Over a month passes, and there were no events that threatened Yuki’s life. Jen had gotten bored and even more sullen as he was not needed. He would continue to watch over Yuki from a distance, only allowing himself to be seen by her at the house.
One Thursday afternoon, Yuki opens her locker at school, and finds a letter had been slipped in it from one of the upward silted holes on its front. Intrigued, she opens it up. Her eyes widen at the message within the letter.
Ms. Yuki Hiroshu,
If you could, would you meet me by the trees in the back of the football field after school.
It was unsigned, but her heart was beating faster nonetheless.
A secret admirer…
She hurries and places the books she didn’t need tonight in the locker, and withdraws the few she would need to study. She pockets the letter and after closing the locker door, she hurries out of the school’s front doors. Walking to the right, she turns at the corner and sees the football field at the corner of the fenced in area.
In the back of the football field.
She tries to walk calmly, not wanting to seem overly anxious to find out who it was. The voices of boys yelling as they play football. She soon sees them, kicking the round, white and black ball back and forth towards the goals.
The trees, she notices, were outside of the fence. Not seeing a way to get through the fence, she goes back towards the front entrance to go around the fence. Finally, she gets back to the spot by the football field on the other side of the fence. A young man with unkempt black hair waits for her. His uniform is a little messed up, and she could almost see wrinkles on his sides.
He looks at her and heads towards her.
“Uh, thank you for coming out here, Ms. Hiroshu.”
He bows to her and stays bent over for a few seconds. When he comes up, his face shows a great deal of nervousness.
“I, um, was wondering if, maybe, you’d like to go to the Autumn Festival together…”
Yuki smiles to herself.
“I might consider it, if I knew your name.”
The young man stutters in confusion.
“Oh, that’s right, I haven’t introduced myself yet.”
He clears his throat and stands straight.
“My name is Koji Arimisha.”
Yuki looks at him.
“I can’t seem to place you anywhere. Where have we met? Or, at least, where you saw me.”
Koji stutters some more.
“Well, you see, I mean, what had happened was…”
She patiently waits for him to explain, on the surface at least. Inside she was wanting him to hurry up.
“A friend of mine had been in a class with you, and thought you were a really nice girl. He sort of pushed me into asking you.”
He scratches the back of his head in his uncertainty.
She smiles and lightly chuckles.
“So you don’t even know anything about me?”
The question catches the young man off guard.
“Well, not really…”
Yuki sighs lightly.
“Well, I appreciate the thought, but if you don’t know me, I’ll pass. Sorry.”
She begins to walk away when he runs to her and lightly grabs her wrist.
“Wait, please. I don’t know you, but I want to.”
Turning to look at him, she feels a frown forming on her lips.
“Why?”
A sharpness enters her voice as she begins to lose patience with him. He lets go of her wrist and takes an involuntary step back.
“I, uh, just wanted to. You’re pretty, and I heard that you’re a real nice person.”
Yuki sighs and looks away. She turns around and looks at him.
“I appreciate it, but I can’t, sorry.”
Koji’s head dips.
“Is it, because you’re seeing someone else?”
She blinks in surprise.
“Huh?”
He shifts his weight from foot to foot.
“Several guys have said that you were seen before with a guy in all black. He was rather tough looking and very dark. Some had guessed he was your boyfriend.”
Her eyes light up in anger.
They think Jen is my boyfriend? He’s going to pay for this.
She shakes her head.
“No, he’s not my boyfriend. Just the son of a friend of my father that I had to keep company when he was at work.”
Koji sighs and nods.
“All right. Well, if you change your mind, let me know.”
He starts to walk away, dejected. Yuki sighs, not wanting to have hurt the guy’s feelings, but also not wanting to be with him.
A light sound alerts her to someone behind her. She turns and sees Jen in a crouch.
“Oh, so now I’m a ‘son of a friend of my father’? I told you that a rumor of you having a boyfriend would do you good. It would have kept him away.”
Yuki grinds her teeth and glares at him.
“You’re ridiculous. It wouldn’t have helped. He still would have asked, just as he did right now.”
Jen shrugs lightly, hiding his eyes behind his shades.
“Suit yourself. So, are we going to go home now, or are you going to go after that boy and start necking with him?”
Her cheeks burn red at that.
“You’re impossible. At least he has some manners.”
Jen merely smirks.
“Oh, so you are interested in him. That’s why you’re comparing me and him, trying to see him as somehow superior to me.”
Yuki throws her hands in the air and starts walking away, in the direction Koji went. Jen arches an eyebrow and leaps into the treetops. He watches as she goes after Koji. After a few minutes, she catches up to him. She agrees to go with him, and they part, though not until after she gives him a light kiss on the cheek.
Koji walks away, his head in the clouds. Yuki simply walks away, knowing that Jen was watching her. They head back home, though Jen remains hidden from her sight. She goes straight to her room and shuts the door. Looking around to make sure he wasn’t in there, she locks it and goes to the window to lock that as well.
She goes to her desk and pulls the books out to study.
“Your poor attempts to make me jealous won’t work.”
Yuki jumps as she feels his breath touching her ear.
“Go away! I don’t want to see you.”
Jen smiles and leans against the opposite wall.
“Yes, you’d much rather see old Koji-san.”
His voice drips with sarcasm. She grabs the book she was pulling out and throws it at Jen. He sidesteps out of the way and catches it before it hits the wall.
“It won’t do to damage books that are the property of your school, right?”
She glares at him and extends her hand for the book. He places it in her hand, then pulls it out of her reach as she tries to grasp it.
“Stop it.”
He continues, each time she misses it.
“I said stop it!”
She gets up and turns to hit him, but stops as he holds the book in her face.
“Fine.”
She takes it, and he lets go of it, moving his hands away from the brown book.
A thought crosses her mind, and she reaches into her pocket, and takes out the letter Koji had written to her. She rereads it and looks at the calendar.
“The Autumn Festival starts in a few weeks.”
Jen nods slowly.
“Yes, it does. Are you seriously going to go?”
She looks at him and nods.
“Why not? I’ve heard it’s really interesting. And the shrine gardens are so pretty.”
Jen nods slowly again.
He walks to the window and unlocks it, then opens it and allows the crisp autumn air in. Yuki breathes it in, and slowly lets it out. The scent relaxes her from her annoyance. She glances towards the window, and sees him in his usual spot on the window sill. He looks out, seemingly across space and time. She catches herself staring, and goes back to her book.
Jen looks at her, then turns back to outside the house. His face turns grim, but a fire begins to form in his eyes. Letting out a sigh, he pushes himself out of the window. Yuki notices this, and goes to the window.
“Jen?”
She arrives at the window in time to see him push off the ground and fly past her window. She involuntarily falls backwards to the floor. She sighs and shakes her head.
“He’s going on the roof again.”
Yuki goes back to her seat and sits down.
“He could have just said so, instead of making me worry like that.”
Jen stands on the roof, examining his clenched fist.
“This won’t end well, I know, but I have to see this to the end. No matter the cost.”
He looks up at the clouds and sets his jaw.
“I’ll prevent it from occurring, I swear it.”
