Contrary to popular belief Minori Asagiri was a good friend.

She had been putting up with Shige's weirdness for years now, hadn't she? That was the mark of a good friend. No matter how weird your best friend was, even if she insisted on dressing like a first grader all the time, and even fell in love with nerds, the greasy kind not the hot kind, you stuck by her. Minori was the best friend Shige was ever going to have…and maybe Shige was the best friend that Minori was ever going to have.

She had weed and liquor.

What better friend could Minori have ever asked for? It wasn't like she could get this stuff herself. She had plenty of money bur dad's bodyguards were always watching her. Even now. Honestly. Yeah, dad, two guys in suits aren't going to stick out at all at a nail salon. God. Her dad was such an asshole. She wished her dad was more like Shige's. He let her do whatever she wanted. She got to spend all day drinking and getting high with hot guys, and her brother who was completely wasted on her, and when she got bored of that she got unlimited allowance and she even had a fucking plane! Minori didn't even have a private plane. If she wanted to go somewhere then dad made her fly commercial! And even economy sometimes! And she had to plan her trips around school, too, even though she didn't even need most of the stuff they were teaching her. She was Asagiri Minori, if she needed to do algebra or name the prefectures in alphabetical order then she could just pay someone or whatever. God! Dads were so ridiculous….Shige was so lucky.

She was weird but lucky….but really fucking weird.

"You know something….you know? Water feels nice…warm water. Right now it's like…like I have socks on…but they're bade of water…you know?" said Shige as she kicked the water around. Honestly. What the fuck was wrong with her today? She'd been all…touchy and stuff….like….weird and shit. Well whatever, Minori was a good friend and good friends didn't pull bitch moves like abandoning their friends at karaoke and running off with all the guys including the one that you knew your friend was into…..just…who the fuck did that?! And then the next day they were all 'oh, Minori, you were all over him and it was weird. We felt sorry for you….' Like….who the fuck acted like that?! What did they think this was? Like…..God! Who the fuck went around….God!

Well Shige and Minori weren't like that. They were actual friends…well Minori had certainly put up with enough shit at this point to be her actual best and true friend!

"Stop kicking, you're acting weird and people are looking." Said Minori in her best 'I'm not being a bitch you're just being weird so I sound like a bitch but I'm really not' voice. The kind of voice that certain stupid potential boyfriend stealing bitches mistook for a 'I'm apparently a total bitch from the depths of hell and you can totally hook up with my future boyfriend it's fine' voice. There was a very important distinction that socially challenged Shige had better have been able to pick up on.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…I always mess up." Said Shige. Good. She got it, and she even had the decency to look ashamed of herself. See? That was friendship. You realized that you had no fucking clue what you were doing so you listened to the person who obviously knew best.

"Yeah, you do, but it's ok. At least you admit when you're wrong. You're not a stuck up bitch about it…not like some people." Said Minori. She waited for Shige to take the bait, to be a good friend and to be all 'oh no, Minori, was someone a mega bitch to you' and then Minori could have told her what happened and then Shige could have agreed that Minori had done nothing at all wrong. She never did anything wrong. People either were always starting with her, and she was entitled to defend herself whenever people stated with her, or they took things much wore then they were. Like, she couldn't even make a joke these days without someone calling her a bitch. God, elementary school sucked. She couldn't wait for next Mach, it was only six, nearly five, months away. Then she'd be in middle school and people would be more mature and less bitchy and she could make some real friends.

She'd keep Shige around, though, she might have been weird but she had weed and liquor and she might have even known how to get her hands on the really good stuff….Minori wasn't sure what that stuff was but she knew that she'd need it once she got older.

"You're right…some people are b-words…and I think that I might be one of them." Said Shige. Minori rolled her eyes. God, Shige could be so self-centered. Clearly Minori had a lot going on and she needed to talk…and to her best friend, her twelve year old best friend, not the first grader she thought that she was.

