5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND
⸻   秒速5センチメートル

( 2005 )

     Shoko raps her knuckles against the window and waits. She hears the familiar game sounds from the PlayStation through the glass and the white curtains are abruptly drawn open. Satoru's silver hair stands out in the darkness of night and his clear blue eyes peer at her over his round sunglasses. Behind him, Suguru spares a glance from the floor before he resumes his streak on the controller. She gestures at the window and grins when he slides it open. "What are you doing out here?" he asks as he leans against the sill. His gaze diverts from her, pupils dilating when he sees Sayuri approach them.

Under the moonlight, she glows radiant with an effervescent smile. It's no wonder that he can't take his eyes off her. Sayuri raises a large cooler bag in her hands and bottles clink loudly from within. "Let's go swimming," she invites.

"Hah? At this hour?" Satoru questions while leaning down to look her at eye level. So he says but his dreamy expression speaks loudly of how he would willingly indulge her in a heartbeat. His lanky arm swings freely along the outer wall. "What's in the bag?"

"A surprise," Shoko says with a sly smirk. "C'mon, you losers, let's have fun before the summer ends."

Satoru looks over his shoulder to Suguru who shrugs in mild bewilderment. He pauses the game and comes over to have a look at them. "Did you actually get your hands on booze or something?" he asks curiously, remembering their previous conversation from two days ago.

Shoko pushes Sayuri closer to them, knowing that they won't be able to resist her alluring charm. The girl smiles with dewy scarlet eyes, her cheeks flushed pink from the shot of Roku Gin they had downed just ten minutes ago. Shoko knows she pales in comparison to her best friend whose entire presence causes men and women to melt like chocolate in her mouth. Her voice is soft and mellow, like salted caramel fudge, as she entreats them beckoningly, "Let's go, we haven't hung out together in a while." They react to her like sailors out at sea heeding the call of a siren. Blue and amber glance at one another.

"Well..." Suguru starts with a chuckle.

Satoru is failing to suppress his smile. "I can't say no to that," he says unabashedly.

Shoko has to give credit to Sayuri where it's due for keeping her smile so resolutely firm where she's seen so many other girls falter at the prodigy's boyish magnetism. She supposes that's what makes them so compatible with one another. Her, on the other hand, had already written them both off since the moment they met. She would never allow herself to fall for someone as stupidly troublesome as these two. Sayuri is a handful herself in more ways than one so she easily puts up with them just fine.

They wait outside while the boys grab their stuff before climbing out the window to join them. She doesn't question why they rather not use the front door like normal humans but this is Satoru and Suguru that she's talking about. It's almost a given that they would do something like that. Satoru immediately helps Sayuri carry the cooler bag for her as they make their way to the outdoor swimming pool on campus. Suguru is teasing about her flushing cheeks though admittedly, Sayuri has a surprisingly higher tolerance for alcohol than they thought.

They quickly dart into the changing rooms to put on their swimwear and Shoko is the first to reach for a bottle of cold beer. Neither boys are partial to drinking but she lets Sayuri deal with that instead. The girl has a natural talent for mixing lethal cocktails to entice the boys into drinking. Though they usually regret it the next day. But they don't complain ( much ) when Sayuri pushes a cup of Calpis sour into each of their hands. It's always the same routine. "Underage drinking is supposed to be illegal," one of them would say.

And Shoko would always retort, "Live while you still can."

Though the society they inhabit still operates under the Japanese government, they don't exist within that world of normalcy. All that matters is jujutsu and the exorcism of cursed spirits. No one would bat an eyelash at an underage sorcerer smoking or drinking as long as they continue to fall in line. They all have more important concerns on their mind.

Sayuri cries out in surprise as Satoru pushes her into the swimming pool before diving in after her. It's only been less than three months but the attraction between the two is palpable. It's as if they were born for one another, Shoko thinks. Beside her, Suguru watches them too with an amused curl to his lips. She's painfully aware of the lingering looks he sends the both of them when he thinks that no one's watching. Unfortunately, Shoko sees more than she cares to admit. She reaches over to clink her bottle against his cup, forcing him to momentarily take his eyes off the two to down his drink.

"They make a good looking couple, don't they?" Shoko comments when his gaze ultimately bounces back to them.

He blinks at her words as if it rouses him from a stupour, and glances back to her. "Yeah, they do," he agrees.

"Must be nice, huh?" she continues to stoke him.

"It almost makes you jealous, doesn't it?" he chuckles and she thinks he should be more honest with himself.

Shoko leans back against the deckchair and sips on her beer as she hums nonchalantly. "Do you feel a little jealous then?"

"Just a little," he admits. "Don't you?"

