HOLY SHIT I FINISHED THE FIRST CHAPTER! HELLZ YEAH >D (second part)
Second part, yay!
Chapter One - Unexpected Encounters (continued)
“OH MY GOD, IT’S YAMADA RYOSUKE!” One of the shorter girls turned to her friend excitedly. “Mari-chan, that’s him! I told you he lived around here, I thought I saw him with Yuto-kun when I was coming home from Kasumi’s the other day -- hey, wait! Yama-chan! COME BACK!”
For Yamada had taken off in the other direction, running as though his life depended on it. From his countless experiences with fangirls prior, he thought he might have learned to go out under a disguise when wandering alone in public, but, well, apparently not.
Yamada did not bother to look back at his admirers as he ran, nor did he pay much attention as to where he was going. He couldn’t care less about the wind making his face freeze; all he wanted was to get away from the fangirls. Where his feet would take him, he did not know, but if they could take him to a nice, quiet place away from the fangirls, then neither did he care.
After a few minutes (and quite a few stares from the people out and about), Yamada found himself panting heavily atop a short length of hill that overlooked a shallow, crystalline river below. Yamada had absolutely no idea where he was, but he did not see the fangirls anywhere and he needed a rest from his chase, so he sat down and marveled at the scenery before him -- the bright green of the grass he sat on and the deep blue of the sky dotted with the occasional speck of white bordered the clear, rushing waters of the river. It was quite a beautiful sight, and even though the air had become quite chilly, Yamada decided to stay for a little while. He laid back on the grass and stared upwards at the sky, sighing deeply and enjoying the scenery.
‘I should really take more of these quiet, fangirl-free walks…yeah, I think I’ll come back here before term starts.. I mean, providing I can even find this place again…’
Yamada sat up and stared absentmindedly at the river before him. Another strong breeze rushed past and he groaned, dropping his head again to the grass and trying to cover up his ears with his hair. Just that morning when he and his friends had been walking to Hanakawa-san’s, the air was warm and the sun shone brightly, but now the clouds had taken over and Yamada felt himself shivering.
‘Why the hell is it so cold? Is it so much to ask for good weather? It’s almost April, for God’s sake…’
Restlessly, he rolled over to his right and caught sight of a girl about his age some distance away. With her mid-length, slightly wavy hair in a shade of light brown, Yamada thought her to be a foreigner. She was quite absorbed in some magazine and paused every so often to rearrange her white, furry earmuffs (‘Where did she get those? They look so warm and inviting!’). The girl, in all her reading, also kept close watch on a little toddler who was running around. Yamada guessed the toddler at about four of five years, and her hair was the same as the older girl’s, but a shade darker; the girls were most likely sisters.
Yamada took another moment to stare at the sisters, then dismissed them and flopped back on the grass. His teeth were now chattering; it had become quite windy. Yamada propped himself up on one elbow, thinking that he’d need to go back soon --
“Momo!”
Yamada jolted upwards in alarm and looked around. He spotted the toddler, apparently Momo, running down towards the river, unaware of the rushing waters. The older girl jumped up and chased Momo down the hill, wavy hair flying behind her. Yamada noticed she had dropped her magazine upon the discovery of Momo running blindly towards the river. He stood up and staggered over to where the girl had been sitting.
The girl’s magazine was lying on the grass, back cover face-up. Yamada picked it up and discovered it was that month’s Popolo issue. He flipped through the magazine, seeing the usual and many familiar faces from Johnny’s. He laughed at the picture of NewS’ Tegoshi Yuya with his new blonde hair and brown earmuffs and chuckled at Nishikido Ryo taking a nap on Yamapi’s lap. Yamada reminisced for a moment about similar moments happening in his own group before turning to the section dedicated entirely to Hey!Say!JUMP. He smirked as he gazed down at himself wearing glasses, and at Keito reading Harry Potter, and at little Ryutaro sleeping on the floor…
“Um, I -- e-excuse me, but that…that’s my…”
Yamada looked up from them magazine and saw the girl with wavy brown hair standing in front of him, holding onto Momo. Momo was giving him a curious look; the girl, however, held a suspicious, puzzled expression that immediately turned to one of realization upon seeing the boy standing in front of her.
