn’t scared of what her mother would say. So Sakura is perfectly okay with her mother seeing her work. She knows that her mother would praise her for her work, so it isn't that nerve-racking. At least she knows that her mother won't say anything bad about it.

Her mother shook her head with a click of her tongue, “I’ll go if I want to, young lady.” She swatted the back of Sakura’s head who yelped.

Sakura grumbled while rubbing her bruised head, “...mean old woman...”

“What was that?” The older Hinata hummed far too sweetly.

Her brown eyes narrowed at her mother as she shuffled off to grab her school bag, “I’m leaving now.”

Her mother just chuckled, “alright, have a good day. Shōyō, hurry up!”

Sakura lazily walked outside and grabbed her bike. The cool morning air washed over her and relaxed her just a bit. As long as she didn’t work herself up so much, everything would be fine. She’s used to being completely calm, so today shouldn’t be any different.

Shōyō then came barreling out the door after his sister, “bye, Natsu! Bye, okaasan!” He grabbed his bike from besides Sakura and the two started their journey to school. All the way there, Sakura was quiet, far more quiet than usual. On their morning bike rides, she’s usually complaining every once in a while about the ride there, but she wasn’t today.

Her brother noticed it right away. Sure, Shōyō can be pretty dense about a lot of things. Though every once in a while, he could notice subtle things about his sister. She’s a far better reader of his emotions, and he might not be the greatest at reading hers, but he does what he can. “Are you nervous, imouto?” Sakura just huffed in reply as they were peddling up the mountain. She tried to make him believe that she was more focused on riding up the mountain instead of overthinking things at the moment. Shōyō just smiled widely at her, “There’s no need to be, you’ll be completely fine at your gallery! Everyone is going to love your work!”

Sakura glanced at him from the corner of her eyes before focusing back on her biking, “Hm.”

The school day started off as normal as usual. Everything about today was normal. Besides the fact that Sakura has been feeling sick since she woke up. Even while she’s sitting in her class, she can’t focus on the lesson since she could feel the butterflies in her stomach causing her an issue. Never in her life has she felt like this. The closest that she’s come is when she had first tried to join the yearbook club in junior high. After that, joining the photography club this year is a close second.

She truly hasn’t put herself out like this in any way. Sakura is subjecting herself to a pretty big stage. Though she shouldn’t complain about it, she’s doing this to herself. Whatever gets said about her work, hurtful or not, she would just have to suck it up. She can no longer let people’s opinions, or what she thinks their opinions might be, rule her world.

This is the moment where she’s going to put her work out there and let people hit her with their opinions. Though she was still completely nervous about it. She probably would be sick about it for the rest of the day until the day was over.

As Sakura was wallowing in her own worries, a meek classmate of her was slowly approaching her. “U-uh, Hinata-san? Are you o-okay?”

Sakura glanced over to see that it is Yachi Hisoka. The other girl has short pale blonde hair, brown eyes and a pale complexion. Yachi is a pretty well-known student. Sakura respects her for the fact that she’s hardworking and intelligent. If she were more outgoing, Sakura would have tried to befriend her a bit more. Considering they’re in the same class and both quite similar, the two girls would be pretty good friends. Though neither of them were going to speak to the other. Well, until now.

“Why?" Sakura asked coolly, "Do I not look okay?”

Yachi jumped in fright. She’s heard about how cold Hinata Sakura could be, but seeing it up close is terrifying. “Eep! Sorry!” She bowed deeply, “I just thought that you looked upset about something! I’m sorry for assuming that you were.”

“Hm, it’s… fine Yachi-san.” Sakura shuffled uncomfortably at the girl's sudden bowing. She knows that Yachi is quite the skittish girl. Sakura is certain that she has seen her apologize to a wall after she walked into it. Though she didn’t realize that Yachi was worried about everything and anything she said that might be offensive. Sakura could understand that fear, but she couldn’t say that she has the same one. Sakura could care less if she offended someone, unless it has to do with her photography. Her hobby is her weak spot, everyone knows that.

The other girl shook as she looked up at the intense expression in Sakura’s eyes. She tilted her head, “You know my name?”

