CHAPTER FIFTEEN – SPECIAL ENCOUNTERS (MoniKenta)

As Monika tied her long brown hair up into a ponytail with her favorite white ribbon, she couldn't help but smile at her reflection in the ornate mirror that stood next to her bed. Kenta had been really worried about what she had planned for the two of them for Sunday since she had told him last night, and while Monika enjoyed watching him panic in an indirectly cute manner as they texted each other, she couldn't hide her own excitement in the end. Poor Kenta's apprehension only grew to epic proportions when she had told him that they would go out today instead of waiting for Sunday. Monika assured him—in between fits of giggles as she texted—that he had nothing to worry about.

"i'm in big trouble now :( big time big trouble"

"don't be! it's gonna be fine, i promise! :D"

"y u do dis 2 me monika :("

";)"

Kenta's panic was eased a little when Monika admitted that she wanted the two of them to go to the mall for the afternoon. She refused to budge about what the surprise would be, however—like she had realized early last night at the arboretum, it didn't matter where the two of them went to; rather, the important thing was what they could do to hang out and pass the time. Somehow, Monika sensed that what she had planned might seem a bit too forward for some, and her excitement was being interrupted by a few fleeting moments of apprehension about everything, but she pushed these thoughts aside. The world of infinite choices was starting to open itself up more and more to her, and she was the one making the decisions now.

Because the afternoons had a habit of growing cold when the sun recedes, Monika decided to prepare for the chill by wearing a brown wool sweater on top of a simple black shirt, with black skinny jeans and a smart pair of white slip-on shoes to match. When she was done tying her ribbon and checking out anything that needed addressing in her chosen attire, she picked up her handbag and exited her room.

Her driver, Mr. Fujita, was having coffee at the dining table while talking to his wife, the housekeeper. The two of them looked up as Monika walked down the stairs. Mrs. Fujita stood up and smoothed out the apron she wore over her simple blue dress. "Will you be coming home for dinner tonight, Miss Monika?" she asked.

"I'll call home and tell you as soon as I know, Mrs. Fujita," said Monika. "I don't know how long I'll be gone, so I might end up eating dinner downtown again."

"Do you need me to drive you there, Miss Monika?" asked old Fujita as he stood up.

"No need, Mr. Fujita," replied Monika cordially. "I'll just walk. The fresh air is always worth it. But I'll call you as well later so that you'll know if I need to be picked up later tonight!"

After taking her leave of the Fujitas with a smile, Monika breathed deeply as she went out the front door and treaded the stone pathway towards her home's front gate, passing by the carefully trimmed hedges and shrubs that dotted the front garden. It was a good day that added to her excited mood greatly, and she could almost feel a spring in her step as she walked down the street and towards downtown. She texted Kenta and saw from his subsequent reply that he was on his way to the mall as well. As she walked, she began thinking idly.

Just a week ago, she had felt so trapped in her predicament, not knowing whether she was permitted to at least go out and be herself. Now, she was going out more to spend some quality time with a new but welcome companion like Kenta, something she had rarely done of her own volition without being shepherded by a gaggle of people who fawned over her—often times, whenever she asked her other friends to go out, they would always flock around her and keep her company like she was a celebrity of some sort. Thus, Kenta came as a breath of fresh air to all that. She still found it rather odd, however, that Kenta of all people was the one whom she felt very comfortable with at the moment, not counting the other people whom she considered genuine in her life. Moreover, like before, she couldn't deny that there was something about the way Kenta was as a person that she found unusually special in spite of his candid simplicity and unabashed way of speaking. Was it the idea that she had been reluctantly coasting so high atop a row of clouds for most of her life that the simple things seemed foreign to her? Had she been trapped for so long in her comfortable but sheltered life that what seems normal is worth exploring without hesitation?

As these thoughts drifted through her mind, Monika soon realized that she was feeling a bit hungry. She had eaten rather sparingly earlier—a simple salad that Mrs. Fujita had prepared—so she mused that a few snacks wouldn't hurt. As she rounded a corner into downtown, she saw a convenience store that caught her eye. She decided to cross the street and buy her snacks there.