Yamada closed his eyes, waiting for the piercing scream to reach his already much-damaged ears.
‘1…2…prepare to drop the magazine and run away…3…!’
Yamada slowly opened one eye and saw the girl staring back at him, head cocked to the side. Deeming the girl “safe”, Yamada opened his other eye and gave her a shy smile.
And to his pleasant surprise, the girl gave him nothing but a shy smile of her own. She extended a hand for her issue of Popolo which Yamada dropped into her hand. She flipped through the magazine, apparently in an attempt to make sure Yamada had not been doing anything but reading it. Yamada was not sure whether he should run away or stay and talk to the girl, but it seemed he had no choice when the girl looked up and cleared her throat.
“So, um…well, this is a bit of a stupid question, really, but -- I take it you’re Yamada Ryosuke?”
“Oh, no, I’m the boy in your class no one ever notices and lives in a shack by the landfill. I don’t suppose you’ve ever noticed it?”
The girl gave him a look, then laughed.
“Yeah, yeah…that’s me. Lucky day for you, isn’t it, I suppose?” Yamada gave her a knowing grin.
She laughed lightly in response, then smiled at him. It was now that Yamada really noticed her for the first time -- while her hair looked a plain shade of light brown from a distance, up close, Yamada could see the strands of darker brown and dirty blonde that were mixed in. Her eyes were bigger than the average size of that a Japanese person, and her bright, brown pupils shone with enthusiasm. She was also a good two inches shorter than Yamada, but her petite frame made her delicate, heart-shaped face stand out more. In a few short words, the girl was actually quite pretty.
“Y-Yamada-kun?”
Yamada blinked. The girl was waving a hand in front of his face and she was giving him a concerned look. Mentally slapping himself for having blanked out while staring at the girl, he bowed quickly in apology and collapsed to the ground, making a note to ask her what her name was later on.
The girl sat down next to him and began reading Popolo again. Yamada laid down on the grass once more and stared at the clouds hovering above him. He heard running footsteps to his left, which he guessed was Momo. Momo seemed to be Miss Little Energetic: running freely, clapping her hands, laughing and pointing at the clouds in the sky. Yamada smiled nostalgically, remembering his mother telling him stories of himself as a small child, always happy and smiling. These days, he wondered if he could find that old happiness inside him again.
Yamada looked to his right. The girl had put her magazine down and had a glazed look on her face as she stared, unseeing, at something in the distance. Deciding to strike up a conversation, Yamada sat up.
“So, Momo…is she your sister?”
The girl blinked distractedly. “I…yeah. Yeah, she is.” She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “We don’t look a thing like each other, but the hair’s a bit of a giveaway.”
“Ah.”
There was a silence, broken occasionally by squeals from Momo. Yamada was disappointed in himself for not bothering to continue with the conversation. Either he was bad at coming up with topics that could generate a nice, lengthy discussion, or he was just too cold and tired to talk.
A few more minutes of utter silence occurred before the girl turned to Yamada. “Um, so, do you -- I mean, well, all of you at Johnny’s or however many it is -- do you all get a break for spring before term starts, and everything?”
Yamada sat up straighter, glad to have something to talk about again. “Well, for now, Johnny’s put us -- Hey!Say!JUMP -- on a bit of a lengthy break. We used to get tutoring for a couple of hours whenever we were in the studio or out for concerts and stuff, but I guess Johnny decided to give us all a reprieve or something earlier this month. It was weird, since one day we were doing rehearsing in the studio and the next day Johnny-san showed up and told us all to get the hell out and not come back until he contacted our guardians and told us to return.”
The girl’s brow furrowed. “He really told you that?”
“Well, he might as well have.” Yamada scratched his nose. “Anyway, so for now I don’t have much to do. My mom wants to put me back in school for the time-being, but she’s having a hard time finding a nice private school that doesn’t cost too much. The tuitions for private schools have been rising ever since my mom had me audition for Johnny’s.”
