InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm a Dapper Dan man!"

kondo kozue | 近藤梢 (anthesphoria) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2009-10-22 16:34:00

Entry tags:

kozue, renju

well, somebody has to arrange the matches--
WHO: Kozue and Renju
WHAT: A coincidental meeting.
WHERE: On campus.
WHEN: After school, after the rerun.
WHY: Didn't you hear about Kozue's scheme?

Tennis-free days were really quite calming for Kozue—not because the actual sport was tiring as much as because skipping and running home, or skipping and hiding out were both such stressful activities, and actually attending was rife with the terror of it being a Wrestling Day, or of having to display how little she'd improved since the beginning of the year in front of her teammates.

Today, there was no rushing home looking over her shoulder for someone she knew from the team, and no hiding in extra-dimensional lobbies. Today, she got to take her time going home, say hello to friends, say an extra hello or two to that really handsome new starting forward on the basketball team, and lollygag around the entrance of the school waiting for a friend or that basketball player to leave, and get them to offer to walk back to the dorms with her. While waiting for that, she was engaged in playing StoneShatterer on her phone.

(Post a new comment)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-22 09:08 pm UTC (link)

Things had been quiet for Renju, the rescue mission aside. Studying for exams (they were a month away, sure, but this was about when she usually started) had become a normal routine for her by now; it was almost soothing against the backdrop of Paradise and all the chaos and drama surrounding it. The sooner they could get it done, the happier she'd be.

Today she was supposed to go to Music Club, but she'd been attending fewer meetings lately, and not just for the obvious reasons. The head of the club had expressed some concern, but Renju's reputation for club-hopping was well-known, and her attendance suddenly dropping off was a sign that it was coming; all told, he was more resigned than anything.

Curiously, the Cooking Club hadn't yet suffered this fate. Even Renju herself wasn't quite sure why.

Satchel slung over her shoulder and oboe case in hand, Renju was heading to the dorms to drop off the latter before coming back to the library to study. Though her head was down as usual, she happened to look up at a fortuitous (or not) moment--right as she was passing by Kozue. It looked like she was preoccupied at the moment, though...

(Reply to this) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-22 10:09 pm UTC (link)

Not so much preoccupied, at least, anymore. Her last ball hit the ground, and Kozue lowered her phone, grumbling. She caught sight of Renju as she looked up (really, if she was staking out the entrance for that upperclassman, wouldn't it have been better to actually be looking? Probably.

"Hey, Sonozaki-sempai," she said, nodding in greeting. "On your way home?"

Renju wasn't a cute boy, but as a source of gossip and information that Kozue currently had a more-than-passing interest in, she ranked way higher than StoneShatterer. Especially because StoneShatterer was, apparently, difficult. Who knew?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-22 10:21 pm UTC (link)

"Not for long." Renju held up the case. "I'm going to drop this off in my room, then coming back to the library." What she really should have done was drop it off with the Music Club again, since it was theirs, but she didn't want to admit defeat quite yet... "I want to make sure my work is caught up so I can start preparing for exams." It occurred to her, vaguely, that others might think that odd. It didn't really stop her, though. Not like she had anything better to do for the most part, anyway.

She paused awkwardly for a moment. This 'small talk' thing was still sort of foreign to her. "What about you, Kondo-san?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-22 10:37 pm UTC (link)

Half of Kozue's life was small-talk; thus, she was quite pleased to let it continue, without a shred of awkwardness. "I was thinking of walking back to the dorms. You're coming back to study? That's admirable of you." She smiled; oh, studying, exams, right, shit. Her smile didn't quite reach Toshimi levels of creepy-smile-when-it-wasn't-right-to, but there was definitely an edge of terror somewhere in it.

So she small-talked her way around it. "You play an instrument? What kind?" She pointed at the case.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-22 10:43 pm UTC (link)

"I know exams aren't till the end of the month, but I like to start early." Okay, so there was a tinge of defensiveness on Renju's part, but she was used to getting teased about it by people closer to Kozue in personality than to her. She hadn't dealt with it much at Nanakamado, granted, but it was still a bit of a reflexive reaction.

"This?" She looked at the case, then started tapping it lightly against her leg. "I play the oboe." Okay, so 'play' was perhaps stretching it a bit, given that she'd only been at it for two or three months, but she'd gotten a lot of practice in in that time, so maybe it was a fair description. "But I'm going to be returning it to the Music Club soon."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-23 12:30 am UTC (link)

"Oh, are you not enjoying it?" Kozue asked, pursing her lips and trying to remember what in the universe an oboe even was. Did it look more like a trumpet or more like a clarinet? Or what?

She looked back up at Renju after a moment, confident she'd find no clues in the shape of the case. It could be anything in there and she'd never know. "Oh, I mean, I'm sure studying early is really productive." Not that she'd know. "Is it?" She tipped her head, slightly. She'd always assumed Renju was just really smart—she was quiet and she went places like the library, and wasn't that what really smart people did? Or maybe it was just the glasses. Now curious, she resolved to take a peek at the second year exam scores to see if her theories about Renju were correct, but that wouldn't be for a while yet.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-23 12:35 am UTC (link)

"I'm not really interested in it." Just like every other club she'd been in. "It's not the instrument itself, just music in general.

