Realistic or Modern (Koicomi) Fleeting Moments

[Tau]

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Averwyck as Daisuke Kobayashi
Tau as Maremi Himitsu
@Ehb as The One Who Still Hasn’t Given Me My "I Voted" Sticker A Pretty Cool Person

Spoiler: RP Background Lore

Once upon a time, in the small town of Kusatsu, there stood two schools. A School for Girls and a School for Boys. The students of these two great institutions may very well have spent their whole lives separately, but fate intervened (together with a little rampant consumerism).

Forced to merge into one, the combined school became known as Yuzu High School. Yuzu’s inauguration was unfortunately not a happy one. The students bickered and fought amongst themselves as if the boys and girls were from two separate planets. Grades were decidedly low. And somewhere in the wings, corrupt politicians lurked; waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

In a last-ditch effort to ‘Save their School’, the Principal of Yuzu High put together a ‘Gender Relations’ club aimed to bring peace amid the rioting student body and forced firmly encouraged students to join. Just a group of zany characters with seemingly nothing in common, the club seemed doomed to fail at first. But somehow that ragtag group of students pulled it together and actually succeeded; saving Yuzu High from closure and forming lifelong bonds in the process.

Synopsis
It’s been a complicated year for Maremi and Daisuke. They were once the social outcasts; the ones most likely ones to walk away from a conversation. It wasn’t until the merge of their schools, that these two misfits were forced out of their comfort zones and the most unlikely of friendships was forged. What happens when feelings of friendships give rise to something more- and how do these two crazy kids deal with it when they can barely string a sentence together between them?

Stay tuned to find out~!​

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Maremi stood in the doorway to her bedroom, gazing inside. What once had been so full of life and charm was now laid bare and uncomfortably empty, save for the bed she’d be sleeping in tonight, and even that had been cleared of her fox-shaped hugging pillow. Depressing as it was, it wasn’t anything new. She’d been through this process a dozen times by now, at least.

"Maremi? You already finished packing everything last night, didn’t you? If you don’t hurry, you’ll be late for school…" The distant voice of her father called behind her.

"Right." She still stood in the door for several seconds, staring at a certain spot on the floor. It was where the two of them had sat… her and perhaps the only person to visit her at her house in… well… forever, really. But it was just a floor. One that she’d been staring blankly at for about 5 minutes. Who even got sentimental over something stupid like that? That was just weird. "I’m going, you rotting sack of…" she trailed off whatever vile insult had come to mind with a deep sigh.

This wasn’t anything new. Any time she found another person she even vaguely liked, it was suddenly moving time. Having found a whole club she liked, a move was pretty much imminent. Why would she expect this time to be any different? As usual, she found herself bitter and angry towards the father dragging her away for the millionth time, even if she realized deep down that it was a petty and childish thing to do. At the very least, she was proud to have cut off her usual string of scathing insults.

"I’m going, she said simply, turning to leave, traversing a similarly-empty hallway, and then an empty dining room, avoiding the gaze of the sharp-eyed man in glasses seated at the table as she headed for the front door. Sadly, her short legs failed to carry her forward fast enough to avoid a horrific accident: "the conversation."

"Maremi…?" — "What? — "Are you… alright?" — "Yes." — "… And you’re all ready to move?" — "Yes." — "You have everything prepared to leave this Sunday?" — "Yes." — "… Uhm… well… alright then, good…"

She left.

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As Maremi walked the halls of Yuzu High, she took in the expressions of the students surrounding her. It hadn’t been all too long ago that they’d offered nothing but glares and scowls. How quickly things could change. Sure, there was an irritated look here and there, but she’d proven herself an ally to the school at the cultural festival, and her friends at the Gender Relations Club had done wonders convincing people she wasn’t as bad as they’d thought… or so she hoped.

"Hi. Hello. Morning. Okay. Yes." Still, she wasn’t much of a talker, and every answer she offered to the words thrown her way was as short as feasibly possible. She wasn’t in a talkative mood anyway…

 

[Averwyck]

Daisuke Kobayashi | At Home​

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It was still early morning, but the sweet fragrance of chocolate permeated the Kobayashi’s residence. The family’s eldest son, Daisuke, stood in the kitchen wearing a decidedly feminine pink apron as he fussed over his latest creation. He’d been attempting to make homemade chocolate for a few weeks now and was finally satisfied with the results of his labour. Once he was happy that it had set correctly, he’d wrap it up for school…

But before that, he needed to figure out a way to calm down the ravenous beasts that had just found and cornered him in the kitchen; his youngest siblings. The smell of chocolate had lured the twins out of bed at a surprisingly early hour and they currently stood before him in their matching pyjamas letting out an impressively synchronised wail over and over. “Chocolate for breakfast! Chocolate for breakfast!” Daisuke carefully pushed the tray of homemade treats well out of their reach and bent down to meet their puppy-dog eyes with pseudo-sternness.