The girl nodded. “Yeah, they have been rising. My mom only found a school back in February; I wasn’t eligible to take any of the tests for high schools or anything since I’ve only been here in Japan for a little over a year, and for most of my last year in middle school, I was taking private classes to catch up with the curriculum. I’d have probably been too stupid to take the entrance tests anyway, and my mom wasn’t about to send me to cram school in addition to the stuff I was being taught already during the private lessons.”
Yamada took a few seconds to absorb this information. “Wait…so you’re not from here? Your accent sounds perfect, though!”
“Oh, well, thank you.” The girl smiled. “I was born here but moved to England soon after and had schooling there for a few years. Then my family migrated to California in the United States and my mom had me take Japanese lessons thrice a week in addition to all the schooling I was already receiving.” She sighed heavily. “They were rigorous and during the summer vacations I had the lessons 5 days a week, but I’m glad to see they’re paying off now.” She smiled again. “So your mom hasn’t found a school yet?”
“Nope, and I prefer it stay that way.” Yamada heard the girl giggle. “Most of the high schools are starting term in less than a week, and I’d like to have a bit more time off. I doubt she could find a school in that short of a time, anyway, and vacations are nice. No having to get up early in the mornings or having tutors breathing down your back.”
“You had to get up early in the morning for tutoring?”
“Yeah. Most of the school-age kids at Johnny’s usually had about 3 hours a day starting at 8 in the morning before we got to work in the studio. They grouped us by year, about 3 or 4 kids to a tutor. We usually got a lot done since the classes were so small, but the tutor was always breathing down our backs because of that.” Yamada cleared his throat. It felt quite hoarse from all the talking he had just done.
The girl heaved a sigh. “At least you could get a lot done! My class in middle school had 28 kids; I reckon the teacher spent more time telling the class to shut up than actually teaching.”
Yamada laughed as another gust of wind blew past. He groaned for the umpteenth time that day and resigned to putting his head in his knees, hands covering his freezing ears.
“I see you’re not one for the cold, eh?”
Yamada mumbled, “No,” head still buried in knees.
There was a short silence, and then, “…here.”
Yamada raised his head. The girl had taken off her earmuffs and was now extending them to him. He looked back at the girl, surprised. Yamada was rather unsure of whether he should refuse or accept her offer when the girl sighed impatiently and put the earmuffs on Yamada’s head herself; they were very warm and comfortable. He wanted to thank the girl, but all he could manage to get out was, “I -- why…?”
“Because you’re obviously freezing, and my hair’s actually long enough to properly shield my ears from the cold,” the girl replied simply, picking up her magazine and disappearing behind it.
Yamada uttered a small “thank you”; his vocal chords seemed to have stopped working correctly as the earmuffs had come in contact with his head, and the girl’s fingers had brushed his cheek. He was still reeling from the shock when he suddenly remembered that he still did not know her name. Wondering blankly if he could ask such a thing without sounding like a complete idiot, Yamada started, “Um, I…I was just wondering…what’s your na --?”
♪ Deaeta kiseki ni donna ketten mo imi nai yo kimi wa sono mama ga ichiban… ♪
“Oh, damn it, where did I put my phone --?” The girl rummaged through her pockets before pulling out a teal-colored slide phone from her back pocket, the former Hey!Say!7’s debut song, Hey!Say!, still playing. Mouthing a quick “sorry” to Yamada, she stood up and grabbed a still-running Momo by the wrist. Yamada leaned back, listening in to the conversation.
“Okaasan? …yeah, we’re fine. We’re at the hill, by the river. Yes, I’ve got Momo with me -- what? Oh. Right, sorry.” The girl stole a glance at Yamada. “No, seriously, we’re at the hill. I just…” -- another glance at Yamada who swore he saw her grin -- “…nah, I just got sidetracked is all.” She quickly muffled the giggle threatening to escape her mouth. “Yeah…okay, we’ll be there in about 15 minutes -- huh? Oh, yeah, I’ve got the issue with me, and yes, Sho-kun is still nice and full and alive.” It was Yamada’s turn to giggle. “Hmm…no, Momo hates beef. Love you too, bye.”
