The morning had swiftly come. Mikomi didn’t get much in the way of sleep due to his being energized by last night’s determination; however, despite the lack of rest he still felt pretty good. In fact, he practically hopped out of bed and got prepared for school. After the typical morning fare, he grabbed his book bag and was about to head out the back door when his father, who had been sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of coffee, stopped him.
“Mikomi. I don’t usually have the chance to say this to you much but have a great day at school. Also, I called Alice after dinner last night. I’m meeting her for breakfast in about an hour. I should be home tonight around the normal time so I’ll tell you how the interview went.”
“Thanks, Dad!” said Mikomi with a bright smile on his face.
Mikomi darted out the back door and began his typical journey to school As he stepped onto the sidewalk, he could only take a couple of steps before he heard a familiar voice cry out from behind him.
“MIIIII-KOOOO-MIIIII!”
Mikomi didn’t even have to turn around. He stopped in his tracks as he already knew he was running up behind him. He closed his eyes and braced for impact and, sure enough, he felt the weight of another slam into his backside.
“Morning, Mikomi!” said Ryan as he placed him into a rather annoying headlock.
“Morning,” he replied with a disgruntled tone in his voice.
“So, how did it go with your dad last night?”
“Oh… it was great, for the most part. His secretary quit so I got to help him pick out a replacement but he said that he hit a snag on his project so he might have to abandon it.”
“Wow, that sucks, Mikomi. What was he working on?”
“Of course, I knew what he was working on but at this point in time, I wasn’t supposed to have any idea. I wonder if it would be okay to tell Ryan about it. On second thought, if I’m going to be the one to save my father’s company, I can’t really let anyone know otherwise it would jeopardize my entire plan. Plus, if I started blurting it out to anyone and everyone, who knows who could overhear me? Sorry, Ryan, but I’m going to have to keep you in the dark on this one.”
“I don’t know. He never told me but he said if he didn’t stop the project, it would end up bankrupting the company and we could possibly lose our house.”
“Wow, that sounds like some serious stuff! It would suck if I had to take you into my house!”
Mikomi rolled his eyes at Ryan’s attempt at humor as the two of them continued to walk to school. As they neared the front gates, Mikomi’s eye got caught on a particular individual… so much so that he ironically walked into a caution sign. The impact made quite a noise and caused Mikomi to fall on his ass. The feeling of concrete on his cheeks wasn’t pleasant. Ryan turned around immediately to check on him.
“Mikomi! Are you okay?”
Mikomi grabbed Ryan’s hand and pulled himself up to his feet, brushing himself off quickly in an attempt to save face after that embarrassing display. He gave a glance over at the person who had distracted him and saw that they didn’t notice anything. Mikomi let out an internal sigh of relief.
“Yeah… I just wasn’t watching where I was going.”
Ryan happened to glance off into the distance and noticed the person Mikomi was staring at. It was the girl he had, quite literally, ran into in the hallway when he came back to school to grab his wallet. Ryan would usually form a sly smile and elbow Mikomi over something like this but this time he didn’t.
“Say, Mikomi. Word of advice. Don’t bother.”
Mikomi turned to Ryan with a perplexed look on his face. He didn’t have to say a word as Ryan’s expression said everything Mikomi needed to know. Ryan took notice of Mikomi’s confused look and explained what he meant even though Mikomi already had a feeling where this was going.
“Well... you know the rumors about her, right? Always quiet, can’t talk to people. A lot of people are creeped out by her. Probably best not to get involved, if you know what I mean.”
“Not get involved? What kind of reasoning is that? It’s thoughts like that which drive people into a spiral of loneliness! If this is what everyone thought about her, then it’s no wonder why she reacted the way she did when I bumped into her. She simply didn’t have any experience in talking to others because everyone just ignores her! That’s kind of unfair.”
Mikomi decided to completely ignore Ryan. He walked away and started to head over to the girl. While he walked away from Ryan, he shouted out to him which made Mikomi grit his teeth in frustration.
“Hey, Mikomi, you’re not serious, are you?”
“Just shut up, Ryan. What the hell do you know about how the world works?”
Mikomi approached the girl who looked up from a peculiarly unmarked book. There was no title on the front cover or on the spine. The only features it had were a gold trim serving as a border on a dark brown finish. She looked a bit panicked and began to tremble a little. Her skin was pale, but it brought out the light blue hue of her eyes. Mikomi, seeing her in this light, took a deep breath himself as her beauty captivated him.
“Hi. Um… This is probably the weirdest way I’ve ever had to introduce myself to someone but I’m the guy who, quite literally, ran into you in the hall after school yesterday. I, uh, didn’t have a chance to properly apologize to you since I was in a hurry. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am and I hope that you didn’t get hurt.”
The girl just sat there in bewilderment and it made for an awkward moment. Mikomi rubbed the back of his head as he wondered just what to do next now that he was met with nothing but silence. Maybe if he told her his name, it might make things a little less tense.
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“My name is Mikomi, by the way. I know I asked you for yours yesterday but I didn’t introduce myself first. That was rude of me.”
The girl continued to look up at Mikomi. She replied to him in a soft voice.
“Oh. It’s okay.”
