Three-way manga stand-off
I was really hoping for that to work and Akari to come back. I guess miracles really don’t work nowadays. It has only been five minutes so maybe if I give it more time…
Wait, that white haired dude. Wasn’t… what’s his name Aki… right? Yes, Aki. Didn’t he have white hair too. In this manga and in manga in general, unique hair colour people are important characters and with both having white hair…
“Hey. Mary.”
She looked at me. I could do this all day but now’s not the time for this.
“Are Aki and Kuro related?”
“Yea? They’re brothers.”
“I see. Thanks.”
“Why?”, she asks, getting me all excited. Wait, no, it’s a natural question. I just thought she wanted to keep talking to me. I got ahead of myself…
“Just… curious.”, I say. It’s true, in a way.
“uhuh…”, she went back to doing what she was doing, which is… studying. I disturbed her.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you.”
“It’s fine.”, she smiled and then went back to studying again.
“I had a feeling you knew…”,I should really stop.
“Well, I’m surprised you didn’t.”, she replied back. I don’t like this.
“Yeah…”, really I got nothing better to say?
“You really are inside your head a lot, aren’t you?”
Ouch, that really hurts. Not like I’ll ever show it to her, maintain my poker face. Don’t let my tears roll out. Please. I’m really bad at playing poker. I’ll just look towards the sky, what a beautiful sky.
“Yeah…”, my new catchphrase. I’m not brave enough to look at her again, she’s probably studying… I should’ve quit while I was ahead.
“Are you alright?”
I’m even hallucinating her voice now…
“Hey… Akari…”, she wouldn’t call me that in my head…
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Thank you.”, I added. Nothing better to do. She smiled and went back to studying again.
The rest of the day was the same, the teachers taught and I counted clouds. Why was I going through this again? Did I even enjoy high school… or well, school in general. Maybe this purgatory or something.
The final bell, rang and everyone left for their clubs. I think. Maybe I should join a club. Back when I was in school, I was in the chess club where I barely played chess… Akari was probably in a football club in his middle school and I have no intention of going there and make them doubt my muscle memory.
Maybe there’s a manga club here, I mean it is Japan. It would be kind of funny if there wasn’t though.
Let’s get up… pack my things and check it out. There was a club notice thing on the first floor and if there’s no manga club, maybe baseball would be my true calling. Always wanted to try it out too.
Right… the first floor. The hallway’s empty. I guess most people are in their clubs or at home. I do miss my home… Not like Akari’s room isn’t great…
There’s the club list, and it looks like my baseball dreams are dashed away. There’s a manga club! My future club!
I wonder, are the manga in this world the same. I could google it but I wanna go to this manga club without any proper knowledge about this world’s manga. I’ll take any moments of funny I can get.
It’s on the top floor. That’s a lot of floors. Are they really trying to make the manga club members exercise more… I really shouldn’t think like that.
Getting up there was easy, way too easy. Moments like this really hammer in that I’m Akari. The manga club’s right through that door, hopefully someone’s there…. And there was. The white haired person with glasses, still reading something. I thought he was reading some sort of a novel but no, he enjoys manga too apparently. Aki.
As soon as I walked in, he noticed my presence or probably just heard the door or my footsteps.
He looked up and smiled, “Akari, I’m surprised to see you here.”
There was nothing else for me to do except smile back and take a seat.
“Are you not joining the football club?”, he asked me.
“No… I wanted to try something new.”
He made an expression that screamed fair enough more than you could actually scream fair enough without being sarcastic. There was no one else in this room.
“Are you the only person?”, a natural question.
“Here?”, he chuckled before adding, “No. There’s someone else here.”
Here? Where? Are they invisible? Is this a supernatural manga?
Moments before I start having a panic attack, the door suddenly opens and reveals Nari.
Did she follow me here…? No… she’s obviously be in the manga club. Why wouldn’t she be? Wait, I thought she wasn’t that much into manga considering that she has no idea about the common tropes, or did she enjoyed this particular manga that much…
“Hey, Akari?”, a voice jolted me back to my senses.
“You aright?”, added Aki.
“Yeah… sorry, I was lost in my thoughts.”
“Happens to the best of us.”, he replied. Am I the best of us? Can’t say I dislike thinking that.
“This is Nari. The one I mentioned before.”
“Right…”
Now what? I really don’t want to be here anymore.
“Have you guys met before?”, asked a curious Aki. It’s almost as if he noticed that something was amiss.
“No. We haven’t.”, Nari answered back, with a pokerface. Which is weird to see considering how much her face was animated back then… did I break her heart a little too much or did she understand that Akari doesn’t exist anymore… for now and is heartbroken?
Aki looked at me, almost as if he already knew my answer. “No, I mean, she’s right. We haven’t met before.”, he’s going to get what he expected, can’t deviate from the script now can we?
To not my surprise, he kept looking at me, before adding, “Alright, if you say so.”, and chuckled.
Nari took a seat right opposite to me and spoke up, “I don’t even know who this is…”
Now that’s a bit much. I thought Akari was the most popular kid in school. I’m not even flexing.
“That’s Akari, football star. You know.”, Aki laughed.
“Yes. That is me. Akari, football star. Local amnesiac, lover of manga.”
“Lover of manga huh?”, Aki looked up at me in shock. Well, it’s true. Maybe not to Akari but it is true to me.
“What’s your favourite manga?”, he added. Which of course he did, I really should’ve researched if this world as the same manga as mine. Not so funny now is it?
“It’s uh…”
That’s probably the most Akari thing I’ve done yet. Completely in character. Got a future in acting.
Aki just laughed and kept reading his book. Which was a novel apparently.
“Shouldn’t you be reading manga?”, I asked. Kind of petty, yes. But I am petty and acceptance is the first step.
“No, you can actually read anything you want to here.”, he smiled before adding, “The club’s not that strict, you can do your homework if you’d like to. I could even help you with it, if you want to.”
Right.
He put his eyes back on his books and talked again, “Manga is the gateway to many novels. Maybe you should try reading it.”
“Novels?”, I’m not much of a novel guy. Haven’t read many except when mandatory by my school.
“No. Let’s start with manga first.”, Aki laughed, again.
Well, the getting mocked club was going great and the best part? Nari was ignoring me. Almost made me tolerate Aki too. I’ll just go and join the baseball club.
Nari suddenly looked up, I don’t like where this is going.
“We’re in a club!”, she exclaimed.
Nice observation.
“Nice observation”, said Aki, he really spoke the quiet part aloud.
That did not stop Nari to say her next piece though, “Let’s make a group chat!”
Just what I feared.
“Ahh… I’d love too, you see but my phone’s not with me…”
“You could just tell us your number.”, not now Aki. Please read the room.
“Ahh… well, you see… I don’t remember my number.”, which I actually don’t. I mean I remember my number but this isn’t my number.
Thankfully, the bell rang, just in time.
“Well, maybe some other day.”, said Aki before closing off his books and getting up. “Want to walk home together?”, he asked.
Nari nodded a yes, which of course she did.
“No.. I think I forgot something in my classroom. Maybe some other day.”, That was me coming up with the best excuse I could up with.
“so… I’ll see you…”
“Fair enough…”, spoke Aki.
“Hey, you finally said it.”, I ran away as fast I could to my classroom, just to make sure I wasn’t a full on liar. Today was not my day… I’ll just go back to my classroom and really hope Nari doesn’t wait for me in front of the school gate. I really don’t belong here.
