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Who: Haruka, Himeko
What: Skipping classes
Where: Haruka's and Himeko's dorm room.
When: Monday, May 8, morning

Himeko slept in today. Just like she already did yesterday as well. Skipping classes wasn’t something her family back in Tokyo would approve of, but as always with the rules her family made she just didn’t care.
Even though, by now she was able to have a conversation without continuously mentioning her wish to disappear again, she still had difficulties acting like she normally would. There was no way she could show herself to the student body like that. She needed to preserve her ‘idolish’ image after all.

Additional to that she was pretty much aware of the fact that her depression could come back any second and it was better to be more or less alone in case that happened.
Still a little sleepy, she began tying her hair into somehow slightly messy looking low twin tails.
Another thing she had noticed earlier when she got up and went to the bathroom was that Haruka, who was usually the one getting up a little earlier than her, was also still in bed.

“Guess that makes us both skipping classes today. “, she simply remarked, observing her roommate a while before turning back around and facing herself in the mirror once again.
“Awful.”, she mumbled and sighed deeply before throwing her small stand mirror away from her, making it land rather smoothly on her bed.
It just was no good today again. It probably would continue being like that for a while.

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Haruka usually woke up to the buzzing of her phone alarm before going back to sleep until her second alarm went off. Today, Haruka managed sleep past both and still feel like she hadn't slept at all when she jerked awake with a gasp - her eyes were wide and skin feeling clammy.

It took a moment to orient herself. She wasn't in water. She still felt like shit but she could breathe.

She let herself stay wrapped up under the covers. She could hear Hachi moving around around the bathroom so it had to be late. It was still several moments later before her hand crawled out to pick up her phone and pull it under with her. A few taps later, a pleasant automated voice told her homeroom had already started.

She still didn't feel any particular urgency though. Still mostly covered, she slowly pushed herself up and ran a hand through her hair, smoothing the tangled mess. After a while, she said,

"Think they'd care much if we skipped out of critical thinking?"

“I’m sure they would.”, Himeko didn’t need to think too long about Haruka’s question. The answer was pretty obvious.
“Doesn’t mean that I do care though… I actually think skipping it would be for the best.”, she continued, turning around to face her roommate again.
There was a longer pause, in which she was just observing what the other girl was doing and how her general condition seemed to be before she decided to speak up again.

“…Any plans for today? As long as it’s you I don’t really mind company.”

During the last few days, Himeko had definitely preferred to be alone. She wanted to become an idol after all and idols needed to be cheerful and cute all the time. Nearly perfect beings everyone could look up to and admire. If someone would see her while in her current condition, it would be more than difficult to get back to that idolish image again.
However, she shared a room with Haruka. Not only did she trust her to not blurt out anything about her depression in front of others, she somehow also didn’t mind showing her some of the characteristics she usually hid behind her cutesy act.

"Probably," Haruka replied, leaving it ambiguous whether she was agreeing with them caring or if skipping would be best.

At the question, Haruka fell into thought as she reached for a brush at the side and took it to her hair. A part of her had wanted to do what she'd been doing a lot the past few days and just go off somewhere alone or stay curled up in the covers. However.

"Probably not stay cooped up here all day? Doubt it's been healthy," she replied. She'd done more than enough of that... "Dunno. Maybe pick up something from a local bakery and go chill in a nice secluded park for a bit?

Anything you wanted to do?"

Edited 2014-01-12 16:53 (UTC)

“Nothing in particular…”, Himeko answered truthfully.
“But a stop at a bakery and going to a park afterwards sounds like a plan to me.”, she added and nodded slightly.
At least there wouldn’t be too many people at this time of the day and honestly the idea of finally eating cake again didn’t sound too bad either. During the last few days she really hadn’t eaten much…

For a moment the idol wannabe looked through some of her belongings, which were more or less scattered all across the room, even though it still wasn’t too messy to freely move around and the floor was mostly free in order to not put Haruka at a disadvantage.
Finally, Himeko pulled out a huge cardboard box from under her bed and grabbed one of the cocoa packages that were in it before moving it back by simply using her feet.
How long had it been since she drank her last package of cocoa? Just a few days had passed but it still felt way too long. Well... it was at least a good sign that she started drinking her beloved drink again.

