Chapter 38 - Meeting Teruhashi Part 2
In most of Kokomi's interaction with Saiki, it had either been in the presence of their friend group or in some manner where Saiki wasn't paying direct attention to her.
During their spring break trip, when they did things like rowboats or camel riding together, they were distracted by their friend's antics. Kaido almost drowned when he fell off the rowboat and needed mouth to mouth from Hairo while Yumehara looked on and Nendou laughed his head off. Nendou was being carried by three camels while Hairo was trying to race the said camels. Their friends chattered about pillow fighting techniques, then boasting about who can eat desserts the fastest and completed on getting the biggest plushie from a claw machine.
When the two did homework or class project together, the only time that Saiki could have focused his attention on her, without the pesky interruption of their friends, Saiki had been busy doing the assignment. They divvied up the work and Saiki just plunged headlong, completely focused. It was not that Kokomi never saw studious people, focused and buried in work. She rarely saw people do so in front of her since they were always distracted by her beauty and generally tried to socialize with her instead.
Sure, Saiki did sort of "take her to a date" during second year, when Saiki did a "favor for Makoto" by telling her about Makoto's filming schedule. Kokomi had it framed in her head that it was simply a 'return favor' for her, to be the polite perfect girl when she really only participated to get that 'offu' from Saiki.
The so-called date was a near-complete disaster, where the only good thing that came out of it was a photo they took at a train station photo booth. It was a picture that she looked at when she wanted to gush over her crush in the privacy of her room.
Here, as rare as seeing a near-extinct animal, Saiki was a captive audience to her.
Kokomi felt blood rush to her cheeks.
Unlike earlier, he had changed out his clothes for something far more casual, comfortable and nondescript, dark-colored sweat pants and a lighter-colored sweater with plenty of pockets.
He reminded her of a drug mule, for some reason. He looked like the kind of people who wore baggy clothes because they were carrying 'goods' but needed to make sure that they draw the least amount of attention.
Did Saiki withdraw from school because he fell in with the bad crowd? That they were threatening him? That he was now part of a gang?
And there he went, walking away, again!
"Saiki-kun, wait!" cried Kokomi. This time, she grabbed his hand.
He did stop in his tracks, after he almost made her fall by how strongly he swung his arm forward.
His expression was unreadable, though it could be because of how dark it is.
"What's the matter with you?" demanded Kokomi, feeling miffed at his curtness. "Are you this impolite with all women?"
He looked at her like she had grown a second head, in his usual, deadpan stare through those green glasses. "Most women don't walk into me."
"I didn't do it on purpose," snapped Kokomi.
"Oh really?"
The question gave Kokomi pause. Only Saiki could challenge her long-held beliefs that anyone and everyone would turn and gasp as she walked by, much less bow completely to her will. He belonged to the exceptions group, like those who were already in love, those with pure intentions, and the Saiki siblings, it seems.
"Well, if we're done here..." Saiki was saying, pulling his arm toward himself in such a way that Kokomi had to let go. He bowed politely, like he did earlier, turned on a heel, ready to go onward to wherever he was going to.
Instead of being flustered by his behavior, like how Kokomi usually reacted to his nonchalance, she only felt bubbling indignation.
The stress of Finals and that unpleasant encounter with Makoto tore at her resolve to maintain her perfect girl exterior. She had just defended Saiki in front of her no-good-sister-complex brother and nearly shed a tear, god damn it! Saiki should be feeling grateful toward her!
Kokomi stomped her pretty little feet, hands clenched at her side, and said, "Saiki Kusuo, I demand that you come over here and talk to me."
Saiki kept on walking as if he did not hear her, going toward the same park that Kokomi was at earlier.
Kokomi only glared at Saiki's retreating figure, the initial indignation growing to full-blown outrage, not so unfamiliar to how she reacted to him when they first became acquaintances, when none of her charms elicited any of the desired effects.
She had to get him to react to her. So she employed one of her secret weapons.
Angel's Woe.
Immediately, the few salarymen who were still loitering around within a ten-block radius, looked around as if astonished. The pubescent teenagers that were shaking the vending machines for drinks stopped their abuse of the rectangular blocks. Half drunk young professionals stopped drinking and stumbled from the bars toward her. Grandpas who were out watering their bonsais began to hobble towards the unspoken call of the most perfect woman in the world, ready to do her bidding.
"Oh...*sniff* Oh...*choke*. I only wanted to talk to my friend," cried Kokomi, alligator tears rolling down her face. The perfect woman knew how to cry on command. "But I can't find him."
