Friday, 4/22

Ren and Ann both stood up from their desks when the bell rang. They looked at each other. Ann had an excited look on her face. He smiled at her. They left together for the roof. They didn't say much on the way. They opened the doors to the roof. Ryuji was already there, sitting at one of the desks and playing a game on his phone. Haru was gardening. Ann went to meet Haru, leaving Ryuji to Ren.

How does he beat me to the roof everytime? He's always waiting for me. Is he ditching class?

Ren walked up to Ryuji. Ryuji looked up from his phone.

"Wassup, dude? You ready for our first meeting?" Ryuji said as he smiled at Ren.

"I was born ready." Ren replied. He then leaned in close to Ryuji and lowered his voice to almost a whisper. "You gonna be alright with Ann? I hear that you two have a history."

Ryuji laughed.

"I'll be fine. I've moved on. I'm a new man." He said.

Like I believe that.

"Alright cool." Ren said.

He looked over at Ann and Haru. They already seemed to get along well. Ren called them over to where he and Ryuji were. Ann and Haru both took seats at the desks. Ren stayed standing.

"Hello everyone. Welcome to our first meeting. Our agenda for today is to go over the details of the club, establish a plan for the coming weeks, and then we can discuss ideas for the club. Everyone ready to begin?" Ren said to the group.

Everyone nodded.

"Alright." Ren took out his phone and pulled up the photo of the application form. "If anyone has any questions during this, please speak up. First, our club is officially named…"

Ren took a deep breath to build anticipation.

"Gardeners Raging Against Veganism Yearly." Ren looked at everyone as he said it.

Ann looked confused. Haru and Ryuji had smiles on their faces.

"I like it!" Haru said cheerfully.

"Same here!" Said Ryuji.

"But, why veganism?" Ann asked.

"Great question, Ann." Ren began. "The name itself isn't important, but the acronym it creates is what really matters. That actually transitions to the next thing on the form. Our shortened club name is GRAVY."

Ann and Haru laughed.

I'm surprised that Haru isn't upset with me for not taking this seriously.

"Nice, dude!" Ryuji said. He held up his hand for Ren to high-five. Ren obliged.

Ryuji is strangely excited to be a member of a gardening club.

"Here's the part that you all care about. Your positions in the club." Ren said. Everyone was intently looking at Ren.

"The president, or as we will call it in the club, the Residing Lord of GRAVY-esque Goodness will be me."

Everyone nodded.

"The VP, which is called the GRAVY Runner, will be Ryuji."

Ryuji stood up from his desk.

"Hell yeah!" He said as he fist pumped.

"Please sit down, GRAVY Runner Sakamoto. Moving on, the secretary, or the GRAVY Passer, will be Ann."

Ann smiled.

"Ok!" She said.

"Finally, the treasurer, also known as the GRAVY Collector, will be Haru."

Haru smiled but didn't say anything.

"Does anyone have any objections about their position in the club?" Ren asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

They don't need to hear the mission statement. It's mostly just for the form anyways.

"The last bits of information are pretty small, so I'm gonna get them out of the way quickly. Our sponsor is Kawakami-sensei, and our slogan is 'Stop it. Get some GRAVY.' Does anyone have any questions about these?"

Haru raised her hand.

"Yes, Haru?"

"Will Kawakami-sensei be gardening with us?" She asked.

That's a fantastic idea actually.

"I'll ask her. For future reference, you guys don't need to raise your hands. It's not like our club is big enough for that."

Haru raised her hand again anyways.

She's either very respectful, or she has a bad habit.

"Will we not be recruiting people to the club?" She asked.

"That's a good question. Anyone who wishes to join may join. But I don't expect many people to join given my, uh, reputation." Ren answered.

"Then what will we be doing for Club Day?" Haru said.

Ryuji groaned.

"Club Day?" Ren asked.

"I forgot that you're new, Ren. Every year, after Golden Week, Shujin has Club Day. All of Shujin's clubs have to put together a booth to showcase what their club is about. It's meant to encourage new students to join clubs." Haru explained.

Well shit. I was hoping I'd just have to plant a few seeds here and there. And so was Ryuji. And so was Ann.

"We'll figure something out. Does anyone have any ideas?"

Ren looked around. They all shook their heads.

"That's ok. We still have plenty of time. That will be our first assignment. Everyone brainstorm some ideas for Club Day. We can meet early next week to talk about it and get started."