“Just tell me when you’re ready to go. I don’t mind waiting if you still need some time.”, she said after taking a sip out of her package, regarding her roommate carefully.

Haruka nodded, running another hand through her hair. It felt gross for some reason, even though she'd spent far too long in the shower before. That was one good thing about a school like this, she guessed...there was a lot of hot water.

She gave up brushing for now and reached for her uniform laid out on the side. It sounded like Hachi was going to be taking a while with her cocoa anyway.

"Just gonna shower first. Be out in a few min."

That was incentive to actually get out instead of getting stuck. She couldn't keep slipping into that.

Himeko continued watching her roommate for a little longer before she spoke up again. She still was a little worried about her current condition. Since she had to deal with her own depression during the last few days, she hadn't been able to watch out for her roommate much. But even though she mostly tried to get over her own problems, it had been pretty obvious in what bad shape Haruka had been.
“That’s alright. You don’t have to hurry.”

She grabbed one of the idol magazines, lying on her desk before sitting down on her own bed.
Still sipping her cocoa, she started flipping through the pages while waiting for Haruka to get ready.

Himeko wasn’t really in the mood for reading the newest idol stories but it was at least better than doing nothing and she had to get back to doing the things she would do under normal circumstances sooner or later anyway.

"I guess? It's not like we need to make the bell or anything," Haruka replied with a slight shrug. Regardless, she still didn't feel like going slow.

She didn't need to give Hachi another thing to worry about.

Haruka mostly moved on autopilot, something she'd had to rely on that a lot the past few days. Save for the sudden suffocating flash of memories of her dreams when she felt the water, it was just blissful, uncomplicated ordinary routine. She finished just shy of when she said she would and it took another five minutes to dry and tidy her hair. When she finally came out, she looked passable, though far from the care she usually took - her ponytail looked limp and her uniform scruffier. However, she was out and moving.

Turning her head towards Hachi, she asked, "Ready?"

“Yep! Whenever you are ready.”, she replied and got up, leaving the finished cocoa package as well as her magazine lying on her bed. Cleaning that up could wait until they were back from their little trip.

She carefully regarded Haruka one last time before grabbing one of the bags that stood next to her desk and started heading towards the door.
Himeko noticed that her roommate did at least look a lot better than during the past few days.
Still far from the way she normally looked though, but that was the same with the idol wannabe herself so it was probably a good sign nonetheless.
“Any specific bakery you’d like to go to? I rarely visit parks in general but if its bakeries I do know the locations of a few good ones. “, Himeko said.

She usually bought her cocoa in all kinds of stores. But the type they sold at bakeries was probably one of the more delicious ones. Therefore it was only natural that she memorized the locations of the bakeries she sometimes went to, even though her sense of direction was more than poor.

"Got a few but don't mind trying something new," Haruka said, picking up her bag as she went. "You got better tastes in sweets than me anyway? With cocoa at least."

She followed Hachi to the door. It almost felt like it were an actual day off or the weekend. Even normal school kids goofing off and skipping class was sorta normal, compared to everything else.

It was actually kinda nice.

As she opened the door, she asked, "Think we should come up with an excuse if anyone asks why we're in school?"

An excuse, huh? Himeko fell silent for a moment. The situation reminded her of something that happened not too long ago. Only that she had been the one asking a similar question and not the one answering it.
The small girl shook her head furiously to push those memories aside. Now was not the time. Not again.
“Nah… no need to prepare that! Just leave the excuses to me if we happen to need any! I know enough of them...I really do! Nobody will suspect a thing!”, she answered as cheerful as possible, closing the door behind them.

Himeko was sure that it would be good for both of them to get out and just try to have a little bit of fun and normality again. Just acting like normal teenagers with normal problems so to say.

