Chapter 2

Oliver did not look up as the brunette plonked a tray on the table and sat down opposite him. She poured the tea into two cups and then added milk and sugar to her own.

Oliver picked up the milk- and sugar-less cup and sipped at it.

"Well?" he prompted. "What happened then?"

Mai smirked.

"Well," she began. "They certainly did not expect what hit them…"

Mai stormed back into the library and sat down next to Yasuhara with a loud huff.

Yasuhara's eyes flickered from Mai to Gene and then back to Mai.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "What happened?"

"That…" Mai spluttered in rage. "I can't even think of a word bad enough. Can you believe this? He demanded that I date him. He didn't ask or anything. Can you believe it?"

Yasuhara's eyes widened in horror.

"Well—"

"And then," Mai continued, "he told me he didn't even care about me or whether or not I dated him! It's ridiculous! I thought he was okay before but after that… Well, I certainly do not want to even be just his friend."

Yasuhara swallowed, his eyes still wide.

"That's—"

"I'm so glad you're not like that," Mai pressed. She touched a hand to Yasuhara's forearm and batted her eyelids at him. "You're polite and kind and a gentleman."

"Well, thank you, but—"

"I mean honestly, in this day and age what kind of man thinks he can just demand things like that from a woman? It's like feminism doesn't even exist or something."

"Did he say anything else?" Yasuhara asked, wincing in anticipation of the reply.

Mai sighed and shook her head dismissively.

"Nothing worth mentioning I don't think. He mumbled something about tutoring or something. I don't even know."

Yasuhara bit his lip.

"Oh… He did mention you though," Mai added as if it was an afterthought and not a well thought out choice of words.

"Me?"

"Yeah. I think he was jealous of how close we are," she said, touching his forearm again. "Like, even if he had asked me instead of demanded, does he really think I would go out with someone that would be jealous of me having other male friends? I wouldn't give up your friendship for anything. You're really special to me, you know?"

"I'm touched." Yasuhara's chin sunk into his neck.

Mai ignored his discomfort.

"And on that note, I was wondering if you wanted to get a coffee sometime. You know, just us?"

She smiled demurely up at him, eyes wide and hopeful.

"Uh… Yeah… Sure."

"Great! You have my number right? Are you free this weekend?"

Before Yasuhara could reply, a new voice joined the fray.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

Both Mai and Yasuhara looked around to see Gene.

"Oh my, for a moment I thought you were Oliver come back to torment me again," Mai said. "Of course you can join us Gene."

"Torment you?"

"Yes, first he interrupts me and Yasuhara, then he demands I date him and tells me he doesn't care about me and… Well, I thought we were friends. But I don't even want to know someone who is going to treat me like that. Can you believe it?" She shook her head sadly. "Fortunately," she added with a smile, "I know much better people."

She hooked her arm through Yasuhara's and rested her head against his shoulder.

Gene's face struggled to contain itself. He settled for gritting his teeth and pursing his lips.

"Wow, yes. That does sound— I mean Oliver isn't— Did he really do that?"

"And you said?" Oliver prompted.

"Well 'yes' of course," Mai replied. "I elaborated thoroughly on all the worst parts of what you said. Gene looked horrified."

Oliver sighed.

"I'm going to get such an earful from him later."

"Oh no no," Mai said. "You have to play the part of being utterly distraught and frustrated. You know you said the wrong things but the words just came out of your mouth before you could stop yourself and now you've ruined your chances and all that."

"Right."

"And you have to emphasise that it's all because he wound you up, but that you don't blame him because it wasn't intentional, of course. Then he'll feel super guilty."

Oliver appraised the young woman in front of him.

"How do you know to do all of this?"

"Honestly, Masako. She went to an all-girls school before moving here and she taught me a lot about people…"

"Right… I do not know if I ought to be concerned…"

Mai laughed.

"But I didn't tell you the best bit."

"What was the best bit?"

As lunchtime drew to a close, Mai packed up her belongings.

"I better run, I have English now and it's the other side of the school."

"Yeah," Yasuhara said, his voice stiff.

"Text me about our date, yeah?"

Gene, who had just taken a sip of water from his water bottle, began choking.

"Yeah," Yasuhara forced the word out. "See you later."

"How was that the best bit?"

"Because I did not leave. I snuck around so I was hiding in the next aisle behind the books and I listened to their conversation."

"And what happened?" Oliver asked.

"So… You're going on a date with her?" Gene's voice asked.

Mai could not see them through the bookshelves, but she could hear her two friends.

"Well, I guess so. She asked! What was I supposed to do?"

Gene did not reply.

"You told me to flirt with her! It's not my fault your brother screwed up asking her out! You told me it would work!"

"I thought it would!" There was the sound of a head hitting the desk. "What will you do? She thinks you're into her…"

"Well Mai's nice… I'm sure going on a few dates will her will be fun."

"You're going on a few dates with her?"

The pain was palpable in Gene's voice.

"Well, I can't just… I mean… We were talking about prom…" Yasuhara sounded sympathetic. "Maybe I can use this time to convince her that Oliver is okay really…" he suggested. "Though after that tirade it will be difficult. He really screwed up…"

"Will you take her to your prom too?"

"Huh?"

"Well, your Year Thirteen prom is not long after her Year Eleven one," Gene muttered. "Will you take her to that?"

"I… Well it would be weird if I didn't… Especially if everyone — including her — thinks we're dating."

"Right. Sure. I have to go." Gene's voice was thick with emotion. "See you."

"Gene, wait—"

But from the hurried sounds of steps, Gene had not waited.

"He sounded really upset."

"He deserves it for plotting behind my back," Oliver muttered. "He might even be so consumed with his own pain that he'll ignore me…"

"You sound hopeful."

