Friends / 友達

In the following days, what was initially just verbal abuse evolved into physical abuse. Thankfully, Naoto was there to defend me, so it wasn’t all that bad. However, that didn’t erase the issue.

One day, in one of the morning breaks, we were leaving the classroom and were met by none other than the student responsible for the growth of the issue—Hiro Ijigawa and his group of “followers”.

“Look, if it isn’t our ‘man-princess’ and his knight in shining armor. You’re really annoying, Ueno, you know? Get out of my way, I have a very important hearing scheduled with your ‘sir-lady’.”

One of his stupid subordinates commented on what, to him, seemed exceptionally creative, massaging his ego.

“Hiro, is that a new insult? You’re really creative, man.”

“I just came up with it. What can I say? I’m a natural-born genius.”

That face filled with pride. It annoyed Naoto to no end.

The rest of his “crew” surrounded us in the corridor to make sure we couldn’t run away. Lightly annoyed, Naoto reacted.

“Damn you, Ijigawa. You don’t lose even one chance to show just how much of a coward you are.”

“You know how it goes. I’ve got to take the necessary measures to ensure the likes of you don’t run away.”

After hearing that, he had enough of it. He began walking towards Ijigawa, steadily shortening the distance between both. In a predictable turn of events, the bully was mildly surprised by his actions.

“Oh? You’re approaching me? Instead of running away, you’re coming right to me?”

“But—I can’t kick your ass unless I come closer.”

Now more annoyed, he retorted:

“Oh, I see. Then get as near as you’d like.”

As he pronounced those words, to my friend, it was almost as if a blue aura of some sort covered every inch of his body, like a final boss.

He commenced walking towards Naoto with a dominant pose and his head leaning slightly to the ground, further shrinking the space in between them.

Ijigawa made his move first, attempting to punch him with a move resembling an uppercut. Fortunately, he missed the target due to Naoto’s quick reaction.

Unfortunately for Ijigawa, it was now his opponent’s turn and said adversary easily dodged his attack. What’s more, he was pissed. My friend clenched his teeth and his hands tightly, not revealing which one was going to land the punch.

It worked. He didn’t know how to defend himself. Desperately, he brought both his arms upwards to protect his face. The target was never his face, however. Naoto sharply aimed at his belly and landed his punch as he intended to.

Ijigawa fell to the ground.

On the other hand, Naoto, having hit his boiling point, furiously shouted, huffing and puffing.

“What’s so wrong with being different? I… I have anger issues, so come at me! Try me!”

As a result, the surrounding students ran away, terrified of seeing their “leader” fall with such ease. I was one of the only ones remaining. The so-called leader was lying on the floor, battered, crying.

Naoto Ueno and the boy lying on the floor were later called to the Principal’s office, and it was decided that both were to be suspended for a week. Hanging by a thread, if either of them got any more sanctions, it’d be the end of the road for them in that school.

A week later, when the two temporarily banned students returned, the atmosphere had noticeably changed. What used to be a mostly suffocating atmosphere around our class was now a normal one. It was time for the everyday brief homeroom period before the start of classes, and the students were eagerly awaiting their return.

The first to arrive was Ijigawa, now more tamed, given the multiple scoldings he received. While over half the students turned a blind eye to his passage, some tried to cheer him up, stating they recognized what he did was wrong and sincerely wanted to bond with him.

Naoto got a warm welcome from just about anyone in class. “Welcome back!” and “That was so cool, I was inspired by your actions!” were audible in the corridor and later inside the classroom.

Already sitting on my special seat with a privileged view of the outside, I awaited his return as well. He did not take long at all to find me. “There you are,” he said to himself, as he approached me.

“You finally came back.”

“Of course I did. There was no way I could leave my best friend behind.”

A more than valid reason.

“It seems you are quite popular now.”

“So it seems. But that doesn’t matter to me. Popularity is ephemeral. Friends are forever.”

“Yes,” I smiled, “Say, what happened after that incident? You never messaged me about it.”

“Umm, well… about that,” this was the first time I witnessed his signature sweaty smile, “I got quite the scolding from the principal. I also got an equally heavy one from my parents.”

“I see.”

“However, during all this time away from school, I felt pretty lonely. I had no one to protect. Thankfully, that hole was filled by you, Ishida.”

“Am I that important?”

“Of course you are! Have you forgotten already? We are going to be best friends! Always standing by each other’s side, no matter what happens.”

“Ah, right.”

“I have another promise to keep though,” he switched to a more dispirited expression, “To compensate for all the trouble I’ve caused, I swore to study even more and aim for the top.”

He recalled the promise he made.

“No, no, no, I have to do it,” he forcibly made an effort to overcome his laziness, demonstrating he intended to live up to what he had agreed upon.

“I’m sure you’ll turn that promise into reality. Umm now that I think of it, didn’t they also tell you to improve your behavior?”

“Yes. I thought that was obvious, no?”

“Mhm. You sure got a lot of work to do now. Also, were you serious when you said you have anger issues?”

“Of course not. That’s just what I said at the heat of the moment.”

“You looked so badass honestly though.”

“Hey, you really shouldn’t be complimenting me!”

“But that was so cool!”

“Even still!”

We continued with this until the teacher arrived.

