Prologue
“It was absolutely cliche if we are being honest.”
“Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl and at the very end, the girl through many encounters with the boy, returns the same feeling and they end up dating. Even though it happens mostly in Manga and Light Novels, it can’t happen in real life and I for one have firsthand experience with this.”
Hisashi Ogemura, your typical 1st-year highschool boy with no talents and less self-esteem, probably because he is still a Virgin and just got rejected by a 5 year crush that he have been only holding onto.
It was winter season and right before break. He wanted to tell her how she felt. He called her out to the rooftop, saying that he had something important to discuss with her.
“You called?”
“Yea. I’m sorry I called you here so suddenly. It’s just that… you know? We have known each other for years and I want to know what you think of me.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is that. I like you. Will you please go out with me?!”
Hisashi’s head banged on the table of the local barbecue joint. In shock over what has just happened.
“What a fool I am for thinking I had a chance.”
“So after 5 years of unrequited love, I decide to confess my love for her.. And for what?”
“So you got rejected by her?”
Hisashi hung my head in shame as the person he was talking to said those lines.
Tokio Asagawa, Hisashi’s best friend, one who has been with him since they were in grade school, so in a sense, he would be in the same category as a childhood friend. Though they may be friends, Tokio is extremely popular with girls and Hisashi can’t say that he can’t see his charms. Athletic, charming, nice and handsome. The dream guy for most girls.
Upon hearing that Hisashi was going to confess to Suzuki, he immediately booked a reservation at the local barbecue. So as to celebrate, or in this case, mourn for his defeat.
“Y-yea.. What about it?” Hisashi said, with hesitation in my voice.
“What did she say?”
“S-she said she already has a boyfriend. They’ve been dating for 2 years already..”
He avoided all sorts of eye contact with Tokio, since he had a feeling that he knew what was going to say to be said following the series of events that had just transpired.
“Seeeeeee? This wouldn’t have happened if you followed my advice and just became straight about your feelings with her from the get-go. You can’t just win her heart over just by pretending to act all coy around her and pretend nothing is going on. She was bound to be taken up by someone else. Dude, this isn’t a Manga.”
Those last few words hit him pretty hard, since the way he tried to approach her was by employing the tactics protagonists used in their daily encounters with the heroine.
“Your eyes have the typical ‘I can’t believe that my Manga betrayed me’ look that your kind give off.”
“It’s not like I could help it either way. I act all tough and confident when in reality, I have no social experience and to top it all off, I’m a pathetic virgin with no sexual experience as well!” tears rolled off my face as his uttered those words, probably seasoning the cooking meat even more.
“Yea, yea. Come on. Eat up all you want for today. My treat. At least you had some decency to finally confess to her instead of letting this sit for god knows an eternity.”
Both of them heaved a heavy sigh as they ate in absolute silence, when a figure dashed and crashed just beside their table. Glancing over revealed a young girl with red hair just slumped over on the floor, tripped, over a piece of meat that dropped due to Hisashi’s ignorance, dropped, and as she dashed across, was stepped upon. She wore clothes that tomboyish girls would normally wear, a jacket, jeans, sport shoes and even headphones around her neck.
Hisashi immediately went to help the fallen girl up and doing so, she gave him a deadly look, which frightened him almost to death more than anything, before she turned around and left.
“Not your lucky day, huh?” Tokio snickered.
Hisashi just blew his comment off but upon looking at the place where she fell, there was a purse just lying there, realizing that it belonged to the young girl from earlier.
“Did she drop it when we fell?”
Instinctively, Hisashi picked up the purse and ran out of the barbecue place, leaving Tokio alone, not that he minded. After running around aimlessly for a few minutes, he returned to the shop only to find her on the way back sitting at the taxi stand, crying. Probably at a loss of what to do due to her missing purse
“U-uh hey, this might be yours,” Hisashi said softly, as he reached out her purse to her.
The young girl immediately shot up, took the wallet and looked inside it, probably to either confirm if it was really hers and to confirm if he had stolen or tampered with anything on it. Upon finishing her inspection, she glanced at him with another furious expression, but this time, less threatening than before but far more grateful
“Hmph, at least this makes up for that fact you did a number on my butt,” she muttered as she put her purse away.
He stared at her with cold, dead eyes out of disbelief over what he had just heard and said, “Would you have preferred it if I kept the wallet instead?”
She didn’t reply to the rhetorical question, but instead choosing to give Hisashi a peck on the cheek. Blushing but choosing to view the kiss as a thanks, he backs away from the girl, oozing with embarrassment.
“Izumi. Izumi Takahara. That’s my name”
“Hisashi Ogemura”
“Well Ogemura-kun, I have a feeling we’ll meet again,” she said with a warm smile which broke the demonic impression Hisashi first had on her.
In a few moments, she left, leaving him alone at the taxi stand. After that, he went back to the barbecue place, with her words running in his mind on repeat: “I have a feeling we’ll meet again.”
“So did you hit it off with her?”
“Sh-shut up! This isn’t like a Manga!”
“Oh? Finally choosing to accept reality?”
“Shut! It!”