"Well, where did he go?" cried someone from the crowd. "What does he look like?"
Kokomi gave rudimentary directions of where she last saw Saiki and descriptions his oh-so-obvious pink highlighter-colored hair while artfully covering her face with her hands as if deeply troubled by her predicament.
Kokomi secretly grinned behind her hands as the salarymen, the teenagers, the old grandpas, and young, drunken, unattached young men all spread out on the block, calling for "Teruhashi's friend."
She still had it.
Her minions would find Saiki for sure. Then she was going to give that no-offu-boy-whom-she-stupidly-defended-in-front-of-Makoto a piece of her mind.
It was a waste of a quarter of an hour and a waste of another quarter of an hour, placating her worshipful, contrite zombies.
What useless men! Now she had completely lost Saiki.
Kokomi eventually dismissed her Angel's Woe-struck zombies, telling them that She was certain that she would be able to find her friend tomorrow. The worshipful zombies gushed over her and gave her benedictions to do well on tomorrow's exam. At least one of them gave her a coupon for a new phone.
Arg! Almost an hour lost to nonsense! Now it had gotten so late that she better get home. She would need her rest in preparation for the last day of Finals.
It was still a bit of a walk before she could get to her house, if she wanted to stay on well-lit streets. She'd better go cut back through the park, even if it's a bit dark and there might be stalkers or paparazzi who could ambush her.
But she was Kokomi. She could handle any baddies who tried to take advantage of her.
She quickly made her way through the park, walking a path where she quickly paced from street lamp to street lamp. As confident as she was in handling herself in a bind, she was not about to carelessly open herself to danger. Plus, she had rarely been out this late at this park and there are some darker areas. It would be best if she went home quickly.
Then she must've tripped on a pebble or something that was near one of those benches underneath a park street lamp.
Suddenly, Saiki appeared again.
One moment, he was not there, the next moment, he was there, sitting on the bench with his foot sticking out just far enough for her to trip. The manner of his appearance reminded her of teleporters in sci-fi movies like Star Trek.
It must've been a trick of the light.
Kokomi would've rubbed her eyes, exclaimed 'Saiki!' adorably, or say a benediction like 'Fortune has brought us back together again,' all to bewitch him into saying an 'offu' to her.
Except, she was painfully aware that she probably flashed him for the second time that day because when she fell, her body turning into an upside-down U-shape as he caught her by her stomach before pulling her back to a standing position. With the ridiculous shortness of the school uniform's skirt and Kokomi's habit of not wearing boyshorts underneath since it added the wrong proportions to her appearance, Kokomi was certain that the angle of how he caught her surely revealed her lacy pink panties.
Her face did not hit the pavement, but she almost wished she did. She had the most unladylike thought of -he's going to say 'offu,' right? My panties are worth at least one 'offu' right?- followed by, -How desperate can I get?!-
"Seriously?" said Saiki, his tone indicated that he was disgruntled by the happenstance of meeting the most perfect girl in the world for the third time that day. "I can't get away from you, can I?"
Kokomi took a while to gather herself, getting over the fact that she had walked into him twice and just now, tripped over his feet.
As for Saiki, he seemed as grumpy, no, grumpier, than ever. He had a graphed-ruled notebook on his lap, a pen and another notebook with nonsensical mathematical formulas scrawled all over both the notebook and paper.
Meanwhile, Saiki mumbled, "This is what I get for going back to school and trying to jump through the hoops. God hates me."
Kokomi feeling much of her obsession with Saiki quickly fade into dislike.
What was with this boy?
Weren't they at least friends?
Why did he act like she was so odious?
Couldn't he at least pretend to be polite to her?
"Saiki-Kusuo, why the hell are you like this?" demanded Kokomi.
That pink-haired idiot only sat there, appropriately silenced like a penitent boy.
Kokomi drew herself up, standing before Saiki, her arms crossed, continued on her advantage. "You disappear on us! Didn't you know that you worry the hell out of your friends?!" Kokomi felt simmering anger in her heart at her next words. "You worry the heck out of me! I kept on thinking that you got sick, or you got run over, or that you got kidnapped or that you've died."
Saiki still did not look at her.
Kokomi softened her next few words, "What happened to you?" Kokomi now felt the stabs in the heart when she previously imagined all the horrible scenarios happening to the boy she liked. "We thought the worst had happened to you when Shinoda took your seat and the teacher said that you've withdrawn! Kaidou shared with us your cell number, but you never responded. We even..." Kokomi did not continue the next train of thought. She was furious at his treatment of him, but not furious enough to reveal that she and their close friends had stolen his school files and looked through them.
