Episode 3: Have a Real Good Time

Suika couldn’t be any more excited if she tried.

Because the high school Can Do Anything Club were busy on the day of Halloween (and also because they were simply too old for what is technically a children’s holiday), Mimori came up with the grand idea of holding a costume party on another day. After mulling over a day for a few weeks, Suika heard the news that it would be held (finally) on November 25th, practically almost a whole month after the initial Halloween night.

But that wasn’t the best part.

The best part was that Suika knew for sure now that Mimori was totally, 100% over Drew. The proof was in the pudding, and the pudding in this case was Mimori’s posts in the CDAC group chat.

In fact… ever since mid-October, she stopped posting about Drew and moved on to this guy called “Cone.”

Suika did a light amount of research on him (as Mimori basically almost posted everything about him) and turned out that he was indeed a part of a band called Sum 41. He was a bassist and his actual name was Jason McCaslin, however, everyone called him “Cone.” Funnily enough, he was born in the same year as Drew, but in a different month (Drew was born on May 19th and Cone was born on September 3rd), making him younger than her love by only not even four months.

As for what Suika thought of Cone… She didn’t think he was “hot” or anything, Drew was the hottest in her opinion. However, she could kind of see the appeal that had captured Mimori’s heart (and attention).

How do these two pieces of news come together?

Well, Nick (you know, totally Drew) and his girlfriend were going to be at the dance, as it was going to be held at Miharu’s apartment/loft thingy that she made for the Black Sash cast. Suika was obviously going, and since it was a dance…

Yes. Suika was trying to get Nick to fall in love with her, Kuroe be damned.

She never really cared for Kuroe. The girl was too sickeningly sweet to be real, yet Nick was so into her.

Maybe…? Maybe he wasn’t?

So that was Suika’s goal for the dance.

I’m going to get him to fall in love with me. Just wait…

★

For the costume, Suika decided to go with a catgirl as clichéd as the concept was. It was an easy outfit to put together—just a cute, frilly dress, thigh highs, and a cat ear headband and fake tail.

Now Suika was at a crossroads.

What color should I paint my nails?

Yes, she was planning on painting her nails.

As her dress was a royal purple color and her thighs black, she decided to go with the flow of the color scheme and choose a bombastic pink.

“Pink equals love so it makes sense,” she said before cackling evilly to herself. She tended to do that when she was alone.

The party was to start at 6:30 on the dot and it was 6:04 at the moment, so she only had less than a half hour to make the nail painting happen. Luckily her nail polish was one of those that would dry pretty fast so she didn’t have to worry too hard.

★

It was 6:13 when she asked for mom politely to take her to the party, to which she complimented Suika's outfit and called it “cute.”

Heh. Yes, it should be.

Miharu’s apartment complex was only two miles away and they got there pretty quickly. The closer they got, however, the more nervous Suika felt.

My plan is foolproof. Why am I getting so nervous?!

It didn’t matter though, as the two had arrived at the giant, looming apartment that felt out of place in the neighborhood (as it was supposed to be).

She was finally there… and she could already hear the music booming from the house.

“Have a fun time, honey!” Suika’s mom said to her, a big smile on her face.

Suika nodded and gave her mom a small smile back. “I’ll do my best.”

When she walked into the apartment, shivering from being only in her sleeveless dress, she quickly realized that the song blasting from the giant speakers was in fact coming from a DJ booth… and the song in particular was Korn’s “Freak on a Leash.”

Of course. What party wouldn’t be complete without it?

This one, apparently.

As she walked in further, she saw Mimori was behind the DJ booth, blasting the music. It all made sense now.

Also next to her was a familiar-looking boy who was headbanging a little himself—basically, in the least-hurty way possible (if that made any sense).

Oh. It’s Cone, Mimori’s new plaything.

Although this Cone was different. He looked even younger and had his spiked hair bleached blonde. He also had a big dumb smile on his face, but that was totally because of the current situation, and also because it was a party. Parties were supposed to be fun, last time Suika checked.

The song was over and another one came on (which sounded like Disturbed), to which Mimori turned the volume down and looked at Suika, still smiling somewhat creepily. Suika walked over to her anyway.

“Hi, Mimori,” she said politely.

Mimori’s eyes widened as she looked at Suika’s outfit up and down. “Ahhh, that costume’s so kewt, Suika-chan! Oh, and can you guess who we are?”

Suika cocked her head to the side. Hmm…

It then occurred to her when looking at Mimori’s outfit.