"You can just say 'bitch' you know. I don't think that your stepmom is listening." Said Minori. She pointed over to the baby chair at the end where Shige's baby sister was splashing. Her mom was trying to stop her but she wasn't listening. She was so cute…most of the time. Not now. Honestly. When Minori had been her age she'd sat and gotten her nails done with mom all the time. She even used to wear her stupid silk dress up gloves to keep her nails nice. She had been such a dumb kid back then…but not like Shige's baby sister….but she'd probably be cute again in a minute. Then they could go to the park and take come cute pictures with her after this.

That is if Shige ever felt like being normal again.

"She's not my stepmom…but I think that my dad has a girlfriend. He's always talking to this lady on the phone. I know, I looked through his call history. She's the only person who calls him…and she texts him too but she and dad told me not to look at their messages because it's private….I hope I don't get a stepmom….I have a mom….she's gone but it's not like she was never born or something…." Said Shige. If the lady hadn't come around to scrub her feet she would have gotten up and yanked on Shige's stupid braid so hard it would have come off! God! Seriously!?

"You're such a bitch sometimes, you know that?" said Minori. She knew that she sounded like a bitch there…and she meant to. What did Shige think this was? Did she think that she just got to sit there and brag about how her mom was still alive? Well that was a weird brag! What, did she have nothing better to brag about? Probably. She looked like a baby and acted like one too…that was probably why she brought her little sister everywhere, so she could have another baby to hang out with. Socially challenged Shige...Shigeko the gecko….that didn't rhyme….but her skin was really dry! And she was fat, too, but also somehow flat as a board….and her eyebrows looked like they were trying to come to life…and she smelled weird and….and she was a virgin…well so was Minori….but Shige was more of a virgin!

"I-I'm sorry!" said Shige

"Yeah, you should be." Said Minori. She expected Shige to say something else, to try and defend herself or whatever, but she just stared crying. Not, like, full on sobbing. Not the kind of crying you had to do when you got caught trying to sneak your dad's black card, which you had good reason to do, because he didn't give you enough allowance and you were forced to eat scraps and wear rags and walk through the street almost totally shoeless…or whatever. Shige was crying like someone died or whatever….and….like….what did she think this was?!

Apparently she thought this was the kind of place you could cry in.

Nobody had noticed yet, thank God. Shige's stepmom or her dad's baby-mama or whatever was too busy trying to keep her baby sister from drinking the foot water….gross. The only people who noticed so far were her and the lady doing her feet. She kicked the water. Honestly! She wasn't being paid to eavesdrop, she was being paid to scrub the dead skin off of Minori's feet that wouldn't even have been there right now in the first place if she had been working faster!

She hadn't made that much of a splash…people were so overdramatic these days.

"I-I really am….I'm such a b-word…" said Shige. Minori sighed. Well now it was getting embarrassing.

"Fine, fine, I forgive you for bragging to me about how your mom is still alive even though I told you to your face-" said Minori

"I know! I mean I know…I remember that story…it was very sad. Um….if you want I can maybe help you get into contact with her spirit if she hasn't passed on. I don't know much about spirits but I know someone, well Minegishi knows someone, who's really good with spirits." Said Shige. Minori knew that Shige was socially challenged and all but this really was a little much. She at least wasn't being a bitch anymore…so Minori could be nice now.

"Pass." Said Minori

"Are you sure?" asked Shige

"Yeah, this isn't a sleepover. I don't feel like playing Ouija." Said Minori with a wave of her hand. She didn't know why Shige was so into this spirit shit all of a sudden. What, had she been hanging out with dad. Dad pissed so much money away trying to 'see the other side' and stuff. There was no other side. You were born and then you died. There were no such things as spirits and ghosts and mediums…and anyway Minori had tried on her own already. Ouija boards were just toys for dumb little kids who were still young enough to believe in that kind of shit. Not Minori. She was an adult, well on paper she was twelve, but really she was an adult.

She had to be since dad wasn't going to be one.

