Okinawa (Part 1)

“Tsukasa, save mee…” I groan quietly to Tsukasa sitting in the seat somewhat next to mine. But Tsukasa looks just as uncomfortable as I am on this plane.

While we’re on the Okinawa plane, Tsukasa, Aki-chan, and I will have so much fun, eating snacks together and laughing! was my mindset. Was, as in past tense. Let’s back up a bit.

Today, before we left to Okinawa, Mr. Inoue gathered the groups together and found out that me, Aki, and Tsukasa didn’t have a last person for our group. So he looked around, and assigned the single person who didn’t have a group to ours.

Who else, but Chisako Kachimi.

On the spot, Aki-chan started raging, her face becoming as red as the headphones on her ears; (Tsukasa had to hold her back from tackling Mr. Inoue), and Kachimi-san’s fists clenched, she had to keep her anger inside, as usual. They couldn’t do anything about it though, since the grouping was by the teacher’s orders.

Aki, insisting she sit farthest away from Kachimi-san on the plane, took her place on the edge of the row, at the window seat. Kachimi-san sat at the other window seat.

In the plane, there are 4 seats in each row, and the 2 in the middle are separated by a column for walking. Since Aki and Kachimi-san took the outer 2 window seats, Tsukasa and I sat in the middle 2, separated by the long walkway.

I told Tsukasa to sit next to Aki in hopes of helping her get closer to Tsukasa, but Tsukasa turned me down hard. “I can’t miss this chance to sit next to Chisako-chan!!” Tsukasa fanboyed.

Not like anything’s gonna happen between them while they sit next to each other. Both Aki and Kachimi-san are glaring at each other the whole flight.

Aki and Kachimi-san both have deadly stares, not even glancing at us boys. Their stares feel so heavy and it’s making the plane feel stuffy.

“Tsukasa, save mee…” I groan quietly to Tsukasa in the seat somewhat next to mine. But Tsukasa looks just as uncomfortable next to Kachimi-san as I am here next to the still-raging Aki.

Tsukasa, trying to be brave, attempts to bring Kachimi-san away from looking at Aki, but it doesn’t work. There goes his fantasy of sitting next to his “beloved Chisako-chan” lol.

I, for one, am too scared to interfere with Aki’s glaring. I feel like she’d murder me if I just tap her on the shoulder. Although, once in a while, I notice her taking a break from staring at Kachimi-san and peeping at me, but I pretend not to notice.

The moment the plane lands and we all arrive at our Okinawa inn, it’s about noon. Tsukasa and I run off the plane away from the 2 rivals, as quickly as possible and hug each other tight for comfort.

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod that was the worst plane flight ever. The girls were so scaryyy.” Both of us whine as me and him bring our bags into our room and change into casual clothes. It was 6 people per room, and the boys and girls were split.

The inn was just as scary as the plane ride. The lobby looked like a wrecked warehouse, with broken wooden floorboards. Couches for resting were scattered around and scratched up, making them “unrestable”. The stairs lead up to the bedrooms and baths, and every step of the stairs creaked. The lightbulbs flickered and were dim, so the sunlight was the only thing keeping the lobby bright. The whole inn was deserted except for some middle-aged man in sweats behind the front desk.

Everyone, including the teachers, scrunches their nose at the pungent smell of coffee and dog pee as they enter the inn. The students whine about the teachers getting this old place, but even the teachers exchange regretful thoughts about this place.

I mean, at least it was air conditioned, I guess.

It was only the first day of the trip, and we barely got any break time. Mr. Inoue and the other teacher chaperones made us walk all around Okinawa, making each group study every nook and cranny of the city.

I expected Aki-chan and Kachimi-san to cool up to each other while we spent the day together studying, but it’s already 3:30 in the afternoon and they’re still on the verge of murdering each other.

In fear of the 2 girls, both me and Tsukasa have been sticking together like glue while Aki and Kachimi-san both have menacing faces.

The problem is, if I stick to Tsukasa like I am, Aki-chan isn’t getting time to hang out with Tsukasa, which totally ruins my idea of Aki and Tsukasa getting together on this trip before the week-long spring break.

