Toji and Kensuke were wandering down the halls to 2-A, many minutes after lunch break had ended. Despite every classroom door being closed, their loud bickering managed to bleed through the walls into every room; students from other grades listened to their muffled, but audibly heated, argument. While no one could make out the exact words, it was obvious they were trying to trade the blame for something to the other, a long-standing habit of theirs.
The war of words died down as the duo reached their class door, trying to slide open the door as inconspicuous and quietly as they could. About to step foot through the doorway, Toji found himself bumping into Kensuke’s back as he froze.
“What gives?” Toji whisper-yelled.
“Don’t make it obvious you’re looking,” answered Kensuke, “but the class rep is staring us down. She looks mad.”
Kensuke stepped in as light-footed as he could, Misato not bothering to discipline them as the two troublemakers regularly showed up late. As Toji followed, he observed Hikari’s seat through his peripheral vision – sure enough, her eyes were narrowed down on the two, brows lowered and curved inwards. She certainly wasn’t happy with them.
As the two moved towards their seats, Hikari’s gaze followed. Shinji and Rei’s seats were unexpectedly empty, keeping her stare unbroken as Toji and Kensuke sat down. They both refused to acknowledge it, setting their eyes towards the front of the class and grabbing out their laptops. Their fingers gracelessly clacked away at the keys as they messaged each other to discuss.
SuzuharaT: wtf
SuzuharaT: y is class rep mad at us
AidaK: idk
AidaK: shin n new girl arent here
AidaK: prbly smthn with that
SuzuharaT: hows that our problem???
AidaK: dude i will hit you on the head again
SuzuharaT: ill punch u
SuzuharaT: really tho what we do
AidaK: u did make her cry
SuzuharaT: not my fault
AidaK: r u serious
The rapid increase in keyclacks from the two signalled that their debate had shifted from the school hallways to their school messenger, Hikari’s glance eventually shifting back to the board as she realised they wouldn’t be paying attention to her anytime soon. She still had schoolwork to do, anyways.
Before they knew it, the end of their second day back had finally arrived as Misato dismissed the class. While most of the class got up to leave, Toji and Kensuke sank behind their laptops, trying to make themselves invisible to any observers. They watched as Hikari got up to leave with the rest of their cohort, followed by Misato, leaving them the only people in the room.
The two looked at each other, nodding to sign a silent contract for neither of them to ever speak of today’s events ever again. They quietly grabbed their stuff and began quickly walking out single-file, trying to speedily make their escape from school. Unfortunately for them, the moment they stepped foot out of class they were met face-to-face with Hikari, her face more furrowed and angry than before.
“You two!” she shouted, finger jutting out towards them. “What did you do to Shinji and Rei?”
“What do you mean, what did we do to Shinji and Rei?” Kensuke laughed, acting as clueless as he could as he scratched the back of his head.
“I watched you trail behind them at lunch,” Hikari explained, “and then they didn’t come back to class. I know you two have something to do with it!”
Kensuke pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Well I’ve–”
“IT WAS KENSUKE’S IDEA!” Toji interjected as Kensuke’s eyes went wide in disbelief. “I DID’N HAVE NOTHIN’ TO DO WITH IT!”
“You’re the one who made her cry numbnuts!” retorted Kensuke, punching Toji in the shoulder.
“MADE HER CRY?!” replied Hikari, hand shaking.
“Yeah Toji!” Kensuke cried, shifting himself over to Hikari like he was an innocent party. “You’re terrible for making a girl cry!”
“Don’ act like ya weren’t the one askin’ the bad questions!” Toji grumbled through gritted teeth, arms folded over each other.
Hikari turned to face Kensuke, her face tinged with red. “What questions, Aida?”
“Uhh… y’know…” Kensuke began waving his hands around as if that explained it.
“HE ASKED SHINJ ABOUT ‘IS PISS!” Toji shouted with a jutted finger poking into Kensuke’s nose. “I JUST ASKED ‘IM WHAT’S WITH THE GIRL DRESS-UP?! NOT NEARLY AS MESSED UP AS FOUR-EYES OVER HERE!”
