Getting Over Differences - Part 1

"Finally! You’re 10 minutes late!" Koichi yells as he runs towards me.

"We’re supposed to go at 8:30, right? It’s only 8:17. We’re not late," Nozomi whispers from behind me.

"Koichi has always been like that. Don’t mind him."

"So he’s Koichi, the one who helped us win *Shori," Nozomi whispers until Koichi reaches us.

"You brought two bags for one night? What’s up with —"

Koichi halts when he realizes that the bags aren’t all mine and I have someone with me. I think I forgot to tell them that I was bringing Nozomi. It’s not a big deal anyway.

"Oi. Nozomi, who is this cute girl behind you?"

Nozomi tilts her head and smiles at Koichi.

"My name is Nozomi Inohara. Nice to meet you. I’m —"

"She’s my girlfriend," I interrupt.

"What?" he asks in surprise.

He’ll endlessly bother me later, for sure.

I sigh, and then Ryu comes approaching us.

"Hey! So you brought her," he says.

"She wants to see you."

Nozomi hits my back and looks at me sharply. Her reaction makes my lips curve up. Although it’s kind of strange how I went from being jealous of Ryu because she wanted to see him to teasing her. In fact, I’ve been teasing her for days now. I need to be careful not to actually make her angry.

Koichi turns to Ryu in confusion and asks, "Wait, you know her?"

"She’s the girl who wanted the sheep plushie. I met her when I visited Nozomu again. This man," Ryu points at me. "He planned to never tell us."

Koichi turns to me, looking disappointed.

"I thought we’re friends. I can’t believe this. This is unacceptable."

"Because you guys are always nosy." I grab our bags, grab Nozomi’s hand, then walk forward.

"You’re a bit of a tsundere sometimes," Nozomi says teasingly.

"You have no idea how nosy they are."

The moment we reach the van we rented, Takuma goes from waving joyfully to looking intrigued when he notices Nozomi.

"Who might this cute girl be?" Takuma asks.

"Nozomu’s secret girlfriend. Emphasis on secret," Koichi says as he and Ryu go inside the van.

He’s really upset about this?

If Koichi looks like I betrayed him, Takuma's face brightens with a wide grin.

"Nozomi Inohara. Nice to meet you."

"You can call me Takuma. Nice to meet you, Nozomi," Takuma extends his hand for a handshake. 

Meanwhile, I go to the back of the van to load our bags. I can hear their conversation from where I am.

"Wait, how do you write your name?" Takuma asks.

Nozomi answers, "It’s the kanji for hope (望)."

"What a coincidence! It’s the same as Nozomu. I expected it to be a little different, but it’s exactly the same. Oi! Nozomu! I think you found your destiny."

Hearing him say it out loud is embarrassing, and I expect these men to tease me all through this vacation. I’m slightly regretting showing up.

I pretend that I hear nothing and go inside the van. I can see that annoying smirk on Takuma's face from the rearview mirror. He’s in the driver’s seat, and Ryu is seated beside him. Nozomi and I are seated behind them, and Koichi decides to sit on the backseat.

"Where’s Sho?" I ask while fixing my seatbelt.

"He went to buy some snacks at the convenience store. You know he can’t go on a trip without a supply of snacks," Ryu responds.

"I see."

When I turn to Nozomi, she seems to be having trouble with her seatbelt, so I help her out.

"Sorry for the wait!" Sho announces his arrival. He carries two bags of nothing but snacks.

"Nozomu is already here with her girlfriend," Takuma says.

Sho enters the backseat, and a girl follows him. She has short black hair and wears glasses. When Nozomi turns to her, I notice how her eyes widen, as if she knows Nozomi. However, Nozomi only smiles and says,

"Nice to meet you. My name is Nozomi."

"Hi. I’m Yumi." Then she looks down.

"Yumi is quite shy," Sho adds.

"You met at a mixer, though," I say out of curiosity.

"Talking to her wasn’t easy. It took some time before she opened up to me. Anyway," she turns to Nozomi. "I’m Sho. Nice to meet you, Nozomi."

"We’re all here now," Takuma says, then turns on the van’s ignition and maneuvers out of the parking lot.

As we go on our way to the beach, Sho starts passing various snacks to everyone. The moment he passes the *Koala March to me, I can instantly feel Nozomi's gaze. I slowly look at her, and she says,

"Can we share?"

"You can have it."

"Really? Thank you." She takes it and happily opens it. Koichi leans forward and whispers in my ear,

"You bastard. How did you get a cute girlfriend like this? I thought you liked mature older women. This girl is like a cute kitten and nothing like your type."

