Pair Bonding - SotVD

[banthesun]

"...and if you remember from last week, since carbon atoms only have four electrons in their outer shell, they have a valency of four! Oxygen atoms have six so they have a valency of two, hydrogen atoms only have one one electron in the first shell, so they have a valency of one. Anyway, I'm sure you're getting the idea! Now, to help make sure you all understand, we've got some hands on work you can do! Everyone come take one of these atomic modelling kits, and experiment with what hydrocarbon molecules you can make! Uh, the work sheet I passed round at the start of the class has a list of molecules for you to make, and you should draw them in your workbook once you've made them, but feel free to try out other combinations! I'll be walking round and checking how you're going, so if you want to ask me about what you've made, fire away! Oh, and I almost forgot, we don't have enough kits to go round, so you'll need to pair up for this one!"

All throughout the class, friends immediately started attaching themselves to each other. Kyoko, however, had been distracted, trying to complete her maths homework before the next class, and when she looked up it seemed most everyone had already found a partner. Well, there was one notable exception Kyoko saw... Kyoko got up and ducked over to her desk, attracting her attention with a small wave.

"Miyuki, you want to work with me today?"

[A Rainy Knight]

"Oh geez. Oh geez, I g-gotta find someone. Oh..."

Looking rather lost and confused for a moment, Miyuki quickly turns her head and takes notice when Kyoko pops up to catch her attention.

"K-Kyoko...?" She hesitates for a moment, before giving a decisive nod. "Y-yeah! I'd really like that. I r-really don't wanna work with someone I don't know... Um, did you wanna g-get one of those kits, or should I do it?"

[banthesun]

"I'll go get it, since I'm already up."

Kyoko drops her bag at Miyuki's desk and hurries up to the front desk. There was a crowd of people all waiting their chance to grab a kit, and Kyoko joined them. If Miyuki had gone to get it we probably would have ended up with whatever half-empty kit was left over, anyway.

Regardless, the kit Kyoko grabbed was one of the last few, and she returned to the desk and plopped it down in front of Miyuki. She took a seat next to Miyuki, and opened up her book.

"Uh, were you listening to the instructions?" Kyoko asked, slightly embarrassed. "I was a little distracted. It doesn't look too hard though."

[A Rainy Knight]

"W-well, I was a little sleepy myself, but..." Miyuki pulls out a worksheet tucked between the pages of one of her books. "I think we've just gotta make all the molecules on this list here, and then d-draw them... or s-something like that."

She glances back and forth between the worksheet and the kit a few times.

"S-so... do you wanna get started, then?"

[banthesun]

"Well, that seems easy enough," said Kyoko, popping open the box to reveal an array of coloured plasic balls and sticks. She slid it across the table so Miyuki would have easy access to it.

"Is there really a point to drawing them if we've already got the pictures on the worksheet?"

A bit disappointed by the activity, Kyoko turned to Miyuki to make small talk

"You were up late last night?" she asks, curious about what Miyuki had said.

[A Rainy Knight]

Miyuki gives a shy nod, and reaches into the modeling kit. Idly assembling a water molecule on the desk in front of her, she explains herself.

"Y-yeah. I was, um, on the Internet until r-really late... I don't look too t-terrible, do I?" She puts a hand to her forehead and brushes aside some of the messier tangles of her hair. "S-sorry. Not really sure why I bother worrying sometimes. B-but anyways, I like to just curl up in bed with my laptop... it helps me relax whenever I get s-stressed. Like I'm at home..."

[banthesun]

"You look fine," Kyoko responds quickly.

Now that she was drawing attention to it, Kyoko could see just how tired she looked, but thought better than to mention that to her. Kyoko began popping together some plastic carbon atoms and tried to picture Miyuki curled up in the dark with her laptop. Not that it was very hard, Kyoko had seen her curled up like that sometimes when she'd poked her head in the other room, all she needed to imagine was all the other girls asleep. Was this something that had been an issue for Miyuki? Kyoko tried to recall what she'd heard about the shy girl.

"Uh, how've you been fitting in at the dorms?" she asked, a little concerned about her. "Are you used to it yet?"

[A Rainy Knight]

Miyuki glances down at the finished molecule in her hands, and yawns as she starts to disassemble it and free up a couple of hydrogens for the next molecule.

"Um... it was h-hard when I first got here," she says, lowering her voice as she glances suspiciously around at the other groups. "I h-hated it. I hated leaving my room, and going to class with all these people, and getting p-picked on and shoved around by bullies. I didn't even have a place I could go and c-cry without feeling embarrassed about it..."

She starts to blush a little bit at her own admission.

