Chapter XX: Love Letter Scandal! The Wrong Locker!
The yuletide season was drawing near. The mid-terms were just right around the corner. These were the two biggest problems Haruka is facing right now—working in the afternoon at the bakery and asking her younger brother Masato for problems she couldn't figure out without cheating (of course, Haruka wouldn't go that far). Also, there's the status of her "get-Satoshi-or-die-trying" campaign. It's true that they've been growing closer and closer since the first day of school but it's not to the point of romantic relationship. She really wanted for Satoshi to notice her and at least propose to her to be her boyfriend.
She's thinking about these three things during her afternoon shift as a cashier in the cash register.
"Thank you very much! Please come again!" Haruka greeted her last customer during her shift. But her break would have to wait since she heard the automatic sliding glass door open—the sound of another customer waiting to be served. "Good afternoon! Welcome to the Hoenn Region's Most Famous Bakery!"
"I think you're cut out for this kind of job better than anything involving Pokemon." The latest customer who just entered commented.
"Why thank you, kamo!"
She suddenly stopped and took a good look at her customer; feeling that the last statement was somehow not right for her. He had green hair, a purple jacket, blue jeans, brown shoes, and a very arrogant nature.
"S-Shuu…!" Haruka said. "(Why are you here? Go to another bakery darn it!)"
"Let me see you how you treat a handsome customer." Shuu said; sitting down on a table for two. "One glass of iced tea, please…"
"(Calm down, Haruka. He's a customer. He deserves what he wants.)" The brunette girl lamented on herself for a few seconds before responding. "One glass of iced tea, coming right up kamo…!"
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After her shift had ended, Haruka sat down on Shuu's table where the green-haired boy was enjoying his cold glass of iced tea. She might as well keep Shuu entertained for reasons even she couldn't even explain to herself.
"So what brings you here, Shuu?" Haruka tried asking nicely despite the fact that she can't stand Shuu's "I-can-do-better" attitude. "As far as I can recall, you have a bakery directly in front of your house, kamo."
"I just happen to be on my way home when I suddenly felt thirsty." Shuu replied calmly. "So I stopped here for some refreshment."
"Knowing you, you're just here to make fun of me aren't you?"
"As expected of you, Haruka—always jumping to conclusions…"
"(Ooh! You make me so mad you make me want to blow up, kamo!)"
Her inner frustration subsided when she saw a paper bag full of letters with different seals and envelopes inside. Judging by the floral designs used as seals for the envelopes, they seem to be love letters—a bagful of them were addressed to Shuu.
"Are those love-letters?" Haruka asked.
"Yeah, they poured down on the floor as soon as I opened my locker." Shuu replied. "I can't help but wonder why girls are so gaga over me."
"Apparently, those girls of yours have no taste for boys."
"Jealous…? Don't worry its only normal for one to be envious."
"Are you going to waste your precious time here just to insult me?"
"Nah, I'll be on my way in a couple of minutes."
"Geez…"
After Shuu left with his bagful of letters, Haruka began thinking about those kinds of letters on her way home. She believed that this might be another chance at getting closer and closer to her beloved. All she needed were a pen, a piece of paper, and tons of feelings for the trainer.
"It's worth a shot, kamo." She nodded.
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After dinner, Haruka rushed upstairs into her room where she locked herself down; complete with her wooden "Do not disturb, kamo!" sign hanging on the door knob outside. She quickly grabbed a piece of paper and her favorite Pikachu pen. She needed to think of what to write in her love letter first—that means pouring out all of her feelings for Satoshi in several strokes of the pen. The words didn't need to be too sophisticated; just simple enough to convey the magic words of love: "I love you, kamo".
She began writing on scratch paper first before on anything fancy. But for some reason, she can't even get those four simple words right.
"Dear Satoshi, I lo…lo…love noodles, kamo. Don't you think so?"
Haruka shaded her message that had gone wrong. "No, that's not right. Let me try again."
"Dear Satoshi, I lo…looked directly at the sun this morning. It's pretty bright, isn't it?"
"That's not even close!" She shaded her second message and repeated the process. "And why would I look directly at the sun?"
"Dear Satoshi, I…I lo…lobbed a ball at a tennis match. Pretty cool, isn't it?"
"Waaaaaah…! I don't even play tennis, kamo."
"Dear Satoshi, I lost 36 pounds after two weeks."
"EEEEEEK…! He shouldn't know about my weight! It's embarrassing, kamo!"
"Dear Satoshi, I loafed around at Hasegawa-sensei's class today."
"I'm getting nowhere, kamo."
This kind of scenario went on throughout the night. By the time she finally got her words right (although she made it hard on herself by writing too much of the irrelevant stuff), it was already way past midnight—1:00 past midnight.
"Ah, it's this late? I haven't got any homework done yet, kamo! Why does this keep on happening to me?"
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The next day, Haruka made it on time at school even though she spent all night getting the magic words of love right in the paper. She hurried to the first years' floor where the trainer's locker was in sight: locker 67. It was a small locker unit only capable of holding a few books, notebooks, and tons of failed quiz papers that needed to be hidden from his mother's sights. The brunette girl looked around her; only to see that the cost is clear. Carefully, she inserted her letter on a small hole in the locker.
All she needed to do was to wait for Satoshi to reply.
"I didn't get enough sleep last night, kamo." Haruka yawned. "But if it all goes well, then it's worth the lack of sleep."
She left the letter and hurried to the classroom; hoping to get at least a satisfactory reply.
Several boring hours later, it was finally lunchtime. Haruka went to the rooftop and looked at the blue sky and the view of the city; very confident that all will go as she planned. In fact, ever since she entered the classroom she was smiling and seemed to be in a very sunny disposition. Kanata tried asking during Math period but she suddenly got called to factor an algebraic expression in the simplest form possible—for all the students know, even Kanata, Math is their common enemy.
But not even flunking her recent Math surprise quiz was enough to bring her down. The anxiety of waiting for Satoshi's reply was above everything else. She began imagining the possible outcome of staying up beyond midnight just to express her feelings with strokes of a pen (and getting some homework done afterwards).
Suddenly, a sound of hope: she heard the door open behind her. But she was too shy to turn around and face her beloved so she started talking.
"I…I…I suppose you read my letter, right?" Haruka said. "I-I've been meaning to say this to you for a long time. I know it's kind of sudden but I can't take it anymore. I…I LOVE YOU, KAMO!"
There was an eerie silence right before Haruka received her just reply. But what she wasn't expecting was the voice of the replier.
"Haruka…I love you, too."
"You do—" Haruka turned around quickly; only to see that the one talking was none other than her pain-in-the-neck friend Kanata. "ACK…!"
"So Haruka, are we good?" Kanata winked.
"W-W-Wait a second, that letter wasn't supposed to be for you! What were you doing in Satoshi's locker?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Satoshi and I exchanged lockers."
"Say WHAT?"
"He needed a bigger space for his stuff so I gave him mine and he gave him his to me."
"Waaaaah…! I spent the whole night writing that letter, kamo!"
"Don't worry, Haruka." Kanata walked up towards the brunette girl and began caressing her friend's body. "At least you still have me."
"Geez just shut up kamo!"
TO BE CONTINUED
Kamo! Trivial Trivia #14: The scene of leaving a letter in somebody's locker is very customary to the Japanese—especially in certain anime series. Usually, they leave it in somebody's shoe locker since this is where they first go to change their shoes before entering the building premises. However, it doesn't only limit to a love letter. It can also be a letter of challenge where one challenges another to some sort of battle or duel or a death threat which is fairly obvious what it is.