Eventually, the teachers let us have 15 minutes of rest by a nearby convenience store. I grab a few sodas for our group from inside the store. I pass out the drinks to Tsukasa, then Kachimi-san, and when I give Aki-chan hers, I also pull her to the side.

Aki looks frustrated. Being around Kachimi-san the whole day since the morning has not been good for her, I haven’t seen her smile once since yesterday!!

I do a quick motion with my hands asking her to take off her headphones so that she can hear me, but she shakes her head no violently.

I sigh and whisper, “Ok whatever, but listen. You can’t spend the whole trip hating Chisako-chan.”

“You call that ugly oaf chan…?!” Aki scoffs quietly, as she sips her soda.

“O- oh, I didn’t even notice, I guess Tsukasa’s been growing on me. He’s always talking about her, ‘Chisako-chan, Chisako-chan, Chisako-chan~’ every second.” I pout and roll my eyes. “I hate her too.”

“Y-you do??” Aki looks up at me, her face changing into a small smile for the first time today.

“Yeah, whoever makes you mad makes me mad.” I say, making it sound like it was supposed to be obvious.

We’re silent for a good 5 seconds, both of our cheeks lightly tinted pink from my words.

I clear my throat, then shake my head to come back to the main topic. “A- Anyways, don’t you remember what I said before we came here??”

Aki just tilts her head in confusion and continues drinking her soda.

I groan. “You need to get with Tsukasa here in Okinawa!!” I roll my eyes, disappointed that she forgot.

“H- huhhh??” She stumbles backwards, her face red, and spilling a bit of her soda.

“He’s in America during his birthday next week, so spend time with him now!!” I whisper-scream at her so Tsukasa doesn’t hear.

“N- no, that’s not necessary…” Aki waves the arm not holding the soda in front of her face, saying no.

I grab her wrist to stop it from waving around and bring my face close to hers. I’m very confident in being her wingman. “Yes, you have to!! I believe in ShiraHiira!!”

“Ok ok ok ok ok ok!! Just get off me!!” Aki immediately shuts her eyes and pushes me away from her with her soda, some of the soda spilling on my shirt. Before I can say anymore, she turns around, hides her red face with her hair, and runs away from me and into the crowd of students hanging around the convenience store.

I mean, at least she said ok.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The sun begins to set, so the teachers start leading the students back to the inn for the night. Since it was dark outside, groups of 4 were too hard to watch, so the teachers split the 4-person groups in half and put them in separate lines.

Mr. Inoue, my homeroom teacher and my least favorite teacher, put me and Aki in one pair and Tsukasa and Kachimi-san in another pair. Which means Aki and Tsukasa aren't together, and this isn’t good.

So I tug on Tsukasa’s sleeve. “Tsukasa, let’s switch.”

“No way, I wanna be with Chisako-chan.” He whips his arm away from me and pouts.

Groaning, I whine and pull his sleeve again. “Just- please??”

“No way, nuh uh. No matter what happens, I stay with Chisako-chan and you stay with Aki-chan.” He crosses his arms and turns away from me.

Right when I rolled my eyes and was ready to give up on pairing Tsukasa and Aki-chan, some student who I can’t see because it’s so dark elbows me in the stomach, causing me to topple backwards. I yelp out loud, and grab onto Tsukasa so that I don’t fall, and as I pull myself up, I smoothly spin us around, causing Tsukasa now to be next to Aki-chan and me next to Kachimi-san.

I grin, my plan to pair Tsukasa and Aki-chan up worked, even if it was an accident.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

15 minutes pass, and it’s already night time as we arrive back at the inn. Everyone sprints into the baths hastily the moment we enter the inn. After all, it was a long day of walking around and taking notes on everything, I’m sure everyone wanted to wash up as soon as possible.

The girls took baths first, so Aki and Chisako were ready for bed before me and Tsukasa. Due to the rule that each group must report to the teacher before heading to bedrooms to sleep, Aki and Chisako sit on the same bench but on opposite edges just outside the baths waiting for me and Tsukasa.

