Wishing for a Little Love ~ It's Going to Take Some Time, Part 2
1436 Words
The next day. Wednesday.
From talking about her precious plushie... to talking about her ex's “amazing” figure.
Man, Harumi's still thinking of him. And by him, I mean his body.
I guess that garners at least a minus point for her credibility as Noemi's reincarnation.
As I walk towards the Sango-minato Shiokaze Trail like I always do for the past ten years, I dread the thought of her wasting another hour of our storytelling session getting all too jacked up about some guy's looks.
Speak of the “devil”...
Here comes Harumi, acting oh so coy and about to unleash her gift of gab the wrong way.
However...
“Hi again.”
Instead, I can see a hint of gloom on her face.
“Did something happen to you?”
“Well... it's a long story that will add up to the one we're talking about. Come on... let's hurry... before I...”
Before what? Well, time to huff it home.
It's six o'clock again.
And she opens the hour, still wearing the hint of gloom on her face.
“To continue my story of how I became entangled with Jin...”
***
Anyway, once the binoculars were focused on Jin and his amazing body, I couldn't help but be hot and bothered. It's like... I had a special kind of awakening inside.
And that awakening continued onto the next day.
Because I was so obsessed with his hunky looks, I forgot that there was an English exam today. And yeah, I didn't study the night before.
And before the exam even started...
His eyes were directly fixated at mine, as if he knew who peeked on him the day before via some kind of psychic powers or something.
The next thing I knew...
He banged his right hand on the wall of the school hallway – specifically right where I stood – catching me by surprise.
And then...
He spoke something to me in English, without the heavy Japanese accent.
“Hey... Don't you know we have an exam today? Fortunately, it's an oral one. You'll be graded by how you speak it fluently.”
After a moment of silence, he lets go of me and returns to his own class as the bell rings.
Even though I didn't thank him personally, I knew I would be grateful to him once the exam actually came.
And I did.
Thanks to his suave manner of speaking English, I was able to remember how I can structure sentences in a language other than my own, lightning-fast.
And thus, I passed the oral exam, even though I stumbled in some parts.
The school day then ended. You could never guess how excited I was to meet Jin again, knowing that he was the key to awakening that spark inside me.
And lo and behold!
Once I got out of the school gate, there he was, presenting a bunch of flowers to me!
Yes, I recall! Those roses he gave were the same as the ones that were growing in his garden!
And as you can expect, I gave a hearty “thank you”.
But the thing I didn't expect...
“Miss Harumi Sogawa... would you like to be my girl? The reason's simple: I'm smitten with you and your looks.”
My heart skipped a beat when I heard those words.
Yeah, I admit I'm not the prettiest person in the campus, but all the other girls are pretty in their own rights.
So, I mustered up my courage to say...
“Yes!”
And thus, I became Jin Nakagawa's girlfriend... but not for long.
***
I ask her the obvious.
“So... how long was your relationship with him, and how did that end?”
“Five months. As to how it all ended...”
***
One day, while on my way to school...
Jin was arguing with a man whose bicycle crashed into his.
“You pig! You deserve to be poured a tub of hot coffee on your pathetic little head!”
“Are you threatening me? All over a mere scratch on your bike?”
“You need to be taught a lesson and respect whom the likes of you are really working for – US!”
“That's not the way to treat an innocent policeman! We can settle this amicably!”
“Shut your pork trap! I'll be dissing the likes of you and your fellow goons non-stop until you lose your jobs!”
“That's it! I'm reporting you for disrespect to authority! I'll also have you expelled from your school!”
“Just do it! I don't care!”
That was the point where the immediate world around me was shattered.
A straight-A student, arguing with a policeman with the harshest of words over a simple bike crash?
That was so unlike him.
Or maybe... his true colors have exposed themselves.
After the policeman dashed away from the scene, I approached him.
He knew I was listening to his harsh words earlier.
“So... you've finally seen my dark side, Harumi.”
“What dark side? Did... you have some kind of traumatic experience at the hands of the police?”
“Of course! I was a victim of mistaken identity when I was a kid! They ignored my status as a rich kid and still beat the crap out of me! And now... I'm gonna have revenge on every policeman in Japan for wronging me, and I'm gonna use my wealth and my clout to bring them to their knees!”
“You.. you don't have to do that, Jin! I'm... honestly concerned for you.”
“I am who I am. I'm toxic to toxic a-holes, and I'm wholesome to wholesome people.
“It's time to give them the taste of their own medicine. Ad hominem until they submit their moral standings.
“I'll be their worst nightmare – a toxic yellow glob flailing ad hominem attacks to the Legion of Doom and its goons like that man who ran home crying to his daddy fatso.”
Hearing his sorry justifications for his hatred over a traumatic childhood experience was enough for me.
Enough for me to clench my fist for a few seconds...
...and then slap him with extreme prejudice.
“You jerk! Someone who's possessed by hatred can never learn to love genuinely! From now on... our relationship is over.”
His aura of hatred then turned into an aura of insincere sorrow…
...as he was down on his knees, begging for mercy.
“No, Harumi! You can't just end it all like that!”
“Unless you fix yourself, you can kiss having your girl for the rest of your life goodbye.”
“I just want you to be happy.”
“But how am I gonna be happy with those words of yours?!”
“I didn't mean it that way.”
“Yeah, and you unintentionally hurt me in the process.”
“Getting hurt is good life experience.”
“You think all people have the same amount of pain tolerance?!”
As the birds on the nearby telephone line were crying out to me...
“...Forget it. If it's over, it's over. If I hurt you, I hurt you. End of story. Now scram.”
And thus, I finally let go of my jerk boyfriend. He may be the alpha male, but I'm sure he's no “release candidate male”, as I eventually found out on a social media post I've like not too long ago.
As the name indicates, a “release candidate” pertains to a software version that has the potential to be a stable product and will likely see a release on the market. This version may have some bugs left, but at least it's more stable than the alpha version.
The school bell then rang...
...signaling the beginning of a new school day...
...and the end of my relationship with Jin Nakagawa.
All I wished from him... was a little love.
And he unfortunately didn't deliver.
***
I then ask her...
“Than what happened to him afterwards?”
“As there were many eyewitnesses to his altercation with the policeman, the school board recommended temporary suspension for him. Unless he changes his anti-cop mindset via mental and psychological counseling, he can never ascend to college ever. He, in the meantime, is undergoing home schooling.”
“Well... at least I learned something. A nobody can turn into a nightmare with the worst kinds of traumatic experiences ever.”
“Touche. And from that experience with a wolf in sheep's clothing like him... it's gonna take some time this time to get myself in shape.
“So... that night, I hugged my Woopwoop-kun plushie tight, letting my tears flow onto him.
“I cried as much as I could... until I unknowingly slept with my arms still around him. I even skipped dinner.
“The next day... I swore to myself to not be so blind next time and to find some harmony.”
“And you're still upholding it today, huh?”
“Yeah. And if I ever I fall in love with you – and I sure hope your true colors are bright and colorful – I can be the one.”
“Yeah. So it'll be one more round for experience, and you'll be on the road again.”
“Precisely. Well, anyway... it's a minute until seven. I think we've had our fill. So... good night, Gunpei.”
“Nighty-night, Harumi.”
“Tee-hee! You're copying my line!”
Harumi learned how to bend like a bamboo and came out of her heartbreak stronger than ever.
Learning about her story, sure enough, has earned her an additional point on the resurrection credibility scale.
- Writer
