Episode 2. Cherry Blossoms and Peaches

He couldn’t wear his school uniform on a day off. He had to pick something else, and so Tomo stared into his wardrobe.

Pastels. Light grey. Bunnies. Puppies. Floral patterns. A few hearts. Some stars.

He didn’t buy much for himself. He just didn’t know what to buy. Sawa and Chika bought him a lot of what he needed, only he rather got nothing if he couldn’t use any of it.

Shouji and Chiyo resorted to get him neutral things instead, but Shouji rarely stopped by and Chiyo lived in a different prefecture.

Be began desperately digging among the clothes he had thrown in a pile into the wardrobe in a hurry and eventually found a hoodie. It was dog-themed but dark green.

“Perhaps this is safe… Or not…”

He looked at the pile before he threw the hoodie on his bed and found a pair of jeans in a drawer and grabbed a t-shirt off a hanger, also throwing them onto the bed.

He rummaged through his collection of studs and glared at the image of him in pink glasses.

Soon he was wearing what he had chosen, critically looking at himself.

“This should be okay, right?”

He put his hair up and covered his head with the hood before he hurried out of the house.

***

The theatre was small and decorated with blue a curtain and seats. With wide, overly dramatic movements, Ken crossed swords with someone considerably smaller, whose movements were less visible from the very back. It looked as if Ken would win the duel when the hooded figure pointed the light, yet blunt metal sword at Ken’s chest.

“Hah! Yama-senpai, you’re dead!”

“Sakkun, that’s not what happens and you know it.”

Ken wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt as Sakura pulled the hood down, releasing her two long braids, with a triumphant smile on her lips.

Tomo had already seen the same scene several times and sympathised with Ken.

“Hanakawa! Kenta! Take the fighting scene again.”

“Eeeeh?!” Sakura exclaimed. “I’m tired of this. Give us a hint of what Yama-senpai’s doing that needs improvement already.”

Ken smirked.

“You sure it’s me? I might have improved my sword technique while you were goofing off with the drama club.”

“You’re in the drama club too! You’re the one goofing off, going to sleep during class.”

“That’s because I’m brilliant, you idiot.”

“You’re trash with a sword. I can beat your sorry ass anytime with any weapon.”

“A tiny kid like you? You’re just tiny, actually. You’re barely tall enough to reach my knee if you tried to reach up as far as you can.”

“Now it’s on, you garbage actor. You only got that spot because everyone else was just worse than you. You’ve got nothing even remotely close to skill. It’s obviously your stupid wide movements that mess the entire scene up. Fix that, you dumbass!”

“You’re telling me the audience shouldn’t see me, the way they don’t see you? You’re not gonna get any roles like that, Sakkun. I can do any roles better than you.”

“Hah! Like you ca—”

“That’s enough, you two! Use that energy to do the choreography again. From the top. If you can’t get it right, I’ll kick you both off the stage for eternity, got that?”

“Yes, senpai!”

“Niko, I think it’s fair to let them have a break. We have two more scenes to go over before we finish for the day too. I think everyone is starting to get tired of this scene.”

Hayashi looked at her assistant for a moment before turning back to the stage. “Kenta, switch with me. I’ll do it individually with the both of you before you get one last chance.”

She climbed up on stage as Ken jumped off, waving with a beaming smile when their eyes met. He waved back, but wished a moment later he could hide as Hayashi had noticed Ken waving and turned to see Tomo.

“If it isn’t Momo-chan! Why don’t you come up front and get a better look?”

Tomo grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie and looked away. “I’m fine. I’m an outsider. I’ll sit close during the real thing.”

“Nonsense! Come here!”

The troupe leader sounded demanding and Tomo felt he had no other choice than to do what she asked for, walking up to the front, nodding as he quietly greeted the high school students and Hayashi’s assistant.

Ken stood by the stage drinking water from a bottle as the professional actress took the sword he had been using, weighing it in her hand before taking position.

“Hanakawa, we’re starting now.”

“Eh?”

Sakura had no time to react before she took a few stumbling steps backwards and fell on her behind. It looked rather painful, but the girl said and showed nothing. Wide-eyed, she focused on the sword that wouldn’t have reached her.

“We’re done. I want you to think about what just happened. Kenta, it’s your turn.”

“Yes!”

He heaved himself up and took the sword Hayashi offered him, as she took Sakura’s before Sakura left the stage to sit down next to Tomo.

“Don’t lose, Yama-senpai!” she mocked him with a grin. Hayashi shook her head before taking Sakura’s position while Ken once again took his.

“Do your worst, senpai!”

“Be nice, Saku-chan, Tomo told her.”

