In the evening…
'Uh! I can't believe it! I'm really too short!' I moaned, hanging my head a little.
Even when I would stand on tiptoe, my hands wouldn't reach the upper-corner part of the bay window.
I decided to jump to see if I could reach it, but still, to no avail.
'My hands- can't reach!'
'Want me to fetch you a ladder?' called a familiar, male voice, in all of a sudden.
Looking around instantly, my eyes fell onto Shunsui Shigeizumi, who had appeared out of nowhere.
I was extremely surprised to see him. The company was closed at this hour, and my team and I were in charge of the cleaning.
'Shunsui!' I breathed.
'Hey!' he called, with a pleasant smile, giving me a small wave of the hand.
I half-ran to join him.
'I was passing by when I saw you from downstairs through the window!' he told me, and I was further surprised. He came all the way up here to see me?
'I see,' I said, smiling at him.
'Wanna have a drink with me?' he asked me. 'I saw a vending machine in the lobby downstairs!'
'Yes, alright!' I nodded, pleased. 'They allow us a few pauses of five minutes!'
'Great!' he exclaimed, and sending his arm around my neck, he led me to the elevator.
In no time, we were in the entrance hall on the ground floor and striding our way up to the vending machine, which sells canned drink, situated against the left-hand-side wall.
I thought about asking him how his rendezvous had gone by, but given the nature of the rendezvous, I decided to avoid this question.
'So, what did you ask of Gōjun?' he inquired, in a casual tone, and my expression turned a bit awkward. That was another question I wished to avoid.
'Well...' I said, hesitantly, scratching my cheek in embarrassment.
I had no idea how to explain what had happened- our going boating together, getting soaked in the lake, and my near drowning. I was simply out of words.
'What an interesting expression you're wearing!' he declared, eyeing me with a mischievous look, while he slipped a coin in the slot of the machine and pressed a button. 'It's okay. You don't have to say anything. I'm going to ask Gōjun about it anyway.'
'I- I see,' I giggled, awkwardly. I could already imagine his face when Gōjun would tell him about it.
'Kirigakure!' came a voice from behind me, at that moment.
I looked down at the hand that had closed around my right upper arm on the spot, then at the face of the person to whom the hand and the voice belonged to.
'Jojima-san!' I said, and the young man responded with a smile.
Aged twenty-three, Hibiki Jojima worked for the company in which premises we actually were. He was a young man of average height, and was slender, with disheveled, honey-blond hair, and fair skin.
'Can I borrow her for a minute?' he asked Shunsui, before telling me, 'I have something to discuss with you.'
My eyes went wide at him. It had to be what I was thinking!
The reddish-brown-haired young man gave him a small nod in answer, and excusing myself from the latter, feeling embarrassed at having to abandon him for a few minutes, I shifted a small distance away with the blond male to speak with him.
'I've been able to talk to my friend about you,' he informed me, directly, and I held my breath in anticipation. 'He thinks he can do something for you.'
'Really?' I asked, enthralled.
'Yes,' he replied, chuckling at my reaction. 'He has a business rendezvous at Kanno Hotel this Saturday. His rendezvous will end at 8:00 pm. He'll meet you directly there after that.'
'Kanno Hotel. 8:00 pm,' I repeated to myself, to make sure that I had processed the information, before I confirmed that it was okay for me.
'Well, then, see you on Saturday!' he concluded, giving me another smile. 'Be punctual and don't forget to bring all your documents!'
I nodded in answer, and thanked him heartily, before I parted with him to move to Shunsui again to join him.
The latter had been watching us from the distance, and the moment I reached him, I asked him again to forgive me for having abandoned him.
'Don't worry,' he told me, and handing one of the two canned drinks he had in his hand to me, he inquired, 'Who is that guy? Does he work here?'
'Yes,' I replied, accepting the drink, and taking out my purse, I removed a coin out of it to put it in the palm of his hand.
The reddish-brown-haired young man seemed puzzled by my action, and for half a minute, he simply stared at the coin, before he shook his head once, smiled, and slipped it down the back pocket of his trouser; leaving me a little bewildered.