Once me and Tsukasa stroll out of the baths, we find the girls waiting for us. All 4 of us are in our pajamas and have soaked hair— I guess we all haven’t had a chance to dry it yet. Aki’s hair is wet, but she’s already got her headphones on. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her without her headphones. She’s also wearing her sneaker platforms, so Tsukasa sniggers.

“Pfttt, you don’t have slippers??” Tsukasa shows off his amazing fluffy slip ons.

“Shut up, I only brought this pair of shoes.” Aki looks away from him, pouting and red in embarrassment.

The teacher’s room is by the inn’s entrance, and since there’s no more sun outside, the lobby is extremely dim. Tsukasa pretends to be scared of the dark so that he can cling to Chisako, but Aki and I just stroll over, rolling our eyes at Tsukasa’s behavior. Aki’s phone is the only source of light here, and she’s using it to look for a song to play on her headphones, so all of us are basically walking blindly. As our group somehow finds our way through the dark hallway to the teacher’s room, Chisako and Tsukasa go inside the teacher’s room to report that we were all here. Me and Aki just wait outside in the dark hallway, while she continues to scroll through her phone.

I lean against the wall, and it causes me to be short enough to talk to Aki face-to-face. “Soo any progress??” I nudge Aki with my elbow as we stand there with a whisper so that Tsukasa doesn't hear from inside the room. “You spent a good 15 minutes with Tsukasa on the way back to the inn.

Aki stomps her feet and clenches her phone hard, causing her to accidentally press the off button on the side and her phone turns off. “Like I said, no. I don’t like—”

“Yeah, yeah.” I brush her off, grinning. I don’t know what she looks like right now since it’s dark, but I’m sure she’s blushing thinking about Tsukasa.

“Ughhhh, I told you, I don’t—” She whisper-yells at me and I hear a loud thump on the wall next to my head. I’m not sure what that noise was, but it surprised me a bit. In the middle of her sentence, she had stopped. I’m confused as to why she became so silent all of a sudden.

Her phone, which she previously turned off, suddenly lit up with a notification. But her phone was now tilted upwards in front of me. And the angle it was at, it casted a light onto Aki’s head above the phone, and she was right in front of me too. And the hand that wasn't occupied with the phone— it was next to my ear and leaning against the wall.

Thanks to the light from the phone, I could clearly see her blushing red face in front of me, so close to mine. Instead of the pout she’s worn this whole trip (thanks to Kachimi-san, lol), her eyebrows are raised in shock and her jaw half-dropped, as if she didn’t even expect herself to do that.

I’m frozen in this moment, and everything we were talking about about her and Tsukasa just a moment ago left my mind blank. One second she’s next to me, dully scrolling on her phone, the next, she’s doing this wall thing that I thought only happens in tv shows— “A- Aki-chan…?” All I can do is stutter her name and gaze at her flushed expression beautifully illuminated by her smartphone.

Why do I feel so… blissful?? It’s just Aki Shirasawa, my friend and tutor for the past 2 months. She’s small and petite, and I tease her for it, and I joke around with her, and I bicker with her, but I don’t have feelin… I don’t have feelin… Why can’t I say it…?

I- I have no idea what to do. We just spend a few seconds standing there like this, both of our faces hot. Eventually her phone turns off and it’s dark again, but I can still feel that she stays there in front of me.

Suddenly, we hear voices and footsteps becoming louder and louder from inside the room— Chisako and Tsukasa are coming back out. But Aki still won’t move away from off of me— I think she’s so shocked at her own actions that she’s petrified!!

“A- Aki-chan!!” I whisper loudly to try to get her attention, and I place my hand on what I believe to be her arm in the dark.

The moment my hand makes contact with her arm, she springs away from me and to the far other side of the hallway. She’s breathing heavily, and blushing so much that I can tell she’s blushing even in the dark.

When Chisako and Tsukasa enter the hallway, Aki sprints off and back to the bedroom without a word. Chisako and Tsukasa look at me like I did something wrong, but all I do is stare at them wide-eyed and red-faced. What just happened??

I barely manage to sleep that night. Aki’s delicate flush, how close we were, and the fact that she would do that even though she likes Tsukasa.