“Let’s just see how badly he fails!”.

“I rather not. Is your bum okay?”

“My ass is fine!”

He turned back to look at the two silent actors as if they were statues about to come to life.

Suddenly Ken pulled his sword, and Hayashi responded with no surprise. It continued for a few moments, with side steps, backsteps, a couple of dashing steps forward. Sakura had turned when she heard the metal that clashed. When Tomo glanced at her, they had spellbound her in awe.

“That, Hanakawa, is how it’s done. Did you get it?”

“Kenta’s in the wrong!”

The troupe leader sighed. “Momo-chan, can you tell Hanakawa what she’s doing wrong?”

Tomo looked away, playing with his zipper. Everyone waited, and he glanced at Sakura and Ken.

“Yama-senpai knows the choreography by heart, using his partner’s movement as a cue. Saku-chan uses words as cues, which results in her moving too early or too late. It makes it look like it’s senpai who’s at an advantage. You’ve already practiced together a lot, but you don’t trust senpai enough and it makes the choreography useless.”

He had looked up while talking but then looked down again, anxiously playing with the zipper for a moment.

“Or something like that,” he muttered.

“Comment on its uselessness aside, Momo-chan is right. Maria and I should have taken more time to coach you, but if you don’t notice it yourself, you’re unlikely to understand what’s wrong. You should be able to do it in silence with Kenta with no verbal cues, just like Kenta did with me.

“Niko,” Maria said. “Perfectly executing a duel choreography with no cues like that isn’t something you should expect from them. Yamada is an exception.”

“If I don’t put the pressure on these kids, how will they survive if they want to be professional actors? It’s like dancing, anyway.”

***

“Momo-chan, drop by sometime. Even if you don’t enjoy acting anymore, it’s always nice to have someone who’s willing to give pointers. Even I need them from time to time but you’re the only one who would tell me.”

“Who plays the heroine?”

“Hanakawa.”

“Oh, she has a double role. Isn’t this her first time in a leading role here?”

“I’m giving her a chance and we’re low on high schoolers this year. I would have loved to have you as the heroine, Momo-chan.”

Tomo felt how his throat was turning into a knot and he put his hands in his pocket, avoiding eye contact. He felt as if he might break out in a cold sweat if the conversation continued in that direction. He didn’t want that.

“I don’t wear skirts.”

“Actually! Wait here! No, come with me!”

Hayashi grabbed Tomo’s arm and started walking to the stage. He felt a strong feeling of deja vu, and he pulled his arm to himself.

“Senpai, I don’t wear skirts.”

Hayashi put a script in Tomo’s hands. “Here’s the script, can you read from this line for me?”

“Senpa—”

Despite the woman taking another hold of his arm and dragging him to the stage, he habitually took off his shoes. He still wanted to run away or sink through the floor into the ground. Or die on the spot.

She placed him in the middle of the stage, hurried down and expectantly looked up at Tomo. The lump was growing bigger and his stomach felt like it might turn itself inside out.

“Senpai, I can’t be a heroine.”

“You could just read it for me. There’s no harm in that. Come on, now.”

Tomo looked at the script in his hands. He trembled, and a scream wanted to escape his mouth. His mouth turned dry, and he got more tense with every second, feeling the need to run as far aways possible.

“Go ahead,” she encouraged him.

“Senpai… I don’t want to. What if you tell me to join the play? I’m not a heroine. I don’t wear skirts. You know why I’m not comfortable with that, so why…?”

It seemed to dawn on her what she was asking of him. “Momo-chan, I didn’t mea—”

“Tomo-chan!”

Ken stumbled up the steps onto the stage. He took Tomo’s hand and quickly brought him down, slamming the crumpled script onto the stage. The glare he gave the woman was furious and he pulled Tomo out of the theatre in silent rage.

***

Ken and Sakura talked a couple of isles away while Tomo focused intensely on the stationary in front of him, pretending he didn’t hear what they discussed.

He didn’t want to hear it.

Instead, he looked for stationary to use at school that wouldn’t cause him any trouble. The cute-looking ones caught his attention, but he couldn’t use those at school.

“She put him on stage? Him? Why would she do that? Wasn’t she there when…?”

“Sakkun, I don’t think she thought too much about it. You know how Hayashi can get thrilled about things. It was one of those times. She really likes Tomo-chan.”

“And his acting was never bad. Not good, specifically, but we were kids, so… I guess it makes sense, but still…”

Ken sighed.

“She needs to think more before she acts. I mean, you—”

“Drop it, Sakkun. I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Don’t bring that thing up. Ever.”

