Kokoro and Taro: You and I

The hover-bus finally arrived at wonder park and both Kokoro and Taro hopped off. The place was located in the center of modern Tokyo and it was the largest attraction in the whole of Japan.

There were children zooming around on hoverboards, cafés and restaurants set up in every corner. There were also small businesses and shops selling things like cotton candy, stuffed animals, and various other toys and accessories.

Kokoro was entirely taken aback by the sight. Of course, she had visited a few times before with the children from the orphanage, but she was always on guard duty. She always had her eyes on the children in fear of one of them getting lost, and never had the chance to fully take in her surroundings. However, now that she was by herself with Taro, she could see more of the park she always wanted to.

Kokoro caught sight of a little boy playing with a robot toy dragon. The thing was shaking its tail like a dog and it could also fly. What fascinated Kokoro however, was the fact that it was also bursting out flames from its mouth. Kokoro already knew the fire was just a highly detailed colored-in hologram, but seeing the robot repeatedly try burning the kid made her flinch a little.

Kokoro soon returned her attention to the boy walking beside her. She could tell something was making Taro nervous. He was constantly stealing glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking, and she wished she could say something to ease his tension. But the truth was, Kokoro herself was also a little too conscious of their situation.

Although they had left Taro’s house under the guise of inspiration hunting for their class project, Kokoro knew Tomomi had intentionally said that to set her up with Taro. That is why she didn’t initially object to the idea. Deep down, Kokoro also wanted the same thing. To spend some time with Taro in order to get to know him better. But things weren’t going the way she had hoped.

Since they got off the bus, the two of them had remained silent. Not so much as a word had been shared between them. They just kept stealing glances at one another, and quickly looking away when they inevitably locked eyes. The awkward tension was only getting worse by the second. Fortunately though, Taro soon spoke up.

“Hey ah, would you like to get something to drink? I figured you might be thirsty since back at the house, you didn’t really get the chance to…”

Kokoro didn’t let Taro finish before she franticly nodded her head in agreement. Doing anything else other than what they were currently doing had to be a better alternative.

***

As soon as they stepped into a nearby caffe to get a drink, Taro was immediately relieved. It had been torture while they were walking outside in the park. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say to Kokoro that was meant to help strike up a conversation with her. Instead, he kept silent like an idiot, waiting for a miracle to help get him out of the situation. Luckily, he found one.

as they made their way to an available booth, Taro quickly went ahead to replace one of the seats to make room for Kokoro’s wheelchair. She smiled and nodded her head in appreciation. After they were seated, Taro placed his order on the tablet resting on his side of the table, while Kokoro did the same. Both their drinks arrived barely a minute later, with Taro getting an iced coffee and Kokoro ordering something similar. Both cups were steaming and hot to the touch, and just as they both were taking their first sip, something incredible happened.

An employee picked up a remote and turned on the music in the café, and Taro could see the exact moment something in Kokoro’s eyes sparkled. It was almost like she had a physical reaction to the start of the music now playing in the background.

Taro suddenly found what he was looking for. A topic to help start up a conversation between them. So, after gulping down his first sip, he asked.

“You recognize the song?”

Taro asked her directly without typing it in his phone or sending her a message. In response, Kokoro also went ahead and gulped down her first sip before setting the cup back down on the table and reaching for her phone.

Taro wasn’t really an avid listener of music. However, that didn’t mean he did not enjoy listening to it. The songs he liked usually came from the anime he watched or some of the video games he played. He may not have kept up to date with the latest albums and singles released by celebrities like star Airi, but he still had a soft spot for songs that connected with him on an emotional level.

As soon as Kokoro finished typing a response for him on her phone, she held it out for him to read. Taro guessed this might have been her way of talking to him directly instead of sending him a message.

Taro quickly figured out that what he was looking at on Kokoro’s phone screen were lyrics. Specifically, lyrics to the song currently playing in the background in the café. But the artist in the song just barely started singing.

“How did you?...” Taro trailed off, a look of pure astonishment on his face. Kokoro smiled, scrolling up a bit on her screen to reveal another message at the bottom.

“I know this song.” the message read. “It’s one of my favorites. I have a lot of them. Songs I like. No joke, they might number into the thousands lol.”

After he finished reading what Kokoro had written, Taro looked up from her phone and stared at her for a moment. There was something a little different about her. Her eyes were much larger, the smile on her face was much more joyous and happy. The look on her face was overall brighter than it was just a second ago, complete with cheeks that now glowed a bright pink.

it took Taro a second for his brain to process all the data he had just received from the moment the café employee switched on the boombox.

Kokoro’s eyes sparkled the moment she heard the song start to play in the background.

Kokoro became extremely happy when he talked about music with her.

It was obvious what he had to do.

He needed to keep the conversation going.

Taro looked down at the tablet on the table in front of him. Then he looked at the boombox in the far corner of the café. He picked up the tablet, then linked up the device with the boombox. There was zero security. Taro guessed they weren’t expecting one of their customers to try and hijack their sound system in an attempt to impress a girl. Unfortunately for them, that was what he was about to do.

Using the tablet, he logged on a music streaming site and randomly pressed play on the first song on the list. The music in the café suddenly swapped over to the one he had selected. None of the café employees took notice, but that wasn’t his concern. He turned his attention to Kokoro, and the look on her face showed she had caught on to what he was doing.

“What are you doing? What if you get caught?” the look on Kokoro’s face said. Ignoring this, Taro chose to directly ask her a question instead.

“How about this one? Do you know this song too?”

***

Kokoro couldn’t believe the boy in front of her. He had not only casually hacked into the cafe’s sound system, but he was now asking her to identify a song he had chosen. Although she was initially hesitant, she smiled and made up her mind to play his little game. Besides, she already knew the first song Taro had selected to play.

The title of the song was (You and I. By star Airi.)