Binzuru Kyoto sighed as she sat with her friend and her boyfriend in a small café. The sun shone brightly through the glass window but she found no delight in watching others happily go by-happy couples. Just like the two in front of her. Oh how it saddened her to see her friend, Yomo look so smugly at her boyfriend.
She heaved another sigh as she watched them take a sip of their shared beverage.
"Something wrong Kyoto-chan? I thought the movies you checked out would cheer you up a bit." The boy asked her. Even then, the store she went to didn't have the movie she was looking for.
"Oh, don't worry about her Nachos-kun. She's a lost case," Yomo glanced at her friend hunching over the table. The boy turned his head,
"What do you mean 'lost case'?"
"I've already tried hooking her up with guys and thrown her only goodness knows how many hookup parties."
"What went wrong?"
"She's in LOVE with someone," She rolled her eyes. Nachos couldn't understand why she looked like she thought the whole thing was stupid.
"With who-?"
"Yomo, don't you da-," Kyoto threatened.
"Oh, she's in love with the poster boy!" Yomo gasped. Nachos didn't say anything…he just kind of had a blank expression. Kyoto couldn't believe she just blurted that out…
My situation can't sound that pathetic, can it?
***
About a month ago Kyoto casually strolled down the long school hallway. It was completely normal for her to walk from the lunch room to the library to finish her homework. She momentarily looked at the flyers pasted on the walls.
Clack
"Kyoto, Kyoto-chan!" Yomo called as she ran towards her, "Nachos-kun and I just got together…." She trailed off. Kyoto stood there staring at a poster in front of her, mouth gaping. Her pens and pencils rolled around the paper now in a massive heap on the flour surrounding her. "Kyoto-chan, are you alright?" Yomo asked and looked to the poster in front of her.
It was an advertisement for a special tennis camp activity involving various schools. This camp was for anyone interested in tennis or for long time players wanting to improve and help others. It was even a co-ed camp. That wasn't what had made Kyoto drop her books, however. There was a group of boys in the foreground that seemed to be enjoying themselves. One of them in particular was smirking at the guy next to him.
"Who is he?"
***
"You mean that silver haired one that was smirking?" Nacho was finally able to sputter out. Kyoto nodded.
"That's the one," her friend confirmed.
"You know who he is?" Kyoto asked.
"Well, of course I do! He's my brother's best friend!"
The two girls' jaws hung open. Kyoto could feel something warm well up in her. From either triumph or excitement, she wasn't sure. She spent many nights up dreaming up what would happen if she had ever met him. Heck, she even planned the perfect outfit.
"Set me up!" Kyoto ordered rather than asked. Ok, she knew that this obsession with a boy she saw on a poster at school was completely stupid, but now it had paid out in the end. She was going to meet her poster boy!
***
The night before the triple date that her friend had set up couldn't have gone by any slower. She thrashed around in her covers, not managing a wink of sleep. Even when she managed to fall into slumber she'd still dream about him. About how perfect it would be. After a successful day at the movies and chatting away with him, she would fall back from the crowd with him…
"Wow, look at them," she'd say while looking at the two couples in front. The two couples would be making eyes at each other or holding hands. Of course, they were Yomo, Nachos, his brother, and his girlfriend.
"It must be nice to have a girlfriend," he'd say. Then, Kyoto would clumsily trip on some stone sticking out of the path. Just in the nick of time, he'd grab her around the waist and their eyes would be interlocked. Both would gaze at each other, the sun highlighting their hair. An intense feeling would grip at both of their hearts. Body temperature would rise when he finally leaned in.
Then he'd be only a few centimeters away from her face, and then…
Then she'd be fully awake again. She'd curse it and roll over to see the clock had only ticked away five minutes.
Ugh…
***
It rained a down pour as she waited at the said meeting place. She was way too early, but she couldn't stand sitting around the house anymore. The rain didn't damper her spirits either. Maybe her and her poster boy wouldn't be shining in each other's faces, but they'd be holding umbrellas and then…
She fell to most certain death, and then he'd grasp her. Their umbrellas would be strewn around them. The rain would mat down their hair, his head shielding her from any water. Their chests would heat up despite the on pour.
Then he'd close in…
"Kyoto-chan! You didn't get the message?" Yomo's voice broke through her thoughts. Yomo was speeding toward her while three other boys followed behind.
"What message?" Binzuru asked.
"We sent a text to you saying that since it was raining, we'd just meet up at the movies."
