CHAPTER 3 - TRUCE
The others were looking at us questioningly. "You've met?" Rui asked.
Tsukasa answered before I could open my mouth. "Just a few minutes earlier, outside."
"Oh. Cool . Did you get your cup of coffee?" Akira motioned for the others in the booth to make space for Tsukasa. We all sat back down and I was seated such that I was facing Tsukasa in the U-shaped booth.
"I guess you could say that," Tsukasa replied, with a smirk thrown in my direction.
"So, how'd you meet?"
"It was an ac-."
"There was a small mishap outside. Anyway that's not important anymore," Tsukasa cut me off before I could say more. I was about to tell everyone how we happened to meet but changed my mind when I saw that he didn't want to go through the whole unfortunate incident again.
In an effort to make amends and start afresh, I tried to make conversation and asked Tsukasa about himself.
"So, these guys tell me you were in the States for the past two years for further studies. What did you study?"
"Information technology."
"Oh cool. So are you back here in the country for good?"
"Yup."
"Where are you going to work?"
"Microsoft."
Obviously this conversation was going nowhere, so I turned my attention to the others. I think they also noticed Tsukasa's obvious dislike of me although there was no apparent reason, and so for the rest of the night they did their best to engage us in separate conversations.
============
A couple of months have passed since that first meeting with Tsukasa. I had grown to dislike him as much as he had disliked me because I felt that I had exhausted all efforts to make up for the unfortunate disaster of our first meeting, to no avail. Rui assured me that he'd get over it when I told him the story of how I spilled coffee on him that night. However, Tsukasa remained as aloof and as cold to me as ever. Our dislike was putting a strain on our other friends, who had to work hard to keep our biting remarks to each other from escalating into a full-blown fight. It got so bad that I started to make excuses from our usual nights out whenever I knew Tsukasa was going to be around. It was during one of those nights when Rui and Akira had reassured me that he wasn't going to be around that he showed up unexpectedly together with Soujiro.
I started to get up from my seat, mumbling something about leaving early when Rui placed a hand on my arm.
"Stay. Please. We hardly get to be with you anymore. We miss you. I miss you. Please stay," he pleaded in a low voice so only I could hear him.
I looked into those limpid eyes of his, my resolve to leave weakening by the second. Damn. Rui always knew I couldn't say no to him whenever he looked at me like that. "Okay. But keep him away from me." I was rewarded with one of his heart-melting smiles.
Whenever we weren't engaged in one of our verbal tussles, Tsukasa and I ignored each other. Sometimes when he thought I wasn't looking, I'd catch him staring at me, although I couldn't read the expression in his eyes. He would blush and turn away when he realized I'd caught him staring.
Shizuka had pulled Rui to the dance floor. Akira was at the bar, flirting shamelessly with two leggy models, at least one of which I was sure he'd take home that night. That left Soujiro, Tsukasa and I at our table. Soujiro was having a hard time trying to talk alternately to Tsukasa and me, when he was approached by a voluptuous woman who asked him to dance. The woman would not take no for an answer, and truth to tell, Soujiro looked relieved when he saw an escape from both of us.
I let my eyes roam around the room, refusing to look at the man in front of me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Tsukasa take a long swig from his beer bottle, put it down, only to bring it back to his lips for another big gulp. He was clearly as ill-at-ease as I was.
"Would you like to dance?" he asked suddenly after several awkward minutes.
I looked at him with wide eyes, unable to conceal my surprise. "You don't have to do that." I said to him in an even voice.
He was about to reply when I spoke again. "Look, I know you don't like me. And I'm not your biggest fan either. But we share the same friends. I love these people just as much as you do, and I refuse to give up their company just so I could avoid you. So what I'm saying is, I would like to propose a truce. Enough of this bickering and snapping at each other. Our friends are feeling the strain and I hate it knowing I'm one of the reasons they're getting stressed out during nights like this. We don't have to like each other, but we can make an effort to tolerate each other's presence. What say you?"
I could sense he was about to give a long rebuttal in response to my speech but he changed his mind and just said "Fine. Whatever you say," with a curt nod of his head.
From then on I could enjoy my regular nights out with my friends even with Tsukasa's presence. We just made sure to keep out of each other's hair, so we just talked to each other when necessary.
