Lolita Love Story

Saikai absentmindedly followed her friends through the main doors and onto the grass beneath the blossoming cherry trees. Their pink blossoms were beautiful, but she paid no attention to them knowing that there was a test later that week that she needed to study for. She stared down at her notes as she took a bite of umeboshi. Her friends were chattering loudly amongst each other, their bento laid out on their briefcases.

"Sai-chan!"

She looked up suddenly, surprised. "What?"

"Isn't that boy in our class?" Rie pressed, her eyes twinkling. "You know, the new kid! He sits right in front of you on the seating chart!"

"He does?" Saikai asked, trying to remember an unfamiliar person. She could only remember the numbers swimming in her head from the notebook sitting on her lap. "I don't think so... I don't remember seeing anyone."

"Well duh! He wasn't here today, dork." Rie laughed as her friend's cheeks turned pink with embarrassment. "But hey, I heard he's really cute. When he's here next, you'll tell him about me, won't you?"

"Oh, um, sure..." Saikai said, looking longingly at the blue Trigonometry notebook. She always preferred studying to social situations. She felt awkward and shy, even with Rie, who was her best friend since they were children. Rie had changed a lot since middle school, though. She used to be tomboyish and laid back, but since she returned, all she talked about were boys. Saikai didn't even know how to talk to boys. Rie dressed in a fashion she called "gal style", and she was the school's trendsetter. Saikai sometimes wondered how they were friends at all.

Next to Rie, Saikai didn't feel pretty. Rie wore long false eyelashes, circle lenses, and makeup, and always looked glamorous in her clothes. Saikai just looked like a child. She didn't even know how to go about using makeup or contacts.

"Sai-chan, Tou-kun and Ken-kun are meeting me for boba tea after class. Do you want to go?"

"I don't know, Rie-chan... I have to study," she replied uncomfortably.

"Come on, you study all the time! You can afford to skip studying for just one night." Rie pouted and gave her best puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeease?"

"I guess I can go... but I will need to study now then." Rie nodded excitedly and turned to the others, leaving Saikai to eat and study without interruption except for their squealing when one of the girls mentioned a boy she liked. Eventually, their antics grew too loud for Saikai and she picked up her things and moved to the stairs to be further from the noise.

She flipped through the Trigonometry notebook for a while before switching to a different subject. The numbers were all blending together. She decided English may be better, but it was equally difficult to concentrate. Frustrated, she put the notebooks aside and focused on eating her lunch alone. It wasn't uncomfortable for her. She actually preferred to eat away from the huge group of popular girls that only accepted her because of her friendship with Rie, and often ate alone.

"Excuse me," a boy said quietly, holding up a battered-looking notebook. "You dropped this."

Saikai looked up to see him. He was thinner than the other boys- barely any muscle at all on his tiny frame. His skin was very pale made him look sickly, and his brown-black eyes were ringed with dark circles. He had spiky hair that was colored in the front, a thick stripe of green in his otherwise dark black hair. The color was so dark that it was nearly unnoticeable until the light hit it a certain way. She knew she was staring, but couldn't look away. He looked so much different than everyone else. He didn't wear the same types of clothes that the other boys wore, and instead wore plain, neutral colored clothing.

"I did?" she asked, looking around. All of her notebooks were in a stack. None of them were missing. "Um, I think you have me mistaken for someone else..."

"It was right there," he said, pointing to the bottom of the stairs. "And you're the only one around, so..."

She accepted the notebook from him and flipped open the front cover. The writing was hers, and her name was scrawled at the top of each page, but she would never have brought the notebook to school. There was no reason for it. It was an old journal that she had used to research mysticism back when she was a first year student and had a fleeting interest in such things. She looked up at the boy, uncomprehending.

"You said you found it right there?" she repeated, standing up suddenly. This had to be a joke. Someone found her notebook and was playing a prank on her, making fun of her for her interest in psychic powers, perhaps. But there was no one around to look at her expression and laugh. No one had pranked her.

She swayed a little on her feet, feeling sick. The notebook fell from her hands and flipped to a random page as it landed. The boy stared at her and she was certain he thought she was strange.

"Are you alright?" he asked, sounding far away.

"Yes," she answered lamely. "Thank you." He stared at her for a while, obviously not believing her, but he nodded once and picked up his briefcase from where he'd set it down on the stair.

"I'll see you around, I suppose," he said, smiling a little as he turned and continued up the stairs. She sat down slowly, trying to make sense of everything. Other students were filing inside, going to their lockers already. Saikai stood and arranged her things. She spent too much time pondering, and if she didn't hurry, she might be late.



Saikai was one of the last students to rush into the room before class started. She took her usual seat behind the empty chair, and quickly prepared for class to begin. The English teacher was a little strict, and didn't like when people shuffled things around trying to get ready after the lecture began. Saikai didn't like to upset her teachers. As she was flipping to a new page in her notebook, Rie tapped her shoulder with the back end of a pen.

"Psst! Hey, Sai-chan!" She turned around to look at her friend. "I saw you talking to the new kid! What's he like? I can't believe he talked to you!"

"We weren't really talking, he just picked up something I dropped." At the mention of him, she glanced at the notebook she'd stuffed into her briefcase. Even though no one else knew what was in it, she found herself embarrassed anyway. She felt as though everyone knew.

"Aww, that's sweet of him," Rie cooed, her eyes twinkling as they did whenever she talked about a guy she liked. Saikai smiled uncomfortably and turned away even as her friend continued to talk about the new boy.

Class started as usual. The English teacher stood at the podium and began the lecture in his confident and funny manner, imitating a non-native Japanese speaker to explain how important it is to pronounce the words properly. In Japanese, for example, putting emphasis on the wrong syllable could change the word "now" into "room". In English, it wasn't quite as dramatic, but even so, proper pronunciation made it much easier to understand, even if the grammar was a bit off. As the teacher began to call on "volunteers" to answer one of his questions, one of the doors to the classroom slid open.

"Saikai!" She didn't turn even as Rie jabbed the pen into her shoulder. "That's him!"

Everyone stared as a pale student with dark black hair walked into the room. Saikai noticed briefly the thick streak of green near the front. The teacher stopped speaking immediately, as surprised as the other students were at the new arrival.

"I'm new," he said in a soft voice, straightening from his bow. "Nagasawa."

The English teacher rifled through some papers in the podium and produced the seating chart. "Kougou?" The boy nodded. He pointed to the vacant spot in front of Saikai. "That's your spot, in front of Yamasui."

As Kougou was crossing the room, they made eye contact. Saikai stared, and couldn't look away until he came close. She lowered her eyes and felt a light blush creep into her cheeks. As the lecture picked up again and after the initial buzz of interest had died down, he turned his head a little and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She pretended not to notice.

When class was over, she watched as the new boy, Kougou drifted out the door amidst the stream of other students rushing to get to after school clubs. Saikai slowly packed her briefcase and listened to Rie and the others talking in excited tones about the new student. She went to the art room alone to paint, and wasn't surprised when Rie never showed up.