Chapter 8:

Class in Session

The Significance of Love


At lunch break, Josiane and her friends were enjoying a pleasant moment together.

“ So, can we assume that the two of you are friends now?”

“ I guess you could say that.”

“ What would become of us?”

“ What do you mean by that statement?”

“ Now that you've built a new relationship, it’s natural to assume that we’ll be neglected, right?”

“ I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. No favoritism will be made between the three of you. Please, believe me!”

Lunch ended on a silent note. In gym class, I couldn’t focus as I was constantly thinking about my friends' words and concerns.

When school was over, they were at the gate waiting for me. As soon as they saw me come out of the building, they ran toward me and hugged me tightly. I was so surprised that I almost fell.

“ What’s wrong, girls?”

“ We’d like to apologize for our earlier behavior. We shouldn’t have reacted the way we did. It was out of place, and we’re very sorry.”

“ You didn’t need to apologize because I’m not at all angry with you. I can understand your feelings of uncertainty and concerns. You made a valid point and to be honest, you weren’t all that wrong.”

“ On that particular day we had, I came to understand many things I didn’t before. First, he’s very different from what I thought he’d be, and secondly—-------------------”

“ What?”

“ He’s playing a role he’s clearly bad at, just like earlier in the day.”

“ I think you’re right, Josy.”

“ The girl he was with was certainly his girlfriend. He was also acting aloof and distant. You’re not supposed to act like that when dating someone.”

“ We can’t be sure that girl was his girlfriend. She could have been just a friend and nothing more than that.”

“ Friend? Do you think she was a friend?”

“ I don’t want to be a loud mouth, but you know that besides Anthony and now you, Fujimiya-Kun doesn’t associate himself with anybody else.”

“ Also, for your information, I did some research on that girl to find out who she was.”

“ You did what?”

“ Research.”

“ Why did you do that? This is none of our business, to begin with.”

“ She wasn’t alone. I was also in for the investigation she conducted.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My two friends researching someone for an unknown purpose, or so I thought. I could never have guessed their reasons behind such an action.

“ Did you research her out of curiosity or—------------?”

“ Not exactly! To be honest, we did it for you.”

?

“ For me?”

“ Yes, for you. As we’ll be spending a lot of time together from now on, it was necessary to get this information so as to not receive any surprises later on.”

?

“ What we mean to say by that is—----------We changed our lunch hour to C lunch.”

“ Why did you do that? Didn’t you like your current lunch hours?”

“ Don’t tell me you did it for me too1”

“ That’s right!”

“ Aren’t you forgetting something here? I don’t have C lunch, so I don’t get what the need to change your lunch hours?”

“ We know you don’t have C lunch, not now anyway.”

?

“ We’d like you to change your lunch hour to the same as us. One of the reasons for that is we’ll get to have lunch together again as before. The second reason is we’d like an opportunity to get to know Fujimiya-Kun better.”

Sabrina and Patricia explained to me the reasons for their actions thoroughly to me. I kind of understood where they were coming from with all of this, so I complied with their humble request.

A few days later, I discussed the suggestion with Ryuji and see what he’d think of it. He seemed to like the idea very much and said alternatively—-----------------

“ Would you mind if Anthony also joined in?”

“ No, I don’t! I think it’ll also be a good opportunity to get to know him, too.”

“ I’ll let him know when I see him later today. I’m sure he’ll be elated.”

Ryuji was more open and straightforward about things compared to our first encounter. It was so nice to see him so jovial.

Later on in the afternoon, Ryuji was talking with his best friend, Anthony.

“ I don’t think I should join you guys.”

“ Why not?”

“ I don’t want to inconvenience any of you.”

“ Inconvenience? Don’t be ridiculous! You’re my best friend, and the fact that I’m befriending Sakamoto-San doesn’t change a thing.”

“ If this would make you feel better, Sakamoto-San’s friends don’t have a good feeling about me either. They came up with this alternative to test my intentions towards their friend.”

After a lot of convincing from Ryuji, Anthony finally gave in to him, making the latter very satisfied with his friend’s decision.

