They say that our fates are held by the Gods and Goddesses overseeing every one of our lives. They are the ones in charge on who our red string will be tied into and is doing a serious job in doing so. The Yamanobe family is one of those traditional Japanese family still practicing arranged marriage to marry off the first born they would always deem to be bad luck and useless.
Most of the previous first born rejected the idea and even hated it. One for the fact that it was another of their family's tricks to keep them away from being heir and two is because their marriage partner would always be a random man born on the same day and the same year. The dates of their births would always be a time when the moon was full and beautifully shining at its peak.
Like a predetermined fate, arranged marriages cannot be rejected by a member or they would forever be excommunicated from the family group. None of the first born wanted that. If asked, they would really rather get wed to a stranger than to themselves cut off from their bloodline. It wasn't out of sadness of even loneliness, the first born were just too eager to prove the clan's premonition of them bringing bad luck.
And so, a lot of them accepted. But a few others decided to disappear and some even eloped with their chosen spouse or lover, forever hidden from the Yamanobe Family's grasp.
"We should tell her soon, dear" a middle-aged woman with gray locks streaked with white hair said.
"Let's wait for a few more days Mai."
—
Shizuku gently shook her head as she kept on arranging the pieces of paper scattered on her desk. It was an attempt she did to avoid thinking of the man she just met a week; his eyes gave her chills but the slyness and gentleness in his voice was so different from what she had expected.
He had been occupying her mind for days now and strangely, Shizuku entertained the idea of thinking about him. And what's even more surprising is the pace of her dreams as she slept, it was slow, mellow, and gentle as if the figures she always saw interacted in peace. It was the first time like that.
Shizuku smiled as she slid the papers in the compartment below. She got up from her seat and went on to do one last round to check the bathroom stalls, knowing that a lot of the students would already be home or at their clubs since it was already past school time.
She walked the empty corridors, admiring how the orange and warm rays of the already setting sun passed through the glass windows and shone on the walls illuminating her way with gentle tangerine light. Despite being strict and stern, Shizuku appreciates the beauty of small things like these.
And suddenly, the image of Yuuji entered her mind as she listened to the yells of the soccer club playing out on the field.
He intrigued her a lot. He was kind yet cautious and was neither too smart or an under achieved person. Everything about him screamed average. Yet his eyes held so much more than that and Shizuku yearned to know more.
Who was he? She wasn't one to fantasize about love so that wasn't the case. She was just interested in how a bland person like him and her were like magnets in some way. Shaking the thought off again, Shizuku started walking in haste to check all of the comfort rooms and the empty classrooms in every floor.
She was finishing when she crossed another hallway to get to the other building, but as her eyes met again with a pair of slated daring ones, she stopped.
There stood Shikuro Yuuji, a few feet away from her, closing the door of a room. He was also stunned seeing the female at such a late time but immediately regained composure to fix himself.
"A rare sight seeing you here Miss President"
A sudden surge of shock went through Shizuku's body as she heard the boy spout those words, her mind replaying a scene where the girl she always dreamt about walks closer to the boy she met in the forest.
"A rare sight seeing someone like you here"
She was supposed to be scared. But instead, her lips curved into a smile, "Fancy meeting you at this hour, this close nighttime"
Yuuji felt himself robbed of another round of breaths, watching the girl display such sly actions. As if through the eyes of the boy he watched from birth, he saw the woman walking closer.
"Fancy seeing someone of your kind, this close to death"
The two broke their stares and walked away, feeling extremely embarrassed from how they spoke and acted. But also feeling extremely disturbed by the fact that the scene that happened earlier was like reenacting something that occurred in the past.
'Did you see it too?'
A question they wanted to ask one another but never said out loud.