Today's Saturday, the most wonderful day of the week; besides that you don't have to wake up earlier than usual cause there's no classes, you can also stay up late as long as you want for the next day is a day off too. Trully, such a day is meant to be celebrated. Combine that with an extremely cold weather and you got yourselves the perfect occasion to just lie down all day while playing some games with your dear Vita-chan.
That would be great if that's the case, nothing beats a good lazying after an exhausting long week of studying. But instead, here I am-- waiting at the bustling station for god knows how long, my rear end turning numb due to the freezing winds. As for the reason why, you see, last night...
"So, how did it go? What did she said? Did she say yes?"
"Yeah, she agrees to see you."
"Huh? Really? Really? I knew it! She must feel the same way about me. Maybe we're really destined to each other. That moment I saw her, that's not just some coincidence, it's destiny."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just so we're clear, you want me to bring her to your practice game tomorrow, right?"
"Yes. It will start at about nine in the morning and should end around noon so be sure to bring her just before then. I don't want her to miss how awesome my baseball skills are. I bet she'll love me more once she sees how amazing I am."
"If that makes you sleep better, then okay."
"I'm all worked up! Thinking I will be able to see my love after all this time, this feels like a dream. I can't believed..."
And so it goes.
A cold breeze blew, prompting me to raised my scarf on my face.
I checked my phone. It's already 9:20 a.m., twenty minutes past the appointed time. Man, why is this keep happening to me? Going earlier on a meeting being anxious that I might be late, then turning out the other person is late and I'll just stand there for ages, hating myself. I understand if it's Yuigahama but for Yukinoshita who values punctuality to be late on a meeting, this is very unusual.
I'm about to call her but remembered I still don't have her number. It's weird that it's almost a year we've known each other but still haven't getting around of exchanging numbers. Maybe I should ask her next time. Yeah, not gonna happen. She's probably just gonna give me a disgusted look and throw in some insults about my looks, specifically my eyes if I do that.
"Hikki!" a voice called out in a distant.
I looked at in it's direction and saw Yuigahama jogging over to me, pulling Yukinoshita along with her.
As it's still winter, both of them are wearing thick clothing. As usual for Yuigahama who's into fashion magazines; with a rosepink cardigan and an orange scarf, everything about her outfit screams "cute" all over it.
As for Yukinoshita, I'm not sure but I got a vague feeling something is off with her; a peach longcoat, tight jeans along with a pair of boots, top off with a checkered beanie, she's somewhat giving off the vibe of a sweet and playful girl, which are words you wouldn't normally associate with Yukinoshita with. Yup, something is definitely wrong with her.
"Sorry for the wait," Yuigahama said. "Yukinon here have so many clothes, like a lot, so it's kinda hard to pick which ones suit her the best. Kind of made me jealous a bit to be honest, heehee."
Oh, that explains it.
"I already told her I can do it myself but she keeps insisting on choosing my clothes." Yukinoshita is touching her head like she's having a headache.
"It's because you always wear this plain looking clothes whenever we go out. This is a date, you must try to look your best!"
You're not fooling anyone here. Admit it, you only want to treat Yukinoshita like a doll and give her a make over.
"Yuigahama-san, those people who only look on outer appearances are not worthy of your time and affection. You're far better alone than be with the wrong person."
"That's not the point!"
It seems their argument is taking forever to finish so I decided to intervene.
"Nevermind that. What are you doing here anyway?"
"Eh?" Yuigahama tilted her head and gave me puzzled look. "Of course I'm coming with you."
"No, I mean why are you coming with us?"
It would surely take me a considerable amount of energy to handle Nakagawa alone but with Yuigahama in the mix, I don't think I can last much longer. That's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, except I'm in the middle of two bubbleheads.
"Er... I just thought you might feel a little out of place since Yukinon is with your friend so I figured I should come so you can have someone to talk to."
"No, I'm fine. You can go home now."
There's no need for you to concern since being a third wheel is nothing new to me. Many years ago, I used to know someone who I always hangout with together with his friends and most of the time, I'm just standing there looking like an idiot while they're talking about things I can't relate to. It's like hearing an inside joke you're oblivious to while everyone around is laughing their ass off.
The worse thing though is when one of his friends asks me why I'm quiet. I mean, I don't even know a thing about you, what did you expect me to say? How fine the weather is? Needless to say, my relationship with that person didn't last long.
