Assumptions

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 13: Assumptions

Jin returned home, putting on his pajamas and collapsing onto his bed. His thoughts were still moving in all different directions after everything that happened earlier.

“I need a break.” Jin sighed, taking out his phone.

On his screen, he noticed several missed calls from Vernon along with several frantic messages. Before Jin had the chance to read any of them, Vernon called again.

“Why haven’t you been picking up?! I’ve been calling you on repeat for hours!”

“Sorry, I was busy.”

“Too busy to help your best bud with his school career threatening math assignment?! I’ve been worried sick for the past few hours! For me mostly, I’m sure you were fine. Relatively anyways. But the amount of pressure I’ve been under trying to get this assignment done! This last question has been taunting me for hours! What am I going to do tomorrow when Ryuji-sensei asks for my paper?! It’ll be the end for me!”

Jin rolled out of bed and grabbed the worksheet out of his bag.

“What’s your name and pronunciation?”

“The one before that.”

“Did you swap the negative to positive?”

“Pssh… why would I… of course I… hold that thought…”

Jin waited a moment, hearing the faint sound of erasing and scribbling followed by the audible slamming of a desk.

“Vernon?”

“Hey, yeah I figured it out, silly me, I just… erm…”

“Forgot to flip the sign?”

“No… I… Yes. Yes… I forgot to flip the sign. Tragedy averted. But it would’ve been done hours ago had you picked up! You still haven’t told you where you were!”

“The hospital.”

Vernon quickly changed his tone. “Right, sorry. Forgot that was today. Everything ok?”

“They said everything went well and she’s steadily improving. I ended up staying later than expected so I just did my work there.”

“I figured as much, but I was moreso referring to you. How are you doing? Still worried?”

“Yeah.” Jin propped himself up against his headboard.

“She’ll be fine. You know that right?”

“I do… it’s just…”

“You can’t help it. I get it. It’s a shame really, if only you’d let some girl or guy know you cared that much to worry about them day in and day out.”

“Tch, where did that come from?” Jin rolled his eyes.

“Well I do believe words come out of my mouth, though I might just be talking outta my ass here.” he laughed. “Speaking of girls, did you end up seeing Yuriko-san again today? Did you get the chance to apologize?”

“We have P.E. together, but I didn’t see her. So… no…”

“Oh no no no, don’t you even think about it.”

“Think about what?”

“Leaving things like that! I know you think it’s best to distance yourself from her but you never know! Trying to apologize might actually be a good thing. The two of you might even get along.”

“You know that’s not how it works.”

“And who decides how it works? Besides, I know you’d at least like to say “sorry” to her.”

Jin raised his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. Remembering how Mina looked after what he told her.

“I…”

“Great! You’ll do it! Proud of you buddy!”

“I didn’t–”

“Sure you didn’t, but you’ve already considered it for this long which means it’s gonna happen one way or another.”

“Ugh, just shut up, you idiot.” Jin paused for a moment. “And what about you?”

“What?”

“You and Fujimura-san. Did you apologize to her yet?”

Vernon scratched his head. “Ah… well… I tried…”

Earlier that day…

Vernon took a seat behind Ayaka in their 5th period physics class.

“Fujimura.” Vernon whispered, trying to get her attention.

Ayaka ignored him.

“Fu-ji-mu-ra” Vernon picked up his pencil and started tapping on the back of her shoulder with it. “Fujimuraaaaaa.”

Ayaka began to show signs of frustration as Vernon sighed.

“Listen, I didn’t mean to offend you earlier.” he whispered again, but Ayaka clearly heard him. “I just wanted to say sorry, AyakAAAAAAAHHH!” Vernon yelped as Ayaka turned, stabbing his resting hand with her pencil.

“Just shut up and stop poking me with your pencil you dork!” Ayaka quickly turned back around and buried her head into her arms.

Vernon rubbed his swollen hand that still had a mark from earlier.

“Seriously.” Jin raised his eyebrow.

“I told you I tried! What did you expect me to do?!”

“Not poke her with a pencil in order to get her attention?”

“But she was ignoring me!”

“Then wait until after class and talk to her face to face! Don’t make her angrier!”

“Ok smart guy, at least said “sorry”, that’s more than I can say you’ve done. Besides, it’s not like I was trying to upset her earlier.”

“Well clearly, you did.” Jin looked away for a moment, deep in thought. “What happened between you two anyways? You’ve known her nearly as long as you’ve known me. Didn’t you guys used to be close?”

“I guess you could say that… but it was more like she decides where and when we go somewhere and I just get dragged along.”

“You still went with her though.”

“Well it’s not like I hated it…” Vernon rolled onto his side. “It’s just… she started hanging out with Maddy and the rest of them, and I just never understood why. Just her of all people, after everything she put you through in junior high.”

“That was Maddy, not her, you know I don’t hold anything against her.”

“I know… I just… wish I could understand why she’d hang around them.”

“Then why don’t you ask?”

Ayaka sat in her middle school uniform, surrounded by a few of her “friends”.

“You seriously hang around him?”

“Isn’t he friends with that delinquent? Why would you even bother?”

“He’s probably just as bad as him.”

“You’re wrong. Neither of them–” Ayaka began.

“You’re seriously defending them, after everything we know about them?”

“But you don’t know anything! You just… you just listen to what everyone else is saying!”

No matter how loud they are, voices can be ignored, drowned out, never truly heard. Even when it’s the truth, sometimes people just don’t want to accept or admit that they’re wrong. That they’re flawed.

In her last year of junior high, Ayaka Fujimura discovered that the “friends” and company she kept, were never really people who cared for her or her opinion. After she realized this, she only had one person she could rely on. At least she thought she did. In the last few months leading up to their junior high graduation, her childhood friend, Vernon, essentially stopped hanging out with her entirely, and she never knew why.

Without any rhyme or reason, she came to the only conclusion she could.

“Am I… the problem?”