Distracted

Masaki Motoharu had never been this distracted before.

Well, yeah, he hardly ever concentrated in the first place, but he would always concentrate when he was watching DVD, cooking, and driving. But lately, he was not even focused when he was doing any of those things.

Now, he was watching a new movie, a horror movie, the new released Silent Hill and his mind wondered to something, or rather someone, who had no connection whatsoever with the movie.

This was so unlike him as he was usually most concentrated when he was watching horror and detective DVDs. They were his favourites. His friends often complained about not being able to talk to him whenever he was watching since Masaki was too absorbed by the show, he did not hear his friends talking anymore.

But now, he was zoning out too much he didn't even hear the dialogue.

To make it worse, it also happened when he was doing other activities. Like cooking, for example. He had accidentally cut his finger yesterday when he was cutting a carrot. Well, he had got to admit, he was still a newbie, but he usually made safety his first priority so he was always really careful.

He was brought back to reality by a woman's scream which he realized later came from the TV, still showing Silent Hill.

Masaki sighed. This wasn't going anywhere. He might as well stop. He ejected the disc from the DVD player and turned the TV off.

He sat on the sofa, trying to sort his thoughts. For better concentration, he closed his eyes.

Then her face appeared. The same face that had been haunting him for the past few months. The face of his underclassman and his co-worker.

Those silky brown hair, pretty brown eyes, fair, soft skin...

Masaki jerked his eyes open. What the hell had he just imagined? No, this is his underclassman here.

This all started a few months ago. Last year, a girl from Hanegasaki started working part-time in Anneri. Since he was such a nice guy, and technically he was her upperclassman, he showed her the ropes.

He found out that he enjoyed interacting with her. It was really fun to tease her. Not long after, he started to invite her to play bowling, go shopping, and other places that he thought fun.

At first, he thought of her as his co-worker, an underclassman, and a little sister that is fun to tease and he wanted to protect her. But somewhere along the way, it changed. He started blushing and stuttering, he got agitated when he found out that some guy from her class teach her how to bowl, he got nervous when she was sleeping on the passenger's seat. Sometimes he even wondered what she was doing when she was not working at Anneri. Last time he did this, his professor at the university was teaching about some market failures and whatnots. That didn't end well.

He wanted to be more than her older brother, he guessed. Wait, what was he implying?

Ring! Ring!

Masaki's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his handphone. He read the screen. Sakurai.

Masaki picked up the phone, "Sakurai, you bastard! Next time we meet, I'm so going to kill you!"

Last week, Masaki invited her to play bowling with him. After they finished, as usual, he drived her home. On the way, his phone suddenly rang. It was Sakurai. He stopped the car to answer his call. Sakurai said he wanted to talk to her so Masaki give her the phone. Well, it was a huge mistake. Sakurai said some really unnecessary things. He even yelled "If Masaki is not going to say it, then I'll say it!". Masaki grabbed the phone so quickly that she was startled. Fortunately or unfortunately, she was really thick-headed so she didn't quite understand what was going on and what was Sakurai going to say. She asked questions later but Masaki dodged them.

"Easy, dude. You haven't even said 'hello' and suddenly you said you were going to kill me?" said Sakurai. "Eventough I'm so nice that I'm willing to give you two tickets to the amusement park."

"Wait, what?"

"It's from my boss. Apparently I'm doing my job pretty well so he gave me those," Sakurai was working part-time at the amusement park. "It's for this Sunday, and unfortunately I already made plan. Since I'm such a nice guy, and I hate seeing things go to waste, I'm giving the tickets to you. What do you say?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Oh, and the Haunted House are available now. You love those, didn't you? You might want to bring her there. You might get away by touching her here and there 'cause it's dark. You might even get a hug if she's scared."

"Sakurai!"

"What? That was what you were thinking anyway, right? Gotta get back to work now. Bye."

Sakurai hung up, so Masaki didn't have time to deny what he said.

But anyway, this was perfect! He would invite her to go to the haunted house with him. He bet he would pay full attention to all the horrors. After all, she would be right beside him. There would be no way he could zone out again and imagined her.

It wasn't until Sunday that he found out that he was really wrong. He got to hold her hand, though.

Happy birthday, Masaki-sempai!

Today is his birthday. I figured that I should do something, and this came. I made it on a whim so I apologize if some things seem amiss.