Chapter 6:
My Girlfriend Doesn't Exist
Umi rubs her eyes in disbelief
Is that really him? Did I summon him?
“I really am sorry about that” Akito apologizes, Umi trying to downplay the severity, and she takes his hand to get up. She notices a bag he’d dropped, and reaches to grab it for Akito, which he notices and snatches it up immediately.
“It’s okay, I should’ve looked where I was walking” Umi replies shyly, with a half-hearted laugh, brushing off what just happened.
“I gotta work on that too” Akito smiles back, both of them absorbed in the moment.
Akito looks down to notice that when they collided, he’d spilled her drink on the floor.
“Since I knocked over your drink…I only feel that it’s right that I buy you another”
Umi, unsure of what to say, heads to the concession with Akito to get another drink, her asking for another drink.
“Your total is 170.82 ¥”
Akito reaches for his wallet, but before he can Umi pays for it, to his surprise.
“Hey I was gonna-”
“It’s fine, you’re not entirely to blame after all” Umi smiles back at Akito, but the guilt of running into her still looms over his consciousness.
They head back toward where they encountered each other, Akito bowing to apologize to her once more. He looks up to meet her eyes, but she’s looking at something behind him.
An arm extends over Akito’s shoulder, startling him. He looks up nervously to see Takuma’s face, happy to see him
“I knew it! You see that! My eyes aren’t failing me!” Takuma shouts back, seeing Ryu, Kenji, Fumiko, Miki and Rei walking toward them, and they group up with Akito and Umi.
“...yet” Kenji corrects Takuma, to the amusement of everyone but Akito.
I can’t let the reason I was actually here out, not in front of them ... .It's not like I don’t trust them, it’s like there’s a hidden part of me, wanting to keep this a secret. That same part of me wants to protect everyone’s wishes, and I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that.
“What’re you doing here?” Ryu questions Akito
“Yeah, I thought you were busy…” Kenji adds on, Akito sweating nervously now.
Akito gathers what little composure he can, and takes a deep breath.
“Someandmybrotherweregoingshoppingtodayherethenhisgirlfriendsaidhehadtogohelpherwithsomethingurgentthenhesaid”gowatchamovieforabitilltextyouaboutwhenicangetyoubye””. Akito blurts out in a single breath, which completely goes around the brains of everyone present, all of them replying in unison.
“...what?”
Kenji walks a bit closer, still confused on why Akito’s here, but Takuma stops him in his tracks by “accidentally” stepping in front of him and pointing toward an ice cream shop nearby.
“Why don’t we chat over ice cream instead? Standing here’s a bit weird” Takuma suggests, the group agreeing and heading over.
Akito stands in place for a moment, before letting an exhale of relief out and catching up.
Onto the next phase, hopefully I can come up with something better this time around.
…
They get into the ice cream place, Umi finishing her drink and setting it in the recycling bin. Miki orders matcha and vanilla scoops, Rei orders vanilla, Fumiko orders black coffee flavor. Umi places an order for matcha ice cream, then reaches for her wallet to pay for it, opening to see nothing left.
“I could’ve sworn there was-”
Umi’s memory cuts herself off, seeing back to paying for her own drink, leaving the change on the counter as she walks away, too focused on the situation at hand to grab it.
I can’t believe I forgot my change! And for such a…stupid reason.
“I’ll have a matcha scoop too.” Akito comes to the counter, paying for both of the cones, handing one to Umi.
“There, now we’re even” Akito follows up, smiling happily at Umi
Umi’s face glows red, but she quickly grabs the cone and sits down. The other girls at the table are busy eating their cones, only Fumiko noticing the color of Umi’s face, but doesn’t have a chance to say anything as the boys are seated.
…
They all begin talking about the movie, but Umi’s face is still red. The sounds of the world, the smells, the people, none are felt by Umi. In this present moment, Umi is replaying that same moment from the cash over and over again.
Her occasional glance to Akito is the only thing she’s been doing other than the hyperfixation on the ice cream.
Akito re-explains why he was at the theater, just by slowing down his sentence he blurted out earlier.
“I see. Okay!” Takuma barely tries to interpret, and takes his friend’s word for it. Akito notices that Rei, seated next to Takuma, has been moving slightly closer with each passing minute.
Thank god he’s so trusting. Sorry, Takuma. I hate lying to you, but this time I swear it’s for the better.
Umi snaps back, getting acclimated to the store like she’d just walked in and sat down. She looks over to Aki, who has a relieved look on his face.
“I…Is your brother always like that?” Umi asks Akito shyly, looking toward the ground after asking.
As Akito takes a breath to respond, Takuma, Kenji and Ryu all agree with that statement.
“He’s a bit clueless sometimes…but you can tell he cares about the people close to him.” Ryu answers
“Yeah, he’s like, the ultimate big brother” Kenji also answers, without missing a beat.
“He’d always ask us how we’re doing, even though we were Aki’s friends” Takuma finishes the answering, without Akito having to say a word
I’m glad. That they like Shoya, and I know that he likes them. These guys are more than I could have asked for…
Akito’s face grows warmer, after hearing his friends’ opinions on his older brother making him happy.
…
They switch the subject to what flavors of ice cream everyone got, with Miki proclaiming “The mixture of Matcha and Vanilla is the best!”
“Is that so?” Ryu playfully teases, then looks over toward Miki.
What is he planning…?
Ryu’s face inches closer to Miki’s, her eyes darting around before looking at his lips.
WH-W-WHAT?!? H-H-HERE?!?
Ryu gets even closer, Miki closing her eyes, her face growing more red by the second.
CHOMP
What was that noise?
Miki opens her eyes, seeing Ryu just chomping a massive bite out of her cone, him chewing it in front of her. Her entire face swells up, red, then she “blows a fuse”, slamming her face on the table.
Miki re-animates with a new sense of determination, then goes right to Ryu’s cone and takes an even bigger bite than he did out of her cone out of his, then sits back, satisfied with her revenge plot.
“That’s payback!” Miki retorts his action.
“Can’t argue with that” Ryu laughs, Miki’s nervous face growing more warm after seeing it.
…
They all finish their ice cream, then sit back down and start talking about school, going over how tough classes were, how their teacher is really nice, and gym classes.
“Oh yeah, speaking of school…how’d the midterms go?” Miki asks, to the dismay of Takuma, Kenji and Ryu, their gleeful worlds shattering with a single sentence.
“We…did our best! I think…” Takuma tries to pretend like he remembers a single question on it, let alone to subjects that were on it.
“Pretty good” Akito replies, his world being all sunshine and rainbows.
“How’d you guys do?” Akito asks the girls back.
“Easy. I would barely consider it a questionnaire” Fumiko replies, fully in monotone, as she ranked 3rd.
“I didn’t really have to study” Miki confidently replies, placing 33rd.
“I didn’t really understand a lot of it…” Rei scratches her head, racking her brain on the subjects she didn’t do well in, but still placing 34th.
“The rankings aren’t that important to me…” Umi shyly replies
“That’s what losers say!” Kenji shouts out, only to be figuratively crushed by Umi’s ranking, an imaginary number 16 falling from the sky and crushing his thoughts.
The despair felt by the boys is short-lived, as they chat some more about the midterms, with the girls being more insightful than the boys other than Akito, who’s happy to help.
“So…where do you guys think the school camp’ll be this year?” Takuma asks out of the blue, everyone thinking hard about their answer except for Umi.
“I hope it’s somewhere fun like a summer camp!” Miki replies
“It will probably be the same place as every other year before this: Kyoto prefecture. It’s basically a tradition after all” Fumiko coldly replies.
“That’s where you think it’ll be. Where do you want it to be?” Ryu asks Fumiko, her face finally showing a bit of expression, growing embarrassed at her answer.
“...waterpark” Fumiko quietly replies, her face still embarrassed, everyone in shock about her expression changing a bit.
“Too bad that isn’t really a school camp kind of place” Miki sorrowfully corrects her friend’s idea, Fumiko’s embarrassed face returns to a cold, emotionless one,
Takuma’s been thinking this entire time, then he suddenly gets an idea, visibly seen by the look on his face shooting from one deep in thought to one excited to share.
“I think I just had revelation…the greatest location for school camp”
Takuma’s grandiose use of words intrigues everyone, who all focus on him.
“...Camping!” Takuma exclaims, everyone coming to the realization that this isn’t actually a dumb idea out of him (for once). Everyone but Akito.
Akito’s lively expression quickly changes to a blank one, his head tilting down and staring at the ground, losing the present as a flood of memories begin to pour into his mind.
The shop fades away in the deafening silence, a new reality materializing before him, but not one he’s new to. It’s a campground, a younger version of Shoya running around, helping a taller man set things up.
A woman walks into my view; one I should be familiar with, yet somehow forgotten who she is to me.
The taller man reaches down, extending a hand to Akito and smiling. The smile seemed to show a desire to be happy, but a superficial feeling preceded it. To Akito, at least.
“I can show you how, if you want me to”
No. I can’t let you. You already grabbed a hold of him, you already made him desire something that’ll never happen, crave a future which cannot come to pass. I want you to let go of me, and I need to let go of you.
Umi notices Akito’s blank expression, the others talking about how much they love camping, while he’s reliving something. Umi taps Akito on the shoulder, bringing him back to the present.
Akito looks up to see Umi, gesturing him toward his friends, who’re just getting up to leaving, as the time is now 8:21pm
Umi, while hesitant at first, gets up and leaves Akito to be the last in the booth where they were sitting.
Akito rubs his eyes a few times, trying to remove his memories from his head. But it’s no use, they’re his, no matter how much he doesn’t want them to be.
He gets out of the booth, grabbing his bag and heading out to follow his friends home.
I need to forget. Forget about the things I once knew, but pretending to forget is just as bad as lying to yourself about how you feel. I…can’t do what I need to do. Not yet.
They head out of the mall as a group, Takuma Rei and Miki slightly ahead of everyone else, while Ryu, Kenji, Fumiko, Akito and Umi are clustered behind.
RIIIIIIIIING
Akito’s phone begins ringing in his pocket, which he looks to see who’s calling.
It’s Shoya.
“Hello?”
“Hey, just calling to see what time you’ll be back.I’m gonna start dinner soon so it’d be ready for you”
“It just us tonight?”
“Aoi might stop by a little later, not sure though”
“Sounds good, What’re you making?”
“Curry Udon. You still like that, right?”
“Yep! See you then!”
Akito pulls the phone away from his face, about to hang up when a final line is heard.
“You never change, do you?”
Akito hears this, unsure of who said it, or if anyone did say it at all. His face grows a bit saddened at first, but switches to a happy one as he turns around, but is met with not the group, but Umi.
“Why’d you wait for me? You didn’t have to, you know” Akito asks Umi, a bit skeptical but appreciating the sentiment.
Umi blushes slightly, and looks away, whispering back “I know I didn’t have to. I wanted to.”
Akito gasps at this, slightly surprised, to Umi’s panic, causing her to get more flustered.
“That was nice of you, thanks” Akito replies with a warm smile, Umi noticing this and calming down a bit.
They stand in silence for a moment, then Umi breaks it.
“Actually…there was something I wanted to ask you”
“What’s on your mind?”
Umi looks around, then looks Akito in the eyes.
“Since the ice cream shop, you haven’t been acting like yourself, or at least the you that I know”
“What?” Akito is confused by Umi’s wording
“What I’m trying to ask is…are you okay?”
Akito pauses for a moment, shook to his core that someone asked him this.
Akito’s mind flashes back to the memories, ones that were the present so long ago, and a tear wells up from within.
Akito looks down to try and hide himself from Umi, but the slight amount of tears leave the pavement below a different color.
“...it’s nothing, don’t worry” Akito tries to disarm this situation, and get Umi further from the truth.
Akito’s eyes are still locked on the ground, and the tears have stopped pouring when a pair of shoes enters the field of vision. He looks up to see Umi, standing closer than she’d been before.
“...I…”
“...wouldn’t mind talking to you about nothing” Umi reassures Akito, her face giving a calming and warm feeling to him.