The interior of the convenience store was silent apart from the sounds of the air conditioning humming in the air, the quiet noises of some buyers paying for their purchased goods, and the occasional beep from the lone counter's cash register. Monika picked out her snacks from the aisles and refrigerators quickly—three bags of chips and two bottles of fruit juice—and sent another text to Kenta, asking him if he was close to the mall yet. As she took her snacks from the clerk and turned around, she was greeted with a most curious sight.

Sitting at one of tables in the store was her dear classmate Sayori Matsuzaki, one of the few people whom she was on very good terms with. In front of Sayori, holding her hand and looking just as enraptured as she was, there was Akihiro Hasegawa. Monika had known Akihiro as an old classmate and as Sayori's best friend, though admittedly she was not yet too familiar with him as she was with Kenta or Sayori. At first, Monika thought that the two of them were simply hanging around the convenience store as most friends would do, but the way the two of them were holding hands and the misty-eyed expressions on their faces told her that there was something happening between the two of them.

Almost unwittingly, it made her think of Kenta, and that made her call out to them. "Sayori? Akihiro?"

Startled, Sayori quickly pulled away her hand from Akihiro's and turned around. "Monika!" she said, her blue eyes widening a little. "H-How nice to see you here!"

She smiled at them. Sayori's reaction and the way she glanced sideways at Akihiro uneasily told her many things. "Same here. Hello, Akihiro!"

Akihiro smiled nervously back, evidently recognizing her. "Hi, Monika."

"What brings you downtown, Monika?" asked Sayori.

"I'm meeting Kenta over at the mall in a moment. He's a friend from 3-C," she replied. "Just stopped by here to buy some snacks, was getting hungry and all. How about you guys?"

She held back the urge to giggle a little as Sayori laughed shyly, partially confirming her thoughts that the two of them were sharing a tender moment together. Akihiro replied for her. "W-We just got back from somewhere. Hurt my hand a bit, so Sayori dragged me in here so that she could buy some stuff to clean it with. Wouldn't let me go home unless she did."

He held up his left hand, which had a small but bloody wound on it. Sayori looked even more nervous now beside him, as if what she had done was something very awkward, but Monika instead found the entire thing adorable: Sayori doing everything she can to take care of an injury her best friend sustained. This kind of sweetness was what made her count Sayori as a sweet and genuine friend to anyone she encountered, though Monika also sensed that Sayori's sincerity was extra special when it came to Akihiro for obvious reasons.

Monika decided to have a bit of fun. "Well, Sayori's right in that sense, especially when it comes to her best friend," she remarked. "She keeps talking about you in our class, you know?" And indeed, talking extensively about Akihiro was one of Sayori's favorite activities in 3-A, and it was something that Monika always found charming, especially since Sayori was prone to saying these kinds of things with carefree enthusiasm, indicating just how highly she thought of her best friend and how unabashed she was about stating her sentiments about him.

Akihiro smirked a little at Sayori. "Really?" he asked Monika. Next to him, Sayori fidgeted shyly, causing Monika to giggle a bit.

"Yep! She does that a lot of times—lunchtime, during our free periods, or when we have group activities. It's always a running commentary on stuff she thinks you'd enjoy, or how she needs to leave the classroom pronto at four so that you two can go home together."

Sayori's face reddened. "M-Monika!"

Warmed by Sayori's childlike petulance, Monika patted her on the shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with that, Sayori. Besides, I think it's all very sweet! I always see you two walking home after school. It's really a charming sight. Sayori gets teased about it sometimes, but she always tells us it's alright."

"I didn't know that," Akihiro mumbled in an amused tone. The two of them were visibly refraining from laughing out loud as Sayori hid her red face in her hands.

"Oh, trust me. Sayori only says nice and sweet things about you!" Monika continued mirthfully. "She always tells us how you keep helping her with all kinds of things, like at school, and the stuff you do sometimes after school. If I didn't know she was talking about you, I'd have assumed she was talking about someone else, like a boyfriend!"

"Well, I thought she was telling you guys something worse about me, like me being a slacker or a future candidate for NEET," Akihiro stated jokingly.

