A Deal

Sakura leaves spiraled downward as the sun pierced its rays into the chill April morning.

As Makoto protected his eyes from the glare with his hand, his heart was filled to the brim with optimism. It was an annual reminder that he kept growing older by the year. He wasn’t really the sentimental type, but something about the pink leaves swaying in the gentle wind always evoked a sense of nostalgia for him. It was like a metamorphosis from one year to the next, a calling for people to leave behind the mistakes of the past and look towards the future, and live anew. A hope, but also a representation of the passage of time, symbolizing the transience of life…

The train slowed to a stop and opened its doors to the next wave of eager (or not so eager) commuters. Makoto kept his pensive gaze towards the windows in his still sentimental trance.

“Hey!”

Makoto heard a cheerful voice from behind him. It was a softly spoken feminine voice, sounding as beautiful as the cherry blossoms that adorned the picturesque landscape.

Something tugged at his heart. Was this the chance encounter the male and female protagonists had in those romcom novels that eventually lead to the fulfillment of true love? Was this a turning point in his conquest for a life partner? His heart started to race a bit as time slowed down.

He turned towards the voice’s source, where there stood a cute looking college girl with round glasses and short-ish, curly brown hair.

Wait, the heck?! It seemed all that talk about happiness and true love at that fraudulent club a couple days ago was getting into his head. Makoto slapped himself hard, shaking his head in an attempt to cleanse his system of the cringe. He looked back at the girl.

Hol’ up.

“Mind if I sit next to…” she continued, before widening her eyes and having a realization similar to Makoto.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said drably, her facial expressions doing a complete 180.

Ugh, of course. Makoto’s disappointment was immeasurable and his day ruined.

“You would be most welcome,” he said sarcastically.

“Tsk.”

“Hey, don’t click your tongue at me,” Makoto complained.

Uyeno sat down next to him.

“And you're sitting here anyway!?” he exclaimed.

“If you have a problem, go somewhere else,” she sulked, turning her head away from him.

He cursed himself for not recognizing her right away. It must’ve been the glasses – it’d been a long time since he’d seen her wearing those. She must’ve been in a rush and forgot to wear her contacts, not that it mattered to him. He looked around briefly, but there were no other vacant seats for him to migrate to.

The train departed. This was going to be a long morning ride to Takaoka University.

***

“And that’s all for today folks,” concluded the economics professor. “Remember to read chapter 4 and 5 of the textbook for next class.”

Makoto stretched while yawning. Class wasn’t boring per se, but it wasn’t engaging either. Well, this was still leagues better than the completely silent train commute he had earlier that day with Uyeno as his co-passenger.

“Oh, sorry, one more thing,” interrupted the professor, having just remembered something. “Our teaching assistants have introduced to me the excellent idea of assigning group homework, to encourage dialogue and collaboration amongst your peers in the class.”

Makoto let out a silent groan. Group work was rarely ever that, at least in his experience. There was always an unfortunate soul or two that got the majority of the work thrust upon them while the rest were carried like those flags in a parade.

“This week we will be working in groups of two. Please take a look at the projector screen for your pairings.”

Well this was a little better, Makoto supposed, since groups of two usually encouraged less piggybacking, and there wouldn’t be as much work to do overall either.

He squinted to find his partner. Anybody (ideally any girl that is) would honestly be fine unless they actively got in his way. Oh, except Uyeno of course. But the face of the young man betrayed nothing but sheer confidence and a smirk, for he had already used the Bayes’ Theorem to compute the odds of that happening on the same day as the earlier encounter with her to be around 0.69% (or something like that, plus or minus 0.420% to account for statistical deviations of course).

“Nishimura Masao… Kenta Suzuki… ah Makoto Katayama, there I am,” he mumbled to himself. He examined the name of his assigned partner, his eyes widening in disbelief.

No, no, no. Silly him, haha, his brain was obviously too fried from that meeting the other day… he was just having a fever dream, that’s all. He remembered what his bratty little sister was always telling him. Manifest. He called upon all the spiritual energies in the world, activated his internal chakras, re-aligned his planes of existence, and checked the projector screen again.

Unfortunately, the name Uyeno Shizuka still sat smugly next to his on the display, putting an end to his short-lived career as a mystic.

“Fu fu fu,” snickered a voice to his right. Makoto swerved to find the man, or rather the devil, Gorou himself.

Gorou looked back at him with a smirk. “Just according to keikaku [1].”

[1] Translator’s note: keikaku means plan.

***

Makoto kicked open the alleyway door, armed with a pair of heavy boxing gloves. There stood the three club members - Furai (whose actual name turned out to be Gorou), Raisu (whose actual name to be Saotama) and the captain Ebi (whose actual name turned out to be Ebi) alongside Orochi, Nishinoya, and Akashi, in some sort of strategy meeting.

