Telling Lies

Ema found herself spending the first half-hour of the new school week alone by the pump shed. 

It wasn’t the most convenient spot– to get here, one had to crawl through a hole in the fence. But it couldn’t get more private than here, not without leaving the school grounds entirely. She needed the privacy– to be more precise, the one she was expecting would certainly need it. And so she waited, stewing in thoughts she had failed to make sense of over the weekend.

If anything, this was the only sure thing to come out from last week. With nothing to do but mark time, she pondered on what had led her here.

That little tango on that first day. He didn’t get a good look at him then, since she was in so much of a hurry– only a blurry image of someone tall, someone she could swear was pissed at the time.

It was only later during introductions that she put two and two together, and she barely kept from shouting her surprise then. The embarrassment that she had almost somehow singled out the transfer student to crash into made it a sure thing that she wouldn’t join in on the ruckus after homeroom, nor in the mania that erupted over him in the following days.

She had meant to make a proper apology, but couldn’t find a good time, much less find the guy alone to begin with. And when she had her chance on that day she took over a class duty, she blew it by getting too caught up in showing him the ins-and-outs. 

When without warning he pinned her against the wall, it seemed to her that all her dithering had come to a head. He must be spitting mad! He was right to be– all that dillying and dallying must have made it look like she wasn’t the littlest bit sorry for what happened.  She rushed to say something, anything, but it all got stuck up in her throat. But he didn’t say anything either, at first.

Whatever his reason, the outburst she expected never materialized, and she was stuck there with an up-close look at him. Those eyes of his were pretty– transfixing even– but something was off about them. Ema struggled to express what she felt then. Then, they looked like they could swallow her whole– no, devour was the right word. But as confused as she already was, she never expected anything like what came next.

“Kurose-san, would you go out with me?”

Back then, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Even now she doubted her sanity. Was something wrong with her hearing, or did he mistake her for someone else?

In the end, it was all she could do to stammer out a verbal salad that had a few sounds that were recognizable as words. At the end of it, she had somehow managed to put off an answer to his– confession? It definitely was; he couldn’t have made it any clearer. 

Anyway, she managed to ask if it was okay if he could give her the weekend to think over her answer. It was more a desperate ploy to buy herself time than part of any coherent reasoning. 

But there was no putting it off now. 

Ema breathed a faint sigh that ended as a whistle. All this brooding gave her a headache.
Enough of that. She had made up her mind on one thing– and this time she was going to find her voice. 

Just then, another voice brought her back fully to reality.

“Yo.”

With impeccable timing, the culprit behind her restless weekend finally appeared.

Turning to greet the newcomer, Ema’s budding resolve faltered. 

Since last time, she had gotten conscious of how much of a looker Theo-san was. He stood taller by over a head, imposing the full difference with his commanding posture. 

He had a face that seemed to be hiding something hard beneath its boyishness. Short black hair grew low over his eyes– most striking of all were his eyes, the color of ocean on an overcast day.

Somehow, she stood her ground, though she had to hold her arms up in defense, and forget about eye contact. At three paces away Theo-san stopped and put a hand on his hip. 

Greeting aside, he seemed to be willing to let her have the first word. She took him up on it, fearing that prolonged silence would be far worse than voicing her pent-up thoughts. 

Just lay it out straight this time, Ema.

“Che-yo-san!” In her nervousness, she tripped on his name, but kept on with it. 

“First of all, I want to get something off my chest.” still no reaction from Theo-san. She braced herself.

“I’m very sorry for what happened that first day!” Ema blurted out, bowing deeply from the waist.

She looked up after she was met with silence. Theo-san’s brows were furrowed as he replied with some strain, but he recovered his sure tone before the end of the sentence. 

“Oh, that? That didn’t bother me at all. Water under the bridge, really. Tell you what, if you feel that bad about it, then do one little thing for me and we’ll call it even.”

He motioned for her to raise her head.

“Would you give me your answer?”

“I’m sorry–”
For the second time she found herself bowing.
“ –but I don’t really know you all that well. I mean, I’m really flattered and all, don’t get me wrong! But, I just think it’s too soon to be thinking about it– dating, that is. Sorry!” 

She did it! Ema hoped that he wouldn’t take offense. The foreigner’s eyes flickered before he quickly took on an apologetic expression. 

“Of course, that’s on me, isn’t it? If anything, I should be the one apologizing. Forgive me again, but the biggest thing that turned you off is us being strangers, right? I’d like to make it up to you by rectifying that, at least.” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked. 

“I mean that I’ll answer any questions you might have. I did leave you a lot with my little stunt last week, right?” he said, before closing the distance until he was looking at her full in the face. 

“Go ahead, ask away.” 

So close! It took all Ema had not to step back from his advance. Were all foreigners like this? Well, he was right about the questions. Despite herself, she took him up on the offer. 

“What is it that made you confess to me, then?"

It took him a few seconds to answer. All of a sudden, he looked pensive.