She then went back to reading her book. It was obvious she was into it and didn’t want to be disturbed. Mikomi took the hint and decided to try and strike up a conversation some other time.
“I’ll leave you alone since you’re enjoying your book. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I felt it would have been rude of me not to apologize properly for yesterday. Maybe, if you want, I can make it up to you sometime. Think it over!”
Mikomi turned to leave. He took a few steps before he heard a faint voice behind her.
“...rah”
Mikomi turned around. The girl looked up from her book and stared a bit blankly at Mikomi.
“Did you say something?” asked Mikomi.
“My name… it’s Serah.”
Serah gave a smile so faint that it could barely even be considered one. She immediately lowered her head back down and went back to reading her book. Mikomi smiled and began to backpedal.
“Nice to meet you, Serah. I hope we can talk again sometime!”
Mikomi turned and walked back across the school’s main road and met back up with Ryan. Ryan had a bit of a disappointed look on his face but he still wanted to know just what it was the two of them were discussing.
“What was that about? What did you say to her?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Mikomi’s reply had a rather rough tone to it. He could only remember Ryan’s warning about Serah and didn’t feel much like talking to him at the moment. Nevertheless, the two of them entered the building and prepared for class. Mikomi was lost in thought all day long. He couldn’t concentrate on any of the lessons, although he didn’t need to. He kept thinking about how he could save his father’s company. It wasn’t a matter of how to save it, per se. Mikomi knew how he was going to save the company but it was the method that he needed to figure out. It wasn’t as if he could just walk up to his father and say “Here’s the answer.”
The minutes on the clock ticked one by one as the world around Mikomi passed him by. By the time the day had ended, he still hadn’t thought of a way to go about getting his father the information he needed. He also didn’t know how long he had until his father would abandon the project. Mikomi could only assume that he had no time left and needed to act fast.
Mikomi and Ryan walked home together. Ryan was calling Mikomi’s name but he wasn’t paying much attention. Finally, Ryan gave up trying to grab his attention verbally and elbowed Mikomi hard in the ribs. Mikomi winced in pain, holding his side as he shot a death glare in Ryan’s direction.
“Oh good! You decided to finally answer me.”
“You jammed your elbow into my rib! What was I supposed to do?”
“You’ve just been spaced out this entire time. I called your name but you were ignoring me.”
“I WAS ignoring you. It’s hard to think when someone keeps calling my name over and over again.”
Ryan let out a sigh.
“You’ve been giving me the cold shoulder ever since this morning. Are you mad at me for telling you those things about that girl?”
“So Ryan did understand I was angry with him. I guess it was more obvious than I thought. I’m supposed to be a 14-year-old boy and yet, I’m still thinking and acting like I’m 24. To be honest, I’m kind of surprised he figured it out. He’s not usually the type to see these kinds of things. I guess I wore my heart a little too much on my sleeve if someone like Ryan could easily figure it out.”
Mikomi stopped walking and let out a sigh.
“Not in particular. I mean, I was a bit miffed over it but it’s not a big deal. I do have another problem that I’m trying to figure out so that’s why I’ve been lost in thought. Sorry if I’ve been ignoring you but this problem is pretty important to me.”
Ryan nodded his head as if he were understanding the situation but then, all of a sudden, he let out an ear-piercing yell.
“WHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?”
Mikomi flinched as his yell was incredibly loud!
“Don’t tell me… you’re trying to figure out how to confess to that girl!!!!??”
Mikomi’s eyes widened in shock. He was seriously taken aback by that statement.
“Huh!? What!? NO! Nothing like that. I only went over there to apologize because I ran into her and knocked her down when I went to get my wallet from my locker yesterday! It’s nothing like that at all!!”
It was almost as if a lightbulb went on in Ryan’s head.
“Oh! That explains why you went over there. Wow… and I said all those things right beforehand. I’m sorry!”
“Don’t sweat it. You didn’t know. Anyway... I need to get home. My dad said he would be there waiting for me today and um… I guess that means I won’t be hanging out. Sorry, I kind of said I would but...”
“Don’t sweat it… as you would say because you did just now! I understand. I see my dad every day so I can’t relate but I can only imagine that it’s a treat for you when you get to see yours.”
“That had to be the most mature thing Ryan has ever said. I was starting to think that maybe this world gave him a half-functioning brain. That’s kind of mean of me to say since he was my childhood friend for such a long time but it is what it is with Ryan. What you see is what you get with him.”
After that conversation, Mikomi and Ryan went their separate ways. Mikomi made his way home through the wooded area in his backyard as was his custom. He entered the house and realized his father wasn’t home just yet. Then again, it was around three o’clock in the afternoon and he said that he would be home around the ‘normal time.’ His mother wasn’t home either but there was a note left on the coffee table in the living room. Mikomi picked it up and read it out loud.
“Gone shopping. Be back by dinner. Love, Mom”
Mikomi put the note back down. The look on his face knew that this would be the perfect chance for him to sit and think of a way to help the company. All of a sudden, he looked out the window as something caught his eye. The mailman had just made his delivery and it was almost as if a lightbulb went on over Mikomi’s head.
“I GOT IT! I’ll write Dad an anonymous letter and tell him how to overcome the hurdle! Then he can carry on his work and the company will be saved! This should put everything back in order in this timeline!”