"You may think you're helping but you're only making it worse for me."
"Not fair! I want to see how it will go, I mean Yukinon meeting your friend."
"No."
She made a pouting face but I paid no heed to it. Perhaps sensing I won't back down that easy, she sets her sights on a much easier target.
"Please Yukinon, let me come with you." She grabbed Yukinoshita's hand and look at her with her puppy eyes. "There isn't any problem with me coming right?"
Is she by any chance taking some private lessons on slyness 101 with Iroha? I should ask that kouhai of mine some other time regarding this.
"I... I don't see why not... "
Yukinoshita, just because you're part of the Service Club doesn't mean you must accept every requests thrown to you. Come on, you're better than that.
"Thank you Yukinon!" Yuigahama embraced her with a cheeriness of a child.
"Space..."
And with the two of them against me, I have no other choice but to concede defeat. What an unfair world we lived in.
"She's your responsibility now, don't expect me to handle her for you."
"I never agree to such thing. You should be her babysitter since you're always yapping about being a house husband."
She's really quick on attacking my weakness points, it's starting to scare me a little...
"You two, stop treating me like a child!"
* * *
It took us a half hour train ride and a few minutes walk before we finally arrived to our destination, Matsudo International High School.
As we weren't allowed to get inside, we instead scale around the school ground per Nakagawa's instruction until we come across a barbed fence with an overview of the school's playing field.
The game had already started.
There are a few people around, who I assume are students here, that are watching the game too by the fence, which is quite a lot considering this is only a practice game. They must really love baseball that much for them to go out of the comfort of their homes just to watch this.
"Oohh... The playing field here is much bigger than the one at our school."
Sobu high is decent enough on it's own right but it's no match compared to this one so the fact that this school have better facilities is not that surprising. Matsudo High is well known here at Chiba for having the best students and those who want to study here must first have the good grades and a decent amount of money. For someone like Yukinoshita, entering here must be a piece of cake since she have those criterias, but instead she choose to go to our school. I wonder why...
"Um, can you explain how does this game goes?" Yuigahama inquired on her trustee Yukipedia.
"You insist on coming with us to watch this but you didn't know what baseball is?" I butted in.
"I-I know what baseball is, I'm not an idiot! It's just I'm not into sports that much and I've never watch a game of it before so I don't know the rules."
So, basically, you're saying you never watched a game of Kamanagawa Pirates before? Unacceptable. Unacceptable I say. How could you call yourself a proud citizen of Chiba without praying for the victory of your home team? Go, prostate yourself before Chiba itself and ask forgiveness for your transgressions.
"The two opposing team takes turn in batting and fielding," Yukinoshita explained. "The objectives of the batting team is to hit the ball thrown by the pitcher and advance through the four bases while the fielding team must prevent them from doing so. That's the general idea around it."
"Ahh... And how do you score a point?"
"The pitching team scores a point whenever a runner successfully go around the bases in order and touched the home plate, the base where they started. The fielding team on the other hand must knocked out three players from the opposing team before they can take their turn to pitch."
Yuigahama continued to bombard Yukinoshita with questions after questions.
As for me, I just leave them out to be and focus on the game. It's already in the fourth inning with the score of eight to twelve in favor of the current batting team. I scanned the area searching for Nakagawa and spotted him sitting at the batter's bench. It's hard to believe with that serious look on his face that he's the same bubbling idiot I have talked to on the phone.
"Hikigaya-kun."
I glanced to my side. Yukinoshita is extending a paper cup filled with tea to me, in her other hand is a thermos. Seems she brought one in preparing for todays weather. It sure is convenient with her around, Doraemon would be proud.
I take the cup from her hand."Thanks."
She poured one for herself before putting back the thermos inside her hand bag.
Matsudo high is located on an elavated area so the temperature here is lower than the other places from Chiba, but thanks to Yukinoshita's tea, the cold at least become a bit bearable.
"So, which one there is this Nakagawa?" She took a sip from her cup.
"Yeah, where is he Hikki?" Yuigahama added as she finished drinking her tea.
"There, the guy sitting at blue teams bench with a number 8 on his uniform."
Just then, Nakagawa rose up to his feet, take a hold of the bat, and proceeded to walked to the batter's box. The group of girls further to our left who are quiet moments ago are now screaming like some cavemen who discovers fire for the first time. Who would've thought Nakagawa's fan club would still be operational up to this day?