"Y-You two are both meanies!" Sayori exclaimed.

This time, Monika and Akihiro couldn't help but laugh. Monika decided to assure Sayori that it was all just friendly banter by patting her again on her shoulder. "I mean that in a good way, Sayori," she told her. "Besides, I'm rather jealous of you two, you know?"

And in a way, she was a little jealous indeed. The level of intimacy that these two best friends had with each other, with their jokes and teasing punctuated with moments of seriousness and closeness like how she had found them earlier. . . these were things that Monika had yet to experience, things that she could only address through her poems and thoughts.

"Don't you have, like, a ton of friends?" asked Akihiro.

"Yeah, inside and o-outside of class!" Sayori chimed in.

Monika blinked. She remembered Kenta asking the same questions as well before. The memory of it and the truth behind it—that in spite of how many people knew her, there were very few that she could consider real friends—made her smile sadly. "Well, s-sure. But . . . I don't know. Sometimes I just imagine what it feels like to have a really close friend all the time. Kenta's an awesome guy to be with, but we don't always have time to meet. Everything's always so formal and strict and . . ."

What is this? Am I . . . Am I making excuses?

Feeling conscious all of a sudden about this, with her mind suddenly thinking about Kenta again, Monika decided to focus instead on the exciting afternoon she had planned with him. She shook her head and smiled once more. "Ah, I'm just droning on a bit now. Anyway, are you two going anywhere else?"

Kenta stared at the glass windows of the random clothing store he was standing in front of, and yet his eyes were staring at nothing in particular. His nervousness was mounting with each passing minute as he waited for Monika. He had arrived earlier at the mall than she did, and while he preferred it that way over being late any day, he wanted nothing more than to start their afternoon hangout immediately. Thankfully, because he often went downtown with Daisuke and Naoki during Saturdays ever since they were in middle school, his mother didn't sniff out anything suspicious. His older sister, who was the more vigilant guesser, had gone off somewhere, saving him the trouble of being figured out. Moreover, he hadn't told Daisuke and Naoki yet about what happened last night, even as they texted him over and over once he had gotten home. Kenta decided to forego telling them until tomorrow or Monday in school.

That Monika scheduled their downtown trip a day earlier out of excitement struck Kenta profoundly. Granted, he was excited as well, but he had been caught rather off guard by this surprising turn of events that he couldn't even sleep well last night, well after Monika had texted him goodnight. Like he had told her back at the arboretum, he didn't do well with any kind of surprises, and less so when he was the one being surprised. Luckily, regardless of whatever Monika may have planned, he still had most of the money he had saved at the ready for hopefully any kind of trip that the mall would give them.

Dressing up for a downtown trip with Daisuke and Naoki usually took him ten minutes tops, but Kenta had found himself enduring thrice as long as that as he rummaged around his cabinet for clothes that Monika would not find too casual. With this being the first time that they would see each other in clothing other than their school or P.E. uniforms, Kenta felt the need to dress for the occasion. In the end, however, his best clothes amounted to only a grey hoodie, his newest pair of black jeans and his favorite black sneakers, so he settled for these.

Monika arrived almost ten minutes after he did. She looked nothing short of spectacular even in just a brown sweater, a pair of jeans and white shoes. She waved her hand and quickened her pace once Kenta caught sight of her.

"Hello! Sorry if I arrived a bit late," she said happily. "I bought us some snacks, and I ran into a couple of friends before I got here."

"That's alright," said Kenta with a grin, slightly embarrassed at the thought that Monika had just bought something for the two of them. "So, um . . . w-what are we gonna do?"

Now that Monika had arrived, his nervousness about the rest of the afternoon reached its peak. He knew that Monika wasn't far from being a girl full of surprises, and that an afternoon of simple window shopping wasn't what she had in mind.

"Well, since we're here already, I may as well tell you," said Monika, giggling. "We're going to go watch a movie!"

