I had no idea I was auditioning for something. I wish the guy had told me before I had made a fool of myself at the movies. Ever since my longtime boyfriend dumped me last month, they've been trying to shove all sorts of guys in my face hoping I'll swoon. I sat at the lunch table pondering all sorts of things, namely a date I'd had that I didn't really know was a date. I only found out it was a date when the guy told me he felt nothing for me and I just stood there thinking, "Um…ok."
"Don't worry, Ichiko. At least we'll always be here for you." Mizuki said. She sipped her peach tea and smiled reassuringly. I was reassured, but I still felt rather…rejected, I suppose.
"Boys are stupid anyway, Ichiko. Why do think I'm not dating?" Aya asked, her arms crossed over her chest. Toshi laughed and her long, wavy black hair whisked around her mischievous face.
"Because no boy will have you, that's why!" She said with glee. I laughed in spite of myself and sighed because it had felt so good to laugh.
"That's ridiculous, Toshi. Just yesterday I turned down a senior. Can you imagine? A real live, red-blooded senior."
"Senior citizens, perhaps. But this doesn't help Ichiko at all, now does it?" Toshi fussed.
"Neither does insulting Aya." Hikaru mumbled. Hikaru leaned her chin on her fist and sighed.
"Nothing. He said he felt nothing. This is the fourth rejection I've had in a month."
"How could we forget? Old stupid asshole face wrote you a letter and had his best friend give it to you in English class…" Aya began in a feverish voice.
"Yeah, and then you admitted to what-his-name that you had a crush on him last year and asked him out but he said it was too late for those feelings and said you'd be better off as friends." Toshi blurted out. Hikaru rolled her eyes.
"And then obviously there was that fiasco with the cute curly headed college kid. I still can't believe you asked him out without knowing his name first. You were surprised that he didn't go for it? If he had taken you up on it then that would have proved him too shallow. I don't have an idea in the world what you were thinking." Hikaru added in obligatory fashion.
"Then there was that guy that asked you to the movies…but hey, at least HE asked YOU." Mizuki tried to be cheerful. Hikaru nodded emphatically. Aya smiled wide. Toshi bit her lip in anger and glanced around in case she saw him.
"Hey, I know I'm not the only one with men troubles here. It might do me some good to talk about other problems for awhile."
"No complaints here." Aya quipped. We all laughed, and then we laughed harder when her face turned red.
Aya Takada was deeply in love with a mysterious guy that we'd never seen or really knew much about. All we did know was that he was in trouble with the law or some similar situation. Meanwhile, a guy she grew up with who had been one of her best friends for ages was pining away for her in a frustrated silence. She was a smart ditz that always spoke her mind regardless of how appropriate it was.
Mizuki Tachibana had strong feelings for this popular guy. They were good friends, definitely, but something in Mizuki's make-up gave her no option to explore the possibilities of a relationship. She was content being "one of the guys."
Toshi Yakahashi was hung up on some guy who happened to be extremely rich and extremely taken. He had a fiancé and a girlfriend. But there was this semi-cute hacker she always fought with that seemed like he'd be perfect for her. The guy was funny and dangerous, which was totally Toshi's type even if she didn't realize it yet.
And Hikaru was unfortunately drawn to one of our teachers at school. She was really good friends with a guy, however, that bullied her badly even though he loved her. Hikaru Aogiri was the quiet one who usually took what was given to her, good or bad. This was the reason why Hikaru put up with being bullied. I seemed to be the only one who wasn't so much in love and who wasn't loved by anyone else other than my friends.
All of us were living the lives of heroines from a shojo manga. I sighed as I watched them argue over what was happening and whose pain was worse. We all had it bad and that was no contest at all.
"At least you guys have people attracted to you. I can't even get someone to date me and sorta like it." I said without enthusiasm. The girls all turned to stare at me.
"You can't keep feeling sorry for yourself forever." Hikaru looked me straight in the eye. I nodded solemnly and gave them all a half smile that said I would try my best.
"Well…you-know-who asked me to you-know-what…you-know-where…" Aya began.
"What?" Toshi glared at her skeptically.
"Actually I understood that. Shuichi asked her to do the nasty in the garden shed outside school." I said.
"Thanks for translating that bit of nonsense." Mizuki said, her eyes smiling. Aya seemed almost offended that no one understood her original statement. Yasuake came up behind her and punched her shoulder.
"Yasu…how was practice?" Mizuki couldn't hide the stars in her eyes and I yawned at our predictability. Every day it was the same exact thing. Yasu gave Mizuki an update on how well he did in track. Atsuro would say 'hi' to Aya and would completely (and unintentionally) ignore his signals, which usually ended in his leaving in an angry mood. Gaku spent at least five minutes trying to piss off Toshi (succeeding 100 of the time) and then trying to apologize. Then Shoji would drop by sometime to tell Hikaru that he needed her to run another errand, making derogatory remarks to her and being completely rude to the rest of us. She told us that he had something on her that she couldn't afford to let leak to the entire school. And we were helpless to stop him, apparently.