We began to walk after that, and I carried on to tell him, casually, 'Jojima-san is one of the rare employees who remain by after the closing hours to work till late.'
'Is he your boyfriend?'
My eyes went wide at him in shock. 'What? No!'
'Your would-be boyfriend then?'
'Of course not!' I said, waving my hand from side to side in front of my face at him. 'I could never think of going out with someone like him!'
'Why?' he asked, looking at me in the face now.
At this question, I cupped my chin thoughtfully.
I had never thought of Hibiki Jojima in this way. But, as a general assumption in regards to any young man of his stature…
'Well, because someone like him and someone like me do not live in the same world,' I answered, finally, with a goofy smile. 'He's very rich. And I, I come from a poorer background. We won't look good together! I could never think of marrying someone who comes from a different social class than myself!'
Without giving any warning, he jerked to a stop and flung around to face me completely.
My heart skipped a beat at the scathing look on his face and I jerked to a stop too.
'I can't believe my ears!' he spat at me, angrily. 'So, for you, someone who is rich cannot go out or even marry someone who comes from a poorer background?! For you, people can only be defined by their money?! Do you think that someone who is rich is incapable of loving or something?! Do you think that they're incapable of having true feelings for someone who comes from a different background than themselves?! Do you think that the girl or the boy who comes from a different class must feel inferior in front of the rich?!' He shook his head at me in revulsion, asking me, 'Do you realize that you sound exactly like the other students of our school?!'
I stared at him, completely frozen.
Shaking his head at me again, he flung back around and flounced away.
'Oh, Shunsui...' I breathed, staring after him until he was out of the door, my emotions in turmoil.
***
'Oh Hime...' Shunsui Shigeizumi murmured to himself the moment he came out of the building, and backing up against the wall by the side of the entrance door, he closed his eyes for a few seconds, before he lifted his head to gaze at the sky. 'I'm sorry that I had to be a little harsh with you. That was a bit brutal, but I knew that you were going to give me that kind of answer. It is important that you change your vision of things.'
He was confident that the dark-haired girl will broaden her vision after what he had told her, and on this positivity, he left for his house.
Once he was indoors, he made directly for his bedroom to find the small treasure box that he kept in one of the night tables by his bed. Taking the coin, the dark-haired girl had given to him out of his pocket, he sat himself on his bed to gaze at it.
'I'm going to keep this as a souvenir,' he said to himself, smilingly, and slipping the cover of the small wooden box up, he placed the coin at the bottom of it amongst his other treasures, before he shook his head at himself and chuckled.
***
For hours, I pondered over what Shunsui had said and I ended up asking myself if, one day, it happened that I have a friend who tells me that she is going out with or marrying someone from a higher social class than herself, what I would feel. Would I find it strange? Would I think that he'd be incapable of loving her, and that she should feel inferior? The answer was definitely no. The problem, thereby, was that I applied this opinion to myself, and this made me realize that I had an inferiority complex. And if I had this inferiority complex, it was because Shunsui was right- I was defining people by their social class and money. And this led me to realize how much my way of thinking was wrong, and that in the end, I was doing the same thing as the other students of the school.
When we look at people, we have a tendency to see only their social class, their status in society, the position that they occupy. We do not try to look beyond these things, such as at the character of that person or his feelings towards others. The heart was important. Yes, the heart.
I have to apologize to Shunsui, I said to myself but, when I got home, it was too late to call him.
That night, I was unable to sleep, and in the morning, after having made a fleeting visit at the hospital and the shrine, I arrived at school earlier than usual, so much I felt agitated. I decided to wait for reddish-brown-haired young man at the gate. When he finally arrived, the bell was about to ring, and Gōjun was with him.
I stood properly up when I saw them, and opened my mouth to speak to Shunsui, but the reddish-brown-haired young man went past me to enter the courtyard of the school without looking at me, cutting me dead.
My heart clenched.
Shunsui...
He was angry and offended.
