Data Dragon Danika 209 Side Story The Fool

Natsume had known him since infancy, her infancy. He was two years older. On her fifth birthday her mom had been really sick, so her party had been cancelled, but he'd snuck over with a handful of sparklers and lit them for her. He'd always loved fire and fireworks and usually hogged them for himself, so she knew that his willingness to share them with her was even more generous than it might seem.

She'd promised to marry him that day, but everyone knew that no one ever expected the promises little kids made to be kept. Everyone, except Akito.

Akito had always referred to her as his girlfriend. Always. Even when she later told him she hated him and never wanted to see him again. She didn't really, but sometimes she got so mad that she didn't know what else to say.

He never argued. He never bothered her when she pushed him away. He just acted depressed, which bothered her a lot more than anything he could ever have said. She always wound up forgiving him in the end.

Sometimes she couldn't even understand her own feelings, but she could understand his. Other people, even his own family thought that he was flighty, careless and casual. His way of talking, his habit of nicknaming everything, his casual easy smiles fooled them.

Inside of that bright surface he was a pure stubborn immovable stone. He'd probably die before failing to keep a promise, so he hardly ever promised anything. Once he accepted a task, you could consider it done, but he was an expert on evading anything he didn't feel like doing.

He drove her crazy, but… She couldn't ignore him.

When she was thirteen he joined a band. That wasn't too unusual for a fifteen year old boy, but six months later girls in her cla.s.s had his face set as their backgrounds and squealed when his band had another live. A few of those were even girls who'd met him, but they didn't seem to connect her childhood friend to Sasaki Akito, the rising pop star.

He had only dyed one section of his hair bright red. That was literally the only change he'd made. He appeared in interviews with his band in the same clothes he wore at home. She couldn't understand how anyone could not recognize him.

When she was sixteen he came home one Wednesday, jumped the gap from his room to hers, flopped on her bed and told her, "I had to agree to let an actress kiss me. I'm sorry."

She'd thrown her homework at him and screamed, "If you're sorry, don't do it! Why does everything you do become my problem?" And then she'd broken up with him for the longest year of her life.

He'd always hugged people, patted them, poked them. He casually invaded personal s.p.a.ces without a second thought, but never kissed anyone as far as she knew. He had never kissed her either.

When she was younger he'd told her seriously, "We'll kiss after we're married, and then we'll have kids." So she'd always a.s.sumed that their first kiss would be shared at their wedding.

During that long year, she questioned their entire relations.h.i.+p, she even tried dating someone else. But in the end she was always thinking about Akito. One spring afternoon she dragged herself home after practice and fell on her bed with a groan, and Akito asked from her windowsill, "Can we talk?"

Natsume sighed. "Talk," she answered flatly.

"I don't want to marry anyone else," he admitted.

"Then don't," she said tiredly.

"But I do want to get married and have kids in the future," he told her quietly.

"Well, if it helps, I think I've figured out what the problem between us is," she said a little bitterly.

"I make you angry too often for silly reasons," he replied unhappily.

The corner of her mouth turned up in a wry smile. "That won't change, and I'll still love you."

"Then, what is the problem?" he asked doubtfully.

She sat up and told him, "I love you." He stared at her blankly. "You don't love me," she explained.

He didn't say anything right away. "Are you an idiot?" he asked after a while. She threw her pillow at him. "Or is this your revenge for my last April Fool's joke?"

"What?" she asked blankly.

"It's April First," he clarified, "but it's the only day I could come home this week."

She fell back on her bed and covered her eyes. "Yeah, it's revenge," she agreed bitterly.

She heard her window shut, and told herself, "You are such a fool."

He kissed her a moment later. "I am," he agreed. "I never realized I'd never told you, or that you needed to hear it in words. But so are you, because I've always loved you."

--

They never celebrated Valentine's day together again. But they celebrated April Fool's.

And this year he'd given her something unexpectedly expensive. "A full VR console?" Natsume asked doubtfully.

Akito replied cheerfully, "I got the smallest kind they make yet so you can take it with you. And I think you'd really like this 'Living Jade Empire' game we started playing, but we can just use a communication app if you'd rather. s.h.i.+n's new girlfriend is so funny, but watching them together made me realize that he can hug and kiss her long distance as long as she's using VR, and you're going to be gone for four years if you're really going."

"I'm really going, and I already play it on my phone," she admitted.

"What?" he asked. He gazed at her with a betrayed expression.

She rolled her eyes. "I told you my friends and I started playing this cute adventure game on our phones last fall. You said you were too busy."

He flipped the fire red band of his hair up and muttered, "When you said cute… oh well. So we can play?"

"Yeah," she agreed with a smile.