Summary: Ester is in-denial. A series of connecting one-shots centered on Ester, 'Yuki' and 'Sakura.'

a/n: Ester is the kind of person who would put in her earbuds mid-conversation, because she wants you to know she's too mature to take part, only for her to leave the cord dangling and unplugged the whole time. Work title and chapter title come from the Ikimonogakari song.

After a day of training (more torturous than whatever 'ideal' looked like in hell, in Ester's opinion), they sat in the changing room waiting for Chryssa to finish lecturing Min. Ester didn't know the details, but the manner Chryssa lectured Min was akin to the sort of speech a mom would make after catching their child doing something stupid and dangerous for the fiftieth time. And it might as well have been... What was with Min's obsession with knives? She didn't really care to find out.

In any case, there was something more concerning.

Normally, Ester preferred to keep out of Sakura and Yuki's - no, Sumi and Grace's conversations. Unfortunately for her, Hunter x Hunter's hiatus was the topic of conversation. When would the Chimera Ant Arc reach its conclusion? Was Togashi okay? These were just questions that kept her awake at night as much as the next person, right? How could they not.

"Hey Ester, aren't you, like, a dai fan of Togashi?" Sumi asked.

"...Why do you say that?"

Ester sighed slowly to express her indifference. It was important that she kept her cool. As tempting as it was to simply react to Sumi and Grace's weeb-ish 'habits,' there was little to gain from being reactive. What if the other kids walking home started looking at her funny because she said something weird or dumb? She didn't want that. ...She really didn't want that. And practice had ended, it's not like she could just run away; they lived in the same direction and she had nowhere else to go. So she needed to keep it short, simple and apathetic. Just leave it to them, she just needed to not let herself get carried away.

"Your fashion! It just screams him." Grace responded without a beat.

"EXACTLY! You're always wearing pastel tones and even tuck your shirt into your pants." Sumi gestured towards Ester's current attire.

"Hey. ...Just because I-"

"YEAH. That and your wallpaper!" Grace blurted out loudly.

It happened so quickly, Ester was almost unsure about what she heard. She turned to look at Sumi, who quickly turned to look away.

"Huh. No... wait, hold on. Grace. What do you mean by 'wallpaper'?"

She couldn't mean... But how? She literally changed it last week, she couldn't have seen it. But what if she did? "How do you-"

"W-wallpaper? What. Umm... I didn't say that. I meant that it's, like, super duper obvious that you're a Togashi fan and stuff! Isn't that right, Sakura?"

"Ohmygod, Yuki. STOP, YOU'RE TOTALLY MAKING IT WORSE. SHHHhhh," Sumi responded exaggeratedly, shoving her finger in Ester's face.

Ester pushed Sumi's hand away. "Why are you even shoving your hand in my face when I'm not even the one you're telling to shut up?! Quit playing around." She turned back to glare at Grace. "And you. Don't think I didn't hear you."

"Oops... I... I spilled the beans... Gomen, Ester." Grace covered her mouth, as if belatedly shocked by her own words. It was very ineffective and only made her look more insincere.

Ester could feel warmth spreading to her ears.

"Now, now, Ester, my dear tomodachi. Don't worry, there's no shame in appreciating the fine art that the Yu Yu Hakusho anime has blessed the world with." Sumi added, as if her own admission was some sort of consolation for Ester's embarrassment.

"ARGH, just shut-up. I don't want to hear it."

Home couldn't be any further away, but she didn't dislike their company, otherwise she wouldn't still be here. Half of the time Sumi and Grace made Ester question her sanity, but maybe it was just the entire team that had that effect...

a/n: Togashi invented the shirt tuck. I don't make the rules.

The wallpaper in question: yuyufashion tumblr/post/75440740903/black-megallica-shirt-this-is-one-of-my