Gōjun paused down somewhere through the gate to look at me, then at Shunsui's back, puzzled by the latter's behavior. Apparently, the reddish-brown-haired young man hadn't told him anything.
Taking another glance at me, he would then run to catch up with the reddish-brown-haired young man, and I heard him ask the latter what was going on and why he was ignoring me.
Feeling ashamed and dejected, I hung my head and didn't shift from where I was until the bell rang.
When I entered our classroom, my eyes were searching for the two males. They were sitting at their respective desks, and they looked at me as I walked in. Taking my courage with both hands, I thought about giving it another try, and was about to go to speak with Shunsui but, he cut me dead once again. The moment he saw me approaching, he thrusted his hands into his pockets and lounged backward in his chair, turning his face away to stare out of the window.
I felt another ache in my heart, and I slowed down my pace.
He was really angry.
My eyes shifted onto Gōjun.
Shunsui must have told him by now about what happened, but the latter didn't appear to be angry; he was watching the two of us uneasily.
When my eyes returned onto Shunsui, it was to find the reddish-brown-haired young man still looking away out in direction of the window, his expression grave.
Feeling utterly dejected, I sat myself down at my desk as I reached it, losing the little courage I had been able to muster up.
When lunchtime arrived, however, I had come to a decision- I was going to speak to Shunsui no matter what and apologize to him- and with renewed courage, I sprang to my feet and turned around to search for him, only to find his desk and that of Gōjun, empty.
I shrank.
Where are they gone?
I had been so much absorbed in my thoughts all this while that I had stopped paying attention around myself.
Turning back around, my eyes fell onto the two males where they were walking out of the door.
My heart accelerated in my chest.
Picking up the multi-storied bentō box that I had brought, I began to run after them. They were already quite far away in the corridor.
'Shunsui! Gōjun!' I called out, desperately.
The reddish-brown-haired young continued to ignore me, while Gōjun took a glance at me over his shoulder as they continued to walk.
I accelerated my pace, refusing to give up this time when, abruptly, I was intercepted by Satori Hasegawa and his two friends, Shuji Toriyama and Aruto Hidaka.
'Oya! Oya! Oya! Where are you running like this, you little dwarf!' exclaimed Satori Hasegawa as he caught me by my waist to throw me backward.
I stumbled once, only to back up against the side wall, as his friends and he stepped in closer to me, their expression filled with malice.
'Don't you know that it's dangerous to run around like this in the corridor?!' demanded the boy Shuji Toriyama, slamming his palm down on the wall by the side of my head, making me to jump.
All three young men were hovering at me, and I was filled with distress.
'Just look at her, guys! She's so short that she resembles a dwarf!' sniggered Aruto Hidaka, and Satori Hasegawa demanded at me, mockingly, 'Oi, didn't you drink enough milk when you were kid?! That's why you're so short!'
At this, they laughed amongst themselves, while my eyes began to sting with tears.
That's so mean!
***
'Oi, do you intend to keep on ignoring her like this indefinitely?' Gōjun inquired, his eyes returning from the dark-haired girl to onto the reddish-brown-haired young man walking by his side.
'It seems to worry you,' the latter pointed out to him, with a contemplative look, combined with a teasing smile.
At this, Gōjun stiffened, and thrusting his hands in his pockets, he turned his face away to grumble, 'I'm not worried! I'm just saying that I think she's got the message you wanted to pass to her alright! Not to forget that I just hate that kind of behavior- ignoring someone like this!'
'Right! In other words, you're worried about how she might be feeling,' Shunsui asserted, smiling more widely now.
Looking back at him, Gōjun was about to retort something when, he realized in all of a sudden that he couldn't hear the dark-haired girl calling after them anymore.
As he took a look backward over his shoulders, his eyes instantly fell onto Satori Hasegawa and his two friends who were picking on the girl.
He jerked to a stop, his hand going out to grip Shunsui by the front of his shirt to force him to a stop too.
The latter immediately followed his eyes onto the dark-haired girl and the three boys who were taking on her in the corridor of the school.
Thank you for reading!