Chapter III
I heard the noise rang of my sister’s mobile while I was cooking with my mom. She came to me holding it with her right hand and murmuring softly, “It’s for you.”
If it was one of my friends then she should’ve dialed my number instead of dialing my sister’s, I thought. Was my mobile still functioning or did I turned it off, that was missing in my memories and no matter how desperately I try to remember, I could not…
I answered the call, “Hey!”
“Tome, the results are out!” this familiar kind voice I longed to hear…the voice of my dearest friend, Hikari.
“Really? Wh-“
She interrupted me saying, “Congrats!”
The sentence surprised me a little and I went tongue-tied. Passing the year with no falling never crossed my mind.
“W-what do you mean?” I asked with a low voice.
“Hmmmmm?” she laughed a bit and continued, “don’t play dumb!”
My hands began to tremble and I started stammering words even I couldn’t understand.
“Get a hold of yourself. Are you that surprised from your own accomplishment?” she wondered while I was still in that state unable to utter a word.
“Listen, don’t hear! You passed all the subjects!!”
A small amount of strength had returned and I said, “Am I dreaming? If I am then please don’t wake me up.”
“Haha, you’re not dreaming. If I were there beside you, I would’ve pinched your cheeks as hard as I could to assure you it’s not a dream..”
“Can I scream?”
“Go ahead, but do get your mobile away from you a little. My friends are all around me and I don’t want to panic them by your weird screams.”
“Weird? What does this mean?”
“Oops a slip of tongue…”
“Eiya, I changed my mind. You’ll never be able hear my angelic scream.”
“Angelic? who deceived you?”
“Ooohh, such a dramatic increase in such short time.” I exclaimed so cheerfully and continued on, “ A-awesome!!! Who could’ve thought I was a sleeping lion that just awoke. I can’t believe this. No one will believe this. My family will be overjoyed to hear this. They will, they must be!”
She was listening to me silently as I spoke of my so called greatness.
“Say, how about yours? Your grades must be better than mine, ne?”
“I didn’t pass…”
“Eh?”
I haven’t expected this answer. I always believed in the result of her hard working, success! The seed she planted will grow one day. She will gather her harvest of success. However, I forgot to keep in mind the uncontrollable natural phenomenon. Everything crumbled. The smile that was drawn on my face disappeared slowly.
The partner that helped me all the way, lightened my life, softened my suffering and eased my heavy heart, couldn’t reach her goal, but instead kept laughing and shared with me my happiness. On the contrary, I was only selfish who couldn’t lift her pain…couldn’t do anything at all…nothing. My grief was so great that it lasted for days…
It all started when the doctors warned us of our low level in studying and decreasing in grades.
We were informed about this matter during the mid-term exam. With only short time allowed for us to grasp our future and with all our might to fight the remaining obstacles, we couldn’t maintain our current positions and so we fell down beneath our own imaginary assumptions…that we weren’t fit to graduate…
Our path got steep, long and painful, but the bliss of accompanying such friends, we chased after our dreams that we drew in this little university and which we once thought they were impossible to be granted.
Associated with these problems, I encountered more obstacles, on one hand with my memory, and on the other hand with my family whose slight problems seemed intense to me.
On a special night, I was awakened from my small slumber that was perhaps less than half an hour as the loudly shouting of my mom to my careless little brother disturbed me. Knowing that I won’t be able to answer correctly most of the questions of the quiz we’d be having tomorrow, made my mood even worse. I remained awoke analyzing the situation and the worst was portraying a story where I could solve this case…
Mom woke me up early at morning and left to the kitchen. After I finished my daily activity I dashed to the kitchen. “Preparing breakfast for me?” I asked so cheerfully clapping my hands together.
“Make it yourself!” she replied fiercely.
“Thank you…”
Although mom acts somehow cruel, but at heart she’s a kind mother. A serious, analytical kind of person she was.