“Yeah," Sakura raised an eyebrow, "I know everyones name, just because I don’t talk with anyone in class, doesn’t mean I don’t know who you all are.”

Yachi nodded her head strongly, “Right! So sorry for thinking otherwise.” Yachi chuckled nervously, “U-uh, I was just wondering if maybe you would like to eat lunch together. Since you usually eat alone or go outside.” She then frantically waved her hands, “But you don’t have to! It's just a suggestion!”

Sakura eyed her for a moment and thought it over. It’s not a bad idea. Besides Sakura needs to start befriending others and at least being more approachable. She shrugged her shoulders, “I guess that’s fine. Besides I’d rather just stay here instead of trying to find my brother.” Having something else to focus on, or in this case someone else, to distract herself from the thought of later today would be a good idea. Plus, this could be… practice. Practice of making friends or trying to socialize. It would be nice for Sakura to say that she was able to at least make a friend in her class. It would be nice.

“Oh, all right.” Yachi said, quite surprised that Sakura had even said yes. She had been expecting the other girl to just scoff and ignore her. Guess the rumors of Hinata Sakura being some mean, cold girl were a bit wrong.

They were silent for a moment as Yachi pulled a chair up to Sakura's desk. The two girls started to eat their lunches. Though really they were both picking at their food because they were too anxious to eat. Though Sakura finally sighed, “Do I look nervous?”

“Huh?" Yachi jumped again and stuttered slightly, "Oh, well I don’t know… are you nervous about something?”

“Maybe.” She certainly had thought that she had hidden her emotions a bit better. Though Sakura couldn’t be certain since she’s never had to hide her emotions like this. Nervousness, to this degree, is obviously new to her so trying to keep it hidden is also new to her.

Yachi waited for Sakura to elaborate a bit more, but didn’t get anything else from her. She could tell that Sakura isn’t one for opening up or small talk. Yachi also has a bit of trouble talking to people from time to time, so she understood just a bit. “Oh, well, I’m sure you don’t have to be worried about anything.”

Sakura raised an eyebrow while stuffing some rice into her mouth. “Yeah, sure,” she mumbled out.

The blonde-haired girl sighed and gulped in trepidation. “I don’t know what it’s about, but you’ll be fine.” She tried to smile reassuringly to Sakura who looked up to her with slightly narrowed eyes. “Based on what I’ve heard about you, you’ll be okay!”

She appreciated the sentiment, though she has to ask, “And what have you heard about me?”

Yachi froze, “O-only good things! I swear!” She panicked for a moment, thinking that Sakura saw this as a bad thing. “People just talk about how you’re really smart and stuff and level headed.”

Sakura chuckled slightly which calmed Yachi down a bit. Sakura knows about the gossip that goes around, having Endo follow her around at volleyball practices undoubtedly meant she heard plenty of it. So she knows what some people have said about her. Even during middle school she had. Though it doesn’t bother her, it’s just opinions or lies most of the time. Why should she worry about rumors? Which is a bit of a hypocritical thought considering she was usually so affected by people’s opinions about her photography and such. It seemed like opinions about things that she couldn’t change about herself didn’t affect her. However, opinions on her hobby, something that she chose to pick up as a kid, gave her quite a bit of anxiety.

“Well, I’m not the smartest,” she shook her head and continued to eat her lunch, finally getting a bit of an appetite, “Didn’t you get the highest mark on our last test?”

“Oh, well, not really.” Yachi scratched the back of her head sheepishly. A bit bashful at being called smart, “I think we might have tied or something…”

“I’m sure you got a point higher than me.” Sakura shrugged before coughing slightly as the girl slouched down in her chair. She cleared her throat, “Hm, I’ve been wondering… I’ve been looking for someone to study with.” She pushed around her food in her bento box, “Kami-sama knows my brother is terrible at studying and would just be annoying.” She turned to look out of the window so Yachi wouldn’t notice how her ears and cheeks had become slightly red. “So maybe would you… Study… With me? Sometime?”

