Closed Why is it Always You?

[Kanako Kurosawa]

Kanako huffed as she walked through the corridor. She'd just finished a charms lesson and was finding classes in general a step up from last year. She didn't want to admit that she was struggling a little. Not that grades actually mattered but she didn't want to look stupid. Appearances were everything - she would be fine with failing if everyone thought the best of her. Which people annoyingly weren't doing. It was frustrating, but Kanako kept it hidden. At least baking never failed her. That's where everything was perfect, and everything made sense. Not like stupid charms, or transfiguration, or whatever else they were making her do at this stupid school. Not really thinking about what where she was going, it was only until they were nearly head-on colliding that Kanako registered who was in front of her. Great, Tori again. What would be her problem this time? Was she having too nice a time with all her friends and whatever else she was up to? Kanako rolled her eyes and came to a halt, crossing her arms. "Still here? Thought they would've kicked you out for being too uncool," she said, knowing it wasn't the wittiest thing in the world but it was something. "Or too short," she added for good measure.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori's steps faltered as she nearly collided with someone. The moment she saw who it was, a familiar prickle of annoyance crept up her spine. She folded her arms, meeting the girl's smug expression with a sharp look. Her lips twitched into a sarcastic smile as the other girl spoke, the jab barely making a dent in her composure this morning. "Wooooow Kurosawa," she said, tilting her head, her tone light, but laced with sarcasm. "Did you spend all of Charms class coming up with that one, or was it off the cuff?" She raised her eyebrows in wonder. "You know, maybe if you spent less time worrying about who’s cool and more time actually paying attention in lessons, you’d get the hang of basic spells. Just a thought." Tori took a step to the side, her chin lifting slightly as she continued. "But hey, I guess as long as you can ice a cake, it doesn’t really matter if you’re failing at magic, right? At least you'll have something to fall back on when you need to charm people without a wand." She gave Kanako a pointed look before brushing past her, clearly uninterested in lingering further.​

 

[Kanako Kurosawa]

A flash of frustration passed through Kanako but she maintained her composure - at first. Then Tori continued talking, and Kanako's frustration returned in full force. She glared daggers as Tori insulted her wandwork - Kanako wasn't that bad. There were worse students, but it was true she wasn't one of the fastest to get magic down. As someone who was raised muggle, it hit the mark nonetheless. She was about to send a rejoiner when Tori tried to walk past. "You think you can talk like that to me and just move on?" Kanako asked, voice raised but coldly calm, with an underlying tension permeated her every word. Then Kanako chuckled to herself. "You're still hung up on the fact I'm better than you at something. Nice try, but you can't make me feel bad about something I excel at," Kanako said proudly.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori stopped in her tracks as Kanako's voice cut through the air. She turned slowly, her face falling into an annoyed frown. For a moment, her expression softened, almost pitying, but it quickly shifted into a smirk and danced on the line of playful. "Better than me at something?" She echoed, crossing her arms as she tilted her head slightly. "I don't care if you're better than me, I care that you have no manners and you criticise without even trying to get to know me first. That was your problem. Maybe if you'd come up to me and started by giving me your name, I might've been more receptive, but by barging in and just immediately telling me I was wrong, you let me know exactly the kind of person you are, and that's someone I don't really care for," her tone was calm, but there was a spark of annoyance there. "But hey, if that's what you want to cling to, who am I to take that from you, everyone needs a win sometimes."​

 

[Kanako Kurosawa]

Kanako listened to Tori with a faint edge of boredom. She was coming across a little holier-than-thou as far as Kanako was concerned. "So you've got me all figured out, is that it?" Kanako asked, not noticing that her voice was raising slightly. "I'm just an ill-mannered girl and that's all there is to it. You're so easily dismissive, Tori," Kanako said, completely ignoring her own hypocrisy in the moment. "I honestly just wanted to show you how to use decorating techniques," Kanako said, strangely honest for a moment, her voice diminishing. She gave a shrug as though she didn't care but it was stiff and looked somewhat awkward.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

"Maybe we did get off on the wrong foot, Kanako," Tori started, crossing her arms and looking away for a moment as she thought over her words. "But I don’t think trying to fix it will do much. I mean, you’re already pretty sure of what you think about me, right? And honestly, I’m not convinced you’d even believe me if I tried to make things better." And Tori was pretty set in her view of Kanako too. She didn't have the maturity to see things in a different light yet. And after the break she'd had? She wasn't sure she wanted to either. Not with everything she was now feeling. Maybe Kanako was a vessel for everything she currently hated about herself, so she could hate someone else for it. It wasn't a nice thing to do, but she din't know what else to do either. She sighed, the frustration clear in her tone. "Look, I’m not saying I was perfect either. But I don’t think either of us are exactly innocent here. Maybe you were trying to help, but the way you went about it didn’t feel like that at all. It just felt... I don’t know, like you were trying to prove something."​

 

[Kanako Kurosawa]

Kanako was a little surprised to hear Tori say that maybe they got off on the wrong foot. It took her aback more than she probably wanted to admit, a blank look coming across her face. But then Tori continued talking and things became clear again. It was a step too far - a maturity Kanako lacked - to properly examine her own perceptions and assumptions. Offering an olive branch was out of the question, and yet it felt they were at the crux of something. If only Kanako knew what to do with that. "Maybe I wouldn't," Kanako admitted, "but would you either?" Kanako struggled with ever finding fault in herself, so the idea that she might have been at least partially to blame irritated her. Her intentions weren't bad, surely that meant it was Tori's problem, not hers. "Prove something?" Kanako repeated, now starting to get frustrated again. "I don't have anything to prove. I know my worth, I don't need anyone to tell me it." Even as she spoke the words she slowly realised the hollowness in them. She huffed, not sure what to say or do further.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori noted the blank look and expected Kanako to come back with an olive branch, because that's where this was heading, right? Neither Tori nor Kanako it seemed had the proper emotional maturity to end things here, maybe in a couple of years when they've both grown, but certainly not now. Tori wasn't even sure she wanted things to end here, because there was a tiny part of her that was enjoying not being the subject of pity, there was a part of her that felt like she was better than Kanako because she didn't remember ever seeing Kanako sit with anyone in class. There was a tiny part of her that was enjoying this... and she hated that tiny part, but it was there none-the-less. And she would feed it. "Well, that's probably a good thing because there isn't anyone around to tell you your worth anyway, lucky you." She said, frowning at her. They'd had a single tiny moment, and now it was gone, all the vulnerability in Tori for a moment shoring up into an impenetrable wall. She would not forget to leave it up again. "Do you even have a friend?"​

 

[Kanako Kurosawa]

Kanako looked personally affronted at Tori's remark, then personally hurt by her question. It was true, Kanako didn't exactly have any one she could call a friend and maybe that irked her a lot but she wasn't about to tell Tori that. Kanako lifted her chin so she could look down more effectively at Tori. "I have friends," she lied boldly. "People like me." Kanako was doing a decent job at sounding like she was telling the truth but behind the words was a hollow feeling she didn't want to acknowledge. She probably should have stopped there, but Kanako didn't like her insecurities poked at. "You just don't know them because they're Slytherins," Kanako said, forgetting Tori had a friend in Slytherin from their first encounter at Hogwarts. "So there."