A/N: *writes my own fanfiction to fulfill my Kenkyo Kenjitsu void*
Fukioka Sakurako
I am Kisshouin Reika's best friend. I think that outside of her family, I am the one person who knows her best. I am the one person who knows all of her weak points and all of her strong points. I've known Reika since I was seven, so I consider her to be one of my childhood friends.
I have another childhood friend, but he is different. He is not simply a friend. He is someone more special than that.
Akizawa Takumi is the love of my life. I'm probably going to marry him, but before that I have to get him to love me back so that we can start dating. My earliest memories are of Takumi. We're the same age, so we played together since we were babies. Our families are really close, and so we've always been put together. I even remember taking baths together before we started school. When I was younger, I thought he was family. I'm an only child so Takumi was almost like a sibling. He was that close to me.
Takumi is the one person I will trust the most out of everybody. He has always been the smartest and bravest boy I know.
For example, last summer when I was spending time with him and we were watching the football world cup together, I casually guessed at the winner, and Takumi would cock his head, "Hmm. Really? I think the XXX will win this year."
But how? They were losing by so many points! I worked really hard to barely understand football, but how did he know just like that? Oh well. He understands the game better than me. Maybe he knows some star players on that team who haven't gone on the field yet.
As Takumi predicted, that team won, and my guess was wrong.
Another time was several years ago when both our families went to the Biennale one summer. Takumi and I spent time together with our cousins. That morning, he told me to wear the sneakers instead of the sandals. He even brought two umbrellas out that day…
"Takumi. Why are you bringing two umbrellas out? It's so sunny. I checked the weather this morning…"
"Maa. It's just in case."
It rained that day!
On these occasions, I think of Takumi close to a god. Honestly I think that there's no real reason for his penchant towards accuracy. He's probably just lucky most of the time. But he always looks so cool afterwards.
Besides being right all the time, Takumi also isn't afraid of anything, and when I was younger, I was afraid of a lot of things. I was afraid of the dark, afraid of thunder, afraid of strangers. But Takumi wasn't scared of anything.
"It's ok if Sakurako is scared. I can be brave enough for the both of us."
And so younger me just clung to Takumi until I was old enough to think of him in a special way and to want him to think of me in a special way in return.
Anyways, I think that Takumi was able to make friends with Reika because he was brave, as always.
If you don't know Reika, you might be intimidated by her. She looks pretty splendid. I mean, like any ojou-sama of our cohort, she is extremely well put-together, but Reika also has something about her that is especially striking. I remember that I used to think that she is like the Mona Lisa, with a mesmerizing secret.
That is, I used to think that. That was before I discovered her secret.
Reika's secret is that she is an amazingly lucky actress!
I say that she is lucky because I don't know how else to describe it. There's no skill to it! She is really bad at lying, and she is not good at covering her emotions. But the way she normally carries herself, you would think she was a really splendid ojou-sama. And I say that she is an actress because... how do we say it… she is really zannen.
She is actually a pitiful character.
Who is Kisshouin Reika? She is the laziest person I know. She is even lazier than my fattest cousin Hokuto-kun, who looks like the Kabigon pokemon. In fact, for all she complains about her weight, I am surprised she isn't bigger for her lifestyle.
If I call her in the late morning on a weekend, I would hear her crunching on something.
"Are you eating breakfast? Did you wake up late today?"
"No, I ate earlier. I'm just finishing up some candied pistachios that a senpai gave to me as a gift awhile ago. I thought I shouldn't waste them. Wasting food is no good for the character, you know?"
If I call her on an afternoon on a weekend, it might take several rings before she answers.
"What took you so long?"
"Mm… sorry Sakura-chan. I didn't know when I fell asleep after lunch. Ah, my tummy kind of hurts…"
"Well if you just go to sleep right after eating, of course it will feel bad! You know you're going to put on weight around your tummy again!"
"Ehh... Don't curse Reika like that. Anyways, what was the name of that new bakery that you wanted to visit next weekend?"
If I ever call her in the late evenings before bed, she'll answer… while eating something.
"Are you eating again?! Are you serious?"
"Sakura-chan... Take it easy... you say that as if people only need to eat once and they'll be full. As human beings we should have three meals a day…"
"Um, yeah. But you have like six meals a day!"
"That's such an exaggeration. Anyways I saw Akizawa-kun yesterday and..." And then she would obviously change the subject.
Between Takumi and I, Takumi has always been right whereas I've always been wrong. But there is one one topic that we've talked about that I've always doubted.
Reika's love life.
"Today I saw Kaburagi Masaya and Kisshouin-san…"
Eh? This again? Takumi never gossips about Reika unless it is something he feels like I would be interested in.
"Ok…"
"Aren't you curious about her love life? You ask about it so much."
"I am. But you always only talk about those two boys."
"...Who else should I be talking about?" Takumi looked surprised. It was surprising to me that he was so sure about this subject.
"Ne, Sakurako is so close with Kisshouin-san. Which one of them does she actually like?"
"Honestly? I don't think Reika likes either of them..."
From what I could gather, there exist a lot of romantic rumors about Reika and two boys at her school: Enjou Shuusuke and Kaburagi Masaya.
I never ask Takumi about them. I used to be very curious about Reika's relationship with them at Suiran, but now I don't care about those two anymore. Why? Because I'm sure that it's all smoke and mirrors. For the school to be tricked by Reika's lucky ojou-sama act, they must also be misunderstanding other things. And based on how well I know Reika, I feel like I have a good idea about her attitude towards those boys.
I think Reika's feelings towards those two boys falls somewhere in between complete indifference and perhaps… dread.
To my surprise, Takumi has never been convinced by my opinion on this.
"Really? But Kisshouin-san seems really close to them…
"You don't believe me? She really doesn't talk about either of them, ever."
I thought back to the time when we met up with her friend from the prep school, Aoi. Back then, Reika looked so depressed and envious watching Aoi and me discuss cooking love bentos. Her lips kept puckering and the corners kept turning down… if she keeps making that face whenever she hears other people talking about their love lives, she is going to look like a turtle when she's older.
I know that Reika wants a boyfriend. She's not so weird to the point that she has no desire for a romantic life. In fact, I am sure she really, really, really wants a boyfriend.
If she was really as close to those two guys as everyone says, then why doesn't she ever think about them romantically? By pedigree and by character, I feel like Reika would be the top candidate for those two boys.
The conclusion is simple: Reika just doesn't like them that way. There's no formula to love. Who says that Reika has to like them? They do sound like pretty spectacular specimen, but if Reika doesn't like them, then she doesn't like them.
"You know, she's had crushes on other guys. I know about all of her crushes. But she has definitely never had feelings for either of those two."
Reika wouldn't be able to hide it from me even if she tried. Honestly, back when she had a crush on that student council president, I thought she talked about him enough to equal the amount that I've talked about Takumi in the whole time we've known each other. It was pretty excessive. I could never tell her to shut up though, since she had no one else to talk about it with at her school. It also felt kind of nice to be the only person she could talk to about it.
So I know what Reika looks like when she's trying to hold someone warmly in her heart.
"Ehh… Hmm… well. Maybe it's always been one-sided…?"
"What's one-sided?"
"Their relationship."
"Whose relationship?"
"Who knows…"
"...Takumi! Tell me…"
"Hahahaha…"