Chapter 11: Character Personification

"Just where, where, did Ito-senpai has gone to? Why was it difficult to find him during school? I wanted him to save me from whatever Kishi-senpai has planned to make me do. It was his idea after all! Anyone please save me! I haven't learnt on acting yet!" - Aki.

His plan to bring along Ito to Kishi’s house did not work. In fact, he failed to find Ito. Each time he went to Kishi’s class, the other classmates would state that both Kishi and Ito were going out to buy snacks, the toilet, library, doing cleaning duty, and et cetera. He could not blame them for vanishing in action – His timing was probably incorrect too. Furthermore, he could not predict whether both Ito and Kishi has left their class, or they were actually avoiding themselves from Aki.

Aki could not help but to overthink uncountable possibilities. Was he sold to Kishi by Ito? Then, was the promise a faked hope? Aki hated the fact that he was vulnerable lately, easily trusting on people such as Ito whereas he barely recognised him. The Aki Tori used to befriend with would have his own strong opinions, and he did not hesitantly voice it out. He would always want other people to perceive his point of view though it might sound selfish to certain people. He would stop protesting only when he had nothing to win against to.

“What are you waiting for? Or are you going to set up a tent outside my house?”

That familiar voice interrupting his imagination startled him. Aki blinked in perplex while digesting the current situation he has set his foot in. The figure standing before him was crossing his arms and staring at him with undeniably wide eyes. This figure was looking down at him, yet he did not see it as a mockery. Instead, he took it lightly and just brushed it off with an awkward giggle.

“I’m sorry,” Aki bowed and scratched his back of head. “Sorry for bothering you, Kishi-senpai.”

How interesting. He has only indulged himself in his own mind full of curiosity over numerous unanswered questions. Those three days of doubts and mistrust flew unconsciously, and he did not even realize it was already Saturday. Time sure passed by swiftly. He did not notice how he could find Kishi’s house either.

Digging deeper into his recorded memory, Aki recalled that Kishi has prepared a map to his house together with a written house address. It was passed to him by Kishi’s classmate, claimed as Kishi’s resident. Aki never estimated that he would be deceived by that senior at all. Luckily, Aki did not get lost in the neighbourhood, and no one was stalking over him too. He gulped as he saw how fierce Kishi’s stares towards him. The awaiting punishment would not be lightly delivered.

“Welcome to my house. Come in,” the furrows on Kishi’s forehead loosened and he motioned to welcome Aki in.

Without any unnecessary words, Aki nodded once and entered the house. It was Kishi’s resident, a dreamt house to Kishi’s die-hard fans. Even though the size was not as big as his own house or Tori’s, its interior design surpassed his expectation that he gaped in disbelief. His slow paced was to let him acknowledging the classical Japanese furniture arrangement in the living room. A fleet of stairs leading upward was covered with a paper wall, which intrigued his inquisitiveness.

He shook his head. No, Aki! Do not be judgmental! This is someone else’s house, thus you have no right to comment!

“Hi, Aki!”

That was another familiar voice accosting him from the living room. Not really. The owner came out from the kitchen, bringing out a tray of warm drink and striding steadily towards the Japanese table. He was kneeling on the floor, putting cups and saucers on the table, before lifting up his head and beaming a wide smile.

“Ito-senpai!”

“E- HEM!”

Aki flinched to Kishi’s intervention. From his tone, he was reluctant to invite him over. Ito’s presence indirectly told him that it must have been his work – forcing Kishi to call Aki over. The difference in their mood displayed on the face proved it all, thus Aki had no intention to ruin the atmosphere.

“At least, you came here alone,” Kishi remarked in displeasure, “I thought you would bring your friends. Those two from your club, I mean.”

“They don’t want to tag along. Besides, this is the matter between Kishi-senpai and I, so bringing them doesn’t really change thing,” Aki said indistinctively, added with him ducking his head.

Ito raised his brows and cooed. “How responsible of you, Aki! I like your way of thinking!” then he peeped over Kishi at his side.

“But, I’m sorry. I don’t know why Ito-senpai is here too.”

“It’s because I was the one conducting this for the three of us,” Ito gestured his hand towards Aki and Kishi, like an auntie gossiping with the neighbours of her age. “I’ve explained everything to Kishi, and he had no choice but to agree with me.”

Aki frowned in deep bewilderment, notably when Ito kept on emphasizing about Kishi having no point to oppose him. “What do you mean, Ito-senpai?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ito laughed to ease the tense between them, “We will start acting today.”

The seniors were taken aback by Aki’s stunt. He has kicked the Japanese table and almost flipped it onto Ito and Kishi. The vigorous stirs in the cup resulted from the incident, yet it did not spill which saved Aki’s butt, Ito’s drink and Kishi’s fury. Aki rubbed his chest to calm his throbbing heart down. Any more than that, he might get real punishment from both seniors instead.

“H- H- H- How- But why?” Together with stammering, Aki could not handle the bewilderment overpowering him too. Moreover, he has already set his mind on how to confront Kishi bravely despite the bully he had complotted with Ito. “Kishi-senpai didn’t tell me anything about this!”

Ito’s entangling eyebrows showed his tarnished expectation, gradually shifting to the restless Kishi with widened eyes. Judging from their reaction, Aki regretted that he might have revealed something he should not.

“So you didn’t tell him anything, hmm?”

