Kokoro: The road ahead

Earlier at school.

”For this special assignment, you must partner up with at least one student from the science discipline in order to qualify. That is all. Class dismissed.”

Kokoro waited for the other students to leave, before exiting the classroom on her wheelchair. She was planning on heading over towards the science classes in order to find Tomomi and ask her to become her partner.

Tomomi was her friend and neighbor so it already made perfect sense that they become partners for the special exam. However, as she strolled through the halls looking for the girl, she took notice of the number of science students she had passed with none of them stopping over and asking to partner up with her.

Kokoro already knew the real reason for this type of recurring behavior from people, and she had already made peace with it a long time ago. But she would be lying to herself if she were to say that it still didn’t hurt sometimes.

Because it did.

A lot.

As soon as Kokoro reached Tomomi’s classroom she peered inside and found it empty. She was confused. She hadn’t seen the girl out in the halls either so where could she be? Bathroom maybe? Kokoro was still racking her brain on the possible whereabouts of her friend when her phone buzzed with a notification. She pulled it out and saw that it was a message from Tomomi.

“I know you are probably looking for me right now in order to partner up for the upcoming special exam. But as your best friend and self-appointed life coach, I have decided to run away to find a new partner, forcing you to have no other choice but to find someone else to partner up with, preferably a boy. I love you, don’t hate me, and I will come find you shortly.”

Kokoro was visibly annoyed after reading the message, but she soon found herself smiling as she couldn’t stay mad at Tomomi for long. Besides, the girl was right. Deep down, Kokoro knew she hadn’t made any effort to get to know more people since she started her new school about a year ago. Even though she had her personal reasons why she did so, why she chose not to associate much with other people, she needed to try this time. Plus, it wasn’t like she had any other choice. She was going to get Tomomi back for this.

Kokoro left the classroom and started to make her way to where the largest body of students were gathered. The idea of striking up a conversation with someone new made her stomach churn. She had her right hand resting on top of the small console which was in charge of registering what direction her electronic wheelchair turned in. Right now, she had her middle finger pressing down on the forward button, and after allowing herself to get lost in thought she accidentally bumped into someone in front of her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s my fault, I lost my focus I wasn’t paying attention I’m sorry.”

Those were the words she desperately wanted to say to the person in that moment. But she couldn’t. So, she did the only thing she could. She quickly reached her hand out in order to help the person back up to his feet. And that was when she saw his face.

His eyes.

There was a kindness behind them.

And his gaze as he looked back at her.

It made her chest warm.

Kokoro couldn’t explain what she was suddenly feeling in that moment, but she knew she welcomed the feeling with opened arms.

Then their hands touched.

And she never wanted to let go.

***

School was over, and Kokoro and Tomomi were moving to board a hover-bus.

“But seriously though, Taro is a good dude.” Tomomi said to Kokoro as she walked beside her. “He’s like quiet all the time in class which is kinda creepy, but also kinda mysterious you know? But I’m sure he’ll make a good partner. He’s like super smart.”

As if magic, Kokoro and Tomomi both turned their heads at the same time and found the boy in question gazing back at them. He was sitting on a golden and black hoverbike and seamed like he was preparing to leave. Kokoro decided to wave him goodbye but Tomomi instead stuck her tongue out. Kokoro suddenly felt embarrassed at what her friend had done but Taro didn’t seem to mind. Then Taro returned her wave and wore his helmet before turning his bike around and driving off.

When it was Kokoro’s turn to board the bus she navigated her wheelchair to the back of the large vehicle. The back door rose up as she approached, and a ramp slowly extended out and dropped to the ground. She pressed the forward button on her chair’s console and made her way up the ramp while Tomomi followed behind. And as soon as they were situated in the back of the vehicle, the ramp retracted and the door came back down.

Tomomi then pulled out her tablet, and went to sit on the floor opposite from her. It didn’t matter how many times Kokoro tried to tell the girl, Tomomi always chose to inconvenience herself to stay by Kokoro’s side. Even if it meant ignoring a perfectly good seat on a bus.

Kokoro suddenly felt the bus lift up and begin to move. Just then, something a group of girls were discussing about in the front caught her attention.

“I can’t believe the festival is just three months away now, it’s practically already here.” one of the girls said with excitement.

“Yeah, and I heard, star Iry herself will be participating in the festival as a judge.” another girl said.

“Seems like the competition is going to be quite tuff this year.” the third girl said.

“I know right? There are so many music groups and dance crew participating this year. And basically, all of them are like, super talented.”

“I agree.”

Kokoro already knew what the group of girls were chatting about before she looked up the information on her phone.

The Tokyo international music festival. An annual competition where the best of the best from all around the globe, competed for a grand prize of best singer, best dancer, best overall performer, and amongst various other categories.

Kokoro scrolled down the website and found more information on the groups and individual performers that had already qualified for the competition. There were so many of them. Different people from all over the world who were gifted with beautiful singing voice that could move mountains, and dance moves that seemed to defy gravity. She was incredibly happy for every last one of them. But she couldn’t say she felt the same way about herself.

Once upon a time, Kokoro had a similar dream. But reality was no longer the case.

Frustrated, she eventually switched off her phone and stared out the window instead. Her eyes were slowly starting to well up with tears and she couldn’t stop it from rolling down her cheeks.