"He's quite popular, isn't he?" Yuigahama muttered.
"Hmmpf. Only tastless girls would fall for that idiot" I said. "Apart from her looks, there's nothing noteworthy about him at all."
"Look at what you did Yuigahama-san, " Yukinoshita said with a mischievous smile. "You made him aware of his insecurities. Need I remind you that some lowly lifeforms have feelings too?"
"Telling the truth is not synonymous with being insecure. And just so you know, I'd rather die alone than be with a girl who likes me solely for my looks."
"You don't have to worry about it. If a girl miraculously fell for you unlikely as it may be, you can rest assured it's not because of your looks."
"I don't think I like what you're implying... "
She simply whisked her hair at my words as she turned her face away from me.
I'm about to say something but the sound of a bat hitting a ball followed by another cheer from the crowd brought my attention back to the field just in time to caught a glimpse of a ball disappearing beyond the fence.
Yuigahama gasped. "Whooah, that's a home run right?"
Nakagawa ran through all the bases swiftly and once he got back on his seat, his teammates greeted him with cheerful faces and gave him some high fives. It looks like they've already won with the way they're celebrating.
"I'm surprised Hikki become friends with someone like that. He doesn't look like the person he would normally get along with."
"He's not my friend. We never talked to each other before and if it wasn't for Yukinoshita here, the thought of calling me surely won't cross his mind."
Yukinoshita chuckled. "That's not surprising given most people would rather forget your existence rather that remember that hideous face of yours."
Ignoring her crude remarks, I continued, "I really don't care about it. Even if we did become friends back then, we're still probably gonna forget each other eventually. That's just how it works, not all of your friends in middle school will be going in the same school as yours at high school. Maybe you'll still keep in touch at first, calling or texting everyday, then it'll become once a week, then once a month, and before you know it, both of you have already grown apart."
Both of them seemed to be in thought, the silence between us three is becoming more unbearable with each seconds passed. The truth is I already know what they're thinking. It is the thought I'm trying to avoid all this time.
Yuigahama put those thoughts into words. "Do you think that will happen to us once we're in college? " She had a glint of sadness in her eyes as she posed that question.
To be honest, I'm not really sure. There are so many things that may or may not happen that could affect our lives and decisions. As the song goes, the future is an unknown beast, all it takes is a crack, for it to be twisted and stray from perfection. But if there's only one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'll never forget them no matter how many years would pass. We have been together through so many problems and each one of it made us closer little by little. It's a lot like I'm Yuno and they're Yukki, except I'm not obsessed with them, and I'm not trying to kill them, and I'm not batshit insane. I know, it's a bad analogy. The point is, they're important to me. But there's no way I'm going to say that, I don't want to have another identity crisis like the last time mind you.
"Well, there's no way to be sure about that," I paused as I searched for the right words to convey my thoughts. "Although, I'm pretty sure I'll never forget how terrible your cooking skills are and Yukinoshita's insults leaved me with a deep mental scar and it will take thousand of hours of therapy before I can full recover from it."
I meant to annoyed them a bit but they only gave me a puzzled look. Then seeming to got the meaning behind my words, their lips curled into a smile.
"That's only fair," Yukonoshita said. "After all, it's near impossible to erase the image of your horrendous face in my memories, it having damaged my eyes due to being constantly exposed to that ghastly sight of yours."
"Y-yeah! It's really hard to forget Hikki's face, especially when he's laughing. It's like super gross."
It's kinda weird when you felt happy after being insulted at. But then again, having a silent agreement over something is quite nice.
"And Hikki is the only one I know loves her sister so much, it's like really creepy."
"A creepy masochistic brother on top on being a person who doesn't want to work, Hikigaya-kun is really one of a kind, which is a good thing since having another person like him is an insult to humans."
Ha ha ha... That's funny. Please stop.
Authors Note:
Hi there! It's been a long time since I last updated this. Some things happen you see but mainly I just can't find the motivation to write this story. I meant this chapter to be the last part but I feel like I'm taking forever to write this one so yeah there's that. Anyway the next part will be the last one I promise.
By the way I'm not really familiar with baseball since it's not that famous here in my country so if there's something I got wrong about it I'm sorry.
Thanks for reading this story and please leave your thoughts at the review section! ≧∇≦