[ So much has changed since she'd landed on Midgard that sometimes Rin can hardly believe it. Her time here has only been a fraction of the time she spent in the VR and yet, already, all that seems like a distant dream and Midgard in the here and now feels infinitely bigger -- infinitely more real.
It helps that she's finally started school. It's still just a few days a week, but the normalcy and the routine of it is wonderful. She'd been a ball of anxiety at first, dithering and a little mistrustful of everyone's kindness and friendliness. But thinking back on it now almost makes her laugh. The walls she'd been only just peeking over have gradually been brought down and now she spends her days laughing and talking with friends. Her friends.
But then...
Then there's Shoji.
Thinking of it in those terms makes her feel a little cruel but she can't pretend there's no divide in her mind between her other friends and just... Shoji. It'd been simple enough at first – Shoji was the first real friend her age she'd made on Midgard so of course he'd be special. But the more time that passes and the more of it they spend together, the more that specialness takes on a bit of a different meaning. Maybe it's a cliche for her heart to be pitter-pattering over the first boy she could really call her friend, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. And maybe the old Rin would've been content to pretend it wasn't, but she's not quite as much of an anxious mess anymore. She's going to jump on the first chance she gets to do something about it.
... well, that's easier said than done. Valentine's Day is more or less the perfect opportunity, and Rin spends days getting prepared for it. She designs and scraps more chocolates than she can count and eventually forces herself not to get worked up about the looks. Chocolate is chocolate! It's all about the feelings and the effort you put in, isn't it?
So when Valentine's Day comes around, she's all prepared. She's given out chocolates to all their friends but she hasn't found the opportunity yet to hand over Shoji's. It's still sitting in her bag and she's been checking it in a dizzy every time she has a second alone to make sure it's still intact. The chocolate's fine, but she worries that, even with the two of them alone and heading home, she's never going to find the right time to give it to him.
She's bogged down by this thought the whole way back to the train station and it certainly doesn't do anything for the awkward atmosphere between them. It's only when Shoji asks about her audition that she visibly perks up, broken out of her fretting if only for the moment. ]
Oh, um... they actually got back to me yesterday. They said I passed the first round of auditions and they'd be getting back to me to tell me when the in-person auditions are happening.
[ Despite herself, she feels a bashful little smile warming the expression on her face. ]
I know it doesn't mean much, just passing the first round... but it feels kind of amazing even just getting this far. Someone listened to me sing and they really thought I was worth giving a chance to.
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It helps that she's finally started school. It's still just a few days a week, but the normalcy and the routine of it is wonderful. She'd been a ball of anxiety at first, dithering and a little mistrustful of everyone's kindness and friendliness. But thinking back on it now almost makes her laugh. The walls she'd been only just peeking over have gradually been brought down and now she spends her days laughing and talking with friends. Her friends.
But then...
Then there's Shoji.
Thinking of it in those terms makes her feel a little cruel but she can't pretend there's no divide in her mind between her other friends and just... Shoji. It'd been simple enough at first – Shoji was the first real friend her age she'd made on Midgard so of course he'd be special. But the more time that passes and the more of it they spend together, the more that specialness takes on a bit of a different meaning. Maybe it's a cliche for her heart to be pitter-pattering over the first boy she could really call her friend, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. And maybe the old Rin would've been content to pretend it wasn't, but she's not quite as much of an anxious mess anymore. She's going to jump on the first chance she gets to do something about it.
... well, that's easier said than done. Valentine's Day is more or less the perfect opportunity, and Rin spends days getting prepared for it. She designs and scraps more chocolates than she can count and eventually forces herself not to get worked up about the looks. Chocolate is chocolate! It's all about the feelings and the effort you put in, isn't it?
So when Valentine's Day comes around, she's all prepared. She's given out chocolates to all their friends but she hasn't found the opportunity yet to hand over Shoji's. It's still sitting in her bag and she's been checking it in a dizzy every time she has a second alone to make sure it's still intact. The chocolate's fine, but she worries that, even with the two of them alone and heading home, she's never going to find the right time to give it to him.
She's bogged down by this thought the whole way back to the train station and it certainly doesn't do anything for the awkward atmosphere between them. It's only when Shoji asks about her audition that she visibly perks up, broken out of her fretting if only for the moment. ]
Oh, um... they actually got back to me yesterday. They said I passed the first round of auditions and they'd be getting back to me to tell me when the in-person auditions are happening.
[ Despite herself, she feels a bashful little smile warming the expression on her face. ]
I know it doesn't mean much, just passing the first round... but it feels kind of amazing even just getting this far. Someone listened to me sing and they really thought I was worth giving a chance to.