We both spoke in perfect unison. For a moment we stared at each other in wide-eyed surprise, but then we burst out laughing, and I gestured for Kyou-kun to go first. “Go for it.”
“Thanks. So, um…I wanted to get your thoughts on something… I mean, it’s totally fine if you don’t have the answer, but…well…um…mind if I go ahead and ask anyway?”
“Sure.” I was flattered that he came to me for advice.
“Okay, so, the thing is…I was told I should apply to the same college as Miki-san. Do you think I should go for it?”
“Who told you that?”
“Miki-san herself. She sorta dropped it on me out of nowhere, and I wasn’t sure what she meant by it, so I kinda wanted to get a girl’s perspective…”
Did I roll my eyes at him for worrying about something a lot of people would see as a first-world problem? No. After all, I’d probably have the same reaction myself if I were in his shoes. But at the very least, this explained why he seemed so distracted lately.
“Well, I’m not sure… What about your major?”
“She gave me a brochure, and it’s listed right on there.”
“Okay then, why not go for it?”
“Mmmm… Well, their admission standards are a bit higher than my top choice…”
“Just study extra hard!”
“…Mostly I’m just confused why she would tell me now of all times. Maybe this is another one of Sensei’s schemes…”
He used to only refer to Looney by this nickname because she demanded it, but these days, he seemed to enjoy it. As far as I could tell, there was no deeper significance to it, but I still found it kind of funny.
“Anyway, what were you going to say?”
Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded if he chose to keep venting to me, but instead he dutifully offered me the chance to take my turn. You better not regret asking, I thought to myself playfully as I decided to reveal my big secret: that I knew his big secret.
“I mean, setting Looney aside, wouldn’t it mean a lot to you if you could attend the same college as Mickey?”
I was so sure he would look at me in surprise. I was prepared to take it all in. But his reaction ran counter to my expectations.
“Uh…well, yeah, it would,” he mumbled, like it was a perfectly ordinary question.
“Wait—you’re not surprised that I know how you feel?”
“…What? Wait, what?”
My excitement deflated. “Darn it! I could have been teasing you about it all this time!”
“Please don’t… Zuka and Sensei already tease me enough as it is. Just keep pretending you have no clue.”
“No way! C’mon, it’s awesome that she invited you to go to the same school as her. Maybe you should make plans to confess your feelings! Be like ‘Just FYI, I’m going to ask you out after exams are over’ or something!”
“If I said that, I’d literally be confessing my feelings right then and there…”
“Perfect! Then go for it!”
“Oh God, is this how you’re going to tease me? I was planning to blame Zuka and Sensei if I failed my exams, but at this rate, it might just be your fault, too.”
“That could work, too. ‘I’ll be there next year, so just wait for me.’”
“Wow, you want me to fail? Some friend you are!”
Kyou buried his face in his hands and pretended to be devastated. At first it made my heart skip a beat, but then he started laughing to let me know he wasn’t serious. Likewise, I grinned so he knew he hadn’t made me feel bad.
“Does it really matter why Mickey wants you at her college? Why not just go for it?”
“Mmmm… I’m not sure I should interpret it that literally…”
“You know she’s not the type to speak in riddles.”
He seemed to pick up on the unspoken “unlike you or me” I’d left off the end of my statement. But Mickey’s blunt honesty was one of the things he loved about her—like, really loved. I got secondhand embarrassment just thinking about it.
“It’s not that. I just wonder if there’s more to it that she’s hiding from me.”
Ohhhh. He was probably thinking back to the shampoo thing. Sorry, my fault. But I knew my apology wouldn’t do much to make up for it, so instead I decided to clue him in on something.
“I don’t think she really has time for mind games right now. You know how she is—whenever she sets her sights on something, she makes a beeline straight for it.”
“Yeah, her tunnel vision is something else. She doesn’t even notice Sensei messing with her anymore… Maybe she gets it from all those 100-meter sprints she used to do.”