If only Aki did not cause trouble to Kishi, this was his golden chance to snap a picture of the frightened Kishi in Ito’s unwavering clutch on the collar, and he could harass the president of student association with it.

“I forgot!” came out as Kishi’s answer. He averted from Ito and covertly squinted at Aki instead. His darkened eyes displaying ‘Why did you say that to Ito?’ vibe, alarming Aki not to over speak again in the future.

“Well, Aki. To be honest, I didn’t tell him anything, casually. But I’ve heard the weird rumours about you guys. So, I had to explain everything to him,” Ito’s reassuring beam was supposed to secure Aki, yet it became fearful to Kishi. “At least, I’ve cleared the misunderstanding spread from the rumours.”

Aki should have said something to Ito for his deed though Kishi’s response was not likeable. Thanks to Ito’s skilful management, the elder could retain Kishi so that Kishi would not act violently towards Aki. Ito cupped Kishi’s cheeks, enforcing him to listen well or he might do anything out of their mind.

“So, shall we start now?”

It has become Aki’s habit to bring a drafted script in his bag. Since he liked wandering around to find anywhere displaying anime, he would keep a book in his bag and write significant lines he has listen. Once Ito has stated about them beginning their first class, his burning spirit elevated. His mind was overwhelmed by undeniable desire to master acting as soon as possible, which dragged him away from reality to the point that he could not hear Ito’s continuous calling.

“This kid must be an idiot,” Kishi commented with pouting mouth.

Receiving a quite fatal punch by Ito due to his senseless comment, Kishi cross-legged and grunted. Aki smiled awkwardly.

“This is only a scribble.”

The discussion began and went on pretty smoothly. Aki described in detail about his book which contained discourse of various anime he has watched. He picked up significantly prominent lines and had a few side arrows and jots by them. There were sentences which Aki chose to learn on emotional portraying, and there were also some lines which combined their importance in delivering the message together with the sensational emergence.

“This is the first anime I’ve referred to pick up certain important lines,” Aki flipped to the first page and directed his finger on the title. There was <Titan Attacking> in Times New Roman font printed on the upper page, and the smaller font following it was the dialogues of a few characters he could record. “My favourite character in this anime is the main lead, Aaron. As you know, Aaron is originally known as a kid who throws tantrum a lot and impatient. Then, he joins an academy of soldiers to learn on the reason of his mother’s death and his father’s disappearance.”

Aki paused as he thought he has talked too much. He peeked over Ito and Kishi who sat opposite to him, with the Japanese table as the only boundary between them. Both seniors were listening to him keenly, and frowned because he has stopped in the middle.

“He gets mad frequently. He yells a lot, like, this episode,” Aki pointed at one of the dialogues, “In this episode, his legs are eaten by the tantalizing titans. He can’t really accept the fact that he was amputated, so he cries and shouts a lot, cursing at whoever created the titan who is nowhere to be found.”

Ito’s pupil tailed the dialogue Aki jotted in the book, precisely on the page they were on. “So this is the line that Aaron guy has spitted out, right? Do you remember how he is during this scene?”

“Just this dialogue, I guess.”

“Act it out,” Kishi pressed his index finger to the page, applying along his annoyance. “I want to see how you imitate this.”

Huh? Aki turned mute. Act this dialogue? In front of other people than Tori? Besides, of all people, there were the president of the drama club and its popular member, Ito and Kishi! How could he be an actor in front of them, while he has been doing imitation all these while?

“Do I have to do it now?”

“Yes, you have to,” Kishi gritted his teeth, intimidating Aki. “Are you retreating now?”

“Kishi.”

Only with one stern call by Ito could scare Kishi and even break in sweat. Wow! Aki was amused at Ito’s tenacity that he was respected to that extend by Kishi. How did Ito do that, whereas Kishi was Izumi’s idol especially among the girls?

“Please try, Aki,” Ito shifted back to Aki, and sincerely curved a smile as a source of encouragement.

Aki gulped. His sweaty hands trembled a little, conveying his nervousness. He then breathed in relax. “First of all, I would like to apologize if it doesn’t match your expectation.”

“Just act,” Kishi has already propped his chin to watch Aki’s act, “No one is perfect in the first try.”

Aki cleared his throat. He breathed, but it became harsher as he inhaled. He literally panted as if he was choked by tightening surrounding filled with the least percentage of oxygen, thus perturbed Kishi and Ito who mistook it as having an asthma attack.

“Curse you! You must be kidding me!!”

Together with a scrunched face and massive trembles in his limbs, Aki even screamed his lung out. That hugely stupefied Kishi and Ito to the point that they felt like Aki cursed at them instead of mere imitation.

“Curse you for the whole calamity you’ve caused this humanity into! You’re the biggest trash of the earth that you should have died in the first place!” Aki even thumped his palms onto the table, once again jolting the seniors who paid too much focus on him. Then, his intonation deepened in his throat, grumbling out of anger, “Kill me! Kill me!! Just kill every single humans in this maliciousness! Just perish everyone!!”

Kishi and Ito blinked in great astonishment. Aki really put his mind and might on that single line, which astounding them a lot. The timid Aki several minutes ago has gone and was replaced by the rampaging Aki.

Aki’s breathing was composed, much better than the initial. He calmed himself, yet it has not ended. “You better hide yourself before I saw a glimpse of you somewhere or I won’t hesitate to demolish an unworthy scum like your being!!”