Everyone nodded.

No one has interrupted me yet. I guess the title of "Residing Lord of GRAVY-esque Goodness" commands some respect.

"Good. While we're here, does anyone have anything they wanna talk about?" Ren asked as he took a seat.

"How powerful is the GRAVY Runner?!" Ryuji asked.

"Powerful." Ren said. It seemed to satisfy Ryuji.

"What will the average day look like?" Ann asked.

"We can meet every few days. During meetings, we can hang out while doing some gardening. If we're feeling adventurous, we could even take field-trips to places in the city."

"Oh, wow! That sounds fun!" Ann was satisfied as well.

"How much gardening will we really be doing?" Haru asked.

Uh oh. That's the one question I didn't want to answer.

"As much as we want." Ren said. Hopefully Haru would like his answer.

"Ok!" Haru said.

No problem then. I'm on a roll today.

"Does anyone have any requests for me to relay to the student council president?" Ren asked.

I hope that they don't. It's been a long week.

Ryuji began to speak.

Dammit.

"Could ya tell her to do something about Kamoshida? Nothing's happened since she had her talk with him or whatever." He said.

You don't know what happened, Ryuji. You can't judge her for that.

Haru answered instead of Ren.

"I don't know if it's related to Kamoshida, but there have been detectives here the past few days." She said.

Ryuji dismissed most of what she said and went to what he found to be most interesting.

"How could it not be related to Kamoshida?! He's a piece of shit!" He was angry.

Haru looked a little shocked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Ren cut her off.

"Don't apologize Haru. You did nothing wrong. If anything, Ryuji should apologize." Ren said. Ryuji looked offended, so Ren turned to him to explain. "How could she know what we know?"

"Yeah, I see your point." Ryuji said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"What do you guys know?" Haru asked suspiciously.

Ren looked at Ann. She was looking at the ground.

She does not want to be talking about this. I should cut it off.

"I'll tell you another time." Ren said.

"Ok." Haru said. She went back to her normal smile.

"Anyone have anything else that they would like to talk about?" Ren asked.

No one said anything.

"Perfect. The first meeting of GRAVY is adjourned."

Everyone stood up and got their stuff together. Haru left quickly.

Does she not want us to see her leaving? She's been acting weird. And I still have to ask her about why she didn't tell me her last name.

Ren noticed that it was just him, Ryuji, and Ann. There was an awkward silence.

This club will suck if they are awkward like this the whole time. I guess I have to use my problem solving skills.

Ren quickly left the roof, leaving Ann and Ryuji alone.

Ren walked into Leblanc to a surprising sight. There was a single customer. He was sitting in one of the booths. When Sojiro saw Ren enter, he motioned for Ren to go to him. Ren walked behind the bar while putting his apron on. Sojiro leaned in.

"This is your first opportunity to serve a customer. Mess it up and you're fired. Good luck." He said in a hushed voice as he patted Ren on the back.

Yeah right.

Ren walked over to the booth.

"Hello, sir. What would you like to eat?" Ren asked politely.

The man looked up at Ren. There was a look in his eyes that said "Trust me, I'm hot shit."

He spoke in the most pretentious voice Ren had ever heard.

"It's not what I would like, but what you can answer." He said.

Hoo boy.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't follow." Ren said.

The man leaned toward Ren. He had a crazed look in his eyes.

"Who's the greatest western filmmaker of all time?!" He asked. He had incredible passion in his voice.

"Well, in my opinion-" Ren began.

"There are no opinions in art!" The man yelled.

Ren heard Sojiro chuckle.

Now I know why I'm serving this guy.

Ren didn't know many western filmmakers, so he just named the person he heard the most about.

"Is it, uh, Stanley Kubrick?" Ren said.

"Tch. Typical. Don't expect me to get my coffee from here from now on." The man stood up and left.

What a dick.

"Come over here." Sojiro said.

Ren went back to the bar.

"You're not fired. I just hate that guy." Sojiro added.

"What was the answer to his question?" Ren asked.

"He told me that his favorite director was, what was his name? Oh yeah. Michael Bay." Sojiro answered.

"Never heard of him." Ren said.

"Neither had I." Sojiro said.

Ren had his standard coffee lesson for the night. He was sipping the finished product when Sojiro spoke to him again.

