章節 79: Cold Shoulder
"Well everyone, here's our director." Arata gave an introduction of Ichiri, though most of them had met before.
"Right, the girl that directed our school play. That's a pretty smart idea." Misei commented. While everyone was talking with Ichiri about potential ideas for what they could reenact. Misao pulled Arata aside for a private conversation.
"I never realized that the two of you were friends." She told him.
"I mean, not until recently." Now that he was thinking of it, what he said on the roof was officially stating it. But, was it technically before that? How exactly does one become friends anyway?
"It's nice though." She smiled. "I'm glad that you've gotten to know each other." He eyed her, it was as if she heard their conversation earlier. That was probably a coincidental statement though. Meanwhile, everyone else was arguing to what should be represented.
"How about Shakespeare? He's always a classic." Yogi asked.
"I already did that." Ichiri shot that down. "I'd like to try something new."
"Then maybe an epic that follows Oda Nobunaga?" Misei offered.
"I think that we should try and do something that highschoolers would want to see." Yuriko countered.
"How about an action story, with high flying action." Akaki put forth his idea. Showing off a karate strike.
"I don't know if the library would be the best place to show that." Akiba laughed. They were all throwing out ideas, Arata wasn't sure if anything was going to be done today.
But what could they do? Not only does it have to be capable of them acting it out, but it also had to be popular enough among highschoolers to garner the attention they desired.
"Then what about a scene from this?" Hifumi pulled out one of the books she had been reading. Arata took it into his hands. It was a story he was familiar with, since he had read it himself.
"100 days until our love blooms?" Akaki said the title of the story out loud. "Why does that sound familiar?"
"Because there's a movie of it in theaters right now." She informed them. "Very well received too, by pretty much anyone our age."
"What's it about?"
"It's a love story." Arata explained to them. "About the 100 days before the main leads realize their love for each other.
"That sounds strange to give away the ending like that." Yuriko didn't understand the whole enjoyment in that idea.
"What are you talking about?" Arata got defensive about it, as a fan of the novel. "Even though they realize it at 100 days, that's not the point. The point was to show that sometimes, that love was always there. Those little moments, those times we don't think are important, really were."
"I see someone's quite the fan." Hifumi smugly smiled at him, her glasses concealing the look on her eyes.
"The movie was alright." He crossed his arms in an attempt to not look like he cared that much. "Given the running time, There was no way to fit what needed to be conveyed."
"But I bet I could do it." Ichiri bragged. Arata doubted that, since it was going to be probably 10, 15 minutes at most. "It doesn't sound like a highly plot based show, so if I could pick out some moments, then…" After some thought put into it, everyone seemed on board.
"Now that I think about it, I suppose that it wouldn't be very feasible given how much time we have if Ichiri isn't familiar with the source material." Hifumi had seen the error of her idea. But everyone else was fine with this idea, they just needed to find a way to work it out.
"The two of us are, so I guess we can assist her with that." Arata said. "Is there anyone else that knows a decent amount of this story?" Slowly, and slightly nervously, Akiba raised her hand.
"I haven't seen the movie, but I've been following the manga." She told them. "In fact, I can bring my copies…" Her voice trailed off as she offered it to them. Arata's sudden pounce at her gave everyone a fright.
"You have physical copies?" Every time he looked for them, they were always sold out or had jacked up prices. The only versions he was able to obtain were through a subscription service to the magazine that serialized it.
"Y-yeah…" She was getting a bit scared of him grabbing her by the shoulders. "My mom, um, knows someone that works for the magazine." He finally realized that he was getting a bit too into her face. Arata took a step back and regained his composure.
"Right." He faked a cough to downplay what he just did. "Well it would be nice if you could bring your copies over. Then we'd have some reference to show Ichiri."
"Is there anyone else that knows the story?" Hifumi asked.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure that Yuki's read the manga too." Arata remembered during their online discussions, that they talked in detail about their enjoyment of the story.
"I mean, I've read the story too. But I don't think that I'm a master in it or anything." Yuki wasn't a fan of getting called out like that. It felt like all eyes were on her now.
"Really, we could use all the help we can get." Said Arata. She didn't respond to him, instead choosing to look down at the ground, avoiding his gaze.
"Come on." Ichiri leaped over and grabbed her by the shoulder. "You guys know more than me, so I gotta get as much help as I can." Yuki's protests to Ichiri were ignored, as she was pulled over to meet with Arata and Hifumi. Akiba on the other hand, stuck with the rest and gave them advice on how they should set up the stage for the small play.
