Chapter - AN UNUSUAL ENCOUNTER
A Question:
'What is the strangest way to get to know someone?
Some would say, ‘Simple, something like...’
“Hey! Are you the one who decided to swim in the middle of the night in that river full of piranhas? Unbelievable! Do you want to be my friend?” Or any other absurd thing that could happen at any moment. You can say anything that comes to mind, but not what is about to happen...'
THE BEGINNING
“What you see sitting in this car is Shirogane Hiroshi. A 16-year-old boy who will soon be attending his second year of high school. Not overly tall, broad shoulders from years of swimming, a toned physique that highlights his sinewy muscles, straight black hair at the nape of his neck, large blue eyes, an intense and distinctive blue.
Right now, he is moving with his family to a new city and a new home... There it is! They’ve arrived!”
Hiroshi is unloading the boxes to take to the new house, and as usual for some time now, a shadow of sadness hangs over his face... it seems that this move has brought with it more than just boxes to unpack... as if he were carrying a weight inside him.
1:30 a.m.
Hiroshi has finished arranging things in his room when he finds a pair of binoculars in a box and decides to go out onto the terrace of his room to see what is in this neighbourhood he does not know. The night is calm and the full moon shines brightly in the sky.
In the building opposite, about 300 metres away, Nakamura Shinji, a 17-year-old boy, tall, blond, with shoulder-length, slightly wavy hair, a cheeky fringe, an ear full of earrings and big green eyes, is leaning out of his balcony, holding his camera with a long-distance zoom lens, admiring the full moon, which he wants to photograph at all costs.
Suddenly, Shinji notices a glow coming from the building opposite. His curiosity is immediately aroused. He points his camera in the direction of the light and sees a person on a terrace looking through binoculars. Focusing the lens, he notices two big blue eyes. He is puzzled for a moment.
’What is this voyeur doing? Spying on people’s homes! Who knows what he thinks he’ll see... the pervert!
Then he thought:
′But if he saw me, he would think the same thing!
At that very moment, Hiroshi notices Shinji:
’What is this guy doing? Is he looking at me?′
Then he notices the moon and comments:
“Hey mate, the moon is up there and you’re looking at me? ...but no... come on... what am I thinking..."
Unexpectedly, just as Hiroshi is about to finish his sentence, Shinji timidly raises his hand as if to greet him.
Hiroshi is petrified and wonders:
"Why is he waving at me?"
He turns around to see if there is anyone else that the guy is greeting, but soon realises:
’Actually, there’s no one else here but me, because it’s 1:30 in the morning!
Hiroshi, still not convinced, wants to check and raises his hand slightly to wave back. Shinji smiles and waves back:
"Ah! So you were looking at me too!"
Hiroshi suddenly blushes and runs back to his room, hiding behind the curtain.
’What just happened?′
Shinji, while still perplexed by that person’s shy attitude, smiles incredulously at the situation.
That night, the boys go to bed thinking about the bizarre event.
The morning sun gently filters through the curtains of Hiroshi’s room, announcing the start of a new day. The boy stretches sleepily and gets ready for his appointment with Kobayashi Haruto, his childhood friend, who moved there about five years ago because of his father’s job.
Haruto arrives outside his house and sends him a message on his mobile phone:
<Come down, I’m here.>
Hiroshi comes out of the front door and hugs his friend
“I missed you so much! It’s been so long!”
“I missed you too, my friend! Come on, I’ll take you for a walk and show you around the neighbourhood... we’ll make up for lost time!”
The two boys stop at a nearby park to rest and chat. Hiroshi says to Haruto:
“This area is beautiful! I didn’t think... How are you doing after five years of living here?”
“Fine! I like it here, the people are nice and kind, my schoolmates and neighbours are great!” Haruto replies enthusiastically. Then, in a more serious tone, he adds:
“And you? How are you feeling? After what happened? Do you want to talk about it?”
Hiroshi looks down, but smiles sincerely
“Of course! You know I can talk to you about anything.”
“Also because, apart from what I’ve heard from my parents and your messages, I don’t know the details... Can you explain?” Haruto asks him.
The young man takes a deep breath and begins to speak from the heart.
“What can I say! You know I’m GAY and I’ve never hidden it... even my parents knew and accepted it calmly, while telling me to be careful.”
“Yes, I know, so what?"
“And so I wasn’t careful!" admits Hiroshi, then continues
“I fell in love with a classmate of mine, who reciprocated my feelings, but he was very shy and wanted to keep it a secret because he was afraid of being judged by others and by his parents, who had no idea that he might like men... so I was careful and in fact we always stayed away from our neighbourhood... until one day, in a park, we kissed and...” He pauses.
“And? What? You’re keeping me in suspense!"
Hiroshi continues:
“At that moment, fate would have it that two of our classmates passed by, but we only found out the next day at school.”
Haruto interrupts him
“But it was never a problem for you, and he felt the same way, so what made you move away?”
“I’ll explain,” says the boy, gathering his thoughts.
“As soon as we arrived at school, everyone was talking about that kiss, looking at me with serious eyes and disgusted faces. I didn’t understand why they were looking at me like that... then I found out that my ex-boyfriend, to save himself from his shame, told everyone that I took advantage of him, that with the excuse of our friendship, I took him by force that day, holding him close and kissing him against his will.“.
Haruto was shocked, his eyes wide open:
“Oh my God! Really!? What a coward! What did you do? Did you defend yourself?”
The young man shrugged and replied
“What could I do when no one knew we were together? Everyone thought he was straight, and when those rumours reached the boys’ parents and the headmaster, no one would have believed me because I’ve never hidden my preferences.” He sighed and then continued, “And then the parents started complaining to the headmaster, saying,
’It’s not right that this kid is sitting quietly in class and taking advantage of the weaker kids... what will he do next time?
