Hidden

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 21: Hidden

People show appreciation for the things they love and enjoy in various ways. These passions, acts, or objects of inspiration bring those who view them entertainment and above all, happiness.

Unfortunately, those who don’t understand or dislike the idea of others voicing passions they don’t agree with will degrade them. They make them feel inferior, weird, abnormal to everyone else. While it’s possible to combat this kind of treatment, not everyone has the ability to do so. For those put in the position to defend themselves from those people, sometimes it’s easier… to just hide away…

Jin, Mina, Kazuto, and Aoyuki sat at their table making their plans for their rocket.

“For someone that says we need to stay in line with safety regulations she has a lot of stuff that I consider to be dangerous for us to use.” Kazuto pointed out.

“I’m sure some of those things were just in there by mistake. I mean, I don’t think she’d purposely put blades in there for us to use to accessorise our rockets. It’s not like they’re fighting against eachother.” Mina added, pointing to a couple of students who were holding a couple sharp pieces of metal they got out of the tupperware boxes.

“She did say the best rocket wins.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme, Rento-kun?”

Kazuto started writing notes on his paper. “I doubt she considers it extreme. Honestly, I’m scared of what she would classify as ‘extreme’.” Kazuto gave a worried look as he turned his paper to the rest of the group. “Here’s what I was thinking about the materials. It’s simplistic but it should work with what we’re going for.”

“PVC pipes, fasteners… what did you want to use for the trigger?” Mina asked, looking over the paper.

“The simplest way is to just use force like she said. We can either make something to drop an object onto the mechanism, or something else. We’ll also need something to get the pipes down to the right measurements.”

“I have some tools at home that I could bring.” Jin spoke up. “A handsaw should work fine for the pipes.”

“Where should we meet then? We could do it at my–” Mina paused, thinking about the ramifications of having people at her house.

“We… could do it at my house.” Aoyuki spoke shyly.

“Really? Is that alright?” Kazuto asked, slightly surprised.

Aoyuki nodded. “Yes. It should be fine. I at least want to feel like I’m contributing something to this project…”

“You don’t need to say it like that, we’re a team aren’t we?” Jin reassured her.

“That’s right. You don’t have to worry about stuff like that, Kashiwa-san.” Kazuto started. “We can make a suitable time this weekend when everyone’s available. Oh right, we should probably make sure we have eachother on LINE so we can stay in contact.”

“That’s–” As Mina began to take out her phone she looked at Jin. “Swap numbers?! With him?! Now?! Why am I being so awkward about this?! He clearly doesn’t remember what happened and he hardly knows anything about me so why…” Mina’s head slammed against the table as her thoughts overwhelmed her. “Why am I like this?”

“Yuriko-san? Are you alright?” Jin gave her a concerned look.

“Don’t worry, it’ll pass.” Kazuto reassured him. “Mina, I went ahead and gave him your number and made a group chat since you seem to be… busy…”

“He gave him my number?!” Mina thought as she panicked for a moment. “It’s fine, thank you Kazuto.” Mina waved her hand, not moving her head from the table.

Aoyuki poked at Mina’s head. “Is she really alright?”

Aoyuki walked through the door of her home, unpacking her things and walking upstairs. She went down the hallway to an open door on the left, in the room, she found a girl, slightly older than her, sitting on a couch, typing on her laptop.

“I’m home.”

“Welcome back.” The girl responded, not looking up from her laptop.

“Hey… Mai…”

“What is it?”

“I’m having people over this weekend to work on a school project. Just wanted to let you know…”

“Mhm.” Mai mumbled, continuing to work on her laptop.

Her distracted expression quickly changed upon processing what her sister just said. She looked to the doorway to see she was no longer there.

“Did I… hear that right…?”

In her living room, Mai heard the door to the house open. Looking over, she saw it was her sister, wearing a bright teal hoodie. Aoyuki began to walk across the room towards the stairs.

“Welcome back, how was–” Mai stopped upon seeing her sister's expression and a few scribbles on her hoodie that were covering parts of the design.

Mai quickly got up off the couch and ran over to her sister, kneeling down and looking her up and down. “Who did this?! Are you ok?!”

“It’s fine… I’m… fine…” she responded, her neutral expression already showing signs of breaking down.

“It’s definitely not fine! What happened?!” Mai persisted, continuing to examine her and the markings on her hoodie.

“Some people… just didn’t like it…” Aoyuki spoke softly, making eye contact with her sister, who instantly noticed she’d been crying a lot.

“To hell with them then!”

