I sat with one of the most recent papers on hochuekkito, a kampo remedy just outside the medical building on campus. Modern medicine was extremely effective, but there was still a significant portion of Nomou that would prefer a more traditional approach, so I read about them. Not only to make sure I knew how to make them so I could describe it to future patients, but also so that I could ensure I was not just selling them snake oil.

  “Yo!” came a voice of someone I was expecting, waiting for even. “Ready to go?”

  I looked up from my papers to see my partner, May, walking up to me. She was wearing a casual outfit: white graphic t and blue jeans with tennis shoes. A smile warmed my lips as I got up, stuffing the article into my backpack and reaching out to take her hand. “Ready.”

  Hand in hand, we walked along the tree lined path. I figured May must like being around nature since we always seemed to walk around the pond several times before we peeled off and started towards the mall.

  “How was your day?” May asked after the first lap, when there were less people around.

  “Same as usual. Still preparing for the dissertation. How was yours, May-chan?” Same as usual meaning I’m so close to failing but still working on it. I’ll get better!

  My girlfriend ran her free hand through her messy hair. “Stressful,” she comments, turning towards me a bit. “It’s frustrating when bugs don’t just... you know, make themselves highly apparent with glowing red characters that just scream, ‘I am the problem!’”

  I want to giggle at her complaining, but I hold it back, searching for some type of solution instead. “Did you figure it out?”

  “Nope! And no, I don’t want to talk about school right now – I’m on a date with my girlfriend.”

  I nodded as if I understood, mulling over the situation in silence. It’s not like I would be able to help her, anyway, but I wished I had an idea of something that was simple that could help her. Nothing proffers itself to my attention though, so I’m forced to drop it. Amaida hadn’t been in computer science, nor were my parents, so I didn’t know how to approach the problem.

  “You’re spacing out, huh?” May’s voice interrupts my thoughts. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Nothing important,” my hand waves dismissively as I respond, looking up at her. She wasn’t much taller than I, but I was used to being the shortest person around.

  “If you say so.” She lets go of my hand and stretches up towards the sky with her fingers interlaced. My hands fell to my sides as I watched her stretch, a soft smile playing across my lips. “Where would you like to go?” she asks as she looks down at me.

  I tapped my fingers to my chin as I thought about it. We didn’t have too much time before I’d have to go back to school, so a mall was out of the question – the nearest being a twenty-minute trip with transportation. That left us with basically only food – or maybe a bookstore, but food was a safer bet with May. She’d appreciate that more than a bookstore.

  “How about soba? There’s a place near the campus that we haven’t been to yet.” We veered off the trail as I started to lead May towards the shop I had in mind. It was a small, quaint little shop just across the road from the campus.

  “Soba sounds good,” my girlfriend said in response, looking around as we walked, as if searching for something.

  We stopped at the crosswalk just as the walk signal turned red, so I pressed the signal again and rocked back on my heels, looking towards May. “The pond was nice again today.”

  “It normally is. Is that why you’re so fond of that area?”

  “Mm… It puts me in your path, and thus you can’t ignore me when I go there.”

  “You say that as if I wouldn’t seek you out!” Protests May.

  “Would you?” I ask, genuinely curious. Though, my timing was inopportune – the walk sign light just turned green and we both crossed in silence. Too many people were crossing the street towards the campus for us to continue. But, once we were near the restaurant, May spoke up again.

  “I would.” Her voice was quiet, with a slight edge to it.

  I looked up into her black eyes as we turned into the restaurant. “Sorry, I probably should have known that, huh? I love you1.”

  May smiled down at me and opened the door as she responded, “and you too, doveling2.”

  Once inside the small restaurant, we found a place to sit down and browse through the menu. “Umm… I think I’ll get the tori nanban soba.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  May glanced up at me. “How do you always know what you want when you barely look at the menu?” She teased, smiling and shaking her head as she looks back down at the menu. “Makes me feel pressured to decide just as quickly.”

  I shook my head at her quickly, “no, please take your time. I just saw it and it sounded good. I’ll try to take more time next time.”

  She waved me off, “it’s fine, Akai. It’s kind of cute how quickly you decide. Feels like you know exactly what you want instead of being indecisive. Duck is calling to me, so I’ll probably get kamo nanban.”

