Walkway

In the school’s hallway stood Masaki, totally lost for words. He stared into the eyes of the beautiful Akane Ishihara. Did she just talk to me? Usually, guys like him are invisible to popular girls like her, he thought. The anger he felt from his earlier confrontation with the teacher was instantly replaced by an even more powerful emotion, anxiety. Valuable seconds were passing by as Masaki struggled to come up with a response to her question. He must look quite exasperated for her to show interest in him - out of thin air. I must look like a fool, getting angry about basically nothing. Masaki concluded. He straightened his back and tried his best to hide his emotions - trying to put a facade. He doesn’t want to bother Akane with his pathetic feelings after all, since those are something a man has to deal with on his own.

But even putting his current predicament aside, there was still a more pressing issue on Masaki’s mind. The real root of his anxiety, something he tried his best to forget about that day. Is Akane really the girl from the band last night? He took another good look at the girl standing in front of him. She was wearing the school’s uniform, which combined well with the ribbon she wearing in her tied-back, deep-red hair. Like a perfect, model student. All in all, she had a really classy look, in complete contrast to the singer at the concert. It just couldn’t be here. Masaki just couldn’t imagine a straight-A student like her also being a passionate rock-and-roll singer. It was just completely incompatible… I really am a fool right? Throwing away a chance like that because of some wild imaginations. If he could only just forget about it all…

“Your name is Tsuchiya right?”

Akane was still standing there, worrying about him.

Shit, she asks another question! I waited far too long to respond. I just can’t have her worry like that.

“It’s nothing - I am fine”

Masaki proclaimed with a cool, deep voice. He put his arms over each other.

“Don’t worry about me”

But Akane wouldn’t leave him alone that easily.

“No one ever says that unless there is something to worry about”

Please just go and leave.

He thought, struggling to keep all his emotions at bay.

“It’s none of your business”

Akane sighed.

“I am sorry if I am bothering you - I don’t want to sound preachy, but..”

“There is no need to bottle up your feeling like that, you are really hurting yourself like this!”

That didn’t help at all if there was one thing he didn’t like - it was people giving him unsolicited advice like that. Who was she, his mother? Masaki responded by twisting Akane’s remark from earlier.

“No one ever says they don’t want to sound preachy unless they are preaching something”

Masaki put his hands into his pockets and gave her the cold shoulder. He turned away from her, ready to proceed with his walk to the administration office. A wave of relief passed through his body. She was nothing special after all, just another model student that feels the need to patronize others for not fitting in the box so needly. A popular girl living a double life as an underground rockstar, it all was just a fantasy in Masaki’s head. Sadly a girl like that just didn’t exist. But if she did, Masaki would certainly be all into her. He grinned.

X

While walking away from his awkward encounter with Akane Ishihara, Masaki suddenly felt a warm hand touching his shoulder. It seemed like she wasn’t letting him go just yet. She put her hand against her mouth and moved her mouth next to his. He could feel her breath touching his skin as she whispered something in his ear.

“Thank you for coming to my concert the other day”

WHAT!

Masaki’s regained composure was instantly shattered. He turned around to see Akane smirking at him, the same way she had done during the concert. His face turned red as a tomato. He tried to catch his breath, trying to fathom what just happened. I wasn’t going crazy after all, it was really her after all. Akane looked like a video game character that had just completely gone out of script. Even though she looked exactly the same as before, Masaki’s perception of her had instantly changed. She was no longer some stuck-up model student. Instead, he saw her as a misunderstood rebel that had to keep up appearances at school. She was not that different from him after all, trying to keep up a facade. Kind of hypocritical to lecture him about expressing his emotions, wasn’t he? The thought of it made put a smile on his face. She wasn’t so perfect after all…

“So it was you after all…”

Masaki mumbled to himself - just loud enough for her to hear it.

“I had no idea you were in a band”

But he didn’t have time to say anything else, since Akane grabbed his arm and pushed his back against the wall. Her face was only centimeters away from his, her eyes staring directly into his. The mischievous smile had made a place for a deadly serious stare. Did I say anything to offend her? Even though he had never been so close to a girl, her iron stare didn’t allow him to feel anything but fear. She opened her mouth and spoke a brief but powerful statement.

“If you dare to tell anyone…”

She pulled back from him before he had to chance to say anything. What would he even say in a situation like this? She seemed really serious about this.

While Masaki still stood against the wall - completely frozen, Akane’s expression changed into a much friendlier one again. She started playing with her hair.

“I am sorry for startling you like this, but this serious okay?”

“Please let it be our little secret”

She put her finger against her mouth and winked, before finally leaving him be.

X

Masaki just stood there, motionless for another minute. He was breathing heavily, still trying to comprehend the events that just took place. His head was hurting and he felt like throwing up. He slowly proceeded his way to the school’s administration office, ready to get scolded again for his behavior.

While sitting in detention class, he couldn’t think about anything but her. He kept overthinking the conversation they had in the hallway. Who was she, really? The perfect student, a rockstar, or something completely else. He couldn’t help himself but wanted to see more of her. The real her, not the popular girl wandering through the school’s hallways.

Masaki sighed. There was no way she would spend any of her valuable time on a nerd like him. The two of them meeting each other was just an accident, it never should have happened in the first place. She just needed to make sure I don’t tell the others. Now that he blew his chance of producing the band, there was no reason for him to care anymore. The best course of action was just to… forget. He didn’t want to become the pathetic nerd fawning over some popular girl that is way out of their league. I am not some stalker, like Kazuki.

The school bell rang, and Masaki headed home. After arriving at his house, he fell down on his bed from exhaustion. Kazuki was messaging him on his phone, inviting him to play some online game. But Masaki didn’t feel like doing anything else that day. He lay stretched out on his phone, staring at the ceiling. He tried to distract himself a bit with his phone, but he couldn’t help thinking about Akane, again and again. His head kept replaying moments from earlier that day. Her smile, her winking at him, him being pushed against the wall by this otherwise perfect-looking student. The smell of her perfume as she moved into him. His heart kept beating faster and faster - a weird feeling bugged his stomach. He must have gotten ill somehow.

At that moment, he heard knocking on his door. His dad slowly entered the room and sat on the bed beside Masaki. He must feel worried about Masaki lying down on the bed all day like this.

“Son please listen, I know you feel down about not being able to produce that band.”

“I found another upcoming band for you that is having a performance tomorrow on the other side of the city.”

“I have some time off tomorrow night, so why won’t we go to the concert together?”

Masaki wasn’t feeling like doing any production work at the moment, but since his dad put so much effort into it, he couldn’t do anything but agree to it. It had been a while since he and his dad had done something together, Dad spend a lot of nights in the studio after all.

“Thank you, Dad, that sounds fun”