Published: June 30th 2022, 5:52:18 pm
Tokine’s phone chirped a distinct, pleasant tune. Any other tune and she might have ignored it, but this one was unique. It meant she received a message from Yoshimori, her friend from childhood, night patrol partner, and the boy she had developed strong feelings towards. Were they still in the same city, it would have been a certainty they would be dating by now. However, she had left him behind to come to the university with her friends. Tokine would like to say she made it a point to go home at every opportunity, but more often than not she found some excuse to stay. She grabbed her phone and swiped up on the screen to view the message, smiling wistfully.
“That from your guy?” Sakura asked, looking backing from her seat on the floor. All three roommates were in the living room of their apartment, with Kagome and Tokine in the couch and Sakura laying on her side in front of it.
“He’s not really my guy…but yes” Tokine responded plainly. She could sense her roommates had grown bored from the sitcom they had started binging on StreamFix for the 5th or 6th time and were looking to do a bit of teasing. She knew that any taunting amongst three was all lighthearted and not at all cruel, but she still hoped she could avoid it.
“I hope he doesn’t need you to come babysit him this weekend” Kagome chimed in, “cuz you already promised you’d come out with us and party.”
“Yoshimori isn’t that much younger than me.”
“He’s still in High School, isn’t he?” Sakura replied, sitting up to face Tokine and Kagome.
“He’s a senior this year.”
“So he gets to stay up past 9 o’clock then?” Kagome joked, eliciting a giggle from Sakura.
“This coming from the girl that fell for someone literally centuries older than her” Tokine retorted. Lighthearted the taunting might be, she wasn’t going to just sit there and take it this time. “Is he still at the bottom of the well or did you move him into a retirement home yet?”
“H-hey!” was what Kagome managed to respond with. She was a little surprised Tokine had fired back with a bit of ribbing of her own, normally tending to not to join in with the other two’s goading. This got an even bigger laugh from Sakura.
“One guy is a baby, and the other is senior citizen. You guys couldn’t find someone in the middle of the spectrum?”
“At least we didn’t end up crushing on the ‘bad boy’” Tokine responded, cutting off Sakura’s laughter.
“Yeah Sakura, how basic can you be?” Kagome added. “Maybe someday he’ll stop brooding long enough for you to actually have a conversation.”
There was silence for a few seconds, then the three friends burst out into laughter. Their relationships were a mess, but at least they had each other to commiserate with.