Paradigms Shifting

In spite of staying up way too late the previous night, I woke up feeling refreshed and excited. Confronting my father in the morning was an interesting experience. He expressed worry at my hospital visit, but when I told him that the doctor had given me a clean bill of health, he became much less worried. I also relayed to him the news that I had a girlfriend now, and he seemed very happy about that, even making an embarrassing comment about the potential for grandchildren. He’d apparently begun to worry about me in the relationship department, a sentiment I could relate with, and went on to say he’d be supremely disappointed if I ended up a NEET shut-in like some of his coworker’s kids.

After assuring him that wasn’t going to happen, I got a message from Kaneko saying she was already waiting outside. I blazed through my morning routine so fast I may as well have been leaving scorch-marks everywhere I went, not wanting to keep her waiting too long.

“I’m sorry for making you wait!” I said to her outside, winded.

She shook her head, “It’s okay.”

“My dad said you should just come in, next time. He’s really happy I’m finally dating someone.”

“O-okay,” Kaneko agreed, and we began our trek to school.

In hindsight, I should have expected her to arrive early, she always managed to beat me to class looking like she’d been there for a while. She was apparently an early riser, hopefully she was able to sleep okay last night.

“Did you sleep well?” I asked.

She hesitated before nodding.

“That’s good. I can’t wait to brag to my friends, they’re going to be so jealous that I was the first among us to get a girlfriend,” I said, but then thought of something, “I mean, unless you want me to keep quiet about it.”

She looked at me with her deep black eyes curiously, “Why would I?”

I shrugged, “Well, I’m kind of a loser, and I figured it was a smart thing to ask before I accidentally overstep my bounds.”

She shook her head emphatically, “You’re not a loser. You’re very kind. Tell anyone you want.”

I smiled brightly, “Then I’m gonna brag to everyone!”

She blushed furiously at this, and we held hands the rest of the way to school. When we arrived, we didn’t stop holding each other’s hands and were met with wide eyes and gasps from many of the students who recognized us. I was blushing too, now. It was an amazing feeling but also very embarrassing. I considered that this might overwhelm Kaneko, but when I even thought about removing my hand, she gripped it tighter instead.

When we got to our classroom, we decided to compare answers to the previous night’s homework since we arrived early. I was glad for the comparison; I hadn’t been able to focus last night even a little and comparing made me notice that I had gotten a couple answers totally wrong.

“Yo, Haru-kun!” The familiar voice of Honda announced itself from the doorway.

“Oda,” I returned the greeting, standing up from my squatting position at Kaneko’s desk and smiling at my childhood buddy, Oda Honda.

“You’re not gonna believe what happened last night!” he exclaimed as he approached us.

“Oh?” Somehow, I got the feeling no matter what he said, I had him beat. After all, not only had I landed myself a girlfriend, but I also died. I wasn’t about to tell him that latter bit, but I knew I didn’t really need to. There was a solid chance whatever he told me was a complete lie. He was that friend everyone has that always lies to add spice to their otherwise boring everyday life.

“Yeah, Ishi-kun and I went down to the arcade, and after he left, this complete and total hottie showed up. She must have been like, the mom of some brat who was there, but I’m telling you, she was total milf-central. I’m talking huge boobs. And like, I was playing Master Fighter and I beat the high score! And then she totally winked at me. Anyway, I’ll probably be dating her within the next couple of weeks, no big deal.” He laughed haughtily at his own, probably fake, accomplishments and put his hands on his hips triumphantly.

“Sounds interesting,” I said, calmly.

I heard a noise coming from Kaneko next to me, almost too quiet to hear. It sounded a little like a snort, was she laughing? I was pretty sure that was the first time I’d ever heard anything even laugh-adjacent coming from her.

“Ah? Why are you next to Sadako-chan’s desk?” he asked. That name suddenly had a much deeper impact on me now. I might have brushed it off as a bit rude before today, but now that I was dating her, hearing Honda call her that actually made me a bit mad.

“Well, first of all, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t call Kaneko-san that,” I began, keeping my tone calm and as diplomatic as possible, “secondly, she is my girlfriend.”

“Wait, that isn’t her name?” he asked, looking down at her. His question was sincere, and it frankly wouldn’t surprise me if he was so dumb that he actually believed her name was Sadako. Then he blinked as the second part of what I said turned the single, dusty, rarely-used cog-wheel in his brain, “Wait, she’s you girlfriend!?”

“Kaneko-san, this is my childhood friend, Oda Honda.”

She turned her head toward him and bowed it, “Suki Kaneko,” she introduced herself quietly.

“No way, this is impossible!” he exclaimed, pointing at me dramatically. “That you, of all people, would have landed the fabled girlfriend before I, the great Oda Honda, is unthinkable! You must have tricked her or blackmailed her. I never thought my own childhood friend would stoop so low!”