Kensuke’s face paled as the blood drained from his face in fear. Conversely, Hikari’s eyes looked ready to bulge out of her head as the blood rushed through her face in anger. She yanked the pair’s heads down by whatever ear of theirs was in closest proximity to her, pulling their faces closer to her thousand-yard stare. She took a deep breath in, ready to rattle the halls with rage, but calmly exhaled as she considered her other options.
“You two are on bathroom cleaning duty for the rest of the week,” she announced with a much steadier voice, her anger beginning to subside. “And I expect you two to go and apologise to Shinji once your duties are over.”
“Like you ‘ave the power to make us do it,” muttered Toji.
“Unless, of course,” Hikari went on as her voice began to raise, “you want to have Ms Katsuragi deal with it?”
Hikari had raised her voice as Misato conveniently walked past, of course, and the clink of her heels against the hardwood floor had stopped as she overheard the tail end of that sentence.
“What am I dealing with?” she chimed.
“Nothing, Ms Misa– Katsuragi!” an anxious Kensuke replied, knowing that whatever punishment she had in store for messing with one of her favourite students would be a lot more dire than a few days of bathroom duty. Kensuke proceeded to awkwardly salute his teacher as if she was his military commander, and with neither of the other students present debating his statement, the now slightly confused Misato continued on her way.
Toji, who’d realised his mouth running on full throttle was getting him nowhere good, silently stood by with his hands outwards and a face of embarrassment directed towards Kensuke. He felt a small chunk of metal fall into his half-opened palm.
“That’s the key to the cleaning closet,” Hikari commented as she began to walk away. “Don’t lose it, or you might have to clean the bathrooms with your mop heads.”
Kensuke began to mope his way out of the school, too ashamed to crack any sort of jokes or fire a comeback. Toji followed close behind, tightly clenching the key in his hand.
To the relief of everyone involved, the rest of the school week was a lot more uneventful. Shinji and Rei were back in class the following day, both acting like nothing had happened. They continued to eat their lunches in the same small nook, this time remaining undisturbed as Toji and Kensuke worked away at the caked-on stains of the school’s bathrooms.
Hikari was not so lucky. Just as she had the two days prior, the awful sound of metal chair legs attacking the floor announced the presence of Asuka, who sat herself next to Hikari, albeit this time without a word exchanged. The two ate their lunch without acknowledging the other, both their gazes directed forward.
This same stunt was repeated the next day, once again in complete silence. Hikari briefly glanced over at Asuka, trying to figure out what was going on in her head; Asuka appeared to be lost in her own world, and didn’t acknowledge the look she had received. Hikari returned to staring forward for the rest of lunch.
By the time Friday’s lunch break had arrived, with Asuka performing her usual schtick, Hikari had become more intrigued by it than annoyed. This intrigue quickly cascaded inside of her, until she found herself unable to do anything but initiate a conversation with the girl beside her.
“What are you hoping to achieve here?” Hikari asked, her head turned towards Asuka.
“I already told you,” she responded, head unturned; “to each my lunch with you, which will make you my friend.”
“But you don’t even speak to me.”
“I don’t need to! Is my presence not enough for you, Miss Class Rep?”
Hikari’s face furrowed as she watched Asuka’s face curl a smug smile in response.
“You know, calling me by name would be a good start.”
“As you wish, Hikari,” Asuka droned, drawing out her name as if to emphasise that it was something she was saying against her will. “Does that appease you, my liege?”
Hikari sighed. “I don’t think I’d want to be friends with the person who takes pride in terrorising her ex-best friend.”
“I don’t ta– I’m not ter– UGH! I already told you she wasn’t my best friend! You ask too many stupid questions.”
Asuka huffed out her chest and crossed her arms, still facing towards the board. Normally, this would be where Hikari would let the conversation die, but something about Asuka’s motivations had her enraptured. To her, they were borderline nonsensical – why hang out with her? It’s not exactly like she was popular, policing the halls at lunchtime and staying back after school to clean up her class; if Asuka was trying to make anyone jealous, she’d already failed.
