"Hey, Hiacho?"
Footsteps echo on the marble floor as two people walk into a book convention.
A pause. A confused look, saying 'Go on' and a jut of the chin.
"Yeah, Mizo?"
A shuffle of feet, like two people dancing the Tango.
"You know about the incident, right? And what Youko sensei has taught us over the past two years.."
A dead stop. Then, in a low voice..
"Yeah, I do. Why?"
"You know how I don't possess that power, and I'm weak. That's what I am. I'm a fucking weakling who deserves to die."
The wind blows through the cherry blossom trees which stand there, emmitting positivity. But in that moment, theme representatives of positivity felt like they were burning in the hell of negativity.
"Mizo.."
Few soft footsteps. Then a hug. An embrace that felt heavier than the sky. "We've had this conversation before. You're not worthless. I would argue that you are stronger than me. You are not who you think you are, and you think of yourself more worthless than a dead corpse."
The wind, which was blowing quite noisily up until this point, quieted down. It was as if both the heavens and the earth sensed a conversation happening between two people who were weaker than the sun..and yet stronger than the universe.
"Can you save my sister?"
Footsteps blur into nonsensical noise. Buildings turn into mush, and the world seems to shrink into them like a box.
Mizo leans in even more, his face buried in Hiacho's right shoulder, his hands gripping Hiacho's blue sweater.
"Please..", Mizo says, a choked sob leaving his throat as if it were a fly trapped with hundreds of other flies in a small jar.
Bottled up emotions have a set release date.
"Why..why are you like this?"
"Huh?"
"I said.."
A few dead fallen cherry blossom leaves crunch under Hiacho's feet before he grabs Mizo's shoulders and shakes them hard.
"Why are you like this?!", Hiacho yells, his eyes shiny. "We've been friends for almost three years and yet you still talk to me so fucking formally?!"
Mizo stares at Hiacho, silent tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Why don't you trust me??! Why do you ask every question like you are burdening me, even though you yourself are carrying burdens that even I can't understand!!"
A choked sob. A gasp. Then, a word.
"I.."
Hiacho suddenly pulls Mizo into a bone crushing hug, tears rolling freely now down his cheeks.
"Don't you dare ever feel bad for unburdening yourself ever again, you fucking idiot!!"
Mizo stares at the dead cherry blossom trees, the way the wind blows through them like it's raking through its hair. He stares at the buildings that surround them, and the hopeless situation he was in a few minutes ago. Suddenly, the world..
..doesn't seem so grey anymore.