Then he turns to Nozomi and asks, 

"How old are you, Nozomi?"

"I just turned 21 this year. Why?" Then she puts a piece of Koala March cookies in her mouth and starts chewing.

"You’re 2 years younger than Nozomu?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Nozomi puts another piece in her mouth.

She looks more like a squirrel than a kitten.

"You’re younger than all of Nozomu’s ex-girlfriends. He’s not into younger girls," Sho utters while munching on an onigiri.

"Is that so?" Nozomi looks at me with an expression that I can’t read. She looks at me while chewing as well. I don’t even know if she really cares about what she just discovered about me.

I have a feeling she doesn’t care, though. She seems too focused on eating.

"What do you like about Nozomu?" Koichi asks Nozomi.

"Why do you have to ask her?" I protest. Koichi is seriously not going to give me a break.

"You don’t have to answer him," I add, but Nozomi seems to be thinking about an answer already.

"How about we change the question? Excluding Nozomu and Sho, who would you have a crush on between me, Takuma, and Ryu?"

"We’re not in a mixer right now."

"Don’t be insecure, and let her answer."

"I’m not insecure. Why am I the only one being picked on here? Sho also brought his girlfriend."

"You have a different history. Anyway, Nozomi, what’s your answer?"

Nozomi looks at me as if she’s hesitating, so I sigh.

"Whatever. I feel like I know your answer."

"What do you mean?" Nozomi frowns.

"It’s Ryu, right?"

"Oh. Is it true?" Koichi asks with so much interest. In fact, he looks too invested in this topic.

"I wouldn’t say it’s a crush though. It’s more like I’m curious. He looks exactly how I envision a person with the name Ryu would look like."

Everyone goes silent, seemingly processing what Nozomi just said.

"I mean, if you hear a name, you kind of have an image of what the person would look like, right? When I hear Ryu, I think of a tall but slim man with long hair in a ponytail. Ryu looks exactly like that. Isn’t it fascinating?" she explains almost passionately.

"Don’t tell me you’ve been thinking about this?" I ask.

"When I realized it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it," she responds with a small smile.

"Now that I think about it, she’s right." Sho says.

"Yeah, I think she has a point. What a strange phenomenon?" Koichi adds.

"Then, what do you envision when you hear of the name Nozomu?" Ryu joins in the conversation.

Everyone goes silent as Nozomi tilts her head to think. I’m scared of what she’s about to say.

"When I hear the name Nozomu, I envision someone tall… and handsome, like that idol from Osaka."

"Idol? From Osaka?" Koichi asks as all of us seem to have lost words for Nozomi’s answer.

"He’s in a famous Johnny’s group."

We all turn to Yumi as she finally joins in the conversation.

"You know him?" Sho asks Yumi.

She nods and says, "I only know him because I have a friend who’s a Johnny’s otaku."

We all turn to Nozomi, but she waves her hands and shakes her head.

"I am not an idol otaku. I swear. I only know him because I saw him in a magazine." The way she denies it is suspicious, but she suddenly exclaims,

"Oh! Nozomu! You look exactly how I envisioned someone with the name Nozomu. You’re actually tall and handsome, and more because you’re also nice and sweet. Isn’t that fascinating?"

She says it excitedly and cheerfully. It feels like she forgot for a second that there were other people around. Everyone bursts out laughing, and I can see Yumi looking away to hide whatever expression she is making.

"What’s funny about it?" Nozomi asks in confusion.

Meanwhile, I cover my face with one hand out of embarrassment. I wouldn’t mind if it was just the two of us, but everyone heard it, and they wouldn’t let me live it down for sure. This moment will go down in history and will never be forgotten.

I’m kind of happy about it though. I don’t think I’ve ever been complimented that way by anyone.

***

Author's Note:

*Shori - winning the sheep plushie is considered a little victory for Nozomi hence the name Shori. It means victory in Japanese ( 勝利) 

*Koala March - a Japanese bite-sized cookie with chocolate filling made by the company Lotte. It's definitely known in Japan and other Asian countries but I'm not sure in Western countries so I added it here.

*Johnny's / Johnny's Otaku - Johnny's and Associates ( J &A) is one of the biggest and most influential male idol agency in Japan. Dedicated fans of the agency are sometimes referred as Johnny's Otaku or Johnny Wota.

*The idol that Nozomi is referring to is name Kotaki Nozomu from the Kansai group called Johnny's West.