"S-sorry, that got kinda depressing, didn't it? Things got b-better after I made friends with Tsubaki, and then Asami. I'm... okay now. I just need a little time to unwind sometimes." She glances hesitantly back up at Kyoko. "Y-you've heard my deal, right? About how I was before I came here...?"

[banthesun]

Concern spread across Kyoko's face as she listened to Miyuki's story. She couldn't imagine people bullying someone like Miyuki. Well, she could imagine that they would, but she couldn't understand how they could. Kyoko wanted to do something to comfort her, but she couldn't find the words, and it was too awkward to give her a hug.

Kyoko nodded when Miyuki started to mention her friends at the dorm. "Ah, I guess I can understand needing to unwind." She did wonder why Tsubaki wasn't able to comfort her though. The pair seemed pretty close.

"Um, I've heard a few things," she admitted. "Something about you not going to school much? I don't really know a lot about it."

[A Rainy Knight]

"Um... well, 'not going to school much' is one way to p-put it," Miyuki sheepishly begins. "I, uh... I, um, d-didn't go to school, or even really leave home, for a c-couple of years."

She quietly assembles another molecule, wondering what she could even say next.

"I was, um, like a hikikomori. I'm t-trying not to let too many people in class find out, but I guess I just wanted you to know. So, uh..."

[banthesun]

That sounds like...

"I was, um, like a hikikomori."

"Ah... Well, I won't tell anyone. Um, thanks for telling me though," Kyoko replies. She hadn't missed that Miyuki had said she wanted her to know. Being a hikikomori wasn't a good thing, and Kyoko could understand why Miyuki didn't want the others to know.

"But you have friends now, right? Tsubaki, and Asami? That and you're coming to school, and stuff?" asked Kyoko, mainly to reassure herself. "Did you transfer to this school too?"

[A Rainy Knight]

Miyuki nods. "Y-yeah, I have some really precious friends now. Tsubaki, Asami... Um, maybe y-you, too, if that's okay?"

And to Kyoko's second question, she gives another hesitant nod. "Mm-hmm. I'm a t-transfer student. People at my old school knew me, knew that I had been a... a s-shut-in for all that time. There's just no w-way I could spend every day with them all looking at me. I've at least got a fresh start here..."

[banthesun]

Kyoko was a little thrown off by the combination of shyness and directness in Miyuki's question. I guess that's what you get when someone doesn't have much chance to learn social skills. Kyoko couldn't really say she knew Miyuki that well yet, but there was definitely something endearing in her shyness, and she couldn't really refuse a request like that.

"Yeah, that's alright. You can consider me your friend too. I don't think I could defend you like Tsubaki though!" That story had already spread round the school, and Kyoko wondered if there was still anyone brave enough to pick on Miyuki knowing who's protection she was under.

"Well, I guess that's another good thing," replied Kyoko. "Even if it does mean moving somewhere else." She wondered if Miyuki had been moved here by whoever was pulling the strings on the persona program. As she fiddled with a plastic molecule, another thought hit her. "Wait, did your parents move here too?"

[A Rainy Knight]

Miyuki smiles, as she sketches down the molecule in front of her and then sets about disassembling it for parts.

"T-thank you! Hee hee... that's alright, I've got enough p-protection from Tsubaki already. I'd just like s-someone else to talk to now and then..."

She watches Kyoko working on her own half of the assignment for a short while, and then answers her question.

"Um, actually, my parents sent me here by myself. M-maybe they thought if I had the option to go back home, I'd just stay there and... well, you know. It was one of those 'sink or swim' situations, and I guess I'm not d-drowning, at least."

[banthesun]

"Yikes! My parent's moved to a flat just fifteen minutes away, and that was still a big change! And there's not much in the way of privacy in the dormitory either..."

Though I guess staying awake till the early morning would change that...

Kyoko checks the molecule she's building against the list, and draws a quick diagram of it.

"Oh, it looks we'll need all the oxygens for the glucose. Are you finished with that?" Kyoko asks absent-mindedly, before returning to the previous topic.

"That really does sound pretty intense though," she sympathises.

[A Rainy Knight]

"Hmm?" Miyuki looks down at her molecule, then hastily starts taking it apart. "S-sorry! Here you go."

She hands Kyoko the rest of the oxygens.

"H-hehe... well, like I said, it was hard at first. B-but I'm getting used to it, y'know? Even if it's not that f-far, I bet being separated was harder for you... do you have a pretty good r-relationship with your parents? S-sorry if that's too personal..."

[banthesun]

Wow, even asking politely feels like I'm bullying her...

Kyoko accepted the oxygens and started squeezing them onto the molecule she was building. She noted the implications about Miyuki's parents, and her mouth formed a silent 'o'. She certainly wasn't going to ask Miyuki about that! It seemed her relationship with her parents was too personal to talk about.