Stupid Saiki. He was now staring at her, like she was some sort of car wreck and he was a rubber-necking passerby, mildly curious and uncaring.
"Why aren't you saying anything!?" Kokomi demanded.
Saiki only continued staring at her.
Kokomi, impatient, used one of her guilt-trip perfect pretty girl tactics. "Aren't I at least a friend? Aren't I at least worth an explanation?"
Confront with silence, Kokomi only felt exasperation with him.
"Fine. Don't say anything," said Kokomi, ready to stump away. She was going to go home, scream at and punch the crap out of her pillow, pretend that it was Saiki, then forget about him.
No mere boy was going to make her lose her composure again. She was Teruhashi Kokomi. She did not get frustrated when the boy she liked could not give her the time of day. She was better than that. She decided she was going to give Saiki a taste of his own medicine by walking away from him.
Before she was out of an earshot, though, she heard the next set of words.
"Why do you care?"
-Because I like you more than anyone else! You dumb boy!- thought Kokomi. She could not but resist turning around and said, "We're friends! Of course, I care."
"You can care, but you can't do anything," said Saiki, looking down at his notebook of nonsensical scrawls. He lightly touched the gibberish, tracing the symbols.
It was then that Kokomi noticed that he wore a gray ring on his right forefinger, due to how it caught the light of the street lamp.
Kokomi had seen him wear that ring, from time to time. Mostly back in second year. It was odd, since Kokomi swore that it was a germanium ring, one of those cheap health fads that sneaky door-to-door salesmen sold to unsuspecting wives and sponsored by idols. It was one of the unique fashion choices that Saiki was known for, kinda like how Kaidou was known for those red bandages.
"Only family can do anything," Saiki said, more to himself than to her, as he stuck his paper in his notebook and closed it. The cover of the notebook was blue, and had scuffed and darken splotches from use. A child's doodle of a cat was on a corner of the cover.
"What the heck are you talking about?" asked Kokomi.
Saiki was not paying attention to her. He placed the pen in the kangaroo pouch of his sweater. There appeared to be an inner carrying compartment in that sweater that he wore and he tucked the notebook into that storage space.
"It's...nothing," said Saiki. He looked at her, his expression morphed back to that nonchalance that Kokomi was used to seeing. "It's late. You should go home. Last day of finals is tomorrow."
-I'm out here in the first place because of you, jackass!- Kokomi wanted to shout at him. Couldn't he see how distressed she was?
Apparently. He did.
"It's pretty dark through here. I'll walk you home."
Kokomi resisted the urge to smile, to cheer, to turn a complete 180 on her mood. Another rare, romantic stroll with just two of them. No. She was still miffed by Saiki's terrible attitude.
"No," said Kokomi. "You are not going to walk me home or go anywhere until you've told me where you've been and why you've been gone."
There was a moment of silence from Saiki after the ultimatum had been delivered. The air was tense. He better beg, on his knees, for forgiveness and verbally flagellate himself to get back to her good graces.
"Walk yourself home, then."
Kokomi was not sure what possessed her to do the next thing, but she could only feel rage overwhelm her, blinding and rendered useless all her training as the perfect pretty girl. Before she knew what she was doing, she already raised a hand, a snarl on her face.
And slapped him.
Ouch!
Were all guy's faces that hard?
She felt like she had just smashed her hand against a statue that's been baking in the sun, or a cast-iron pot that was just used for boiling water.
Kokomi bit her tongue so she did not hiss and ungainly flick her hand to dissipate the pain.
She could feel her hand pulsate from the brutal contact.
-Stupid, dumb, idiot, retard, asshole, jerk, -insert-all-name-calling-the-most-perfect-woman-in- the-world-could-come-up-with- Saiki!- Kokomi screamed in her head.
"You shouldn't do that," was all Saiki said before he reached over for Kokomi's inflamed and stinging hand and held it.
It must've been the power of love, because all of the sudden, the pain was gone.
"How...?"
"Don't think too hard about it," said Saiki.
Kokomi felt her face flush again and her face twisted in a confounded manner.
Saiki was holding her hand.
Kokomi felt so conflicted.
She wanted to retract her hand in indignation and wanted to squeeze his hand back at the same time.
No boy had ever been so infuriating, not even children who told her to be quiet and call her an old lady. When other boys gasped and had an unrealistic expectation of her, Kokomi only felt annoyed and afire by the challenge of winning approval.
Saiki, though, had no expectations from her.
It made being around Saiki many times more difficult.
Kokomi's world was one she knew that everyone and anyone could like her, whether because they got a smile from her or was graced by her presence.
