The Reappearing Phone and the Disappearing Girl

Kazuyuki has always been known to be a forgetful person. There was an instance where he forgot his entire school bag at home. Due to these recurring events, Kazuyuki was always cautious when making sure he had everything he needed.
So when he realised his phone had gone missing, he was confused. He was certain he had it since he was using it to listen to music, but he had no clue where it had gone. There was a high possibility he dropped it when Ichiro bumped into him this morning. However, when he checked, there was no trace of it. Not even his friends knew where it was.
Stress overcame the young boy, and all he could think about during the afternoon lessons was how his mother was going to kill him when he got home.

"Sano Kazuyuki!"

"Please don't kill me!"

The bell rang, and the students hurried out of the classrooms. Terrified to go home, Kazuyuki wasted his time by checking the Lost-and-Found box. Another dead-end.
A large cloud of defeat hung over the boy as he slowly walked back to the classroom. His face had turned ghastly pale, and he fell back in his chair. A horrible sense of dread overcame him, for he knew he had to face his fate.

“I’m screwed.”

As he packed his books away, he noticed something below his bag. Could it be? He didn’t want to get his hopes too high in case it wasn’t. Steadily, he took his bag off the desk to reveal the very phone he had been looking for the entire day. That horrible feeling of dread was washed away by a huge sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness.”

He wondered how it got there. Did he misplace it there and forget about it, or did someone place it there?
Suddenly, he heard a creak coming from the classroom entrance. For a blink second, he saw a wave of purple brush past the door frame.

“Hey!” He called out

He ran out to see who the mysterious figure was, but when he crossed the doorframe, there was no one to be seen. Was it an apparition? Why did it run away? Despite his confusion, he decided to ignore it and go home.

But when he got home, he couldn’t take his mind off the small figure he saw. He remembered seeing a flash of purple streaks, which led him to theorise that Satō Fuyumi was the good Samaritan who saved him from his demise at his mother's hands. He was determined to thank her the next time he saw her.

“Satō Fuyumi is absent today.”

There went his chance to thank his knight in shining armour.

It was the end of the school day. As Kazuyuki was about to leave, the vicious bear attacked again.

“Kazuyuki! Let’s go home together.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” His puppy face was showing.

“Sano-kun!” A soft voice called out

The boys turned to see Ichikawa Ami enter the classroom.

“Shall we go?”

“Yeah.”

“A date? Is it a date?”

“It’s not a date.”

Kazuyuki got up and left alongside Ami.

“It’s a date,” Daisuke said to himself.

Ichikawa Ami was the first girl Kazuyuki ever interacted with in high school. When they first met, Ami was in her second year of high school, while Kazuyuki had only recently joined. She wasn’t the energetic girl with glasses that she is now, but in fact, she was quite similar to Kazuyuki. Shy, slim, yet ambitious, she was Kazuyuki’s ideal girl. But she changed when she got her first boyfriend. Since then, she has been more outgoing and friendly to others, but she did admit once that she was merely playing a character in order to appease those around her. She still showed her introverted side to Kazuyuki; he was the only one who got to see this side of her, accentuating their closeness.
Kazuyuki used to harbour feelings towards his Senpei, but knowing she only saw him as a close friend, he decided to stop pursuing her. Now they are simply great friends. Nevertheless, his friends would still joke about their relationship.

As they roamed through the multitude of shops, the two talked about their lives at school and home. Even the uninteresting subjects became the most interesting. Kazuyuki helped her pick out some winter clothes; he properly complimented and criticised her choices.

“Hey, Sano-kun. What do you think of this?”

Kazuyuki was dumbfounded to see Ami in her black underwear and a furry coat.

“Ichikawa-Senpai!” Kazuyuki swiftly closed the curtains; his face was as red as Rudolph’s nose.

After she bought her clothing, they left the store. Kazuyuki was still bright red.

“Sano-kun, why are you so red?”

“You know exactly why I’m red!”

“Ah. Were the black underwear and furry coat too much for innocent Sano-kun?”

“You’re wrong!”

“Okay. Sorry. Sorry.” She laughed.

“I’m used to it, so I didn’t really care. But I was just concerned someone would see you.”

Ami blushed at the comment. Kazuyuki noticed this.

“Why are you blushing?” He said mockingly

“No reason.”

Not a word was spoken after that until they arrived in front of Ami’s house. Kazuyuki handed her the bags.

“Thanks.” She took the bags from him. “Do you wanna come in and have a hot drink?”

“I’m good, but thank you. My mum’s waiting for me.”

“Alright. Maybe next time.”

“Sure.”

“Cool. See you!” She opened the gate and walked towards the front door.

Once she entered the house, Kazuyuki slowly walked away.
Strolling down the empty streets of the neighbourhood, leaving behind a trail of footprints behind him, he was silent the entire way home.

The next day, Kazuyuki entered the classroom and saw Satō Fuyumi sitting in her usual seat. He prepared himself before walking up to her. She looked up at the clearly nervous Kazuyuki.

“Um… Thank you for returning my phone to me.”

There was a moment of silence that followed. Trying to escape the awkward situation, Kazuyuki slowly moved towards his desk. He saw the girl look back at her phone. “She hates me” , he thought.

“You’re welcome.”

The soft voice captured Kazuyuki by surprise; he was frozen by those two simple words. Those were the first words she had ever said to him. For some reason, he felt a sense of joy.

The rest of the day, he analysed her. Left handed. She constantly fixed her mask. Fixed hair. She used a cute pen. Completely concentrated. She never spoke a word. As usual, when lunch came, she miraculously disappeared.

"How does she do that?"

Sensing a threatening presence behind him, Kazuyuki turned around and threw the person over his shoulder. He then realised it was Daisuke.

"Daisuke!"

It took a moment for Daisuke's back pain to disappear. Kazuyuki helped him up.

"Sorry."

"No worries. I guess that happens when you sneak up behind Sano Kazuyuki. Anyways, I just came over to tell you that I’ve got lunch club practice, so I’m not going to be able to eat lunch with you today.”

"Ah, okay.”

“Alright. See you!”

In the lunch hall, Kazuyuki sat alone on their regular table. It had been a while since he ate alone, so it felt very weird. Again, he noticed the purple haired girl on the neighbouring table. He contemplated going up to her and talking to her, but he decided against it.

Suddenly, Daisuke, who was missing a sock and his shirt was also inside out, sprinted in.

“Daisuke?”

Daisuke grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “Kazuyuki, do you remember where I placed my boots? Do you know where they are?”

Kazuyuki struggled to reply due to being shaken vigorously. “Check your locker.”

“Oh, yeah. It might be there.” He stopped shaking him. “Thanks, man!”

Before he ran away, he noticed the girl sitting alone. A grin grew on his face. He walked up to her.

“Hey, there. You seemed like you needed some company, and my friend also needs some company, so why don’t you two sit together?”

Kazuyuki heard Daisuke behind him and turned around. “Huh?”

“Come on. Talk to each other.” He winked at Kazuyuki before running away.

“No!”

Taken aback by the situation he found himself in, he peaked at the girl. When she looked back, he quickly turned away. He felt bad for ignoring her, so after mustering up the courage, he slowly turned back around to talk to her.
She was staring right at him. He was mesmerised by her eyes, which were huge and dark like black holes.

“Um… do you want me to come over there, or do you want to move here?” He said nervously.

“I’ll move there.” She replied without hesitation.

Due to her face mask, Kazuyuki didn't hear what she said, so he was surprised to see her pick up her books and take a seat across from him. He couldn’t believe she was sitting at the same table with him, but there was still a moderate distance between them.

“How did I find myself in this situation?”