Rena Moon

Akira pouted, “But I don’t want to. I wanted to hang out with you for the rest of today.” He sounds like a player, maybe I should just walk away. He’ll leave me alone soon enough. I walked off without acknowledging him in anyway. He immediately followed behind me like a puppy.

I glared at him, “Why are you following me? You should go do whatever a celebrity does. Aren’t you supposed to be busy?” He shrugged, “I got some free time. I’ll be okay.” I frowned when I noticed that he wasn’t planning on leaving me alone. Why was he being so annoying? I’m sure I told him to leave me alone. I sighed, “If you’re going to follow me around, you should at least disguise yourself better. You look suspicious.”

He did a good job of covering his face, but he looked suspicious. No one would walk around with a scarf in the middle of summer. He looked clueless, “I don’t see how I look suspicious. There are so many people out, no one really cares.” I pointed at the scarf, “You do realize that it’s summer, right? Who would walk around wearing a scarf? Let’s go over there for a bit.”

There was a bunch of stalls set up at the side of the road. It looked like they were selling masks and accessories. I picked out a bunny mask and tossed it at him, “Buy that.” He caught the bunny mask easily. He laughed, “You want me to wear this?” I nodded, “Duh. What else would you wear?” He frowned, “I think this looks more suspicious than what I’m wearing now.”

I sighed, “If you aren’t going to wear that, then maybe you should go find someone else to hang out with. I don’t want to walk around with a guy that looks suspicious. It’s weird enough that a high school student is walking around when they should be in school. I don’t want to get caught up at the police station.” He instantly agreed, “Fine. I’ll wear the mask, but that means you’ll spend the rest of the day with me, right?”

I hesitated but chose to give in after realizing that I had no way of paying for my glasses. It sucks being broke. I didn’t want to mooch off of him like a leech, but what am I supposed to do? I can’t see without my glasses! I nodded, “I’ll hang out with you, but don’t act like you know me when we’re in school, got it?”

He frowned, “That’s kind of mean. Aren’t you supposed to be nice to me since I helped you out?” I rolled my eyes at him, “I didn’t ask for your help. You’re the one that decided to kidnap me.” The stall owner stared at us suspiciously when she heard my statement. I quickly corrected myself, “I mean, you shouldn’t have brought me here. I could’ve come here by myself.”

The stall owner didn’t seem to care much. She moved on to another customer once she heard me. Akira laughed, “I almost got arrested for being a kidnapper.” I punched his arm, “It’s not funny. Hurry up and buy the mask so we could get out of here.” He rubbed his arm and frowned at me, “Okay, you don’t have to be so mean.”

He bought the mask, and we walked around for a bit. Each time I came across a stall, I’d browse around for a bit. I wasn’t usually out shopping like this because I couldn’t afford anything anyway. I just liked looking around. I was stopped at one of the stalls when I noticed a familiar bird flying above me.

Was the bird following me around? I decided to test it out. I ran around the buildings to see if the bird was following me. Akira noticed me running away and began sprinting after me. He shouted, “HEY! Where are you going?” I shrugged him off and continued running. Once I was back where I started, I saw that the bird had followed me. The bird was watching me from a window atop the building.

I laughed in excitement, “It’s following me!” Akira caught up to me and asked, “What’s following you?” I pointed at the bird on the windowsill, “The bird.” He squinted his eyes and focused on the tiny orange/black bird. He said, “No way. Are you sure? Birds don’t usually do that.”

I didn’t want to bother explaining to him that I tamed the bird, “I’m sure the bird is following us. I just tested it out just now.” Akira panted heavily after running around the building, “I’m not sure about that, but you sure do know how to run fast. I had trouble catching up to you.”

I laughed, “Of course I can run fast. I’m always running away from Mikami and his gang. I’m sure I can outrun you any day.” I expected Akira to laugh, but his expression turned grim. He didn’t look so happy about what I said. He probably felt bad about me being bullied all the time. Akira’s voice sounded a tad bit too gloomy, “You shouldn’t be laughing about that.”

I frowned, “Why not? It’s the truth.” He stated, “I don’t like that you get bullied. It sounds like you always run away from them.” I patted his back, “It’s okay. I’m used to it. No need for you to get all sad. It’s not like I’m sad about it. I’m sure they’ll get their karma someday. Plus, I run super-fast.”

He frowned, “but still. I don’t like that they bully girls. Don’t they have anything better to do?” I pointed out, “but I don’t look like a girl? I’m sure they don’t think I’m a girl. It’s not like I’m pretty or anything. If I was more like Sayuri, they might treat me better.” Akira flicked my forehead, “Don’t say that about yourself. You’re much prettier than Sayuri. She’s the one that took you to the nurse’s office, right?”

I rubbed my forehead and angrily said, “You’re kidding me. You sound like a player. You shouldn’t say that to random girls. I’m definitely not prettier than Sayuri, okay?” Akira was hopeless, “That’s not what I’m trying to say. I just don’t want you to talk about yourself like that. You're way more important than you think you are.” I didn’t want to admit it, but his statement stirred something in my heart. I felt all warm and tingly inside. Is this how it feels to be cared about? No one has ever told me that.