Koi and I went our separate ways after the date, this time it ended on a much higher note. It’s sad to say but it feels nice to end an outing without the other person running away.

Now I’m back in my apartment, a few thoughts are running through my head.

That was so lame! That was so lame!

This whole time I’ve been despising Koi’s dramatic dialogue, but somehow, I’ve found myself spouting lines of similar intensity.

Maybe this is what interpersonal relationships are like – moments of jokes and moments of seriousness. It’s either that or we’re both just super awkward and don’t know how to do either of those two things properly.

I slump onto my bed face-first, trying to forget about all the dumb things I said while also thinking about them more and more.

Getting me out of my funk, my phone starts to ring. I answer it without looking, just to distance myself from the dread that’s spreading throughout my mind.

“What's up, buttercup?”

Sakura’s voice reverberates through my ear.

This might be worse than what I was thinking about before.

I’ve only been back home from the date for a few hours, and she decides to call me out of the blue.

“You’re the one who called me, that’s supposed to be my line!”

Her playful giggle dances over the microphone.

“Touche, touche.”

“What is with all the French?”

I speak two languages – Japanese and English – why do I have to add another one to my repertoire?

“Would you rather me do Spanish? Si, si señor.”

Now she’s just mocking me and maybe even a whole other country!

“What do you want?”

Still holding the phone to my ear, I roll around on the bed in frustration.

It’s dark in my apartment now, except for one light that hangs over my bed. I’m tired and I want to go to sleep!

“What do you mean? I want all the deets! I went through a tremendous amount of trouble to set all this up, ya know?”

What are we, teenage girls at a slumber party?

I sit up in my bed, resting my back against the wall.

“Are you expecting me to tell you something juicy? We went out to dinner, we chatted, we came home.”

There is a loud and mocking bleh noise over the phone – it’s playful, like in Sakura’s usual style. If this were an anime, I’d imagine she’s poking her tongue out at me right now.

“Boooring! You’re no fun, Aki.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Why do you sound so upset by that fact?

“What even gave you the notion that I was fun?”

This is how I’ve always been; there has been very little fun to be had during my conversations with Sakura.

Just pain and defeat.

“I think you can be fun if you want to be! Well, I wanna know – did you talk to her about the thing we spoke about?”

Shit.

Despite being a gyaru brat, she makes a very compelling point – I had originally set up that date with Sakura so we could talk about Koi. More specifically, about the fact that she’s adopted.

It completely slipped my mind until now.

“We didn’t get around to it.”

There is silence for a moment, followed by a myriad of banging noises reminiscent of things being thrown around a room.

I’m almost too scared to say anything else, luckily Sakura chimes in before I have to.

“All of that work and you didn’t even talk about it?”

To be honest, I can see how that could be frustrating, but there is a good reason.

“Between being absolutely blindsided about the circumstance and a bunch of other secrets that Koi happened to spill, that topic never really came up.”

Or rather, it didn’t take precedence over the matter at hand.

There was a lot we discussed; actually, more than I’ve even been able to process at this point in time.

It still hasn’t sunk in that all these events have been predicated by the fact that Koi wanted to see me even after all these years. She had even known she was going on a date with me, despite pretending she didn’t have a clue.

That last part Sakura knew obviously, but I wonder if she knew the whole story about the reunion.

“How could something be more important than that? Wait. Oh my god! She told you about that, didn’t she?”

Well, that was great timing, it seems like even Sakura knew about all of this the whole time. Maybe this is why she’s been secretly helping me from the sidelines, giving me Koi’s number and even giving me her own in case of emergency.

Always behind the scenes, making sure everything works out.

“I can’t believe you knew about all of this; you’re a lot more sly than you come off.”

“Of course I knew about it! She must not have told you, but now you know about her, I don’t see any reason in not telling you. I’m one too.”

Wait.

This doesn’t seem very in line with what I was thinking of.

“What are you talking about?”

A loud gasp is audible from over the phone, followed by an audible clap, as if she had quickly grabbed one hand and covered her mouth.

We’re on the phone, so I can’t see her, but I’d imagine that’s what happened.

Overactive imagination and all.

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“Koi had set up our reunion together. Also, she told me that she knew about your little plan to get us to go out on a date.”

Ha. Ha. Ha.

The laughter that comes from Sakura is downright hard to listen to; the sort of slow and awkward laughter one forces out in an uncomfortable situation

It seems she almost told me something she thinks she really shouldn’t have.

I’m one too.

I’m one what?

Is this at all in relation to the secret that Koi wants me to wait for? The reason she ran away on our outing and the reason she doesn’t want to talk about her job?

I’m one too.

Maybe it’s something they both share? Like a job they both have?

I know I told her I’d be patient and I will, but it is getting increasingly hard when you have situations like this where the truth is almost right in my face, and I can’t do anything about it.

What am I supposed to do, not think about it?

“Well, I’m gonna go now…”

Wait a minute, you can’t just run after all that! You called me in the first place; was that just to taunt me?

Okay, to be honest, I wouldn’t put it past her.

“Hold up! You promised me on the phone last time you’d give me some sort of answers, or at least we’d talk about things. I’m fine with you not elaborating on the point you made before, but talk to me about the adoption.”

That was the thing she said she’d talk to me about, after all, even if what she had originally meant was that she was going to set it up so Koi and I could talk about it.

A part of me feels like it’s not exactly a topic that she’d want to talk about anyway, but maybe I’m just making excuses for talking to Sakura about it instead.

“A deal is a deal, what was that thing you said before? My word is my oath.”

Yet again, I cringe as I remember that those were words that came out of my mouth. Why does she have to bring stuff up like this?

I can’t tell if she actually thinks they’re cool or she’s making fun of me as usual.

Neither would surprise me. Maybe even both.

“Please don’t remind me.”

“Well then, let’s take a little trip down memory lane.”