Anzu just kept on going. “How isn’t it? If you weren’t trying to use his reputation to your advantage, you wouldn’t have threatened to go tell your ‘guy friends’ how much I was getting on your nerves lest they jump me on my way home. Sure, maybe it wasn’t him specifically you were talking about in that instance, but it’s still using intimidation tactics to avoid getting your own hands dirty, so I’d say my point stands.”
Koharu bit her lower lip and began to tremble.
Oh God. She’s gonna cry.
Then Anzu delivered the finishing blow: “I mean, really. How fragile is your ego? You try so hard to maintain your tough girl persona, but is it just to cover up the fact that you don’t have any actual friends?”
That did it. The dam burst, and big, ugly teardrops cascaded down Koharu’s cheeks.
“Y-you don’t have to be so mean about it…” she whimpered, sniffling a few times before breaking down into full-on sobbing.
Flustered, I knew I had to do something. “C’mon, Hanashiro! That’s too far. You need to apologize.”
“Fiiine…”
“No, don’t give me that. Actually apologize to her.”
Anzu rolled her eyes but turned to face Koharu nonetheless. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you cry…even if I did say it knowing full well that it would hit you where it hurt.”
“A sincere apology…” I reprimanded.
However, Anzu showed no signs of remorse, and Koharu’s tears showed no signs of letting up. As I sat there all jittery between the two of them, the closet door suddenly burst open and out jumped two little boys, no more than elementary school age. They were, presumably, Koharu’s little brothers.
“Hey! Quit pickin’ on her!” one of them yelled as they both ran over to Anzu and started wildly flailing their arms at her. In a rare moment of discomposure, Anzu covered her face in a frantic attempt to block their punches while pleading with them to knock it off. Meanwhile, Koharu was still busy bawling her eyes out. It was utter pandemonium, and I had no clue what to do.
Just then, the door swung open, and in came Koharu’s mother with a tray of iced tea.
“Aha! There you are, you little rascals!” she said, pulling the two boys away and bopping them each on the head. Now all three of the Kawasaki siblings were crying loudly, and I was extremely ready to go home.
“Sorry about that little fiasco,” said Koharu’s mother after summoning me and Anzu out into the hallway for a little chat. She was laughing awkwardly with her hands placed firmly on her hips. “Anyway, something tells me my daughter started it, but if you could try not to let things escalate going forward, I’d really appreciate it. She really is a sweet girl deep down, you know.”
All I could do was nod my head in shame. Even Anzu, for all her lack of remorse, was now meekly hunched over like a scolded pet.
“You wouldn’t believe how quickly she came dashing out of her room when she heard the doorbell ring earlier. I don’t know what happened with her friends at school, but I think she must be pretty lonely right about now. Obviously, I can’t make you bury the hatchet and be friends with her, but at least try to get along, would you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, then looked over at Anzu, who simply nodded.
“Great. Well, it’s still raining pretty hard out there, so feel free to stick around and take it easy a little longer if you like.” With that, Koharu’s mother retreated down the hall into the other room.
“If we like,” she says… After what just happened, it would be pretty shameful to bow out and go home now. So we opened the door to Koharu’s bedroom once more, where we found the three siblings engaged in some sort of card game on her bed. As soon as Koharu saw us enter, though, she gathered up all the cards and handed them to her little brothers.
“Okay, back to your room now,” she said, and they obediently got up.
“If they pick on you again, Sis, just let us now!” said one of the boys.
“Yeah! We’ll make ’em pay next time!” said the other.
The two boys stuck their tongues out at us as they marched out of the bedroom, taking their adorable sibling dynamic with them. Now alone again in the room with Koharu, we just kind of stood there uncomfortably for a while until she suggested we sit down and we obliged.
“So what did Mam… What did my mom say to you?”
“Nothing much,” I said, making an amused mental note of the fact that she apparently called her mother “Mama” most of the time. “Just told us to take it easy.”
“She asked you to be friends with me, didn’t she?”
All I could do was smile sheepishly. Koharu grabbed the beanbag pillow at her side and promptly buried her face in it. “Ugh, she’s so embarrassing… This sucks… Just kill me now.”
Obviously, I knew she wasn’t literally saying she wanted to die, but it still felt terrible to hear her so mortified. Yet I didn’t have enough experience dealing with women to know how to talk my way out of this one.
“You’ve got a weak mindset,” Anzu cut in ruthlessly.
Yikes, man. Not that I had any better ideas as to what to say, but I knew that sure as hell wasn’t going to remedy the situation. I tried playing mediator once more. “C’mon, Hanashiro. You’re the one who took things too far… At least act like you wanna make it up to her, sheesh.”
“What’s the point in pretending? I’m not going to take back what I said.”
“I know, but still…”
“You’re too soft, Tono-kun.”
“No, you’re unreasonably harsh.”
As we carried on arguing with one another, Koharu suddenly lifted her head back up out of her pillow.
“Hey… How do you act so invincible all the time, anyway?” she asked Anzu in a meek little voice, like a pupil seeking guidance from their master. Which might have been exactly what was happening, now that I thought about it. I turned and gave Anzu the sternest glare I could muster, demanding she answer this one in good faith—or else.
Anzu apparently got the message, because she slouched her shoulders a bit and begrudgingly began to explain. “I mean, it’s not like there’s a secret method to it. However…”
“However?”
“If I had to sum it up, I’d say it’s all about not being afraid to punch people’s lights out.”
Welp. That sure wasn’t the sort of thing you’d expect to come out of a teenage girl’s mouth.
“You’ve gotta set hard boundaries for what you’ll put up with internally. Like, if someone does this, that, or the other thing to me, I’m gonna punch ’em in the face. Once you do that, it’s easier to analyze situations and yourself from a top-down perspective. Helps you keep a level head and avoid letting your emotions take control.”
“What do you mean by ‘top-down’…?” asked Koharu, tilting her head.