Lolita Love Story

"Hey, man," Takeshi said, smiling as he tugged the white jersey over his head. "Are you psyched or what?"

"You know I am, bro!" Daisuke said, doing some awkward squats and stretches before darting off onto the field. He spread his arms into the air dramatically and jogged in place. "I feel aliiiiiive!"

"Dude, I could hear you guys wailing from the library." Ryota, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, laughed and nudged his brother. "Hey, I'mma get changed real quick. You guys be ready by the time I get back, alright?"

Kougou nodded and he ran off with his briefcase and sports bag swinging from his shoulder.

Akihiro jogged onto the field just as Ryota left to change with two newbies at his heels. He said something to the two new guys and they started running some warm-up laps around the field.

"Who're they?" Takeshi said, a worn-out looking ball on his hip.

"They're runts from the JV team, but they seem to enjoy playing more than the others do," Akihiro said, grinning. He tightened his shoe laces. "They're serious about getting better, so I thought we could use them, even if they'll just sit on the bench during games."

"Seriously?" Takeshi said, laughing. "Well, whatever. I guess it couldn't hurt."

"Wow, you're easygoing today, man. What's gotten into you?" Daisuke called, his breath a little uneven from doing sit-ups. "Last I checked you were, like, the biggest douche in the whole school."

"What? I'm not allowed to be happy?" Takeshi said, frowning a little. He did seem happy.

Akihiro's eyes narrowed a little as he leaned down into a stretch. "Okay, something's up. Spill it."

"Alright," Takeshi said with a lazy smile, taking in a deep breath. Ryota came just in time to hear the news. "Fumiko is moving away. We broke up yesterday."

The whole team seemed to stop in their tracks. The only movement was that of the two newbies running around the edge of the field, too far away to hear what had just been said. "What!?" the whole team exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, I guess her parents think she's too spoiled, or something like that," Takeshi said with a smile on his face like it was the best news he'd ever heard in his life. "So she's going to the United States this weekend."

"Um... shouldn't you be taking this harder?" Ryota said, not looking all that surprised. In fact, he had a smile on his face. "I mean, shouldn't you at least pretend to be sad?"

"Yeah, she was your girlfriend, dude," Akihiro said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"What would you guys do if she were your girlfriend?" Takeshi said, laughing a little, as if at himself. Kougou stepped away from them and joined the new members on their warm-ups as the rest of the team laughed with Takeshi. He didn't feel quite right laughing about such a topic.

As he ran, he recalled that day in the art room, when Saikai surprised him with her new style and her surprising reluctance to keep dressing in Lolita fashion. Kougou liked how she was right now. He had thought her Lolita clothes were a little ostentatious for school, but who was he to judge? He had died a big strip of his hair green. The unusual style was something about her that he grew to like. It was a part of who she was, he thought.

He remembered their first kiss. It was shaky and awkward, but it was also sweet. He kicked up the speed and passed the two newbies. After a few laps, he rejoined the guys on the field and began to show the newbies through the exercises. Practice continued as usual.

***

When practice finally ended, Kougou was stopped by Daisuke in the school entrance. He looked more tired than usual, but he also looked happy. His uniform was hastily put on, not even buttoned up all the way. He readjusted the sports bag on his shoulder.

"Hey, so... I don't know if they told you, but there's a game coming up. We'll be called out of class for it, so it's pretty big."

"Really?" Kougou said. "What day is it on?"

"Oh, there's no tests or anything like that scheduled for that day. It's next Tuesday, but it's mostly in the afternoon. I think we'll get back to the school around four, so it'll be just in time for the clubs, if you're in any of them." Daisuke grinned just as Ryota joined them. "There won't be practice that day, obviously, but the guys talked about having a team dinner that night. You're gonna be there, right?"

"Sure," Kougou said, walking with the brothers to the train station. It was still busy, even though school had let out a few hours ago. Most students were in after-school clubs or cram school until now, anyway. "Sorry about missing practice yesterday. It slipped my mind."

"No sweat," Ryota said, laughing. "I heard that there was something more important for you to do."

"What?" Daisuke said eagerly. His eyes were all lit-up. "What did you hear?"

"Yeah... what did you hear?" Kougou asked, feeling a little blush creeping up into his face as he thought of the kiss with Saikai. But there was no way his friends would know about that... right?

"Oh, I just heard that you were spending time with a girl," Ryota said with a knowing smile, nudging Kougou with an elbow as they found a spot on the train near the back. A man was reading a newspaper nearby, but the space was otherwise pretty empty. "A real pretty girl, too."

