⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✢⠀𓈒⠀ ֹ⠀⠀⠀a private starter⠀⠀⸺⠀⠀for @lcveloop !
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ izumi kumiko appreciates you. ♡
⠀⠀⠀⊹ ࣪ ˖⠀⠀hands are halfway through writing down a sentence when the knocking starts, and it’s not the polite kind that suggests the person on the other side is willing to wait. it's impatient, suspiciously rhythmic like whoever is responsible has decided that if they can’t be let inside immediately, they might as well turn the hallway into the drumming kumiko was used to hearing during rehearsals with the band. gaze doesn’t lift from her notebook right away, pen remaining poised above the page as she re reads the same line for what must be the sixth time because the words refuse to cooperate, until the sound outside stops. a beat passes in a silence that settles nearly eerily, and her phone buzzes from where it’s been abandoned on the edge of her nightstand with notifications that arrive one after another before there’s even a chance for the screen to be unlocked.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ ✉️ › from isa, at 8:31pm ] open the door
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ ✉️ › from isa, at 8:32pm ] i know u are in there !!!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀of course she does. isa always knows. the apartment is small enough that the quiet becomes its own answer — not that kumiko was planning on answering, anyway. at least that’s what she tells herself as gaze finally shifts to drift around the room instead. the notebook resting in her lap, the stack of assigned readings occupying one end of the couch, the jacket already hanging by the front door, ready ; because despite trying to convince both of them the opposite, she knew she was going. and the realization annoys her — because somewhere between the fifth reminder text and isa sending a voice note titled important party information, accepting the invitation had become inevitable. by the time dejected figure is reaching for the doorhandle, a response is already being planned inside her head : something that communicates very clearly that her friend was being impossible, as per usual.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀but the words never make it out once the door swings open and she’s there. predictably, she’s overdressed. predictably, she also looks good. an uncomfortable warmth settles somewhere between the brunette’s ribs, but she ignores it in favor of⸺ ❛ you’re annoying. and also like … thirty minutes early. ❜ and experience suggests there’s no universe in which isa remains standing in the hallway for longer than five seconds, so kumiko eventually steps aside with no real effort being put into welcoming isa inside because there was no need to, truthfully. at some point, the other had started treating the apartment like a place she was expected to be and always welcomed to … and at some point, the singer had stopped correcting her on that, which is an oversight she continues to pay for. eyes flicker briefly toward the notebook abandoned on the coffee table before they return to the opposite, a small smile threatening to appear at the corner of her mouth. ❛ you’ve spent the last three days harassing me about this party, ❜ a pause. ❛ it better be worth it. and no overdrinking. ❜