Oliver smirked.

"Perhaps."

"Would you have ever asked me out if he hadn't prodded you?" Mai laughed before Oliver could reply. "I say that as if you actually asked…"

Oliver scowled at her.

"Probably not. I had no reason to."

She frowned.

"No reason?"

Oliver shrugged and his face resumed its usual neutral expression.

"You were happy as you were. I was happy as I was… Romance is not something I have much experience with and… I do not deal well with change. And I am still yet unaware of your feelings so..."

Mai smiled sympathetically.

"Well, if you want to just stay friends, I'm okay with that."

Oliver nodded.

"We could just hang out a bit more?" Mai suggested. "Although not this weekend until I know what time my fake date with Yasuhara is…"

"You plan on going?"

"Of course! I will make them suffer to the fullest extent!"

"At what point will you stop?"

"When they admit what they did," Mai said. "And then I'll admit that we played them—"

"You played them."

"You will have to do it too, you'll have to play it to your brother that you're distraught and all."

Oliver appeared displeased with this fact, but did not argue it.

"You're uncomfortable with it?" Mai prompted.

"I am not proficient in knowing where the line is… In my youth, I have taken a joke too far and—"

"In your youth? How old are you?" Mai asked, eyebrow raised. "You sound like an old man."

"I'm older than you."

Mai rolled her eyes and sipped at her tea.

"Yeah, by like a year. So do you want to meet up this weekend?"

"Perhaps," Oliver replied. "Depends when it is, I suppose."

"Well, give me your number and I'll let you know when I'm free."

"What's this, the second time you've asked someone out on a date today?" he asked.

"You'll notice that I said it very quickly so that I got the words out before I lost my nerve," Mai replied. "I think I'm getting better at it."

"Hmm."

"Masako was telling me about this thing called a hundred days of rejection. And it's like you try to get rejected from things to learn to accept failure and stuff. And I don't think I could do a hundred days in a row but I like the idea. Because we all fail at times. So I've been trying to put myself out there a bit more, you know?"

"You value her friendship, don't you?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah. I mean, she basically admitted to me that she was a bit of a bitch at her old school to the point where she kind of had to leave. And then after moving she did a lot of self reflection and reading and stuff. So she's quite aware of herself, you know? It's nice to have someone like that in my life."

Oliver nodded.

"It's quite funny really," Mai went on. "She admitted to me a few months into our friendship that if I had been at her old school she would have hated me… Funny how things work out. Sorry, I'm rambling."

"It's fine."

"That's what people say when they're bored and don't want to sound like a dick."

"And you think common courtesy would stop me, of all people, from sounding like a dick, as you so elegantly put it?" Oliver asked, smirking.

Mai chuckled in spite of herself.

"I suppose not." She sipped at her tea again. "You know, considering how much of a mess this could have been, I think this whole debacle has worked out okay."

"Yes, considering my earlier transgressions, I strongly suspected you'd never speak to me again." Oliver finished his tea. "What… Why didn't you just leave? You asked me what Gene did instead of just leaving."

"Because of the regret in your voice when you mentioned Gene," Mai said, shrugging. "I told you I believe in second chances and well… What you said seemed out of character. Not like… I mean I could totally believe that you said it. But I don't know. I think I would have felt bad if I hadn't given you a chance. That way, if you'd come out with something dumb, I could have left and not felt bad about it."

Oliver frowned.

"You're too kind, you realise that, right?"

Mai blushed.

"I'd rather be that way. And I'm not always that nice."

Oliver did not bother to argue.

"What will you do if Yasuhara falls for you?"

Mai frowned.

"What?"

"Well, you said that Gene likes Yasuhara, right? Do you know that he likes him back? Yasuhara likes Gene back, I mean?"

"Oh… I…"

"I mean he agreed to flirt with you—"

"To wind you up. I don't think he would have done that if he actually fancied me," Mai said, though she continued to frown. "Like that's a cruel thing to ask of someone if they actually liked them. Gene wouldn't have done that to Yasuhara."

"Unless Gene did not know. Yasuhara is an extroverted person, but he doesn't share a lot."

"Yes he—" Mai cut herself off. "You're right. He doesn't… But I still don't think he would have agreed. And he looked super uncomfortable when I did start properly flirting back at him. If he'd been into me, he'd have enjoyed that."

"Not everyone would have enjoyed that…" Oliver muttered.

"No, but Yasuhara would have," Mai said.

"You still haven't answered my original question, what if he does fall for you? Future tense."

Mai pursed her lips.

"Then I will deal with that when it comes to it. I'm kind of hoping I can be annoying enough that that won't happen."

"Oh well that you will certainly exceed in…"

"Oi!"

Oliver chuckled.

"What do I owe you for the drink?"

"Oh, nothing. It's fine."

"Mai—"

"You can pay for the drinks on our next date then."

Oliver raised an eyebrow, but agreed with a nod.

"I better be off," he said. "I think I've been out long enough to convince Gene that I have been moping in a corner somewhere. Perhaps I'll walk home via the park and see if I can provoke some hayfever induced tears to really emphasise the—"

"Would you really cry over being rejected?"

"Well no, I don't really cry, but because of that, Gene would then find the sight of me having cried much more painful. If he thought his actions had actually caused me to cry then…"

"Are you sure Masako hasn't been giving you lessons too?" Mai asked.

Oliver smiled.

"Message me when you know about this weekend," he said, standing up. "See you soon."

"See you soon, Oliver."

Author's note: So when I wrote the first chapter of this and posted it, a load of you wanted a second chapter. Chapter 3 is written, and I'm working on 4 now... This isn't my best work. I'm out of practice at writing and everything is tough right now because staying at home and all that. So be nice and review!