Kenta stared, completely at a loss for words as his face turned red. Going to the mall or the arboretum or the night market seemed simple and innocent enough. Watching movies was a whole different matter, especially when a girl—and a girl as beautiful and perfect as Monika no less—was involved. It made him suddenly conscious of the degree of physical intimacy it may have. In their previous encounters, he always maintained a respectful physical distance from Monika—such as sitting across from her at a table or being at arm's length away from her as they walked side by side—and only she could close that gap if she wished. In a cinema, however, they would have to sit a bit closer next to each other.

Monika laughed some more as he scratched his head nervously. "Are you okay?" she asked gaily.

"Y-Yeah, never better!" he blurted out, trying to laugh along with her. "I'm just, ah . . . um . . ."

His words trailed off when Monika patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. "It's okay," she told him, winking. "You one-upped me with your surprise trip to the arboretum yesterday, so I figured I'd return the favor!"

Kenta bowed, wanting nothing more than to pull his hoodie over his head to hide the redness of his face. "W-Well, I think that even if y-you told me what you had in mind, I still wouldn't have been p-prepared for it. . ." he admitted. "But don't get me wrong, I'm totally down with it. W-Watching a movie with you, I mean!"

Monika's emerald eyes shone as she beamed. "I'm glad to hear that, Kenta."

Within fifteen minutes, they were sitting comfortably inside one of the cinemas on the mall's second floor, ready to watch the movie that Monika had chosen: Silver Solstice, which appeared to be a drama flick with a bit of romance in it. Though such movies weren't always part of his to-watch list, Kenta was more than willing to try out something new for a change, especially where Monika was involved. Initially, Monika was worried that she might be forcing him to watch something only she liked, but he assured her that it was all good with him by stating the other romance and drama movies he had watched at home with his mother and sister when there was nothing else to do.

The inside of the cinema wasn't as jam-packed as Kenta had initially expected it to be, leaving the two of them to choose where to sit freely. Monika settled for a spot close to the front rows at the right side of the cinema. Kenta followed dutifully behind her, clutching the plastic bag of snacks she had bought earlier as well as a small tub of popcorn and a couple of candy bars they had bought at the cinema's snack booth. As Monika sat down, Kenta considered for a moment before sitting down one seat away from her.

Monika glanced at him. "Kenta, why are you sitting there?"

Kenta grimaced awkwardly, stammering, "Well, I figured that w-we could just, you know, set the snacks down in this seat b-between us so . . . um, y-you know . . ."

As usual, Monika defused his words skillfully with another beautiful smile. "You can sit next to me, silly. It's alright."

"Ah, w-well, um . . . are you . . . are you s-sure about t-t-that?"

Monika nodded.

As the movie progressed on-screen, Monika was caught in a roller-coaster ride of emotions and reactions. Despite its obvious premise as a romantic drama movie, Silver Solstice had many moments that had her smiling wistfully or tugging at the sleeves of her sweater, both from the protagonists' saccharine encounters with each other to their somber moments of turmoil and despair with their families. Even as someone who has never had a significant other, she felt attached to the experiences that were being depicted. In particular, the female protagonist's conflict about her feelings for the male protagonist had her wishing that she could write a poem on the spot to relay the raw emotions the movie was giving her.

Beside her, Kenta was watching in an immersed manner as well. Again, she had felt rather guilty about inviting him to watch something that he may not be comfortable with, but Kenta surprised her by actually focusing on the movie, asking about certain pieces of dialogue that he may have missed in hearing, and even giving reactions to some of the dramatic encounters, though not to the point of disturbing her too much. Monika found herself guessing at first whether or not Kenta was merely pretending to be interested, but the way he spoke and looked at the screen somehow told her that he was really watching the movie with her instead of for her. In particular, Kenta was attached to the family issues that the protagonists were experiencing, most especially the way that the male protagonist was seeking approval from his parents for the career he was trying to follow. As Kenta spoke to her, Monika was reminded of what he had shared last night at the arboretum about his father and what else the two of them had in common.

The movie ended around the early evening. Long after they had exited the cinema, the two of them were still talking about the movie's points. Monika was pleasantly surprised at how accurately Kenta picked up on many things in spite of the simple way he discussed them with her. It was all an additional testament to the hidden profundity that Kenta kept hidden under his unswerving and slapdash exterior. To think that he was still feigning interest would be foolish at this point for her.

