chapter i: opening the carton

"Earth to Tadashi," Fred said while waving a pencil in Tadashi's face.

"What are you thinking about?" whispered Fred as he continued waving the pencil.

Apathetically, Tadashi flicked the pencil out of his face and replied, "Just thinking about finals; the usual."

"Man, you always get a 4.0 GPA at the end of the year. Why do YOU have to worry about finals?"

"Gotta stay sharp. I felt like I was slacking off this semester, anyways."

"Speaking of sharp, you know who's looking EXTRA sharp today?"

"I don't know, enlighten me, Fred."

Glancing over from the table, Fred quickly pointed to where a raven-haired woman was sitting at and said, "GoGo's looking extra pointy today."

Moaning in agony, Tadashi responded, "Dude, why do you have to make a pencil pun? And what about GoGo, anyways?"

Smirking, Fred whispered to Tadashi, "I've seen the way you look at her sometimes, tiger. You've got that tender look whenever you cast your eyes on her!"

"Fred, that sounds like something out of a bad romance novel."

"Nonsense! I only read comic books!"

"Then why did I see a manga called 'Kimi Ni Todoke' on your work desk yesterday?"

"That was Honey Lemon's! I swear, she just leaves things everywhere!"

"Whatever," murmured Tadashi as he gave a light smile and sipped some water out of his mug.

That's crazy talk; I don't really look at GoGo like that. Then again… she does have those thighs that I want to bury my face in, and that figure! You never really see an Asian girl with her proportions around that much. Wait a minute, I guess Fred would be right then. She's good looking, smart, and fun to hang around with, so what's the problem with me going out with her? Am I just indecisive? Eh, I'll figure it out later.

Out of nowhere, a voice said "I heard my name and Honey's. What's the problem?"

Above Tadashi's head, he could see streaks of purple within a voluminous, pitch black head of hair, and it was no one else other than GoGo.

Is she normally this pretty, 'cause WOW. I mean, her facial features are stunning and - wait. I'm sounding like a creep now.

Grinning ear to ear, Fred exclaimed, "My boy Tadashi here were just talking about he always looks at y-"

Suddenly, Tadashi took hand and put it over Fred's mouth, all the while saying, "We were talking about the plans we had today after school since it's a Friday and all, nothing special, GoGo."

GoGo crossed her arms, raised an eye and skeptically said, "Really now?"

"Yeah, of course, why wouldn't we? We're just a bunch of good-to-do college students in our freshman year with no ill intent!" replied Tadashi speedily.

"If you had no ill intent, then why are you covering up Fred's mouth?"

"He's got bad breath, and I don't want you to faint from it, it just reeks of onion."

"Interesting." said GoGo curtly.

She walked away from where the two boys were sitting at, turned around, and stated militantly, "I'll be busy today after school, so don't bother trying to contact me if you want to hang out."

GoGo's footsteps became ever so quieter as she began to walk away from the table and into the school's campus, going to who knows where.

Fred forcefully took Tadashi's hand off of his mouth and said to him, "Sucks that your bae couldn't hang with you today, Tadashi."

Groaning, Tadashi replied, "She's not my girlfriend, and why would I be upset that I couldn't hang out with her today?"

"Not sure dude, but from the tone of your voice, you sound a little bit salty that she almost caught you looking at her."

"That's because YOU were about to tell her!"

"Ha! So you DO admit to looking at her!"

"Ugh, fine, you win. Yes, I do look at GoGo sometimes, but what's that to you?"

"Hm… I don't know man, whenever one of my guy friends looks at some chick, they always catch feelings for them, you know."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that happening to me, okay?"

Bullshit.

"Alright Tadashi, I'll trust your word on this one man."

The pair stood up from the table, said their goodbyes and went to their homes, where they were going to rest and recuperate, which was well needed after the amount of stress that was put on all the students due to finals. Tadashi made his way to the school parking lot, which was packed with cars of all sorts, ranging from the luxurious, high end models to some old beat up ones that looked like they were about to break down if you looked at it wrong. However, Tadashi was not one to use a car, as he had his trusty motor scooter that seemed to last him the test of time by not breaking down on him once for 8 consecutive years.

"You old thing, what would I ever do without you?" said Tadashi to the scooter he loved fondly. Tadashi then hopped onto the vehicle and made his speedy way back to the Lucky Cat Cafe, which his Aunt Cass owned, and where he and his brother Hiro lived at. On his ride to the cafe, thoughts were bouncing around in his mind like:

What should I have for dinner?

Is Mochi doing okay?

I seriously hope Hiro's going to give me some money that he won from those bot matches. If I can't stop him from doing that, I might as well try to get SOMETHING out of this.

Aunt Cass works so hard for us two, even though we cause her so much trouble.

I wonder where GoGo is? Why was she so standoffish when she said not to contact her?

GoGo's thigh's are so thick, I could probably use them as pillows and I'd fall asleep better than I do with the pillows I use now.

Due to an abnormally large amount of traffic that suddenly appeared on the roads of San Fransokyo, Tadashi arrived at the cafe during closing time. Tadashi parked his scooter in the garage, walked up to the cafe and went inside, and caught Aunt Cass polishing up the tables that were used during the busy day.

Just as Tadashi was about halfway up the stairs, Aunt Cass exclaimed, "Oh, Tadashi! I didn't catch you there, hun. Sorry about that!"

Smiling, Tadashi responded, "It's okay Aunt Cass, it looked like you had a long day. I'm going to turn in for the night, see you."

Before Tadashi could take one more step, Aunt Cass blurted out, "I almost forgot! Tadashi, someone came by the cafe about a few hours ago asking where you were, but you weren't here at the time. I told them to come by tomorrow since you don't have school because of your winter break."

"What about them? What did they look like?" Tadashi inquired.

"She had this chic hairstyle that was mainly black with some purple highlights in them. She looked very pretty!"

"Why would GoGo come to the cafe looking for me?" Tadashi murmured to himself.

Tadashi then bid Aunt Cass a good night, changed up into his pajamas, and went into the room that he shared with Hiro. Looking at the boy sleeping, he smiled, and then went to his own bed.

GoGo came here today, but for what reason? Ah, I'm probably just overthinking stuff.

Those were Tadashi's last thoughts as he drifted into a deep slumber, which was well deserved after the effort he put in for the first semester of college.