4 - Funny

The fourth time I saw you,
you were a funny girl.

He had started running at twelve when he had joined the athletics club at school. More correctly, he had been joined to the club. He had gone to the afternoon practice in his jumpsuit and trainers, believing he had to do some additional training under the orders of Takashi-san, his PE teacher. Upon arriving, the professor had proudly taken him aside, calling the other ten members of the club. He had had them stand, one beside the other, over the white line that delimited the tracking field..
"This is Mamoru Chiba, first year. Our new member!" Takashi-san had stopped him from leaving by grabbing on his shoulders. "Welcome him to the team!"
Trapped.
In his memories he had puffed up his chest and stood tall, trying to elongate his 4 feet 8 inches frame – he had been writing down the measure by then, month after month. At his age not many boys had been as tall as him, but he had feared his schoolmates all the same: in elementary school he had felt like a king respected by everyone. Then his certainties had been taken away when he had been sent to a different place in which he had no reputation.
In a few weeks, he had settled in.
At the club he had learned how to run, gauging his breaths and using the growing muscles of his legs. He had been taught how to jump long and most of all high. With his body rotating over the bar, he had felt like flying.
Thanks, Takashi-san.
He still thought that and he had told so to his professor at the graduation ceremony at the end of middle school. Obviously everyone had enjoyed the moment, but to him it had been more like a goodbye. Goodbye to another place of certainties – this time with a new assuredness to accompany him in his life.
He had entered high school with no more fears and with a marked path: becoming the high-school star of high jump. He had been enrolled in his new institute specifically for that ambitious objective.
He had disappointed everyone but himself.
I don't want to be an athlete, he had told one day to his coach, at the end of the first year. I will be a doctor!
The passion for jumping had remained within him, as well as a periodical need for a good run – he did some jogging in the mornings, every time he had no lessons.
In the present, he observed the running track. There was an high school behind his apartment and from time to time he watched the training sessions.
"Now! Go, go, go!"
At the coach's insistence, the student started the half-circle path towards the bar, bouncing on his feet. He jumped.
Mamoru allowed himself a smile.
You'll go a long way.

Life as a university student was awesome. He studied, but he was able to manage his own time in complete freedom. He even had days like that Thursday, in which he had only one class to attend in the second part of the morning. His afternoon was free and he could do whatever he wanted. The day was wonderful, the sky was blue…
"To my future boyfriend…"
He didn't look down fast enough, but he recognized the blond tails before Odango Otama slammed into his chest and fell to the ground. She was up before he had said a thing.
"So sorry!" She bowed repeatedly. "I didn't do it on purpose, I'm so absentminded!"
The light pole she was addressing remained indifferent to her explanations.
"Usagi!" another girl cried.
Usagi? Odango Atama's name was bunny?
Mamoru started savouring the first of many future jokes.
She lifted up her head. Seeing him, she pulled back in horror and he bursted out laughing. "Not bad, apologising to a pole!" Maybe the poor concrete had suffered in the impact.
Odango Atama started growling exactly like the furious little bunny she was.
Oh well, it would have been so unoriginal to make fun of her name. Usagi did so many silly things on her own – filling her mind with 30s in English tests and imaginary future boyfriends. "Of course, it's a big problem if even your little head goes out of control in spring." Like a good bunny, she needed to go and graze the pastures.
He walked past her with a laugh.
"What have you said?!" she cried at him.
You are a living comedy, he summarized in his thoughts, keeping on walking.
"Usagi! That guy is a friend of yours?" The other girl hadn't bothered to lower her voice. "He is so cute!"
Thank you.
"He is not cute at all!" Odango Otama was vehement in her protest. "He makes me so mad!"
Mamoru turned around in time to see her in fits of rage appropriate for a farm animal. Without an ounce of embarrassement, she stuck out her tongue at him – a gesture ridiculous enough to end up in some world record.
What the hell, Odango Otama. If you were a little less cute, you would have deformed your face by now.
That girl was really a lost case.

A magic rose pierced the air.
Tum.
Inside his head, he felt a tune.
A man without face vanished in the dark and another figure, a girl, remained behind, crouched on the ground.
"But he is… Tuxedo Mask!" she cried.
Tuxedo what?
"See you soon!" was the imperious answer. "I'll be back!"
The laugh that echoed in the night seemed addressed to him.

Waking up from the dream, Mamoru found himself seated on the ground, his backside on the moquette and his legs half out on the balcony.
He rubbed his eyes.
What the hell?

4 - Funny – END

A/N: I'm not convinced about the English I've used here. If you think a sentence sounds weird, please let me know.
As for the story… This chapter is based on episode 3 of the Classic season.
Mamoru is japanese and there elementary school lasts six years – that's why he is twelve in his first year at middle school.
Thank you for the kind reviews. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this story :)