How (Not) To Hit On Your Crash

A crowded street. Area of Tokyo. A local highschool.

A student is gazing through the window, sitting on the first row in class, but on the column that isn’t immediately next to the window. As class didn’t start yet and barely anyone was inside - he can see quite clearly without anyone blocking his vision.

He is staring to his right, catching some scenery of the urban outside. In the center of his view is the school gate. Suddenly, a beautiful girl he has never seen before enters through the gate, already surrounded by friends. She has long black hair and seems slightly taller than her friends.

He can’t quite grasp what her face looks like so he takes a closer look. He is feeling her aura of popularity drawing him in. He barely manages to see her black eyes and beautiful face before she escapes his vision. He suddenly notices he is standing on the tip of his toes, leaning towards the window from a closer sit.

Two years pass. It’s the last year of highschool. The student is walking to school.

“Hey Nir! Wait up!” - Another student yells to him.

“Good morning.” - Nir replies.

They keep walking and reach the entrance. In front of them they see the beautiful girl. She suddenly stops. They slow down and stop walking too. There is somewhat of a weird silence. She stares at his black eyes, matching his hair.

“Nir, did you get taller?” - She asks.

-“I think you did too.”

She then enters the school quietly.

“Dude... What the hell?!”

-“Don’t make a huge deal out of nothing...” - Nir replies.

-“Rain, the most famous girl in school just gives you a compliment! And you barely react!!!”

-“She is just a human being, no need to be weird about it.”

-“What was that about anyway? Were you always close? I guess you two look kind of alike. WAIT. Are you related? Why are you such a loner though? You know? While she gets all the attention...”

-“RELAX...” - Nir tries to dodge a barrage of questions. “Let’s get to our sits, I feel like sleeping a bit longer.” He says as he grabs his friend’s face to control his hyper reactions.

They enter and go towards their class’s building. On the hallway next to their classroom’s door there is a slight commotion over the quarter scores’ list.

“Of course, number 1 goes to Rain again.”

-“Yea Rain, you always take the top spot.”

-“No surprise there!”

-“Nir got down from second place?”

-“Yea, it’s true. I wonder what happened.”

Nir stops to look at the scores. He sees that he got third place while Rain is still at the top as always.

Rain is standing there in the middle of the commotion and sees him looking at the score.

“You know, you are supposed to strive upwards.” - Rain suddenly throws at him.

-“What’s the point anyway? I personally think you can achieve much better in life relying on your looks, rather than obsessing over the number one spot.” - Nir answers.

-“Ooohhh...” - Some voices are heard from the crowd to incite drama.

Rain makes a numb face and walks away.

“Wait! Rain, where are you going? Class is about to start.” - One of the female students yells towards her.

Nir enters the class quietly. Eventually the crowd disperses.

Rain enters the class a second before the teacher does. Nir notices that and looks at her, but she doesn’t look at him, possibly avoiding returning the sentiment on purpose.

He keeps looking at her every now and then throughout the day.

At the end of the school day, he notices she disappeared. Everyone is getting ready to leave the class. He decides to take off immediately so nobody will be able to follow and he can get some quiet while walking home.

He walks fast to a local train station and checks the board for the train’s arrival time. He sees the train arrives at 14:00 PM. His eyes move quickly to the current time showing up on the board switching from 13:59 to 14:00 while he is still looking. The train arrives.

As he steps to the line awaiting people to leave the train first, he notices Rain standing in a line further to his right. She is accompanied by some majorly big looking punks. Their line is shorter and so they get on before him. He gets on a few seconds later. Nir is distant from them, but they got on the same car. She doesn’t seem to notice him.

She looks a bit uncomfortable. They keep talking to her, posing like they are some big shots. She laughs every now and then but it looks very forced.

Nir gets nervous. “What is she doing with them...” - He thinks to himself. “They are obviously a bad crowd.

He keeps watching them. Suddenly one of them puts his hand on her shoulder, trying to close their distance. He is larger than the other punks. She looks very uncomfortable, and keeps reaching to her smartphone, possibly fake typing.

“Should I do something?” - Nir thinks to himself. “She is here because she wants to... I can’t intervene...”

