pluck, sender plucks something out of receiver's hair. 🤔
Actions Speak Louder Than Words | Accepting
Tired eyes stared at the leaf that Satoru had plucked from her hair. The girl blinked at it once, slow and deadpan like a sloth. Her brain moved in a matching pace as she took in the puny shape of the leaf. Even then, she remained reactionless, unsurprised by the presence of it in her locks.
This morning, Chiyori had woken earlier than usual — earlier than what seemed humanly possible. She’d witnessed the Sun rise above the horizon, rays cast over black roofs as she’d spent the early hours involuntarily raking leaves off the ground — a punishment Yaga-sensei had imposed on her after she’d failed the same maths test thrice.
Her sensei had expressed obvious frustration over her lack of improvement, and at the end he'd reached the conclusion that she hadn't even been trying, which, well... wasn’t entirely untrue. Maths was uninteresting, and Chiyori simply hadn’t been able to bring herself to sit down for lengthy hours at a time to try solve equations or memorise formulas.
And apparently, she’d needed a 'change of attitude’ as Yaga-sensei had put it. According to him, cleaning the school grounds had seemed to be the most effective way of doing so. It'd been miserable.
When she’d stepped outside, it’d been cold and dark, and the leaves had been in the amount of infinite. Chilly gusts of wind had blown at her and dispersed the heaps of leaves that she’d spent arduous hours piling together; hard labour gone to waste more than once. Several must have gotten stuck in her hair then.
As seconds passed, and memories of her morning arrived back to her in increments, Chiyori could feel herself beginning to bristle. It’d be the exact same routine tomorrow morning… and the rest of the week. Wordlessly, the girl glowered at the small leaf pinched between her senior's fingers. Her cheeks puffed up the tiniest amount.
Then, with a quiet 'hmpf', she turned away from the leaf, and thus turned away from Satoru as well. She shifted her focus on the line of people ahead instead. Chiyori decided that she’d rather put her energy into figuring out a new tasty combination for the boba drink she was going to order.