’And so all those rumours, all that gossip started circulating, incessantly. Also because he confirmed to his parents that I did it by force, because he didn’t have the courage to tell the truth.”
‘And your parents?’
“Mine knew the truth. But by then school was hell for me, both because of the disappointment I felt towards my ex and because I had to give up swimming too, since there were classmates there as well and the rumour had spread... Unfortunately, when you’re labelled in a certain way, there’s no way to get rid of that stain...So my parents made this decision for me, to let me start school again in peace and live happily in a new area.”
Haruto, feeling sorry for him, continues to ask questions:
“But have you heard from him again?”
“Yes,” Hiroshi replied with a sigh, continuing:
“That bastard, when he heard about my transfer, he wrote me a letter, because in the meantime I had also had to change my mobile number, since they were tormenting me there too... They wrote to me: ‘Monster’, ‘Shit faggot’, ‘Pervert’...“.
“Ah! He even had the nerve to write to you! What did he say?”
Hiroshi replied with a smile:
“You won’t believe it, but he apologised for all the harm he had caused me, telling me that he didn’t have the same courage as me to face the situation, the people and the gossip, and that he was so mortified that he couldn’t sleep at night...” He adds:
“It’s the least he could do, considering he made it seem like I was the victim of violence... I don’t even want to think about it anymore...”
After a few moments of silence, Hiroshi asks Haruto:
“By the way, I have a favour to ask you... never tell anyone about this story... make them believe that I’m heterosexual... I’ve decided to start over and never relive anything like this again, promise me!”
“Of course! Don’t worry, you can count on me, mate.”
That same morning, Shinji leaves the house in his tracksuit, together with his best friend, Yuna. She is a girl who lives two floors below him, a year older, with long red hair and large, upturned brown eyes. She has a strong character and sometimes seems cold because she is very determined, but she is very sweet and fond of Shinji. The young people are on their way to a basketball court near their home, for a game with friends.
On the way, he tells Yuna about the previous night:
’You can’t imagine what happened to me last night! I wanted to photograph the moon, but the reflection of a light distracted me. I looked in that direction and saw a guy with binoculars!
“But where?" exclaims Yuna.
’In the building opposite ours.
“Noooo! A voyeur!”
“That’s what I thought... I saw him looking in my direction and tried to get a better look at him, but all I noticed were two big blue eyes,” replies Shinji.
Yuna, interested:
“But is he a boy? Is he young?”
“I don’t know, it was night-time and the lights were off, but he looked young.”
“And what did you do next?”
“Nothing,” he replied with a smile, “I said hello.”
“Are you crazy? Who are you saying hello to? He could be a pervert!" Yuna scolds him, stunned.
“No way! He even said hello to me again!”
At this point, Yuna put her hand on her forehead and shook her head:
“What am I going to do with you!? You’re always so optimistic,” she added, “speaking of optimism, did you go out with Natsumi from third year?”
“No," replied the boy, “I’d like to go out with someone I really like, not just because they’re pretty girls...”
Yuna, hearing his answer, replied:
“There are people who would pay to be as popular as you... Girls fall at your feet and even the boys compete to be your best friend!”
“But that’s not what I’m looking for... people should be with me because they like me and not because they think I’m popular... but then who decided this popularity...”
The two young people arrive at the field and after greeting each other, Shinji starts playing, while Yuna waits sitting with other friends.
After the game, the boy stays for a while to chat and then leaves because he has to go to work.
That evening, after finishing work at the bar near his home, where he works short shifts, he leaves and goes home. He gets undressed, takes a shower and goes out with his hair still wet. He casually looks at the time and notices that it is more or less the same time as the previous night, so he decides to dry his wet hair with a towel and go out shortly afterwards...
Hiroshi, on the other hand, at around 1:00 a.m., still awake, decides to look out from his balcony and looks in the direction of the building where the person who had greeted him the night before lives. After about 5 minutes, he sees the silhouette of someone looking out, and since there is no full moon tonight, it is darker.
At this point, the two young men notice each other, and Shinji, to make sure it is the same person as yesterday, turns on the balcony light and greets him. Hiroshi, seeing him, greets him back, thinking that there is no harm in it, after all, they live in the same area.
After a few seconds, Shinji begins waving both arms in the air to get Hiroshi’s attention, who thinks to himself:
’What is he doing? Is he normal?′
Then he sees the boy go back into the house for a moment and come back out with something in his hand that he continues to wave around. Seeing this, Hiroshi takes his binoculars to get a better look and sees a piece of paper in front of the boy’s face with the words:
’Hi! Who are you?′
′What now? Should I answer? Yes... I’ll do it... let’s see what happens!
So he goes into the house to write his reply.
Shinji sees him come back in and wonders:
’What’s he doing? Is he running away like last night? Oh no! He’s turned on the light in his room... wait... maybe he’ll answer’.
In fact, Hiroshi also comes out with a blank sheet of paper with the words:
‘Hi! I’m Hiroshi, and you?’
Shinji reads it thanks to his camera and comments.
’Hey! He replied! His name is Hiroshi... now I have to reply’.
So he writes his reply on the back of the piece of paper:
“I’m Shinji. Nice to meet you!”
Hiroshi reads it and replies:
“Nice to meet you too. Good night, see you tomorrow!”
Hiroshi waves goodbye and goes back inside:
‘I like his name... it’s cute... what a funny situation... I even tried to see if I could see his face clearly, but he was holding the piece of paper in front of his face... and then that balcony was so dimly lit and confusing’.
