The First Date

"Good luck on your date, brother"

"Do you have to remind me about it?"

"I do, because it's the first time that you've ever agreed to do such a thing with anyone apart from me"

"You're my sister. It's kind of forced on me to do all of that"

"Sometimes I wish that you would just be quiet and just nod to my every word..."

"Sorry, can't do that"

She let out a sigh and sent me away to my date with Katsumi. On the way there towards the meeting spot, I was contemplating about even going over there.

"Can't I just stand her up and go do something else?"

The thought floated in the back of my mind for quite a bit of time and before I knew it, I was too late to make a choice and go with it.

"You sure took your time, didn't you?"

"Crap... Too late" "Yeah, I got hold up for a bit"

"That's fine, I was just joking~"

"Hahaha..." "What a forced laugh on my part..."

"So, should we start going around?"

"Might as well since we're already here"

"Perfect~"

With that, she beamed me a smile and started heading off without a care in the world. Seeing that, I followed suit, but kept some distance between the both of us since I didn't really want to be seen with her.

"Why are you all the way back there?"

"No reason"

"..."

"W-What?"

"Let's go~"

Before I knew it, she grabbed hold of my arm and started dragging me alongside her without my consent.

"Hey, this is abuse!"

"No, it's not. This is just friends going around together"

"Tch" I clicked my tongue at her words and sighed to myself "Why the hell does she need to act like this now of all the times?"

Seeing as how I wasn't going to have an opportunity to get away from her, I decided to let her do as she pleased for the first segment of our 'date' but even then, I wasn't planning on letting her drag me around as she pleased the rest of the day.

"Here we are"

After a few minutes of walking around, we arrived at an amusement park of sorts and got in line to purchase the tickets.

"What are we doing?"

"Going on our date, why?"

"Why here?"

"Because it's one of the places where I can show you how fun it can be being surrounded by other people"

"I doubt that"

"Trust me on this one, I promise that I won't disappoint"

I stared into her eyes for a brief moment and sighed to myself "Do what you want"

"Thank you"

Once we got the tickets, we both made our way past the ticket gate and simply walked around for a bit, mostly it was just me waiting for her to decide what to do first.

"Is there anything that you want to try out first, Makoto?"

"Not really"

"Then you don't mind me choosing the order for today, right?"

"Go ahead"

"Then let's go over there" She pointed over at one of the most unexpected rides for the first one.

"On second thought, why don't we go-"

"Let's go before the line gets any longer"

"H-Hey, wait up!"

After around a minute or so, we were already relatively close to the front of the line for one of the bigger rollercoasters that they had in the amusement park.

"Why does this one have to be the first ride for us?"

The question popped into my head, but even then, there was no way that I could escape the predicament in the moment and at the time, my best bet was to simply plow through the ride and be done with it.

"Please make sure that you have your seatbelt strapped on and that you're hands are on the bar at all times" "Have a nice time everyone"

With that out of the way, the carts started moving slowly but surely and as it was picking up speed, I couldn't help but feel my heart beat getting faster and faster.

"This is bad, this is bad"

"I love thrill rides like these"

"Are you a psychopath?"

"Do you not like them, Makoto?"

"It's not that I don't like them, it's just-" Before I could even try to finish my sentence, we had already arrived at the very top and the descent started immediately after that.

"This is too fast!!"

"This is so fun~!"

We were two complete opposites who enjoyed very different things and that was something that wouldn't change regardless of the amount of effort one would put into it.

"I'm so beat..."

"That was so much fun~"

"I can't believe you enjoy that..."

"You get used to them after going on them a lot of times"

"Just how many times have you been on those...?"

"A lot"

"That explains that bundle of energy that you always have..."

"Want to take a break?"

"Just a little one..."

"You go take a seat and I'll go buy us something to drink"

"Huh?"

Before I could call out to her to not do such a thing, she left without saying a word and I was simply left there near a bench scratching my head in confusion.

"She really is weird..." I slowly sat down, sighed and opened my eyes for a moment "I wonder why she's so nice to me even though we don't even know each other all that well..."

Normally, there would be a lot of reasons as to why someone would be nice to you. They could want something from you, they might simply need you for their own benefit of not being bullied, they might try and manipulate you and what not, but with her, there wasn't a single hint of any of that.