Vowing to turn his promise into reality, he strived for the immensely coveted first place. And so, the stellar student I know today was born, never burying his past behind, learning from it instead. In the end, the only thing that truly changed was his approach to how he helped people.

Time went by faster than any of us could predict, and we soon found ourselves at the end of our junior high years, moving on to senior high school.

Early April 2017. Schools all over Japan flooded with students possessed by an inhumane anticipation, seeking to discover whether they had entered their desired senior high school. I was one of them. I applied for Fukuoka High School. And obviously, so did Naoto.

On that morning, everyone who had applied for that same school was excited to see if they got in, staring at the results affixed on the wall, at the entrance hall. I tried to find Naoto among the crowd, as we had agreed to meet up at our hopefully new school. It was no easy feat, but I managed to spot his head in between a sizeable sea of students.

“Hey, Naoto! I’m over here!”

“Oh, Ishida. I’m coming. Just… give… me… a moment.”

He was clearly struggling to get past the academic flood.

Once we were both away from the mob, still inside the building, we congratulated each other for entering this very school. Especially Naoto.

“Alright! We did it!”

“Yeah. You even managed to get the highest grades among all who applied here.”

“My parents were very proud.”

“Thank you for all the help! I might not have gotten grades this good if it weren’t for you.”

“Don’t discredit your efforts. You did a lot yourself too.”

As soon as my friend finished that sentence, another student, at that time an unknown entity to us, sprinted towards the outside from within the mob, unfortunately crashing into me.

That hurt.

“O-Ouch. Don’t run into people!”

Said person wasted no time and apologized right after, as we both slowly got back up.

“Ahh, I’m so sorry.”

“Where were you heading with such speed?”

“Umm… let me see. I was searching for any friends in my new class but found none. Oh! I was also practicing my hundred-meter sprint.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the latter.”

“A higher power made it so we both would meet right here, right now! This must be the work of fate! Or maybe Haruhi-sama unconsciously wished so.”

We both stared at her, unamused.

“I mustn’t waste this one-off chance to make new friendships. Hey, hey, do you want to be my friend?”

“That was very sudden, but… sure?”

Right as “sure” reached her ears, she shook my hand incredibly fast. Almost as if she had electricity running through her veins.

“The name’s Kimura, Sakurai Kimura. License to run in the hallway. Very pleased to meet you.”

“Yuki Ishida. Nice to meet you. Now that I think of it, aren’t we in the same class? I noticed your name on the sheets affixed on the wall.”

“I don’t know.”

Naoto interrupted our talk, displeased with how the conversation was flowing.

“Ishida, are you done yet? I have some chores to do.”

I wasn’t even the first one to respond, as Kimura quickly sent her own response.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t notice you there. Do you also want to be my friend?”

I did my best efforts to get rid of her, pushing her away from my friend.

“You’ll have time to befriend him when the school year begins. Also, sorry Naoto, just give me a second.”

After finding a suitable place nearby, I talked alone with her briefly.

“Ehhh? You’re ditching me already?”

“I am not ditching you, I just need to go. We’ll meet again in a few days.”

“Boring. Oh well, see you!”

My light-grey-haired friend and I set foot outside school grounds and headed to the next stop at our own pace.

However—

A girl now familiar to both of us approached our backs at a frightening speed. In less than ten whole seconds she caught up to us, who were about a hundred meters away from the entrance.

“Say, can I go with you to wherever you’re heading? I really don’t have anything to do for the rest of the morning.”

“Sure.”

“No.”

Those two responses were uttered simultaneously. The negative one came from my mouth and the rest of it from my dear friend.

“Huh? Was that a yes?”

“Yes, you can accompany us.”

Naoto had the final say.

“Ok, let’s go!”

“That’s exactly what we were doing before you nearly crashed into me again.”

“Yes, I know, I already said I’m sorry. Aaahhh, it’s so hot outside today!”

This is how I met Naoto Ueno, coupled with an extra on how I met the girl with an extremely, sometimes excessively, lively personality.

Back in my bedroom, Natsuko was trying to absorb her own dose of information.

“Mhm. It’s highly likely he is aware of it,” she yawned, as if subconsciously yearning for sleep, and let herself fall onto the bed, my bed actually, “I’m tired.”

“Since you’ve taken the freedom to lie in my bed, what do you think of it? Now you can compare the two since you have lain down on both.”

“Ms. real estate agent, this one’s cold.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Yes. I prefer them cold, especially as we’re edging closer to the summer.”

After a very short time window, I grew tired of staring at the door and questioned her.

“Are you really going to stay here lying on my bed? You have your own bedroom, you know.”

Noticing her asleep, I had to bring myself to wake her up.

“Huh? Hey, wake up! This is no place to sleep!”

I shook her body to try and snap her out of that nap. Success. I managed to bring her back from dreamland.

“Fiiiine,” she complied, with a slouchy voice distorted by the mild shaking.

“Come on, get up and head to your own room.”

I pushed her gently to the correct bedroom, opened the respective door, and she fell comfortably on her own bed. Half of the effort was from me, the other half from Natsuko, as she was about forty percent awake.

“Sheesh, there we go. I feel like a parent carrying their drunk child to the bed after a long night out.”

“I may be tired, but I’m not drunk,” she replied, still in a somewhat slouchy tone, displeased with my analogy, “Anyway, thanks. Goodnight.”

“Night. Sleep well.”

I closed the door.