"You went to Tae's, right? How'd it go?"

It was not an experience I was hoping to remember.

"It was, well, eventful. I had to test a drug of hers. I'll be going back next week. She's giving me lessons on how to talk to women."

"Cancel those. All you need is a talent for making coffee and natural charm." Sojiro said. He then looked at Ren. "But I guess you don't have those. So don't cancel those."

Ren smiled at Sojiro.

"Wasn't planning on it."

Silence overtook the two. Ren thought about what was coming up in his life besides going back to the clinic.

Let's see. Tuesday is the clinic, Monday is open, Sunday is open but I have a feeling that Ryuji will ask to hang out, and Saturday I have a tutoring session with Makoto… And that's her birthday. I have a gift for her. Maybe she'll like it enough to want to spend time with me outside of school.

"Hey Sojiro? If I'm on a date with a girl, can I bring her here?" Ren asked.

Sojiro let out a chuckle.

"Sure. But if you want a chance with her, take her somewhere else."

This is another one of his self-promoting jokes. He'd probably fire me if I ruined his joke.

"And why's that?" Ren asked in an entertained voice.

"Because the girl would rather talk to me than you." Sojiro chuckled again.

He had his joke. Time for mine.

"I dunno, Sojiro. It would be kinda weird for you to be talking with teenage girls like that." Ren said while smiling.

Sojiro laughed.

"Whatever. Take your pay and get out of here."

Saturday, 4/23

Makoto was waiting for Ren in the student council room. Even though it was her eighteenth birthday, she hadn't thought about it much. She thought more about the week's events.

Detectives have been at school. And I haven't seen Kamoshida at school since Thursday. Could something have already happened? I'll have to ask Sis. Why is Ren taking so long? I hope he isn't planning some elaborate hoax to make fun of me. I hope he forgot about my birthday being today, she thought.

Ren entered.

"Hello, Ren." Makoto said.

"Hello, Makoto. How has your day been?" He asked politely.

"It's been alright. How about yours?"

"It's been pretty good. The first GRAVY meeting was yesterday, so I'm still in a good mood from that."

"I'm glad to hear that." Makoto said.

Ren nodded.

What's he thinking? He's impossible to read at times , Makoto thought.

"Let's get to work." She said.

The two got to work. Despite their previous sessions, nothing abnormal happened this name. No names, no Mishima, no Kamoshida. Just them. Studying.

I actually like this Ren. Studious Ren. Hopefully he stays this way, she thought.

The two finished studying. They didn't say anything as they packed up. Ren headed for the door. He turned back to Makoto, who was still packing up.

"Thanks for today, Makoto. I hope we can do it again. Have a great birthday!" Ren said as he left.

He remembered. But he was nice about it. What does this mean? She thought.

She did some of her student council work before she left for her apartment.

Ren walked out of Shujin as quickly as he could. He had a mission. He headed to the underground mall in Shibuya.

They have to have wrapping paper of some kind here.

They did. Ren didn't know what Makoto liked besides Buchimaru (which had stopped merchandise production long ago) so he went with the design that stood out the most. It had a black and red color scheme. There were stars on the paper.

It'll do.

He bought the wrapping paper and headed back to his apartment. Wrapping the Buchimaru stuffed animal was much more difficult. He wasted a significant amount of the wrapping paper trying to make it look good, but failing. It looked terrible. It was barely staying wrapped.

Fuck it. It's the gift that counts.

Ren fed Morgana and then left for Makoto's apartment. He planned on leaving it at the door, ringing the doorbell, and then leaving, but when he got to the hallway her apartment was in he had a realization.

Unless I am as fast as Ryuji, she'll open the door to see me sprinting down the hall like an idiot.

Ren then noticed a decorative plant that was much closer to Makoto's apartment door than the elevator.

Time to test how well I can hide myself.

Ren left the present at Makoto's door along with a handwritten note. He rang the doorbell. He then sprinted and surprised himself by diverolling behind the plant. The hiding spot was outrageous enough that she might not notice him.

Makoto was reading a text from Sae when the doorbell rang.

Sae Niijima:

You may have noticed detectives at your school. They are conducting an investigation. Don't worry about Kamoshida retaliating.

He's been asked to stay home for the time being. I won't be home for the next few nights, so don't worry about me.

We can celebrate your birthday next week.

Makoto Niijima:

I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for the update about Kamoshida.

