Resisting the Invasion (Part 1)

Today’s UN Training --- Learn to accept the evolving world around you

At some point, does resigning oneself to the world around them become an asset? Or must one always push head on against the grain, forging the most optimal path for themselves at all costs?

One is the path of least resistance, one is simply resistance.

Akihiro Tani likes to resist.

Well, ‘like’ wouldn’t be so correct of a word as ‘must’.

Tani must resist.

In great detriment to himself, he has placed resistance as a rung on the ladder to the top of the world.

Everything he has done since devoting himself to ambition has involved resisting either a person or some sort of social structure. But where has that gotten him?

Resisting against the school rules and club bylaws by blackmailing the Principal has gotten him the club he wanted, but has gifted him his first two club members who happen to both be so uncannily foreign. 

Who's to say that his efforts weren't just an elaborate way to resist the inevitable?

But Tani believes that going with the flow is a sign of weakness, he's convinced that the best leaders forge their own path forward through the ashes of the world or otherwise invite their own destruction. That belief is why Tani is compelled to resist anything in front of him, with the skewed premise of reaching his final destination by his own merit.

Perhaps now is the perfect time to leave a little room for the universe to take its course? After all, nothing could be worse than if Tani had been resisting something entirely imaginary from the start.

By his hand alone he’s forced himself to live through such a rigid form of dichotomy. But the universe will take its course whether he tries to alter it or not. 

-----------------------------------

Today is Monday, a new day and week, which means a new chance for Tani’s club. Emilia Mazzoli is still in the process of learning how to add inflection and facial expressions to her interactions with others, Anita Pederson is still engrossed with her studies of the Japanese language.

It hasn’t been an easy process, especially for Tani; because even as president of the club he is working hard on learning Norwegian himself. Not to mention, he is still waking up every morning to pop Shirai-sensei’s petit fours in the oven. Any normal person would be overworked, but our resident high schooler is no normal person. Tasks like these that help further his goal are merely stepping stones for him, and with the mindset that all these objectives he’s juggling are training him for his future as Secretary General, he jumps into it all with enthusiasm.

But there’s one aspect of his busy schedule that he seems especially passionate about, and the comedy of it is that it’s the thing he’s least talented in.

Right now in the Languages clubroom, it’s the only thing he’s focused on.

“Go on, do it.” Tani challenges, looking directly into the eyes of Emilia.

A bead of sweat on her forehead under her bangs is the only evidence of displeasure when she replies, “I’d rather not.”

“It’s not a matter of what you’d like to do, it’s a matter of getting you some damn friends. Friends aren’t so formal with each other, so instead of calling me Akihiro-senpai, I would like you to call me by my first name.”

“And you won’t add any honorifics to mine?”

“Nope, we’ll be taking this step together.”

Emilia has noticed that Tani doesn’t add honorifics to Anita’s name when he addresses her, and she has also noticed that isn’t the case for herself. It isn’t custom for Japanese people to avoid addressing a foreigner by their first name, but there will always be an honorific added unless they have a close relationship.

“...Tani.” Emilia whispers with a red face.

“Kyah! Even though you’re a gaijin, it’s still so embarrassing to have a girl say my first name!” Tani says while dramatically hugging himself and wriggling.

“Is that a joke?” Emilia asks.

“Yes! Oh my god, you’ve grown so much in just one day’s worth of work, Emilia!”

Expecting to get a reaction out of her from either the joke or by calling her by her first name, he pauses and sends her a wanting glare, but Emilia’s blank face emotes nary a fraction.

“You know,” she says, putting her hand on her chin as though wondering aloud. “Your name actually sounds kind of Italian.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, ~Tani~.”

Emilia adds a little dancing tone to her voice when she says that, and she moves her hands in the process.

“~Tani Tani, baka Tani~. Heh, fun.”

Tani holds his chest and looks to be fighting back tears, what he’s watching is equivalent to a parent seeing their child score their first football goal or ace a math test.

Emilia Mazzoli has shown an actual inflection in her tone of voice, and looking closely, the edges of her lips have even risen a quarter centimeter into a Mona Lisaesque grin. He feels that he is gazing upon a masterpiece of his own doing, and the sense of pride is overwhelming.

“Aha yes! This is what progress looks like!”

“I can get used to that. Tani~, baka Tani~.”

She repeats his name a few more times, each pronunciation she adds a little different Italian flare to it that begins to come across as insulting. Calling him an idiot beforehand really seems to allow her to fully embrace a distinctly unique tone each time she says it.