Yachi wasn’t sure what to think at the moment. Was Sakura suddenly embarrassed? Yachi didn’t think that Sakura would be capable of that. Once again, she shouldn’t think that the rumours she heard are true. “Ah!” She gasped while staring at Sakura who still hadn’t turned to her. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

Sakura glanced at her from the corner of her eyes and let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. The barest of smiles graced her face, “Cool.” Suddenly, the butterflies in her stomach calmed down just a bit more.

"Yes, that goes there. No! Keep that off of the ground, Fujiwara will kill me if you mess that up!" Shimada ran about the club room gathering all of the pieces that would be displayed in the gallery today. She truly hadn’t realized just how stressful it is for the president to oversee all of this stuff. The third-year now has a new respect for all of the previous club presidents. Why did she take up this responsibility? Oh, yeah, because there really wasn't anyone else.

Sakura watched her friend run around the room helping others collect their things. If she were being honest, she doesn’t envy Shimada for having to deal with all of this. Even if they were in one of the smallest clubs at the school, it seemed like they were more or less in charge of this gallery. The art club could have taken this over since they’ve got about triple the amount of members. Though for some reason, Shimada and Mori Aiko, the vice-president, had decided for their club to take the responsibility of getting everything set up. All of the entries into the gallery had to be run by them and the club advisor, an old woman who Sakura has barely met before, while they set up the venue and such. Though the venue just happened to be one of the large classrooms on campus. Both the art club room and photography club room are far too small for the number of people involved in the gallery and people who would probably come see it. Sakura could only hope that she doesn’t end up having such a responsibility. It’s not that she is incapable of doing it, she doesn’t want that added stress on her.

Just as Sakura was thinking about it all, Shimada came bouncing over to her kohai. Her hair bounced around her head as she smiled brightly. “Oh, I can’t wait to have you show people what you’ve done!”

Sakura just stared up at her before walking over to her framed photo, “...ok.”

“Don’t be so down, Sakura-chan!” Shimada followed after her as they both stared at it, “Everyone will love it, I sure do! I can never get over how talented you are!” She then grabbed Sakura in a tight hug and swayed them back and forth.

Sakura deadpanned, “Stop being so clingy, Shimada-senpai.”

“I’ll stop being clingy if you just call me Emi.” Her senpai cooed while rubbing her cheek against the top of Sakura’s head. Sakura really does not appreciate being this small. Why do people feel the need to pick me up like a child?

She rolled her eyes, if it meant getting put down, then she’d do it. “Emi-senpai,” the older girl preened now that she got the usually stoic and formal Sakura to call her by her first name. Though she froze once Sakura continued to talk, “you’re annoying.” Shimada then let the girl down who brushed off her clothes.

Shimada pouted like a baby, “Don’t say something like that to your senpai!”

Sakura disregarded her, “Hm.”

The older girl shook her head and tried to brush off the small disrespect from her kohai. “So how did you decide on what to put into the gallery?”

“Surprisingly, you're kind of good at advice,” Sakura shrugged her shoulders.

A different girl passed by the two while carrying a box. “Is she really?” The mousy, brown haired second-year chuckled, “Shimada usually is bad at giving people advice!”

“Shut your mouth, Ito!” Shimada growled and just about threw her clipboard at the other third-year girl.

While Shimada started to bicker with Ito, Sakura stared at the photo in her hand. She never would have thought that one photo would have so much meaning to her. And one that wasn’t really of anything. It would have a meaning of “rebirth” or “transformation” no matter who looked at it. Though she doubted anyone would really see the deeper meaning to it, and what she tried to portray in it.

The anxiety started to creep back into her stomach. Though she tried to breathe slowly and stop it from over taking her. There was no need to get sick before this. Getting sick is Shōyō’s thing. She’s level-headed, she’s the calm twin. She swallowed thickly and thought of something to distract her for a moment. She thought back to how she got this done after so long.

A FEW DAYS AGO

Sakura needed a little bit of inspiration. Tomorrow was her deadline for the gallery, and she still didn’t have anything to turn over for it. Even though she has taken plenty of photos they mainly consist of the volleyball team, scenery, and her family. It isn’t a question of whether or not the photo will be good, it’s a question of what the photo should be of.

