Daiichi Ruby

The midday sun beat down heavily on the grounds adjacent to Tracen Academy, but for a student with no intention of training or checking schedules, the weather was perfect for doing absolutely nothing. Lying on a wooden bench in the shade of a cherry tree, arms behind his head and gaze fixed on the clouds, his only goal for the day was to let time slip by in complete peace.
That tranquility didn't last long. A few minutes later, the sound of frantic footsteps and an energetic shout shattered the silence. Daitaku Helios appeared out of nowhere, waving her arms wildly and unleashing a barrage of gyaru slang, simply thrilled to have found someone relaxing outdoors. The conversation was entirely one-sided: Helios rambled on about songs, parfait spots, and how hyped the day was, while from the bench came nothing but silence, a disinterested gaze, and the leisurely pace of someone who barely bothered to blink. Far from being annoyed, Helios found it the coolest and most relaxed attitude in the world, so she decided to stay to the side, making whatever silly comments came to mind.
A few meters away, walking along the cobbled path with a military-style upright posture, Daiichi Ruby stopped dead in his tracks.
Her ruby-red eyes, always characterized by an analytical and unwavering seriousness, fixed on the scene. She watched as Helios tried to get the attention of the person on the bench, and how that person didn't even flinch. No one so naturally ignored the presence of an Umamusume, much less displayed such absolute indifference to their surroundings. For the first time in her life, the calculating mind of the Brilliant Family's heiress couldn't process what she was seeing. Something in that total apathy, in that composure that sought to impress no one and followed no protocol, struck her deeply. Her pulse quickened in a way almost unbecoming of a lady of her lineage. A silent, profound, and overwhelming fixation sprouted within her at that precise moment.
Months passed.
For those who continued to live life at the pace of laziness and aimless wandering outside Tracen, the days continued exactly as before. But for Daiichi Ruby, each week became a slow agony of discreet observation. She waited to see him pass near the tracks, in the gardens, or crossing the academy's corridors. She kept her distance, hoping that at some point he would turn his head, make eye contact, or show the slightest curiosity about who she was. But that never happened. To him, Daiichi Ruby was as invisible as the rest of the landscape. There were no furtive glances, no whispers about her noble surname, not the slightest interest in her presence. He simply didn't notice her.
That indifference eventually broke the shell of the "Ice Flower".
One golden autumn afternoon, as the campus began to empty, the opportunity presented itself in the same secluded corner near Tracen's gates. There again was the figure reclining with complete nonchalance.
Ruby's heels clicked on the pavement, this time without their usual serene rhythm; her steps were slightly hurried, betrayed by an almost imperceptible tremor in her hands. She stopped inches from the bench. She waited a second, two, three... but the person on the bench didn't even bother to open their eyes.
The aristocratic heiress, the young woman who never raised her voice and maintained her composure before thousands of spectators in stadiums, clenched her fists at her sides. Her lips, always sealed in a straight, expressionless line, began to tremble slightly.
"Please..." Ruby murmured, breaking her own code of etiquette with a voice devoid of formality, laden with a vulnerability she had never shown anyone before. "Please, listen to me... just for a moment."
She took a step forward, closing the distance until her shadow covered the face of the person resting. Her ears pressed against her head in a gesture of utter, suppressed despair. The composure she had cultivated for years crumbled completely, suffocated by the weight of months of being completely ignored.
"I've tried to understand. I've analyzed my every step, my clothing, my behavior... and I still can't understand why he won't even bother to look at me." Her tone, though polite, sounded fragile, bordering on pleading. "I'm not asking him to understand the honor of my lineage or the demands of my family. I'm just... just asking him to look at me. To see me."
She leaned slightly forward, her ruby ​​eyes clouded with a mixture of wounded pride and an obsessive affection she could no longer contain. She placed a hand on her chest, just above the elegant bow on her uniform, desperately hoping those eyes before her would meet hers, even for just a second.
"Please let me be someone important in your life. Don't leave me on the sidelines as if I were just another spectator... I wish, with all my being, that you would consider me your lady. That you would look at me with the same attention you deny the rest of the world... I beg you, just look at me."