Eri Kaname, the Girl Who Didn’t Like Bad News

The alarm tone I set for my phone for the school week went off. The Westminster chime sounded off relentlessly for a minute before I gathered the energy to tap the alarm alert off.

That tone still sent a jolt of anxiety through my system, even when it played during an early Saturday morning. Part of my early-morning consciousness told me that I was running late for school, which I guess was sort of the point of choosing that tone.

I read the time on my phone to see if I chose the correct time to wake up.

Seven a.m..

Yup, I had the right time, alright.

I wanted to give myself as much of a buffer as possible for today.

"By the end of tomorrow's date, I'll be sure to show her what true love looks like."

Sure, I sounded cool and talked a big game, but I still didn't have a solid date idea yet.

I flashed a nervous quivering smile in private. I really love to make dumb decisions for the sake of friendship. Or I guess at this point, it could be construed as romantic intentions.

I absent-mindedly read over the handwriting neatly written in gel ink on the sheet of memo paper Fumiko gave me. The username read aloud still felt somewhat comical to me.

TheWhiteRavagerLives07 @ wahoo.com

Line addresses sometimes served as time capsules of a person's thoughts, feelings, and personality at the time of writing them. In Fumiko's case, she was apparently a huge nerd when it came to cult sentai series.

But it was no different from my love of basketball. So I guess I'm a sports nerd, then.

And yet it's been months since I've picked up a basketball.

I suddenly got a flash of inspiration before my mind wandered any further.

I typed her Line address and sent Fumiko a quick message.

I just got an idea for a date. Would you like to meet at the old café at 4 p.m.?

I set down the phone and took a quick breather as I flopped on the bed, physically deflating as I exhaled and the accumulated air left my body. But I was only allowed to rest for a cheap minute before I heard a jingle from the phone on the nightstand.

I grabbed the phone and clicked on the notification to read it.

Sounds great. I'll try to find something good to wear. I promise I won't be late~

I never thought that I'd be so happy to get a message like this from a friend. I think I might slowly be starting to get into this platonic romance.

But it was rather suspicious she had to specify she wouldn't be late.

Now all I had to do was to get ready and find Fumiko's gift on eDock.

I went downstairs after showering and getting dressed, just in time to whiff the baked croissant bread used in the breakfast sandwiches my mom became accustomed to making in the last week of the month. My dad's food was already in transit by the time I spotted the kitchen table. By the time I sat he already consumed one sandwich.

"Good morning, Kenta, you seem a little more chipper," my mother said behind the granite countertop, whistling the theme to an old tv show.

"Oh, is that so," I said, suddenly conscious of the muscles that unintentionally pulled themselves into a smile.

"What, you finally got a girlfriend again after all this time," my father asked, eyeing another croissant sandwich on the metal serving tray in the middle of the table.

"Well--I guess you could say that," I said.

I was unexpectedly met with excitement from both of them. They both leaned towards the table, like children at school ready for the latest gossip.

"Who is it? It's not that Eri girl again is it," my father asked.

"Oh no. I guess you could say I caught the eye of a popular girl in school."

"Popular, how," my mother asked with a curled brow and side-eye.

"She's just--heavily respected by the school staff and her underclassmen. Yeah, that's it."

"Oh, what's her name then," my mother asked.

"Fumiko Kotonoha," I said, suddenly regretting having this conversation.

My dad put me into a headlock and beamed down on me with a smile.

"You finally broke the single curse. I always knew you'd find your way back, Kenta," he said.

"What do you mean, dad?"

"Well, honey, it's just that we noticed that you've been rather distraught lately. A break up is hard enough, but after you quit the freshman varsity team, we got a bit concerned," she said.

After I wrestled free from my dad's vice-grip, I dusted myself off.

"Mom, dad, I appreciate the concern, but I'm alright now. I would've found a way back to the living one way or another, with or without a relationship. I know that break-up wasn't the end."

I flashed the most genuine smile I had in awhile. It's true, I let that relationship put me in a state of flux. Ironically, this platonic romance of mine with Fumiko put into perspective the things in my life I still had going for me. With or without a relationship, I was happy.

Well, in normal circumstances that's what I would say.

I still had Fumiko and her unique circumstances to think about.

***

For the rest of breakfast I browsed on my phone to see if I could find a very coveted piece of Super Sentai Ravagers merchandise. There was a rumor on an internet message board that said there was a limited print run of a prequel for the Ravagers light novel series. Apparently only 20,000 copies were printed, and supposedly some copies bought by a sentai aficionado would be made available pretty soon.

It'd probably be a long shot, but I wanted to see if I could find a copy for Fumiko.

"You've been glued to that phone for a while, son. Whatcha' looking at," my father asked.

"I'm trying to see if I can find a gift for Fumiko-san," I said.

"Oh, do you need some extra money?"

"Are you sure, dad?"

He took out several 5,000 yen bills from his wallet and plopped them down on the table without thinking twice. I could see a glint of smugness behind those kind eyes of his.

"Wait, I didn't say yes yet!"

"If it gets the date rolling, then take it."

I felt the weird sense that I was being rushed.

There it was. The auction started at a surprisingly modest 900 yen, barely retail price. I waited for a few people to make a bid on the light novel, both my parents eyeing me like vultures all the while. The price was now at 1,250 yen.

I put in a bid with a tap of my fingers.

A counter offer put the value of the light novel at 1,600 yen.

I had to close out this auction as soon as I could.

I entered 1,700 yen into the bidding window.