“What’s up, my dear Makoto?” grinned the captain, Ebi, noticing his arrival first. “Have you finally come back after realizing what is at stake in your life?”

Makoto was furious. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Of what?” said Ebi innocently, putting a finger to his chin and pretending to think hard.

“Of partnering me up with Uyeno in Econ class,” exclaimed Makoto. “I don’t know how you did it, but stop meddling in my affairs.”

“Tch tch tch,” chided Ebi. “We are the wingman squad after all, we are simply looking after your future–”

Makoto grabbed Orochi’s x-pencil and snapped it like a twig. “Future my ass! I already told you I’m not joining!”

“I literally just went to the store…” mumbled Orochi sadly.

“Why though?” butted in Akashi. “With their help and training program, we’ll all get girlfriends in no time!”

“That’s right,” continued Nishinoya. “Why would any sane, hormone powered male turn this once in a lifetime opportunity down? Unless… you swing the other way? If so, I want you to know that I fully support–”

“No, no, that’s not it,” denied a frustrated Makoto. “It’s just that…”

“Is it that you’re so embarrassed of your pickup skills that you don’t want us to see them in action?” mocked Ebi.

“I can talk to girls fine, if that’s what you mean,” replied Makoto coolly. “In fact, I can do well without your help.”

Ebi smirked. “Oho, a bold claim you make, but this is perfect timing. I was just thinking about proposing a deal with you, Mr. Makoto Katayama. Saotama, hand him the checklist.”

“C-Captain, my codename is Raisu sir!”

“Do it!” ignored Ebi.

Saotama sighed. He grabbed a sheet of paper from the desk and handed it to Makoto. Makoto glanced at its contents.

Noob Tier

1) Make her laugh

2) Get her to ask a question about you

3) Hold conversation for 1 minute on topic that interests her

4) Get her number

Wingman Tier

1) Get her to blush

2) Hug at the end *(with consent)*

3) Make her call you “onii chan”

4) Ask her out on a date and she accepts

Captain Tier

1) Get her to ask you out on a date

2) Kiss her *(with consent)*

“Well, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is, my boy,” smirked Ebi. “These are tasks our students are able to complete with relative ease when we’re through with them. But if you think you don’t need our assistance, all you need to do is succeed at any 3 of the 4 tasks in the Noob Tier and any one from the Wingman Tier with Uyeno on your ‘group homework date’. Hell, if you succeed at any of the Captain Tier tasks, you pass the test by default and you’re the new captain of the Wingman Squad – you can even disband it immediately if you so please.”

“So basically all I need to do is pass this stupid test, and you guys promise to leave me alone?” asked Makoto.

"Sure! You’ll never hear from us again,” chirped Ebi. He suddenly narrowed his eyes. “However, if you are unable to fulfill the requirements of this test, you will be obliged to join our club.”

A challenge, huh? Makoto wasn’t the type to back down. He looked down at the checklist before looking back up.

“But this is a little unfair though, wouldn’t you say?” said Makoto. “Me and Uyeno aren’t exactly on the best of terms as it stands. And by that I mean we pretty much hate each other.”

“Excuses, excuses,” sighed the captain, throwing his hands up. “You think wooing girls is an easy business? It takes effort and dedication, and the true alpha male is one who can be smooth with any girl, regardless of her initial disposition towards him. Part of the game is to overcome any doubts a girl may have for you.”

Ebi looked at the rest of the first years. “This will be an excellent field lesson for all of us to witness. Orochi, Nishinoya, and Akashi – you’ll watch from afar at how a potential male-female interaction will go.”

This was Makoto’s only chance. These guys were sure to keep messing with him until he showed these fools who the boss was. And once he was done with this, he could forget about this godforsaken club for the rest of eternity and move forward with his college life. It wasn’t like he had much else of a choice anyway.

Makoto held out his hand. “You have a deal,” he said confidently.

How hard could this really be? Sure, it would be a slight uphill battle since well, you know, the whole despise each other thing… But he’d known her since forever! He knew her likes and dislikes… right? Like, she really used to love… uh… like… water?

Whatever. The Noob Tier shouldn’t be all that bad. What seemed more challenging was the Wingman Tier. A blush could be pretty difficult to elicit and options 3 and 4 could be pretty much ruled out, but maybe he could sneak a quick hug at the end of their meeting? Wait, how was he going to do that? That would mean he’d need to address that, right?

Ok, maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

But it was too late. Ebi grinned as he firmly shook Makoto’s hand.

“We look forward to game day.”