"So Hifumi, have you seen the movie?" Ichiri asked.
"Actually, the only piece I've followed is just the novels." She admitted. "I'd love to see the movies, but it's a shame there's no one that'll take me to watch it." She looked over to Arata.
"I'm not taking you." Arata knew what she was getting at, and he didn't approve. "Let's see, I know that Yuki's hasn't read the novels."
"And you know that, how?" Ichiri thought it was odd that he apparently knew quite a bit about this girl. Which was odd seeing as she was very uncomfortable just with talking with him.
"We've, um, we've talked to each other online." Yuki said as if she needed to take caution. "I, um, need to use the bathroom. Yeah." Moving quickly, she escaped this group as fast as she could.
"Wow she must've really needed to go." Ichiri remarked, making Arata realize just how dense that girl could be. "And what about you Arata?"
"I've checked out every version of the story, so I guess out of all of us. I'm the expert here." He felt like he was bragging about it, that was making him feel a bit self-conscious.
With that, he led the way in explaining the feeling and mood of the story. The way it made him feel, the way it presented the growth and development of the characters. The differences between each version.
"Wow, that's really something to try and keep up with." Ichiri vigorously wrote everything important down on her notepad. "I don't want to sound mean, but you don't really look like the type to-"
"Enjoy this?" He figured that someone was going to ask eventually. "Well, I guess you could say I'm a bit of a fan for romance." It sounded like a contradiction to who he had been. Despite being a loner, he always wanted to find stories about people coming together.
"Weird, I'm more of a fan of fantasy myself."
"Then have you ever thought of trying out the-"
"No we're not going to try and convince other people into our hobby." He stopped Hifumi's offer.
"Pity." Hifumi cursed him. "But more importantly, where is our other assistant?" She noted that she was still gone, but knew she wasn't far at all.
"What's up between the two of you anyway." Ichiri asked. "It feels like that girl doesn't like you or something."
"Well, we were fine, which when I think about it now, wasn't really that long of a time. Then when I revealed that I was an otaku, she started to distance herself away from me."
"But she doesn't seem to-"
"She's also an otaku." He explained. "In fact, we didn't know it until then. But before she moved here, the two of us were friends online."
"Then maybe that's the problem?" Hifumi analyzed this situation, finding what she believed to be the key. "What were the nature of your online discussions?"
"I'm not gonna tell you." He got defensive. "There were some private… Oh that's what you mean." Quickly enough, Arata had put two-and-two together.
"I see…" Ichiri was able to gather the idea as well. "So she's probably now feeling self-conscious about the idea of knowing the person she's spilled her secrets to in real life." After all, for some types of people, especially someone like Yuki. Talking online is much easier than doing it face-to-face.
"But, I'd never tell anyone else about that type of stuff." Even if he wasn't secret about himself anymore, other people still have their choice of remaining private. That was something he respected. "But how am I going to convince her of that?"
"How about instead of telling her that you'll keep things private. We find a way to break her out of her shell?" Ichiri believed that there was a root to the problem that could be fixed instead. That way, it wouldn't be a concern anymore.
"And how do you propose a fix?" Hifumi asked.
"I got an idea. How about I put you too as the main characters in this story?"
"And how would that help?" Arata may have attempted this back with Erina and Yogi during the big play. He wasn't looking to date this girl.
"Because, she's shy. Then, when you come in and help her out. She'll see that you're not a bad guy."
"Hmm, that could work." He thought about it some more. "I hope no one thinks it unfair, but I'll do it if that what you want."
"Be careful." Hifumi warned him. "Remember what I said before." This was another thing on the list of stuff he was planning on doing Friday. It was really building up now.
"Yeah, yeah. I know." It wasn't something that he cared to listen to her about. It's not like he was about to be stopped here.
"Hello, sorry I took so long." Yuki returned to their group. "But, uh, I didn't do what you might be thinking I did in the bathroom."
"We're not accusing you." Two out of the three people here didn't believe she went to the bathroom in the first place anyway.
"Good news!" Ichiri wanted to be the one to tell her. "We got how we're going to do this whole thing."
"Really, that does sound like good news." She breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she was fortunate that she didn't have to interact with them all that much.
"Yeah, and you're gonna be our female lead!"
"Oh okay… Eh?!"
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