“Ah, right. You’re Cone. And Cone is…?”

“He’s Deryck!” The girl looked incredibly happy when saying that.

Suika’s eyes narrowed and looked at Cone intently. “Hm. I guess I can see that. Good job, I guess?”

Something else then occurred to her.

Ah.

“Nice haircut, Mimori. Any reason why it’s so short though?”

Mimo’s face brightened up again. “Ah, you noticed, yay! And thanks! I cut it because I wanna start a new chapter in my life!” She looked at Cone lovingly, and he looked back, smiling with his teeth bared. Suika could see the gum in his mouth.

For some reason, seeing the two together unnerved Suika. It’s almost like he’s being forced to be here against his will…

She felt like talking to him.

That was when Nick, Kuroe, and Bryan came into the room from the door by the far back, and that’s when Suika realized that there wasn’t anyone besides them (until now) on the dancefloor, which she assumed was created just for this event.

“Hey, why’s the music so quiet?!” Bryan exclaimed, sounding slightly annoyed. He then noticed that Suika was talking to her. “Oh, hey Suika.”

Suika waved back.

“Sorry, Mimori. Bryan was really enjoying the music. You think you can turn it back up?”

Mimori jerked up. “Oh, of course! Shit, I’m so sorry about that!”

Kuroe waved one of her hands back and forth. “You’re good, you’re good! You wanted to talk to your friend! I get it!”

Suika’s heart leaped when seeing the two together.

How on earth am I going to get to dance with Nick again…?

She didn’t exactly think that plan through.

By the way, the three teens’ costumes were basically nothing. Nick and Bryan were dressed as football players she didn’t recognize (as Japan doesn’t really care for that sport) and Kuroe as a cheerleader.

This makes me want to gag.

As the three made their way back into the kitchen, that’s when Suika dipped and went after them, moving as fast as her feet could take her.

When she got close to Nick, she tapped him gently on his shoulder.

The boy turned around. “Hm?” he murmured.

“Um,” she muttered, feeling shy all of a sudden. “Would you like to dance later on? I know you have Kuroe and all that but I would like to dance too.”

Nick blinked and then looked at his girlfriend.

“I don’t see why not,” Kuroe said sweetly, shrugging. “One little dance won’t hurt.”

“Sure,” Nick replied. “Just let me know when.”

Suika tried to not let the excitement show through her face—which, to be honest, she was very good at doing. “Thank you.”

As Suika walked out, she passed her friends, who all greeted her. The girl turned back for only a second and waved back in her usual stoic way.

Then—

Fwump.

Upon turning her head back, she was immediately met with someone’s chest. A young man’s chest, to be precise.

“Uh, make sure to watch where you’re going.”

I know that voice.

Suika looked up, realizing who it was right after that.

Cone.

The boy, she found out, was in fact pretty tall for her age. His tallness made her feel particularly small.

“Oh, hi Cone,” she said, blush creeping up on her cheeks. She then remembered what she wanted to do.

Perfect timing, then.

“Um, could I talk to you for a second?”

Cone’s eyebrows creased. “Um, okay. After I get something to drink, alright?”

Suika nodded and watched him amble away to get a drink from the fridge. She must have been lost in her thoughts or something because not even a minute later he was back.

“Damn, that was quick,” she remarked.

Cone just shrugged and took a gulp of the Snapple Fruit Punch that was now in his hand. Hope he still doesn’t have that gum in his mouth…

“Sooo…?” he queried, gesturing for her to come back into a room that was inside the family room (she assumed it was the mudroom, actually). “What was it you wanted to talk aboot?”

Heh. Despite speaking Japanese to her, she could still hear his Canadian accent in the way he pronounced the Japanese words. (Yes, not even Mari’s powers could get rid of his accent… and it’s not even that strong.)

“Uh,” she began, trying not to get lost in his beautiful greenish-blue eyes. Almost a turquoise like Kasumi’s, she noted. Ah, snap out of it. You like Drew, Drew! “I’ve got a question: Do you actually like Mimori-senpai?”

Cone shrugged again. “She’s alright,” he admitted. “I only met her a few days ago, so I don’t really have a set opinion on her yet. But man, one thing’s for sure: she sure loves to flirt with me.” He smirked when he said that, and she had to admit that his face was pretty animated when he spoke.

“So you don’t like it? The flirting?” Her face still remained stoic.

Cone’s mouth screwed up to the side. “Well, I wouldn’t say I hate it, but… She’s just coming off too strong. And also, she’s a bit much.”

