Gratifying outcomes are gratifying.
Chapter Five: Cloudy!
As Flare and Mio walked down the road home, grey clouds above greeted them, stalking them like Death Gods.
"Looks like it's about to rain, huh?" remarked Flare, gazing up at the sky with a frail look.
"Seems like it," answered Mio indifferently, averting her eyes from Flare, who turned away from Mio as well in bitterness after seeing her reaction.
'It was all a mistake,' Flare thought to himself.
'Ritsu was right. I shouldn't had become Mio's boyfriend. As of now, her feelings are as good as being manipulated…'
He returned his eyes to her, whose face was still turned away from him.
'Can't help it then. Sorry, Mio… looks like I'll have to hurt you for now.'
"Mio…" mumbled Flare, forcing Mio to look at him from the corner of her eye. "Actually, there is something I need to tell you…"
A little smile appeared on Mio. He had her full attention this time. She was waiting for this, the confession between lovers…
"Let's break up."
No. She wasn't waiting for this.
"Wha… What did you just say?"
The air became thin, all sounds were blocked out by a stream of silence, as the girl stood still on the road with time itself.
"I'm sorry, Mio… They… they were right about-about you, Mio. I-I-I agree with them, that you ar-are just a-a…"
"Stop it."
"Just a shallow pers-"
"I said stop it!"
Flare didn't take one look at Mio. He couldn't bear looking at her. He knew what her face must have looked like at the time. Wet. Moist. Filled with sorrow and pain.
"I know what you guys are trying to do…"
That comment, however, made him look. Her face was exactly the way he pictured, overflowing with tears and agony.
"Huh?" he uttered, trying to grasp the meaning of her words.
"I'm not a child… I can take care of myself. I know you guys are trying to help me… but if I let you do so, I'll just be the hypocrite they claimed I am!"
"Mio…"
"Can't you guys just let me think for myself? Dammit, I am not as weak as you guys think I am!"
And just as cued in the fashion of a sappy romance novel, the raindrops poured, gradually meshed up with the tears on her face.
"I'm sorry… We didn't mean to make you feel this way. I didn't."
Mio didn't care. Not really. The damage was done. She had tried her best to stay strong, but things were too suffocating.
"I'm going home," indicated Mio, walking past Flare without a glance. "I need time to think this through. Don't follow me, please."
As Mio walked further away from him, Flare quickly reached for his backpack. "At least borrow my umbre-"
"I'll be fine on my own," she replied, grabbing out an umbrella of her own from her bag.
And that was all Flare could do. That was all they should had done in the first place, watching her from the distance. Nothing more, nothing less.
~~~~~~
"Atchoo!"
Nighttime. The temperature had gotten low around the weeks, especially at this period of the day. Added with her catching some rain, they served as perfect conditions for her to catch a cold.
"Sigh… I hate you," she murmured to herself while lying on bed, "irony."
Though being feverish should had made her sleepy, the night drew long for her as her train of thoughts kept her awake. She thought about Flare, whether if she had made the right choice staying with him. She thought about Ritsu, how her bestfriend had probably proposed Flare to break up with her to 'protect' her.
And ultimately, the train led to herself, how she was incapable of maturing as a person since that day at kindergarten… when that person made her that coward little girl forever.