The Little Things

"So Yuki, do you think that you've got everything down now?" After they had gotten some practice, it was time for Arata to take the initiative. The two of them were alone, making sure there was nothing to disturb them.

"Yes, I've remembered them from reading the story." She said. "So rereading them was easy." Even then, Yuki wasn't confident in her acting skills. Knowing what was on the line made it even worse for her.

"Great, then let's take it from the top." Lucky for the both of them, this wasn't a dialogue heavy story. Meaning that remembering words wasn't the hard part. The problem was how much subtle detail was needed that had to be physically emoted to show to an audience.

Step one was to take the first meeting. The first day of 100. Every story had a beginning, a start to the romance. Or in the case of this story, the start of a friendship. This one was of a chance encounter, the type where an audience might sit and think that their lives would be vastly different were it not for this event.

"Go ahead and lead the way." He told her. This chance meeting was when the girl was carrying a stack of papers. On a windy day, a page blew out. Only to be caught by a certain someone.

Yuki did as he said, carrying a stack of real papers. There, she pretended one got away, where he produced a page that he was carrying the whole time. It'd be impossible to actually fly a piece of paper to him, so this was the best alternative.

"Almost lost that one there." He said, reciting the lines perfectly.

"Right." She ran up to him in order to take the paper from him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you."

"It's no problem." He held it out to her. "The teachers probably wouldn't want any to get lost."

"Yeah, thanks…" She stared at him, as was the way this scene was done.

"Oh, my name is-" He was going to continue the scene, but the two were looking each other in the eye. The longer it took, the faster her heart beat. Yuki's hands flinched, causing her to drop the props she was carrying, causing a large mess.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized, immediately going to the ground to gather them. "They just slipped out of my hands."

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of time to make sure to get it right." Arata was going to have patience, he expected this going in. However, he wasn't expecting how much effort they were going to have to put on just getting past the first day.

The words weren't the problem, in fact the two of them probably already memorized every line that they had to do for this short play. After all, it was only going to cover tidbits of the novel and movie. Not reenacting the entire thing.

The problem was Yuki's body language, any short personal moment, she'd almost always recoil at. He could handle that she wasn't skilled, she's not an actor after all. It's just that it was clear it wasn't just inexperience that was getting her into trouble.

"I'm sorry." She apologized again. "I don't think I'm really the person for this." She said to him, afraid he might get mad.

"Yuki…" He had to think really hard on this. How was he going to try and encourage her? "Is there a problem with me?" Maybe the direct approach might save him here.

"Oh no." She quickly deflected. "I hope you don't think I hate you."

"I wasn't saying that." He clarified. "But then, how come you flinch whenever you look at me?"

"I'm just... not comfortable with your face." As soon as those words exited her lips, she realized how poorly that might be taken. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say that you were ugly!"

"Please, you don't have to apologize so much." Arata told her. "I just don't understand why you're so apprehensive with me. I mean, we chatted so much online. But now you don't even say anything to me."

"…" She wasn't sure how to respond to him. Even just being next to him made her feel anxious. "It's just that, when I see your face. I just can't believe I said all the things I said to you before."

"I know that some of that stuff was embarrassing, but I said some personal stuff too. So it's not one-sided, and you know that-"

"Of course I know you won't tell anyone." She interrupted. "I just, don't know what to say to you right now." Looking over to the others they were getting things done, but it was getting late. "We should probably get going. I'll see you tomorrow for more practice, right?"

"Right." He said, feeling that he just couldn't get through to her. That was rather unsatisfactory. However, given the time. Arata still had something else he wanted to take care of first.

There was a certain someone that he knew was around. While they were trying to make sure no one knew of their presence, he was able to see them. This girl was trying to hide around the corner of one of the aisle. Making sure that he wasn't seen, Arata sneaked around them.

"So how long have you been here?" He startled her, it was Yurime. She let out a small yelp before silencing herself.

"I wasn't doing anything." She nervously responded.

"Then what's that notebook for?" He pointed to what she was holding in her hands. Along with an old-fashion pen.

"This? Oh well it's just my… my diary." She gave a rather poor excuse. "Yeah, so don't you dare peek inside a girl's diary."

"You were spying on us, weren't you?"

"I'm sorry." She sighed, giving up the act. "I didn't mean to, but when I heard about this. I just couldn't resist."

"I don't have a problem if you want to report on this, but aren't you no longer a member of the news club?" He asked her.

"I'm not, and I shouldn't be doing this." She clutched her notebook even tighter. "I guess I couldn't really keep my promise after all."

"I literally didn't tell you to do this." He scolded her. "Really, it's water under the bridge at this point, so I don't know why you can't forgive yourself."

"Because it's more than just what I did to you." She explained to him. "I've already told you, I sullied my own dream for petty reasons. I don't deserve to follow them anymore." Arata wasn't sure how to convince her to change her mind. But when she brought up that her reason were petty, something stuck out to him. Did she really just jeopardize herself because of pity? That didn't sound right at all.

"Speaking of reasons…" He started. "You couldn't have done all that because you felt bad for Yuriko, right?"

"What do you mean? I…" She tried to come up with something, but there could only be the truth at this point. "Fine." She admitted. "The truth is, I wanted to be friends with her again."

"Again?" That was odd, Yuriko never mentioned her before. Even though he and Yogi had brought her up from time to time.

"When we were younger, we were so close…." They could be described as childhood friends. But in the last year of elementary school. Yuriko fell into a bad crowd. She had gotten so bad, that she was sent away for a while. Until her first year in high school when she made her return back to this town. "She's a completely different person than she was then, and I doubt she remembers me. But I was hoping that if I got her with the boy she liked, that she might want to be friends again."

"So that's the truth, huh." Arata wasn't really certain if that would even work. Though he knew for a fact, that Yuriko would be grateful for the support.

"It was selfish of me to use my position like that. Plus, it's not like of they would forgive me either." She learned the rest of the club had found out the truth to her departure.

"I don't know, maybe they might want you back." Arata wasn't sure of that statement as much as he would've wanted. The news club's mood changed after he told them at, in a way that was difficult to describe. "But I would like your help though?"

"My help? I'm surprised that you would want me of all people."

"Well, I always thought you were good at promoting things. Plus, I was hoping that you could report the event as it going on? That way, it might create some buzz around school?"

"I'm sure that you can find someone else to do it for you." She was about to walk away, but he grabbed her hand.

"Please, I'll even help you out." He pleaded with her.

"...Okay." She relented, not confident that things were going to work out. At least if they failed, she could point that to him as a sign to give up. "I'll spread the word, and I'll even attend the event." Yurime felt her heart drop saying that. She knew that it meant she'd have to face her old friends again.

"Great." Arata was happy to hear that. "I'll help you out tomorrow with most of what you need."

He was excited at how this event was shaping up. Hopefully things were going to go well at the library on Friday. However, with this foundation, things were far from stable. Arata didn't know it yet, but he is much closer to everything crashing and burning before his very eyes.