Chapter 2

Running Into Mr Blond-Hair-Blue-Eyes

“Yuri-chan, hurry up or you’ll be late for school!”

My mother’s voice called up to me from the bottom of the stairs as I quickly crammed my textbooks into my backpack and zipped it closed (with a bit of a struggle around the pointed corners of the books).  I swung the forty-pound bag over my shoulder with a grunt before hurrying down the stairs.

“Hai, hai,” I gasped in my hurry.

She handed me my lunch, but before I could zip past her, she held on firmly to the bag.  “If this new job becomes too burdensome on your studies, I want you to ask your boss to reduce your hours, okay?” she asked, her usually warm eyes were stern as I lowered my gaze.

“Un, of course,” I replied softly to the floor.

She nodded and released my lunch bag.  She knew that she didn’t have to repeat herself:  school came first.  It always did for Japanese children.

But I wasn’t a child anymore.  Even though I decided to take a fifth year of high school, I wanted to prove to my parents that I was an adult now, capable of managing my time effectively in both education and employment.  I’d have to anyway if I ever want to go to Todai next year.

The difficulty was the omission of the truth.  My parents didn’t know that I was now working at the new cosplay maid café downtown, and I’d like to keep it that way.

But I did over-sleep a little, and that was enough to generate concern in my mother.  I hoped that wouldn’t become a frequent occurrence just because I worked the day before.  Otherwise, I’d never hear the end of it.

The second week of school started today, and the students were finally starting to settle in after two months off in the summer.  The hallways were full of life before and between classes.  Clubs and sports’ teams were the topics bouncing around the halls as I turned from my locker and began to walk towards my first period classroom.  Girls were gossiping about movies, clothes, celebrities, and (of course) boys.  The guys were loud and rowdy as usual.  From various octaves, I overheard the topics of sports, girls, famous athletes, maid cafés—

Wait, what?

My heart began to pound.  I moved forward to where I thought I heard the most dreaded words.

 “—think I still prefer Hottie Totties because they’re full of white girls with big boobs—”

Getting warmer… I think?  The voice was close, but luckily not too loud for everyone in the hall to hear.

“But man!  Those Japanese girls sure know how to be cute and sexy at the same time!  Their legs are to die for!  So long and slender.  With tiny little waists—”

“So you’re digging the Asian girls now, eh?”

“Oh man, don’t tell me you’re developing one of those weird anime-nerd fetishes!”

“Nah, nah, blonde girls are still the sexiest,” said the original voice.

Ah!  There, a group of boys huddled closely together.

“Like this one right here!”

And there he was, Mr Blond-hair-blue eyes.  What was he doing?

Oh my god.  He had the picture of everyone in his hands from last night and was showing all the guys.  MUST GET OUT OF HERE.

I had two textbooks clutched to my chest, and quickly tried to walk past the group, hoping that they wouldn’t notice me, praying that they wouldn’t recognize me.  I didn’t even risk looking back to see if anyone saw me or identified me.  I was terrified now.  What if my secret got out already?  I thought I’d be safe—at least for a little while anyway or something.  It took nearly an hour via public transportation to get downtown as it was.  It should've been well out of the way for anyone to access quickly from here.

Wait… you had to be eighteen to enter the café.  How was he eighteen?  (Didn’t Elizabeth say something about him being eighteen?)  Was he taking an extra year in high school just like me?  Wow, he must have flunked a lot in exchange for popularity or something.  Yes, that must have been it.  Westerners didn’t care about top grades the way us Japanese did.

I turned into my classroom for first period—history.  I opened up my textbook and started reading as students began to trickle in.  After a few minutes, the national anthem and announcements started.  The desks in this classroom were arranged in a circle, and so were the desks in my English class—to encourage class discussions.  The teacher was eccentric and I couldn’t help but think about how much more enjoyable he made history class.  I had him before and enjoyed his class so much that I was excited that he was teaching another one this semester.

Class began and I listened intently.  The teacher, Mr Niche, asked a question.  I knew the answer, but I was always too hesitant to put up my hand.  So of course, I was quiet and someone else answered.

It was him!  That voice answered from nearby.  I looked around and saw him three desks down the circle on my right.  Crap.

He looked over and caught my eye.

Crap!

I ducked back in my seat, biting my bottom lip, my heart pounding in my ears.

Since when is he in my class?

I sighed.  I guess I was always too absorbed in my lessons, notes and readings to notice the people around me.  Was I really that unobservant that I didn’t recognize him at the café?  Well, no matter, I’ll just have to be extra careful and watch my back from now on.  Sigh.  This was no good.

I tried to shake it off and focus on the lesson before me again.  If I just ignored him then everything would be fine and I could move on and do what I came to do in my fifth year of high school.  The lesson got interesting and I was able to forget about him being just a few desks down.

Class came to a close and I took my time packing up my things, and forgot all about him.  I turned around to head towards the door when I saw him heading out with another guy in our class.  They were talking and he didn’t seem to notice me, which was a relief because my heart jumped in my throat at the sight of him.  He turned left at the door with his friend, which was the way I had to go as well, but I went right instead.  My next class was on the second floor and there were three sets of stairs in the school, at each end and in the middle.  Looked like I was going to have to take the middle stairs up.  It wasn’t that much out of the way, but it was a little bit further.

I hurried down the hall and turned sharply to go up the stairs, nearly bumping into a couple having a quick make-out session between classes.  Gag.

You’d think that I would’ve been used to public make-out sessions by now, but I wasn’t.  Must be my roots ingrained in me, but I still thought that some things should be reserved for a private setting.

Up the stairs and down the hall, I quickly hurried to my next class… and saw Mr Blond-hair-blue-eyes enter my classroom.

Aw man!  Is he in this class too?

I took a deep breath and gathered my courage to act the same way I would have had everything been just the way it had been before I became a cosplay maid.  If I acted normal then there was no reason to draw attention to myself.

The class carried on as normal and went on without a hitch.  No recognition or notice of me… at least that I could tell.  Of course I was only just realizing how unaware and unobservant I had been in the past with my senses now on high alert.  This did, however, make paying attention in class just a bit tougher.  But only just a bit.  When class was over, I hurried out before he noticed.

The day carried on in this manner—keeping an eye out for him.  He wasn’t in my afternoon classes, thankfully, so I was able to relax a little in that respect.  When school ended for the day, I stealthily worked my way around the school, looking around corners and doorways before moving forward.  There was no sign of him, thank goodness.  The coast was clear and I headed home.

I didn’t have to work at my part-time job that night, so I locked myself up in my room and studied hard into the evening and early night.  I had to work tomorrow evening after school so I had to get ahead in my classes as much as possible beforehand.

The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed and accomplished with all of the studying I had done the night before.  Before climbing onto the city bus to school, I noted that the day was looking promising with just a few clouds in the sky.  My music player was plugging the newest Jpop into my ears during the ride to school and I hummed along contently.

With the exception of yesterday, I always arrived at school a little early to squeeze in a little review time before classes started at the library.  There weren’t too many students milling about yet so everything was quiet—just the way I liked it.  I got about 30 minutes of review done in the library before it was time to head to classes.  I gathered up my books and made my way to the exit.  I walked out, down the hall, turned around a corner and bumped into someone.

I was so startled that I dropped the books I had in my arms.  I reached down to grab them, apologizing to the person I had run into, and when I looked into the face of the person I bumped into I gasped.

It was him!