The Delinquent and the Drama King

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 28: The Delinquent and the Drama King

Jin and Vernon left their junior high and began through the gates. The crowds of students leaving the campus dissipated as they all began to travel in their separate directions.

Vernon looked over at Jin expectantly. “Hey, you’re coming to the performance right?”

Jin nodded. “I said I would.”

“And when is it?”

“Next week.”

“Time?”

“5PM. 4:45 to get seats.”

“That’s right!”

“Were you just doing that to make sure I’d remember or to remind yourself of when you had to be there?” Jin smirked.

“Maybe both?” Vernon shrugged. “You may never know.”

“You know you didn’t have to go through the hassle of making sure I’d be there.”

“I just had to make sure you can’t make up any excuses not to go.”

“It’d probably go better if I wasn’t there though.”

“Ha! Don’t even think about it. This performance is for everyone to laugh and enjoy, not everyone minus Jin.” Vernon laughed, slapping Jin on his back. “Besides, I gotta make sure it’s good enough to get a reaction outta you.”

“I’m sure it will. After all, you’ve been pretty busy these past couple months practicing.”

“It better.” Vernon scoffed as he began to think to himself. “Once they see you smile, they’ll know… that they’ve been wrong all along.”

“Hey!” a voice called out to them.

Jin and Vernon looked up ahead to see Ayaka waving them down from up ahead.

“Is that Fujimura-san?”

“Yeah, she actually agreed to help me practice my lines some more, so we’re gonna head back to my place.”

“Took you guys long enough.” Ayaka whined as they approached her.

“Oh please, like you’ve been waiting here long.” Vernon snarked back at her.

“Tch, you could at least apologize for making me wait.”

“For what?! Five minutes?”

“That’s five minutes too long! Would it have killed you to be punctual?”

“Probably not, but then again, we wouldn’t be having this absolutely riveting conversation.”

“Ugh, stupid.”

“Idiot.”

“Moron!”

“Dork!”

“Hey!” Jin interrupted them as they threw insults at one another. “Don’t you two have somewhere to be?”

“Oh that’s right! Now we're gonna be even more late because SOMEONE wants to waste time bickering over me not being punctual!”

“You’re the one bickering! You could’ve just said “oh yeah right my bad.” instead of wasting more time!” Ayaka retorted in a sarcastic posh voice.

“I do not sound like that!”

Do too!”

Do not!

“Do too!”

“I should really get going…” Jin thought to himself as the two continued to bicker at one another.

Jin and Midori sat against the wall behind the library.

“You said that they began to separate after this performance, but I still don’t understand. Everything seems to be going well.”

“They were…” Jin paused, taking a deep breath as a solemn expression crept across his face. “The thing is… I… didn’t go to that performance…”

“But… you said you would. Did something happen?”

Jin looked down briefly, trying to come up with the right words. “Just before the weekend of the performance…”

Vernon looked around the classroom to find Jin wasn’t in class. Around him, he overheard some other students talking about him.

“He’s not here? I bet he’s skipping.”

“Typical.”

Vernon looked around again, noticing the principal talking to their homeroom teacher outside the classroom. Curious, Vernon went out to see what they were talking about.

“They asked not to have this news told to the class. For the most part, it’s probably for the best.”

“Sorry for interrupting, but what's going on Principal? Is it about Jin?”

“Oh, Ichihara-kun… it’s…”

“You can tell him. They’re friends.” his homeroom teacher spoke up.

The Principal gave a conflicted expression before sighing. “Well…”

“Your mother…” Midori gave a sympathetic expression.

“The driver was under the influence. She’s… still at the hospital now…”

“I’m… so sorry…”

Jin’s expression grew more regretful as he pulled his knees up to his chest. “After that… I didn’t… I couldn’t go to his performance and give him the reaction he wanted from me. No matter how much I wanted to. All throughout junior high, he’d always try to get me to come to his performances like this one. He called it his way of getting people to see the kind of person I really am through my reactions. After I missed the performance… even though he understood… I could tell that something was wrong. After that… he became distant, always at his club, constantly busy. We’d talk a lot since we sat next to eachother, but outside of that, we didn’t see eachother. And I’m sure the same goes for Fujimura-san.”

“So that’s why…”

“Hm?”

“She… told me about how Ichihara-kun started becoming more distant… but she could never figure out why. At least that’s what she told me. But deep down… I think she thinks that she did something to make him drift away from her.”

“He said the same thing actually. He’s convinced that he’s the problem… and that… she hates him…”

“They both… have the completely wrong idea…”

“Then…” Jin began, standing up and turning to face Midori. “... will you help me… set them back on the right track?”

Jin held out his hand to help her up as Midori looked at him for a moment, seeing the sincereness in his eyes and determination in his expression.

“I will… do everything I can…” Midori replied, taking Jin’s hand as he helped her up. “Do you… have any ideas?”

“I do. Some… friends of mine gave me some good pieces of advice. But still… it’ll ultimately be up to what they decide.”

Midori nodded. “Then please… tell me what I can do.”

Jin and Midori turned the corner and began to walk back towards the quad.

“And… Rento-kun…” Midori began, shrugging up slightly.

“Yes?”

“All that stuff you told me about what happened before… why did you tell me? I’m sure you could’ve left details out or just went to Ayaka yourself.”

“I… just had to be sure.”

“Sure of what?”

“That no matter what, I did everything I could to make sure this works. I couldn’t let myself leave anything to chance… so I just had to tell you everything. This has to work. I need to… I… have to make sure that I can see my friend smile again.”