17. Wishbone

Usagi sauntered into the arcade, making a beeline for the counter before swiftly plopping herself onto a stool beside Mamoru. There were plenty of vacant seats around at the hour, but there was no way she was going to miss an encounter with the guy if she could help it.

"What are you doing?" she asked, by way of greeting.

Without looking up from his novel, he answered disinterestedly, "Studying."

She frowned. "What are you studying?"

"Physics."

"Go figures," she said, rolling her eyes. Leave it to the man to pick the most difficult of the sciences to pursue. "Don't you ever get tired of studying?"

"No, I enjoy learning," came his stern reply. She didn't overlook the fact that throughout their entire conversation, he never looked up from his text once.

Frustrated that she wasn't getting more out of him, she scrambled around in her bag and pulled out an ivory-coloured wishbone.

Shoving it into the space between Mamoru's nose and the book he was buried in, she finally earned a curious glance from him.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's a wishbone. You're supposed to grab onto one side of the bone while another person grabs onto the other. Then on a count of three, you both close your eyes, make a wish, and pull. Once it breaks, the person with the longest piece will get their wish fulfilled."

"So what do you want me to do with it?"

"Grab onto the other end, of course, and make a wish. At least one of our wishes will come true," she said, wagging the bone in front of his face. "Just do it, you might get to wish for an A on your test or something, and then maybe you can finally take a break."

Eyeing her cautiously, he eventually shrugged his shoulders and put down his book. Closing their eyes, they each grasped onto one of the forked ends of the bone and pulled. A loud crack indicated its demise, and they looked down into their hands to see the result. It was Mamoru who held the longer piece of the bone.

"Congrats," said Usagi, giving him a wistful smile. She looked away to hide her disappointment, but Mamoru managed to catch a glimpse of her fallen face before she turned. The hope that had been in her eyes only seconds ago seemed to have evaporated, along with any chance that her wish would come true.

"What did you wish for?" he asked.

"For you to stop teasing me so that maybe we could be friends," came the small voice.

He instantly felt a painful stab in his heart at her confession. "Does it really bother you that much? I didn't think you minded, since you were always ready with an equally sharp retort."

The only response he received was a shrug, as she continued to look away.

"If that's what you want, then I won't call you names anymore," he said, extending out a hand towards her. "How about we start over? I'm Mamoru."

She turned around, unsure of what to make of the gesture. But his unwavering charming smile eventually caused her to cave in, and she gratefully accepted the proffered hand. "I'm Usagi," she said, smiling back.

Shaking hands, they briefly shared a moment of mutual amity as they bid their disagreeable past together goodbye. When Mamoru stood up to leave, Usagi called out to him. "Wait!"

He looked back down at her with a questioning glance.

"So what was your wish?" she asked.

A mischievous glint crept into his eyes, as he cocked his head to the side and replied, "For your wish to come true."

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