And as usual, I went to university half asleep. I had to walk all the way from the first floor to the second one, crossing many corridors and passing the cafeteria, the big garden, the library and the Coffee Shop, only to reach my destination. The moment I reached the classroom, my feet were numb. My friends gathered there studying.
“Good morning. You’re early today, aren’t you?!” they said in a dazed manner. I threw my bag on the wall facing the entrance door of my classroom and laid down assigning my hard bag to play the role of a pillow. “Wake me up when the doctor shows up!” I requested as I closed my eyes and took a little nap. I stayed like that until I was awakened from several pokes at my right cheek.
“Not enough sleep, huh?”
“Let Some sleep for some time…” I said moaning.
“But Some must wake up for the doctor has shown up!” she said with a soft voice.
I opened my eyes, stood up from the floor, rubbed both my eyes and yawned looking left and right for a search of the doctor, but she couldn’t be found. The corridor was half empty from students who were either walking or sitting studying before I fell asleep. My friends couldn’t be found even. The one who woke me up was Jasmine, a short hyper, bubbly, cute and kind person, one whom I failed at words to describe. She wore a red ribbon and a red bracelet on her left wrist.
“Where is she?” I asked her.
“Inside the classroom!” she answered putting a smile on her small face.
I said yawning, “I..don’t think I’ll attend the lecture-”
“It’s a four hours lecture. Miss it and you’ll be sorry.” she immediately replied.
“I’m in such a dire pain… Hey, four hours lecture? No way!!”
“Way!!” she exclaimed as she grabbed my bag and entered the class.
I followed her and demanded that we sit back so I could return my face to normal after the little slumber.
We sat on the right side of the classroom, near the right end corner. And she sat on my left side. In spite of the fact that we listened to the lecture attentively, yet we didn’t last long. After spending only one and a half hour, boredom sneaked into most of us. I began falling asleep with a pen in my mouth while she was sighing.
“Oi, still sleepy?” she whispered.
“What do you see?”
“Don’t…just don’t! why don’t you behave well when I sit beside you?”
“I always tend to sit with my Hi- I mean daisuke tome whenever I felt sleepy. Ooh you haven’t seen what she has. Her presence omits a light that can get rid of anything! Sleep, boredom, hung-“
“Stop talking, Some, Jasmine.” the doctor said with a kind voice.
“Ah ok!”
After some moments, I began feeling sleepy again.
“She definitely will catch you sleepy. What are you going to say to her? Or are you thinking of smiling and letting it pass by like you do every day? You better not scandal me!” she whispered and kept saying things I couldn’t get most of it. However to please her, I was forced to fire this sleepiness off me.
I tried to open my eyes as wide as I could, but she complained that I’m too scary to look at. The second try was to write down things that could manage to keep me awake, but I was caught by the doctor as she suspected I was chit chatting with the girl beside me. The third try was to ask her a favor…
“Hey, Jasmine, slap me!” I whispered.
‘HUH??” she spoke in a little loud voice.
“Shhhh!” but it was too late. We got arrested for the second time of the same crime, having a little nice chit chat…
“Again you two are talking?” the doctor gave a face full of anger.
“No, no. No, we’re…uh.. I mean I…was asking for a tissue…she-“ I couldn’t bring any excuses so I lowered my head and waited for my punishment. She surprisingly continued her lecture.
All of my tries failed. I had never been more anxious in my life. I spent the last two and a half endless hours trying to get sleep out of me, but it seemed glued on me. I scratched the back of my head trying so desperately to figure out a way to fully wake up. There wasn’t much to do to pass time. Whenever I looked at her, her pout face made the mission difficult to accomplish. “What a day…”
The lecture, which lasted more than 4 hours and seemed like eternity, has ended. Finally, we were free for the time being, able to go and walk beyond the limits of the classroom. Jasmine stood up and left without uttering a word or even looking at me. I kept glaring at her till she went out from the back door and disappeared from my sight.