Suika giggled lightly. I wonder what he’d think of me, then…? She then gulped. Focus on the problem at hand! Take action!

“‘Get ready for action,’” she randomly said out loud. Suika then realized she said it because the song that the line was from had been stuck in her head recently… and she wasn’t even a blink-182 fan.

Mimori is influencing me in every way possible. Shit.

“ … I mean, we should tell Mimo about this,” Suika said, finally correcting herself after a few seconds.

“I don’t know how to break it to her,” Cone said, voice serious. “I’d just rather have her figure it out on her own. Learn from her mistakes, you know?”

Having felt like they totally exhausted the topic of Mimori’s obliviousness to—well, everything, Suika felt like changing the topic.

“So how old are you?” Suika looked him in the eyes for that part.

“Sixteen. Why?” Cone looked predictably confused.

Suika made a small smile. “I just wanted to know.”

★

As the party continued on, Suika caught up with her friends to actually let them know she existed. Also, she wanted to see who they were dressed up as.

Kasumi was, of course, Harley Quinn—as most basic bitches were going to be this year; Tomo was Madonna, which Suika had to be told otherwise she wouldn’t have ever known; Mari was a zombie metalhead, which basically involved a metal band t-shirt and jeans that were ripped up; Naoko was some character from a TV show that Suika had never heard of. The others, meanwhile, were just dressed up as your stereotypical Halloween characters…. Although Suika had to admit, she really dug Jopi’s dark countess costume.

After talking to her friends Suika walked back into the main room at the perfect moment, as Mimori started playing “24K Magic” and was jamming out to it on the dancefloor, shrieking as she usually did. Suika rolled her eyes but inside she was glad that her friend was having so much fun.

While all of that was happening Cone came back up to Suika which caused the girl to jump in her spot a little.

“Hey,” he said above the pure volume of the Bruno Mars track on those ginormous speakers. (And Suika thought Mimori hated loudness…?)

“Um, hi there. I heard a slow song earlier. I assume that you and Mimori danced to it?”

Cone grimaced. “Yeah, we did. It was alright. She can barely dance though.”

Suika looked up at him, bobbing her head to the side to signal to go somewhere else to talk again.

Cone sighed. “Right. We gotta go somewhere else.”

The two once again went back into that mudroom to talk. Suika could feel the girls’ stares at her as she walked through the kitchen again.

Back to this place… yay.

Once the two got there, Suika took a deep breath and then let it out.

“Okay,” she said as slowly and as clearly as possible. “I would like for you to get Mimori to play a slow song for me so Nick and I can slow dance.”

Cone blinked. “Okay. Yeah, that sounds pretty easy. Which one are you thinking of?”

“‘Hands Down’ by Dashboard Confessional.”

“Hmmm…” The boy thought for a moment. “Nope, don’t know that one. Must be from after my time then.”

Suika knew what that meant.

“That’s all I ask,” Suika continued, voice still monotonous, which made what she was saying slightly more unnerving. “I want to dance to that song with Nick. Simple as that.”

Cone’s eyes widened. “Wait, doesn’t that guy have a girlfriend? What are you trying to do, steal him away from her?”

Suika’s face darkened as he was speaking. “Yes.” The whites in her eyes were basically gone now. “That’s all I want is to steal him away from her.”

“Fwooo…” Cone whistled. “Uh, oh, okay then. I’ll make Mimori play that song after she plays…” He went silent for a second and listened in for what song she was playing now. “That Red Hot Chili Peppers song.”

Suika nodded and pumped her fists in the air, mouth curled up into a big grin. “YES, I DID IT! LET’S GOOOO!!”

The fact that she showed emotion slightly terrified her. And the dance hadn’t even happened yet…

★

The dance with Nick sure did happen, and it was brilliant. She wanted to dance with him forever, not just for three minutes and seven seconds (she knew the length of the song by heart, somehow).

The slow dance… the stereotypical slow dance that’s in every teen movie ever… they did it.

The costume/dance party wrapped up half an hour after that, culminating with, who would’ve guessed? “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”. Even Kasumi joined in on it, even though she said at the beginning that she still hadn’t moved on from that incident that occurred just a little over a year since then.

After that, everyone was leaving either by car or by Tomo’s Teleportation Service. At the moment, the people left in the room were Suika, Miharu, Nick, and Cone, which was incredibly awkward. (Mimori, meanwhile, was in the bathroom, taking forever as she usually did.)

