The Final Challenge to Freedom!

We saw some immediate fruits after the broadcast. Her post started trending everywhere, unfortunately not just for the scientific discovery it was, but partially because people were declaring her “Queen Andromeda” to compliment my kingly persona. They were taking really well to her, and I think the fact that she had something so cool to speak about made people even more excited.

The trending tab on social media was filled up with topics about her. There was something funny that I noticed though. Among various praising posts about Meda and I, I noticed one post that said “SHE’S BLIND?!” popped up and gained some attention. It got community corrected fast to say she was “deaf” instead. People were getting the wrong idea that she couldn’t see and somehow discovered something in space.

You can ‘see’ why that would be impressive, but also an issue.

Otherwise that, this was great. Things were looking fantastic and some of the scientific minds of the world were even commenting on it. This was just within the first ten minutes too, so we had a lot to look forward to in the next few days.

Meda’s journey wasn’t over though. Now that she’d made a big splash, she had to keep up the momentum and make a sustainable online presence for herself. The audience she was brewing were eager to see what she would do next, and just to help out I went ahead and made some social media accounts for her so they had somewhere to congregate to.

But there was one final beast that needed to be overcome to solidify her journey into astronomical content creation. A warden since childhood that feared the idea of setting her free from her delicate captivity…

There wasn’t any waiting until the end of the day to talk with the big boss. We all knew this was going down now so the dust could settle and we could seize the rest of our time until sunset and beyond.

Students were cheering as we strutted down the hallway, gossiping about how cute of a couple Meda and I were going to make, especially with her clinging to my arm. As romantic as the sight may have looked, her shivering and tight grip told me it was out of fear for what was to come.

Her nails dug in good, but I took the pain like a man.

If all that wasn’t enough, worry spilled from her innocent gaze as she continually looked at me, relying on my sense of direction to lead us outside.

“Be confident, Meda,” I told her. “If this is what you want, you gotta’ grab and hold it with all your might.” I adjusted my arm slightly. “Kinda’ like you're grabbing me right now.”

“What if he locks me up forever?” she mouthed as quietly as a mouse.

“Then get locked up swinging. Show him that you won’t let go of your dream, especially not now, since you have so many adoring eyes on you.”

Meda needed to be bold and confident. In life there was no room to play timid, because opportunity would pass by in a flash. It needed to be grabbed while it was blazing hot. Would you burn your hands? Oh yeah. But anything worth having was going to sting a little in the beginning.

She reluctantly nodded. But I saw that fire reflected in her eyes. This girl was a fighter, and now was the final challenge to be set free from the ring.

I found it funny that so many students gathered around the entrance when they saw Meda’s father’s limo roll up. They had no idea what was about to happen or that he was even connected to her, but the stage they accidentally set for us was going to add all the more helpful drama to the moment.

Plus, having all these people here may just yet work in her favor.

Unlike me, finding a little humor and a lot of potential opportunity in the moment, Meda only had a steeper hill to climb in order to overcome her fear of the spotlight.

I was behind her a few paces to give her space and support though.

“Dad,” she uttered, raising her hands to sign her determination.

“Daughter.” His voice rang with displeasure, and his stern gaze was a frightening dare to her adolescent aspiration. “I suppose you have something you’d like to say to me?”

‘I do,” she signed and spoke clearly. ‘Firstly, I wanted to apologize for lying to you about joining the math club.”

It was bold of her to start that way. The audience gasped loudly.

“I figured as much,” he said. “You’ve been unusually gleeful lately, but also rebellious. I should apologize too, because I had someone look into what you’ve been doing.”

When I first met him, he seemed unusually accepting about my existence, as if he already knew we were getting closer. I didn’t doubt for a second that he didn’t know what she was up to. And honestly, we obviously weren’t very good at keeping it much of a secret.

“Ugh…” Meda pouted. ‘Give me a little privacy, dad! Geez!”

“Forgive me.” he said. “But you must understand something, Andromeda. I haven’t been overprotective with you just because I want to hold you back. In fact, I want you to be the star you were born to be… Your mother followed her dream all those years ago, but it cost her life while on the line of duty. Then I started hearing about space ships exploding mid air… Could you blame me for not wanting you to go up into space?”

‘I’m not going to be a police officer, dad. And maybe I don’t want to jump into a space ship either. It is a lot of work and I don’t know if that’s even right for me. B-but-”

“But what?”

‘But when I made that discovery…When I became the first person ever to see something in space that nobody else had… Do you know how much it felt like I finally belonged in this world?”

“You always belonged in my world.” Her father’s expression softened. “Do you really need all these people to validate you?”

‘No.” She shook her head. ‘Actually, I still would rather not be in the spotlight. But Hade, that guy behind me-”

“The boy you’ve been…dating…?” He said that with a scowl and so much vitriol. I just gave the man a wave and grin.

‘Yeah. He gave me a path to see my dream come true that I would have never had otherwise.”

Meda stomped her foot. The wind blew by and gave a majestic lift of her hair. Through the strands her eyes locked onto her father’s.

‘Dad, I love you. That’s why I’m going to tell you that I’m going to be an astronomer.”

He was stunned by her declaration, nearly pushed back as if it were a violent attack of pure force to his soul.

“Meda…”

‘I don’t care if you don’t want it,” she asserted, signing her hands so fast to match her voice that it would have been hard to keep up if I could see. ‘I know you want to protect me, and I can’t thank you enough for caring. But you're going too far about it!”

