#COLLEGE LIFE
Yoshiko and Akuru ended up at the same college.
Sayaka, meanwhile, enrolled at a different university across town.
After breaking up with Akuru, she focused on herself. But the silence from both of them, especially her best friend, lingered like static.
She'd send texts, sometimes.
They'd read them. But replies grew shorter.
Yoshiko had changed.
And Sayaka could feel it even through the screen.
One week into classes, Yoshiko tried to eat a banana during lunch.
She gagged.
"What the...?"
She threw it away. The next one too.
Soon, she stopped carrying them at all.
Her Banana Club disbanded quietly.
She stopped doodling them in her notebook margins.
She told herself it was growing up.
But deep down, she felt like a hollowed-out fruit.
Akuru noticed. Of course he did.
The once loud, chaotic girl who'd tackle him in hallways now walked with earbuds in, eyes low.
He wasn't good at words. Never was.
But when he offered her a banana one afternoon—an old joke, a peace offering—she looked at it like a corpse.
"Why do you keep pretending I'm still that girl?"
Akuru opened his mouth. Closed it.
"I don't know who you are right now," he finally said.
"Neither do I."
AT THE SAME TIME IN SAYAKA COLLEGE #
Sayaka stared at her phone.
No messages from Yoshiko.
No check-ins. No chaos.
She missed the girl who used to call her at 2 AM because she thought her toothbrush was possessed.
She missed Akuru, too—but she had accepted that ending.
What she hadn't expected was losing both of them.
For her public speaking class, Yoshiko was asked to present something "honest."
She stood at the front of the room, hair tied up in a rare neat ponytail, no banana in sight.
"I used to think people liked me because I was funny. Loud. Weird. But the truth is... I think I was just distracting them from how scared I was."
Silence.
"I hate bananas now. Not because they taste bad. But because they remind me of a girl who thought being ridiculous was the only way to matter."
Akuru was in the back. EVERYONE CLAPPED AFTER A SPEECH.
He didn't clap.
But he stayed behind after class.
"I liked that girl. But I think I'm falling for this one."
Yoshiko blinked. SHE TURNED AROUND AND SAW THE OLD LOVE...Her voice cracked.
"Even if I'm not funny anymore?"
"Especially then."
LIAR,
She shouted and ran away. Akkun stared at the figure running away.
Sayaka showed up unexpectedly on their campus.
Yoshiko was shocked. Sayaka tackled her in a hug immediately.
"Why haven't you called?!" Sayaka demanded.
"I thought I wasn't your type of friend anymore."
"Shut up, idiot. You're exactly my type."
They sat under a tree, sharing vending machine drinks.
"You're changing," Sayaka admitted. "But don't forget who you were. That girl still lives in you."
Yoshiko smiled. yeah;
"She just doesn't eat bananas anymore."
Yoshiko re-joined a new club. Comedy writing.
Still silly. But now with heart.
Akuru helped her brainstorm sketches sometimes, without flinching when she pitched one about a haunted cafeteria tray.
Sayaka visited often.
The three of them sat on the dorm rooftop one evening, stars above, silent but full.
"Hey," Yoshiko whispered. "Thanks for sticking with me."
"Even when you're dumb," Akuru said.
"Especially when you're dumb," Sayaka added.
They laughed together.
Not the same joke.
But finally, in the same moment. Evening at her home...
There's a banana on Yoshiko's windowsill.
She doesn't eat it.
She just lets it sit there, whole and untouched, as a reminder:
"I don't have to be who I was to be loved."
I hope I can be NEW.
After everything—banana trauma, identity crisis, emotional distance—Yoshiko and Akuru had found their way back to each other.
They weren't a couple yet.
But something had shifted.
Now, she sat a little closer.
He teased her a little softer.
And every glance lingered just a second too long.
Their friends noticed.
Sayaka noticed.
Even Yoshiko noticed.
"Wait. Do I like him?!"