"Oh…" was all that Kyoto could reply. She must've had her cell phone off…
"That's ok! Well, Kyoto, I'm sure you know Nachos and his brother. This is his girlfriend, and this is his friend, Nioh," she gestured toward the boy standing behind her. As if Kyoto had to be told. She'd recognize that silver hair anywhere. She couldn't believe it, there he was! In the flesh!
"I-I'm Binzuru Kyoto," she introduced with a bow.
"Nioh Masaharu."
"You're from that poster, right? The one advertising that tennis camp?" She had to confirm it. He nodded.
"Well, now that you guys have met, let's get going!" Yomo chipped up, a grin plastered on her face. Kyoto wondered for a second if this was the same girl that thought she was a lost case. Perhaps now she thought it was possible that she'd get a boyfriend, and not just any boyfriend.
"So, do you like tennis?" Kyoto dived into conversation with Nioh.
***
Even after the movie, of which was a sappy chick flick, Binzuru still didn't notice Nioh not taking any initiative to converse with her. She was much to blind with her own fantasy to notice that he wasn't exactly enjoying himself.
"Hey," Nacho's brother had pulled him over, "What's with you?" Whenever he took Nioh on a group date or hook up party, he'd be totally all over the girl. Sometimes he'd even catch him flirting.
"I just don't think she's my type," he nonchalantly replied with a shrug of his shoulders. That's not the only thing…
"Alright, sorry I brought you along. Just try not to do anything drastic, ok? This is also my first date with my girlfriend," the brother said. Again, Nioh just shrugged it off.
***
Does she ever stop yapping? Nioh wondered as he stared at the girl's mouth. Up, the mouth opened, down, her lips briefly closed, up, down…
"That movie was so amazing, wasn't it?" She was saying and didn't even wait for a response, "The part where the guy ran down the beach shore made me cry. I think maybe it was a little in realistic, but it was really sweet anyway…"
Up, down, up, down…Nioh saw his friend glance at him and smile. He probably thought he was actually listening intently to what she was saying. The truth was that he could only hear a muted background with his friends laughing, the rain pouring, and her talking. The only sound that was resonating strongly through his head was up, down…up, down…
Kyoto noticed that even when she dropped such obvious hints, he still didn't say anything near the lines of "It must be nice to have a girlfriend." In fact, he wasn't saying anything at all. Maybe he was just a bit shy. I mean, she knew she was talking a bit much, but he sure wasn't saying anything. The only reason why she said she liked the movie so much was because she needed something to say. She actually thought it was pretty corny…
"It must be nice to have a boyfriend," Kyoto decided to say for him. When he didn't seem to respond she said, "Right?"
Nioh was trying to understand why it had closed for so long…and finally snapped out of it when he noticed that he had to say something, "Uh, yeah." He agreed to something.
He agreed! Kyoto excited. Only one problem now-there was no stone sticking out of the ground to trip over. Ha, no biggie, she'd just trip over her own feet-I mean, it was slippery enough, right?
Nioh almost gaped as he watched the girl fall forward. He couldn't understand what she could've possibly tripped on. She wasn't even wearing heels. He did pause though to see if she fell on her face.
I can't believe, Kyoto painfully stood up brushing herself off, that he didn't catch me!
Oh yeah, there's a scratch on her cheek. "Are you alright?" he asked. He wasn't completely heartless. He even offered her umbrella back. It's not like it'd do a whole lot, counting she was already drenched from head to toe already.
Kyoto blind fully shoved the matter aside at this token of kindness. She'd just have to traditionally ask him out, nothing extravagant. Then, maybe he'd be so overcome with joy that he'd scoop her up in his arms and then he looked passionately into her eyes and-
"Well, I have to go this way," Nioh interrupted, pointing to a direction that lead to a train station, "See you guys later." He couldn't wait to get out of there.
"Wait!" Kyoto called after him. Nioh turned to his to her one last time. Kyoto mustered up all the courage she could. There, with her friends watching as it rained around them, she yelled,
"Will you go out with me!?"
Her friends stared. Nioh's face showed a little shock under the shade of his parasol, but it turned stern very quickly,
"I don't go out with fan girls," he said shortly with a bit of disgust written in his face. He turned his back and walked.
She watched his broad shoulders slump into the distance, growing hazier with every step he took. There was a lump in her stomach, but not the kind she thought she'd have. Tears welled up and streamed down her cheek. He didn't even glance back once.
Binzuru Kyoto had never felt so cold in her life.
***
Binzuru Kyoto never felt so stupid in her life either.
At least, that's what she thought when she woke up in her bed a week later. How in the world could something like that have happened to her? It disgusted her, but she had to live with it. She was over him. Or, she thinks she was.
