Girl advice

For a man to completely comprehend the workings of the female mind, he must either be a genius, clinically insane or more likely a liar. When you were confused by such matters, it usually helped to get an outside perspective. And what better way to get advice on issues concerning girls than a girl herself. This was a small fraction of the thought process going into Benjiro's decision to phone his best friend, Mine. There had been few chances to talk and text since the holidays, since both of them were constantly busy with one thing or other. A few texts and the like, but hardly anything like their letters. Certainly, those came much more infrequently and there was only so much you could commit to paper before your hand cramped or or you got charged extra at the post office, but still.

Benjiro shook these nagging doubts from his head as he pressed the call button. The dial sounded long enough for him to wonder if he was going to have to leave a rather awkward voicemail, yuck. To his relief he heard a "Hello." After taking a breath of relief, he responded, "Hey there, girl. What's up?"

"Benji! How are things. There's so much I have to tell you about."

There was that friendly eagerness he had come to appreciate. No matter what kind of mood he was in, just listening to Mine always helped him to relax. She launched into an blow by blow commentary on the major happenings since the two besties had seen each other at Christmastime. After the official competition season had ended, Mine had gone up a belt in karate, finally starting to work on her purple belt. With any luck, if she kept on pushing her limits, a scholarship to a few decent colleges wasn't looking like a pipe dream anymore.

"That's amazing, Mimi! You might finally get to go to Holy Forest like you said."

"Tell me about it. Aside from that, there's your garden variety cloak and dagger behavior of gossipy high schoolers."

Benjiro already regretted the question but asked anyway, "So, how's things with your boyfriend. Are they going alright?"

There was a slight pause before Mine answered, "Y-Yeah, everything's fine on that front. Fudo is a decent guy."

The way she responded was normal enough, but the way she said it was not the sound of someone who seemed in love.

"He treating you like he should? If not, I'm going to get on the first train back home to track down and bury the guy."

Mine's laugh could be heard on the other end of the line, "No, you don't have to do anything like that. Don't worry, he does his best. We do things like go out for dinner or sometimes just stay inside so we can watch a movie or just hang around and shoot the breeze, you know?"

"Does he know about Totoro", Benjiro asked in a sly tone.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about", she evaded.

"You still have that plushie", he laughed, "Come on, Mine, you've had that doll since you were like five years old."

"Hey, I'm allowed to hold onto whatever little mementos I want", she protested in mock anger, "And yes, he found out about it a little while ago. I'm sure you have a few embarrassing little items just casually sitting around your room too."

Benjiro shot a glance underneath his bed to the shoebox full of his old poetry and letters, then realized that Mine couldn't even see inside his room, "You could probably say that. Anyway, I'm getting off track here. There's something I need your help with."

"Hmm", he heard Mine muse, "And what do you require from the great library of Chihaya?"

Taking a moment to think of how to articulate his problem, Benjiro explained his current problem with Akiko, Daitan and even Hiromi, to an extent.

"OK, how did you even figure all of this out", Mine asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What I mean is, you're a somewhat smart guy, there's no denying that."

"I don't know whether or not I should be offended by that 'somewhat' part."

"But what I really mean is, you don't really pick up on cues all that well."

Benjiro opened his mouth but hesitated, closed it and just grunted in a subdued tone.

"Hey, don't get all bummed out now. I'm not saying you're dumb. You just don't always know when people are hinting at something."

Shaking his head, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"And don't try to dodge the question, how'd you know?"

Benjiro tapped his calloused fingers against his knee in thought. After biting his lip in consideration he said, "Ken suggested it."

There was another slight pause before she tentatively asked, "Did you say Kenshiro?"

The mop headed boy just sighed and slowly admitted, "Yyyeeeaaahh."

"I thought he was still in prison. How did he find you? What's he even doing within a hundred miles of your area code?"

Benjiro held the phone away from his ear as Mine began bombarding him with different questions as to his brother's whereabouts. He tried to think of a response about their recent reunion that wouldn't make his best friend have a conniption fit

"It happened completely by chance", he said while running a hand through his hair, "There was a little mix up with a few of my pupil's friends and we ended up meeting him as a result."

He wanted to tell her the full story but practically everything about it was rather nerve wracking for the average person. The fact that he got abducted, that his brother was really in the yakuza, yeah, little details like that. Thinking back, some of the finer points still made him shiver. Unfortunately, Mine knew him all too well.

"Benji, come on, I know when you're not telling me the whole truth."

The young man felt his heart tear when he heard that.

"Look, I'm not going to pry, but I just want you to be careful", Mine reassured him, "Sometimes you can be a little too trusting."

"Don't worry, I've only seen him twice and both times it was almost purely by accident."

"Alright, just so long as you know where to keep the line in the sand."

It pained the light-eyed boy to hear Mine talk about Kenshiro as if he were a wild animal. Though, from an outside perspective, that was exactly how it seemed. But, back when they were both kids, Kenshiro hung around together with them regularly. He'd take them out to explore the town and the surrounding woods and other things that seemed way too dangerous for kids their age. Which they were, but Ken always made sure to never let them do anything that could get them hurt. But like everything else in their lives, everything shifted that one day.

"And with what you said about trusting people, that's not true", Benjiro contented, "Aside from you, there's almost nobody that I can talk about this kind of stuff so openly."

There was a small chuckle, "I'm honored to hear that, but there's no law against having more than one confidant."

"Speaking of which, I still haven't heard your advice about my girl problem here."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Through the phone, Benjiro could hear Mine humming to herself and pacing around whatever room she was in.

"Honestly, I'm a little stumped here", she admitted, "From what I can tell, a little distance would probably be for the best."

When he asked her what she meant, Mine explained how each of the girls, in their own way seemed a little too mercurial. Of course, there could always be the case of playing coy, or just being shy or not ready to come out of their shells. Nothing was exactly wrong with being there and trying to unravel the puzzle, but she thought it may be best to hang back and keep an objective eye on things. Benjiro found it odd how his brother essentially gave him the same advice, but decided it was for the best to not tell Mine that. When she had finished saying her piece, the two exchanged a few other bits of news and other things they had been meaning to catch up on since they last talked.

"OK, thanks for everything Mimi", Benjiro said, "Talk again soon?"

"Is there any other time to do it", Mine countered.

The two friends were about to hang up before a lightbulb went off in Benjiro's head, "Mine, wait!"

"What is it?"

"Tell me, what were you planning on doing when summer vacation begins?"

An idea was already being concocted in the young man's head, and he only prayed that by some stretch of the imagination he could pull it off.