“If you go and get dressed for school right now, I will let you have one piece of chocolate each.”

The two small children barely had time to yell out a rushed “Yes, onii-chan!” before they were off to haphazardly throw on their school clothes. Daisuke let out a sigh of relief and set a few pieces of the chocolate aside. He had probably made too much, so a few small blocks would not go astray but he really wanted to save the rest for someone else. Her.

The inspiration behind this new string of chocolate-fuelled daydreams was the slight white-haired girl with a blank stare that he attended school with. Maremi. His best friend, he supposed- although it had taken them both a while to admit they were friends at all.

She had only made the slightest remark about it really, in passing. She liked chocolate. Just a small fact about herself somewhere amongst the complete turmoil that had been the ‘Gender Relations’ Club over the past year. It wasn’t a particularly extraordinary fact either- most people liked chocolate. And yet, most people didn’t have Daisuke in a frenzy making chocolate favourite delicacies for his family every day of the week either. He just couldn’t seem to stop. And though he was still somewhat reluctant to admit it- even to himself, he just couldn’t stop thinking about her either. Frankly, it was a little maddening…

“I’m honestly surprised you agreed to part with any of it,” Mei’s voice cut through his reverie, “You’ve been so overprotective of your cooking lately. I thought you were going to cry last week when mother said she thought the cake you made was a little too sweet.”

Daisuke sent her a look and turned back to the counter. “That did not happen.”

“Riiight,” she sassed, watching him wrap the chocolate pieces in delicate silver and white tissue paper. “So today’s the big day then?”

“Big day?”

Mei rolled her eyes. “Yes, genius. The day you finally going to quit pining around the house by yourself and tell the girl you looove her.” Daisuke froze and unexpected colour flooded his cheeks.

“W-what? Maremi? We’re just friends.”

His younger sister just shook her head and darted in to grab a piece of chocolate from the tray before he could stop her. “Yea, and that's why you're blushing... I don’t know how someone so smart can be such a dummy at the same time.”

“Hey!” He grumbled, but she just grinned with a mouth full of chocolate as she walked off to her room.

“You’d better figure it out soon bro, or I might just have to do it for you.”

Daisuke could not think up a good retort to that, so he just huffed and went back to gift-wrapping the chocolate. In truth, he’d tried to put his feelings for Maremi into quantifiable words but drawn had a blank every time. He felt this ever-increasing desire to just be with her, but when the two were together he found himself blushing and at a loss for words. He wanted to summon up the courage to invite to the big dance in a few days but learning to temper chocolate and planning out elaborate outings for just the two in his head seemed so much easier.

I just want to do something nice for her, he told himself. It’s normal to do nice things for your friends, right?

Just then Mei poked her head out of her room again. “Stop daydreaming and get a move on, brother! You don’t want to be late on your special day. Don’t worry- I’ll be cool and walk the kids to Primary. You’ll just owe me one next time.” A glance at the clock told Daisuke that she was right and with a quick thank you, he’d packed the gift into his bag and raced out the door, totally oblivious to the fact that he was still wearing his mother's apron.

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Tagged: Tau

 

[Tau]

Maremi Himitsu | Yuzu High Hallway

All around Maremi, students chatted excitedly about the upcoming dance. Some even threw around the strange English word for it: "Purama." A fun event with music, food, and a touch of romance… and lots of people.

It sounded miserable. Maybe that could be fun, Maremi assured her troubled mind, reminding herself that everyone surrounding her did not, in fact, hate her guts. It wasn’t the easiest thing to believe though: she certainly hadn’t been kind, warm, or friendly to them. Even now, she struggled to show anything more than cold indifference, out of habit, really.

"Morning Himitsu-chan," a voice called in passing as the boy passed her by in the hallway. She turned just in time to see Harada-kun run by. He was one of the less trustful members, and therefore slower to warm up to her, so she kinda appreciated the hello. He usually didn’t do that. It was probably because he was in high spirits, which was made obvious by the giant grin on his face, the spring in his step, and the bundle of flowers in his hand. No question what those were for.

