Work Text:
It was an average day, just like the day before and the days to come. Mafuyu was on her way home after being picked up from her tutor's house for their weekly tutoring sessions that her mother insisted on her having. They were taking the short route through the park, her month on the phone with one of her colleagues while Mafuyu walked beside her as she carried her textbooks. Tutoring lessons were extremely boring but Mafuyu would never say that to her mother of course. She wanted to make mother proud after all!
It was a bright day, and she wore a rimmed hat that blocked the sun from her eyes. As they walked, Mafuyu heard laughter and turning her head, she noticed a bunch of families at the nearby playground.
Children were either swinging, or sliding, or running about as parents either stood by and watched or were even playing with them as well.
Looking up, Mafuyu asked, "Mother, can we go to the park today?"
"Not now, Mafuyu, mummy is on the phone," replied her mother, hardly sparing a glance as she continued her one-sided sounding coversation.
The child looked down at her feet, knowing better not to interrupt. When was the last time she and mother had gone out somewhere and mother wasn't on the phone? Or even, when was the last time she had seen mother and father out together in public like those other families?
"Come on Kanade, papa's waiting for us!" Giggled a woman's voice that didn't belong to her mother, and when Mafuyu looked up, a girl around her age passed by. It was a brief moment, but that was all Mafuyu needed to get a good glimpse of the girl.
She had silvery-gray hair that was as long as her own and bangs that were cut just hardly reaching her eyes. The girl was laughing while holding a couple of flowers that looked handpicked and when Mafuyu turned to look back, her other hand was holding her mother's.
There was something in the way that girl (Kanade, was it?) and her mother were both laughing and smiling with one another that brought a strange feeling of sadness over Mafuyu yet she couldn't understand why.
A thin line of red drifted through the air towards the girl that caught Mafuyu's eyes. She blinked, however, it had seemed to vanish. Turning back to her own mother, Mafuyu called out once more.
"Not now, Mafuyu." This time, mother did look at her but with a glare before turning towards her phone once more.
Mafuyu's lower lip wobbled but she didn't dare speak. It was probably nothing.