She watches as Satoru corners Sayuri in the pool, his hands reaching out to brush the stray tendrils of hair that are plastered across her face. Their laughter is infectious and slightly nauseating from an outsider's perspective. Though it's impossible to look at them and not think that they are hopelessly in love with each other ( even if they don't realise it yet ). She's certainly never seen Satoru look at any other girl like that before — as if she holds the entire universe in her hands. The silly besotted smile on his face whenever she looks back at him, the longing in his eyes that he hides behind those pitch dark glasses when he stares for a little too long. Ironic when he is the one who controls the concept of infinity at his fingertips.

But Sayuri has that inexplicable affect on people, as if she is letting them in on a forbidden secret. Her carmine eyes have an enigmatic pull that draws people towards her and hang onto every honeyed word that escapes her peach-tinted lips. It was hypnotic, how her gaze could pierce through flesh and soul as she says all the right things a person would want to hear.

Shoko grins slightly. "Yeah, I'm totally jealous of them," she says and Suguru raises his brows in surprise.

"Glad to know I'm not the only one," he mumbles to himself but she hears him anyway. Pining does not suit Geto Suguru yet he does it in secret. Shoko wonders if he even realises it, that he can't help those yearnful stares of his. She's seen them in the kitchen late at night, he can't stay away like he hopes to yet he thinks the world of them both. It must be hard to carry unrequited feelings for someone, she muses, especially when they're your best friends.

Satoru and Sayuri finally rejoin them, water dripping off their bodies as they reach for towels. Shoko shifts to the side to accomodate Sayuri on the deckchair as Satoru sits next to Suguru on the other. They forget the conversation they just had and tuck it away in a far corner of their minds for now.

"Should we play a game?" Sayuri asks as she leans against Shoko and wraps her arms around her. She feels the girl's wet hair pool in the crook of her neck but she doesn't mind. It's almost comforting, in a way, to know that she offers the same solace to someone else.

"Sure, what did you have in mind?" Shoko responds.

"Truth or dare?" Satoru suggests.

"I'll start," Suguru quickly interjects and points back at him. "Satoru, truth or dare?"

"Dare, of course," he says confidently.

"Then down your drink," Suguru says, picking the cup from the table and handing it to him. Satoru mutters unhappily before he unwillingly pours its contents down his throat. He then looks towards both girls. It's apparent that he wants to pick the girl that holds his utmost attention but he doesn't want to seem too obvious. "Shoko, truth or dare?"

"Truth, then," she replies.

Satoru hums thoughtfully before grinning. "Have you ever had a crush on anyone?"

"Never," she answers flatly.

"Really?" he questions in disbelief. "Not even that Kyoto guy that everyone talks about?"

"Which Kyoto guy?" Sayuri asks curiously.

Shoko turns to her with a smirk and Satoru suddenly looks as if he regrets opening his mouth. "Oh, yeah, you know him, right? Yayoi Aki, the first year. His sister goes here though."

"Ah... Aki..." Sayuri recalls without a hint of enthusiasm. "He's popular?" Shoko laughs when she catches sight of the evident relief on Satoru's face. She then picks her next for the game. "Truth," Sayuri responds without hesitation.

Shoko presses a finger against her lips to stop herself from grinning, wondering if she should seek recompense for helping the hopelessly smitten boy out. "Well, then, what about you? Do you like anyone?"

Her scarlet eyes grow hazy as they drop to the tiled floor. She smiles while she hums aloud in thought. "I'm not sure, maybe..." she says earnestly which surprises Shoko herself to hear her acknowledging it aloud.

"You do?" Satoru questions without missing a beat. His blue eyes are wide as he peers at her over his sunglasses. Shoko can almost hear the nervous tremble in his voice. "Who is it?"

She looks at him and their contrasting eyes meet as she grins widely. "It's a secret, of course."

"It's not Yayoi Aki, is it?" Suguru teases knowingly as Satoru wrinkles his nose in indignation.

Sayuri laughs but keeps her silence. She picks Suguru next and when he ultimately chooses dare as well, she takes the opportunity to make him take a shot in revenge. The night grows older and their voices spill across the pool. Music and laughter fill the balmy air, and their skin tingles from all the alcohol. They count the stars in the sky, how they shine as brightly as the futures they swear they could see in front of them. How they thought that the summer would never end. There is so much love in friendships too, Shoko thinks, she sees it in their smiles. She feels it in their touch and she hears it in their stupid, carefree laughs. The sound of the arcades, the puddles they stomp through down the streets, the ice cream they shared in June and the shoulders she leant on by the vending machines.

If she had known then, all that she knows now, she would have held onto them tighter.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.     thank you for reading and please leave a comment to let me know what you think! it really helps motivate me to keep writing, thank you <33