Failed Plan

July 9th, 2020

On another ordinary day in Osaka, something not so ordinary happened. In the schoolyard was the same old group, waiting for the bell to let them know it was time to go back to class. Strangely, this time, there seemed to be an intruder in the group that usually consisted of only 4 boys, while one thought constantly jumped from head to head.

"This doesn't make sense..."

While Lukas, Hajime and I stood silently in place waiting for someone to speak up, Haruka seemed to be relaxed...having introduced Kimiko to the rest of the group.

"Did he forget the rules?"

"Maybe he's just showing off."

The wind shook the trees from side to side and silence spread in the room, falling on the sensitive ears of those who didn't speak. Haruka was writing something on his small notepad and Kimiko was just enthusiastically eating her cereal bar, but as for the remaining three, someone urgently needed to change the mood of the situation, and no one would be better than the genius Lukas Leopold.

"So...how's the weather?"

The enigmatic question pulled the interest of approximately no one.

Closing his notepad and sighing with relief, it was Haruka's turn to finally start a conversation.

"So, Naoki, how's Mayumi?"

And so the vibe of the group went from lifeless to intense. I, on the other hand, was surprised, not expecting a question of this nature, especially coming from Haruka, who was not supposed to know anything about yesterday.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Lukas said that you guys went home together yesterday, right?"

Hearing these words, I immediately looked at Lukas with a death stare that made him pretend he hadn't even heard what we were talking about as he stared at the horizon, sweating. Following this, a more delicate voice made itself heard in the conversation.

"That's so cute!" said Kimiko.

As the conversation started to take more sensitive directions, Hajime jumped in with his own questions:

"Did something special happen, Naoki?"

My brain quickly brought back flashbacks of when my finger and Mayumi's got involved and the promise we made, but this wasn't something I was looking to open up about.

"No, nothing much. We just said our goodbyes and each went our separate ways."

Lukas facepalmed, he couldn't believe I had destroyed such an opportunity.

"It's no use, you must be cursed by your own luck. You had a once-in-a-lifetime chance and you blew it like it was nothing, you really are bad at this."

I didn't feel like feeding unnecessary conversations, but I knew perfectly well what I wanted to say since I found something strange.

"So why don't you have a girlfriend too, Lukas?"

Lukas was surprised, and maybe even embarrassed, while the rest of the group stared silently at him waiting for an answer.

"Well, there's no point in explaining this sort of thing to children as young and naïve as yourselves..."

Lukas' genius explanation hadn't worked with the rest of the group.

"You're barely a year older than us," I said.

"And a year is a long time, Naoki, trust me."

"Excuses..." thought everyone but Haruka and Kimiko who were whispering in each other's ear.

After listening to Kimiko, Haruka cleared his throat, bringing the group’s attention to himself, and proclaimed the new idea that had come to his mind, just now.

"Guys, I've got a great idea. We should celebrate the new relationship formed between Naoki and Mayumi!"

"Yup, we should!" supported Kimiko.

I didn't approve of the idea, just thinking about something so ridiculous made me blush with embarrassment. My classmates, on the other hand, thought differently.

"That sounds good to me." said Hajime.

"And do you know how we're going to do that?" continued Haruka.

"Hmm-Mm..." Lukas responded, "With a party!"

"It can be at my place." said Hajime.

"Perfect, I'll bring the drinks." said Kimiko.

"I'll bring the chips." said Haruka.

"I'll bring myself." said Lukas.

"And should I-"

"You, Naoki," Hajime was telling me, "will bring Mayumi."

I just sank into another pool of anxiety. Things were barely looking brighter for me after the effort I had put in the day before and here, in front of me, was my group of friends telling me to ask Mayumi to introduce her to a bunch of strange people she didn't know. Perhaps I was, in fact, cursed by my own bad luck.

"I don't know if-"

"Then it's settled, guys, this Saturday morning we'll meet at my place."

"Wait, no-" I was trying my best to stop this disaster from continuing to move forward.

"Kimiko and I are going to walk around the school a few times before the bell rings. Then I'll see you in class."

"Bye guys, it was nice meeting you" Kimiko was saying, already walking away.

"Okay, so I'm going to practice some chess before we go to class." stated Hajime.

"Yeah, and I'll practice with him." said Lukas, knowing full well that he wasn't invited to such a thing.

"So...what about me?"

I had just been abandoned by the rest of the group, leaving the possibility of silence to keep my loneliness company as my only option. I still had plenty of time to think about how I would be able to do what had been semi-arranged by the group, but the more time passed, the more nervous I became and the further away I felt the right answer was.

For the rest of the break, I did not come to any conclusion.

In the penultimate class, I came to no conclusion.

And in the last class...I didn't come to any conclusion either.

"What am I going to do?" I thought, as the bell already warned that it was time to go home.

The scenery was quite familiar to me, the sun was starting to hide on the horizon, the students were all leaving the school and friends were saying goodbye to me. And outside the school, still by the gate, was Mayumi standing.

"Oh...did she wait for me again?"

Apart from being embarrassed, I was also excited at the thought of someone waiting for me not once but twice, especially someone I “didn't like that way”. Since I had previously buried myself in various ways by my lack of confidence, I figured that this time I would have to be the one to initiate conversation. So I pulled my chest out, cleared my throat, prepared to speak in a deeper voice, and approached Mayumi.

"Hey, Mayumi, do you need some company home?"

A cold but direct approach seemed to be the right one, at least for me.

"Oh, Naoki, actually, no..."

My heart broke a little bit.

"...I already have someone coming to pick me up..."

And it broke even more.

"...but thank you!"

And as she delivered these words accompanied by a sweet and sincere smile, I had my soul officially out of my body while a big metaphorical hammer of rejection hit me in the head to make sure I would never forget this humiliation. Visually disturbed, even Mayumi was concerned for my well being.

"Naoki, are you alright?"

And I, unable to say a word anymore, just took out my cell phone from my pocket and showed it to Mayumi.

"Ahm, a cell phone?" asked Mayumi, confused by what I was doing.

I just pointed at the cell phone while from the depths of my remaining energy reserves I drew enough strength to mumble the only words I could.

"Number...cell phone...please?"

And as Mayumi did the math to figure out what was wanted, she gladly volunteered to donate her cell phone number to the needy individual in front of her.

"There you go!"

Seeing this, it felt like my energy bar was gaining extra points in real time. And along with my energy, extra confidence points were also starting to spring out of thin air.

"So, Mayumi, ahm- do you wanna hang out Saturday?"

A wave of intensity hit Mayumi, her big brown eyes shined as she looked at me and her mouth opened slightly with the relative increase in her breathing rate.

"You mean, like, just the two of us?"

And I, a little more excited and less thoughtful than usual, replied in a heartbeat, abandoning everything that had been talked about this morning.

"Yes, just the two of us."

As the two of us just kept looking at each other, I would just lose myself in Mayumi's beauty, forgetting that I would have to somehow make up for this lie.