Although the flowers did remind her of a certain memory, the very thought of which painted her cheeks a light pink…

Spoiler: MEMORY 1

Loading…

Shaking her head clear, Maremi turned her back to Haruda-kun, only to be met with a pink even more vibrant than her cheeks. Her eyes traveled up the flowery pink apron (and it was quite the journey they had to make), until she finally made contact with those sharp brown eyes. Daisuke always had a pretty serious looking face, and contrasting that with how silly the apron looked, well… it was—

"Hehee… ehehehee~"

—Hilarious!

Maremi didn’t laugh much. Actually, she hadn’t laughed in public, ever, or at least not in recent memory. Only at home, in her room, usually while watching a comedy show of some sort. It was a quiet, high-pitched giggle that almost sounded like an apology for its very existence. If the giggle wasn’t enough apology, Maremi added a more direct one after she took a couple seconds to stop laughing. "S-sorry… uhm… isn’t that a little strange to wear at school…?"

 

[Averwyck]

Daisuke Kobayashi | Yuzu High Hallway

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It wasn’t until Daisuke walked into crowded hallway, that he became aware of the many odd looks aimed in his direction.

For the longest time, people had actively avoided him in this very hallway, or at the very least averted their gaze so as not to make eye contact. His efforts as part of the Gender Relations Club had really helped his peers come to the realisation that he was far from the menacing figure that the rumours had him painted as, but still… people usually didn’t quite stare at him this much. It was a little unnerving.

He pushed forward, ignoring the strange looks and offering a brusque “Good Morning” or “Hello” here or there while he peered around the hallway looking for one person in particular. His height offered him a bit of an advantage, but he still couldn’t see her just yet. Suddenly a figure bumped into him from behind and red flowers went flying all over the ground around them. Hastily Daisuke turned around and noticed another boy from the Gender Relations Club. What was his name? Haruda-kun, perhaps? He’d been one the members who was sure that Daisuke was part of a some kind of gang in the earlier days of the club.

“Oh, damn! Sorry Kobayashi-san!”, Haruda-kun yelled as he spun about after the fallen flowers. Suddenly, something seemed to catch his attention and he stopped to stare at the taller boy’s torso with a strange look on his face.

Daisuke looked down at him with some sympathy as it seemed like his day was off to a rough start. "Let me help you with those," he said as he quickly began scooping up the fallen bouquet. In just a minute he’d collected the armload of flowers and arranged them into a nice bundle.

“It looks like the twine snapped. Here.” He gestured for the other boy to take the flowers the flowers and set about riffling through his bag for one of the ribbons he’d bought for the flower shop the day before. Luckily, he hadn’t unpacked it just yet. Haruda-kun’s eyes widened even further when he produced the delicate white ribbon.

“Uhm- do you always keep pretty ribbons in your bag, Kobayashi-San?” He asked, as Daisuke wrapped the decoration expertly around the bundle of flowers.

“No,” Daisuke answered shortly, “These are just some supplies for the shop.”

“Um… right.” He looked from the bundle of flowers and back to Daisuke, “Well…T-thanks for that.”

“No problem.” He looked at the bundle of flowers shortly and remembered the dark-haired girl that the Haruda-kun had sat with during all of the club meets. It seemed pretty obvious that the flowers were for her. “I’m sure Miura-san will love them.”

Haruda looked over at him and offered up a genuine grin, “Yeah, I hope so!”

He gave Daisuke a silent once over and nodded as if concluding something. “Uh, good luck with your confession too, Kobayashi-san. I don't quite get the costume, but you must be planning something elaborate."

Daisuke looked at the other boy strangely. 'Confession? Elaborate?' He had no clue what Haruda was talking about. Had Mei somehow gotten a hold of his club members too?! He opened his mouth as if to ask, but Haruda-kun was already hurrying off down the hall. Right towards a certain white-haired girl. Maremi!

Shaking his head to clear the strange words, he made his way over towards her.

It took a second for her to turn around to face him and when she did, her blue eyes widened. Then she did something truly he truly hadn't expected… and burst into laughter.

Now Daisuke had seen many of her moods over the past year, but having her in front of him giggling in the hallway was definitely not a sight he was used to. He almost couldn't process it.

