No sooner had Tsutsui climbed off Kaga's scooter than he heard an only slightly shrill, female voice pierce the dull murmur of passer bys.
"There you are Kaga! You're late!"
A girl with short, dark hair and just a touch too much make-up walked over in a huff.
"Sorry," Kaga said dismissively from where he was locking up his scooter. "Tsutsui here decided to get tachophobic on me."
The girl blinked a few times.
"I don't really know what that's supposed to mean, but it sounds kind of perverted!" She said laughing heartily. "But anyways, so you're Tsutsui, eh? Poor thing."
Poor thing? "Yes, Kimihiro Tsutsui. I'm sorry if my preference to arriving in one piece has inconvenienced you. It's nice to meet you…?"
Finishing with the lock Kaga walked over to the group, only raising an eyebrow silently at the veiled sarcasm in the statement.
"Aw, what a gentleman! The name's Keiko Yamada!" She smiled brightly at attached herself to Kaga's arm. "I'm Tetsuo's girlfriend! Right, Tetsuo-kun?"
"Hey, I never said that." He said dryly.
"How mean!" Keiko said pouting angrily. "Forget him! Anyways, Tsutsui-kun, this is my friend Asumi Nase. Take good care of her or I'll sick Tetsuo on you!" She said warningly while pushing Nase forward, who had been watching her friend with a sort of fond exasperation thus far.
"Keiko… You don't have to go that far." Nase said a bit sheepishly. "In any case, it's nice to meet you Tsutsui-san."
"The pleasure is all mine."
"Well great! Now that we're all introduced, let's have fun, okay? See you guys later!" Keiko said brightly, pulling Kaga in some random direction.
"Remember now 'Tsui, no guide books!" Kaga said sarcastically and ruffled Tsutsui's hair before he was dragged off laughing.
"Oh shut up Kaga!"
"Guide books?" Nase repeated curiously.
"Don't worry about it…"
A tense silence descended as they both realized they had no idea what to do.
"Oh! That's right!" Tsutsui said suddenly. "Kaga mentioned that you liked Go."
Nase held back a had a way of chasing off all potential boyfriends for her. And this guy seemed so well meaning…
"Um… yeah… I play… a little…"
"Do you want to play a match?"
"You play?" She said a little too eagerly and quickly berated herself. Crap! If I play him I'll just end up scaring him off! "Ah… well… actually I wanted to go check to see if there's a CD at the Music store!"
"Sure, we can play after you check." He replied pleasantly. It was hard not to notice the quickly repressed excitement, and he figured that even if she was just someone who just played casually they could still have a nice game or two. He hesitated a moment. "Did Yamada-san not mention that I played Go?"
"N-no, she didn't mention it." Every inch of her body language screamed for him to drop the subject, so they walked to the music store in silence.
"I shouldn't be very long, so why don't you wait out here Tsutsui-san?" She said tensely.
"Sure, take your time."
She dashed inside and tried to hide herself among the CD racks to regain her composure.
Damn it! At this rate we'll end up playing and he'll get scared off! …But then again he plays himself… maybe he'd understand? Ahh! I'm so tired of being single and having no one to spend time with besides Keiko and the others. I love them, but they just don't understand! I can't even count how many guys I've scared off with Go. But it would be so nice if this worked out! Plus, Tsutsui's almost surreally nice. Oh, what should I do!?
"Um, Miss, can I help you look for something?"
"Ah! No, I just checking something." She said quickly and walked out of the store.
Well, here goes nothing, I'll just try not to get too intense on him.
"Did you have any luck, Nase-san?"
"Ah… no…"
"Oh, that's too bad. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I've seen a Go Salon around here, shall we go?"
"Sure…"
To her horror it was the same one she had gone to the last time she got dumped, though thankfully none of the people seemed to recognize her from before.
"2000 yen for two people."
"Ah, I can pay for my own!" She interjected.
"No, it's my treat since I insisted on playing, really." Tsutsui said genially.
"Ah… but… thank you."
"Not a problem. I think there's an empty board over there. Shall we?"
"Sure…" She was surprised that this guy hadn't even flinched at either the cloying smoke or unsavory characters thus far.
They nigiried and Nase ended up taking white.
"What about a handicap?" She supplied hesitantly.
"No need, it's just a friendly match."
"R-right…"
As soon as the first stone hit the board, Nase sunk in to old habits, attacking ruthlessly at every hole she could see, and it was only when she saw Tsutsui hesitate and drop his stone back into the Goke that she realized what she had done.
"I-I have nothing…"
Crap! I did it again!
"That's unbelievable…"
"Ah, Tsutsui-san… I just—!"
"Nase-san! You such an amazingly skilled player! Why didn't you say anything?" Tsutsui said enthusiastically. "I don't think I've lost that badly since that one game with Kaga! Do you play for a school club?"
"No, I was an Insei…" Nase said hesitantly.
"Ah! Well no wonder!" He said smiling. "If I had known I might have taken you up on that handicap!"
Nase did her best not to gape. "You mean you're not… freaked out or anything?" She probed cautiously.
"Freaked out…? Why would I be? It's very admirable of you to commit yourself to Go that much. It really shows how much you love the game."
Nase felt all the tension that had been building dissolve entirely until she actually laughed with relief.
