A Torch I Will Drop

◆ Tsukasa

Every good romance begins with a first meeting.

At least, that’s what I believe.

In each of those stories, pushed by tragedy, external influence, or even mere chance, two people meet and fall in love—and it all unfurls after that. In the end, the final page finishes the story in a concluding note with either the lovebirds enjoying their new life together or one (or both) of them dead and buried. Invariably.

And, now, it seems mine has begun—in the most cliche way: a meet-cute.

Not that I’m complaining. Out of all the people my soulmate could be, it was a really cute second-year boy who turned out to be the student council president as well as my senpai. And I’m happy, in a giddy way.

Is this what it means to be in love?

Thinking of this, I struggle to pay attention in class. Chiho and Tae notice this, and give me questioning looks but don’t say anything. When the bell finally rings and we’re allowed to leave class, the two of them catch me by the arms and drag me out.

“Wha—!” I exclaim.

“Tsukasa Aishi, we’re taking you in for questioning!” Tae says, trying to imitate the voice of a police officer while Chiho is chuckling in the background. “For making funny faces during class!”

“Let me go!” I jokingly exclaim, trying to wiggle myself free, but they’ve got a tight hold on me and are leading me to the back of the schoolyard. When we finally get there, they let me go, and Tae stands in front of me, grinning.

“Well well, Rainbow-chan,” she says, “looks like we’re in for the long haul today.”

When I finish explaining what happened with Haibara-senpai last week, both girls are shocked.

“Holy cow, Rainbow-chan!” Tae exclaims. “Haibara-senpai, like, the student council president? That’s a big fish, huh!”

“Well, I’ve heard that he’s very popular with girls from all grades,” Chiho comments, hiding behind her Junji Ito volume. “I’ve seen even Aikawa-sensei hitting on him one of these days.”

“Aikawa-sensei?!” Tae shrieks. “Like, THAT Aikawa-sensei, the famed Class A hot teacher? Jesus Christ! Isn’t that creep attitude?”

“Hopefully not!” Chiho squeaks. “I don’t even want to think about it!”

I suddenly feel something gnawing at my stomach.

What is this?

It feels like… jealousy.

No. It’s not because I’m jealous.

It’s because… it’s wrong.

Why are these girls hitting on him? He’s mine.

His smile is only for me.

“…Kacchan!” I vaguely register Chiho’s voice calling me. “Kacchan!”

I finally snap back to the real world. “Sorry!” I exclaim. “What are we talking about again?”

“Our hot senpai and how even Aikawa-sensei is out for him,” Tae says. “And I’m 99% sure that you, Rainbow-chan, would agree with her.”

Chiho squeaks. “You mean… you mean she likes him?”

“Well wouldn’t that be something!” Tae grins. “Our darling Rainbow-chan’s first love!”

I blush. “Oh come on, you all!”

Tae’s grin only gets wider. “Aha! So you confess!”

“What! Wait!” I exclaim, but the damage is already done and now Tae is laughing like crazy. When she finally stops, she smiles.

“Well,” she says, “what about we get ourselves some food? Then we continue talking about Haibara-senpai.”

“Good idea!” Chiho smiles at me. “Sorry about Tae,” she says. “I guess she’s just very excited.”

“Yeah,” I say, but my mind is elsewhere. Why is Tae so eager about this so suddenly? About Haibara-senpai? Does she… does she like him?

That won’t do. Haibara-senpai is my soulmate. He can’t be hers. He’s mine.

And I want to make that point as clear as I can.

When we arrive at the cafeteria, we find the place to be a complete hell. About three-fourths of the tables are overly full, and the students are nearly coming to physical blows over the last one-fourth. With the help of Tae—who’s developed her eyesight better than me and Chiho in order to spot pretty guys (according to her, at least)—the three of us manage to find an empty table on the furthest corner of the cafeteria and sit there without much issue.

“Phew!” Chiho wipes a tiny sliver of sweat from her forehead. “We made it!” Then she turns to Tae with a bright smile. “Thank you, Tae!”

“I’ve been doing that for a million years,” she replies with a proud grin. “It was no sweat.”

The deafening sounds of chaos are drowning my ears enough so that I don’t make out Tae’s next words to Chiho. But suddenly, one voice makes me jump into attention:

“Look, it’s Haibara-senpai!”

