March 2: An unexpected encounter

The next day, I forgot my lunch box at home, leaving me with no choice but to rely on the school cafeteria. Surprisingly, Hayato joined me, even though he had brought his own food. Standing in line next to him, I felt the need to apologize, but before I could utter a word, Hayato spoke up: “You know, I thought a lot about what you told me yesterday”

As he was saying that I immediately tried to let him know that I was sorry: “About that, I shouldn’t have sai...”

But Hayato cut me off before I could finish: “You may have not realized that but, yesterday you said the right thing at the right time, you do not have to feel sorry.”

His response left me genuinely surprised

“Wait what?”

“I was getting all gloomy because my disease basically ruined all my dreams of becoming a professional basketball player, but you indirectly reminded me that I had to think about the future, you know…, move one, otherwise I would have ended up hurting myself and all the people around me.”

Now I was even more surprised by how he was able to extract positivity from almost everything.

“Well, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound too bad.”

“I know right! As a matter of fact, I was actually thinking about speaking with Miss. Kamuro about the career plan to see if she can give me some tips. Would you mind accompanying me to her office after school? It would be great to have someone I can count on.”

“Yeah, sure that’s the minimum I can do for you.”

Hayato's face beamed with excitement: "Awesome! Now let's grab some food."

After classes ended, we headed to Miss Kamuro’s office. She is a remarkable homeroom teacher, always exuding joy from her sparkling green eyes. Whenever she enters the class, you immediately notice her sparkling green eyes always full of joy, but do not let that look fool you, she can also be harsh.

She is our homeroom teacher, and she has a special place in our hearts. Her sparkling green eyes always radiated joy, but she could also be strict when necessary. She seemed to know us better than our own parents, and her love for her job was evident. I often wondered how she ended up as a homeroom teacher. Did she write it in her own career plan when she was in high school? But those thoughts drifted away as we arrived at Miss Kamuro's office.

Hayato knocked on the door, and we heard papers being shuffled before a voice called out: "Coming!"

Miss Kamuro opened the door and greeted us by saying:” Kamizaki and Narukami, what brings you here? I was actually going through the essays I had you write last week."

After taking a deep breath, Hayato explained to Miss Kamuro that he wanted to discuss his career plan and was seeking her advice, and apparently, because personal matters must be discussed one on one, I ended up waiting in the hallway with no chair to sit on. My "computer guy body" couldn't endure such a difficult task for long.

As I was giving up and starting to slowly sit on the floor, a girl I did not see coming timidly asked me: “Is Miss. Kamuro busy right now?”

Quickly composing myself, I pretended to be stretching and replied: “Yes.”

“I see… I guess I’ll be waiting here too if you don’t mind” she said.

To be honest I would have gladly stood up and said, “Yes I do mind”, as I knew that standing next to each other would lead to an awkward silence. But the only thing that came out of my mouth was yet another single word: “Sure.”

And as I predicted the awkward silence began. I leaned with my back against the wall and the girl did the same but, in the meantime, she started reading a book. While pretending to gaze at the ceiling I tried to discreetly have a better look at the girl without looking too creepy.

The first thing that caught my attention was her long purple and silky hair gently resting on her shoulders. I couldn't see much of her face since it was buried in the book, but I noticed she wore glasses. Given how close her eyes were to the pages, it wasn't surprising that she needed them. Then something in the back of my mind awaked. I felt like I had seen this girl somewhere before, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly when or where.

Perhaps sensing my gaze, she raised her head, and I hastily averted my eyes to a random spot on the ceiling. She spoke up, breaking the silence: "You're Kamizaki, right?"

Well, if she knew my name, I probably knew her too, but it would be great to actually remember her.

“Yeah, that’s me. How did you…” I began to ask, but she interrupted me.

“It just happens that we are in the same class.”

Oh, come on! Is that even possible to mess up every single conversation before it’s even started? Because it seems like I am a champion in doing so. But wait, seriously now, I do not recall anyone in my class who looks like her Did she transfer recently, and I didn't notice? Is it possible that I've been spacing out so much lately that I didn't even notice a new student in my own class? Meanwhile, I stood beside her with a mixture of embarrassment, doubt, curiosity, and panic etched on my face.

“Maybe you are not used to seeing me with this hairstyle, I usually wear a messy bun, and also, I only use glasses when I read; don’t worry, I’m used to people not recognizing me at first sight.”