"But it wouldn't be with a Ouija board-" said Shige

"And I said pass, Suzuki, what part of pass don't you understand?" asked Minori

"Sorry, I-" said Shige

"And you! Stop eavesdropping….yeah, I know you are. I know what you're doing." Said Minori. Shige said something in….Korean? Korean to the lady. She nodded and then went back to work…show off…Minori could speak Korean too! Like…like 'I want your autograph' and stuff….and that counted! And, anyway, Korean was super complicated. It made more sense to know English…or maybe just Japanese…well it wasn't like Minori needed to know any other languages. She was Asagiri Minori, if she wanted to speak to a foreign person or whatever she could just hire a translator. Time was valuable, dad had always said, too valuable to waste. That was why she was going to delegate responsibility whenever she could.

If only she could delegate some of these friendship responsibilities then it would have been perfect.

"Nobody likes a showoff, Shige. You know I should just go home right now, and I would, but you're lucky that I'm willing to forgive you. You're lucky that you've got a friend like me…especially when you're being such a bitch." Said Minori

"I…I really am sorry. I don't know why I'm being such a b-word…" said Shige

"Because you keep on talking without thinking." Said Minori. She flexed her toes as the water drained out of the footbath. God, this was the worst part. They really needed to make this place warmer or something. This day sucked….this world sucked….everything sucked sometimes. It just sucked and no matter what you did it never got any better.

"Your right…I'm kind of really high right now…so that might be it." Said Shige

"Seriously? Without me. I thought that we were friends." Said Minori. She knew that she was hitting hard right now but, really, Shige deserved it. You needed to share with your friends. If Minori had cool adult friends who let her have drugs then she would have shared with Shige…only a little, though, and only if Shige felt like being a good friend….which she might not have right now. Honestly. It was just one thing after another with her sometimes.

"We are….but you were at school all day and I would have waited for you, and I tried, I really needed to smoke so I said 'just a little' but a little turned into a lot." Said Shige

"What in the hell do you need to get stoned about?" asked Minori. Her life was perfect. What? Was not going to school so incredibly hard? Hanging out with cool people was so mentally draining? Having no rules must have been the absolute worst. No rules, no responsibilities, no dad breathing down her neck all the time….yeah…it must have been so hard.

"I…I did a bad thing." Said Shige. She was whispering, now, and her eyes darted over to where her baby sister and her stepmom were. Minori leaned in close. Shige? She did a bad thing? Wait….by whose standards? Because Shige had been stoned since the day Minori met her…somehow Shige was her coolest friend….but whatever. It was all whatever. Maybe she'd done something worse like…like the thing where you saw sounds and tasted light…or the thing that made you really happy that people took at clubs….or whatever else there was out there…or maybe it was nothing at all. Maybe she took a cookie out of the cookie jar or whatever else a first grader considered to be a 'bad' thing.

"What? What could you possibly have done?" asked Minori

"I….can you keep a secret? From the whole world?" whispered Shige

"Yeah, of fucking course I can." Said Minori. She…wasn't the best at keeping secrets…but that depended on if they were secrets worth keeping or not. Like if Shige had killed someone or something then, yeah, Minori would have kept her mouth shut. But if she got her period in the middle of gym class while they were doing that stupid sprinting thing then, yeah, obviously Minori wasn't going to take a picture and share it on snapchat. It wasn't like that was so wrong…and anyway your snaps and stuff expired so it was fine. Some people just took themselves way too seriously…hopefully Shige wasn't one of those people.

"Ok…um….I…" said Shige. She leaned in really close and eyed the lady putting the bottom coat on her toes. Minori leaned in super close. If she was thinking about workers listening….if she cared if a worker was listening then she must have done something REALLY bad….well maybe for her…which was probably nothing when it came to the rest of the world….

Whatever. It wasn't like there was anything else interesting happening right now anyway.

"Come on, you know you can trust me. We're friends." Said Minori

"We are…..but….please don't tell anyone. None of my other friends. Nobody can know…because if they do know then…then they'll know…." Said Shige

"Know what? Come on this had better be good." Said Minori

"I….I kissed someone who I wasn't supposed to kiss…." Whispered Shige. What? Was that all? She just kissed a guy? That wasn't news. Anyone who was anyone kissed a guy by the time they were twelve. People doing the stuff that came later, that was news. This…this was kids' stuff.