To the untrained ear, or at least the ear of someone who wasn’t used to dealing with Honda on a regular basis like I was, his words might have been taken as sincere. For all his faults, Honda was genuinely a pretty good actor. Even his dozens of lies to inflate his own self-importance might have actually worked if he could resist the urge to embellish them with obvious exaggerations. This was all to say that while I understood that Honda was just teasing me in a friendly manner fueled by bewilderment and jealousy, I could also understand why Kaneko might have thought he was being serious. Which went a long way to explain what she did next.

She stood up from her desk and got up on her tip-toes in front of me and kissed me on the lips. It was a simple peck, but it was loving and welcome.

“Eeeeeeeeeeh!?” the few people in the classroom erupted into surprised expressions and gasps of astonishment.

Kaneko’s lips were so wonderfully soft; I honestly felt a bit faint. That was my first kiss, and it came out of nowhere. When she was finished, she slipped back down into her chair, red as a tomato, amid complete and total bewildered silence.

“Okay,” Honda said in a daze, “I believe you, Haru-kun. I hate you, but I believe you.”

Class started not long after that, and at nearly every small break in the lecture, I could hear people whispering and gossiping about the kiss. I didn’t get in trouble for it, evidently this school was extremely unusual in that rules regarding public displays of affection were very rarely enforced unless excessive. As long as I had been going to Yuki Academy, there were rumors floating around about the principal being singularly responsible for this relaxedness, but I’d always doubted that.

In those same little breaks, Kaneko and I exchanged texts regarding the incident. Evidently, this was not only my first kiss, but it was also hers as well, and she didn’t regret it in the least. In fact, she seemed to like it so much that she, in an adorably awkward and roundabout way, gave me permission to kiss her pretty much whenever I wanted, and encouraged me to do so often. I enjoyed it so much that I, in an equally awkward manner, agreed to do exactly that. She also told me I was free to call her by her first name now that we were dating, and I gave her the same permission. I was amazed at how much more talkative Kaneko was when she was texting than when she was speaking. She really was very shy.

By the time lunch rolled around I realized that in my haste to get out the door this morning, I had totally forgotten to prepare anything. Luckily, Kaneko’s mother evidently usually made too much, and she shared with me. This tidbit about her mother was a little surprising given how thin Kaneko was, after all if she made too much how could Kaneko be as thin as she was? But I didn’t comment. It’s rude to inquire about a girl’s body, after all.

“Haaaruuuuuuuuuu!” the door to the classroom slammed open accompanied by the despairing wail of my other long-time friend Tako Ishibumi. “Some idiots in the hall were spreading lies about you, saying you got a girlfriend! You’ll be happy to know that I set the record str—what are you doing at Kaneko-san’s desk?”

I popped a shrimp into my mouth, “Eating.”

“Oh, well okay then. I suppose that must have been the source of the rumors, then. You’ve become friends with a girl so of course they’re going to blow things out of proportion.” Ishibumi said.

Honda, next to me, was visibly trying hard not to burst out laughing.

Kaneko leaned forward with a handkerchief and brushed some crumbs away from the corner of my mouth.

“Thanks, Suki-chan.”

“O-oh,” this display shocked Ishibumi visibly, “you two sure have become good friends quite fast. You’re even on a first-name basis.”

Then I decided it was time for the killing blow. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to Kaneko’s in a sweet and loving smooch as thanks.

Kaneko blushed cutely, but I could practically hear the last of Ishibumi’s alternative explanations for the situation depart from his body like the soul of a dead man. He stood and stared at us in silence while I popped another shrimp into my mouth.

“It’s no use, Ishi-kun,” Honda said, “I could scarcely believe it myself, but the truth is sometimes stranger and more heartbreaking than fiction.”

“How could you!?” Ishibumi exclaimed, pointing a finger at me. “Have you forgotten the promise we made when we were children that we’d remain single for the rest of our lives in solidarity?”

“I met you in middle school,” I replied, calmly.

“Close enough!”

“And I never made a promise like that.”

“It was implied!” Ishibumi collapsed to the floor dramatically as I finished my portion of the lunch.

“Thank you very much, Suki-chan,” I bowed.

“And she made you a bentooooo!?” Ishibumi wailed in despair from the linoleum.

“No, she just had too much so she shared, I forgot my lunch today,” I replied, still calm in the face of my friend’s eccentric overreactions.

“Can you believe our friend would do this to us, Oda-kun?” Ishibumi asked, crawling to our mutual friend.

“It’s like he doesn’t even need us anymore,” Honda agreed, nodding.

“It seemed like just yesterday we were sitting together during lunch and having a good time with the nudie-mag I got from my dad’s basement. We were looking at those glorious big boobs and hoping one day we’d get to squeeze them,” Ishibumi said, his hands making groping motions with his fingers. Several of the girls in class were giving him disgusted looks.

“That was yesterday,” I reminded him, “and you two were the ones doing all the talking, I was minding my business.”

“You were looking too!”

“Because you were at my desk and shoving the magazine in my face every five seconds,” I laughed in spite of myself. Ishibumi really had no chill.