Just about everyone else in the photography club had already turned in what they wanted to show in their exhibit. Even the art club already has all of their entries for the gallery and started planning out their layout for the gallery. Really, Sakura is the last person to turn something in. Here she was saying that she wanted to change herself and do something to make herself unique and she's procrastinating.

It's not that she is doing it on purpose, it's just that she can't think of what to photograph. So, taking up the advice from Shimada, Sakura thought back to what got her into photography. To do that, she went to the park. The place where she first became… inspired. She could only hope that she found some more inspiration here.

Sakura walked along the pathway in the middle of the park. The blossoms from the trees were swaying along the breezes of wind as a few kids ran about playing with each other. It almost looked exactly the same as the day that she first took photos as a little kid. Spring was coming to an end though. Soon enough the heat will increase as summer rolled in in about a month. That’s something that Sakura doesn’t like all that much. She hates the heat.

She idly walked along and took a few photos of the trees and blossoms. As much as she thought it would be a good idea to just take the photo of the cherry blossoms or something similar, it doesn’t feel right with her.

The teen tried to think about what she could find here that would be rebirth. Sure the photo itself may not need to necessarily mean actual rebirth or anything, but she wants it to. She wants the meaning to be obvious yet have its own hidden meaning. Curse her for wanting to have multiple layers to her photo.

Though she then thought to herself about her first time taking the photos. She wondered how that woman was doing… Was she also still doing photography? Perhaps she has her own business or something. That would be pretty cool. Sakura would kind of hope of doing that once she graduated college. She still has no idea who that woman was, never getting her name or anything. If Sakura has to guess, she’d say the woman must be around thirty now. An old lady.

Sakura wandered around the park. She listened to the ambient sounds around her, looking around lazily while sticking her hands in her pocket. Hm, if she didn’t find anything to photograph here, then she’d have to just enter in her photos of the cherry trees. At least she has a back-up.

Then she saw it. A fluttering little butterfly. A swallowtail.

It’s pale white wings with small black designs on it seemed to glow in sunlight, drawing Sakura’s attention to it. The butterfly flew past her face and slowly and gracefully landed on the bark of the tree besides her. She stared at it for a long moment before lifting the camera to snap a quick photo of it.

Sure, the butterfly isn’t the flashiest or prettiest one around, but Sakura is the same way. In her own opinion, she isn’t pretty, she doesn’t stand out, yet she’s changing. Becoming better in some ways. So perhaps she saw herself in the butterfly. So she is drawn to it as she captures the butterfly in a moment in time.

Just after she took the photo, the butterfly then flew off, disturbed by the teenager. Sakura watched it fly away, so she would never see it again. She looked down at her camera to see the photo that she took. Honestly… it’s perfect!

For the first time in a long time, she felt giddy. This photo is definitely amazing. No doubt is it a good pick for the gallery. Not only that, but butterflies are a universal symbol for metamorphosis, everyone knows that. So this is it, this is the photo for the gallery.

She smiled, “this is great!” She laughed joyously, a laugh that she hasn’t uttered since she was in middle school. For a moment, she almost started to jump around in excitement. Though she stopped before she embarrassed herself in public.

Sakura stared at the photo, a small smile crawled onto her face. She took the photo and placed it up on the wall, in the perfect place, just where it belongs. Admiring her work for a moment, she let out a content sigh. From this moment forward, things are looking pretty good.

Shimada noticed how Sakura seemed to have calmed herself down. Slowly, she joined Sakura to stare at the photo, “Don’t worry about anything, Sakura-chan. People are going to love your work!”

Sakura nodded her head at the encouraging words. With another quick breath, she calmed down completely. There’s no need to be. There were plenty of people who already said that they liked it, with some small criticism to the composition and color correction for it. Other than that, Sakura knows that this work is good. So she’s assured that she shouldn’t feel anxious about this any longer. It’s time to be confident in herself.

“Imouto!” Sakura jumped slightly at the shout from behind her and slowly turned around to find her brother. Apparently, a few students were already coming in to look at the gallery since everything is just about set up.