  With that settled, I press the call button, our waiter coming over and taking our order. May and I talk about how our classes went today as we wait for our food, then ate in silence.

  The soba wasn’t very good – not because of anything the restaurant did wrong, it smelled good – I just don’t really like buckwheat noodles. I laid my chopsticks neatly across my bowl, keeping them parallel to the table. My eyes wandered over to May’s bowl, and since she was almost done as well, I stood up. “Going to go pay,” I inform her.

  “Got it!” came the reply between mouthfuls of food.

  The store was just starting to get it's customers for lunch rush as I went up to the counter, passing a group of professional men and women in their business attire and several college students in more casual clothing as they took their seats around the small shop. I have each of their groups small, informal bows as I head up to the counter.

  “Excuse me, I’d like to pay the bill.”

  “Will you be paying together?” the cashier asks, nodding towards May.

  “Yes, that’s fine.”

  “Understood, one moment please.” He added up the total as I pulled up my purse and started collecting some cash to what I thought it’d be. “Thank you, that will be ￥3,210, please.”

  A bit too much. I swap out the extra ￥1,000 bill I’d grabbed and replaced it with two hundred yen coins and a ten yen coin. I handed him the cash, with a polite bow. “This should cover it.”

  After counting it out, he rang it through after telling me the total he came up with then with a small bow of his own, handed me the receipt. “Thank you!”

  I took the receipt and put it in my bag, then went back to the table. “Bill’s taken care of.”

  May eyed me suspiciously as she set her chopsticks on her bowl. “Don’t tell me you paid for me again.”

  “I did.”

  “Ergh. You little brat, I told you you don’t have to pay for every meal like that!” She stood up, heading towards me. Despite her words, I could see the playful smile on her lips and knew I’d done well.

  Once side by side, we headed back to the campus. The streets were more busy now, so we didn’t talk much until we got back on campus.

  “You have the afternoon off, right May-chan? What are you going to do with the time?”

  She put a finger thoughtfully to her lips, tapping them a few times before speaking. “Oh! Mira-chan and Sai-chan wanted to go shopping, so I was going to go with them.”

  I reached for a packet of money I had set aside for her as I asked, “oh, do you need more money, then? I can give you some more.”

  “If you’re offering, I won’t refuse.”

  Bowing politely, I handed her the pink packet with both hands. “Here you go.”

  She opened it and riffled through it. I watched her, rapt, expecting – hoping– to see joy, but something else was there instead. “… Wait. You’re joking, right? Really?”

  “Ah!?” Panicked, I look through my wallet. Cash was getting a bit low, I’d thought that that would be enough. “Sorry! It’s not enough – we can go to the ATM and get more!”

  “No no no, this is already too much! There’s too many zeroes!”

  “It’s okay though, really, it’s fine! I want you to have it.”

  “Akai, there’s ￥100,000 in here… are you sure about giving me this? It’s way too much to spend on a casual shopping trip.”

  “Yea! I want you to be able to get something nice.” I rocked up onto my tippy toes, smiling at her, still with the hope that she would express joy.

  Instead, I’m met with a heavy sigh, as May pocketed the envelope. “Fine, but I’m just holding onto it for you.” My smile faltered and I went back down on my feet. She caught my expression and shook her head, waving a hand dismissively and gave me a soft smile. “Thank you, May."

  Happy, I turned back to campus, taking May’s hand in my own as we started back together.

  “May-chaaan!” came a call from our right as we looped around sansho pond. We turned and looked, seeing Iara Sai waving to us. Well, to May. I didn’t know her that well. May waved back, then turned to me. She squeezed my hand gently before untangling our fingers.

  “Time to go. My friends are more interesting than you anyway! Bye!”

  I heard the teasing lilt to her voice. I knew that she hadn’t meant it badly. “I get it. See you later!” Watching. May’s black hair swished back and forth as she walked next to Iara, the other girl’s blue tipped black hair following a similar pattern. My vision became blurry and I wiped the moisture from my eyes, fists clenched together to stop the tremors. It’ll be okay.

  , came my ever-loving voice in my head.

  The moisture didn’t come again, at least not right away. I’d been through harsher, I would get through this. If I made myself more interesting, May would want to be near me more. It’s my own fault for not being interesting. I kept telling myself this, but I still found myself to in one of the bathrooms on the way to my class, hand over my mouth as I cried silently.