That was nothing to say of her crusade against Shinji, which the more Hikari thought about, the less it made sense. She could write it off as the girl simply being transphobic, but if that was her only intent she was certainly going out of her way to keep using the right terms. Hikari was sure, at the very least, that her heart wasn’t in it. That it was something else.
Hikari wanted to figure Asuka out. She weighed up her options, mentally scrolling through a list of reasonable ones before settling on something a bit stupider, bolder. Something that would appeal to Asuka.
“Friends invite their friends over to their house, right?” Hikari spoke into the open air.
Asuka turned to her, a single eyebrow raised. “Are you trying to imply something here?”
“Nothing, the thought just crossed my mind.”
“I’m not stupid, Hikari. You want to come over after school, because I’m just that cool.”
“If the offer’s open, I guess.”
This sudden change in tone seemed to catch Asuka off guard, and her facial expression loosened up a bit in response.
“Aren’t you busy after school? With class rep things?”
“It’s the end of the week, I’m free to go.”
“Buuuuuuuut…” Asuka drew out the word as she leant backwards, “I’m sure you’re against the idea of hanging out with someone so below you.”
“I like to keep an open mind.”
Asuka locked up before responding. The confidence she’d exuded earlier had melted away, and she was suddenly a lot cagier about making a friend out of Hikari.
“...Sure. See you after school, then.”
The gravel had begun to scratch away at the finish of Asuka’s shoes as she dragged her feet along the ground, trying to slow herself down as much as humanly possible. Every few steps, she’d turn her head around to check if Hikari had left her and gone home, yet each time she found her continuing to trail her instead. The two travelled silently, Hikari simply following Asuka after class ended as she didn’t wait for her. She got the sense she wasn’t wanted there, but walked along anyway.
Asuka could spot her house up the road. She’d done all she could to procrastinate, but she knew she had to enter with her plus one soon. Another head check, and sure enough, Hikari was still there.
As they travelled up the driveway, Hikari took notice of the house’s mailbox. It was stuffed full of letters, some frayed around the edges from wetness. They looked like they had gone untouched for a long while.
Asuka decided it was time to break the silence as she twisted the door key. “Well, we’re here.”
A soft click signalled that the door was open, and she pushed it open before stepping inside. The entranceway was dark, but she didn’t bother turning on a light before knocking off her shoes and continuing inward. Hikari followed Asuka’s silhouette, performing the same courtesy as she realised the entire house was just as dark.
As they ventured further in, Hikari spotted a light switch on the wall and flicked it to the on position. To her surprise, there was no change in the room’s luminance.
“Don’t bother,” muttered Asuka. “The lights here died a while ago.”
They were in what Hikari could make out as the kitchen. Dishes were stacked high by the sink, the tap of which had fallen into a rhythmic drip. The dinner table looked long-unset, the chairs meant to be slotted underneath it strewn around the surrounding floor. She couldn’t see very well, but she could swear there was a thick layer of dust buildup on top of it too.
She continued to trail Asuka, walking down a hallway strewn with wrinkled clothes and random trash. She could feel something crunch under her foot; she chose not to investigate for her own wellbeing. Eventually, they hit the end of the hall, where Asuka opened a door and finally turned on a working light.
The room behind the door might as well have been from a different house, as it was properly maintained and not covered in trash. It was safe to assume this was Asuka’s bedroom, as she quickly crashed onto her bed after dropping her bag.
“So…” Hikari awkwardly began, unsure of what to make of Asuka’s living situation. “Your family lives here?”
“What kind of stupid question is that?” jeered Asuka. “Of course they live here, I can’t afford to live on my own.”
“Your house doesn’t look very lived in.”
Asuka shot her a dirty look, wordlessly telling Hikari that she did not want to talk about it.
“So, do you wanna keep interrogating me, or do you wanna do something?”
“Well, what did you have in mind?”
Asuka got up off her bed, wandering over to a neatly stacked pile of disc cases by a small, boxy television screen. She grabbed two off the top of the pile, holding them up for Hikari to see.
“I’ve got Sega Rally, and I’ve got Daytona. Pick one.”