"I'm normally pretty good of noticing such things... Is my intuition getting rusty or what?"

I stared at her figure for a moment and before I knew it, she turned towards me and gave me a small wave and smile.

I simply lifted my hand and she returned her gaze towards the cashier once more "She really is a mystery..."

"Here you go, Makoto"

"Thanks, how much was it?"

"There's no need to pay me back, this is something that I bought for you"

"I can't accept that"

"It's not something big, you do know that, right?"

"But even then, I don't like having to owe people favors or things in return because of something that they do for me"

"Then if you don't like that... How about you try getting something for me without relying on anyone for an opinion?"

"What is the side quest shit that I'm hearing?"

"While I wait here, grab something that you think I'll like, that sounds like a fair thing to me, don't you think?"

"I guess it does..." I stood up from my seat after taking another sip from the drink and started walking away from her.

I sneaked a glance over my shoulder and saw her smiling at my fleeting back "She really is one strange person"

As I started walking around the gift shop area, I made sure to note what other people were buying, but the things they were buying were things that wouldn't really fit with the entire thing of me buying it for her.

"This is such a pain in the ass..." I glanced around for a bit and made my way over towards the smaller items on display.

"Hmm... What should I get?" "Wait, why the hell am I thinking so hard on this stuff?"

I shook my head and continued glancing around at my own leisure. As I was doing so, my gaze stopped on a few pieces of jewelry.

They weren't expensive, but the way they shone and what not did make them seem like some high class stuff. I continued browsing through it and ended up finding a hair clip with a jeweled flower as the clip itself.

"..."

I stared at it for a bit more and sighed to myself "God, I'm such an idiot"

I took it to the register, paid for it and started heading back towards her and just when I arrived, I was about to hand her the item in question just like that when she threw her hand at me and started holding it up to my face.

"What're you doing?"

"Give it to me at the end of the date"

"Why can't I give it to you now?"

"Just trust me"

"Fine, I won't try and fight you for something as stupid as that"

"Thank you~"

She beamed me a smile and as we rested a bit more, it was finally time to continue on with her plan of a date which involved even more and more rides.

As we were nearing the end of the day, we still had time for a few more things, but even then, I could feel my body was already worn out from everything that it had done.

"I'm not used to all of this..."

"Come on, Makoto"

"Hmm?"

Before she could stop in time, she bumped into someone and made them drop their drink on themselves.

"Hey, what the hell was that for?!"

"O-Ohh, sorry about that"

"A sorry won't fix this shit, you know that don't you?"

"I understand, but I really didn't-"

"How are you going to solve this, huh?!"

"W-Well..."

When Katsumi took a step back, the guy proceeded to take one step forward "He's used to bullying people and making them feel under pressured to do whatever he wants"

Even though the fair and nice thing to do would be to stand up to the guy and deal with the situation myself, in my eyes, it was something that I didn't have to do since I wasn't the one who initiated the whole thing.

Even if it wasn't on purpose, there was no need for me to step in and diffuse the situation "I'll just see how this play's out"

"I can give you the money for the clean if that's fine..."

"That won't do... How about you come with me?"

The man out of nowhere proceeded to grab her wrist and even though she tried to break free, it wasn't any good at all. She continued struggling with the guy and in that small moment, I noticed him starting to lift his other arm in the air.

"He's going for it..." I stared at the situation unfold for a bit more, but there was something about it that made me get slightly pissed off "This is why I hate humanity"

"Don't even think about it, buddy"

"Huh?"

"If you try to go for that jab, I'll be the one to personally break your bones, got that?"

"Who the hell are you anyways?"

"None of your concern"

"You..."

He proceeded to let go of Katsumi and walked towards me with a hinge of hatred in his gaze. Immediately after that, he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and stared into my eyes.

"I would, but I can't stand by when I somoene weaker trying to act tough"

"What was that?!"

Before he could lift his arm to go for a hit on me, I pulled back my head and before he could hit me, I smashed my forehead into jaw which made him let go of his grip on me.

"What the hell?!"

"Eat this, asshole"

Before he could regain his momentum, I threw a straight jab at his stomach, got behind him and started pulling onto his arm.