Makoto sighed. She had been looking forward to celebrating her birthday on her birthday. She went to the door and opened it. She looked down and saw a terribly wrapped present. She looked around the hall. She saw no one.

Strange , she thought.

She closed the door and brought the present inside. She sat on the couch. There was a note.

Happy Birthday Makoto!

I look forward to more study sessions with you!

From,

Ren

That's nice of him. But what could he have gotten me? She thought.

One tear into the wrapping and the whole thing fell apart. She was left with a Buchimaru stuffed animal. If he's making fun of me? Even if he is, I still like the gift. I should talk to him , she thought.

She pulled her phone and texted him.

Makoto Niijima:

Thank you for the gift. If it's not difficult, could you please come back to my apartment?

Ren Amamiya:

Of course.

Makoto went to the kitchen. She expected at least a few minutes. She could start making her dinner by then. A few seconds later, the doorbell rang. That can't be him. How could he already be here? Unless… she thought.

She went back to the door and opened it. She saw Ren. He looked normal, but his black hair was messier than usual.

"Thanks for coming, Ren. You may come in." Makoto said.

Ren entered.

"Should I…?" He said awkwardly.

"You may take a seat on the couch." Makoto said.

He took a seat and she did as well.

"So, why'd you ask me to come here?" Ren asked.

Makoto asked herself the same question. Asking him if he's making fun of me is a poor excuse. It could have been done over text. I guess I was lying to myself. Did I invite him because I'm lonely? She thought.

"Well, I… I wanted to thank you in person for the gift. It's very nice." Makoto said.

Ren raised his eyebrows, but didn't question it.

"That's good. I'm surprised that you like Buchimaru. If I recall, you made fun of me for having it." He said.

"It's in the past. Now, I'm really happy that you gave it to me." Makoto replied.

Silence.

"So… is that everything you wanted to talk about?" Ren said.

No , she thought.

"Yes." She said.

"Ok. Happy birthday Makoto. I'll see you later." Ren said as he stood up. He walked to the door, but before he exited he took one last look at the apartment. "Are you, um, celebrating at all?"

I can't show how embarrassed I am, Makoto thought.

"Unfortunately, no. My sister cancelled our plans." She said.

"I think I understand now." Ren said.

What's that supposed to mean? There's a lot to understand, she thought.

"Makoto, would you like to hang out tomorrow?" Ren asked.

What?! Makoto thought.

"I'm surprised that you would like to study on Sunday, Ren." She said, trying to hide the embarrassment.

"Not to study. I'm asking if you would like to spend time with me. Unrelated to school."

Did he realize why I asked him to come here? Makoto thought.

"Oh, um, s-sure. I-I would like that."

Try harder to not sound like a robot. He is being nice to you, Makoto , she told herself.

"Cool. I'll text you tomorrow." He left without giving her a chance to respond.

I hope he's not toying with me. He is making an effort to get to know me. And he's trying to help me. He noticed how lonely I am. And he's the only one who got me a birthday gift. Should I reconsider my opinion of him? Maybe, Makoto thought.

Ren got back to his apartment and tried to high-five Morgana. Morgana just meowed and left Ren hanging. It didn't detract from his excitement. What did detract from his excitement were his own thoughts.

Did I just take advantage of her loneliness? No, I couldn't have. It was just a kind act that happens to further my goal of becoming closer to her. That's it.

Ren sat down. On the couch. He turned on the Switch and fired up Super Rash Toes. Alibaba was online.

Now that I'm in a decent mood, maybe I can win.

He invited Alibaba to a match. Alibaba accepted.

Here we go.

Ren lasted about 20 seconds longer than his best time versus Alibaba. Instead of raging, he congratulated himself. He then turned on his microphone.

"Hello, Alibaba?" He said.

"Yes?" The encrypted voice was still there.

"I was just wondering how you got so good at the game."

"Natural talent. You could never hope to be on my level."

Natural talent… Alibaba is as cocky as Sojiro.

"That's probably true, but do you have any tips for me?" Ren asked.

"Alright, here's the most vital tip if you want to win in this game. Are you ready for it?" Alibaba asked.

"Yeah."

"Get good, Ren. Get good."

"Wait, how do you know-!"

Alibaba disconnected.

Ren voiced his thoughts almost loud enough for his neighbors to hear him.

"What the fuck?!"