But it seemed like no matter how hard she tried, she could never figure out what made Saiki happy outside the mundane like cakes and varieties of sweets. Those, he could get from a store if he so chose.
How could Kokomi win Saiki's approval, if he never wanted anything from her?
How could she get him to smile?
They were walking, by now. Kokomi was so lost in her thoughts that she was not even sure where he was leading her. They were going around the winding path of the park, eventually leading out to the regular road and back driveways, the surrounding landmarks become more and more familiar to Kokomi.
"Saiki-kun," Kokomi found herself saying, breaking the silence, "What has happened to you?"
Saiki kept on walking, but eventually, he did say, "Too much."
"What?"
"Too much has happened," he said simply.
It was only then that Kokomi noticed the dark circles beneath Saiki's eyes and an ashen pallor about his complexion. As expressionless as Saiki had always been, there was that unmistakable touch of a dull ache about him.
"You want to talk about it?" asked Kokomi softly.
The answer was expectedly terse. "No."
Kokomi wanted to guess, to start listing an entire novel-length of what could have happened. Instead, she asked him the one thing that could put her mind at ease. "Can you at least tell me if you're okay? That, you're not in trouble with the law, or anything?"
"I'm okay." Saiki reached up in a rare gesture, fussed with his hairpins. He seemingly grimaced as he minutely adjusted them. "For now."
It seemed like that was as much as Saiki would tell her. As the perfect woman, Kokomi knew when to stop asking questions.
All men were like that. Men liked to figure things out on their own, pride in their independence or whatnot. Kokomi certainly heard enough from all her girlfriends on how dumb all men were, even when their significant other (i.e., girlfriend) would gladly help, without prejudice.
Interestingly, Saiki asked about her instead. "Why are you out here so late?"
In all of Kokomi's recollections, Saiki had never asked the "why" to anything. Saiki had always seemed so uninterested and unexcited by anything. So the question caught her off guard.
It took Kokomi a while, but did eventually tell him of the exchange she had with Makoto earlier. She talked around the event, coming up with whatever excuses she could think of at the moment. She did not want Saiki to know what she had fought Makoto, or that Makoto accused her of viewing Saiki as a cheap thrill.
Saiki was not a temporal toy. He's an important friend, one whom the faintest change in expression affected her, instead of the other way around. If Kokomi's feelings were to be reciprocated, hopefully, he would become Kusuo-kun to her.
But the seed of doubt had been sowed.
Was this really just a fling?
Was he just a challenge to overcome?
"So you told him that you hated him, over a daikon radish?" asked Saiki, looking, for the first time that she could recall, confused.
Kokomi was immediately dragged back into the details of the conversation. What type of nonsense did she make up? Her mouth was so busy filling the awkward air between them that she was not sure what she said.
Oh well. Just run with it. Saiki was always good at just accepting her words at face value. Heck, he was even fell asleep once time, in a bathroom, of all places, all because she said so.
"Daikon doesn't belong in curry," said Kokomi with authority. "He kept on saying it's best in curry, without even being peeled." Kokomi continued to expound on the sins of using a radish-type of vegetable in curry, and how beets turn curry into a completely unappetizing color.
By now, Kokomi was just following Saiki along. It was like the old days, when she would follow him, along with their friends, just going from one place to the next, chatting about this and that. Their earlier conflict was seemingly forgotten.
Saiki had his hand in his pockets. The outline of the pocket appeared to show him absently fidgeting with something.
Saiki always struck her as the intellectual type prone to restlessness.
At some point, Saiki sighed and stopped in his tracks.
Kokomi's heart immediately jumped. What now? Was temperamental, jackass Saiki from earlier back to torment her?
"You probably should apologize to Makoto," said Saiki.
Kokomi puckered her lips petulantly. "Why?"
"Do you seriously want your last words to your older brother to be 'I hate you?'"
Kokomi grumbled, her arms crossed. Still quite displeased that Makoto broke such a sweet moment between her and Kusuo.
"He will get over it," Kokomi offered.
"But you might not," said Saiki.
Kokomi pursed her lips irritably. Since when did Saiki become one of these adults who gave these dreary, fake profound questions? Where was Saiki, the excellent, sympathetic listener to whom anyone can tell anything to? "What do you mean, Saiki? Why do you care about what I say to Makoto? You know why I've said that. Your older brother is the same! They're both perverted creeps who cause endless trouble."
The stare that Saiki had seemed unusually intense.
And when did the wind pick up?
"You're right," said Saiki. "Forget that I've said anything."
