The rumored friendship

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Relax, everyone is doing it these days.”

“But-”

Murmured two middle schoolers who were both gazing into a mobile. They decided to bunk school today, so they were hiding in a park near their school. Yes, the decision to hide near their school is a dumb thing to do, but they were middle schoolers after all. The wind whizzed the grass, causing an intimation that someone was approaching, therefore petrifying the two. It wasn’t like the fact of skipping school was haunting them, but the reason for their fear resided in their mobile. They looked around for a while, the boy even stood up to check on the girl, he circled the whole area, on finding no one, he came back, and at last they continued with their work. After a while, when the two had completely calmed down, the girl began

“It’s fun, trust me…..a lot of girls are doing this”

“What’s the fun in creating a fake account and posing to be someone else, huh, Kanako?”

“Ahhhh….. Amane, you are sooooo dumb.”

The girl whacked her friend on his head, and he snarled at her but didn’t hit her back. They were both childhood friends and had known each other since kindergarten. The two were close and hid almost nothing from each other. But ever since they joined middle school, they had both fallen apart because the other kids called them a couple. Kanako felt bothered by it because she wanted to make tons of friends and to be acknowledged as a popular student; she didn’t want such rumors to spread behind her back. Amane just wanted his friend to be happy, so he abided by everything she demanded, just like today, though mostly he never liked anything she did because of her new friends, whom he regarded as bad influencers.

“But still this is wrong….. wrong”

“I know that’s why it's fun…….anyways, check out the app, it's called Edisrehto, it's new and a lot of people are already using it.” “Edis…..what?”

“That's the app name.”

“What does it mean?”

“It's not compulsory that the app names would have meanings … like Instagram”

Amane took the phone from Kanako’s hand and began scrolling down. He looked through the app with keen indulgence, opening everything, reading anything that popped up on the screen. Kanako almost felt drowsy from the boredom. She nudged him out of intolerance and swiftly moved in closer, looking at the mobile. He observed her and moved away slightly. Kanako placed her hand on the phone, pulling it down to get a better view, then looked up at him with a smirk

“What are you looking at?.......you are behaving like an elderly man”

“I was checking the terms and conditions……..” he began in an elderly tone, making Kanako laugh out, then after clearing his throat, he added. “This app clearly states that they don’t tolerate any sort of privacy invasion additionally it says that no one is allowed to fake identities……..even roleplaying is prohibited….it is said that if you want to use this app then you have to abide by all their terms and conditions… hey are you even listening?......hello?”

“Amane, I know you are an old man in the body of a middle schooler, that’s why you never use such thing but dude trust me when you make account on any app they say the same things”

“It is stated that in case of any rule violation they will take action……and they say in case of any inconvenience everything will be our responsibility”

“Yeah, yeah every app says that but no one takes action about such things and the only action they can take is that they close your account, that’s it….”

“You sure? This terms and condition thing is long and seems really important”

Kanako looked at him with a mocking smile and reached the phone, scrolled down to the end and clicked the ‘I accept button’. Amane looked at her with disappointment which she responded with a sneer, sighing he looked back at the screen and narrowed his eyes to read something then as if somewhat bewildered he looked at her inquiringly.

“And why does your account says male?”

“Because I want to pretend to be a boy”

“And why are you using that picture of mine?”

“Dude, I edited it so well and your face isn’t even visible……. no one can tell it’s you”

He sighed for it was evident that the argument was meaningless but if she could be happy then everything was fine. He handed her phone back which she quickly snapped and began going through something, he gazed at her for a while but she was looking at the phone as if hypnotized since she didn’t even seem to notice his persistent stare. He got up and tapped on her head as an indication to stand up which she responded to with a pout. He knelt down grabbing her arm he pulled her up standing, she once more pouted and turned to sit down again. The park was empty and there was silence in the air with the only sound of those two rustling the grass beneath them. Amane began walking away the sound of the grass caused her to look up and around, upon finding him quite far away, she hastily got up and ran as fast as she could, her hair bounced in all direction, ruining her hairstyle which she spent a lot of time making. Sweat popped up on her face, he managed to get so far in no time, upon finally reaching him she pushed his back and ran away laughing.