Later that day she joined her friend Yomo for a trip to the move rental store. It's not like she was doing anything, she wanted to completely forget the whole tragic incident. Besides, she had to return the last ones she had.
"I'm sure you'll love him, Kyoto-chan!" her friend cooed, trying to convince her to come to a blind date.
"I'm sorry, Yomo-chan. I don't think I need anything complicated like a boyfriend right now," Kyoto entered the small rental store, "I mean, after tha-," She stopped with her mouth in mid sentence. It wasn't the stupid poster pasted against the far wall advertising a tennis camp that bothered her. It was the very real person on it that was standing at a shelf looking at a DVD in the horror section.
"Oh, hey look! There's Ni-," Kyoto grabbed and gagged her friend as she dodged behind an aisle.
"What's HE doing here?" She asked scornfully as she stared a hole into the Nioh's back.
"Well, renting a movie, duh."
"But what is HE doing HERE?"
"I just told you…" Kyoto grabbed Yomo's small shoulders,
"Listen Yomo-chan, just pretend that we don't know him, alright?"
"…"
"…"
"Just stop staring at me like a mad-man," she squirmed, "Your eyes are popping out of your head." Binzuru just turned around and made her way toward the boy as her friend closely followed. Kyoto stopped right behind Nioh, scanning the DVDs on the opposite shelf. Nioh merely turned his head and acknowledged her existence.
"Oh, look at this one, Yomo-chan~! This looks so good."
"Uh, yeah."
"Oh, and this one!"
"Yeah…"
"Maybe we should just have a horror a horror night fest, huh?"
"That sounds fun…"
"The guy in this dies because a girl comes back to haunt him after he harshly dumps her," Kyoto said this one particularly loud, emphasizing on the last half.
"Look," Nioh finally turned around, "It's not like we were together in the first place!"
"Oh, give me a break, who would want to date YOU?"
"If I recall correctly, you were totally fanning over me. Just because you saw me on a poster," he said, pointing a thumb at the wall behind him. There was a slight silence. The two intensely looked at each other. Since when did this girl have a backbone? She used to be putty in his hands. Since when did this boy look so ugly? She couldn't see any of the holy light she used to see.
"Hey, they have Shindemasu."
"What!?" The two rivals immediately grabbed the DVD case out of Yomo's hands. Each firmly grasped either side of the movie and confirmed that it was in fact what the girl claimed it to be.
"Well, I'm going to be renting this out," Nioh said, giving a tug at it.
"What are you talking about? I've been searching all over for this."
"So? You'll just have to wait until I'm done with it."
"There's no way I'm waiting that long!" Kyoto argued. Yomo snatched the case back and brushed past them with it. As she reached the corner she turned around with one hand on her hip,
"You'll both have to just watch it at my house." Silence…
"Is this a joke?" Kyoto asked, "Because it really stinks…"
"I'm not joking! Both of you are so stubborn; you'll argue all the way to the train if you could!"
"That's unreasonable!" Nioh yelled in retaliation.
"Tough!" The arguing couple looked at each slowly. They could see it in each other's eyes.
There was no way to get out of it.
***
"Hand the popcorn over." Kyoto looked at Nioh's demand. She almost said "Get it yourself" but she was at a high point in the movie. She handed it to him without a word. Somehow, they were both sitting on the couch watching the movie they had both looked forward to. It was even more outstanding when Kyoto noticed that her friend disappeared somewhere halfway through the movie.
A week ago, she would've loved this. This was her fantasy a week ago.
"Ugh," she grunted in frustration.
"What?" the boy asked.
"I hate you…that's all."
"…"
"…"
They continued watching the screen in silence.
***
"Man that was a good movie!" The girl couldn't keep in inside, "I mean, that's way cooler than I though!"
"Your sounding just like you did before."
"Trust me, this movie was actually good." She replied as they both left for the train. The two cursed when they found out they had to go the same way.
"You mean you didn't like that romance flick? You wouldn't shut up about it."
"You really think anyone enjoyed that?" She curtly replied. Nioh stared at the sidewalk in front of them as they walked the same path they had on their first "date".
"You're really different than before, what changed?" he asked.
"I didn't change. I'm returning to my normal self." The silver haired boy was amused,
"You don't seem half bad," the girl looked at him confused. "Now that you're not drooling over me," the boy smartly finished.
Kyoto didn't know what she was supposed to think. When she tried to win him, he didn't say but one word to her occasionally. Now that she was being more herself, and even a bit more rash, he had already complemented her. At least, that's what she took it as. She shrugged it off,
"You don't know me at all."