"Shige, seriously? So you kissed a guy, big deal. I've kissed twelve guys and you don't see me freaking out." Said Minori

"It was…my best friend's boyfriend…" whispered Shige

"I don't have a boyfriend, all the guys I know are trash. I told you that already." Said Minori. She knew who Shige was talking about. She was talking about Minegishi, her non-binary friend, her cool friend…with the two boyfriends…one of which was really hot…..

"I didn't mean you, I meant-" said Shige

"Minegishi, I know….anyway, which boyfriend did you kiss? The yakuza guy or the guy they tried to leave yakuza guy for?" asked Minori. This may not have been the place to be talking about the yakuza…especially after how they'd found all of those dead bodies this morning…but whatever! Shige…this wasn't fair! Minori worked hard to be pretty and nice and sweet and all that other shit guys like but Shige had guys, not guys their age or middle school guys or even high schoolers, but actual GUYS kissing her! That….that made no sense!

Maybe she needed to change it up a little.

Minori looked Shige up and down. She was dressed like a baby. She had on one of her giant t-shirts, this one at least said strawberry milk and not some stupid Disney thing, and this ugly tulle skirt…and what in the hell were those hair ties? Snowflakes in the summertime…well late summer….not even fall yet! What? Was this what guys liked? This wasn't even kawaii….it was like…like a little kid's closet threw up on her or something….

If this was what it took to get guys then Minori was staying single.

"Minegishi didn't try to leave him…they just got kind of upset and…and I don't want to talk about Minegishi right now…I don't want to talk about this right now. I want…I want my nails to be blue." Said Shige. Minori rolled her eyes. Of course she would have thought that this was all about her. She had no clue how to be a good friend. When you were good friends with someone, best friends with them, then you shared everything with them…including when you hooked up with guys! And especially when you hooked up with guys like yakuza guy!

"Well they're going to be baby pink…and you're going to tell me what happened! Right now, like, right now." Said Minori. Shige shook her head.

"Minori…I don't want to talk about it." Said Shige

"Well I don't care. We're friends. I tell you about the stuff I do with guys? Why won't you do the same? What? You don't trust me? We aren't best friends anymore? We're nothing? God, how much of a bitch can you-" said Minori

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you." Said Shige

"Good. I knew you could be a good friend." Said Minori

"I…I want to be a good friend…but I don't think that I am. A good friend wouldn't have kissed…I didn't even want to kiss him. One minute we were talking-" said Shige

"Talking where? Come on, don't I always give you details? I tell you everything so now you have to tell me everything. That's how this works. What do you think this is?" asked Minori

"A nail salon." Said Shige

"Yeah, yeah, that's funny…anyway are you going to give me details or not?" asked Minori

"I have a choice?" said Shige

"No, you don't." said Minori

"Ok…if I don't have a choice…um….we were on the roof because he brought us there…some people he used to know from when he was in the yakuza found him and shot at us and we had to run away…and then we were on this roof and we were talking, I was trying to make him feel better because he was scared, and then he just started saying that I was pretty and that he liked me…and then he kissed me." Said Shige. Minori left stuff out sometimes, too, when she told Shige what she got up to with guys. She left out the times when they told her that she was being weird. She didn't always talk about the times when people's dicks came out and she wasn't a big fan of seeing…and also all the slobbery kisses and tongue stabbing…..she gave Shige the best version.

Shige gave her the version with a bunch of missing scenes, apparently.

Because, really, how in the hell was she supposed to put all of this together? What? Was she on a date with something and then she just randomly got shot t? And then, what, it was a romantic night under the pale moonlight and then they kissed and the world just fell away and everything felt perfect? Like kisses were supposed to feel like? And, what, now she was torn between her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend? Like this was an anime or something?

No way! Shige did not get to be that lucky!