As the two of them walked and talked, for the second time that day, Monika ran into Sayori and Akihiro, who were walking very closely together and talking cheerfully with each other. The four of them converged outside a clothing store, with Monika formally introducing Kenta to the two before asking them how their day had gone. She guessed from they were dressed right now—Sayori in a brown wool coat over a grey dress, black leggings and matching white shoes, Akihiro with a jacket over a black shirt, a pair of grey jeans with black sneakers—that the two of them had definitely gone on a date that started at the Cocoa Connection.

When the four of them went their separate ways, Monika became unable to stop herself from teasing the two of them one more time by calling out to them to say how good of a couple they were. Monika was still giggling when she and Kenta entered a donburi restaurant to have their dinner there; Akihiro had looked very flustered at her words as Sayori practically dragged him off into the distance, her face turning scarlet.

"She's gonna be pretty peeved at me when we see each other again this Monday," said Monika gaily. "But I can't help it. Don't they just look perfect together?"

"Well, I don't know them that much, but they do look like a good couple," replied Kenta. "Are they current classmates of yours?"

"Only Sayori," said Monika. "Akihiro was my classmate last year. I'm just really happy that they're taking this direction with their relationship, especially with how long they've been best friends. I mean, if you've heard Sayori talk about Akihiro when he's not around, you'd know what exactly she was thinking."

Kenta smiled. "That's pretty nice."

The place they had gone into—a small joint aptly named Little Bowls—wasn't as polished as the Cocoa Connection, with its ordinary table tops and brown leather seats enshrined in an interior with dark grey vinyl walls adorned with the restaurant's food items on large posters, but it was nonetheless a comfortable place. The next fifteen minutes were spent discussing the remaining points of Silver Solstice as the two of them ate—Kenta with gyūdon, Monika with an all-veggie donburi, with the bill split between them.

Soon, Monika's mind wandered back towards the image of Sayori and Akihiro walking together, which soon led to her thinking once again about how envious she rather felt earlier. It wasn't a negative kind of envy that was directed at anyone—after all, she was very happy indeed for Akihiro and Sayori—but it made her conscious about her situation nonetheless. She looked at Kenta, who was busy shoveling beef and rice into his mouth with his chopsticks. She set down her own chopsticks and sighed.

Without thinking, she asked, "Kenta, have you ever had a girlfriend?"

Kenta coughed and sputtered, evidently startled to the point of choking a little on his food. Monika hastily cried out, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to surprise you like that!"

Kenta waved his hand as he set his bowl down, downing his glass of iced tea in one go. He cleared his throat loudly, and Monika could see his ears almost as red as his hair. "It's alright, no worries," he gasped as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I just wasn't expecting . . . that kind of question."

"I apologize if it was too forward," said Monika worriedly. "I wasn't exactly thinking straight when I said it."

"No, it's okay, I'm fine now," said Kenta as he breathed deeply to calm himself. "A-Anyway, to answer your question . . . nope, never had a g-girlfriend. Ever."

Monika didn't know whether to be surprised or not. "Not even a childhood sweetheart?"

Kenta shook his head. "To tell you the truth, I'm . . . n-not exactly that great with girls," he said, looking down. "I mean, that's always been the case."

"But I'm sure you tried going out with someone before," Monika remarked.

"Well, y-yeah," said Kenta. "'Tried,' take note," he added with a short laugh. "Anyway, er . . . why d-did you ask?"

Why indeed? Monika fell silent. She reflected on the question like she would with a debate topic, wondering what to answer. Her emotional side told her that it was merely a harmless accident, borne from the envy she felt at having no significant other yet, but her logical side deduced that she didn't need to blurt out such a question simply because of how she felt, and that she shouldn't feel too envious because there was nothing wrong with her having no relationship experience yet.

"Um, it's okay, you don't h-have to answer that," Kenta went on after a few silent moments.

Monika glanced at him apologetically, her focus broken. "I'm sorry, Kenta. I was just thinking, that's all. . ." She gave him a wistful smile. "Sayori and Akihiro looked really happy together and I just . . . ah, it's a bit embarrassing to say."