“Sis…”

“Who cares what they think?! What right do they have to judge what you love?! Tell me who did this!”

Mai got up and ran over the couch to grab her school bag, the sash attached to it read “Student Council”.

“Y-You don’t have to–”

“You think I’m just gonna sit here and let them do this to you?! Like hell!”

“I… just won’t wear it anymore…”

“Don’t even think about it!”

“Huh?”

“No sister of mine… is ever gonna hide her appreciation for the things she loves!”

Mai sat on the couch with Aoyuki curled up and leaning against her. Vocaloid music played on the TV as the two sisters sat there in silence with used tissues scattered about the room.

“Feeling better?” Mai asked as she patted her sister's head.

Aoyuki nodded.

“Good. I’ll find those two boys tomorrow and give em’ a talking to.”

A smile gave way across Aoyuki’s face. She looked over to see her marked up hoodie lying over the couch.

“Hmm…” Mai quickly got off the couch, causing Aoyuki to slowly fall over onto her side. “Wait here.”

Mai quickly ran up the stairs as Aoyuki sat back up, slightly confused. A moment later, she came back downstairs holding what appeared to be a few tickets.

“Me and Dad were planning to give these to you as a surprise, but I figure now's a good time to tell you.” Mai smiled, handing her the tickets.

As Aoyuki read the tickets, her face began to light up.

“I know I know, Dad insisted he just HAD to drive us. But still, I think it’ll still be pretty fun. The Osaka concert will even have exclusive merch, including an awesome new hoodie for–”

Before Mai could finish her sentence, Aoyuki threw her arms around her, tears streaming down her face.

“Hey! Are you al–”

“I’m fine…” she smiled. “I promise. I’m just… happy…”

Mai smiled back at her, hugging her back. “You know… one of these times you could take your friends to see one of these concerts. You just have to make some.”

Aoyuki sighed loudly. “I thought we were having a moment.”

“And the moment’s still there, but c’mon, just try alright? I’m sure you’ll find others who like the same things you do.”

Aoyuki sighed loudly again.

“Ugh, could you at least give it SOME thought?”

Aoyuki was sitting on a bench outside her junior high as a couple upperclassmen approached her, shrugging up upon recognizing them.

“You’re still wearing that crap? That anime stuff is supposed to be for kids right?” The first boy taunted and tugged at her sleeve.

“You’re kidding right? Look at her, she’s probably just a kid.” The other boy laughed, looking at how tall she was.

Aoyuki tried to take her sleeve out of the boy's grip. “Please… stop…” she thought to herself.

“Are you done?” A voice called from behind the two boys, as they turned they saw a boy who seemed to be an underclassman standing behind them.

The boy holding her sleeve scoffed at the underclassman. “Huh? You’re kidding, right? What the hell do you want?”

“For you to take your hand off her. She’s clearly uncomfortable.”

“Ha, what a joke. The delinquent wants to play the white knight. Go play somewhere else.” he replied, grabbing her underarm and yanking her to her feet.

“Ah!” Aoyuki cried, caught off guard by the sudden movement.

“We were just–”

The boy holding her didn’t even get to finish his sentence before the underclassman punched him straight in the nose, causing him to release the girl. The boy who was holding her fell to the ground as the other upperclassman went to his side to help him.

The incessant yelling that followed was drowned out by how shocked she was at everything happening, and before long, the two boys left in a hurry.

“Hey! The hell are you doing to my sister?!” a familiar voice called, snapping her back to reality.

“Mai?”

Before she had the chance to continue the thought, Mai had run over and pushed the boy who had helped her aside, starting to berate and tell him off.

“Wait…” she wanted to speak, but no words came out. “He didn’t…”

Aoyuki began tugging on her sister's shirt, but she was too focused on the boy that she didn’t notice. The boy walked away, upon him leaving their sight, Mai finally noticed her tugging.

“What is it? Are you alright? What happened? Did he hurt you?”

Mai quickly turned around, kneeling down to examine her.

“When I said I wanted you to make friends this is not what I meant!”

Aoyuki shook her head, still trying to speak.

“What happened?”

For those put in the position to defend themselves from those people, sometimes it’s easier… to just hide away. But this… isn’t always the case. When someone has a genuine passion and love for something, it should never be hidden away. It should be put on display, to show appreciation for your passions and help others understand why they’re so important to you. There will undoubtedly be people who don’t understand, but it’s just as true that there will be people who do understand. Surround yourself with those people, and you’ll find that the people who stay with you, really and truly care about them.