Waiting For...

“Grr, where are they?” The gang leader said out loud to express her frustration of having lost the sight of who they were pursuing. “No one makes a fool out of us and gets away with it!” That fact wasn’t going to deter them, which is why they all got extra excited when one of them exclaimed.

“I see that stupid hoodie of his.” They pointed at one of the park benches, where it appeared he had his back turned to them.

“All right.” The leader cracked her knuckles loudly as they walked over menacingly to their target. “So, you’ve got some major nuts to think you can just cross us like that.” Angry about having trash thrown on her, she kicked him right in the back of the head. Except as they would all realize it wasn’t a guy. In fact, it wasn’t a person at all as the hoodie simply fell to the ground, revealing a stick had been used to prop up the clothes.

They all looked on in disappointment, realizing they had been had once more. “Tsk, looks like you win this time.” She muttered to herself, a quiet rage brewing. “But just you wait until we find you. Then you’ll be in for the beating of a lifetime!” With enough force to scare even the rest of her gang, she slammed her fist onto the wooden bench, cracking it.

Meanwhile, Ryuo and Jurie were long gone from the park as they quickly ran towards the cafe. The pair were out of breath after their constant running and hiding from not only the gang, but also their friends. They were about to run inside when the pair quickly stopped and dove under the windows when they saw Riyone and Tenmaro both inside.

“It looks like everyone’s paired up today.” Said Ryuo as they peered in through the window. The two were right outside by the table where their vice presidents had chosen to sit. Fortunately the other two seemed too distracted in their conversation to notice them mere feet away.

“It definitely gives everyone the wrong idea.” Said Jurie after they witnessed the server mistaken the pair as a couple. “Neutral zone folks are weird, don’t they see our uniforms?”

“I suppose they have hopes our sides will eventually reconcile our differences.” He replied. “Though that’s a naive way of looking at said differences.” They didn’t hate each other over some past incident. A part of him wished that were the case. Their biggest obstacle to peace was that both sides were diametrically opposed to how the world worked. To how it should work.

“You don’t believe anyone’s being blackmailed?” They heard Riyone’s muffled voice through the window.

“Be for real, you don’t actually think so yourself either.” Tenmaro’s response to heard was hard to hear, but clear enough for them to understand the situation.

“Speaking of wrong ideas, we really need to clear the air about what’s going on.” Jurie said after piecing together why everyone seemed to be trying so hard to find them.

“Hmm, but we’ll have to come up with a good excuse. Since I doubt you want to spill the beans about the two of us.”

“Don’t worry, I already have a good idea of what I’ll tell my friends.” She put a hand on his shoulder for consolation. “You’re the one I’m worried about.” Considering the type of person he was. Jurie was concerned that he’d be too honest for his own good. Or rather that he’d make for a bad liar.

“I also have my story set.” He replied, dispelling any notions that there would be any problems. “Now then, I suppose we’ll have to part ways once more. I’m sorry this date was nothing like you envisioned it.”

“That’s true.” She giggled. “But to be honest, I had a lot of fun.” Jurie smiled at him, leaning in closer to his face. “I think I have a better understanding on the type of person you really are.”

“Really? But I didn’t tell you much about myself.” He look at her, bewildered by the warm tone she had. Though at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel his own feelings for her grow stronger. There was something about seeing the people she surrounded herself with that made him gain a better understanding of his own girlfriend.

“How about we stop using our words?” She leaned in for a goodbye kiss. The pair wished this moment wouldn’t end, but they both knew there were more pressing matters for them to handle. Both due to their respective roles, and their responsibilities as a friend.

And that concludes their side of the story, in which they both revealed themselves to their respective vice presidents to unveil certain truths.

Ryuo stood tall to his friends as they all stared at him, waiting to see what it was he was up to that made them go on this wild goose chase. Anything less than satisfactory, or obviously too much of a lie, would lead them closer to the truth he desperately wanted to hide.

“Well, it’s time to tell you all the truth.” He said as they all quietly waited for him to continue. “You see, the reason I didn’t want you to know where I went is because… It’s a private medical issue.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Said Benzou. “Why would that require you going into the neutral zone?”

“Yeah, obviously you have your own doctor.” Meguru followed up the line of questioning.

“Well, like I said, it was supposed to be private.” He pretended to awkwardly cough. Of course what he was about to say was embarrassing, but at least it was better to have them think this over the truth. “And I don’t know if I want to really say it in front of the presence of girl like Riyone.”

“Just spill it.” She said in a deadpan tone. At this point the girl was beyond dealing with any more theatrics.

“Okay, I needed a doctor to check on me… Down there, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you talking about your…” Her voice trailed off as she realized the body part he was referring to. Slowly Riyone’s face turned red as she turned her face away, unable to look at him in the eye now that the image was in her head. “I’m not too immature to be unable to handle the thought, but I understand you wanting to keep that from the opposite sex.” Quickly she turned and walked away from the others. They looked at the girl as she quietly sat down on the nearby bench, removing herself from the conversation.

“And I hope everything is okay?” Benzou asked, returning to the subject at hand. “The doctor didn’t find anything?”

“Oh yeah, I don’t have cancer.” He answered confidently, leaning into the lie as best he could.

“Cancer?” Meguru responded as if he was got the wrong information from his reveal. “Oh, I thought you contracted something, like-” Before he was able to finish his sentence, he found himself interrupted by Ryuo as the president grabbed him by both ears.

“Obviously not!” He yelled at him, now that it was his turn to feel embarrassed. “Come on, I’ve never even had a girlfriend.”

“Okay, okay, ow! I got it. Just let me go.” He let go of the ears once he felt he had punished him enough. “By the way, I wanted to thank you for saving me back their from that gang.”
“Oh right, you looked like you took a hit there…” Ryuo tried to scan his friends face for the scar, but nothing seemed to be there despite what he had seen before.

“Oh that? Well that tough looking Capa girl gave me some ointment to treat it.” He explained. “I guess even some of them can’t resist my charm.” He laughed, but Ryuo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Niiya sounded like the last person to do that. Not because it meant helping a Monta, but because he didn’t think she’d carry supplies for emergencies like that.

With Ryuo’s story set for his friends, Jurie found herself feeling the pressure as her group of friends surrounded her on the table. They were waiting for her to tell them what she had been up to after they had spend their afternoon chasing after her.

“So tell me, Jurie.” Sumiwa got up close to her face, confronting her on the truth that would be a challenge for her to explain away. “Why’d you ran back at the mall?”

“And that’s ignoring your ridiculous disguise you had when we were following from your house.” Tenmaro followed up.

“Heheh, well I really didn’t want you guys to know…” Jurie nervously laughed as she put on a cute, auspicious look on her face. “But the truth is that my parents put me on a blind date.”

“Huh!?” The girls responded in shock while Tenmaro couldn’t help but laugh.

“I see, you were worried that I’d be jealous you were forced to go see another guy.” He spoke, leaning back on his seat. “But obviously there’s no way he’d compare to me.”

“You really are something else, you know that?” Said Niiya after she regained her composure.

“And I bet when you saw his taste in food, you realized you had to dump that sorry loser.” To Sumiwa, it was enough to explain the other lunch next to hers. And to think she let Benzou nearly convince her that it could’ve belonged to the Monta president. As if those two would be dating.

As the Capa student council began to chat in a relaxed manner, hanging out as friends. Jurie was able to breath a sigh of relief. For now, their secret would be safe.