Cue: her slamming her head into a desk in panic.
NO I SHOULD NOT... that will not be good for us.
DAYS WENT ON. A new transfer student came.
He arrived mid-semester.
Minato Aizawa — the dazzling, silver-haired literature major from a prestigious university in Kyoto, now transferred to theirs.
Top scores. Top looks. Effortless confidence.
And he liked Yoshiko immediately.
"She's chaotic. Pure. Beautiful in her unique way."
She blinked at him.
"Wait—you like me?".....ahhhhhh?
"It's radiant. Like a sun that doesn't know how to rise properly."
Akuru hated him instantly.
AUTHOR POV- OFC WHY NOT; HAHAH
Minato declared his intentions publicly:
He was going to ask Yoshiko out on the day of the campus festival.
"A girl like her deserves someone who embraces all sides of her. Even the ones that throw cafeteria trays at pigeons."
Akuru scoffed.
But inside, he felt it:
Jealousy.
For the first time, he saw Yoshiko not just as the annoying girl next door...
But as someone who could truly fall in love with
Yoshiko, confused by her feelings, tried to confess to Akuru. BUT NOT OPENLY.. JUST GAVE SOME HINTS.
one evening;
She marched up, heart pounding, face flushed—
"I LIKE YOU, YOU BIG DUMB—oh wait, this is a vending machine, not you—"
(He was standing behind her.)
"...That explains a lot," he muttered.
She screamed.AHHHHHHHHHHHH;
Then ran.
Then accidentally ran into Minato.
Who caught her!?
"Careful, angel. You almost fell... into someone less worthy than me."
haha; well.. thanks. Bye,
"Why are you always running away from me?
#am I scary ?#
She ran away.
Akkun glared at him enough to make Minato angry.
AUTHOR'S POV#
Yoshiko now had two guys giving her attention:
One cold and brutally honest, yet who knew her soul
One poetic and sincere, but who adored her madness
She couldn't decide. So she asked Sayaka.
Sayaka sipped her tea.
"I watched you cry over a banana ONCE UPN A TIME.... I think you already know who your heart wants."
YOSHIKO SMILED...
The school festival arrived.
Minato pulled out all the stops—a love poem, a rose bouquet, a spotlight moment where he asked Yoshiko to be his girlfriend onstage.
Gasps. Applause.
Yoshiko stood frozen.
Until a voice came from the crowd:
"She's not yours to win."
Akuru stepped forward, walking up to the stage like he'd been pushed by fate.
"Yoshiko. You annoy me. You've ruined my life. But you also made me feel... alive."
"I like you."
The crowd lost their minds.
So did Yoshiko.
"Y-you... you like me?!" FOR REAL?!
"Yeah."HE SMIRKED.
She fainted.
CROWD SHOCKED; AKKUN ROCKED :)
After waking up, Yoshiko found Akuru sitting beside her, holding a CHOCOLATE smoothie (her favorite).
"I thought you hated bananas," he said.
"I do. But I don't hate....I think I hate not being around you more. I am still in love with u.. stupid"
They kissed.

Minato watched from afar. Smiled sadly.
"Well played, stoic boy. But I won't give up."
Minato wasn't done.
Even after Yoshiko collapsed from her feelings and Akuru awkwardly caught her in a half-hug-half-tackle, Minato still believed he had a chance.
"She shines brightest when she's not being contained."
Akuru scoffed.
"She shines brightest when she's not chasing squirrels on the freeway."
Still, Minato doubled down:
He invited Yoshiko to a romantic art exhibit downtown.
He made her laugh. He quoted poetry.
He almost — almost — kissed her.
But she stopped him.
"Minato... I really like you. You're cool and all."
"But?"
"You're not him."
GUYS, I FEEL SAD FOR MINATO; I DO LIKE HIM... THAN AKKUN
BUT THE ARE THE PAIR
.... [SIGHS].... WELL, NEXT IS THE LAST CHAPTER, GUYS.