“Alright! I know one bakery that’s not even far away from here. The cocoa was great and I’m sure the cakes are worth a try too!”, she spoke up again while they were about to leave the school grounds. “As for the park... I’d like to leave that to you though... I’m not quite knowledgeable when it comes to those things!”

"Huh....got experience?" Haruka asked. She picked up her cane from the corner, just before Hachi shut the door. That was something she wasn't going to ever forget.

"Sweet. Some parks around here are pretty nice? There's a few flower based ones that smell nice."

“Kind of. Well… I’m not as good as the one who taught me those things. But I still should be experienced enough to get us out of trouble if necessary.”, Himeko replied. She didn’t feel like going into detail about her experiences with excuses, skipping school or anything similar. That story was way too long and complicated for now.

“The flower based parks do sound nice. But let’s focus on getting some sweets first! I really could use some…Oh, I know! Let’s both buy our favorite sweets and then share half of them with each other! That way we get to eat a lo~~t of different things!”, despite coming off as at least partly as cheerful as usual she still felt a bit down and honestly was more than worried about the latest happenings. However, her first priority right now was to cheer Haruka up a little and have a bit of fun herself.
She figured that she would still have plenty of time to worry about everything else later.

"Interesting," Haruka said, and there was a spark of genuine interest there as a small smirk crept up on her face despite herself. "So I'm in the hands of an experienced rule-breaker?"

"Okay then. Sweets, flowers and the sun." Those sounded like a good combo, right? And it was like that one song by that orphan character....no matter how bad things are, the sun will always come tomorrow, one way or another. At very least, those sounded like good incentives to get out and do other things, for her and Hachi.

Tilting her head upwards. "Could always kill time with acting or singing lessons too? Or we could nap or just goof off? Anything, I guess."

(Wasn’t sure about timeskip in this post.... >o< But I guess you could do it in the next one~ :3)

Did she somehow reveal too much? Even if she did there was no way she could take it back now. Plus, Haruka was someone she could trust. It was fine if she knew a little more than most.
“Maybe… but not that experienced at least. The school I went to before was much crazier about rules than this one. If it would have been just me alone breaking them from time to time I would have already been expelled and maybe even got a nice article about me in a local newspaper. The person, who taught me some tricks, is the real experienced one.”, Himeko answered and chuckled a little. Even though that time didn’t last long, it had definitely been a lot of fun.

“Those ideas sound all great! We should just go with all of them …even though that could take some time...Well~ it's not like I would need classes anyway!”, she agreed to her roommates suggestions. Everything was better than stupid classes right now. “Besides…I’d also still need some of your teaching in acting.”,Himeko added. After all the things that had happened, she already forgot about her plan to get her acting skills on a more believable level. Since idols also had to be able to appear in various dramas from time to time, her cutesy act alone wouldn’t get her very far.

While talking about a lot of various things, they reached their first destination, one of Himeko’s favorite bakeries in the area, pretty quickly. It wasn’t filled with people at that time of the day but there were still a few inside ordering some sweets or simply coffee.
“Let’s quickly order something and then get to one of the parks to eat! I really can’t wait anymore~!”

((Mmkay, time jump coming~))

"Crazier than here, huh? Wonder what kind of place that was." Haruka tilted her head upwards. Chitoku was both more leniant and far less than her old school. It was more leniant because they actually wanted students to succeed, supposedly (that'd wreck their advertising otherwise, a darker part of her thought). On the other hand was sorts of values they pushed and just their...whole situation.

She went quiet and let Hachi's words filter in. She focused on that rather than the other thoughts swarming in her mind that made her want to start walking back to their room. She instead put on that deceptive casualness again before replying, "Sure. Got a whole day anyway so might as well fill it? If we don't, there's always another excuse to skip another day." She sounded like she was joking, maybe.

