"And then Ryuuji asked me out, and I said yes."
Ami displayed a big grin as she finished telling the story to Minori, Yasuku, Maya, Koji, Noto, and Nanako. They sat in awe and looked over at Ryuuji. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and looked down at his lunchbox. Ami smiled and picked up one of the two rice balls Ryuuji had given her. He had used leftover miso soup ingredients and leftover rice to make theses miso-flavored rice balls.
"And look. He made me some miso rice balls."
"So, it was Takasu who asked you out?" asked Noto for clarification. Noto Hisamitsu was in good terms with Ryuuji and could be considered a distant friend. He had short, spiked hair that was brown and light brown, squared-lens glasses that had thin, white plastic frames on the top edge of the lens. He had black eyes and white skin that was slightly tan. Like the other males in his class, he wore a black Gakuran.
"And Kawashima said yes," sighed Koji. Koji Haruta was another student who was in good terms with Ryuuji. He had long, blue hair that reached the middle of his neck and had black eyes. He was slightly taller than his friend Noto and a tad shorter than Ryuuji, almost to the point where it was unnoticeable from a few feet away. His skin was lighter than Noto's skin. Koji was what is considered to be the class clown, and his spunky personality followed the title. "Why, Kawashima?"
"Eh? Well, I find him interesting."
Ryujji rolled his eyes back.
"Plus, he's nice and caring. And my Ryuuji's such a great cook."
Ryuuji looked back at Ami with widened eyes to see her smile. He warmly smiled back, but he soon felt the fire that was boiling behind him. He looked behind him to see Taiga tapping her white rice ball with her finger. After a couple more times of tapping it, the rice fell apart. Taiga sighed and got up.
"I'm going to get some chopsticks," she said while Ryuuji saw the cold look in her eyes.
Taiga turned around and walked out of the classroom. As she did, Ami had watched her leave the room with curiosity in her eyes. When Taiga cleared the classroom, Minori got up herself and pointed her index finger at the classroom backdoor.
"Taiga shouldn't be left alone."
Ryuuji watched Minori leave as her words, though meaningless to others, jabbed him. Ami noticed this and tugged on Ryuuji's sleeve from underneath the table. He looked at her as she leaned closer to Ryuuji's ear.
"Hey, Takasu," she whispered. "She already knows about the script, so don't worry. Don't know why she's mad if she knows."
The events of the morning filled Ryuuji's mind.
Ami was waiting at the park for Ryuuji and Taiga. She was on a swing, just sitting there, until they arrived. She walked off the children's playground and wanted to greet them both with a smiling face. However, her face had confusion on it when she saw Taiga's scornful face and Ryuuji's foot-printed face.
"Did I miss something?"
Ryuuji lifted up his left hand. From his hand dangled a box wrapped in a pink handkerchief. Ami looked at Ryuuji and saw his nod to her. She wordlessly took the box as Ryuuji explained himself.
"I made rice balls out of the leftover miso ingredients. Though you probably have your own lunch, I thought this would be better, after hearing that you buy your lunchboxes from the convenient store."
"Oh-h," Ami blushed. "Um… Th-thank you. I know th-this will be b-b-better."
"You should be grateful, Stupidchi," said Taiga. "We were going to run late if he made everything, so I helped him make the sauce for it."
"Oh. Well…um, thank you both for making this for me… Taiga, why does Takasu have a shoeprint on his face?"
"I found out there wasn't enough rice for two rice balls each, so only one for me."
"I already told you that yours had some sausage in it!"
Ryuuji looked back at Ami.
"We should leave before we're all late."
"Oh!" expressed Ami. "Before I forget…"
Ami placed the lunch box in her purse for the time being. She then took out two pieces of paper from her back and handed one to Ryuuji. Ryuuji was about to look at it when Taiga snatched it from his hand. Taiga could only look at it for a few seconds until Ami snatched it back and gave it back to Ryuuji.
"Geez, Taiga. Don't you have any manners?"
Taiga narrowed her eyes.
"Like you're the one to talk."
Ami huffed and stuck out her tongue at Taiga. Taiga's eyes shot up with anger and was about to lose it when the sound of Ryuuji's voice stopped her.
"Wh-wh-what is th-this?"
Ami beamed.
"It's our love script," she said proudly. "It came to me that in order to make our relationship believable; we eventually have to tell about how we became a couple."
"A-an-and th-this is-isn't em-emba-embarrassing to you?"
"Not at all," Ami slyly replied and then winked at Ryuuji.
While Ryuuji was stunned by what to say, Taiga took the paper and scanned it. As she continued to read bits and pieces of it, her eyes grew more and more dully.
"And after we left the coffee shop, Taiga said she had stuff to do, so she left. Ryuuji and I stayed at the coffee shop, still taking about things we wanted, our goals, and stuff like that. Ryuuji has this dream of being a chef… We then walked to a park…stopped at a fountain spout…Ryuuji then asked me to be…h-his…gi-girl-fri-fri-friend…I said yes."
Taiga looked up at Ami with her right eye twitching.
"Wha-wha…. What the hell is this! God, I think I'm gonna barf."
Ryuuji took the paper away from Taiga and read it silently to himself as Ami explained.
"What? It's just a script so we can keep the story straight. I thought it would be a good idea so that we don't mess up the facts."
Ami winked.
"So, what do you think? I spent only a few hours writing it. Do you think Ami got what it takes to be a script writer…or maybe a director?"