I turn around. Sure enough, there he is, strolling calmly into the cafeteria, unfazed by the crowd in the cafeteria, like a celestial being that can pass right through humans unseen. Yet, this being is visible, and beautiful.

“Haibara-senpai!” Three girls immediately come running towards him. One of them, a blonde—dyed blonde, clearly—with brown eyes who won’t stop twirling a yellowish lock around her finger, says, very confidently, “Did you see a yellow embroidered handkerchief in your locker, by any chance?”

Senpai looks confused. “Yes,” he says, after a moment. “Why the question?”

“I left it there. A little salute to everyone’s favorite senpai,” she replies, a sassy smirk on her face.

It’s like someone’s torn out my stomach. Suddenly I get tunnel vision and all I see is this girl, this girl who is hitting on Haibara-senpai right in front of me, and whatever Chiho and Tae are trying to say to me is just gibberish. It keeps bubbling to a point I can’t contain myself anymore, so I just exclaim:

“Um, Senpai!”

He turns his head to look at me. “Aishi-san,” he says, and I almost faint on the spot because he remembers my name. “What is it?”

I take a deep breath and stroll over to where he is, standing a few centimeters ahead of the blonde girl. “You dropped this,” I tell him, showing him a jet-black fountain pen with an immaculate cap-covered tip and a small label reading ‘Haibara’. “I found it in the student council room, and since it had your name on it, I decided to look for you so that I could return it.”

Behind me, the blonde gasps. Senpai’s eyes widen. Confused at this, I tilt my head slightly to the side, in a ditzy gesture, and ask, “What?”

“No, it’s just… how did you get into the student council room? It’s locked, and the only people who have the key cards required are council members,” Senpai replies. I smile at him.

“Any door in this school can open if you play your cards right.” I pull out a tiny card from my pocket and show it to him. “Does this ring a bell, Senpai?”

His eyes widen even more. “My key card,” he says, but doesn’t make a move to take it from me, instead just staring at it. “How did you…?”

“You dropped it when we crashed into each other on the first day,” I reply, simply. “I couldn’t find you to return it, and when I went to look for you on the council room, I found your pen.”

I hand it to him, and when he grabs it with an outstretch of his hand, our fingers touch, just for the smallest of moments. I can feel instantly my cheeks flaring and predict that either pink or orange will be in my eyes now.

“Hey, did her eyes just change right now?” I hear one of the other girls whispering behind me.

“Yeah, it was pink until one second ago. Now it’s orange,” the blonde replies. Pink and then orange. Great. Now Senpai will not only be creeped out at me using his key, but I will be seen as some oddity and sent to a scientist.

To my surprise, Senpai smiles warmly at me. “Thank you for returning my key, Aishi-san,” he says, kindness sparkling in his brown eyes. “That was kind of you. I won’t forget this so soon.”

My eyeballs start hurting and I know my irises will be swapping between orange and violet at lightning speed. I don’t know this by experience; it’s a prediction based on what I know of my eyes.

Senpai now looks worried. “Are you OK, Aishi-san? You don’t look OK. Should I take you to the nurse’s office?”

This almost feels like he’s deliberately trying to embarrass me. But it can’t be, Senpai wouldn’t do something like that. Not to me.

“I’m fine,” I say. His expression tells me that he knows better, though. So I do something I don’t do very frequently.

I shut everything off.

I shut off the noise, the cafeteria, all this overcharge of sensorial information, even my growing embarrassment. I just plain stand there.

To check if it worked, I pull out my little pocket mirror and look at myself.

My eyes are matte onyx black.

It worked.

“I’m fine, Senpai,” I say again, and this time he nods. Then, glancing around for a few seconds, walks past quietly, towards a table which is occupied solely by well-known genki Koushi Enomoto-senpai, Senpai’s only friend.

I just watch from afar.

The sensation from before disappears, finally, but I’m left with a sense of dread.

If I don’t keep watch upon him, other girls will try to steal him away.

But they will not, not under my watch.

Tsukasa Aishi always fulfills her promises.

And this time, the promise is: to secure my soulmate, Yukiteru Haibara.

Don’t worry, Senpai.

I will protect you.

I will ensure your kind smile remains only for me.

With this in mind, I return to Chiho and Tae, to start everything again.