Now Tani is torn on allowing his paternal pride to cloud his agitation. His name might sound similar to some words in Italian, but it is still a Japanese name that she’s broken through her monotone issue to say. The positivity of which doesn't do enough to hide the fact that she’s achieving this grand feat in a very annoying fashion.

“Okay you’ve gotten it, let’s move on now.” he says, hearing his name being said repeatedly makes his eyelid twitch involuntarily.

“~Tani~.”

“No seriously, you can move on now.”

“~~~Taaaaniiii~~~.”

“Stop!”

Emilia pinches her fingers together and shakes both hands out in front of her before saying, “Ma che vuoi, ~Tani~?”

“Ah, you’ve become a stereotype! No more!”

The little smile on the edge of her lips rises to the point that she almost looks like she's beaming in comparison to her normal self. For a brief moment, Tani’s breath is taken away.

“I am only joking with you.” she says, her face returning into a more familiar shape.

“!!”

Tani puts his hands on his chest and swoons into the blackboard that Anita is working on. She stops what she’s doing and looks at him with a tilt of her head.

“Anita.” Tani says in a voice as feathery as an actress from an old film. “They grow up so fast.”

Anita rushes to her bag and pulls out a folder to fan him with. “Congratulations!”

Surrounded by evidence of both his pupil’s progress, Tani smiles smugly.

“I have a question.” Emilia points out.

“Ha! Of course, ask away my dear student.”

“I would have expected you to be at least a little uncomfortable with addressing people so casually. It has me wondering, were you on a first name basis with all of your friends in the past?”

Tani is caught off guard by this question, so he clears his throat before answering, “Not everyone, we had a lot of nicknames for each other though.”

“I see.”

“But…” Tani takes off his glasses and uses his school tie to polish the dust off the lense. Looking down at his hands, an unfamiliar strained smile surfaces on his lips. “There was one friend. We called each other by our first names.”

“What happened to him?”

Emilia’s face and voice betrays her genuine curiosity. She looks up to Tani as an expert teacher that has already taught her the basics of friendship, so the fact that he’d give up what she always wanted confounds her.

“Him? Oh, no.” He puts his glasses back on his face and pushes them up the bridge of his nose. “It was a girl.”

“Really!?” Emilia’s voice hits an octave that causes both Anita and Tani to shrink back.

No sooner than she finished asking that, the clubroom door slings open and the resounding thud of it hitting the hinges precedes a cheerful greeting.

“Yo hoo!”

Shirai-sensei casually invites herself in and salutes in Tani’s direction, her sudden appearance is like a grenade tossed into a foxhole that sends the three Languages club members scrambling in shock.

“What are you doing here?” Tani asks her, clasping onto Anita's sleeve to quell his fright.

“Am I not allowed to check in on the club I am sponsoring?”

“I’m more surprised you remembered that you’re sponsoring a club!”

Shirai-sensei winks at him and says, “That's because you remembered my sweets this morning. You’re a good boy, Akihiro-san.”

Tani senses innuendo in this interaction.

“I would appreciate it if you didn't go around flinging that information into the ears of my new club members, they’ll get the wrong idea.”

Shirai’s gaze lands on Anita and Emilia, and she covers her mouth with the back of her hand. “Oh my, to think that you’d have two cute girls join your club. How juvenile!”

“Juvenile?”

“I recently dug into my old collection of magazines, and found a really fascinating article about high school dating tactics in a 2007 edition of CosmoGirl. Boys your age tend to think that making the person they like jealous is the best way to get that person to notice you. In a way it’s cute, but it’s also a little concerning.”

“...What?” Tani asks in English.

“Gosh, we’re really going to need you to mature out of this phase if you’re serious about us. I can’t be introducing you to my friends while you’re over here playing games with your poor sensei’s heart. It’s bad enough that you can’t even drink yet.”

Shirai is starry eyed and lost in fantasy, holding her face in her palm while ratting off inappropriate misunderstandings like firecrackers, each one pulsating in Tani’s ears with the same popping effect.

“Sensei,” Tani protests, “I am having a hard time figuring out if you’re screwing with me or not. Like, you can’t possibly be a teacher and also be stupid enough to genuinely think these things, can you?”

“Aha, oh Akihiro-san, in CosmoGirl it said the next step for boys your age is callousness. The parody of youth is playing itself out right in front of me, it’s just as cute as you trying to make me jealous!”

“You’re being ridicul---”

“However!” She swiftly interrupts him. “Mature men are honest with themselves, and that is what I find most attractive. I already know how you feel anyways, so it’s okay to just dote on me!”