Hikari recognised the names from her family’s game collection at home. “Oh, I don’t really play video games…”
“Right, right,” Asuka responded, lowering her arms. “I should’ve known that Miss Hikari Horaki was too good for an activity as lowly as gaming!”
Hikari waved her hands in the air in apologetics. “No, I didn’t mean it like that! I meant like… I don’t know if I’d exactly be fun to play against.”
Asuka looked at her with intrigue as she processed that statement, before returning one of the discs to the pile. “Daytona it is.”
She walked over to the TV screen, under which lived a few boxes of varying purposes hooked up to it. She removed the disc from the disc case, and placed it inside one of those boxes; as it whirred to life Asuka threw Hikari a controller.
“Now since you’re an amateur,” explained Asuka, gesturing at the screen; “you should pick the automatic car ‘cause it basically does everything for you.”
Hikari wondered if she was being talked down to or if Asuka was genuinely trying to help her understand the game, her tone for once not betraying her intentions. She also wondered if it was really a wise idea to be sticking around a house of this condition as she quickly cooked up a few excuses to get out of there in her head, but dismissed them as she selected the car as Asuka had told her.
Soon enough, the game had started, their cars racing into action. Once the start text had rolled off screen, though, Hikari’s car had rolled to a stop. Asuka paused the game, and Hikari got ready to be berated for her ineptitude.
“Y’know, you have to hold the B button to keep your car moving,” Asuka stated in a much calmer voice than Hikari expected. “I’ll restart the race for you.”
“Thank you,” Hikari responded with a smile.
“...Only this time though,” added Asuka, already mashing away at the buttons on her controller to get back through the menus. Even with her face turned away from her, Hikari swore her trademark smug smile had already returned.
The race began again with Hikari’s car actually moving along the track at her command. It, however, never stood a chance at catching up to Asuka’s, whose car ducked and weaved the computer racers as it easily snapped up first position. Clearly, she had had a lot of experience with the game, and she wasn’t letting up for the sake of giving Hikari a good first experience – not that Hikari minded, her brain more focused on the fact that she wasn’t sure the Asuka sat next to her was the Asuka from her class. While she was still as competitive as ever, her face tensed up as she was engrossed in the race, every other element of her ego had seemingly melted away.
Asuka leapt upwards as her car crossed the finish line first, making a show of herself for her audience of one. Hikari’s car was miles away in game, eventually defaulting as the timer ran out. She calmly placed down the controller as Asuka turned back to her.
“Another round?”
Hikari nodded, and they raced again. And again, again, again until Hikari had managed to climb the racer count to a podium spot; Asuka kept up her pole position each time. Once the last race had finished, Asuka kicked back and laughed.
“Keep practising and maybe you’ll be almost as good at this as me!” she cackled.
Hikari couldn’t help but return a giggle, surprised to have found herself enjoying her time competing against Asuka. They laughed together for a bit, before the room died down to the buzzing of the TV mixing with the music on the Daytona menu.
“It’s getting late,” said Hikari, her eyes catching the clock sitting above them. “I should probably head home...”
Asuka quickly jumped up, not responding but her expression drooping. She walked out her room, and Hikari followed close by, not wanting to take a solo trip through the rest of the house. When they reached the front door, Asuka stepped aside, allowing Hikari to walk through. Her face perked up again, imbued with an idea.
“Let’s do this again next Friday, alright?!” she shouted, one hand on her hip and the other pointed at Hikari. “As the best Daytona player, you can only get better by hanging around me!”
Hikari took a second to consider the offer, before remembering there was another duty she still had as Class Representative. “Alright… on one condition.”
Asuka seemed taken aback by her not immediately accepting the proposal, leaning forward with her eyes squinted. “What condition?”
“You apologise to Shinji.”
Now Asuka was really taken aback… was all that to get her to apologise to Shinji? She couldn’t believe the audacity of it all. What was left of her smile vanished, and her hands began to shake.
“See. You. At. School.” She gritted through closed teeth, enunciating each word as if it were its own statement. And with that, the door slammed shut on Hikari, leaving her with nothing but the setting sun and her own thoughts as she considered if that was the right way to go about it.