"You're going to break it, asshole!"

"Doesn't matter to me" "Give up, leave this place and I'll let you keep your arm intact"

I continued pulling onto his arm without a care in the world and after a few seconds passed, he grinded his teeth and yelled at me "Fine, you win, brat!"

"... Really?"

"Yeah, just let me the hell go!"

"Fine" I let go of his arm and pushed him forward "If you try anything, I will break your arm"

He clicked his tongue at me, gave Katsumi one last glare and started walking off.

As he started walking off, I let out a sigh and started walking towards our final destination of the day.

"W-Wait up!"

"..."

She managed to catch up to me and I could notice that she wanted to tell me off for what I did, but I simply decided to ignore her completely and focus on myself.

"If she can't appreciate someone saving her from a situation like that, then she's just as worthless as everyone else"

Once we got on the Ferris wheel, we were both in complete silence with each one of us looking out opposite ways as to not make eye contact.

"..."

"..."

The silence in the small space was the perfect thing for me, I could feel at ease and be one with the vast silence around me "This is a life without people... This is what the world could be without the people who make it horrible"

"Makoto...?"

"..."

"Can you hear me out...?"

I opened my eyes and stared into her eyes for a few seconds "What?"

"I just wanted to say something about what happened back there..."

"Just say it"

"Thank you..."

"... Huh?"

"Thank you... For saving me back there"

"Umm..." "I wasn't expecting that"

"I know that the way you handled it wasn't the best way, but at the same time, you saved me and that's something for me to thank you regardless"

"..."

"So, thanks"

"Y-Yeah, no worries"

She looked away from me and even though the sun was setting in, I couldn't help but feel that she was slightly embarrassed about the whole thing.

"Ohh yeah" I stuffed my hand into my pocket and pulled out the small bag that I had bought in the store "Here"

"Huh?"

"This is for the drink you got me"

"Can I open it?"

"Do whatever you want"

Se let out a small giggle and smiled at me "I guess that's your way of saying 'Sure', isn't it?"

"Yeah, you could say that"

With a smile, she opened up the bag and pulled out the pin with a somewhat surprised expression "I wasn't expecting this..."

"I just got whatever seemed nice, that's all"

"Thank you, Makoto"

"You can throw it away if you don't want it"

"What are you saying?!"

"H-Huh?!"

Before I knew it, she grabbed my hands tightly and stared deep into my eyes "I'll cherish this forever"

"W-What?"

"This is the first thing that I've gotten from you and this is the one thing that'll allow me to change you"

"What do you mean?"

"Have you given something to anyone before, not including family?"

"No... I haven't"

"That means that you are capable of giving things to others"

"..." "She got me there... I fell for her plan the entire time"

"That's why I'm going to cherish this"

"... Do what you will"

She beamed me a smile and as the ride on the wheel continued, I gazed out the window and sighed "That feeling is still something that I'm used to... I wonder if it'll ever disappear"

Once we were out of the ride and out of the amusement park, we both started walking down the main street just like that, as we were doing so, we were in complete silence, but at the same time, I couldn't help but think about the fact that she was plotting something.

"Whatever it is, I'll simply try and say something to completely shut down her idea. I can't let her play around like this anymore" "And if she manages to switch things up and force us to go out again, I'll just play along and make her see the fact that people are useless"

"I had fun today. I'm glad that I made you go on this date"

"..."

She stopped in place and so did I in that instant "I'm over here"

"Got it"

"Take care, I'll see you on Monday, Makoto"

"Yeah... Take care?"

With that, she started heading off towards the street where she lived in most likely and as she did so, I simply stood there for a brief moment wondering what the hell had happened.

"She started acting like that when we got back from the amusement park... Did she change her personality because of what happened?"

The thought stayed in my mind for a few more minutes, but regardless, it wasn't something that I needed to be worried about.

"Who cares about it. I'm just tired"

With that, I started walking back home without a care in the world, but even then, the feeling of what I had done was something I couldn't shake off.

"Why did I do that when it's something that not even I can control?"

In conclusion... There are things that we are capable of doing, but the consequences that come with them become the ball and chain that tie us down to the past. -By Miyashita Makoto.