The following day at lunch hour—-----------------

“ Thanks for coming! We were eagerly waiting for the two of you to show up.”

Ryuji and his friend, Anthony, joined us at our table for lunch. Before they showed up, I informed Sabrina and Patricia that Anthony would also be joining us. Fortunately, they took it well and didn’t mind him showing up.

“ I’m Anthony. Nice to meet you!”

“ Likewise! I’m Sabrina.”

“ I’m Patricia, and it’s nice meeting you too.”

“ I’m Josiane. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Ryuji’s been talking about you.”

“ Likewise! He’s been bragging about you, too. I’ve heard so many things about you that I had to meet you.”

We had lunch and talked about all kinds of things. The gathering wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Sabrina and Patricia behaved very well, which surprises me. I thought for sure they would question Ryuji regarding his intentions, but on the contrary, what they did was question Anthony instead.

“ Do you have a hobby, Anthony?”

“ I like tending flowers. What about you, Sabrina-San?”

“ I enjoy practicing martial arts together with Patricia and Josiane.”

“ Will you be entering The High School Martial Arts Tournament?”

“ Yes!”

The conversation was mostly between Sabrina and Anthony now. All of us were just third parties. A couple of minutes later, lunch came to a close.

“ We’ll be looking forward to lunch from now on.”

“ Sabrina’s right! You’re a very interesting character.”

“ Thanks for lunch! It was a pleasure to meet all of you and most of all you, Josiane-San.”

“ I’ll see you later, Sakamoto-San.”

Three days later, in the martial arts clubroom, at 4 p.m.

“ The High School Martial Arts Tournament won’t be taking place as previously planned.”

Our coach announced to us that the High School Martial Arts Tournament had been changed to a different day. We didn’t know how to take the news, as most of us were practically ready for it.

“ Why did they change the date?”

“ The board is distrustful about whether to hold the Tournament. They’re mostly worried about the funds and wondering whether it’s worth it.”

“ Does that mean the High School Martial Arts Tournament will be canceled?”

“ Not at all. I was able to convince the board to give us a chance to prove ourselves, and they accepted.”

“ Does that mean it won’t be canceled in the end?”

Although the coach reassured us that the High School Martial Arts Tournament wouldn’t be canceled, there was more to it than we thought.

“ The board is giving us a chance to prove ourselves, and that is by winning the whole thing. In other words, we’ll have to rank first place.”

“ What if we don’t?”

“ That—--------- The clubroom will be disbanded—------”

“ When will the tournament be held now?”

“ To give you guys more time to prepare, the board decided to hold the tournament in a year.”

“ A whole year?”

I was shocked by the decision taken by the board as well as the other participants. There was nothing we could do except accepting the decision and give it our best in the tournament.

The following weekend, I met with Sabrina and Patricia for dinner at a food stall.

“ How are you, Josy?”

“ It must be so hard for you to have to wait a whole year before the tournament is held.”

“ There’s nothing we can do about it. The decision has already been made.”

“ We’ve invited you out to take your mind off things, but it looks like we failed terribly.”

“ I’m sorry, girls! I know I’m not the best company right now. Maybe it would be best not to meet for a while.”

“ No! More than ever, you need us, and we won’t ever abandon you. We understand your feelings very well and what you must be going through.”

“ We’ll always be with you and won’t go anywhere. Next year, we’ll win the tournament for sure and with the prize money, you’ll be able to solve all your problems. Now, cheer up!”

“ Thanks, guys! I wouldn’t know what to do if you weren’t around. Thanks a lot!”

“ Anytime!”

On the other hand, Ryuji was out with his girlfriend, Sasaki. They were having a good time, kind of, and all that stopped when Sasaki popped up with a certain question out of the box.

“ When should we hold our engagement ceremony?”

“ Engagement?”

“ We’ve been seeing each other for over four years now. I think it’s about time we make things official.”

“ I want to be your fiancé officially. We’ll think about the marriage later on. For now, getting engaged will be more than enough.”

Ryuji didn’t know how to react to Sasaki. He thought he was having the worst day ever with the bomb that was just thrown at him. He was doing his best to keep smiling under the circumstances.