"Oh, actually it was easier to settle in than I thought. I see my parents often enough, and we get on alright. Really, it's the other people that I miss," she admitted.

[A Rainy Knight]

Intently watching Kyoko put the more complicated molecule together, Miyuki faintly smiles.

"T-that's good, that you get along with your parents... but I guess you had to leave a bunch of f-friends behind?" She chuckles a little, under her breath. "Well, the only friends I had were on the Internet, so I guess I didn't need to w-worry about that, at least..."

[banthesun]

"Well, a few friends. One I was really close to though."

Kyoko pauses assembling the molecule, distracted by what Miyuki had said.

"You have friends on the internet? How- uh, how do you stay in touch with them?" she asks.

[A Rainy Knight]

"Well, I guess they're not really my f-friends like Tsubaki or Asami. I don't know their real names, and we've never m-met in real life," Miyuki explains. "We're just people who use the same websites, and like the same s-stuff. Nobody ever had to know I was a shut-in posting from my room, and I never really asked them, either..."

She pauses a moment, to start sketching Kyoko's molecule.

"I still post on those sites - that's how I k-keep in touch with them, I guess. If you can really call it that..."

[banthesun]

"Oh, ahuh." Kyoko seems a little dissappointed at Miyuki's answer, but still listened politely. "Huh, I'd always assumed most forums and things were anonymous, but you got to know people? Uh, kinda know them, that is. And that's the type of thing you're doing at night?"

[A Rainy Knight]

"It's not quite anonymous, sometimes. I mean, you use a u-username when you're posting on art sites and stuff, so you can get to know people by their handle..." Miyuki shyly taps her fingers together. "Well, that's s-some of what I do at night... I also just, y'know, listen to music and read blogs, and stuff..."

[banthesun]

Kyoko nods along to Miyuki's explanation. It was interesting enough, and gave her some sort of insight into Miyuki's life, but it wasn't going to give her any ideas about how to stay in touch with Mariko. Putting the finishing touches to her diagram, she checks it against the list.

"Ah, that looks like everything we have to do..." she leaves the statement hanging, so Miyuki could suggest if she wants to do more.

Thinking about what Miyuki said, a new thought pops into her head. "Wait, art sites? You draw?" Kyoko leans over to get look at Miyuki's notebook, in case her molecule drawings were some kind of masterpiece.

[A Rainy Knight]

Sadly, Miyuki's diagrams are just rough little circles connected with sticks. She looks down bashfully at her own work, then back up at Kyoko.

"Ah! S-sorry... I don't draw. It's not as flashy, but I, um... I write," she says. "Y'know, s-stories and stuff. And I post them on the Internet. Just a little h-hobby of mine..."

[banthesun]

Kyoko was a little dissapointed Miyuki's diagrams were just as plain as her own, but she couldn't really consider it surprising. Kyoko knew she probably wouldn't be interested in reading Miyuki's stories, but out of politeness she continued to show interest.

"Oh, what about? And people enjoy them?"

Who knows, perhaps she does write stuff I'd like...

[A Rainy Knight]

"I w-write, um... romance. Mostly romance." Miyuki blushes. "If you can b-believe that... h-hehe. I'm not s-super popular or anything, but I have a few fans..."

She double-checks her worksheet to make sure that she's finished all the molecules, then, with her check complete, she returns her full attention to Kyoko.

[banthesun]

Oh, romance? I've seen some good romance stories before! And a lot of bad ones. One thing I'm curious about though...

"Romance? Uh, how do you- I mean, uh, if you didn't go out much, what do you base them on?"

Kyoko looks a little embarrased in her question. She'd tried to be diplomatic, but that still came out a bit too direct.

[A Rainy Knight]

"Well... I guess it's just f-fantasies and stuff?" Miyuki begins, glancing around to reassure herself that none of her other classmates are listening in. "And I get a lot of ideas from other people's writing, and g-games and manga and anime... I'm sure that my writing isn't r-realistic, but there's plenty of people who aren't looking for realism."

[banthesun]

Kyoko glances around with Miyuki. This'd be embarrasing for Miyuki if she was overheard. I'm surprised she's talking to me about it! She nodded. So she just writes this stuff based on other books and stuff? And people enjoy it?

"That's, uh, pretty interesting." It wasn't a lie, surprisingly enough. It might have been just out of curiousity, but Kyoko wanted to see what Miyuki's writing was like. She nodded again, to give her statement weight, a bit surprised in herself on this one.

[A Rainy Knight]

Miyuki props her elbows up on the desk, and rests her chin against her hands.

"It's okay... y-you don't have to pretend to be interested if you aren't," she says. "I know it's a little odd. B-but if you are, I, uh, I just..."

A hint of a blush returns to her cheeks.

"Well, I wouldn't mind t-talking more about it some other time."