"And it helps me." Kozue seemed like she was asking an honest question, but it was hard for Renju to tell sometimes. Then again, she'd been nothing but kind before, at least to her... "I like to make sure I have a solid understanding of the basics early on so I can take my time building from it." She might not have the easy brilliance that so many others here did, but she certainly knew what worked for her, study-wise. Apparently she was doing well enough at it to fake it, though?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-23 01:39 am UTC (link)

She just nodded, fairly content to drop the talk about studying, because that just made her think more about studying, and tests, and failure, and all of that good stuff. "Have you been doing well since last time?" She asked, fixing quickly on a non-study topic; sure, it was also kind of a nasty one, and one full of dying and monsters and god-knows-what-else, but at least it wasn't school.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	lotus_beyond 2009-10-23 01:50 am UTC (link)
	"I suppose so. Tired, but well." Something almost resembling a smile flickered for a moment on Renju's lips before disappearing again. "There's something exhausting about that place. Even apart from the Shadows," she added hastily, trying not to state the obvious. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-23 02:01 am UTC (link)

"There's… lots of things about that place are exhausting, really." Her voice dropped slightly; in a private place, she might have listed the various things (the Shadows, the fighting, the team, to name a few). Here, she was content to be oblique. "I thought you were doing really well when we were in there, though. In the fighting. Is it true that Sagaki-sempai has been teaching you some stuff?"

Ah, the heart of the matter. Or, one of the matters. It wasn't as though Kozue had decided to talk to Renju purely to dig up more information on this Tom-Crush thing; Sonozaki was also one of her favorite team-mates. She was sensible, she didn't call anyone anything unseemly, and, as Kozue had said, she was apparently very good at the wind magic thing. Kozue did manage to keep her tone from being keenly interested; it was much more, 'oh, this is something he mentioned, how interesting'.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-23 02:13 am UTC (link)

Renju nodded. "I've been seeing him for lessons every week or two when my schedule allows for it. It's been helpful." She owed a few lucky dodges to that training; she didn't doubt that she'd be have been much more of a burden so far if she hadn't had it.

"I think it would be a good idea for other people to take advantage of it, but I can tell how most of the team feels about him." There wasn't really any animosity there, just resignation. He was a member of the team (whether he'd admit it or not), and that was all on her end.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-23 02:20 am UTC (link)

Kozue nodded, thoughtfully. "I think he really just wants to alienate people, and it really seems to work on many people on the team. Do you ever get that impression?" She waited for more of Renju's opinion, still thinking. It was noncommittal so far, but it wasn't bad. And that was a good start.

"But it's stuff like that, giving you lessons, that lets us know he does care, after all." About the team being the implicit piece left off, unless Renju wanted to hear something different. "I mean, he's helped me out on a few things, too, when he really didn't have to."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-25 01:54 pm UTC (link)

"I didn't really think of it that way, but that would make sense." Though Renju could sort of relate, now that she thought about it--and she pushed that thought right back down where it belonged. It was just awkwardness, nothing more. She'd never been a social person, after all, right?

"It seems counterproductive, though," she mused. "We don't have to be friends, but we should at least be allies." Tom's sudden departures at the end of most of their trips to Paradise leapt to mind, but there were plenty of other examples of what she was thinking of. "Anything less could be dangerous."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-25 05:24 pm UTC (link)

"You could try explaining that to him," Kozue offered; Renju did have a point that extended beyond her own matchmaking strategies and diversions. The Persona butterfly, and all…

"Maybe if enough people tell him, it'll get through. And we do need more team…" she stopped, looking for the word. Sticking-togetherness. Stickiness? No, that made no sense. Cohiption? Was that it? No, it sounded dumb. "Togetherness. You know?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lotus_beyond
2009-10-26 08:49 pm UTC (link)

I don't have any room to talk to anyone about that. "I've never been good at discussing things like that," Renju mumbled, averting her gaze slightly. "And I doubt he'd listen to me. I'm sure others have brought it up by now, and it doesn't appear to have gotten through."

Her own awkwardness aside, though, the situation was rather frustrating. She remembered having a somewhat similar conversation to this nearer to when she'd first met him, and he refused to admit to being part of the team when he clearly was in all but self-reference. If he wouldn't admit to it himself, then what good could she do?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-10-26 10:06 pm UTC (link)

"Ah. Well…" She'd have said peer pressure, but she really didn't think that Tom would give in to it, or that Renju would believe that Tom would give in to it. "We'll wear him away if we try enough times. I mean, if you stumble seven times, you've got to stand back up eight times." She grinned—it was only a bit forced—and pondered what else to say to push the issue.

And it wasn't only for the matchmaking, either. Tom really could use people reminding him he was on the team in a gentle, persistent way. It was far more likely to succeed than some of the more obvious tactics of team members.

(Reply to this) (Parent)