“I’ve had my eye on you ever since that first day. Hard not to, the way we met. You’re always helping people out, aren’t you? And I never saw you ask for anything back. I admire that– admire that selflessness. You’re a nice girl, Kurose-san. Well, and I just think you’re cute.” he finally said.

“Eh? I see.” she whispered. Ema felt her cheeks warm up even as Theo-san kept it up.

“Honestly, It’d mean a lot to me if you gave me a chance despite it all. I’m not saying we should start out dating, but... ”

“Eh?” 

Before Ema could say anything else, he came up even closer. 

“How about it?”

Ema was backed into a proverbial corner; but far from overwhelming her, it had the opposite effect. There was really only one way to go about it now, and that simplicity was certainly easier on her compared to the grab-bag of uncertainties she had going into this. 

Well, she couldn’t answer his feelings, but it couldn’t hurt to give him a chance.

“Then, if it’s okay with you, maybe we can start with getting to know each other first?” she said. Theo-san brightened up at that.

“That’s fine by me.”  Before he could say more, Ema followed up with a request.

“One more thing. Can we keep this to ourselves? At least for now.” 

Ema wasn’t exactly the secretive type, but would still rather avoid having to answer all the questions that would surely come at her, if it came out that she was hanging out with the school's most popular guy. Theo nodded his agreement. 

“Okay, if that’s what you want.” he reached out his hand, adding, “Let’s shake on it.” 

After some hesitation, Ema took the proffered hand and marvelled at the foreigner’s steel grip. With that done, Theo-san pointed behind him and smiled. 

“I’ll be the first to go back, then. Don’t want people asking questions, right?”

***

Out of sight, Theo heaved a sigh of relief.

Things were touch and go for a moment there, when that girl almost took a hammer to his plans. And what the hell was he thinking with the handshake? Theo felt like he had just barely won a boxing match that had gone the distance. 

After an entire weekend of wild goose chases for leads, he wasn’t going into the new week all too fresh; coming up with plans off the cuff like this was hardly for the faint-hearted either. But the prospect of having to run rabbit from the harpies in his “fan club” for any longer was way more daunting, and any more delays were unacceptable. 

Thank god the girl buckled to an aggressive strategy. He didn't care if it made him look like a creep, as long as it worked. What he had gotten out of their exchange was workable. In fact, it was all the better.

The girl might have actually saved the both of them some headache. They didn’t need to be dating at all. All that mattered was that the rest of the school thought that they were. 

Still, that was the first swing Theo had ever taken at asking a girl out. Even if it was all an act, getting blown off stung just a little bit. Low-crawling through the hole in the fence after making sure nobody had eyes-on, he brushed himself off and straightened his uniform out. 

To hell with this girl-boy shit. Theo just wanted to get back on-mission pronto. 

The rest of the day passed in the usual manner, and before long the chimes again sounded the end of a school Monday. As sluggish as he was feeling, he was getting better at throwing his pursuers off, and making better use of the limited space on campus. In a way, it was decent training. Of course, he couldn’t get anything else done hiding out in a storage closet. 

As the last teacher made to leave, the classroom, soon followed by the entire floor, echoed with a hundred opening mouths and the screech of vacated chairs. 

Those in clubs went straight to their clubrooms scattered around the school, and those in the “go-home club” hardly wasted any time with their own plans. Theo had plans of his own, and after a while he'd calculated that enough people had left for him make his move. 

The target was still talking to someone else, but there was no telling when she’d leave. He had to make his approach now. 

“Kurose-san, can we talk?” 

The girl beside her went wide-eyed, and Ema was hardly less shocked. Theo suspected she went along with him more out of sheer surprise. Her friend quickly excused herself, but not without a parting glance at Ema like she was suddenly looking at a celebrity. 

“Sorry. I was just thinking that it's still a bit hard getting used to this place coming from America. Can I ask you to show me around town?” he said. 

That was a half-lie, what with his after-school jaunts. While he couldn’t possibly range across even a small city as this in a week, he reckoned he had already covered most of the places she ought to know. 

She accepted his request with little fuss, though with clear consternation. As they set off, the few stragglers out in the hall gave Theo and Ema inscrutable looks. Ema gave him a sidelong glance, looking somewhat tense. 

“Theo-san. I thought we had agreed to keep this to ourselves.” 

“Well, there’s hardly anyone left out and about. Just act cool and nobody’ll even bat us an eye. And you did tell me that we ought to get to know each other better, right?” 

“Yes. But you left so quickly, before we could work anything out. ” she replied sulkily.

So he had. He had forgotten to make any sort of arrangement in his haste.

“Well, this is me asking you out. I’ll make it worth your time, I promise.” he rejoined, hoping to assure his anxious tag-along. He, on the other hand, was feeling pretty good.

How’s this for off-the-cuff?

As they came closer to the gate, the pair ran into thicker clumps of students, and the conspiratorial whispers grew in intensity. Theo had to hide his snickering from the girl walking beside him. 

That ought to put a damper on the fire.