However, it wasn’t just her brother. It seemed like he had brought along the entire volleyball team with him. Aren’t they supposed to be practicing right now? She thought to herself in annoyance. Sakura sighed and approached the group, “Hi.”

They all looked around the room and stared at all the art pieces and photos that the conjoined clubs had nearly finished setting up. Suga glanced around at them all, “Everyone did a really good job with their work.”

“Yeah,” Asahi agreed, “all of you guys are really talented!”

Sakura nodded her head at him, “Oh! Oh!” Shōyō jumped up and down as he dragged his setter friend over to the framed photo. “Kageyama look at the cool picture that my sister did!”

The setter stared at the butterfly photo for a moment with narrowed eyes, “...I don’t get it.” Sakura rolled her eyes, she already knew that a simpleton like him probably wouldn’t understand anything in here. His brain probably couldn’t comprehend art.

Daichi walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder, “This is really good, Hinata-chan. Good job!”

Sakura muttered, “...Thanks.”

“Yeah, Sakura!” Nishinoya jumped over with stars in his eyes, “You did a really amazing job!”

She hid herself in her arms at the compliments constantly aimed at her, “Whatever.”

“Aw, no need to be embarrassed.” Endo cooed down at the girl who was growing even redder. He bent down and got up in her personal space. Sakura then stomped on the drama queen's foot, “Ow!” The third-year then hoped around on one foot as his friends laughed at him.

“It’s true, Hinata-chan.” Suga approached her with his usual large smile, “You’ve done a good job on this one. I may not know much about art, but I can tell you put a lot of thought into this.”

Sakura stared at him for a long moment and pursed her lips, “Really? You can tell…” She wasn’t sure if he understood the fact that a butterfly on it’s own could mean “rebirth” or if she was trying to change herself. Though she wouldn’t be surprised if he did see it as a symbol of herself. He’s pretty observant and if Yamaguchi could see her issue, then Suga probably could too.

He flashes her a thumbs up and a heart warming smile that may or may not have flustered Sakura. “Of course.”

The group then started to move on, the others finding something else that caught their eye. Sakura is just glad that they weren’t going to bother her any more. Hopefully they won’t come back and she’ll get to leave before they try to bombard her again. Just as she had thought she got away with it, a large shadow engulfed her. She looked up to find that it is the bitchy blond giant himself looming over her with a bored expression. Yeah, he’s certainly someone she wasn’t looking forward to seeing here.

The boy stared at her with narrowed eyes before taking a quick glance at the photo, "Oh, it's a picture of a butterfly.” The tall blonde rolled his eyes, “how original."

Sakura clicked her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't see any other photos of a butterfly, are you seeing something I'm not?"

"I thought you'd pick something a tad bit more interesting, not just a silly butterfly." Lightning struck between the two as they continued to glare at each other.

For a moment, Tsukishima's appearance changed in Sakura's mind. Instead of being blonde and golden-eyed, he had black hair and dull blue eyes. She thought of Sato Hitoshi, and how he looked down at her the same way. Always thinking that he's better than her, that he had the answers that she didn't. Months ago, she may have been more self-conscious about her photography. She would have succumbed to her doubts and wilted under his stare. However, she's learned to not take malicious opinions like Sato's or Tsukishima's to heart. They were saying these things just to get under her skin, just to cause even more self-doubt in herself.

She's different now.

Being around the photography club, getting those compliments and kind constructive criticism has helped to boost her confidence. She was better now, at least a little. Sakura could brush off Tsukishima now about her photography just like with every other thing he tries to say to her.

Sakura made sure to stand tall, well as tall as she could in front of this beanpole of a teenager. She squared her shoulders and stared straight into his gold irises. "You may think it's silly, but it has meaning to me. And that's all that matters.” Her words were strong and loud, no doubtful tone in her voice at all. “Say what you want about my work. I know it's good, and a lot of other people think so too."