"W-Wait, it's okay if you d-don't wanna say it," said Kenta with reassurance. "I mean, I'm not gonna, um, force you to s-say it if you're uncomfortable and all. . ."

She let out a small sigh, knowing that the only person stopping her from saying anything else was herself. Enough with the excuses. "Well . . . the thing is, we both tried," she said with a shy giggle.

"Huh? Tried what?"

Like what she always did whenever she wanted to completely gather her thoughts, she placed her hands on the table and took a deep breath. "I tried going out as well with my former admirers," she admitted earnestly. "I mean, it couldn't hurt to somehow get closer to them and see where circumstances would take us, right? But somehow, I never felt connected to them. It's not that they were bad guys or anything; it's just that they never seemed to form a solid connection with me. I know I might sound like I'm being too choosy or nitpicky just because they say I'm beautiful and all, or because they're not my type, but . . . um, you do understand, right, Kenta?"

For a moment, Kenta looked put out. Monika mused that it was because of what she said about going out with some of her admirers. "Uh, y-yeah, of course," he replied after a few silent seconds. "B-But I don't think you're being choosy or something like that. I mean, of course you'd wanna have a relationship where you f-feel really close to the other person, get to know them properly and . . . and stuff. That's a really important part in any relationship—and it's also something that I may have, um . . . failed to understand when I tried dating girls back then."

"Oh? What happened?" she asked.

Kenta sighed. "Well, back when I was in middle school trying to date girls, I did it by being . . . me, and that's me as in the loud and annoying blockhead that I still might be. I approached girls and tried to bond with them by just goofing around and showing off and stuff—I didn't try making friends and getting close because I thought I was basically good enough already. My friends told me that my approach was understandable because I was being all macho and stuff, but I realized later on that it wasn't exactly the best thing to do if I would go looking for a girlfriend. Now that I look back, it's pretty embarrassing, really."

"Ah, yes, that's understandable," she told him. "We all went through similar things when we were younger. There's nothing to be ashamed of. The good thing is that we grow out of those phases and start maturing into someone better, hmm?"

"Yeah, exactly," said Kenta. "It's just funny that when I started acting more mature and stuff, that's when I stopped, um, looking for a girlfriend. I mean, people like you may tell me that I've changed for the better sometimes, but there are just moments when I don't exactly believe it for myself, and that's . . . that's what may have stopped me from, you know, meeting girls and stuff."

He laughed nervously as he said this. She smiled at him, staring deep into his eyes. "That's alright, Kenta. I understand. Anyway, what I wanted to say about Sayori and Akihiro is that . . . I felt a bit jealous towards them."

"Um, jealous?"

"Oh, it's not that I wanna butt in on their relationship and all, of course," Monika quickly added. "I meant that their closeness, their years of friendship, I feel that those are already good foundations for their current relationship. I wish I had those kinds of foundations with someone, you know? Like, knowing someone really well and having established a good friendship with them already, so that if things ever go to the next level, it wouldn't be that difficult to . . . to take that next big step. It may sound a bit lame, but I sometimes find myself thinking, 'When am I going to experience something like that?'"

Kenta looked at her, evidently thinking of what to say. "W-Well, let's just say that . . . I know how you feel," he told her with a comforting tone. "But it's . . . it's never too late, y'know?"

"Yes," said Monika with a meaningful nod. "It's never too late."

As they carried on with eating, Monika knew that like what she realized before, it was indeed never too late to establish such foundations with someone, and that just because she had been caught up in the monotonous aspects of her life didn't mean she could never break away from them to do just that. As she mused on these thoughts, she kept staring at Kenta, who would often match her glance accidentally as they finished eating in relative silence. It was as if whenever she would balk on what she needed to say or think about, she always found her answers in his opal eyes.

It was a thought that made her blush. She giggled a little as she realized it.

Seeming to have noticed this, Kenta asked a bit confusedly, "What is it?"

Monika brushed away a lock of hair from her cheek, smiling. "Nothing," she lied.