Kokomi huffed in satisfaction. That was right. That was something that they had in common. Creepy, obsessed, nutty older brothers who existed to make their lives miserable. That commonality had to bring her and Saiki-kun closer, right? They should compare notes.
"What was the last thing you've said to your older brother?" inquired Kokomi, feeling that she was at her advantage.
Saiki frowned then. Seemingly trying to remember. "It's 'Whatever. Go away.'"
Ah-ha! Saiki was in the same situation as Kokomi. "So you had to verbally beat him back, like I had to, with Makoto."
Saiki seemed to be in a depreciating mood. "It was nothing like that," said Saiki with a shake of his head. "It was months ago. He had just dropped a box on my desk and gave me one of his long-winded explanations about the devices that were in the box. And I only said, 'Whatever. Go away.'"
"And did he listen?"
Saiki chuckled. There was a darkness in that sound. "Yeah. He did." His next words were very quiet. "We never spoke to each other again."
"Well, I wish it was that easy with Makoto," said Kokomi testily.
They were near the Teruhashi house now.
Well, a mansion was more like it.
The two-story, coral stucco, french windows and neatly manicured topiaries, high walls and grassed lawn was a house that simply indicated "wealthy."
There was a weird, nail-on-the-chalk-board mewling noise coming from the mansion.
Kokomi only felt a sense of blanket dread as she recognized the noise for what it was.
Makoto was bawling in his room like a tortured cat puking out its innards.
Although the Teruhahi home plot was large enough to have decent separation from neighbors, Kokomi clearly heard one of their neighbors shouting, "SHUT UP!" and a "Who is gutting a pig out there?"
Kokomi stood before the gate of her home, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
How was she supposed to sleep with that awful howling in the background?
"Just apologize," said Saiki, seemingly reading her thoughts. "At least you'll sleep better."
Fat chance. If Kokomi apologized, Makoto would probably take it the wrong way. Makoto would probably try to cuddle up against her in her bed. Then she had to beat him out of her room. Not exactly what she was looking forward to at this time.
And while Kokomi was busily mulling over the disaster that was Makoto, Saiki, with his escort service over, was taking the opportunity to sneak away.
"Wait. Saiki-kun," called Kokomi. "You're coming back to school, right?"
Saiki nodded.
Kokomi felt incredibly relieved to hear that. "Then I'll see you tomorrow?"
Saiki gave a noncommittal shrug. "Maybe." Repeating a similar gesture from earlier, he bowed politely. "Good night. Teruhashi-san."
Later that night, Kokomi made up with Makoto, which made Makoto turned creepy again.
He did her laundry for which he completely ruined one of her cute red outfits.
He cooked her a late supper. The strawberry bowl was inedible due to the liberal sprinkle of salt.
He did try to sleep in her room, for which, the Kokomi clearly made sure he squealed like a pig as she gave him another blistering set of words, but she at least avoided the word "hate."
By the time it was all said and finished, Kokomi had been run ragged.
She laid in bed now, now with her phone fully charged, Kokomi finally had a chance to turn it back on.
Immediately, her phone buzzed like it was a busy swarming bee as all the notifications came in at once.
Kokomi quickly read through her messages, realizing, now, that all her friends were trying to tell her that Saiki-kun came back to school, and was now in Class 4. They were all planning to do some sort of hang-out activity to celebrate the end of First Term Finals and the beginning of their last summer together.
In the group chat, Chiyo had apologized for not meeting Kokomi at the cafe. There was some plotting to be had.
There were also several one-on-one messages, mostly from Chiyo, about how everyone was rooting for Teruashi Kokomi and Saiku Kusuo to get together.
Kokomi held the phone to her chest.
Get together with Saiki?
It was something that she had hoped for and had silly girlish dreams about.
However, Kokomi suspected that being with him won't be one of those story-book scenes filled with only happy moments. Saiki had an awful attitude. He needed to do a little growing up first.
There was something that Saiki said earlier that bothered Kokomi, too. It reminded Kokomi of something in Saiki's school files, though Kokomi could not quite put her hands on it.
No matter. Tomorrow was finals. Conventional wisdom dictated that she do well. Going to an average college was much easier higher grades than vice versa.
Their missing friend was back. The remainder of their happy last year of high school, with life-long friendships, was now possible.
Kokomi quickly tapped out a note to Saiki-kun, despite knowing that he would most unlikely reply, like he had not replied to any of her earlier messages.
-Goodnight Saiki-
There was a ding as Kokomi almost fell asleep.
Saiki had responded with a "thumbs up."
Kokomi went to bed, with a smile on her face.