Tsukishima stared at her for a long moment, processing the fact that she was standing up for herself. He knew that she doesn’t get riled up like her brother and doesn’t get that emotional about things. He also knows that she doesn’t like confrontation. At least, the sort of confrontation that involves her own problems. He’s seen first hand how she stands up for her brother most of the time. However, to see her stand up from herself is new. Something he never thought he’d see.

The blond continued to stare at her for a moment, and Sakura easily stared back at him with no sign of backing down. Tsukishima scoffed loudly before turning away and walking off. Honestly, Sakura saw that as a win.

“So did you find out why you like photography?”

Sakura turned to find that it was Yamaguchi who had approached her this time. He smiled sheepishly and apologetically, seemingly apologizing for Tsukishima’s behavior. She brushed it off though, no need to think about that asshole. “A bit. This certainly… helped, I guess.” She then cleared her throat, “Thanks for your advice, Yamaguchi. I… appreciate it.”

Yamaguchi’s smile widened, “No problem, Hinata-chan.”

“Sakura.”

He blinked, “Huh?”

Sakura turned away from him with pursed lips. She certainly was getting quite embarrassed today, isn’t she. “Just call me Sakura, so you don’t confuse my brother and I.” He’s a friend now, she thought. He’s seen her real problem with self-esteem, so he deserved to be regarded as someone closer to her. It seemed like she was building up plenty of friendships now.

“Oh, all right.” He chuckled lightly while shaking the back of his neck, “Then call me Tadashi.”

Sakura smiled lightly, at least, a larger smile than Yamaguchi has ever seen from her. “Right.”

To be honest, that went far better than Sakura could have ever thought. There was no need to be so anxious about this she realized. Today was far more… relaxing than she would have thought. So as the sky was starting to darken, Sakura’s mood was more than bright. Though you wouldn’t be able to tell that with how she kept herself so calm on the outside.

The day was winding down, school had now completely ended and really only a few clubs were still going on. Mainly it was the sports teams continuing their long practices, including the boy’s volleyball team. Sakura gathered her belongings with a content sigh and started to head out of the classroom. She was quite hungry and could totally go for a meat bun right now. Daichi might end up getting her one again if she flashed him her large eyes. After all, she did a good job today.

“Hey, Sakura,” Shimada called out as the small club followed after her. She turned around to find her president smiling widely at her, obviously extremely proud after today. Shimada bounced in her place, “We’re all going out to get some boba! We do this after every gallery, it’s kind of a ritual. You wanna come with?”

The five upperclassmen all stared at Sakura expectantly. However, there seemed to be a small air of hesitancy. It seems like they figure that it is pointless to ask her, as if they already know her answer. Sakura shuffled slightly, “Oh, um…” She chewed on her bottom lip, “I don’t know.”

Sakura isn’t a stranger to hanging out with people. However, hanging out with her own friend group, without Shōyō… is different. She’s unsure if she would consider it a good difference or bad difference just yet. As much as she’d like to distance herself from Shōyō, it was still up for debate on how quickly she is going to do that. Leaving any sort of comfort zone for her was already anxiety inducing as it is. However, to do it too quickly might scare her off. She has to find a pace for herself that doesn’t cause her to want to abandon her quest for individuality.

Yokoyama Nobu, a blond haired second-year nodded their head rapidly and pulled Sakura from her thoughts, “Come on, you deserve a treat after today.”

“Yeah, you did so good, shortstacks!” Wada Katski, another light-blue haired second-year, chuckled as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Sakura huffed lightly and looked away from the group, “I can’t… I have to go with my brother to his practice.”

The upperclassmen all shared a glance with each other, obviously not surprised at that. Though that didn’t mean a few of them didn’t deflate just a bit. Shimada scratched the back of her neck, “Ah, well then.”

Mori Aiko, the white-haired vice president, waved her hand “Another time then.”

“...yeah.” Sakura muttered as she turned around and started to head to the gym, not really wanting to see their disappointed looks. They all seem to know her almost unhealthy attachment to her brother, and they just wanted to help her. Everyone of her senpais saw that she wanted to be her own person, make a name for herself, but they just weren’t sure what to really do to help her. They want to be her friend. It just seems like they’re just going to have to wait a bit longer.

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