Well, this is awkward.

Miharu was only there for a few minutes, however, until she noticed the awkward atmosphere until she left, humming a song that Mimori played earlier in the night.

Suika started humming a song as well, pretending to be totally engaged in her Twitter feed when one of the boys started singing.

“‘This place is so empty, my thoughts are so tempting…’”

It was Cone singing, and she was impressed at… just how bad his singing was. It was bad in a cute way though, and Suika couldn’t help but feel captivated by it.

Cone then noticed that she was staring at him and stopped. “Ah, soarry,” he said bashfully. “Mimori just shared that song with me yesterday, and now it’s stuck in my head.”

Aww, that’s so wholesome. No, no! STOP! You’re in love with Nick, not HIM!

“That’s nice of Mimori to do. Showing you some of the songs that your band is going to perform in the future.” Suika smiled a small smile.

“Yeah, that’s neat.” Nick chimed in.

Cone grinned cheesily. “Yeah, right? We’ve been watching a lot of them recently. ” He chuckled. “To be honest they’re all pretty horrible, like in a low-budget way.”

Which ones did she show him? “Makes No Difference” and “The Hell Song”? Probably, huh.

Suika was trying to stop her heart from melting. There was just something about this boy…

“You’re a lucky guy,” Nick said suddenly. “Getting that kind of attention from Mimori. She seems to be softer towards you than she was to me.”

Cones’ brows furrowed. “What do you mean by that? She’s just a wholesome girl, nothing strange about her at all… besides the random giggle fits she has sometimes, I guess.”

“Exactly,” Drew said. “But I’m guessing she’s less… crazy about you because either she’s managed to control it or she doesn’t want you to be scared by her.”

“What about the flirting?” Suika responded bluntly.

“Flirting?” Cone screwed his mouth up to the side again. “I don’t notice any of that… Okay, when she says I’m cute maybe, but she’s also a teenage girl. She doesn’t have any underlying motives, besides probably wanting to date me.”

Suika jumped back into the conversation. “Both of you guys need to think about this more clearly: I think, no offense, that Mimori is in fact just acting like a teenage girl. Her obsession with you, Cone, will last about as long as her fangirling over Sum 41. Give her a year or two.”

“Fan—what?” Whoops. I perhaps needed to word that sentence better.

“Fangirling,” Suika said, her tone like a robot voice reciting the dictionary. “An act of obsessing over certain things you’re a fan of.”

“Ah, okay. Gotcha. And yeah, I getcha. I’m like that too, but really just over Courtney Love from Hole.”

Who? Wait, the wife of Kurt Cobain? Huh. Interesting.

“I have a question,” Nick said, raising his hand accordingly. “Do you like Mimori? It seems like you do.”

Cone shrugged. “She’s alright. She’s a good friend, but I wouldn’t really date her if she asked. I’ve got my eyes set on someone else.”

Nick looked curious. “Like who?”

“Eh, you wouldn’t know her. We go to different schools, after all.”

Hm. Makes sense.

… But why do I suddenly want to know so bad?

“Ah, right.”

It was at that point, as if reality warped to their wills, that Mimori got out of the bathroom and Suika’s phone buzzed at the same time.

Miharu…!

Suika stood up and checked her phone, ending the conversation. Her mom did in fact text her saying that she was there. “Good. Cool, guys. You’re both on the same level now. Can we shake on this?”

Both gentlemen nodded, and thus the three shook hands.

Thud, thud thud. Mimori was at the bottom of the staircase now, but she was listening to music on her iPod Nano and wasn’t paying any attention to them, luckily.

Nick waved to both of them and went back to the main room, probably to play with the DJ booth. Meanwhile, Cone went up to Suika.

“That was good. You really proved a point there.” He smiled dorkily.

“Are you hitting on me?” That was meant to stay in Suika’s head, but welp.

Cone chortled. “I don’t think so.”

Suika blushed and turned back to her phone, texting her mom back. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Cone heading to Mimori, who was now back upstairs, likely to hang out with Miharu a little bit more.

“Wait!” Suika suddenly called out.

Cone turned around, eyes wide and innocent-looking.

“Yeah?”

“Who’s the lucky girl exactly?”

Cone grinned again. “No one.”

And with that, he continued up the stairs, a noticeable spring in his step.

Yep, it was evident now. She was falling in love with Cone, Nick slowly becoming an afterthought in her mind.

However… Was she falling prey to what she said about Mimori, or was this crush going to be actual love?

Only time would tell.