"No way. You do NOT get to be that lucky." Said Minori

"I-I don't feel lucky….I feel weird. I mean….I didn't even know he liked me like that…and I didn't even want to kiss him. He just kind of touched my face a lot and then he said that I was cute and then the next thing I knew he was kissing me….and then we went home and he did it again…" said Shige

"Stop bragging, it's annoying." Said Minori

"I-I'm not….i'm just talking about what happened like you asked me to." Said Shige

"I mean, like, tell me what happened. Not about how great it was!" said Minori. People were looking now. She smiled and waved at them. There…at least not the only person who thought that she was a bitch was Shige…and she knew that Shige thought she was a bitch. She was giving her that 'you're a total bitch' look that everyone else gave her…God…seriously?! Her own best friend…fuck her…fuck her but not in a good way!

"It wasn't…it was…I mean it felt good but…but also weird. He's my friend and…and he's Minegishi's boyfriend and….and I have to see him every day and he likes me-" said Shige

"I get it…he likes you. Hot guys like you. You don't have to rub it in. Against all odds you got someone-" said Minori

"Minori, I don't get it. Why are you acting like this is…that this is good? I don't think that it's good. I think that I'm a part of cheating-" said Shige. Minori rolled her eyes. Shige was being as ridiculous as the job this lady was doing on her foot. Honestly? Was it so hard to paint inside of the lines? She wanted the half hot pink, half baby pink, with the hologram on top and then the little lightning bolts. That wasn't complicated at all. It was even less complicated than remembering that cheating was completely impossible in an open relationship.

"You can't cheat in an open relationship, Shige, everyone knows that." Said Minori

"I-I guess-" said Shige

"Then what's the problem? He's allowed to kiss whoever he wants and that includes you. If he wants to make out with you then he can make out with you as much as he wants." Said Minori. Shige nodded. Good. She was starting to know when to listen….and it looked like she was done bragging, too. Good. Shige was so lucky that Minori still wanted to be her friend after all of this.

"I guess that…he's allowed to kiss me as much as he wants…he does like me after all…but we didn't make out! I mean at least I think we didn't. I didn't have any marks on me and I think that you get those when you make out with someone. I mean Sho had them and-" said Shige

"Oh my fucking God! Do not tell me about your brother making out with other girls!" said Minori. Ok, now everyone was looking at her…and Shige's little sister was doing that mockingbird thing she did…well whatever! She could speak as loudly as she wanted to! This was a free country…right? She didn't know what a free country even was…well not, like, one of those countries that they based that 80's book she had to read for world literature…but like….hey! She wasn't the one being quizzed here!

"I…I wasn't. He was making out with his boyfriend." Said Shige. Minori blinked…and then she smiled. Good. She knew that there must have been some reason that her brother had kept on turning her down. She had thought that he'd just been immature but it turns out that he was just a total closet case this whole time. Well that was his problem. Now he had a boyfriend and he could live his best life or….oh my God! Wait, he had a boyfriend? As in…ok. She was hanging out with Shige more at her house. Sleepovers and stuff.

Her little brother was hot as hell so, of course, his boyfriend would have been equally if not more hot….wow…it was like a boy's love manga come to life….Shige was so fucking lucky.

"What's his boyfriend like? Is he hot? Do they make out a lot?" asked Minori. She tried to look interested in what was happening to her feet, apparently moving just a tiny bit fucked everything up….God, she had no idea why she came to this shoddy place. She tried to pretend that this as interesting. It wouldn't be good to look too eager, then Shige would have just told her that she was being weird like everyone else did.

"I don't know, I never met him…but….yes? I don't know, Sho and I don't talk about these things…I can't believe that I did this to him….I kissed his best friend….I kissed the guy he likes…I'm such a b-word…" said Shige

"Well, yeah, you can be kind of a bitch but I don't know what you're complaining about. You were just bragging a second ago…anyway! You should be grateful for what you have. There's a guy who likes you. Not just any guy but an older guy, a way older guy, and way older guys are the best. Guys our age are either scared of us or total weirdos. Middle school guys or ok, high school guys are the best, but guys his age…he probably knows how to do everything. He'd probably finger you if you asked him to." Said Minori. A guy like that would have probably known what he was doing, too. What was it with guys? They never cut their nails and then they just rammed their fingers into you and pulled you hair and asked you if you liked it. She said that she had, of course, she wasn't a bitch. She wondered, though, what it would have been like if she had been with a guy who knew what he was doing….

