Chapter 3: Will You Be My Valentine?
5 years later
"Happy birthday, little man!" Kumiko told her son while she sat on the side of his bed. "Mom, I'm 10 years old. I'm not a baby anymore." Morishige groaned as he was
woken up. "You'll always be my little baby in my eyes. Now get dressed. Don't want to be late for school, do we?" she smiled. "I hate school. Everyone's mean to me."
the boy complained. "What about Mayu? She's always nice to you and that Seiko girl is nice to the both of you." Morishige bolted up and out of bed as he remembered
he had to give Mayu his gifts. He ran in his closet and uncovered his present for Mayu, completely ignoring what he and his mother had said about school life. He had
two tickets for Kisaragi's upcoming rendition of Phantom of the Opera, a recipe for blackberry crepes, a box of chocolates shaped like Hello Kitty, and a bouquet of tiger
lilies. "You know how to win the ladies over, you handsome little devil." the woman smiled at her confident son. He walked out to his mother's car and planned out
what would happen. "Mayu's gonna love her presents! If she really likes them then she'll ask me out to the Valentine's dance tonight and we'll get married and always
love each other!" Meanwhile at the Suzumoto household, Mayu was finishing her breakfast and preparing her gift for Shig. She got him a copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh,
a complete anthology of Shakespeare, and tickets for the dance that night. She gave him the best she could get and the dance was the one thing that was on her
mind and she wanted the night to enhance their friendship. Both kids made their way to school with no trouble, as per usual, and excitedly met each other in the
lobby. "Happy Valentine's Day, Mayu! Will you be my Valentine this year?" he asked her, already confident of her answer, after giving her huge set of presents. "Of
course I will! I'll always be your Valentine, Shig!" Mayu blushed madly and with her widest smile yet. Morishige was frozen at her words. Always his Valentine? "You
really mean that Mayu? Because if you want I'll always be your Valentine too!" "Of course I do silly guy and I would be so happy if you were my Valentine forever. I got
you something special too." Mayu told him, handing over her presents to him. Her best friend was so excited about what he had gotten, he forgot about asking Mayu
to the dance. "I also got two tickets for us to go to the Valentine's dance. Want to go?" Morishige lost all control and gave Mayu a great big bear hug. "O thank you,
Mayu! I was going to ask but I wasn't sure if you'd want to go with me. Is Seiko coming too?" Shig wondered. "Yes, but she's bringing her new friend. I think her name
is Naomi. Seiko has the biggest crush on her, and her friend sounds really nice. Anyways, we should hurry to homeroom before the bell rings." Mayu insisted, holding
Morishige's hand on the way to class. Even though Shig and Mayu were in all the same classes together, they were always forced to sit far away from each other. He
hated sitting were he sat because Kito, the class bully, sat right next to him. He had been harassing Shig since kindergarten and hadn't let up. "Hey, bookworm. Are
you going to the dance tonight? O wait no you're not, because all the girls like me." Kito boasted. "You're so full of yourself, you big jerk! You WISHED all the girl's liked
you." Sakutaro snarled. Kito glared down at the smaller boy and shoved him out of his desk to gain access to the gifts Mayu had gotten him. "What's this? Books?
Blah!" he yelled before he got to Morishige's ticket. "So you are going to the dance. Who's taking you? I bet it's your mom." All the kids seemed to be laughing at him
and Sakutaro hid his red as a cherry face onto his desk. Mayu walked up to Shig to make sure he was alright. "Where's the teachers when you need them?" Mayu
thought to herself in anger. She had never felt genuinely angry before until now when her best friend was being harassed for having a date to the biggest dance for
Kisaragi's middle school. Kito took notice of Mayu and started to hit on her. "Hey, forget that loser. Go to the dance with me. I'll make sure he doesn't bother you
again." Shig heard his words and shoved Kito as soon as he got up. "Stay away from Mayu! If you touch her I'll kill you...you...asshole!" Everyone was surprised at
Morishige's choice of words and tone including Mayu, Kito, and Shig himself. "Ok, break it up you two." the teacher told the students as he walked into the classroom.
