Her

As I saw her again, I tried to cover my face so she doesn’t recognize me. But, then again, various moments in my life I wanted to forget came back to the surface. Because, even though I’d like to forget her, I’d like her, even more, to not remember me at all.

Ideally, I hope she has amnesia or something...

Should I try not to be around her too much? If I don’t stand out too much, maybe she won’t recognize me at all! Should I come up with an alias as well?

“Okay, Akisa-san. There’s an empty seat next to Sakita-kun. Go sit there!”

“Right, sensei!”

DAMN YOU, YAMADA-SENSEI! TAKE A DAMN HINT! Out of the three empty seats, you chose the one beside me?

From the corner of my eye I tried to see if she had any sort of reaction as she was coming towards me; Didn’t see anything in particular, so I assume I’m safe… for now.

When the lunch break come by, I literally blasted off the classroom.

“Wow, you must be really hungry, isn’t that right Alex?”

“Shut up, you bastard! I could hear you laughing the whole time!”

“Okay, okay! First things first. Wanna grab some lunch at the cafeteria?”

“Yeah, Bill. Let’s go.”

◆

“So, what’s the matter with you today? You said you wanted to talk this morning. Is it about~?”

“No. It's my dad... He wants me to join a club. Actually, more like~”

“Join a club! Yeah, that’s the solution for you! Well done, Sakita-san… You know your son well!”

“Don’t congratulate my dad! It’s a hassle all these club activities.”

“And you prefer doing what? Sulking in your room and watching anime? It’s been more than two years since you started doing that! Have you given up your life just because you were rejected once?!”

“I actually didn’t~”

“Get out a little bit, meet new people.”

“Hey, you two! What are you doing?”

“Hey, Ayame-chan!”, Bill replied. “We wanted to find a club for Alex to join”

“No way! Is that really true, Alex?”

“Well, it’s not a lie. I do need to join a club.”

“Okay, you two. Could you please take a seat and some food for us?”, said Bill “I’m going to drag Sok-kun over here.”

“Do you want me to~” ...go?” I was trying to say but he left already… That idiot, I guess he doesn’t take a hint either…

“So, Ayame, do you have any ideas about which club should I try to join?”

“Which club, huh?… I know! You are good at writing stories, don’t you?”

“Well, yes… I used to write in the past.”

“Then why don’t you join the Acting Club?”

“The Acting Club?”

“Yep! My friend is the club’s president.”

“Oh! I didn’t know that…”

“And she was telling me she needs someone who knows to write scripts, as the previous one graduated back in the spring. These last months she was trying to write a script herself, but apparently couldn’t make it.”

“I don’t know… Are you really sure about this?”

“When I introduced you to the anime world, did you regretted it? Don’t worry, it’ll work out in the end, you’ll see.”

“Alright, Ayame-san, I trust you… My life is in your hands…”

“Don’t say weird stuff, stupid… Jeez…”

You lucky bastard Bill...

◆

After a couple of minutes, Bill and Sok-kun finally arrived.

“Hey, you two”, said Sok-kun.

“Hi, guys”, Ayame responded. “So, as we said… I’m going to talk to my friend to be expecting you the following days, right?”

“Right”, I replied.

“Okay, everyone, see you later!”, said Ayame as she took off.

“What happened here? Does our Alex-kun has a new girlfriend?”, said Sok-kun with a smug face.

By this point, I’ve already gotten used to their trolling. But still, I want to punch them!

“Forget about his ‘new’ and let’s talk about his ‘ex’.”, said Bill.

“Which ex?”, Sok-kun and I responded simultaneously.

“Do you know who is that girl which enrolled to the same middle school as us?”, Bill asked Sok-kun.”

“Who?”

“Akisa Anna”

“No way!… And what did Alex do?”

“Long story short, he acted like a child.”

“Alright, I know I blew it up; No need to point that out. I just wasn’t prepared for this kind of situation and acted on a whim.”

“Let’s see how you’ll act the next time you see her.”, Bill told me.

“Next time I’ll see her, I’ll just be indifferent. I’ll act like I never knew he~”

As I was talking, Bill was trying to say something to me… but apparently he didn’t want to be heard. So, I read his lips and what I understood was “S-H-E  I-S   B-E-H-I-N-D   Y-O-U”!

“Hello everyone! I’m Akisa Anna. We all went to the same middle school!”

I slowly turned around as I was about to see a ghost.

“Hi Akisa-san!”, said both Bill and Sok-kun.

“Hi... Akisa-san”, I also said a little bit delayed.

“How are you everyone?”, she asked us.

“Very good!”, said Bill.

“Great!”, Sok-kun replied.

“And you, Sakita-kun?”

“Magnificent!”

“That’s good to hear!”, Anna responded.

“How about you?”, I asked.

“Pretty good, thanks!”

“Okay, everyone, I know it’s sudden but you’ll have to excuse me for a sec.”, I suddenly said. “Akisa-san, see you around…”

I left the table and walked up to the boys’ restroom. What I needed at that time was cold water to cool my head down.

“Don’t act like a child.”, I told my reflection on the mirror.

“What happened, happened. You learned a lot from that failure, so no need to sulk over that. You have more experience now, and you are mature enough to handle everything cleverly. Use that experience, Alex. Now it’s the time after two years of ‘studying’.”

“Right! You’re good to go!”

As I was returning back to the others, I bumped into Anna-san again.

“Hi, Sakita-kun. So that’s where you went all of a sudden.”

“Yes…”

“For a moment I thought you were awkward because of me.”

“Not at all! Why would I?”

“Right! I didn’t have a chance to ask you earlier; before I interrupted you you were saying something about an ‘act’?”

Did she just change the topic here?

“Ehh… YES! THAT’S RIGHT! I’m joining the Acting Club as they said they needed someone who knows to write scripts.”

“Wow! That’s impressive!”

“Thank you.”

“So, you’ll only write the scripts or you’ll also act on them?”

“I still haven’t talked about that with the club’s president, but if they’re short on people, I suppose I could act.”

“That’s nice! Seems like you’re joining an interesting club.”

“True.”

“It’s been a while since we last talked, isn’t it?”

“Is it about two years?”

Actually, it’s more than two years, but I'm not revealing I remember how long exactly.

“Yeah… Okay, then, see you!”

“Bye!”

As we were trying to pass each other we ended up doing a sidewalk shuffle. An awkward smile could be seen on our faces as we finally managed to pass through. However, as trivial as this situation might sound, I feel something similar happened with her in the past...

◆

Later in the afternoon…

“Alex, are you heading home?”

“Sok-kun? Yes, I’m about to go…”

“Nice! I’m heading the same way as you do.”

“How come you’re not with your girlfriend?”

“She’s having a student council meeting today, so I’m returning home.”

“Oh, I see…”

“Now that we’re alone, do you mind asking you something?”

“Is it about~”

“Yes, it’s about her.”

“Okay, go on…”

“I’ve never asked you before; How come and you started liking Akisa-san?”

“Seriously? Do you really want to talk about stuff that belong in the past?”