He probably had no clue just how happy he looked whenever he was talking about Mickey. But if I pointed it out, he’d probably never talk about her again out of shyness, so I kept it to myself for another day.
And I didn’t correct the record about his little misunderstanding, either.
She wasn’t hiding anything. It was blatantly obvious. Kyou-kun simply hadn’t noticed because, like me, a lack of self-confidence meant the possibility hadn’t ever occurred to him. But that’s the only thing keeping this cat in the bag, Mickey.
It was the first I’d heard about the college thing, but I suspected the idea might have been Looney’s originally. So on Monday, after my supplementary lessons were over and after the library had closed, I decided to ask her myself.
“You know the word caution doesn’t exist in Miki-chan’s dictionary,” Looney said. “She marked it out with a Sharpie. Just like she did with the word assistance.”
“So you had nothing to do with it?”
“Nothing, I tell you! So that’s why Kyou’s all fidgety, I take it. I swear, they’re so childish. Want a Pino?”
“Oh, sure, I’ll take one.”
She ripped open the package she’d bought at the corner store and popped three of them into her mouth, one after another. Then she handed me the entire box. “Hyou canh haf da resht.” This wasn’t the first time she had done this, so I gratefully accepted, using the little plastic mini-fork to dig in. Lately I’d come to understand that modesty had no place among friends.
As we slowly made our way home, the sun’s rays felt a little bright for 6 PM.
“In a way, it’s only a secret to Mickey and Kyou-kun,” I mused. “Like a backwards T-shirt—they’re the only ones who can’t see it.”
“Spoken like a true poet! I agree, it does feel sort of backwards that everyone knows except them. Like going to see a musical, but they only show you what’s happening backstage… Yep, that analogy makes no sense whatsoever. Good job, me.”
For some people, ice cream tasted better in the summer. But for Looney, every day was just as fun as the one that came before.
“I’m surprised she didn’t talk to you about it,” I continued.
“Is it not expected, my dear?” Looney asked in a theatrical voice. “That girl is as pure as the driven snow. She would be all too embarrassed to mention it of her own volition…despite how painfully obvious it is.”
“Painful is an understatement,” I nodded.
“But they each believe their secret is safe, and at the very least, neither one of them knows about the other’s. But like with a time capsule, we cannot allow them to forget what they’ve buried!”
“I’m impressed you can say that with a straight face.”
She sidled up close to me, her expression still perfectly emotionless. She had a point, though—every adult I had spoken to about time capsules had told me they’d forgotten where theirs was buried. Probably because too much time had passed, allowing them to get distracted with other things. And it would be tragic if that happened to Mickey and Kyou-kun.
“Ideally,” Looney said, “I’d like them to confirm their feelings to each other at least once…but if Miki-chan’s only just now managed to invite Kyou to her college, then you know she’s not going to make a move until after exams are over.”
“Totally.”
“SO LET’S CHANGE THE SCRIPT!”
“Whoa!”
Whenever Looney shouted like that, she always made me flinch. One of the neighborhood cats woke from its nap and ran away, but she paid it no mind.
“You know those letters we’re supposed to write to our future selves for the time capsules? What if we wrote four different letters to each person in the group?”
“What? And then give them to each other ten years from now?”
“Nah. I want these letters to be completely, brutally honest. Then, when we dig up the time capsule, we’ll just re-read them ourselves. That way we can get a kick out of how our opinions of our friends have changed over time…and that way we can get Kyou and Miki-chan to write down their honest feelings. Once they put those emotions into words, they’ll never forget.”
“Oh, I get it,” I nodded, clapping my hands together in understanding. “Wait, but…has everyone else already finished their letters to themselves? Because I haven’t.”
“Well then, that works out perfectly. To be honest, I doubt anyone’s finished theirs. I know I sure can’t think of anything to say to my future self.”
“What? But it was your idea!”
“I’m all talk and no action. Somebody get me a career in politics, am I right?”