Morishige picked up all his belongings off the floor and sat back in his desk. Basic science was always a boring class for him, despite always getting good grades. He
spent most of his time drawing out his thoughts while his subconscious seamlessly picked up on all the material. Today he was drawing Mayu crying from himself
embarrassing her and going out with Kito instead of him. He was imagining himself stabbing Kito in the heart and Mayu being all over him. He knew these thoughts
weren't normal for a 10 year old, but then again nothing about him was normal. He quickly closed his notebook as soon as class ended so no one would think him
crazy and so he and Mayu would get to math class on time. "Mayu, I didn't embarrass you did I?" Shig asked as they walked down the halls. "What do you mean?" she
asked innocently. "In homeroom did I embarrass you at all?" "Of course not! You did the right thing. Besides Kito isn't very nice and I don't like mean people. Like
everyone deserves a friend, but no one should be mean to other people." Mayu told him. Sakutaro sighed with relief at this revelation and was able to carry on with
the rest of the day without a problem. As soon as he got home, Morishige took a hot shower and put on the tuxedo his mom got him last year while Mayu was wearing
her new powder blue dress that looked like it would belong to a noble. They both made sure neither one was going to be an embarrassment to the other and that
they would have a good time. Mayu was even planning to confess her crush on Shig. Morishige arrived later than he'd hoped and was greeted by three impatient girls.
"C'mon, slowpokes! We're behind on our dancing! Don't go kissing you two!" Seiko laughed at Mayu and Morishige. Naomi let out a giggle at the friends misfortune and
rushed off to dance with her friend even though Seiko considered her more than that. "I'm not good at dancing, Mayu." Sakutaro sweated. "Don't worry. I can't either.
Let's just have fun tonight, ok boyfriend?" Mayu said. "What was that last part? Did you call me your boyfriend?" Morishige questioned the nervous brown haired girl.
"Of course not! We're just friends." she reasoned. In her head she was kicking herself for not being honest, but she knew he didn't like her the way she did and
wouldn't confess her love until she knew he loved her back. Morishige kicked himself in his mind for asking such an embarrassing question. Of course Mayu doesn't like
him like that and that small glimmer of hope that he and Mayu were boyfriend and girlfriend diminished but wasn't completely gone. He knew he had to wait for the
right moment to tell her how he really felt. Kito noticed Shig and Suzumoto having fun and left his date to go pick on the friends. "Hey, four eyes! Give me those
glasses of yours!" he yelled. He and Morishige struggled but Kito grabbed his glasses and rammed his foot onto them, shattering the glass into millions of tiny little
pieces. Seiko and Naomi saw the whole thing happen and ran to defend the young couple. "Leave Morishige alone, jerkoff!" Shinohara yelled at the bully. Kito blew a
piece of his purple hair out of his face and scoffed at her. "Why should I listen to some slut? You like other girls and that's just sick!" Seiko was so close to tearing him
a new one but Naomi stopped her. "Leave him alone, Shinohara. He's not worth it." Kito walked away and the four kids got back to the dance. Mayu noticed how much
fun her friend and her date were having and tried copying some of their dance moves with her date. Shig kept bumping into Mayu because he couldn't see where he
was going, yet Mayu couldn't care less. Both kids and their two friends were having so much fun despite the drama endured earlier. At the end of the night during the
classic slow dance Mayu placed her head against Morishige's chest to which he let out a surprised gasp. Her innocent, pearly green eyes met with his own and she
kissed him on the corner of his mouth. Morishige's eyes widened and he took no incentive to kiss her back. It was an accident right? He wanted her to kiss him, but
knew that if he even enjoyed it Mayu would never want to talk to him ever again. Mayu was rather disappointed that Shig didn't respond to her act of love but she
didn't let it show. After all, maybe another day will happen were they both finally proclaim their true feelings towards each other.