Fake

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 1: Fake

When someone has zero expectations, whether it be for an event, occupation, or anything else, the mindset of “zero expectations” is an expectation in of itself. So while someone can claim to have none, they still expect nothing to come out of an occurrence. The unexpected can surprise everyone and anyone despite their expectations, and for someone who claims to have none, this is even more true.

The “welcoming contraption” went off once again and Mina turned to see a fairly slender boy with brown hair now covered in confetti and glitter.

“Kazuto!” she yelled to the boy, standing up and raising her hand to wave him over.

Jin’s eyes didn’t leave the girl's face even after the “welcoming contraption” went off. The girl was beautiful, seemingly open and friendly, but something else kept Jin’s attention on her. Something about the way she talked, acted, and carried herself gave him a strange sense of familiarity. As a matter of fact, he knew it all too well.

“Mina Yuriko…” Jin thought to himself.

Jin was sitting in the back corner of the classroom at his junior high, eating alone. Suddenly, Vernon burst through the door of the classroom and sprinted over to him.

“Hey hey, did you get to see the new transfer student yet?!” Vernon was bobbing up and down on his desk, clearly excited about the new student.

“No, why–”

“Right. Course you haven’t, you hardly ever come out to the drama room or talk to anyone outside of me.” Vernon cut him off.

Jin gave him a blank stare.

“Ok so get this.” Vernon’s bobbing stopped as he began to explain. “This new girl, her name was, uh, Mina! Mina Yuriko! She came to try out for the drama club and she was crazy good!”

Vernon paused for a moment, taking his phone out, turning it to show Jin. “She’s one of the daughters of the owners of Yuriko Media! They’re a crazy popular talent agency who– hey! Are you even listening?”

“Yesh, of course.” Jin replied, taking a bite of his food.

“Ugh, fine, I knew you wouldn’t be interested anyways. But still, you should still come see her, or at least me perform! Assuming we get through her application we’ll have her on stage soon.”

Vernon looks back at his phone and starts scrolling as he continues to rant about Mina’s talents. Jin turns to the window, placing his hand on his chin.

“Me being there would just make everyone uncomfortable anyways.”

Jin finally took his gaze of Mina as the boy she waved down approached.

“Mina! How are you?” Kazuto waved as he approached.

“Great! Sorry I missed you at orientation, I ended up in the section with the 2nd years on accident.” she laughed, scratching the back of her head.

They continued to greet each other. “So that’s her.” Jin thought to himself as he turned to look at the boy who had approached. “I recognize him…”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation.” Kazuto apologized, placing his hands together, noticing Jin was looking at him.

“It’s okay! Let me introduce you! This is… this is…” Mina’s face went blank as she lost herself in thought.

“Please excuse her, she can be a bit forgetful sometimes.”

“Hey!” Mina placed her hands at her side, clearly offended by Kazuto’s remark. “I didn’t…” she gave a light smile and turned back to Jin. “Sorry… I don’t think I got your name the first time. What was it?”

Jin noticed it again, the familiarity he felt. However, if only for a split second he saw a sudden change, and in the next instant, it was gone.

“... Jin.” he finally responded, looking away from the two of them. “Jin Rento.”

Kazuto’s expression quickly changed in surprise.

“That’s a nice name, it’s nice to me–”

“Hey Mina, there’s a pair of seats right here, why don’t we sit together up here?” Kazuto cut her off, pointing at the seats a couple rows ahead of Jin.

“Oh, it’s alright.” Mina waved her hands. “I wanted to take a seat further back anyways. I have pretty good eyesight, remember? Some people might need a seat closer to the front.”

“I get it but–”

“Besides…” Mina turned back to Jin. “You said this seats free, right?”

Jin gave her a surprised expression. “Yes… but–”

“Then it’s settled then.” Mina announced, sitting back down. “I’m sitting here.”

“Eh?” Jin and Kazuto reacted in unison.

Before either one could object any further, the bell rang.

“Okay everyone, please take your seats!” Okimi yelled, putting down her pom-poms on her desk and dusting some stray confetti out of her hair.

Kazuto turned around and took the seat in front of them. As Jin attempted to shake off the sequence of events that had just happened, he noticed Kazuto giving him a cold stare before turning his attention to the front of the room.

“Figured. That’s the reaction I was expecting.” he sighed, turning to Mina, who was also focused on the front of the room. “But why didn’t she move seats?”

Before Jin could continue his thought, Okimi began speaking.

“Welcome everyone to Physics 101! I’m your teacher, Okimi Hirata, please call me Okimi-sensei or Okimi-san, there’s no need for formalities. I’m sure some of you may or may not have heard some rumors of varying natures about me. Well, let me assure you that only some of them are true. For the most part. Anyways, I’m glad to see all of you have found your table buddies for the semester. For those of you who didn’t, I’ll make sure you get one. Since we have an odd number of students for this class, one lucky winner will be table buddies with yours truly!”