Why did Shige get all the luck? It wasn't fair!

"What's that mean?" asked Shige. The lady painting her nails was giving her a look…and you knew you were being stupid when workers were looking at you funny. Honestly. Shige drank and partied and now she was friends with benefits with a really hot guy...but she had no idea what fingering was? Honestly…Shige would have been lost without Minori. Totally and completely lost.

"You seriously don't know?" asked Minori

"I really don't know what you mean…I'm sorry." said Shige

"God, Shige, you are such a virgin, you know that?" asked Minori

"I-I know….I mean I never did anything before…not all the things, I mean." Said Shige

"Well, obviously, I mean you don't even know what fingering is. That's when a guy…you know…touches you." Said Minori. She kind of did the motion…not that she knew what the exact motion was. Not that she had ever done that to herself or anything. That was what desperate girls did, the kinds who would never get boyfriend, and she wasn't desperate. She just knew trash guys, that was all, the kind with no sense of loyalty or, well, sense of anything.

"You mean like…when a boy tries to put his hand up your skirt?" asked Shige. She whispered the last part so quietly that Minori was pretty much just reading her lips. Honestly. What was she so worried about? They were practically adults and this was what adults talked about with each other. She knew, she had seen plenty of it on TV. When you grew up and became a business woman in the city, or sometimes a writer or an actress or a model, you met up with your friends every day and hung out and when you hung out you talked about what guys you did it with or were trying to do it with. Minori still hadn't done it, because she just hadn't met the right guy yet, not because she was scared or anything, but when she did do it then she was going to tell Shige all about it…and Shige had better have been planning on doing the same!

Also she had better not have been planning on doing it first!

"Obviously." Said Minori

"He…he wants to…to do that to me?" asked Shige. Her eyes went wide…and then everything went dark. Not like nighttime or anything like that, it was still in the middle of the day, but still dark enough that the lady doing her feet had messed up again. Minori may or may not have 'accidentally' kicked water all over here…but that was nothing compared to what Shige did. Apparently she was afraid of the dark, too, she was such a baby sometimes. There had barely been any water left to kick in Minori's footbath…but apparently Shige's hadn't drained at all.

Whatever. It wasn't their job to clean it up. They didn't work here.

The lights went back on. Shige was bright red, she was even hiding her face behind her hands. Really. She needed to grow up. How was she supposed to be friends with benefits with a guy that old if she couldn't even talk about all of this stuff? She was so lucky that she was homeschooled. If she had been in Minori's class then, best friend or no best friend, she never would have let her live it down.

What else was she supposed to do when Shige, someone who was only a few months younger than her, insisted on acting like they were still a couple of little kids?

"Stop freaking out. It was just a power outage…and barely even. It's because everyone's running their air conditioning at once or something. You're such a baby sometimes…all the times." Said Minori

"I-I'm sorry….I didn't mean to be…" said Shige

"Well you are. I mean, what are you going to do when we're adults? This is what adults talk about, you know, doing it and stuff like that…and you were just bragging a minute ago…so stop freaking out and just be grateful for what you have." Said Minori

"But I don't want him to do that stuff to me...I mean kissing him felt good but weird and…and I want us to just be friends." Said Shige. Minori wondered if she was secretly gay or something. That wouldn't have been a bad thing, she needed a gay friend. More guys for her. She needed more interesting friends. She was interesting so , of course, she was going to surround herself with interesting people. It was important. Even dad thought so, that was why he hung out with all of these weirdos. It was always important for people to want to know you, that was called networking or whatever. Another thing that adults did…but one that wasn't nearly as fun. Adults had all the fun…she couldn't wait until she got older….