“You are it”

She yelled breathlessly he looked at her as if it was a childish antic tilting his head as if mocking her. She frowned and looked at him angrily, she had made a mess of herself and he found it ironically ridiculous, sighting her agitated made him chuckle slightly, he slowly went up to her, placing his hand on her head he gave her a head pat and slowly bent down to face her making her blush, he was a little close if only someone was there to see this ah what a gossip this could be made into. She took a step back involuntarily and looked at him nervously

“Um….um…”

“You are it~”

She blinked, he just played a dirty trick on her, and she was left bewildered. What if he noticed that I was blushing…..what if he got the wrong idea from it……ahhhhh…..? He is an idiot a real jerk. She turned a shade of pink and yelled out angrily

“Idiot……..jerk……..you…… I will get you”

Amane ran off with kanako behind him yelling how much she hated him. No sooner did they began laughing and playing, they pushed, they ran, and they fell. A while later, the two gasping for air and fell on to the ground fairly exhausted. They gulped down their water bottles empty and munched away their lunches. They both sat there with their backs leaning on each other, Amane was gazing at their school which was visible from this new position while Kannko was swiping, the screen as she went through her new account.

“I think I saw someone looking at us from the second floor window….from class 1B”

“Don’t worry….it’s okay”

She mumbled mostly to herself not even listening to him, she was lost in the phone and he noticed it. Slowly he moved away from her and since she was completely sitting due to his support she fell backwards. Being utterly absent-minded it make her gasp from fear and tightly closed her eyes but before her head could hit the ground he caught her. She opened her eyes and saw him laughing, she laid there, her head resting on his hand, still surprised. He was sitting on his knees looking down at her, he smiled, the shining sun in the bright blue sky behind him made it hard for her to focus.

“You both look so cute busy with your lovey-dovey”

The words brought the two back, making their bodies go numb with astonishment. A girl in the same uniform as theirs stood near the two. Amane hurriedly got up and brushed the grass of his uniform as he looked at this nuisance and ironically sighed, it wasn’t like he was rude or anything but he just simply didn’t like this girl in particular. The girl ignored him and stuck her tongue out at him. She went to Kanako, extending her hand out to her which she graciously accepted and grabbed, the girl pulled then Kanako up and helped her brush the grass off her uniform.

“How was the kiss?”

“A-ah we didn’t kiss or anything”

“Come on tell me…….I am your friend right?........Come on, please tell me…..”

“I am telling the truth”

“Okay, okay I believe ya……….so you both were on a date today?”

“n-no…….”

“Quit lying-”

“SHUT IT”

Amane couldn’t take it any longer this girl was treating Kanako with abusive questions. He grabbed her by her shoulder and squeezed it a little making sure not to exert too much pressure but he wanted to scare her today, he had seen her harassing Kanako multiple times with such questions and it was about time he knocked some sense into her.

“Kanako and I are like siblings, get this into that thick skull of yours”

She tried to protest but his stare made her shiver making it difficult to speak out. Kanako who had seen him turn into such a creep before only for her sake knew that he wasn’t much of a threat. Though he was mostly quiet, in fact he was slightly shy around girls but whenever someone was rude to Kanako he would become like this and wouldn’t even care who that person might be.

“Amane, please let her go”

He looked at Kanako, his anger melted away, then back at that girl and let her go. The girl hastily got away from him and grabbed Kanako’s arm pulling her away.

“What a freak show”

“You will regret”

Amane moved forward to grab her again but before he could Kanako came between the two laughing nervously. The girl stuck her tongue out at him again and grabbed Kanako’s hand, looking at her as an indication that they should leave. Kanako went up to Amane and smiled

“Amane, bye see you tomorrow”

“B-bye”

The two girls walked away leaving Amane behind, who was looking at them until he decided to walk off the other way. The two girls turned to look at him as they went out of the park.

“I am telling you he is damn in love with you”

“….no we are just good friends”

“Dear didn’t you see how angry he was and how quickly he listened to you”

“Um….come to think of it…. even I feel like …..Probably he……”

“Probably?.....I am sure about it……and what was he doing back then kneeling on top of you?”

“Oh I fell and he caught me, that’s it”

“But he was too close….I feel like he likes getting touchy with you”

“N-no I don’t think so”

“Come on don’t protect him….I know you see him as a friend but he ….definitely doesn’t”

“……Hmmmm…….maybe”

The two girls gossiped as walked on the pavement of the road crossing different shops along the way stopping short to gaze at the various deployments, they giggled and chatted about nothing in particular yet not leaving any juicy details as they liked calling it. Kanako couldn’t shake away the idea of him liking her though his actions were a proof of his feelings but he had called her his sister and that was a rather disappointment. She pretended in front of others as well as Amane that she hated the rumors about them though she mostly had a hand in circulating those stories. Let’s be real if there are rumors related to you that means others are talking about you and that’s a step closer to popularity.