“For the semester?!” Kazuto and Jin thought to themselves as Okimi continued her speech.

“She should’ve switched seats…” Kazuto thought to himself, turning back to look at Mina who appeared to be enjoying Okimi’s speech.

“To start out, I’d like each of you to write out your names on these pieces of paper.” Okimi began to walk around the room handing out papers. “Once all of you are done we’ll go in order from front to back of the room and introduce ourselves. Please tell us how to properly pronounce your names and feel free to tell us a little bit about yourselves!”

To Jin’s right, he heard the shuffling of various items as he looked over to see Mina frantically searching through her bag. She finishes her search, placing her hands down on her bag.

“Um… excuse me… Rento-kun? Could I borrow a pencil?” Mina’s face was slightly red from the embarrassment of forgetting her pencil on the first day.

“Sure.” Jin reached into his bag, taking out two pencils from his bag and handing the spare to Mina.

“Thank you.” Mina quickly took the pencil and began writing.

“Sure.” Jin responded softly, turning back to his own paper.

One by one, each student introduced themselves.

“Thank you. I look forward to learning with you all.” Kazuto bowed as he finished his introduction.

“Very good, I’ll call you Kazuto-kun. You seem very passionate about track and field! I do hope you’ll join the team here at school.” Okimi clapped as he sat back down in his seat. “Next up, you two in the back! Please introduce yourself!”

Mina sprung out of her seat, surprising Jin. “Nice to meet you all! My name’s Mina Yuriko! I look forward to learning with you all!” Mina quickly bowed and sat down.

“That was fast.” Jin thought to himself.

“Ok… that was good…” Okimi stammered, slightly off-put by the speed of her introduction. “Welcome to the class Mina-chan. Next up…” Okimi turns her gaze over to Jin and points. “You there!”

“Yes ma’am!” Jin quickly stands. “My name’s Jin Rento and I…” Before Jin could even finish he began to notice all the eyes on him, giving him different kinds of looks. “...look forward to learning with you all.” he finished, sitting back down.

“Good! Thank you all for introducing yourselves today, I do hope you will enjoy this class. Before you leave I have some homework for you to do. Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious, just a safety waiver. Read over it and sign it as well as get your parents signature. Please don’t be intimidated by what’s written on the sheet, the school writes these waivers and I can honestly say they exaggerate a lot. For the most part anyways.”

“For the most part?!” Jin and Mina thought to themselves, looking down at the waiver.

The bell rang, dismissing them to the next class.

“Don’t forget to get those signatures! You’ll be missing out on so many fun experiments if you do! I’ll see you all later!”

Jin quickly gets up and leaves the classroom as he feels the gazes of others following him out the door.

“I’ll have to ask her to move my seat tomorrow, or make up some story to get our seats changed. She doesn’t want this kind of attention on her.”

Jin began to head towards his next class. As he turned the corner of the building he heard a familiar voice call out.

“Excuse me!”

Like before, Jin ignored the voice assuming it was for someone else.

“Excuse me! Rento-kun!”

Jin stopped immediately and turned to see Mina right behind him.

“Sorry, I forgot to give you back your pencil.” Mina handed him back the pencil. “Thank you again.”

Jin looked around as students made their way to their classes, none of which seemed to be paying them any mind.

“Sure.” Jin sighed, taking his pencil back and began to walk away.

“Wait!” Mina called out, following him. “Did I upset you somehow? If so I apologize and–”

“You didn’t.”

“Then… why do you seem to act so cold towards me?”

Jin looked away from her. “It’s nothing personal.”

He sighed again, remembering how she acted in class.

“It just seemed so familiar. The way you talked, acted, put on a smile for others, trying to appear as though everything was fine. There was a hollowness to it. Surely nobody else noticed it. But you just seemed… so… fake…”

By the time Jin heard the thought in his head he realized that it wasn’t just in his head. Everything he had just thought he said aloud. He turned back to Mina with his mind racing a mile a minute trying to think up the words to apologize to her. But the expression on her face said it all. He was right. She was fake.

Mina’s expression was one of a person who had just been found out after lying. Surprised, speechless, not knowing what to say or do next.

Jin clenched his fist, regretting what he just said. “You shouldn’t speak to me. It wouldn’t do your reputation any good to be around me. I’ll ask the teacher to have our seats changed tomorrow so you don’t have to worry about it.”

He paused, seeing that Mina’s speechless expression didn’t change.

“Sorry. It probably would’ve been better had you never met me.” Jin turned and began walking away.

He looked back one last time before going around the corner to see Mina still standing there in silence.

Masks are the layers each and every person puts on everyday. Whenever someone sees them, people tend to forget that there’s someone underneath, potentially… and indefinitely different from the person currently standing there before you.