Then maybe she could be as interesting as Shige was...yeah…interesting was another word for 'complete and total weirdo' wasn't it?

"Why are you so weird?" asked Minori

"I think that I was just born this way. My dad's weird too so I guess that I just take after him." said Shigeko

"Well try harder to be normal. You're being so weird right now I don't even have the words for it. I mean, what do you think this is? He likes you, he's hot, so what's the problem? Why do you want to put him in the friend zone? What, he's not your type or something?" asked Minori

"Maybe…" said Shige

"I mean you do have a type…and it's so weird. Like…big nerds? Not even cool ones? Like…glasses boy and stuff?" asked Minori

"I guess….I mean I used to like Hatori…and I think he's really cute and stuff. I mean…I guess that if it had been him then it wouldn't have been so weird. It would have been a little weird since he rejected me before but…but not as weird…." Said Shige. Oh. Well that made sense. There was a lid for every pot, Minori had heard that saying before, and she guessed that the sort of lid Shige wanted was the nerdy kind. The kind that had enough grease on his skin to open a fast food place, glasses so thick you could kill ants with them, and enough Cheetos dust on his fingers that it looked like he was turning orange….why did Shige have to be so weird?

Well it was ok. More guys for Minori.

"Fine. You want to put yakuza guy in the friendzone so you have a chance with glasses boy? Whatever, it's your life." Said Minori

"But I don't want-" said Shige

"Enough, I get it. You've got the world's weirdest taste in guys. Whatever. More good ones for me. Anyway if you want to put a guy in the friendzone then just avoid him. Eventually they get the message…well not stalkers…but that's what you have security guards for." Said Minori

"But…he lives right next door. How do I avoid someone who lives right next door?" asked Shige

'Honestly, do I have to do all the thinking here? Just hang out with your dad. Guys hate dads because dads know how guys think. Whenever there's some guy I want to get away from, like when my dad takes me to functions and stuff, I just stay right by him." said Minori. Sometimes guys could be…kind of pushy. They sometimes followed her around and tried to get her number…and then there were the ones who followed her around and tried to get her to do stuff to their dicks….guys were the worst sometimes, the absolute worst.

"But…I can do that….I'm kind of mad at my dad right now because-" said Shige

"You think you're mad at your dad? Mine threatened to cut off my allowance again. I doubt you can top that." Said Minori. Shige thought she had all the problems…honestly. What did she think this was? This was a friendship, neither of them got to be selfish in this friendship. This was one of those lifelong things, like when they got old and stuff they'd still be friends, and then they'd have daughters and their daughter would be best friends. Her daughters would be the cool ones, after all, and Shige's would be as weird as she was but it would be ok. They'd be best friends for life and then the cycle would keep on going until one of them only had boys.

It wouldn't end up like that, though, if Shige couldn't stop being selfish all the time.

"My dad told Sho that he wasn't allowed to be gay, only bi." Said Shige

"That's weird but not bad. I mean he at least still gets to hook up with guys or whatever." Said Minori

"I guess…" said Shige

"But, yeah, dads can be so weird sometimes. If you don't want this guy hanging around you just do stuff that he doesn't like…like going to girl movies or shopping or whatever…and anyway if that doesn't work then you can always hang out with another guy. Guys always stay away when they think you're taken. It's like they care more about what other guys think than how we feel. Honestly. Guys our age suck." Said Minori

"Really?" asked Shige

"Yeah, of course! God, seriously, you are so lucky that you have someone like me to help you out…anyway! Come on, let's get out of here. The service here sucks." Said Minori. She's get these finished somewhere else or she'd just have Shige do them or whatever. That was what friends were for. They painted your nails and hung out with you and shit like that. Minori was already a good friend, she helped Shige would not only with being less socially challenged but helped her with weird guy trouble, and really it was about time Shige started pulling her weight in this friendship.

And contrary to popular belief, she, Asagiri Minori knew exactly what it took to be a good friend.