She then moves a bit so his hand falls and he immediately puts his hand on her again, and then starts touching her hair.

Nir completely shifts to “Doing Something Mode”. “What do I do? Do I approach? Make a scene?” - He is struggling. “I have to do something. Maybe I need to be bold. I don’t stand a chance against them if it ever became violent. I need to get everyone’s attention to these bullies so they can’t get away with acting like this.”

“Here is what I do...”

He starts walking towards them slowly.

“This is a secret technique every man knows deep down inside he shouldn’t be using...”

He is speeding up.

“The forbidden way to get both a girl’s attention and her number without fail...”

He is sprinting, being noticed by her, and others as well.

“Is to swap your phones...”

He dunks his smartphone into her backpack and snatches hers.

“...And call yourself!”

He sprints outside of the train while dialing his own number.

The phone is ringing. He runs towards a different car and hopes on quickly. The train closes. Had he been a bit slower he would have missed the train.

The phone stops ringing. “Hello?” - A girly voice is heard from the phone.

-“Hey there top student. We are calling you to inform you about the dangers of suffocating yourself with over studying.” - Nir tells her.

-“Nir, what the hell are you doing?! That was so embarrassing!” - Rain replies in a mad voice.

-“You know him?” - One of the guys standing with her can be heard via the phone call.

-“He is just some guy from my class.”

-“He might have a crash on you or something...” - The punk replies.

-“Nir, why are you here?” - She asks.

-“I’ll meet you off of the train on the next station.” Nir replies, sounding serious.

He then hangs up, trusting that she will listen.

The train arrives at the next station. He steps out of the car. He notices her from afar, stepping out too. She is followed by the other punks. she’s looking right and left, trying to find Nir, as he suddenly shows up, grabs her hand and runs away with her.

“Follow me!” - He says with a serious face and a calm confidence.

The posers start running after them. They run to the center of the station. They turn left next to the toilet area and reach a dead end. He immediately changes course to the other direction, noticing they are on their tail.

He holds her hand tight and say “Let’s get up those stairs” as he points at the stairs to the upper floor. In full speed they run up the stairs and reach the second floor, seeing the stairs start going down moving forward, basically offering either to enter the floor or a second pathway to the first one.

“Let’s continue down the stairs. We should keep running straight and further away so they may miss us and think we ran to hide on the second floor.”

They run down the stairs. As Nir looks to the distance to see where they should run to, he suddenly feels her hand being snatched out of his grasp.

He looks back, panicking. One of the guys stayed on the first floor and ran further in case they try to sneak to the first floor again.

The guy that grabbed her holds her, not letting her get away. The others show up too.

“Leave me alone!” - Rain yells at him.

-“It’s okay. You can let her go.” - The bigger punk says. He releases her. The way they are standing still blocks Rain and Nir’s escape path, as they circle around them, really close to the train line that can be dangerous to cross. Rain looks at the rails, understanding they are still caught anyway.

Nir goes straight to the biggest punk whose giving orders, the one who touched her before.

“She wouldn't wanna go out with you. You are just forcing her. She tags along since she has to be nice as the popular girl in school. Can't u see she feels embarrassed by being seen with you baboons?!”

She blushes a bit, surprised to see him standing up and fighting for her.

As the bully hears his words, he starts getting pissed. She looks at the raging bully. He looks at her and she immediately turns to another direction, feeling inconvenienced by his stare. He then gets really mad. A train is seen getting closer.

“You loser just want her all to yourself...” - The bully says, then he grabs Nir and lifts him above his own head, saying: “Here! Go get her!” and he suddenly throws him onto her with great force.

The moment they hit, both of them fall towards the rails while the train is still coming, making a disaster inevitable.

Nir and Rain are in the air. Right before the hit, he is thinking: “Surely... There can't be a worse world to be born into than this one.”

Everything turns black. But not clearly black. A vague black.

The two of them suddenly come to, realizing they are standing up. Their vision becomes clear, and they see a beautiful scenery, completely opposite of the city, as if they are standing in a world made just for the two of them.

They then notice that above each other’s head - there seems to be a heart with the number “18” written in it.