Tani scrunches up his face and takes a deep breath into his nose. If she’s teasing him, he’ll have to react accordingly, but if she seriously thinks that he likes her, he’ll have to find a way to convey his true feelings without her being able to twist it around to make it seem like the opposite.

He looks at her as though she were two different people. One is equally as sharp and cunning as he is. The other he imagines has a brain being powered by a hamster in a plastic ball frantically sprinting to keep its host acting accordingly.

“Because of the presence of my new club members, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say any of that.” He clears his throat to dispel any outward expression of frustration before asking, “So what are you doing here?”

Shirai looks bewildered, tilting her head and tapping on her temple.

“You know, I actually forgot.”

“You’re kidding!” Tani shouts incredulously. “The more I interact with you, the more I think your inadequacy as my club’s sponsor is too glaring to ignore. I’ll have you know, now that I have multiple members we can fill out a request for a replacement!”

“Ah yes, members, that reminds me!” Shirai presses her hands together and her face lights up. “I came here to introduce you to someone I’ve recruited to join your club!”

“For real?”

“Yeah!”

All the anger Tani has so blatantly been sending her way is expelled behind him like an octopus spewing ink to escape a predator. It’s replaced by the jubilance of a child gifted with his favorite toy and sparkling bits of light immediately come flickering around his rosy face.

“Ohh Shirai-sensei, I was wrong to doubt you!” Tani grabs her hands and shakes them fervently. “I don’t know how you could forget that in the two seconds since you got here, but what does that matter now? Aha, how lucky am I to have you as our club’s sponsor!”

Tani turns to Anita and shouts, “Anita, would you care to make our amazing club sponsor some tea?”

Anita clenches her fists and replies, “Tea!”

“Yes, tea, Anita, tea! Very good!”

Anita rushes to the kettle and begins boiling water.

“You see the work we’re already doing here sensei?” Tani says in a tone so sugary it would make a dentist cringe. “If not for you, Anita would have never learned that.”

He talks about Anita as though she were a dog that just got trained how to roll over on command.

Shirai seems to be soaking up the compliments like a sponge, her head is even ballooning up as she allows him to shake her hands and grovel.

“Akihiro-san, your flattery is very much welcomed!”

“So where is this new member??”

“Where is who?”

Tani stops shaking her hands, instead he squeezes them on impulse.

“...Que?” 

“Ohhhh that’s right!”

Shirai-sensei has the memory of a goldfish.

The black ink of anger and agitation that has returned to Tani’s aura burns her eyes, and she turns her head away from him and shouts towards the door,

“You can come in now!”

Tani releases her hands and backs away like someone expecting an impending doom.

“...Shirai-sensei, why did you say that in English?”

The clubroom door slides open, and the attention of everyone present is attracted towards the person who enters like a magnet to a bar of iron.

Walking into the room is a towering boy with the features of someone that belongs on a movie screen. Symmetrical jaw line, perfect blond hair styled with a hair pin, azure eyes more rich in color than the ocean.

Tani’s heart is sent into a flutter just looking at him. The features of this tall, strapping lad don’t go unnoticed like they did with Anita and Emilia. The boy’s towering presence isn’t something that could so easily be overlooked by idle excitement.

“Ahh!” Tani shrieks. “Another gaijin!? An American? English??”

The tall blond boy glides his fingers through his silky hair and sends Tani a heart fluttering smile before saying, “Bonjour, mon nom est Charl Raynal.”

“French!?”

Tani sends a crippling glare towards Shirai, who returns his dejection with an accomplished smile.

The next thing Tani knows, the towering French boy named Charl is right in front of him, and his big, yet exceptionally soft foreign hands, grab onto Tani’s hand and gently lifts it up.

Tani is frozen stiff as he watches Charl lean down and kiss the back of his hand. Anita squeals in shock and almost spills the hot tea onto herself. The cheeks on Emilia’s emotionless face go flush with the color of crimson.

Shirai-sensei breathes in a quick burst of extra oxygen before covering her mouth and muttering, “O-Oh my....”

Tani’s face gets so hot that his entire head blasts forth a plume of steam.

Charl responds to Tani’s unadulterated uneasiness with the smile of a prince when he says, "Enchantée de faire votre connaissance.”

Tani can understand exactly what has been told to him, but he ignores it. Snapping his head towards Shirai, he shouts,

“This one is not allowed to join!”

When the universe takes its course, Tani ‘must’ resist.

Today’s UN Lesson --- To be continued!!