The girl pulled a face before slipping her phone back into her pocket. Yamada looked up at her, bemused. “Your mom likes Sho-san?”
“As you heard, yes. I mean, it’s nice to have a mom who shares in with all the Johnny love, but…god, it’s just downright creepy sometimes.” Yamada laughed as the girl wrestled the Popolo issue from Momo. “Oh, let go, dammit! I swear, I’m going to get killed if we get back and Sho-kun’s in pieces…”
Yamada was still snickering as he pulled the magazine from Momo’s hands and handed it back to the girl.
“Thanks.” The girl gave a bow to Yamada, who scrambled up and returned it. “It was a great pleasure meeting you, Yamada Ryosuke-kun. Oh, no, keep the earmuffs,” she added, as Yamada hastened to take them off his head. “Anyway, Momo and I should go. Ja ne!”
The girl bowed one last time, then walked briskly away with Momo jogging alongside her. She looked back and waved, smiling broadly, before picking up her pace and breaking into a run.
“Ja!” Yamada waved back brightly and sighed. He had not felt this happy in weeks, and it was quite a nice feeling, really.
…well, that is, until it hit him with a pang that he had failed to get the girl’s name. Yamada collapsed, again, to the ground -- but this time, it was not because of the cold, but rather, because he was in agony. He whined loudly.
“Now I know what Keito means when he says I’d be a failure at girls!”
yes I know there are like 29750 mistakes so stfu bitch
So as for the post-chapter notes, does anyone want to be written into the fic as an attendee at the girl's school (most likely as one of the people in her friend circle)? Nyaa already ordered me to write in a character called Shimi so I wondered if anyone else was interested in being written in. 8D; If anyone does want to be in the fic, just drop a comment (and with the name you'd like to have; I'd rather it was Japanese unless you want to be a complete foreigner, in which case I'd have a hard time writing you >_>). I suppose they'd all start appearing in Chapter 3, or so.
Okay, I'm done. Off to work on the next chapter yay. I've already got the next couple of chapters planned out in my head so I hope I don't get lazy again and let it collect dust D:
Chapter One - Unexpected Encounters (continued)
“OH MY GOD, IT’S YAMADA RYOSUKE!” One of the shorter girls turned to her friend excitedly. “Mari-chan, that’s him! I told you he lived around here, I thought I saw him with Yuto-kun when I was coming home from Kasumi’s the other day -- hey, wait! Yama-chan! COME BACK!”
For Yamada had taken off in the other direction, running as though his life depended on it. From his countless experiences with fangirls prior, he thought he might have learned to go out under a disguise when wandering alone in public, but, well, apparently not.
Yamada did not bother to look back at his admirers as he ran, nor did he pay much attention as to where he was going. He couldn’t care less about the wind making his face freeze; all he wanted was to get away from the fangirls. Where his feet would take him, he did not know, but if they could take him to a nice, quiet place away from the fangirls, then neither did he care.
After a few minutes (and quite a few stares from the people out and about), Yamada found himself panting heavily atop a short length of hill that overlooked a shallow, crystalline river below. Yamada had absolutely no idea where he was, but he did not see the fangirls anywhere and he needed a rest from his chase, so he sat down and marveled at the scenery before him -- the bright green of the grass he sat on and the deep blue of the sky dotted with the occasional speck of white bordered the clear, rushing waters of the river. It was quite a beautiful sight, and even though the air had become quite chilly, Yamada decided to stay for a little while. He laid back on the grass and stared upwards at the sky, sighing deeply and enjoying the scenery.
‘I should really take more of these quiet, fangirl-free walks…yeah, I think I’ll come back here before term starts.. I mean, providing I can even find this place again…’
Yamada sat up and stared absentmindedly at the river before him. Another strong breeze rushed past and he groaned, dropping his head again to the grass and trying to cover up his ears with his hair. Just that morning when he and his friends had been walking to Hanakawa-san’s, the air was warm and the sun shone brightly, but now the clouds had taken over and Yamada felt himself shivering.
