Stories from a Wandering Tanuki Merchant: Nothing Can Bring Back Those Years

Prompt 83- Childhood Bully

 

Word Count: 662

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Kyanoko felt the fur on her neck stand on end as she snapped her eyes to a particular figure in the crowd. They appeared human, but Kyanoko knew better. Humans didn’t live this long. No, this was a kitsune- one that loved and lived among humans. For a brief moment, the fox and the tanuki locked eyes. Kyanoko quickly looked away, hoping desperately that the kitsune thought nothing of it. But she wasn’t so lucky as the human-disguised-fox made her way through the crowd, making a beeline to where Kyanoko was lingering.

The tanuki skimmed the crowd, looking for an out before the conversation could even begin. She could have just walked away any other time, but this time, she was with friends. Not only that, but with friends who didn’t know their way around her world. She tried to usher them away, but it was too late as the kitsune called.

“Haru?” 

Kyanoko bit back her frustration of hearing her personal name, made worse by being on the lips of someone who she never wanted having her name to begin with. She scoffed, trying to let her negative emotions out, but couldn’t let them go.

“What?” she curtly said rather than asked.

“It’s me, uh- Kaori-”

“I know who you are.” Kyanoko cut her off. She was thankful to see Ginger suddenly catching interest with something across the street and pulling Trigger along. She waved at the human as he looked over his shoulder, his eyebrows pulled up in concern. There was something about his posture that made it obvious he was willing to step in if he felt like he should. She was glad to see it, but was more happy to see that Ginger had given her the opportunity to stand for herself.

“New friends?” Kaori asked. Kyanoko rolled her eyes. When it became obvious that Kyanoko wouldn’t participate in small talk, the kitsune continued, “Right, so- I just wanted to say that I’ve been thinking a lot.”

“Neat.” Kyanoko huffed, uncrossed her arms and began to rejoin her friends. But Kaori grabbed her arm.

“Please, Haru-”

“You don’t get to call me that!” Kyanoko pulled her arm out of the kitsune’s grasp.

“I’m trying to apologize.”

“Then save your breath. There is nothing that you can say and there is nothing that you can do that’ll ever make me forgive you.” Kyanoko snarked, filling her lips draw back to expose her teeth.

“I realized what I did was wrong!” Kaori argued back. “Why not?”

“Because I know damn well you’re only trying to get me to apologize to alleviate your guilt! I’m the one that was bullied. I’m the one that went to my mother crying every week. I’m the one that spent decades learning to love myself again! You’re not the one who should be trying to feel better!”

“Please, you’re making a scene.” Kaori raised her hands, motioning for Kyanoko to lower her volume as she noticed people beginning to stare.

“Then let them look!” Kyanoko threw her arms to the air, making herself appear even larger. “Let them know the type of person you were! I don’t care for your apology because there is nothing that you can do to fix the years I spent hating myself because of what you said and did to me!”

“I’m sorry, Haru.” Kaori looked so much smaller now as she sobbed out her words, tears streaking down her cheeks.

“I don’t care what you are. Leave me be. Never talk to me again. And stop. Calling me. HARU!”

“Kyanoko, come on.” Trigger had made his way back and had placed his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just go.”

“You’re not taking her side, are you?” Kyanoko’s voice cracked.

“Of course we aren’t,” it was Ginger who spoke this time. “This just isn’t worth you being upset. We can have fun somewhere else. It’s okay.”

“Okay.” Kyanoko choked out after a hiccup, allowing her friends to guide her away.