I wouldn’t ever claim that I wasn’t just as much of a pervert as these two. But unlike these two, I had a sense of tact and even an ounce of self-control. I knew full well that hanging out with Honda and Ishibumi was doing terrible things to my reputation, but at this point I didn’t really care. They were my friends, and they’d helped me out of a lot of tight spots throughout the years. Besides, my diminishing reputation clearly hadn’t had any effect on how well I could land a girlfriend, so what did it really matter?

“Well, fine, since you’re apparently too important for us now, I’ll just share today’s goods with Oda instead,” Ishibumi said, pulling out a magazine from inside his shirt. What he didn’t notice was that today, unlike most days, the class representative was in the classroom for lunch too and would likely see that little bit of contraband. I decided to wait for the fireworks show.

I felt a tug on my sleeve from in front of me. It was Kaneko looking at me with a worried expression.

“Don’t sweat it,” I replied in a low voice, “they’re just messing around. It’s not gonna ruin our friendship or anything.”

She nodded and relaxed considerably.

“By the way, I noticed that you didn’t touch any of your meats, are you vegetarian?”

She nodded again, “It hurts my stomach.” That was terrible. Meat actually physically caused her pain and yet her mother continued to pack it into her lunches? My concern must have been evident on my face because Kaneko continued, “Mom thinks I’m faking… thinks I’m too thin.”

I furrowed my brow. That actually physically upset me, it was the same feeling as when Honda had called her Sadako, like someone was gripping my gut. Of course this poor girl was thin, her mother insisted on feeding her stuff that hurts her, she won’t eat half her bento if it causes her pain. There was also the fact that… well… I’d seen Kaneko’s house. It was small but it looked nice, their family could definitely afford good ingredients. And yet, her bento was made with the absolute bare minimum stuff. Bland, easily thrown together, probably ninety-percent pre-packaged. I was very happy that she shared with me, but I was also concerned if this was the most effort her mother was willing to put into her own daughter’s nutrition. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions about her family life based only on one lunchbox, but I couldn’t deny that something fishy was going on here.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind sharing it,” Kaneko said.

“Hey,” I replied, “I lost my mom when I was eight, and my dad works a lot, so I’ve always been the one to do all the cooking at my house. I don’t mind it, it’s actually kind of fun. Anyway, if you want, I could make bentos for us in the mornings. I know some really good meatless dishes.”

Her eyes sparkled in a way that told me she would love that, but then she looked downtrodden again, “I don’t think my mom would like that.”

“She doesn’t have to know. You could give your mom’s bento to those two blockheads,” I nodded toward Honda and Ishibumi. “They’ll eat anything, and if you’re concerned about them liking you, I can assure you that the way to their hearts is through their stomachs.” I wanted us all to get along. I wanted Kaneko to be a part of our friend group against all odds. Most importantly, I wanted her to eat healthier than she was now.

To my relief, she nodded, “Okay. I’ll be in your care.” She gave me a cute bow and I grasped her small hands in mine.

“Ishibumi-san! Honda-san!” There it was, the shout I had been waiting for.

“Oh, shit,” Honda said, freezing in place, the centerfold of the magazine open in his hands. I caught a glimpse of the model, she was very pretty.

“Class rep’s here?” Ishibumi stumbled.

The class representative in question, Fumiko Ando, came stomping toward our group, “You two have real guts to have something like that out while I’m in the room!” I noticed she didn’t include me in her tirade, and the glare from her frosty blue eyes was thankfully not being directed at me either.

“A-Ando-chan, this is a misunderstanding, you see, we took this from Haru-kun,” Honda said. Way to throw me immediately under the bus, dude.

“Yeah, we were actually about to bring it right to you!” Ishibumi agreed.

“Unlike you, Ishibumi-san, Sato-san doesn’t have a long and shameful record of bringing smut to school!” In a flash, Ando produced a folding fan from her shirt pocket and smacked them both upside the head with it in rapid succession.

Whap! Whap!

Then she snatched up the magazine from their hand, turned her gaze at me, and her scowl of anger suddenly became much more relaxed and pleasant, “Sorry to bother you two. I understand you’ve both just barely started going out, but please be careful about public displays of affection.”

“Uh, you got it, Rep-san,” I nodded. The night and day attitude shift between myself and my friends was amusing.

“I-is…” Kaneko stammered quietly, “… is holding hands okay?” Oh, man, whether intentional or not, Kaneko was putting on perhaps the most effective puppy-dog eyes I’d ever seen. That was a look that could melt even the most frigid of hearts, even if only her right eye was totally visible through her hair.

Ando sighed, “I guess that’s fine, you two are a cute couple. Just make sure it’s on your own time.”

“Hey, no fair, class rep!” Ishibumi protested.

“Preferential treatment! **** of power!” Honda agreed.

Whap! Whap!

As Ando walked away, she left no survivors. My friends were collapsed in their seats, lumps beginning to form on their heads. I chuckled in spite of myself.

Things were certainly beginning to change for me. For the better? Perhaps, only time would tell. I certainly couldn’t see anything but good things coming from my new relationship with Kaneko, but I had no idea if it would be overshadowed by what my new role as a Shinigami had in store for me.