"You know, Tsutsui-san, you're the first person to ever say something like that."
"Really? How strange. Anyways, it probably won't be very challenging for you, but since we already paid, how about a few more games?"
"Gladly!" Nase replied with more enthusiasm than she had all day.
"Seriously? Every single time they got intimidated and left?" Tsutsui said disbelievingly.
"Seriously!" Nase insisted sulkily as she bit into her hamburger. "I guess that guy was right, normal kids just don't seem to understand!"
"That guy?"
"Ah! It's no one."
"Oh, okay… Actually come to think of it, you're an Insei at the Japanese Go Institute, right? Did you know Hikaru Shindou?"
"Who hasn't heard of Shindou-kun? But yeah, he hung out with us a lot for lunch and stuff. Why are you a fan?" Nase asked curiously.
"Not exactly, I used to be his sempai in the Go Club back in middle school. I'm glad to hear he fit in well at the institute."
"Go Club sempai? Oh! Now that you mention it—! You must be the Tsutsui-sempai that started the Go Club that he was talking about that time! Wow, I always imagined you to be… I dunno…"
"Better at Go?" Tsutsui supplied helpfully.
"No! …Well…" Nase fidgeted nervously. "Maybe a little…"
"I'm well aware of my skill level Nase-san, Kaga made sure of that." Tsutsui said dryly. "You won't hurt my feelings I promise. Plus I enjoy it more for the strategy and principles of the game itself. Being good is secondary."
"You're really good at Yose though! You almost caught me a couple of times." Nase paused for a moment. "Actually, since you brought him up… What kind of a person is Kaga-san, really? You two don't even really seem like friends…"
"Are you worried for Yamada-san?"
"A little… She's never had the best taste in boyfriends and Kaga-san seems a little…"
"Crude? Rough? Ill-tempered?"
"Just a little…"
"Well I won't say you're wrong exactly. I don't really know if you could accurately call us friends, he used to mess with me a lot back in middle school and we were always bickering. He'd make me cover for him a lot and come to think of it he never paid me back any of the money he borrowed. He was always rubbing it in my face that he was better at Go than me, too… and then that one time—"
"So, you're saying he's not a good guy?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that… He actually helped me out a lot with the Go Club and offered to teach me how to play Shougi and join his club when that didn't go well, and when it counts he has a way of really coming through for people…
"So, then he is a good guy?"
"That seems like a bit of a stretch… I guess… Have you ever heard of the saying 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'?" Nase nodded tentatively. "The best way I can think to describe him is more like a sheep in wolf's clothing."
She paused contemplatively. "So, in other words, he seems like a bad guy at first, but he's essentially a good guy at heart?"
"For the most part."
"Well… I guess that makes me feel a little better… But really, Tsutsui-san you're something else."
Tsutsui blinked dumbly. "Me?"
"Yeah. You're gentlemanly to a fault, unintimidated by my Go playing, you defend someone who used to bully you, you listened to my ranting like you actually cared, and most of all you haven't tried even once to look up my skirt. It's like hanging out with the guys from the Institute except you can actually understand me. It's almost unsettling."
Tsutsui hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "…So… in other words, I just got friend zoned, didn't I?"
Nase rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I can hardly believe myself. I've wanted a boyfriend so badly lately, but I just—"
"Don't worry about it, I get that a lot actually." Tsutsui said good-humoredly. "I appreciate your honesty. Could we still maybe get together to play Go every now and then though? I don't really have anyone else to play with, and certainly not anyone with your level of skill."
"Of course! That would be great!" Nase said brightly. "Hey, Tsutsui-kun… since we've decided to be friends and all, please be honest, were you attracted to me at all even?"
"Why wouldn't I be? You're a very attractive, pleasant girl, Nase-san."
Nase pouted a bit. "That's just the thing though, you've yet to blush or act awkward and you can say that kind of thing with a completely straight face. Be honest, you would have no desire to sleep with me whatsoever, right?"
Tsutsui seemed to consider it seriously. "More so, I just can't seem to imagine it…"
Nase sipped at her drink contemplatively.
"Tsutsui-kun, are you gay?" She said finally.
"W-What…!?" He stuttered disbelievingly.
"See, now you're blushing. And even though I hate to use stereotypes it kind of makes sense in a way, you know? All the perfect guys are gay."
"Th-That… I've never even considered it…" He managed to say, stuttering only slightly.
"Oh well, it was kind of an awkward question, huh? Sorry about—!"
A tinny rendition of a pop song interrupted and Nase reached into her purse and took out her phone.
"Hello, Keiko? …Yeah, it was fun… No actually… Yes I'm serious… I'll explain it later okay? ….Huh? ….Oh, okay… Tell him we'll be right there… Okay, I'll see ya." She hung up the phone and returned it to her purse.
"Kaga-san says that unless you're back at the mall in less than ten minutes you're walking home, and it's getting kind of late anyways…" Nase paused for a second. "He wouldn't actually…?"
"He would." Tsutsui said wryly.
AN: A lot of this refers to Nase's chapter in volume 18(?) in which she completely fails at dating. Yes, Ayumi Nase the insei. Also her nameless friend who I've conveniently dubbed Keiko Yamada.
Thanks for reading! :D