The others were looking at us questioningly. "You've met?" Rui asked.
Tsukasa answered before I could open my mouth. "Just a few minutes earlier, outside."
"Oh. Cool . Did you get your cup of coffee?" Akira motioned for the others in the booth to make space for Tsukasa. We all sat back down and I was seated such that I was facing Tsukasa in the U-shaped booth.
"I guess you could say that," Tsukasa replied, with a smirk thrown in my direction.
"So, how'd you meet?"
"It was an ac-."
"There was a small mishap outside. Anyway that's not important anymore," Tsukasa cut me off before I could say more. I was about to tell everyone how we happened to meet but changed my mind when I saw that he didn't want to go through the whole unfortunate incident again.
In an effort to make amends and start afresh, I tried to make conversation and asked Tsukasa about himself.
"So, these guys tell me you were in the States for the past two years for further studies. What did you study?"
"Information technology."
"Oh cool. So are you back here in the country for good?"
"Yup."
"Where are you going to work?"
"Microsoft."
Obviously this conversation was going nowhere, so I turned my attention to the others. I think they also noticed Tsukasa's obvious dislike of me although there was no apparent reason, and so for the rest of the night they did their best to engage us in separate conversations.
============
A couple of months have passed since that first meeting with Tsukasa. I had grown to dislike him as much as he had disliked me because I felt that I had exhausted all efforts to make up for the unfortunate disaster of our first meeting, to no avail. Rui assured me that he'd get over it when I told him the story of how I spilled coffee on him that night. However, Tsukasa remained as aloof and as cold to me as ever. Our dislike was putting a strain on our other friends, who had to work hard to keep our biting remarks to each other from escalating into a full-blown fight. It got so bad that I started to make excuses from our usual nights out whenever I knew Tsukasa was going to be around. It was during one of those nights when Rui and Akira had reassured me that he wasn't going to be around that he showed up unexpectedly together with Soujiro.
I started to get up from my seat, mumbling something about leaving early when Rui placed a hand on my arm.
"Stay. Please. We hardly get to be with you anymore. We miss you. I miss you. Please stay," he pleaded in a low voice so only I could hear him.
I looked into those limpid eyes of his, my resolve to leave weakening by the second. Damn. Rui always knew I couldn't say no to him whenever he looked at me like that. "Okay. But keep him away from me." I was rewarded with one of his heart-melting smiles.
Whenever we weren't engaged in one of our verbal tussles, Tsukasa and I ignored each other. Sometimes when he thought I wasn't looking, I'd catch him staring at me, although I couldn't read the expression in his eyes. He would blush and turn away when he realized I'd caught him staring.
Shizuka had pulled Rui to the dance floor. Akira was at the bar, flirting shamelessly with two leggy models, at least one of which I was sure he'd take home that night. That left Soujiro, Tsukasa and I at our table. Soujiro was having a hard time trying to talk alternately to Tsukasa and me, when he was approached by a voluptuous woman who asked him to dance. The woman would not take no for an answer, and truth to tell, Soujiro looked relieved when he saw an escape from both of us.
I let my eyes roam around the room, refusing to look at the man in front of me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Tsukasa take a long swig from his beer bottle, put it down, only to bring it back to his lips for another big gulp. He was clearly as ill-at-ease as I was.
"Would you like to dance?" he asked suddenly after several awkward minutes.
I looked at him with wide eyes, unable to conceal my surprise. "You don't have to do that." I said to him in an even voice.
He was about to reply when I spoke again. "Look, I know you don't like me. And I'm not your biggest fan either. But we share the same friends. I love these people just as much as you do, and I refuse to give up their company just so I could avoid you. So what I'm saying is, I would like to propose a truce. Enough of this bickering and snapping at each other. Our friends are feeling the strain and I hate it knowing I'm one of the reasons they're getting stressed out during nights like this. We don't have to like each other, but we can make an effort to tolerate each other's presence. What say you?"
I could sense he was about to give a long rebuttal in response to my speech but he changed his mind and just said "Fine. Whatever you say," with a curt nod of his head.
From then on I could enjoy my regular nights out with my friends even with Tsukasa's presence. We just made sure to keep out of each other's hair, so we just talked to each other when necessary.