Start Menu | Machi | Attn: Hanae
When Hanae hears a voice, she jumps a good fifteen feet in the air. Well, okay, that’s hyperbole, but she’s still startled, and she wheels around, her green eyes wide before she focuses on the figure of- one of her upperclassmen, that was it, wasn’t it? She remembers the cute little earphones they’ve got going on, and her brain mentally reaches out for straws as she struggles to remember their name before she finally blurts out a jumbled series of words.
“C-chiptune artist! Um. Oh! Ma-machi-san!”
Good job, Hanae, you’ll get a cookie later from yourself for remembering.
She brushes her arms around herself, giving herself a hug as she shifts her weight on her bare feet - yes she ditched her shoes already.
“Um, well, I’m doing well! S-sorry!”
Her cheeks flame an incredible shade of embarassed red. Good job, Hanae. At least you’re trying; that’s all that really matters, doesn’t it?
“I’m – uh, Hanae! The body painter. But you probably figured that one out already, didn’t you?”
She looks ready to melt into the ground and become a flower herself. Poor dear.
Machi watched the other girl scramble to her feet with an amused smile. It might be a little rude to say that watching Hanae jump was fairly funny, so she made a smart choice and kept her mouth shut on that matter.
She halfway extended her arm to help Hanae to her feet, but seeing as the the body painter stood up by herself, her arm was left to hang awkwardly between them. It was too late to pretend she was just stretching. Machi pulled her hand back as inconspicuously as she could after a few seconds and shoved it in her pocket.
Let’s pretend that didn’t happen.
She needed to be cool as the designated adult™, but she wasn’t scoring many points at the moment. Talking to underclassmen was a lot more difficult than talking to her own former classmates, unfortunately. These gosh darn younguns and their gosh darn youngness.
Her own awkwardness aside, Hanae wasn’t looking much better. Machi quickly dug for a conversation topic and spoke again.
“Glad to hear you’re doing fine. The paint you’re wearing now is your work, I assume?”
Her face softened into a more natural smile.
“You do some very nice work, Hanae.”
She didn’t exactly know anything about painting, being a musical artist, but she could appreciate the aesthetic!