“Aah she seems angry…”
I turned front and saw Hikari.
I gave a small sigh.
“What? You’re not following her? Don’t you want to resolve your quarrel?”
“I want to, but I don’t know what to say…If only we could transmit our feelings without the need to form words and utter them…”
“It’s not impossible.”
“Oh really? Ah I remembered! Y-yeah, it’s not impossible. I must try it once.” I agreed with her when the ‘positive programming’ popped into my head.
“Wait here.”
“Where are you going?”
Without answering my question, she ran toward the back door.
It lasted 5 minutes since the time Hikari left and the girls began their crazy party or so as they called it.
They turned off the lights while the windows were all covered in blinds. The classroom was dark. It looked more like a haunted classroom. They didn’t stop at this point, but rather they acted like ghosts, putting powder on their faces and wore black rug that they brought for the presentation and made the atmosphere more likeable for one’s tension which was down to hit high. I enjoyed the commotions they started to the extent that I participated. I crouched down behind a desk positioning myself for a chance to attack. I watched as a figure slowly appeared from outside the classroom and she walked inside to the left side corner in the same row where I sat on. She gave a tug and the binding opened. The sunlight shone so brightly beside her. The light revealed her to be a young girl with brown eyes and long brown hair that extended to the waist wearing a pink cute girlishness dress. I stocked my head up a little to peek. I remembered an old saying, ‘You never get a second chance to make a good first impression!’. My first impression on her was made mostly on her physical appearances. She looked familiar somehow, but as far as my mind could search nothing could be brought into similarities, but the calmness of her actions. I swore I saw someone who has that part of personality.
Beside of that, I roamed around scaring some students and lightening the atmosphere. Without realizing from amusement, I found myself standing in front of Jasmine and Hikari. The state I was in when they arrested me wasn’t of a good one. I’ve been caught with my face filled with powder, posing like a ghost with hands raised up and mouth opened like a lion roaring…
“Ah…”
“What have you done to yourself, Tome?” she asked putting the expression of a confused, bewildered person on her face.
“Playing Ghost Hunt? Haha-“ I couldn’t laugh more, for Jasmine’s pout face has linked the past again to complete the line where we stopped.
“Uh…” I went tongue-tied…again.
“Oh, she has been worried, huh?” she asked facing Hikari while her eyes were fixed on me.
I turned my gaze at Hikari who lowered her head to the ground wringing her hands.
“Embrace me!” I exclaimed as Jasmine was about to walk away.
“Huh?” both of them shouted.
“I-if you did so, you definitely will understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Th-that I’ve never wished to see you angry. That I’m…sorry…”
“Can’t you say you’re sorry-“
“-My words…I…can’t speak…” I interrupted.
“So, what are you doing right now?”
“Speaking with you two.” I said giving a big smile.
“Oh yeah?”
“Listen, everyone has his own way of apologizing and I find words undependable to transmit my regret and my eagerness to resolve this quarrel. However, I’m one hundred percent sure that my heart can get this job done in no time. I’m not telling you to forgive me, but I’m doing the best I can to show you how desperate I was back then trying to smoothen your heavy heart-“
“Desperate?...”
“That’s why I told you, words are untrustworthy!”
“Oh I see now.” She nodded while Hikari let a small smile loose.
“Now that you understood, come! Embrace me!!” I held my arms out for a hug.
“That should be delayed for another time.”
“There’s no time left. Come, do not be afraid. I’m not hiding anything!”
“What are you hiding?” questioned Hikari bending over searching for hidden things somewhere inside the black rug.
“How did you know I’m hiding something? I don’t remember telling you. Who? Who’s the betrayal who told you? Just point her out! Where? Where?”
As I was searching left and right for the criminal, I heard Jasmine’s laughter.
“Hmmm? Glad to see your smile again. Welcome back!”
“Your way of resolving things is amazing!”
“Now has a heavy stone fallen from my heart!” I said smiling.