‘Just understand that I want to do this. I want to get involved with space. I probably won’t go shooting up in a rocket, but I can do a lot with just a telescope. Does that make you feel any better?”

‘And if that isn’t enough to put your mind at ease, look at all these people here that are so interested in what I discovered. I can do something with this, and I’m asking you to trust me and the future I want to make.”

Not even the wind dared to break the silence that fell upon us as her father considered her plea. His sudden poker face was astounding, so I couldn’t read what he was thinking.

I wanted him to answer right away. Waiting for it was taking an eternity, and I wanted to know Meda’s fate.

“Fine.” he said, finally breaking the silence. “You win. If this is what you want to offer the world, then go ahead.” he smiled. “I’ll support your dream as much as I can, Andromeda. But please, tell me you’ll stay safe.”

‘Dad, you’re acting like I’m going to be hit by a meteor or something,” she laughed.

“Well, what if?” he bargained his plea. “Don’t go aggravating aliens and making them want to attack or anything either!”

‘Right.” she nodded, then turned back to me to share her beautiful smile.

“And you!” her father pointed to me. “If you ever hurt my little girl, not even the vastness of space will be safe for you.”

“Eheh…” I nervously chuckled. “Nothin’ to worry ‘bout there.” Actually, I was a little worried about the opposite scenario.

“No no no!” shouted a voice in the crowd. “This isn’t right!”

Gyaru girl made an appearance and stepped up the school steps to get in my face.

“Ugh… You again?” I sighed.

“Yes it’s me!” she had her hands on her hips. “I can’t let this turn into a happy ending! Not while you still owe me for skipping out on our date!”

The crowd gasped again. There were murmurs…

A heavy gust blew, propelling Gyaru Girl’s hair around wildly as if deadly snakes haphazardly danced on her head. Her aggressive glare was made all the more terrifying, but held my ground and kept my glower going.

“I already told you no!” I said.

“Excuse me,” Meda’s father joined the conversation to intercede. “but does this boy owe you something?”

“He owes me a smooch for not paying up his date!”

“Is this true?” her father asked, his brow arched inquisitively toward me.

“No!” I said. “What she means is that I told her a few weeks back that we could go on a date, since she paid for one of my karaoke nights. But I never agreed to a smooch!”

“It’s true!” Glasses Girl waved her hand at the front of the crowd. “He said he’d go on a date to WcDonald's with her and sing, but never agreed to a kiss!”

“Haaaheeehaa!” (She’s right! We were there together!) Pigtails squealed, supportively.

Meda’s father brushed his chin thoughtfully.

“And why, boy, did you not pay up your side of things?”

“Uh…” I looked nervously at Meda. “I kinda’ took a notebook to the head and forgot.”

Meda started ungracefully whistling as if she had nothing to do with the trauma done to my face, but we both knew that took a duo effort on our part.

“Well,” Meda’s dad spoke up, “I think a viable compensation would be to pay what you owe from the karaoke night, then consider the case closed.”

“I don’t want money,” Gyaru Girl argued. “I deserve more for being strung along.”

An idea sparked in my head, like I was ready to draw a sword to slay this situation. Her father was a lawyer, so maybe I could pull that card in our defense…

“You know, I have to ask…” I turned to Gyaru Girl with a grin. “We’re you the one who posted all those pictures up in the school? I gotta’ give someone credit for getting my good side.”

“Yeah, that was me,” Gyaru Girl snidely accepted my compliment. “I’m glad you liked my work.”

“What pictures?” Meda’s dad asked, getting intrigued like I hoped at her admission. “Do you mean the ones trending on social media?” His eyes turned aggressive and his posture stiffened. Gyaru Girl immediately sensed the coming danger and backed away from him. “Young lady, did you post those pictures of my daughter and…” he looked at me, probably trying to gauge what to call me at this point. “...The Boy, without their permission?”

Could he not have thought of a better name for me?

“Uh-oh…” And it was at that moment, Gyaru knew, she screwed up.

“Stalking and harassment…” Meda’s dad pulled out a small notepad and started documenting the case. “That is a hefty fine here in Japan for someone so young.”

Gyaru Girl was real quiet after that, frightened that she could actually face legal action for the trouble she’d caused us. People were clapping and cheering as she stomped off, racing to get away from all the attention she was facing.

“All’s well that ends well,” I said, turning to the crowd, hoping to close that page of my life for good. “Alright, folks. Shows over! Cell phones down, because it’s time to get to class. Unless you want to be late. But you wouldn’t want me to be disappointed with those test scores, would you?”

The crowd of people began shuffling back into school, leaving my retinue to our lonesome at the front steps.

“You should head inside too, Andromeda,” her dad encouraged. “I don’t want you to start skipping class all because of The Boy.”

“You could at least refer to me as ‘The Man.’” I playfully argued.

“Don’t push your luck,” he warned, disregarding my snark, which I felt was right to listen to.

Meda slipped her hand into mine and looked up appreciatively at me with those diamond eyes, like she was content with everything we’d done. The smile was contagious and I returned it back to the sender.

‘Thank you, Hade,” she signed and sang.

“Hey now, don’t go thanking me. I should be thanking you for hitting your way into my life at all.”

‘Never gonna’ let me live that down, are you?” Her eyes rolled, a tinge of regret still present in her from that. ‘How about we call it even?”

“Sounds good, Meda.”