‘Why the hell is it so cold? Is it so much to ask for good weather? It’s almost April, for God’s sake…’
Restlessly, he rolled over to his right and caught sight of a girl about his age some distance away. With her mid-length, slightly wavy hair in a shade of light brown, Yamada thought her to be a foreigner. She was quite absorbed in some magazine and paused every so often to rearrange her white, furry earmuffs (‘Where did she get those? They look so warm and inviting!’). The girl, in all her reading, also kept close watch on a little toddler who was running around. Yamada guessed the toddler at about four of five years, and her hair was the same as the older girl’s, but a shade darker; the girls were most likely sisters.
Yamada took another moment to stare at the sisters, then dismissed them and flopped back on the grass. His teeth were now chattering; it had become quite windy. Yamada propped himself up on one elbow, thinking that he’d need to go back soon --
“Momo!”
Yamada jolted upwards in alarm and looked around. He spotted the toddler, apparently Momo, running down towards the river, unaware of the rushing waters. The older girl jumped up and chased Momo down the hill, wavy hair flying behind her. Yamada noticed she had dropped her magazine upon the discovery of Momo running blindly towards the river. He stood up and staggered over to where the girl had been sitting.
The girl’s magazine was lying on the grass, back cover face-up. Yamada picked it up and discovered it was that month’s Popolo issue. He flipped through the magazine, seeing the usual and many familiar faces from Johnny’s. He laughed at the picture of NewS’ Tegoshi Yuya with his new blonde hair and brown earmuffs and chuckled at Nishikido Ryo taking a nap on Yamapi’s lap. Yamada reminisced for a moment about similar moments happening in his own group before turning to the section dedicated entirely to Hey!Say!JUMP. He smirked as he gazed down at himself wearing glasses, and at Keito reading Harry Potter, and at little Ryutaro sleeping on the floor…
“Um, I -- e-excuse me, but that…that’s my…”
Yamada looked up from them magazine and saw the girl with wavy brown hair standing in front of him, holding onto Momo. Momo was giving him a curious look; the girl, however, held a suspicious, puzzled expression that immediately turned to one of realization upon seeing the boy standing in front of her.
Yamada closed his eyes, waiting for the piercing scream to reach his already much-damaged ears.
‘1…2…prepare to drop the magazine and run away…3…!’
Yamada slowly opened one eye and saw the girl staring back at him, head cocked to the side. Deeming the girl “safe”, Yamada opened his other eye and gave her a shy smile.
And to his pleasant surprise, the girl gave him nothing but a shy smile of her own. She extended a hand for her issue of Popolo which Yamada dropped into her hand. She flipped through the magazine, apparently in an attempt to make sure Yamada had not been doing anything but reading it. Yamada was not sure whether he should run away or stay and talk to the girl, but it seemed he had no choice when the girl looked up and cleared her throat.
“So, um…well, this is a bit of a stupid question, really, but -- I take it you’re Yamada Ryosuke?”
“Oh, no, I’m the boy in your class no one ever notices and lives in a shack by the landfill. I don’t suppose you’ve ever noticed it?”
The girl gave him a look, then laughed.
“Yeah, yeah…that’s me. Lucky day for you, isn’t it, I suppose?” Yamada gave her a knowing grin.
She laughed lightly in response, then smiled at him. It was now that Yamada really noticed her for the first time -- while her hair looked a plain shade of light brown from a distance, up close, Yamada could see the strands of darker brown and dirty blonde that were mixed in. Her eyes were bigger than the average size of that a Japanese person, and her bright, brown pupils shone with enthusiasm. She was also a good two inches shorter than Yamada, but her petite frame made her delicate, heart-shaped face stand out more. In a few short words, the girl was actually quite pretty.
“Y-Yamada-kun?”
Yamada blinked. The girl was waving a hand in front of his face and she was giving him a concerned look. Mentally slapping himself for having blanked out while staring at the girl, he bowed quickly in apology and collapsed to the ground, making a note to ask her what her name was later on.
