Chapter 15:

One Outcasted Idiot Shares A Story

Why Does Nobody Find Us Attractive?


With his arms folded and a chopstick dangling out of his mouth like a cigarette, Nikko sat back to tell his story.

"Back in my day…"

Reina slapped the chopstick out of his mouth.

"Act normally."

Nikko picked the fallen chopstick from his lap and placed it neatly on the table.

"If you insist. Way back in middle school, I was a star player on my school's tennis team. Me and another kid, Tetsuya Noda, were the top two players in our school, and we even won prefectural tournaments in both singles and doubles. He was my closest friend for quite a few years. While the team mostly revolved around the two of us, we were also good friends with all the other team members. Of those other members, two of them also became very close to Tetsuya: Hidemichi Ike and Genjo Tokunaga. By association, I became friends with them, but I never became very close to them. It was one of those relationships where I would talk to them if we were all in a group with Tetsuya, but if I was alone with them, I would ignore them."

"Anyways, we all followed each other into high school, but they never joined the tennis team. I did, and I thought they were going to as well. I confronted the three, but Tetsuya told me that he didn't have time for tennis anymore. I couldn't understand: why would one of the top ranked young players drop out of the sport? Even though I felt betrayed by Tetsuya for abandoning tennis, I still hung out with him and his group. We were all in the same class, so it was easy just to eat lunch and talk after class with them. But something was off. The way they talked, what they always talked about, it changed. We were athletes, and we always talked sports, and hanging out, and doing stupid stuff. Now they started talking about strange things, like making sexual comments about the girls in our class, or taking their parent's cars on joyrides. I started to realize that even though I still hung out with them in class, they actually spent much more time hanging out after class without me. They never invited me when they did their "illegal" stunts. I wouldn't have gone anyways, but I no longer knew who my friends were. Before I knew it, tennis was the only thing I had left. I thought the game would never change, so I abandoned my friends to focus on the only thing that made me feel comfortable. The club was a good environment, too. I enjoyed being with all the guys in the club, they were all very nice to me. I probably would've been good friends with some of them if I had some more time with them."

"Eventually, my old friends realized that I had left them, and it seemed that they felt more betrayed than I had felt. After practice one day, Tetsuya and his cronies came to visit me. Tetsuya asked why I couldn't grow up like they did, clutching a hopeless dream of being a tennis star. I never wanted to be a tennis star, though, I just wanted a place where I could belong. I tried to tell them that, but they thought I was full of shit. They asked why I didn't want to experience the thrills of life with them, but I just laughed. Really, the thrills of life? Harassing girls, driving recklessly, smoking and drinking? That just sounded like the activities of a group of assholes with nothing better to do. I actually said that to them; Tetsuya was furious. He told me that I had no right to look down on them, and he would make me know my place. I didn't know what to think of his threat, but I had to start watching my back. School was terrible, and I was constantly scared. My classmates started to distance themselves from me, scared off by my strange and suspicious behaviour. The tennis club was the only place where I thought I could be safe, but eventually Tetsuya and the others started to watch the practices. I couldn't get away. They weren't doing anything wrong, and they used that to their advantage. I couldn't do anything. They didn't stop for months, and I spent that entire time with this feeling of discomfort and uneasiness."

"Finally, everything ended up exploding. As the first year started to reach its end, spring and warmer weather arrived. My sister, Rinako, started coming by at the end of the day to try and get me to take her somewhere once practice was finished. Sometimes she would come a bit earlier and watch us play for a bit, probably because she wanted to look at some of the guys on the team. One day, she came over to watch for a bit. After practice, I went to get changed in the locker room, then went out to the school gate to meet up with Rinako. As I started to approach the gate, I saw that she wasn't alone. Three guys were standing around her, and it was obvious that they were bothering her, so I started to rush over. I should've realized earlier, but as I got closer, I saw that the three guys were Tetsuya and his friends. I was shouting at them to redirect their attention, but Tetsuya stayed focused on Rinako. Then I saw him touch her. The next thing I knew, I'd slugged Tetsuya in the jaw and knocked him on his ass. I was yelling at him, saying that he needed to leave Rinako out of whatever he was trying to do, or I'd kill him. Lucky for me, he and the others didn't try to retaliate, and they just left."

"I thought all the drama with them would be over after that, and it was for the rest of the school year. But when the second year started up, everything changed. I was planning on playing tennis again, but at the first club meeting, there were three new members: Tetsuya, Ike, and Takunaga. I quit that day. I wanted to be as far from them as possible, even if I had to abandon my passion. At least they weren't in my class, but now I'd separated myself from the guys in the tennis club. I was alone, but I wasn't the only one in my class who was. Just as I was left out of all the groups of friends, there were two others as well. One day, I decided to introduce myself to those two and asked if they would join me for lunch. They both agreed, and we spent the entire lunch complaining about how much we hated our classmates. Before long, we became best friends."

With his story finished, Nikko took a bow. However, Toshiharu was confused.

"What was that? You let your old friends basically psychologically harass you and chase you out of your club, but everything worked out because you happened to meet two other outcasts in your class? That story was terrible."

"Hey, shut up! It's not a story: it was my life. It's hard to remain confident and friendly when you fear that something might happen to you. Anyways, the point is that sometimes good things can come from bad situations."

Shinobu started to clap.

"Good lesson, Nikko! I'm happy you were able to become who you are now from beating adversity!"

Nikko stared at Toshiharu.

"See, Toshiharu? It was good. You even met Ike and Takunaga, and you comment on how I "let" them harass me. The moral of the story is that, in the end, I will always win."

Reina whacked his fingers with her chopsticks.

"Don't act so tough. When everyone hears my story, they'll see how much tougher I am than you."

Nikko grinned at her.

"Sure, why don't you give it a try. I'm sure they'll think you're so tough."