"Whoa! Really?" Daisuke said, looking all surprised. "C'mon, man! You gotta tell me who it is!"

Kougou laughed a little. Thinking of her made him nervous and giddy, like he felt when they kissed. "Um... okay. She's a second-year with red hair. Her name is... Yamasui."

"I don't think I've met her," Ryota said, looking thoughtful. "I don't know many second-year students."

"Don't hurt yourself," Kougou said, stifling a laugh. Daisuke laughed too.

"Well, whatever," he said, shrugging it off. "I bet she's pretty cool if you like her. You seem like the kind of guy with really high standards."

The three boys continued to talk about school until Kougou's stop came up. As the train lurched to a stop, Kougou waved goodbye to his teammates and hurried past the turnstiles. Once he was past the rush of people, he slowed down a bit to enjoy the rest of his walk home.

Suddenly, Kougou's phone rang. He opened it.

"Hello?"

"Um, is this Kougou Nagasawa?" Saikai's voice asked from the receiver.

Kougou felt warm suddenly. "Yeah... Saikai."

"Oh, so you know it's me already?" She laughed sweetly. "That makes me really happy."

He decided to stop at the park to talk to her. He didn't want his father to hear their conversation. "So, what's on your mind?"

"I wanted to talk to you some more about something, but..." Her voice faltered a little, like she wasn't sure about bringing up this topic. "You were already going home with some guys from the soccer team, so I decided to wait until later to talk to you."

"Really? You could have joined us." Kougou said awkwardly, "I'm sorry I didn't see you."

"Oh, no! It's okay! Don't worry about that. Um, is it okay if I just talk to you on the phone about it? It feels kind of informal..."

"Would you rather meet up?" Kougou asked, his heartbeat picking up just thinking about it.

"That's really kind of you to offer, but I couldn't make you come all the way here just to talk. Especially this late," she said through a smile. He could envision her smile in his head already. Oh! He checked his watch. It was already 6:30pm. It was pretty late to be going out again. "Actually, why don't we meet tomorrow? That way, I could talk to you face-to-face about it. I won't waste your evening by talking on the phone."

"Talking to you isn't time wasted."

She laughed lightly. "You're too nice to me, senpai."

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, there's this friend I have named Caym who says he used to be friends with you when you were little. Do you know him?"

Kougou thought about it, but he didn't have to think too hard. He had never had friends, even as a child. The closest thing he had to a friend was his mom's best friend's son, a boy named Kazuhiro. But Kazuhiro and his mother hadn't seen Kougou since Kazu had been transferred to another school in a faraway city. The name Caym sounded foreign; Kougou had never met anyone like that before.

"He doesn't sound familiar."

"I thought so," she said. "I don't know how he knows you, if he lied about being your friend, but he said that you stole things from people back then, following his example. He said he stole money from bullies, but you stole from everyone. You stole his parents' engagement rings, and that's why you are no longer friends."

It shocked Kougou. Who was this guy to make up all kinds of weird stuff about a guy he didn't even know? He tried to think of where this rumor might have come from. Had he done something back then to cause a rumor? He couldn't think of anything that might have seemed like that... He had stolen something from a convenience store once, but he was just a little kid who didn't know any better back then.

"Kougou? Are you still there?"

"Y-yeah. I'm just thinking. Sorry."

She let out a little sigh. "I'm sorry to bother you about this. It's kind of ridiculous, isn't it?"

"You could say that again," Kougou said, running a hand through his hair. "I can't think of anything he said that might be based in reality, but as a kid, I had one friend. We weren't close, though. His name was Kazu."

"Hey, senpai?" she said, suddenly preoccupied. "Why don't we talk about this more tomorrow? I have some studying to do. I'm going to try and take the overseas college-entrance exams this summer."

"You are?" he said, surprised. "Oh, then I guess I should let you go, huh..."

"I'm sorry, but I'll talk to you tomorrow after class, if you aren't too busy." She paused, as if she was gathering her emotions. "Um, thanks... for listening to me today."

"It's not something you have to thank me for," he said, smiling just a little. "Anyway, good luck with your studies."

After hanging up, Kougou stood up. He didn't move for a long time, though. The whole conversation with Saikai was so strange... A guy who he didn't know was spreading rumors about him that weren't even based at all on reality... He shook his head to clear it. None of it made sense, though, and it bothered him. Kougou wasn't anyone famous or especially popular. He didn't have any enemies until now because he hadn't really talked to anyone for long enough. Who was this guy and what did he hope to gain by telling Saikai this weird rumor?