2,050 yen.

I put in one more somewhat outlandish offer, hoping it'd be enough. 2,600 yen.

A virtual banner dropped and a small amount of fanfare played on the page as it said 'congratulations' on my bid.

Huh. That felt somewhat anticlimactic.

I had 5,000 yen in single 1,000 yen bills. My part-time funds live to fight another day.

I noticed that my dad picked up two of the four 5,000 yen bills from the table.

"10,000 yen should be enough," my father said.

My dad also handed me the family card to pay for the light novel. I handed him 3,000 yen to pay him back, unfortunately not having access to exact change.

"I'm just going to the cafe, I shouldn't need this," I said, handing the bills back, but was warded away with his forceful hand.

"No, take it. You do have somewhere to be in a few hours, right?"

I smiled as I narrowed my eyes. Hmm, understandable I guess. I spent too much time inside as of late. Maybe this was his way of telling me to touch grass.

"I get it. Thank you dad."

I hugged both my parents before I left the house and left for the subway station about 15 minutes away.

I sat down on the metal bench next to an older graying man in a black wool jacket, who mostly kept to himself as he read his newspaper. I glanced at the time on my phone. 1:15 p.m.. I was making good time. Now I just had to wait 10 minutes for the bullet train.

But a problem arose that happened to me every time I had a small wait to weather through.

The wait before the bullet train was always the most paralyzing. I tried to enjoy the peace and quiet that a situation like that would sometimes bring, tried enjoying my status of being single, but before you can really enjoy being single, you have to unpack all the bile left from the previous relationship. And that peace that came from closure hadn't come to me yet.

Everything's all fun and smiles when it starts. You gush over how perfect you are for each other, how you liked each other's passion for their interests, and for a short time you show a lot of consideration for their feelings, but then the tough compromises have to be made.

As I lost myself in this obsessive cyclical thought space, I faded myself out of the stimulus of my outside surroundings, and briefly thought back to the final days I was with Eri Kaname.

***

I still thoroughly remembered Eri's confused visage. I remembered the long strawberry-blonde hair that she had tied hastily into a ponytail, the glasses she wore that day because she didn't have time to put in her contacts, and the subtle pout of her lip.

She never did take bad news well. It's probably even worse when you anticipate your body for the inevitable shock.

The two of us met at the old cafe that was a few blocks from school. She leaned in to the table and leveraged her arms in front of her to remain upright, as if she was prepared to hear the results of a job interview.

"Sorry If I was a little late, training went on a bit longer than expected. It's unlike you to ask for a date on a Friday. What's up Kenta," Eri asked, nodding off every so often.

“What about you, Eri? Are you alright?”

At this point, I became so desensitized to the lengths she went to put in the work to become an idol, that I actively waited for the moment she would knock out. The black circles under her lower eyelids made her really hard to look at right now. I probably shouldn’t beat around the bush with this for too long.

“I’m fine. I might have to buy a coffee later. Didn’t you say you needed to tell me something, Kenta. Well, what is it?”

"Eri. I love the time we spent together, but I can't leave Roppongi High to go with you to your next school," I said, exhaling in a poor attempt to maintain composure.

She adjusted the pouting in her lip and blinked a few times. In stark contrast to her, I tried to steel my resolve and weather the uncomfortable silence that would come with conversations like these. My heartbeat remained steady, well, until I heard her response.

"No."

"No?"

"We talked about this earlier, Kenta. The last time we spoke, you said you'd think long and hard about coming with me to my new school, because you wanted to support me any way you could. You did say that, right?"

"I did say that, yes. I still love that you're passionate enough to pursue your dream of becoming an idol and voice actor, but I have a passion of my own that I don't want to let go of. Perhaps we can make a long distance relationship w--"

"No, Kenta! That's not enough! I need you there to--help my anxiety."

"And I need you here to motivate me to become a better basketball player. I'm sorry, Eri. I can't go with you. All my teammates and friends are here. It's a lot to let go of."

“Unfortunately, unlike you, Kenta, I don’t have anything else keeping me here.”

“What about Hayato, and the others?”

“Those are your friends Kenta, not mine,” Eri said, shaking her head indignantly.

“Hmm, well I guess this is goodbye then,” I said.

I briefly reached in with my arms to hug her, but then opted against it at the last instant. I didn’t want to see her leave, but I also didn’t want to make it harder for her to go.

“Goodbye, Kenta. Do whatever you want,” she said with a click of her tongue.

Her last response was hushed compared to the rest of our conversation, but she made up for it with her loud slam to the table and the way she aggressively saddled her bag over her shoulder.

The quietest part of the ordeal was when I heard the ringing of the bell tied to the door, when she walked out of my life for the final time.

In that moment, I prioritized my own happiness and independence over my love with Eri. I was uncompromising, unwilling to bend for the sake of the relationship. Looking back, I'd still make the same decision, but I regretted everything that came after.

***

I was shaken by a stray hand from nowhere.

When I came to my senses, I noticed that the older man in the black wool sweater had a firm hand on my shoulder, his rolled up newspaper in the other.

"The bullet train is here," he said, clearing his throat after the sentence.

"Oh, thanks. I must've zoned out."

"Young man, whatever you're worried about, I'm sure it doesn't demand this level of seriousness. Just relax. You're a youth still in the prime of your life."

"Right. Thank you," I said, nodding my head.

He was right. Things were different this time. Fumiko would never force me to do anything against my will. Well, as long as it wasn't writing related.