Dreams

“I heard you were badmouthing me behind my back.” Ichinose stepped up to Yuta with her hands on her hips. “What makes you think you can get away with that?”

Yuta glanced at the two girls behind her, who had their arms crossed and were glaring at him. He returned his gaze to Ichinose. “Is that what your friends told you? I was just telling them I don’t allow bullying, that’s all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to study.” He turned around but Ichinose put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

She whispered in his ear. “You’re not getting away that easily…”

He sighed and turned to Ichinose. “If you didn’t bully Ozaki, I wouldn’t have said anything.” Even though they were friends now, Yuta didn’t want to use Shiori’s given name when talking to her bullies. It would only add fuel to the fire.

“I’ll allow your insolence to slide... if you help the student council prepare for the culture festival.”

Yuta raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“You heard me. Normally I wouldn’t ask for something like this, but…” Ichinose sighed. “Kenji has a lot on his plate right now, and I don’t want him burning himself out…” She played with her hair, as if her boyfriend had just appeared.

The sudden shift in personality confused Yuta. He was certain she was going to harass him in some way, but it seems she was only looking for someone to help the student council president.

Her gaze hardened. “That’s why you’re going to help him!”

“I really don’t have the time…”

“Nonsense! You have more time than anyone in the school! You don’t do anything other than study!”

“But that’s why I don’t have time…”

Ichinose pouted. “You don’t have to study all day every day.”

“Actually, I do. If I don’t, I won’t get a perfect score on the exams.”

She narrowed her eyes. “If you’re not willing to help, then I won’t forgive you.”

Yuta shrugged. “I don’t really care whether you forgive me or not. Especially since I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place.”

“Fine. You’ll regret not taking me up on my offer.” She stepped back to her friends. “I’ll be waiting for you to come crawling back to accept it.” She spun around with her two friends and marched away.

“I wonder what the student council president would think if he saw how his girlfriend behaved away from him…” He shrugged and continued on his way. ‘Still, whatever she has planned for me won’t be pleasant. I only hope she’ll leave Shiori out of it.’

Once Yuta arrived home, he immediately traveled to his room and sat down to study for the rest of the day.

…

The following Monday, Yuta walked to school early to study. He opened his locker to retrieve his school shoes.

Attached to the inside of his locker door was a note. He peeled the tape off and read the note.

You should have taken the offer. Now you and that girl you are always with will suffer the consequences.

“So she is going to target Shiori…” He crumpled the note. ‘How did she even get into my locker?’ After changing his shoes, he closed the locker. ‘I’ll have to keep a closer eye on Shiori so I can protect her. I could care less what Ichinose does to me, but Shiori is sensitive.’

During third period, Yuta jogged around the track with the rest of his class. Hitomura was absent, so there was no one to distract him from his thoughts. He spotted Shiori sitting in the shade underneath a tree and stepped off the track.

Shiori looked up from the manga she was reading. Her face lit up when she saw Yuta, and she pat the grass next to her.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat next to her. “Do you sit out during P.E. because you have to, or because you want to?”

“I’m allowed to participate… if I’m careful…”

The manga in her lap caught his attention. “What manga is that?”

She closed it and showed him the cover. “I’m rereading it…”

Shining Star. Yuta remembered seeing it at the library a few years back, but he didn’t know much about it. “What’s it about?”

“An idol falls in love… with the man that helped make her dreams come true.” She held the book to her chest and closed her eyes, thinking back to the first time she read it. “It used to be my favorite…”

“It used to be, huh? Why isn’t it your favorite now?”

Shiori opened her eyes. “It made me want to be an idol…” She stared at the book sorrowfully. “But now I can’t be one…”

Yuta stared at her. “You definitely have the face of an idol.”

Shiori blushed and shifted her head away from Yuta. “D-Do you really think so?”

“Everyone in class calls you cute. Though, you are definitely too shy for the stage.”

“I used to be outgoing, believe it or not…”

“But then the accident happened, right?”

Shiori nodded. “My dad was taking me to dance lessons when it happened…” Her eyes teared up. “The accident wouldn’t have happened… if I didn’t want to become an idol…”

“Don’t blame yourself. That will only make things worse. Do you still want to be an idol?”

She shook her head. “I gave up that dream a while ago… I know I can’t make it when I can’t even talk to people normally…”

Yuta sat back on the grass. “I don’t think you should give up on your dreams. You could be an idol that only appears online. You can make your own songs and dance to them. It’s much easier singing in front of a camera than in front of an audience of thousands, right?”

“I suppose… What about you, Y-Yuta? Do you have any dreams?” She looked into his eyes, waiting for his answer.

“I want to be a doctor.”

“A doctor?”

“Yes. That’s why I study so much. The medical field is strict. If I want to make it, I have to prove myself.”

“I think you’d make a good doctor…”

“You think so?” He thought about the note from earlier. “Shiori, how is your day going? Has anything important happened?”