Her laugh was… adorable. For a moment he stood there a little dazed, mesmerised, just staring at her with the workings of a goofy smile on his face. All he could think about was learning to make her laugh like that.

One second, two seconds. And then her words finally sunk in.

“Isn’t that a little strange to wear at school…?”

He very slowly looked down and instantly felt a strong desire to sink through the floorboards and disappear as the mortification hit him like a truck.

Here he was standing in the middle of Yuzu High School in front of the girl he liked Maremi and at least a dozen other classmates with HIS MOTHER’S FRILLY PINK APRON tied around his neck. To add insult to injury, it was the apron with little bunnies embroidered all along the hem. Why today of all days?!

Haruda-kun’s words about a costume and all of the staring he’d been subject to that morning suddenly made sense.

His cheeks were flushed as he dropped his bag on the floor and hastily yanked the cord around his waist free. In one fluid motion, he’d wrenched the apron over his head and balled it up in his right hand. All around him, other students were staring and grinning. People had definitely noticed.

"Nice one, Kobayashi!" One student called out, teasing him. Daisuke could only offer a weak nod. At one point in time, nobody would have dared. But thanks to the Gender Relations Club, people really weren't scared of him anymore. He was just now wondering if that was a good thing.

Running his fingers though his hair to calm his nerves, he looked back over at Maremi sheepishly.

“R-right. Yes, v-very strange."

He made to stuff the apron into the deepest depths of his school bag and noticed the block of chocolate he’d so carefully wrapped that morning. The thought of giving it to her in front of all of these people staring made him cringe inwardly. And what if she rejected it in front of everybody? He was sure he'd just walk right back out the school gates, never to return.

Instead he took a deep breath to centre himself and asked “Uhm… Maremi-chan? C-can I walk you to your class?”

Spoiler

Just going to leave this here. No reason.

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Tagged: Tau

 

[Tau]

Maremi Himitsu | Yuzu High Hallway

Maremi wasn’t the most socially adept, but Daisuke’s reaction made it as plain as day that he hadn’t even realized he was wearing that apron. To her, not even realizing what you were wearing as you headed out to school felt impossible. She was always careful to brush her hair, iron her clothes, and double check everything before heading out in public. The idea of missing a whole apron… crazy. What was next? Would he show up in his underwear like all those dream sequences!?

But then, that was just Daisuke in a nutshell. Not the underwear thing, but the packed schedule that had hum running around in a hurry. It was something she admired about him a great deal: he took care of people, and it made his life a bit hectic as a result. If anyone was bound to not have even a millisecond in the morning to check his attire, it was him.

"Of course," she nodded with a silly smile still stuck on her face. While the student was quick to tease him outwardly, Maremi‘s cheeky look was somehow far more impactful. It carried a lot of the same snark, except in her case, she kept it all neatly locked away inside, as she was simply too quiet to voice them without being asked. Instead, everyone was forced to wonder just what was going in that head of her’s. The mystery was it’s own form of tease.

… Or maybe she was just being polite; hard to tell.

The two walked alongside for a few long moments before she finally made at least one her thoughts known. "You know, I kind of know how you feel. One time, in Terracube Online, I got distracted by the cute new Minisphynx pet and forgot to equip my armor, so I had to run through a whole dungeon in my bunny suit." She paused and closed her eyes a moment before she shaking her head. "… Sorry, I guess I’m just rambling again…" She’d hadn’t been speaking for even half a minute.

Instead of talking, she passed the time by simply gazing up at Daisuke. It was hard to imagine a more perfect date for the dance. "Uhm… Daisuke-kun…?" she began, fidgeting in that way that one does was a certain, stressful, high-stakes question was about to come up. The one that everyone surrounding them expected one of them to ask the other, to such an extent that a few students turned with an eager look to watch the spectacle.

…
……
…………

"I’m not annoying you with my small talk, am I?"

The intense energy in the room deflated into a silent groan as everyone went back to their business. It wasn’t clear if Maremi was going to pop the big question and just changed her mind, or if she was just that insecure about having conversations with people.

Averwyck

 

[Averwyck]

Daisuke Kobayashi | Yuzu High Hallway

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The pair headed towards the classrooms, Daisuke found himself stealing glances at the small white-haired girl by his side. Maremi hadn’t said too much about his little wardrobe malfunction, but genuinely seemed to find it hilarious. The echo of her laughter still reverberated in his head and left her with a silly smile that he couldn’t seem look away from. He couldn’t understand how anyone could still find Maremi cold.

She is just completely adorable. I wonder if she’s received a lot of invitations to the dance…

Maybe it should have bothered him that she had been laughing at him, but that teasing grin of hers really was a dangerous thing. It seemed to take the sting out of his earlier embarrassment and already had concocting different plans to make her laugh again in the future.

Am I really daydreaming about ways to embarrass myself now? This girl really will be the death of me.

A second later, Maremi broke the silence and began speaking about some Terracube game. He knew she was trying to emphasise him but…

What on earth was a minisphynx?

To say gaming wasn’t really his strongest suit, would be an understatement. He’d not had much time for it growing up, and his more recent attempts to play with his younger siblings had tendered disastrous results (he was very adept at turning his controller at the most crucial moment. Mei would call it his special skill.) Instead of hearing her story for what it was, all Daisuke could picture was Maremi running around the school hall in a bunny suit being trailed by some sort of baby monster. Suddenly he was flustered for a whole other reason and had to actively look away.

Just friends, just friends, just friends he repeated to himself, but the words sounded hollow even to him. If they were truly just friends, then why did he find literally everything she did and said so awfully endearing?

When he glanced back to Maremi again, she was already watching him. She seemed quite serious as she paused and then asked if he found her ‘small talk’ annoying. He almost scoffed at the question- because how could she think she was annoying- before realising that she might just take that the wrong way. Suddenly, words flew out of him as he searched for the right reassurance.

“No, of course not. I love listening to you talk-" he paused mid-sentence, wondering if that was a weird thing to say. “I-I mean, you are by far the least annoying person I know.”

When he heard the words coming out of his mouth, he couldn’t help but wince. What a complete mess. If Mei was here, she would probably smack him upside the head for being such a dumbass and making everything so awkward. And ‘the least annoying person he knew?”

What kind of compliment is that anyway? I want to do better than that. She deserves better.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Daisuke came to a stop beside one of the classrooms.

“L-look Maremi, not only are you not annoying… you’re well-“ he paused looking for the right words, “You’ve been really wonderful this year and I’m very lucky to be able to call you my friend.”

Suddenly he remembered the homemade chocolate in his bag and figured now was as good a time as any. He tugged his bag off his shoulder and reached for the treat, “Actually I wanted to get you something to show… how much I appreciate that. You.”

Gingerly he held out the gift, “You told me once that you… liked chocolate, so I got you some. Well… made it actually. Sorry if It’s not quite what you’re used to.”

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Tau

 

[Tau]

Maremi Himitsu | Yuzu High Hallway

Maremi felt her heart sink a bit as her gaming talk seemed to impact her friend, and not in the way she would've liked. Was it really that embarrassing? It was just a game, and here he was glancing away like she'd confessed to some publicly lewd act...

Maybe this was part of what prompted the question she followed up with. Either way, the answer put her mind at ease a bit. Daisuke wasn't one for words, but the ones he chose always made her feel better. She'd happily take a handful of those over an endless stream of gibberish certain other club members produced.

"Ah, well I... I feel the same way." She offered a little smile, which turned inquisitive, and then delighted (or as delighted as Maremi could show herself, anyway) as Daisuke revealed the wondrous little box. She took it and carefully slipped open the cover, staring wide-eyed at the delicacies.

"Wow, you can make chocolates...?" Maremi exclaimed. Her following words made it clear she wasn't familiar with home cooking, "I knew you were a good cook, but I thought these could only be produced in a factory. Can I..." She kinda answered her own question by gingerly taking one of the chocolates and popping in her mouth. The joyous hums left no room for ambiguity!

"Wooow, thank you so much! These are really delicious." A thought then crossed her mind. "You tried one yourself, right...?" She fingered another piece of chocolate with a light blush, hinting at what she was aiming for with the question. It wasn't obvious whether she was actually concerned with Daisuke not getting some of his own chocolate, or was just not-so-secretly hoping to feed him one. From the fact that she didn't even wait for an answer, it seemed to be the latter.

... and speaking of latter, she could've really used a ladder. Offering him the chocolate had, in her mind, been a simple, yet tastefully romantic process of holding out the candy and popping it into his mouth. Instead, it triggered flashbacks of those frustrating moments when she'd taken something off the top shelf and had to stretch to get it back up there. It was considerably more awkward than she'd envisioned, but that was kind of her own stupid fault.


Averwyck