An Unusual Rom-Com Protagonist

Chapter 3: Canned Sardines

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Cornered near a window, Yūna's eyes widened as she watched the city pass, trying to absorb every unfamiliar sight before it vanished on the train's wake. She was awe-struck. But the nervousness within her feasted from the info she was intaking, things that were foreign to her despite being a Japanese citizen her whole life.

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It was as if she was sabotaging herself the more aware that she became, conscious at last. Yūna stands corrected, she hasn't blended in at all. She was a pond fish in the middle of the sardines inside the can (train).

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A chill ran down her spine.

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Cold sweat, forming at her nape, numbness creeping in from the sides of her face. It was like the rush of adrenaline when facing something you feared. All of the sudden, there were signs everywhere— Japanese characters, English letters, numbers, advertisements, and the names of products and companies she's familiar and unfamiliar with. Her eyes darted constantly from one thing to another, desperately trying to keep up with every change.

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She would've stumbled back but she couldn't. It was tight here. All she could do was lean closer to the window and attempt to stabilize her breathing. A huge intersection appeared beneath them, filled with cars and pedestrians moving in every direction. From above, they looked almost like streams of ants flowing through the streets.

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Through the sweating and the lack of breath, Yūna still felt cold. Her stomach was worse.

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At first, she tried to ignore it. She had been traveling since early that morning, and she had already endured a long car ride before boarding the train. She told herself that the strange sensation twisting inside her was simply fatigue. Maybe she had eaten too quickly. Maybe she had been too nervous about her first day here in metropolitan Tokyo.

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When the train lurched forward, Yūna's stomach lurched with it.

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It made her swallow hard... Oh no.

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She pressed her lips together and stared at the floor in an attempt to distract herself. The train rattled along the tracks, announcements echoed overhead, and the endless movement of passengers around her only worsened her nausea. Outside the windows, Tokyo blurred past in streaks of buildings, signs, roads, and crowds. Like earlier, there was so much to look at.

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She quickly looked away as if to will the feeling away, thinking: Don't think about it.

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She took a slow breath through her nose. I'm fine.

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Another breath. I'm completely fine.

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Her stomach answered with an unmistakable gurgle and her eyes widened.

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I'm not fine!

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She placed one hand discreetly over her mouth. The thought of vomiting on a train filled her with immediate terror. There's too many people, too many strangers, too little space... If she lost control here, she might as well bury herself into concrete and remain there until graduation.

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I need to endure this, just a little more.

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So she endured. She endured every turn, every stop, every acceleration, and every nauseating sway of the train. By the time the announcement for her station finally played, Yūna was pale enough that even she could tell something was wrong.

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When the doors opened, it felt like rising to the surface from underwater. Fresh air immediately greeted them.

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'Freedom!' She thinks to herself.

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Yūna then stepped out of the train with the determination of someone escaping a sinking ship. Unfortunately, exiting the train did not mean escaping from her stomach.

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The moment her feet touched the platform, Yūna covered her mouth with both hands and hurried forward. Her eyes watered. Her throat tightened. She could feel the unmistakable pressure rising from her stomach, and she knew she was close to giving her a humiliating memory that itches the back of her head whenever she tries to sleep.

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'Yūna, just be quick. Reach school early. Go to the bathroom! One step at a time!' Her mind desperately clung to the reason she was here in the first place: Hawthorne Academy.

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The private school she had dreamed of attending.

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The school from where her late mother graduated from.

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The school where, today, she had been selected as the first-year representative for getting the highest score in the entrance exams.

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She had a speech. A very important speech. With hundreds, if not thousands, of students were waiting.

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Her teacher was waiting. Staff and possibly, important figures of the school were waiting. Everyone was waiting. And here she was! Currently fighting for her life out here. Ridiculous!

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"Not now," she whispered through clenched teeth.

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She hurried out, one hand over her mouth and the other holding the same hand-drawn map her father gave her with her school bag hanging by her arm. Her vision seemed to wobble with every step, her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

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I can make it. I can make it. I will make it! I survived the cramped train, uhhhh— "Urghk...!" I'm doing pretty good for a stranger around these parts, I can survive a little more walking.

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Through her panic-stricken walk (it is a jog at this point), she took a careless turn around the block where the gates of Hawthorne Academy was waiting to welcome incoming students. If only life was as straightforward as that, because for Yūna it was not the school gate that greeted her, oh no! It was something more... Organic.

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"Ah...!" She yelped as she stumbled backward, more than the accident, she was taken aback by the arms that slithered around her waist; in that brief moment, she couldn't help but lock gazes with dark green eyes while Yūna's brown ones widened. "Oh, I'm so—"

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"—Rry..." but her stomach made the decision for her. There was a horrible pause to her movements followed by the unannounced action of vomiting directly onto them.

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Yūna was horrified, her brain running multiple simulations about how worse the situation could get before it fully translated onto her facial expression; as with the boy who was practically frozen in place, questioning whatever the substance on his uniform was.

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