The girl sat down next to him and began reading Popolo again. Yamada laid down on the grass once more and stared at the clouds hovering above him. He heard running footsteps to his left, which he guessed was Momo. Momo seemed to be Miss Little Energetic: running freely, clapping her hands, laughing and pointing at the clouds in the sky. Yamada smiled nostalgically, remembering his mother telling him stories of himself as a small child, always happy and smiling. These days, he wondered if he could find that old happiness inside him again.
Yamada looked to his right. The girl had put her magazine down and had a glazed look on her face as she stared, unseeing, at something in the distance. Deciding to strike up a conversation, Yamada sat up.
“So, Momo…is she your sister?”
The girl blinked distractedly. “I…yeah. Yeah, she is.” She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “We don’t look a thing like each other, but the hair’s a bit of a giveaway.”
“Ah.”
There was a silence, broken occasionally by squeals from Momo. Yamada was disappointed in himself for not bothering to continue with the conversation. Either he was bad at coming up with topics that could generate a nice, lengthy discussion, or he was just too cold and tired to talk.
A few more minutes of utter silence occurred before the girl turned to Yamada. “Um, so, do you -- I mean, well, all of you at Johnny’s or however many it is -- do you all get a break for spring before term starts, and everything?”
Yamada sat up straighter, glad to have something to talk about again. “Well, for now, Johnny’s put us -- Hey!Say!JUMP -- on a bit of a lengthy break. We used to get tutoring for a couple of hours whenever we were in the studio or out for concerts and stuff, but I guess Johnny decided to give us all a reprieve or something earlier this month. It was weird, since one day we were doing rehearsing in the studio and the next day Johnny-san showed up and told us all to get the hell out and not come back until he contacted our guardians and told us to return.”
The girl’s brow furrowed. “He really told you that?”
“Well, he might as well have.” Yamada scratched his nose. “Anyway, so for now I don’t have much to do. My mom wants to put me back in school for the time-being, but she’s having a hard time finding a nice private school that doesn’t cost too much. The tuitions for private schools have been rising ever since my mom had me audition for Johnny’s.”
The girl nodded. “Yeah, they have been rising. My mom only found a school back in February; I wasn’t eligible to take any of the tests for high schools or anything since I’ve only been here in Japan for a little over a year, and for most of my last year in middle school, I was taking private classes to catch up with the curriculum. I’d have probably been too stupid to take the entrance tests anyway, and my mom wasn’t about to send me to cram school in addition to the stuff I was being taught already during the private lessons.”
Yamada took a few seconds to absorb this information. “Wait…so you’re not from here? Your accent sounds perfect, though!”
“Oh, well, thank you.” The girl smiled. “I was born here but moved to England soon after and had schooling there for a few years. Then my family migrated to California in the United States and my mom had me take Japanese lessons thrice a week in addition to all the schooling I was already receiving.” She sighed heavily. “They were rigorous and during the summer vacations I had the lessons 5 days a week, but I’m glad to see they’re paying off now.” She smiled again. “So your mom hasn’t found a school yet?”
“Nope, and I prefer it stay that way.” Yamada heard the girl giggle. “Most of the high schools are starting term in less than a week, and I’d like to have a bit more time off. I doubt she could find a school in that short of a time, anyway, and vacations are nice. No having to get up early in the mornings or having tutors breathing down your back.”
“You had to get up early in the morning for tutoring?”
“Yeah. Most of the school-age kids at Johnny’s usually had about 3 hours a day starting at 8 in the morning before we got to work in the studio. They grouped us by year, about 3 or 4 kids to a tutor. We usually got a lot done since the classes were so small, but the tutor was always breathing down our backs because of that.” Yamada cleared his throat. It felt quite hoarse from all the talking he had just done.
The girl heaved a sigh. “At least you could get a lot done! My class in middle school had 28 kids; I reckon the teacher spent more time telling the class to shut up than actually teaching.”
Yamada laughed as another gust of wind blew past. He groaned for the umpteenth time that day and resigned to putting his head in his knees, hands covering his freezing ears.
“I see you’re not one for the cold, eh?”
Yamada mumbled, “No,” head still buried in knees.
There was a short silence, and then, “…here.”
