| WRITTEN IN THE STARS |
CHAPTER TWO

===============

"UH EXCUSE ME!" Osaki-sensei shouts. All the first years in class 5 stop talking.

The teacher had just announced a group project, which instantly made students turn to their friends and excitedly make plans. (so cliche i know. i got nothin better)

But a project already? On the third day of school? The thought itself made Maiha mentally scowl.

The project was making a slideshow full of information about their own created fantasy/dystopian society. The group would also have to write a prologue of how the society was founded from magic if it was fantasy, or how the society is what it is now if it's dystopian. (I made this on the fly but now i wish teachers gave projects this good 😩😩)

"I will be making the partners."

Maiha looked around the room briefly. There were some people she was okay with. Some wouldn't do the work, but that was fine. And some, she had beef with, specifically one of the most popular girls in their year.

Then there was of course, Tsukishima Kei. The one that annoyed her the most. His constant snarky remarks and teasing irritated her to no end.

"Some groups might have three or two people." Maiha payed attention for her name to be called. "Hoshimi Maiha and Tsukishima Kei. The two of you will be partners."

Fuck.

The two turned to each other and glared.

"Don't screw this up for me, Tsukishima." Maiha sneered when the teacher left them to discuss.

"As long as you don't fuck it up." was his remark. This made Maiha clench her jaw and Tsukishima smirked at her reaction. "Meet me at the Sendai Library after school. You might have to wait though, I have volleyball practice."

She rolled her eyes in response. "Whatever, I have quiz bowl anyways." Maiha looked back at the packet containing the guidelines for their project. "Give me your number."

"Why would you need my number? Are you trying to flirt with me?" Tsukishima teased and pushed his glasses up.

"You wish." Maiha laughed at his stupidity. "It's for the project, dumbass."

"Whatever." She knew she won that argument.

Hoshimi: 1
Tsukishima: 0

He took her packet off of her desk and hastily wrote down his phone number. She followed suit. They handed each other back their packets.

The bell rang for the end of the day.

The two packed up their stuff and walked to the door together.

"See you later, Hoshimi." Tsukishima said when they stood in the hallway.

"See you later, moon boy." Maiha said with a small teasing smile.

They parted ways, Tsukishima heading to the volleyball gym, and Maiha to the second year science teacher's room.

=====

At quiz bowl, Maiha got bored waiting for the teacher to print out the questions, so she decided to write to her soulmate.

How was your day?

A few seconds later, blue ink appeared on her left forearm. Alright. You?

Exhausting. The teacher gave a project already. And I was partnered with a tall lanky beanpole who is only capable of making half-assed remarks.

This time the reply came after two minutes.
Sounds like a jerk. I'll talk to you later. I have to go, bye.

That was weird. Maiha thought. Maybe they just have to go for real.

A notification lit up her phone screen. A text from an unknown number.

4:29 p.m.

Unknown
This is Tsukishima. Meet me at the gates at 5.

Hoshimi
ighT

Hoshimi changed your contact to
✨🌙 moon boy 🌙✨

✨🌙 moon boy 🌙✨
😐

✨🌙moon boy 🌙✨ changed your contact to
annoying pipsqueak 🕳👩🏻‍🦯

annoying pipsqueak 🕳👩🏻‍🦯
yes, by all means—

go fall into a hole
and stay there

✨🌙 moon boy 🌙✨
*smirks😏*

=====

Beautiful sakura trees hung their branches low and created a divine scene. Maiha waited at the school gates for Tsukishima. He had not yet come, and it was eight minutes after 5.

She got bored easily, so she pulled out her book and flipped to where she left off. Maiha read on for a few minutes.

"Let's go shortcake." a familiar voice said from behind.

Maiha turned around and there he was, the tall lanky beanpole.

Tsukishima turned around and started walking without her. She quickly packed up her book and followed after him.

The walk was quiet. Too quiet.

Tsukishima had his headphones off, and found the situation not to his liking. He broke the silence by asking, "Do you want to do dystopian or fantasy?"

Maiha was in her own world, spacing out. "Huh?"

"For the project, shortcake." Tsukishima clarified, his tone clearly annoyed.

"Oh. Right." Maiha mumbled. "Up to you. Im fine with either."

"Fine then, I think fantasy would be cool."

"Great! Then I have plenty of ideas for our world building." Maiha instantly became excited. Creating ideas was her specialty. "We would base our world off of something, for example: Green. Just imagine a kingdom or queendom or a democracy if you'd like that. The world could be named something extravagant like Viridian."

Her rambling honestly shocked Tsukishima a little bit. For some reason, he found himself liking it and hanging onto every detail. Not to mention, green was his favourite color. What a coincidence.

"And maybe," Maiha continued to talk exciting about her sudden idea, "-the palace or the government building could be called the Jade Palace, courtesy of Kung Fu Panda. One of the cities or town could be called the Emerald City, like the Wizard of Oz. Or we could— "

"I didn't know you couldn't shut up." Tsukishima interrupted.

He hadn't meant to be so rude. He didn't want to be rude to her at all. But he couldn't stop himself.

"Well, I'm just brainstorming for our project. You don't have to be such an asshole about it." She grumbled sadly.

It's one thing to insult her, and it's another thing to insult her ideas.

The next thing he said genuinely surprised her. "Sorry." It was so quiet that if you missed a beat, you wouldn't have heard it. Maiha didn't miss a beat however.

They were now in front of the Sendai library. Before they went in, Maiha gave him a small smile.
"Apology accepted, beanpole."

===============

A/N: author-chan finally updated 🥶