The more they talked and the further they got away from Chitoku, however, the more lively he looked. By the time they reached the bakery, she looked like herself. She hadn't been eating much lately and it probably showed when she ordered a few more things than usual to go along with an extra large iced coffee, which she sipped as they walked. The park she picked for them wasn't too far away from the bakery. The park was across from an elementary school but this early in the day no one but a few joggers and passerbys were around. It was a simple one (a circular design ringed by a walking path, a playground in the center, a wall with a list of rules on a plaque, a few benches and only bushes and trees in sight) but as Haruka had said, there was a subtle sweet fragrance in the air, as all the surrounding bushes and trees were in bloom.

Turning to Hachi with a slight grin she asked, "Swing set or bench?"

“Do you even have to ask? Swing set of course!”
The answer came immediately and as excited as a little child Himeko let herself slump into one of the two swings on the playground.
Being surrounded by so much normality made her almost forget what the cause for the depression that haunted her the last few days had been.
It was pretty nice. Really.
She waited for Haruka to take the seat next to herself before starting to look through the things she just had bought at the bakery.
While slightly swinging back and forth, the idol wannabe finally decided to start with a huge chocolate muffin.
“Haruru~~ I picked the cream-filled chocolate muffin! Want half of it? You’d have to trade it for something just as delicious though…”, she asked and turned to her roommate, chuckling.

On their way here Himeko had realized that Haruka slowly began to act like her usual self again. Naturally, she didn’t make a remark or anything about it to not remind her of the mental state she had been in before, but she was glad that her roommate seemed to recover at least a little.
It had been a good idea to invite her out.
The small girl took a few moments to appreciate their surroundings. She usually didn’t visit parks that often as they seemed a bit boring to her, but they actually weren’t that bad.
The weather was nice, the park was nice…today was definitely not a day to spend at school all day.
“Just as you said before we really should do things like that more often. That’s much more fun than classes…don’t you think so too?”, she said, half-jokingly but there was also a little bit of seriousness in her words.

Haruka smiled as Hachi rushed to the swings. As she imagined something like a puppy, she knew that nickname hadn't been off at all. She felt her way to the swings and settled on the one beside Hachi, lightly flicking up bits of sand with her cane before she placed it down against one of the nearby poles. She light a long, "Huuuuh....chocolate is tempting... raise you green tea loaf with caramel swirls? Also got a napoleon and a mini-pizza.

"Sometimes?" She sounded deceptively like herself, like she missed the seriousness in Hachi's tone. She leaned back against the swing and lightly kicked the sand so she swung lazily. "Lots of things are more fun than classes? Still necessary just not interesting." Another light kick and sand blew in the wind.

Deciding what to trade for her chocolate muffin was an important decision. For someone as fond of sweets as she was at least.
“You really make this decision hard, Haruru. But alright! I’ll go with some of your green tea loaf for now…”, Himeko carefully broke the muffin into two equally halves and held one of them out to Haruka, while taking a bite out of her own.
“There you go!”

“Necessary…huh? I really doubt that sometimes…”, now it was her kicking the sand on the ground a little. “Well…fine. Some classes are important maybe...but definitely not all of them. Also... classroom cleaning! Nobody needs classroom cleaning! Don’t you agree?”, the cleaning in small groups all students had to participate in after classes was probably what annoyed her the most about school. Admittedly, she rarely participated in it herself. Whenever her group wasn’t supervised by their homeroom teacher she would just ask some of her fanboys to do the work for her. It was fairly easy to avoid it. Still, she hated when she couldn't get around it from time to time. Especially, when her group had to clean the toilets next to their classroom.

"If it's that hard to decide I can always take them all?" Haruka replied, smiling as she felt the air carefully until she felt Hachi's arm (thin, delicate and soft) before brushing her fingers up to Hachi's hand and plucking the half muffin from her hand. "Have to protect your figure from the fattening sweets conspiracy anyway."

She broke the loaf in half and held it out to Hachi while she took a bite of her own. She chewed thoughtfully as she replied, "Cleaning's sucky. Usually got excused from it though." Except for the times she didn't, which people either thought had hilarious results or they'd get frustrated. She tilted her head upwards and swung slowly. "Would be nice to skip math I guess though? Or dissection."