Yamada raised his head. The girl had taken off her earmuffs and was now extending them to him. He looked back at the girl, surprised. Yamada was rather unsure of whether he should refuse or accept her offer when the girl sighed impatiently and put the earmuffs on Yamada’s head herself; they were very warm and comfortable. He wanted to thank the girl, but all he could manage to get out was, “I -- why…?”
“Because you’re obviously freezing, and my hair’s actually long enough to properly shield my ears from the cold,” the girl replied simply, picking up her magazine and disappearing behind it.
Yamada uttered a small “thank you”; his vocal chords seemed to have stopped working correctly as the earmuffs had come in contact with his head, and the girl’s fingers had brushed his cheek. He was still reeling from the shock when he suddenly remembered that he still did not know her name. Wondering blankly if he could ask such a thing without sounding like a complete idiot, Yamada started, “Um, I…I was just wondering…what’s your na --?”
♪ Deaeta kiseki ni donna ketten mo imi nai yo kimi wa sono mama ga ichiban… ♪
“Oh, damn it, where did I put my phone --?” The girl rummaged through her pockets before pulling out a teal-colored slide phone from her back pocket, the former Hey!Say!7’s debut song, Hey!Say!, still playing. Mouthing a quick “sorry” to Yamada, she stood up and grabbed a still-running Momo by the wrist. Yamada leaned back, listening in to the conversation.
“Okaasan? …yeah, we’re fine. We’re at the hill, by the river. Yes, I’ve got Momo with me -- what? Oh. Right, sorry.” The girl stole a glance at Yamada. “No, seriously, we’re at the hill. I just…” -- another glance at Yamada who swore he saw her grin -- “…nah, I just got sidetracked is all.” She quickly muffled the giggle threatening to escape her mouth. “Yeah…okay, we’ll be there in about 15 minutes -- huh? Oh, yeah, I’ve got the issue with me, and yes, Sho-kun is still nice and full and alive.” It was Yamada’s turn to giggle. “Hmm…no, Momo hates beef. Love you too, bye.”
The girl pulled a face before slipping her phone back into her pocket. Yamada looked up at her, bemused. “Your mom likes Sho-san?”
“As you heard, yes. I mean, it’s nice to have a mom who shares in with all the Johnny love, but…god, it’s just downright creepy sometimes.” Yamada laughed as the girl wrestled the Popolo issue from Momo. “Oh, let go, dammit! I swear, I’m going to get killed if we get back and Sho-kun’s in pieces…”
Yamada was still snickering as he pulled the magazine from Momo’s hands and handed it back to the girl.
“Thanks.” The girl gave a bow to Yamada, who scrambled up and returned it. “It was a great pleasure meeting you, Yamada Ryosuke-kun. Oh, no, keep the earmuffs,” she added, as Yamada hastened to take them off his head. “Anyway, Momo and I should go. Ja ne!”
The girl bowed one last time, then walked briskly away with Momo jogging alongside her. She looked back and waved, smiling broadly, before picking up her pace and breaking into a run.
“Ja!” Yamada waved back brightly and sighed. He had not felt this happy in weeks, and it was quite a nice feeling, really.
…well, that is, until it hit him with a pang that he had failed to get the girl’s name. Yamada collapsed, again, to the ground -- but this time, it was not because of the cold, but rather, because he was in agony. He whined loudly.
“Now I know what Keito means when he says I’d be a failure at girls!”
yes I know there are like 29750 mistakes so stfu bitch
So as for the post-chapter notes, does anyone want to be written into the fic as an attendee at the girl's school (most likely as one of the people in her friend circle)? Nyaa already ordered me to write in a character called Shimi so I wondered if anyone else was interested in being written in. 8D; If anyone does want to be in the fic, just drop a comment (and with the name you'd like to have; I'd rather it was Japanese unless you want to be a complete foreigner, in which case I'd have a hard time writing you >_>). I suppose they'd all start appearing in Chapter 3, or so.
Okay, I'm done. Off to work on the next chapter yay. I've already got the next couple of chapters planned out in my head so I hope I don't get lazy again and let it collect dust D: