Texting Yuasa

I doodled some of Kishi’s characters in his story after our hangout. I fell asleep afterwards and didn’t get a chance to show him. I wondered if the sketches were a bit iffy after looking at it again after some sleep. But I wanted to show him so I took some pictures and finally sent them to him. His reply didn’t take long to arrive.

“Saki, they all look great!! Thank you for drawing them!! I’m going to cherish this forever!”

“I’m glad you like it. I feel like I probably could have done better but I wanted to quickly draw them.”

“It’s perfect!! I really appreciate you drawing them. I’m not good at art, but I’m glad you were able to bring my characters to life!”

“I’m glad it seems like I did them justice.”

As I was texting him, I realized that I forgot about one question that I wanted to ask. It slipped my mind yesterday because of everything that happened… Now’s my chance to confirm Shoji’s words.

“By the way Ki-chan, I realized that I never asked how you felt about that announcement board at the beginning of the school year. It must have troubled you, right?”

“Yes… I never heard anything about it until I came to school on the first day and saw it. That’s about when my phone kept buzzing and some of the girls who saw me began to surround me… I barely managed to get to my class and my classmates surrounded me too…”

“That doesn’t sound fun… I’m sorry. Were they just trying to talk to you?”

“Yes, that and they kept calling me cute and squealing… I’m familiar with those reactions, so it wasn’t too bad…”

“It sounds overwhelming though. I asked Shoji Iwasaki-san about that announcement board recently and it seems like he’s had some trouble too. He also mentioned that he apologized to you.”

“That’s right, he actually helped me get away from a crowd on my first day so he could apologize. I’m grateful to him. His apology was sincere too.”

“That’s good. Things have calmed down since then though, right?”

“Yes, thankfully. I can move around the school with less trouble than before. I’ve tried to reply to some of the people that texted me, but I couldn’t get to all of them… I feel bad about it, but having so many conversations at once overwhelms me…”

“That’s understandable. I wouldn’t be able to do that either.”

“Saki kind of texted me late though. I guess if you didn’t, I might have ignored you…”

“I wasn’t really planning on using the numbers I got in my email, but I decided to try it. And I made a great friend, so I don’t regret it at all.”

“I’m glad! Have you talked to the rest of the guys? It seems like you have with Miya-san and Iwasaki-san.”

“Yes, I’ve only talked to those two. I haven’t felt like talking to Kitahashi-san, but I might because I want to ask him about this topic too.”

“They all must have gone through a similar experience as me. If you talk to them about it, I’d like to hear their responses if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure, I’ll tell you what they say. Iwasaki-san explained that he didn’t know about the event either and got many text messages like you. I’ll have to ask the other two as well. I might wait to talk to Miya-san since we left off on a sour note…”

“That’s alright! Tell me what Kitahashi-san says then. I am surprised that Iwasaki-san didn’t know about it either…”

“Apparently Akemi Tamura-san didn’t tell anyone and acted alone. She did succeed in bringing in new students, except it was at the cost of your privacy…”

“I see… I guess if the school needed more students, then it was certainly helpful.”

“Do you dislike Tamura-san?”

“Well… I don’t want to say that… Maybe if she got my permission first, I would have let her use my picture and information.”

“Right, she should have gotten permission first no matter what.”

“I have to go now since my mother is calling me, but let’s talk later!”

“Alright, talk to you later.”

I feel bad for Kishi… He shouldn’t have had to deal with all of that attention on his first day of school. Even if Akemi knew that she wouldn’t get their permission, she shouldn’t have just gone through with the plan still. She could have come up with a different way to bring in more students. I’m sure she could have tried other things first.

I should ask Yuasa about it… But do I even want to? Pretty much all of our interactions have been negative. I guess our last conversation was his way of apologizing. If you can call it that… If I ask him through text though, then it won’t be as me, Saki, but as Rose. There’s no way it can go wrong if he thinks I’m a different person… Right?

I found his number and typed out a text. After taking a deep breath, I sent it.

“Hello Kitahashi-san, please call me Rose. I just wanted to ask you a question regarding the announcement board at the beginning of this school year. Could you tell me about how that event affected you?”

After waiting only a minute for a reply, I decided it wasn’t worth waiting around for too long. I went to spend my time more wisely with my father. I checked my phone before bed but there still wasn’t any reply. I slept early for school tomorrow.

When I got up the next day, there still wasn’t anything. I wondered if Yuasa just wasn’t one to reply quickly. I went to school as usual and met Kishi during library studies. Then I went home.

A few days passed like this. I began to realize that he was ignoring my text… I thought about if maybe I said something wrong. But looking back at the text message, I don’t think it’s bad. I got Kishi’s opinion too and he said there was nothing wrong with the message I sent. Then why isn’t he replying…?

After another day had passed, I decided to add on to my message. If he still doesn’t answer, I don’t know what I should do.

“I just want to hear your side of the story out of curiosity. I already talked to Shoji Iwasaki-san and Kishi Horiuchi-kun which helped me learn about some of the hardships you might have gone through. I’d still like to hear more from you personally.”

I felt proud about my second message. I sent it and began the waiting game once more.

“Did Kitahashi-san ever reply?” Kishi whispered to me during our club.

“...no.” I gave a one word answer. I only felt annoyed. Already another few days have passed. Is it so hard for him to reply and answer my question? Even a simple answer would do. Does he have to ignore me like this?

“Should I try asking him?” Kishi asked. “Maybe he’d feel better about talking to me, someone who went through the same thing as he did…”

“Sure. We’ll see if he answers you instead.” I feel like I’ll be even more annoyed if he replies to Kishi…

Kishi typed out a message for Yuasa with some of my input. He wanted to mention Rose, but I decided that wasn’t a good idea. He could recognize my alias and refuse to reply just because of that. And as he sent the message, I thought about how Yuasa might be able to make the connection between us… But would he even care? He might ignore Kishi too.

And that’s just what happened. After a couple more days, Kishi looked apologetic and showed me his phone, saying that he never replied. My frustration only grew. It’s a simple question that he could answer. So why doesn’t he? I guess I should have remembered that he had an attitude problem…

“Let’s just forget about it then…” I decided to throw in the towel. There’s the option of asking him in person, but that would be too awkward.

“I was curious too…” Kishi’s expression became sad.

We both sulked a bit while in the quiet library after school. Then Kishi straightened, staring at something behind me.

“Saki… Isn’t that Kitahashi-san?!” He whispered and pointed.

I glanced behind me. I could see a glimpse of Yuasa between the bookshelves browsing the array of titles in front of him.

“He’s a member of the library studies club…” I replied, remembering all of our unpleasant interactions.

“Couldn’t we ask him now…?”

I stared at Kishi. “You can…”

“Just me…?”

I glanced back at Yuasa. He was starting to disappear among the shelves. I leaned closer to Kishi.

“Well… The thing is… I’ve talked with Kitahashi-san in person before… It didn’t go very well…”

“What happened?”

“He… accused me of stealing the books he wanted to read… And since that happened too many times, he probably hates me…”

“Did you steal them…?”

“No! Why would I?” I can’t believe he thinks I stole them…

“I-I’m not accusing you…! I just wanted to know… So it probably wouldn’t go well if you asked him, right…?”

“Yeah… But you can talk to him if you want. I don’t think he has anything against you.” Although, I don’t think he likes anyone per se…

“Alright… I’ll go ask him. Wish me luck!”

“Good luck.”

I watched him go. I hope his interaction with Yuasa goes better than with any of mine thus far… I waited for him to come back while I read the book I chose.

When Kishi eventually sat back down next to me, he looked defeated with hunched shoulders. I leaned in to whisper.

“What happened?”

He shook his head. “I tried to talk to him, but he’s kinda scary… All I could do was stutter until he walked away from me… I’m so embarrassed…” He put his face in his hands.

I remembered my very first interaction with Yuasa. I don’t blame him for not being able to get a word out.

“It’s alright…” I said. “We don’t have to ask him, we can just forget about it.”

“Okay…”

Since we decided to forget about Yuasa, we continued reading our books in silence. But in the back of my head, Yuasa and his attitude still bothered me. Does he have to keep scaring his fellow students? Can’t he be nicer for once? I really want to open his head and try to understand his thought process…

It seems like the universe wanted to add to my feeling of being annoyed because the next day, Yuasa and I met among the bookshelves once again.

“It’s you,” he spoke to me. “Apparently I accidentally let my guard down if I’m running into you again.”