Himeko waited patiently for Haruka to take her half of the muffin.
“You don’t really worry about my figure, do you? I know you just want to eat all those sweets yourself!”, she then replied, a smirk on her face.
“I’m fine though… my training routine won’t allow me to gain too much weight. For the rest I simply skip some meals… as always.”

With that being said, she grabbed the loaf Haruka held out to her. “Well… I have nothing that would really excuse me from cleaning so I usually have to excuse myself by letting others do the work. The only use I can make of my fanclub so to say… They seem to enjoy doing it for me though.”, Himeko said and chuckled a little. It maybe wasn’t right to solve her problem with cleaning that way but her fanclub really annoyed the hell out of her every single day so she felt like it was the least they could do to repay her.
“Math isn’t my best subject either…But dissection…”, she distorted her mouth a little. The memories of that subject definitely weren’t good ones.
“Last time the whole group in front of mine fainted.”, Himeko said and stopped eating for a while. “I still was okay… surprisingly. But just a little longer and I would have been done for too…I guess.”, she shuddered and immediately took a huge bite of her muffin to clam down again.
“I’d like to have a different teacher in English by the way. I like the subject but he’s constantly mocking me so it’s no fun.”, she complained while letting out a deep sigh.

"Darn. My dastardly schemes have been foiled by your astute wit and paranoia," Haruka replied with a straight face. She smiled as she took a bite of the muffin though, taking the time to enjoy the chocolate. It was the first time in a while she actually tasted what she ate so she took another big bite. "Probably worry more when I feel the heavier foot falls in your direction?

"Convenient." Head tilt. "They really fall over you for that sorta stuff?" She supposed it'd fit the idol thing. Or super popular girls or people who seemed like they needed help. "You could always use them to do the stuff you hate I guess. Like deal with dissections or the English teacher if you really wanted to."

Himeko chuckled at Haruka’s strange wording. “Not happening, though. I’m pathetically even slimmer than most at school and I’ve always been eating sweets in secret …. Also, my family would probably kill me if I’d gain any weight.”

“Convenient…but also extremely irritating.”, she admitted after taking a few bites to finish her muffin.
She generally avoided talking about the whole ‘fan club’ thing since she knew that a lot of people, especially girls, reacted pretty badly to it. Haruka, however, didn’t seem to mind too much.
“Honestly, I didn’t want them to follow me around every single school day in the first place. I’m not even a real idol yet and I surely haven’t done anything that could make them idolize me that much. But it’s like it always is… I keep up being nice to them like an idol would, so that I can keep them in my fan base later on and they’re doing all kinds of stuff for me in exchange.” , she nodded. This was how the idol business worked. Even when after becoming an idol her fan base grew and not only people her age but also a lot of old men would stand in front of her, she had to continue treating all of them equally and in a nice way. No matter how awkward that would possibly turn out to be.
“Trying to use them for dissection could be a thing. English won’t work though. Actually, the only reason he mocks me is that he doesn't like my cutesy act and the way my fan club acts around me.”, she finally admitted and couldn’t help laughing a little while thinking about it. “It can’t be helped … I thought male teachers being resistant to my cutesy act would only exist at my old high school.”, Himeko shrugged, while taking her first bite of the loaf she just traded with her roommate.

"Huh. Weird concern. That strict about that stuff?"

She took another bite of the loaf before chasing it down with a sip of iced coffee. She thought about things she'd read about idols before and how many things got nitpicked - 'Manami-chan is too fat', 'Kaori-chan looks like a cheap blond', 'Shou is trying too hard to cover up SOMETHING', 'Olivia is actually a bitch IRL'. "Sounds tough. Kinda like drawing your own cult based on moe cuteness?" Beat. "Though lot less fun than it sounds.

"Might need another form of moe there? Or just yourself as many a show would quote."

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