The Aftermath of a High

Haru yawned again as the bell rang for the end of classes. This was becoming a trend.

How the hell did I end up singing for four hours?

By the time he returned home, it was well past his normal bedtime. It was already past 8 PM by the end of the karaoke marathon. His stomach had long started protesting, and then, a certain someone insisted on grabbing a bite with him.

Admittedly, he didn’t mind Kasumi’s company. If anything, she gave off a similar vibe as when he hung out with Koichi or Daichi. Maybe, he had been a bit too freakish due to the similarities with Grace making him forget about his image.

Frustration and competition had led him to dip into his archive of weeb lyrics to scare her off, but Kasumi simply laughed along and teased him for dancing like some girly idol. At some point, she even joined in. Not all anisongs completely went over her head. And before Haru knew it, they were having a dance off in the karaoke room.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gyrated against the mic stand… not to mention, all the winks and twirls. The MoJo posing… oh god, stop remembering the details!

Living in the moment had its harsh aftermath. Especially when Haru had the tendency to go all out when he was fired up.

What the hell was I on? High on caffeine. Dopamine coursing through the veins. Ugh, I’m a freak. She’s a freak. We’re all freakiest of freaks!

During their meal of Woss Burger, Kasumi kept trying to stifle her giggles. Every time she looked at him, she turned away, covering her mouth. The mere memory of his embarrassing self was a powerful stimulus. He had been the doofus of the evening, the jester in her court.

And now, he just wanted it all to be a dream. One that he could easily disconnect from.

Haru sluggishly got up from his seat, only to be met with a modest chest at eye level.

“Eh?”

Light on his feet and crossing his arms, it took only an instant for his battle instincts to kick in. He stared in surprised at Kasumi, who slipped into a blank stare for a moment. Beads of cold sweat rolled down Haru’s back at his old timey fighting pose.

Hokuto oh-shit-ken, why did I do that?! People are going to think I’m violent!

But then, Kasumi smiled and dropped into an amateurish stance of her own. She tilted her chin up subtly, a silent ‘your move’ to play along with Haru’s habits.

“I won’t be beat. I have rowdy younger sibling, after all!”

With that, Kasumi stepped forward and flung her wrist, tapping Haru lightly on the face like some declaration of a duel. Haru rubbed his stinging cheek, and then, his switch was flipped.

“Oh, so that’s how you’re going to play! I’ll have you know that I have mastered the 108 styles of destiny!”

“That sounds neat, but are you really going to hit a girl?”

“If I have to.”

Haru moved in and swung his fist playfully. The clenched hand chambered into a flick as it sailed towards her, aiming for her forehead. Quite deliberately, Haru moved in slow motion to give Kasumi time to dodge.

But she didn’t.

Her cheeks curled upward into a smug grin. And ever so slowly, she pulled out her phone in defense.

“AH GAH BOOGA WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!~~~”

Haru’s blood turned to ice. His eyes flicked to the screen, covered by a finger over the play button. The two second clip had given Kasumi an overwhelming advantage, almost to the point where he would drop to his knees and praise her as a goddess. He would even let her step on him, praise her toes with an arched back – all so her finger would come off the trigger.

Of course, he couldn’t simply do all that pre-emptively… first, he had to check for witnesses.

Shit, there’s two of them.

A pair of whispering chicks, eyes trained on him. The snippet of wailing had snagged the worst of the bunch. Every school had them – the gossipers. Their word was urban legend. Anything that caught their watchful eyes would invoke a flame that consumed the entirety of the school building until no ear had escaped the burn of their hot-off-the-press news.

Haru turned back stiffly, his lips pursed out a ‘please?’

“There’s this amusement park that I want to go to…,” Kasumi said with playfully coy lips.

She had planned to ask him since the beginning. Fished for the perfect way to guilt trip him into it. But then again, she had bait that was undeniably too hard to pass on. Haru’s defeat had been determined before the game even started.

“Fine. I guess you want to go tomorrow since it’s the weekend?”

“Read my mind.”

“Not as well as you did.”

Tomorrow was Saturday. He had plans to meet up with Koichi’s band again, but that wasn’t until the evening. They had a gig at a live house, so he thought to slip in and pick the minds of BUST regarding Grace’s song. That suggestion had come from Kasumi, another thing to owe her on. It seemed like he was taking quite a few ‘Ls’ with her as company.

Haru quickly grabbed Kasumi’s hand and gave it a tug. They made a break for the door before the gossip pair could uncover too much dirt. They fortunately turned away; a ‘perceived couple’ wasn’t nearly juicy enough as someone making a damned fool of himself.

After they reached the open air of the courtyard, Haru suddenly twirled Kasumi around, smoothly reaching in to snatch her phone with his ballroom skills. He turned the volume down before playing his death metal serenade once again to confirm.

Somehow, he had been too into it to notice that Kasumi had recorded the whole embarrassing episode. And he didn’t need a reminder of just how much of an idiot he had turned into, much less blackmail to be used on him.

“I’m deleting this. As well as anything else you recorded yesterday.”

“Aww, you’re no fun. Slipping out on our date like that.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” Haru paused just before he hit the ‘delete’ button. He played it again, noticing something. “Wait, where’s your voice in this? You were rocking out just as hard as I was.”

“I filtered out the high-pitched notes.” Kasumi did a V-sign over her right eye with pride.

With a sigh, Haru slammed the delete key, erasing his lapse into madness.

“Any others?”

“Nope. Feel free to check.”

A quick skim of her recordings didn’t yield anything else with him. Only selfies with unfamiliar people, likely her family and friends. He handed her phone back.

“And I never said that I wouldn’t go with you. It’s my fault for being tricked anyways,” Haru added with a dismissive wave.

“Really?”

“Do I look like a liar? The very least I can do is go along with the whims of a friend.”

Haru felt a chill as a sudden silence settled in. He turned back to see Kasumi looking at the ground.

“A friend… I see….” She nodded as if testing out those words. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, Haru!”

With that, she raced off, leaving behind a confused Haru. He scratched his head, shrugged, and headed home.

I didn’t say anything weird, did I? Did… I?