Turning Point

"That was terrible."

"What? It was so good!!" Haruko stood to protest and bumped her head against the ceiling of her church, reeling back slightly but keeping her furious expression.

"None of it made any sense. Why would some random guy off the street give you his bike just because you told him he would have good luck for the year?"

"That makes perfect sense! I would give my bike for a year's worth of good luck."

No. That makes no sense, Haruko.

"And when the group of kids were sabotaging the old lady they had zero reason to stop and help with her garden," I said.

"Are you telling me you'd have kept bullying her?" Haruko leaned in closer.

"What? No! I'm saying literally nothing happened to get them to stop. You didn't even say anything to them!"

Haruko aired her hair, flicking her hand through it. "Sometimes people just do good things."

Spontaneously?! "And on top of all that, what was with the first scene? Why was everyone applauding you?"

"Duh! Because I'm God!"

You hadn't even done anything yet!

She sat back down and kicked her feet up on the chair beside me, her body a perfect mix of aloof and stuck up. "It's okay, not everyone can appreciate the fine arts."

I couldn't help but giggle. How does she manage to make me laugh like that? I give up, there's no point in engaging with this girl. Partly because, with every added absurdity, I suspected she was just trying to bait me into getting worked up. And partly because of the smug face she'd put on.

"Mhm. Right. Yep, you're right."

Haruko's chin shot up all proud. She went on to lecture me about the importance of subjectivity and then used that same argument to explain the lack of importance my subjective opinions held. Something about how I could never possibly know the author's intentions.

It wasn't long afterwards when we parted ways for the night. Since the train had been empty, she'd shamelessly filled the subway car with whatever random topic popped into her head. When she got off at her stop, I waved from the empty train as the doors closed between us.

The next day, I was exhausted. And not because I'd stayed out late. When I got home, both of my parents sent a barrage of questions my way. Normally it wouldn't have been such a problem to stay out with a friend. My only guess is that they could sense my reticence and took it as a sign I was hiding something.

I kind of was, though not for long. I caved and told them exactly what Haruko and I had done (I left out the secret spot), emphasizing her status as "just a friend." You can imagine how well that went down. In short, my dad did the lecturing and my mom did the teasing. It didn't bother me too much though; their opinions didn't matter as much as Haruko's. And she was totally incompetent when it came to discerning romantic or platonic dates. I think.

There was one other reason I couldn't keep my eyes open through morning classes, though: I hadn't slept. Guess that kind of thing can make you tired, huh? My mind had raced all through the night, refusing to allow me a moment of peace or quiet. It played every insignificant interaction with Haruko on repeat. Telling me exactly what I had done wrong.

Awkward hug. Lame word choice. Cringe quoting a superhero. Moronic to care about money. Pathetic for eyes to linger shut. Rude to degrade her storytelling. All plain idiotic.

Haruko and I only talked briefly in the morning, I tried my best to keep it short. She paid me in full for the meal even though I wanted her to keep my half. It would've taken too much back and forth to convince her. At lunch I slept, she didn't bother me. Takamoto acted concerned and Fujiwara didn't even look in my direction. After school I was a little more awake, having slept through all the classes where teachers didn't yell at me.

"I'm finally gonna need your help, later today," Haruko said.

What do you want?

She leaned on my desk. "Remember the campaign?"

Oh, yeah. I forgot I had basically been tricked into accepting the role of her campaign manager. On top of that, I hadn't done any market research yet. Can't it wait some other day?

"Are you even awake right now?"

My eyes hurt. Why is she still talking to me? After that total failure yesterday, the one she called a date for some reason. Maybe I should go apologize to Fujiwara, I still haven't had a chance to talk to him.

"Wake!" she tapped at my desk.

"What? Yeah I'm awake, you need help. Did you ask Sato?"

"She's helping too."

I was about to try and convince Takamoto to fill in for me. He had a habit of accepting whenever you asked for his help. Except this time, his seat was already empty. He definitely saw this coming.

"Ugh, what is it?" I asked.

"QR codes."

My forehead fell back to my desk. "I thought we were waiting for Sato to make a website."

"Mhm, she did," Haruko nodded.

Already? We asked her to do it yesterday, is she some kind of computer wiz? "Would you tell me what exactly you need my help with? Making a QR code? It's easy, you could probably figure it—"

"No, no. Noiji did that part too. I'm gonna call you around nine o'clock, I'll tell you where we're meeting then."

"Nine o'clock? Like, tomorrow morning?"

She grabbed a hold of my scalp and pulled my head off the desk.

Hey! That hurts! What's your deal?

"You're worthless without sleep, y'know? Nine p.m.! The night one, tonight. In like, six hours. Later today. Capeesh?" She dropped my head and it bonked against my desk.

"Would you start making sense and explain what the hell you're talking about? My parents aren't just gonna let me leave the house that late."

Haruko placed her hands on her hips. "Yep. And that's why you're sneaking out."

The words "sneaking out" grabbed my attention by the throat. Seriously, what are you talking about?

"Is your sleepy little brain catching on?" she asked.

"Why are we sneaking out so late? To meet up with Sato? And how does this have anything to do with your campaign?"

She flicked my forehead. "Would you quiet down? You're such an idiot." She glanced behind before whispering in my ear: "We're breaking into the school, okay?"