This sentence would mean nothing to everybody else in the world, but to me…This was the one sentence I’d never known I needed to hear.
Akito composes himself, then reaches his phone out, and they exchange contact information. Umi is externally silent, but her mind is racing, being happy that she’d been able to help him, and that she got his number.
“You may not think this means much to me, but…it means more than you’d ever know”
…
Takuma, Rei and Miki are leading the charge, so to speak. Rei is still forwarding her plot, getting ever-so-closer to Takuma with each step, Miki noticing her plan unfold.
Rei is getting more and more nervous, reaching her hand closer to his, when she overextends and touches his hand prematurely.
Takuma stops in his tracks, looking toward Rei with a considerate face.
“Are you cold? You’re shaking” Takuma politely asks.
Miki’s jaw metaphorically hits the floor, as the temperature is mild at best, and somehow he’s wearing a sweater.
Rei is too shy to say anything, but as she is about to dismiss this, Takuma places his sweater on her shoulders. It’s too big for her, but she doesn’t care, and she puts it on regardless.
“Is that better?” Takuma asks Rei, still being considerate of her.
“Much better! Thank you!” Rei nervously spews back, lying through her teeth as she’s sweating buckets.
Miki is still in shock about the amount of…whatever the hell that was that just occurred in front of her. She muttles out a single whisper.
“...idiots”
They get to the bridge where they first met, splitting off to go home, with Takuma walking Rei back as they live the same way.
They all wave goodbye, and head their separate ways home.
…
Takuma and Rei reach Rei’s apartment, and she enters. Before she shuts the door, she turns to face Takuma.
“Thank you for walking me home”
“I don’t mind, it’s on the way after all” Takuma replies with a smile, able to illuminate even the darkest night’s sky.
“Then why don’t we walk to school together?” Rei blurts out, covering her mouth, not meaning to say that.
Takuma thinks for a moment, then replies back with a beaming smile
“That’s a great idea! See you then!”
Rei waves goodbye and closes the door, and Takuma begins walking back the way they came, his house being a backtrack from there.
Akito makes it come, waving back to Kenji and heading inside, being greeted by the aroma he could never forget. Curry Udon.
Akito makes it to the table, sitting across from Shoya, when they hear the door opening, and footsteps getting closer.
“Hey guys!” Aoi greets everyone, Shoya and Akito are happy to see her.
“You hungry? There’s plenty!” Shoya happily explains.
Aoi sits next to Shoya, and they begin eating. The entire meal passes, with Akito heading up to his room after, with Shoya and Aoi still at the table.
“Do you think it’s best to leave him alone?” Aoi asks Shoya.
“I think so. I’d never seen him so…alive before” Shoya replies in a warm tone, affectionate and protective of his brother.
Aoi places her hand on Shoya’s, to which he flips his and grabs her hand back. Aoi leans in, pressing her head against Shoya’s chest, her being able to hear his heartbeat.
“I know you only want what’s best for him. That kid needs good things going for him, so I’ll be on your side, no matter what” Aoi proudly proclaims, making Shoya smile.
They stay there, in that moment for some time, being happy with what they have.
…
Akito rolls in bed, then looks toward the window in his room, the fluorescent light of the lamps dimly drawing shadows.
I…need to be better.
Akito closes his eyes, and drifts to sleep.
Umi’s room, a reflection of Akito’s, is decorated with deep blues and pink all around. She lays in her bed, thinking over events that happened, looking at the contact information for Akito on her phone, being overjoyed at this progression.
She thinks back to when Akito’s face when blank, then wonders something
Is there anything I can do for him?
She kicks her feet around frantically, covering her face with a pillow at the thought of doing something for him. She tires herself out from this, then comes to a realization.
Wait…should I do anything? I mean, we’re practically strangers…
She calms herself down, still looking at her phone, and the contact information, when a message comes in from a group chat for the student council.
“School camp preparations are about to start. Any more suggestions?”
This message lingers in Umi’s view, and an Idea pops into her mind. Not a selfish idea, but one with ulterior motives.
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