Suddenly she heard a rustling sound. Someone’s head popped out of the bushes, approximately ten meters to her left. She could see the back of his coat and the back of his head. Its hair was slightly disheveled but still smooth. His head turned left and right checking the area.
Takako froze. She was in trouble. It was a guy. Guys were trouble. She had no particular reason to think so, but she had a hunch anyone besides Hiroki Sugimura was trouble. And she could immediately tell this guy was not him.
Takako held her breath and slowly stepped back into the thicket behind her. She knew this would happen, but that didn’t stop her from trembling.
Suddenly the boy turned around. Their eyes met. The face, which had an expression of utter astonishment, belonged to Kazushi Niida (Male Student No. 16).
Oh man, why did I have to bump into this jerk? What mattered now was that she was totally exposed and how dangerous that was. She turned around and started running back the way she came.
“Wait!”
She heard Kazushi’s voice. The sound of him waded through the thicket, coming after her.
“Wait!” Now he was shouting. “Wait!”
Ugh! What an idiot—
Takako hesitated for a few moments and then stopped. She looked back. If Kazushi had a gun and wanted to shoot her he’d have done that by now. More troubling was his shouting. It endangered not only his life but hers. Just as it was moments ago there didn’t seem to be anyone in the area.
Slowing down, Kazushi descended the slope.
Takako realized Kazushi held a rifle loaded with an arrow in his right hand. It wasn’t pointed at Takako right now—but if it was, could she dodge it and run away? Should she have stopped?
No. Takako reassured herself, she’d done the right thing. Kazushi Niida was a forward on the soccer team. Top athletes like him were as fast if not faster than track runners. Even though Takako was a star track runner, he’d have eventually caught up with her.
Either way it was too late.
Kazushi stopped several meters away from her. He had wide shoulders and was relatively tall and well built. His smooth hair was long, which was the current fashion with soccer players, but now it was disheveled, as if he’d been playing in a close match that had gone into overtime. A smile emerged on his face, which was pretty good looking except for his bad teeth.
What does he want? Takako thought as he observed his face. He might not have any harmful intentions. He might actually be thinking he finally found someone he could trust.
But Takako didn’t have a very good impression of Kazushi Niida. To put it bluntly, she couldn’t stand his kind of chumminess. She also couldn’t stand his arrogance. They’d been classmates ever since their first year in junior high. (Hiroki became her classmate in second-year.) Without putting much effort into them, Kazushi was above average in grades and sports, but in spite of that—or maybe it had nothing to do with that—his immaturity really stuck out. He tried to impress others, and when he’d screw up he’d come up with some lame-ass excuse. Furthermore, and this was really stupid, but when they were first-year students, there were rumors that she and Kazushi were going out. (Junior high kids don’t have anything better to do. Well, let them say what they want.) Every time the rumors got going again he’d go to her desk and touch her on the shoulder (how dare he) and tell her, “There’s a rumor floating around about us.” Takako would turn away and brush his hand off with the reply, “Oh, I’m so honored.” She let it slide, scoffing at him on the inside (“Go away you little brat. You’ve got some nerve”), but now she wasn’t in the position to do the same thing.
Takako spoke cautiously. She had to get away from him as quickly as possible. That’s what it came down to.
“Don’t shout, you idiot!”
“I’m sorry,” Kazushi answered. “But you were the one who took off.”
Takako didn’t mess around with her response. Get to the point, cut to the chase. Her best features. “The fact is, I don’t want to be with you.” She looked at Kazushi and managed to shrug her tense shoulders.
Kazushi’s grimaced. “Why?”
Because you act like you’re such a goody-goody, she thought.
“Look, we both know why. Okay, later,” Takako said as she got ready to run. Still, she felt herself hesitating as her feet trembled.
She stopped.
Because out of the corner of her eye she saw the weapon in Kazushi’s right hand pointed at her.
Takako slowly turned around, keeping a close eye on his fingers on the trigger of his bow gun.
“What’s this?” she asked.
She casually slid the day pack off her left shoulder and caught its strap. Would it be able to shield her from the force of the bow gun?
“I don’t want to resort to this,” Kazushi said. This was exactly what she couldn’t stand about him. He was making excuses, but in fact he was trying to gain the upper hand. “So you better stay with me.”
That pissed her off. But that was also when she noticed something. When she was hiding in the shack her uniform skirt got caught on a broken door. The tear resembled the slit up a Chinese dress, and now Kazushi was looking down at it. His eyes were strangely glazed over. It gave her the creeps.
Takako quickly moved her legs to cover them as much as possible. Then she said, “Give me a break. You expect me to join you with that stuck in my face?”
“So you promise not to run away?” Kazushi spoke in his usual arrogant voice. He didn’t lower the bow gun.
Takako had to put up with him. “Just put that down.”
“So you won’t run?”
“Are you deaf?” Takako said sharply, and Kazushi reluctantly lowered his weapon.
Then he assumed a smug tone as he said, “I’ve always thought you were fine.”
Takako raised her well defined, elegantly arched eyebrows. After threatening her life like this, he has the nerve to say I’m fine!
Kazushi’s eyes fell on her legs again. He made no effort to be subtle, and his eyes were locked onto them now.
Takako lifted her chin slightly. “So?”
“So I won’t kill you. Just stay with me.”
Takako shrugged again. Any hesitation she might have had was now wiped out by anger. “I told you I don’t want to,” she spat out. “Later.”
Takako turned to… no, this time she began moving backwards and staring back at Kazushi. Kazushi lifted his bow gun again. His face had the expression of a kid begging for a toy at a department store. Mom, I want it, I want it!
Takako quietly said, “Stop this.”
“Then… stay with me,” Kazushi repeated. The way he tilted his head revealed how frantic he was trying to calm his nerves.
Takako repeated, “I told you, no.”
Kazushi didn’t lower the gun. They glared at each other.
Takako couldn’t bear it anymore. “You know… what do you want? Say it. You’re not killing me off. I tell you, I don’t want to be with you, but you insist. I don’t get it.”
“I…” Kazushi stared at Takako with that leer in his eyes and said, “I’m saying I’ll protect you. So just stay with me. We’re safer together, right?”
“You’ve gotta be joking. You have the nerve to threaten me like that and say you’ll protect me? I can’t trust you. Get it? Can I go now? I’m going.”
Kazushi replied, “If you move I’ll shoot you.” He aimed the bow gun directly at her chest.
By openly threatening her like this Kazushi lost any chance he had of keeping to a civilized code of conduct (not that he had much of sense of that to begin with). He stood still and said, “You better obey me, girl. A woman obeys his man.”