Ryuuji looked up at Ami.
"I don't know if we should do this. Wouldn't it be better to just tell the class about what we're doing? We're going to tell them anyway."
Ami sighed and pointed her index finger at Ryuuji. The guy was taken by how fierce her stance was.
"No. Someone might not follow the plan and ruin everything. Listen, I only trust you and Taiga to keep your mouth shuts about this."
Trust me, Taiga thought and then secretly smiled.
"Okay. Okay. We'll go by the plan."
Ryuuji looked at the script again to memorize it.
Still, this is embarrassing.
"Takasu," called out a voice. "Earth to Takasu."
Ryuuji blinked back into the present and looked around to face Koji.
"Huh?"
"Ah, there. You're out of the trance. You were probably daydreaming or something. Answer Kitamura's question."
Ryuuji faced his best friend, Yusuka Kitamura. He was the student representative of the class. He had somewhat of a toned body with white skin, a little darker than Koji's skin. He wore full-framed, rounded-lens glasses that had a metal framework. His eyes were dark blue-green eyes and hair. His hair was in a way that it looked like a short skater mop hair style. He was about the same height as Ryuuji. Before the student council president had left for America, he had confessed his feelings to her. He then became student council president; he was already baseball club president. Ryuuji smiled disconcertedly.
"I'm sorry. What did you ask, Kitamura?"
"I was wondering how long ago you asked Kawshima to be your girlfriend."
"Oh," Ryuuji replied, rubbing his finger on the side of his chin. "A week ago."
Ryuuji remembered that Ami never put a date on the script. He then felt a small kick from the side. He looked over at Ami, only to see her annoyed face.
"Ryuuji, you idiot. It was last Sunday. That was about ten days ago."
"O-Oh, yes," said Ryuuji. "Sorry Kitamura. I was still thinking on where Kawashima wants to go this weekend."
Hopefully, that saved me.
"EH?" came everyone's voice except for Yusuka and Ami.
"You're taking me out somewhere?" asked a slightly blushing Ami.
Ryuuji then realized he dug a new hole after getting out of the other one.
"Oh…um… Yes."
"Like a date?" asked Ami with a tempting smile.
"D-D-D-Date!" Koji over dramatically exclaimed.
Ryuuji tried to keep calm, but he could not stop the blood rushing to his cheek.
"My, Ryuuji. I can't wait."
"Takasu, would you help me getting a few drinks from the vending machine?"
Ryuuji felt uneasy by walking with Yusuka to get drinks, but it would be less rowdy than what was going on in the classroom. He nodded and followed Yusuka out of class. As the two walked down the hallway to reach the vending machines, Yusuka spoke.
"Takasu, did Kawashima pressure you in anyway?"
Takasu gritted his teeth behind his mouth, worried that Yusuka probably figured something out.
"Why would you say that?"
"You know how she is. Her true colors. Tell me the truth. Did she trick you in anyway? Possibly blackmail?"
"No," stated Ryuuji, knowing that it was true Ami did not trick him in anyway. "Ami and I got to know each other better, became good friends, and started to grow interested with each other. It is just a typical ask-her-out scenario."
"Mm… That may be true, but it's weird that you two announced it just yesterday when you were a couple ten days ago. Our school would've figured it out by now."
"Ami wanted to keep a low profile," said Ryuuji and then sighed. "She was testing me."
"Testing you?"
"Yeah… Um… You know how celebrities get together a break up quickly. She just wanted to see if it would work between us, and after seeing that it would, then announce it."
"Seems kind of pushing of Kawashima."
I was thinking the same thing, thought Ryuuji, while he imagined Ami laughing as she played with a stringed puppet that had the appearance of him.
"But Kawashima seems serious about you, and I think it will work out."
Ryuuji smiled, but his smile soon disappeared as he saw Yusuka's frightening face.
"Still, you could have told your best friend."
"Sorry, Kitamura," apologized Ryuuji, slightly bowing his head.
The two made it to the vending machines. Ryuuji inserted a couple of coins and got three drinks. As Yusuka inserted a few coins into the machine and faced Ryuuji.
"You said you're taking Kawashima on a date this weekend, right?"
"Y-yes," said Ryuuji, wishing he had not publicly announced it.
"My advice is to take her where she can be herself. Though I see her happy now, I know that she is still faking the presentation, if you get what I'm saying."
"…You mean she's being the fake Ami now at school, even though I'm with her."
Yasaku nodded.
"Since it will be you two alone, she will show her true self on your date, so it is best to take her where she can also be her true self."
In the middle of Yasaku's explanation to him, Ryuuji had slightly blushed when his friend mentioned the phrases your date and two alone. He took a moment to seriously think of what Yasaku said, and he agreed that he should take Ami to where she could be her true self. He smiled.
"Thanks Kitamura for the advice."
The two friends walked back to class with drinks for their friends. As they entered the class, Ryuuji stood still as he saw that Taiga had returned to her seat, coldly staring at him. A chill traveled down his spine as Yakasu and he sat down on their seats. Ryuuji gave one drink to Ami, who smiled as she received the canned juice. He then turned to Taiga, who had her eyes narrowed. She snatched the drink out of his giving hand and tabbed the top of it with a finger.
"Say, Ryuuji," she said so cold that Ryuuji felt the blizzard raging inside of her. "I just heard you're going on a date with Stupidchi."