I found myself in a park, seated next to the most beautiful girl I'd ever meet in my life.
This might sound like the start of a lightnovel-type romance. But I have never met this girl in my life.
Help!
Sunlight sundered down through the leaves above us. The heat was as if it was a disappointed parent, glaring at unruly children found doing something morally reprehensible. Our bench was dark brown, and I wasn't sure if it was just the texture of the wood, or our shadows and the canopy darkening the surrounding. I could hear the tinkling of water drops at the distance, and the rustle of wind sweeping over tall grasses that waved lazily at us.
Us.
That word mocked me for all it was there to exist. There was no us. Only me and the girl who sat next to me.
I clutched my notepad, the paper under my fingers wrinkling. I was trying to concentrate. My breathing to my ears sounded harsh that she could probably hear me. I tried to slow down the war drum-like thumping of my heart as the inches between us seem closer than they actually were.
The girl next to me sighed. "If you're going to be that nervous being around a girl, I suggest you just move."
This brought me back to reality. I knew that light-novel scenes don't happen in real-life. Here I was, deluding myself that this girl was somehow into me because she sat down next to me. Damn it! This was the same bullshit that happened with Orimoto. I couldn't keep deluding myself into shit like this.
I turn back to my notepad, trying to envision a scene.
Tree leaves flutter ablaze in the wind. The moonlight snuggled into the branches, and like tear drops, fell into the floor of the park. Two people sat together, breathing calmly. With a moment's touch, Umi looked at Ryu, her gaze boring longingly at him. She wanted to tell him something; that much Ryu could tell. But for the life of him, he couldn't understand what she wanted to communicate. No matter how much she wanted it, they could never have the relationship where communication with eye-contact could happen.
That much was left for those who were destined for each other.
"Are you using me as a muse?" she tittered. "Then again, you writer-types seem to use every beautiful girl you meet as a muse for your writing."
This girl was as arrogant as they come by.
Just because you're cute doesn't mean that I'm using you as a muse, you know.
It was just a coincidence that you happened to sit right next to me as I started writing this scene for my up-and-coming, super famous, will-make-me-rich novel. I could almost visualize it.
I was at a stage, where millions could see me. All around me were flashing lights and adoring fans. Roses fell around me as I looked up the twinkling audience, almost as if I were the center of the universe. I raise my trophy high in triumph, and cheered.
"Suck it, Orimoto!"
Finally, Orimoto could suck it. This guy's famous now.
Damn it.
I try to concentrate back onto my notepad. I couldn't write this scene anymore, so I focused on a different scene.
"Are you really going there." Her laugh was as scornful as her face. "I don't even know you. How could you say I ruined your life."
"Are you that blind," Ryu all but shouted. "Umi, you spread it around. Don't you fucking dare."
Umi looked at him as if but a bug on her shoe. "I spread what around. I merely told our friends what happened at the park."
Friends.
Were they really friends if they threw you under the bus, mock you for being mangled on the streets, piss on your shoes then leave you battered and broken? I don't think so. Our culture may require us all to be friends, but they weren't friends to me. Not after what they've done.
"Are you using me as a target of anger now?" the girl irritatingly commented again. "Not that it matters. Join the club. There are far more people, far greater people than you, whose ire I've gotten. All because I'm cute."
"Will you stop reading over my shoulders? I can't concentrate on writing if you do that."
Why is this girl even looking over my shoulder to begin with. Can't she tell that I'm not focusing on her at all? I was trying to write.
"Why not? Do you honestly believe in the writer's curse that Hemingway spouted? 'That if I showed my writing before it's done, it'll obviously become trashier." she smiled.
"Great job on outing me as a novelist. Would you like an award with that?" I snarked back. "Now stop reading over my shoulder!"
"But I wasn't? You were mumbling it outloud." she rolled her eyes.
I was?
I turned back towards her.
She looked affronted, as if my very existence merited that I wouldn't be able to talk back to her like that. Jokes on you, this is a free-ish country. Freedom of speech is protected, somewhat, in Japan! We may not have guns, but we have a better healthcare system than you America!
Then, she sighed, and zoned in on what I said before.
"A novelist?" she giggled.
Goddamn it, why are you so cute. You're ruining the total angst atmosphere I'm trying to create.
"With your writing style as amateurish as that? You? A novelist? What publisher are you going to work for? The ones writing pulp magazine rag?" She had to shoot me in the heart and head, didn't she? Trying to get me to stay dead. Don't worry, I also wanted to do that.
"I'm joining a contest." I declared.
"You're not winning any prizes with what you've written so far."
I know.
Trying to bite back the emotions threatening to spew forth, I continued with my writing.
Ryu sobbed faintly in his room. His parents were worried. They hadn't heard from him in months as he locked himself in his room with the excuse that he was studying for an entrance exam. His sister seemed to know what was going on, but refused to even talk to him.
Guess everyone actually hates him, huh.
Then, a knock on the door.
"Onii-chan, if you don't come out, I'll run away." His sister, Machi, came at the door threatening to do the unthinkable. Still, he refused to budge. The knocking ceased. Then, days later, his parents all but rammed the door open.
"Komachi's gone."
"Who's Komachi?" she asked me. "Why did you introduce a new character when such a dramatic moment was happening?"
"It's my sister and damn it, you're right." I hated that a part of myself slipped out here. I was trying to not write a self-insert damn it. This is professional work, professional!
"Machi's gone. Please help us find her."
"What do you need me for?" Ryu's gaze lifelessly lifted from the workbook he was working on. It was a math book, something he was bad at but needed to do in order to pass the Inage entrance exam.
"It's her note?" At Ryu's raised eyebrows, his parents showed him the note Komachi left. I didn't know why she had left a note, only that she did, and it was addressed to me.
'Onii-chan, please come back.' were the first words I saw on the note. At that, I stood up and walked out the door, my parents following closely behind. I didn't know what I said to them back then, but we decided to split up.
I mostly did it so they don't find us.
I walked towards the park where Komachi and I used to play as kids.
There, I spotted her.
"Hey, I'm back."
She turned to me with the brightest smile she could give.
"Welcome back."
"You changed point-of-views. And mistakenly referred to Machi by Komachi again." the girl commented. "Why is that?"
"You know how novelists often write about themselves?" I asked, searchingly.
The girl seemed to be in deep thought. Her dark hair cast a shadow over her pale face, but she grinned back at me. Her smile was telling.
"You could tell, right?" I leaned back on the bench. I yawned and stretched out. Then I looked at her dazzlingly bright blue eyes. "That's it."
I ripped the paper off and threw it at the bin near the bench.
"I'll be going now. Take care."
"You too."
Two strangers meet at the park. They share a moment that only they would be able to remember.
Was it fate?
But it does sound like a story. A story good for a lightnovel or novel.
That much I thought, at least.
Hey guys, I'm on a writing spree at the moment. So have this little drabble compendium that I made to post whatever that comes to mind. Ciao