Gears started turning in my brain desperately trying to figure out where she was sitting in class and at least remember her name. I got it! Last row, her name is…

She anticipated me: “Sonoda Rihoko, glad to finally have a chance to talk to you”

To my defense, I was close, just needed a couple more seconds for the name to come out of my mouth.

“Oh, that’s right the girl sitting in the last row, sorry for not recognizing you, I must be pretty tired.”

I know it’s an excuse, but I am actually tired of standing here.

“Don’t worry about that, as I said I’m used to that.”

Now that I'm in this situation, I should at least try to keep the conversation going. Otherwise, this time the silence will be even more awkward, and I'm sick of embarrassing situations.

“So, you are looking for Miss. Kamuro?”

Of course, she is, idiot! Why the hell else should she be standing there for? She even asked if Miss. Kamuro was busy! Great, now not only I talk to myself, but I also insult myself.

“Yes, I was looking for advice for my career plan, it’s embarrassing but I am yet to decide what to do.”

I could have expected that, but I think I can manage a decent conversation on this topic.

“My friend who’s in Miss. Kamuro’s office right now has your same problem, there is nothing embarrassing about it.”

“Thanks for saying that but I still think that at our age we should at least have a clear vision of what we want our future to be like, and not just a bunch of silly dreams.”

For being a girl that almost passes unnoticed in class she sure is talking quite a lot.

“I guess that as teenagers it’s pretty normal to have silly dreams as you say, but I feel like people are taking this paper too seriously, it’s not going to determine your future, it’s just to make the teacher happy.”

“I know but it should also ring a bell in our brains as a reminder that our high school days are coming to an end, and we should look more into the future.”

She sure does have a point, but I’m sure she will realize how easy it will be to fill that paper.

“Sorry if I have been bothering you with my problems, I shouldn’t have been so strict with my opinions.”

“You don’t have to apologize; you have a fair point.”

Now I started noticing that her face was getting red, and she brought her book really close to her face as a way to hide her expression and timidly asks: “So did… did you considered it… you know… the literary club?”

Now I remember! I saw her in this “form” a couple of weeks ago outside the school passing out flyers advertising the literary club. She caught my attention because it was a weird time of the year to be recruiting people for a club, considering that we are going on summer break in a month. I got a flyer and there were three suggested books to read during summer break and an invitation to a discussion about the books in the literary club classroom the next year.

“Honestly, you had a really cool idea, I’m still deciding which book to try. I’ll let you know when I start one.”

I would not have anything better to do during summer brake anyways so, why not give it a try, she has been nice to me so I guess I can return the favor. But do not overthink it, I do not want to join any club, it’s just too nice to get home earlier than most other students.

Rihoko finally decided to let her face be seen again and revealed a sweet smile.

“Thanks, that means a lot to me.”

In the meantime, I heard some noise inside the office and said to Rihoko: “I think they are almost done; you can go in next. I am just here waiting for my friend.”

As predicted, shortly after the door opened and both Hayato and Miss. Kamuro came out. Miss. Kamuro looks at me and asks: “Kamizaki are you here to fill me in with some new philosophical theory of yours? You know I’m always ready to listen, you do not need to only use my essays as a form of expression.”

She often complimented me for my essays where I just wrote what I had in mind, and I guess I usually tended to be a bit philosophical.

“Sorry to let you down Miss. Kamuro but I think I will stick to using my pen for a bit longer.”

“You know what they say: a pen can hurt much more than a sword, keep it up Kamizaki!”

After that she tilts her head to have a look behind me.

“And what do we have here, president of the literary club Sonoda Rihoko, you know, you and Satoshi would be a nice pair, a reader and a writer, it sounds interesting.”

Rihoko’s book once again turned into a shield to protect her red face, and shortly after she commented: “Miss. Kamuro please stop making these jokes, it’ embarrassing. I just came here to discuss my career plans.”

“In that case, please follow me inside, see you later to both of you Narukami and Kamizaki.”

As we were heading for the school exit, I was a bit curious and asked Hayato: “So how did it go?”

“I explained my issue, and, in summary, Miss. Kamuro said that, for now, I should try to not think about what happened too much and instead have some fun to clear all my ideas, and only after that I should start thinking about the paper.”

“It makes sense, do you want to head to the arcade and play some games?”

Thant’s the first thing that came to my mind, I like to go to the arcade to play instead of playing on my computer at home whenever I want to release any kind of bad feelings.

“That’s why we are friends, I was thinking the same thing! Let’s go!”