Tomo picked up a black pen with a strange pattern, trying to determine if he could call it remotely cute. He turned around to see Ken walk toward the stationary aisle, followed by Sakura.

“Yama-senpai,” he said, and held up the pen. “How’s this?”

“That’s the ugliest pen I’ve ever seen. Put that back and look for something else.”

Tomo laughed quietly while he put it away again. It gladdened him that Ken hadn’t said it was nice, because he couldn’t like it either.

Once they stood side by side, Tomo felt a quick squeeze of his hand. He wanted to say Ken’s name, but they had yet to tell Sakura. She didn’t need to know. Besides, Sakura and Tomo were doing the same thing to everyone at the school.

“Yama-senpai, Tomo-chan, how about this one?” Sakura held up a notebook looking like she found the best option among them all.

“That has skulls, snakes and blood splatter on it. I don’t like that.”

“Why not? I think it’s cute.”

“Sakkun, your idea of cute is warped...” He reached up for a package hanging high up and Tomo felt how his shoulder touched Ken’s arm. Theis arms remained that for just a little too long for Tomo to think it was accidental.

“This is more Tomo-chan’s image. Dogs and rabbits. Those are his favourite animals.” He turned to Tomo. “How about I’ll buy this set for you to use at home. Why don’t we pick up some green things for school?”

Tomo tilted his head in thought. “I suppose that’ll be for the best.”

“Didn’t you look for something cute for school?”

“Maybe you, too can recommend me? But nothing that would make anything think I’m too weird.”

“I dunno, Tomo-chan. Sakkun’s taste is strange. Maybe she’ll give you zombies.”

“I don’t want that!”

“Now that you mention it, that set's pretty neat. But the charm on the mechanical pencil would be better if it was a skull...”

“You’re right, senpai. Let’s pick something else.”

***

He had sprawled out on Sakura’s bed, exhausted. On the floor, by the door, was a paper bag with the stationary Tomo had bought together with the set Ken had bought. He had also bought Tomo a pair of studs.

He should have gotten a pair for himself, though.

“It’s good Shouji went to the principal,” he said out loud while staring up at the ceiling.

“About the piercings? Shouji-nii would get pretty angry about that. Wasn’t he livid when he saw you with short hair in the classroom too?” Ken asked.

“I’ve never seen Shouji that angry,” Sakura said. “He kidnapped Tomo, ready to bring down the school like some evil overlord!”

“I don’t doubt that. Shouji-nii’s always nice. Aren’t nice people the worst to anger?”

“The principal couldn’t apologise enough and the regulations for appearance listed in the school handbook are outdated. Teachers should use them as guidelines. There are plenty of male students with hair past shoulder length, but I had unusually long hair. Honestly, Shouji was fuming and I think the principal fears him now.”

“I guess Yamamoto will get fired. Tenchou-chan had a ‘talk’ with both Yamamoto and the principal about how they were ruining his business by forcing respectable people to do unreasonable things.”

Tomo laughed. “That’s very like him.”

“Our school has a reputation of allowing students to introduce themselves to the workforce, so that would make them look terrible, wouldn’t it? Not that your job and the English club have anything in common, but with the place being in a partnership with B High...”

Sakura got quiet and Tomo turned to look at her where she was sitting, leaning against the bed. She was glaring at Ken with a pout.

“Yama-senpai got scouted as a second year by a school connected to the drama club. No fair.”

“I’ll probably take business-related classes. Acting’s fun and all that, but I don’t really need to be a trained actor to work at the café. I already have secured a job for later, so why give it up?”

Ken was sitting at the other side of the table placed in the middle of the room. He was writing something in a notebook while checking his phone screen from time to time. Tomo guessed he was studying, although Ken would never admit that.

“You two need to bring me to your part-time job sometime.”

“No.”

Neither Ken nor Tomo wanted her there. It was one of the few spaces where they could be more natural in terms of physical contact, although Tomo sometimes wished he didn’t have to act like ‘Momo-san’ too.

“Is it that bad?”

“It’s worse than you can imagine,” Ken responded dramatically. He held up an arm and opened his mouth to continue, but Sakura interrupted him:

“Is it like one of those places? Where you entertain customers with some fetish?”

He thought for a moment. “That is one way to describe it.”

“Why the hell would the school be fine with that?!”

“Well…” Ken rested his chin against his palm. “It never said what kind of work the school encourages.”

Sakura looked horrified. “Only place for fetishes is porn.” She shined up. “That reminds me, the other d—”

“Oh!” Ken exclaimed unnaturally loud, drowning Sakura’s voice. “I suddenly feel thirsty. Tomo-chan you too? Let’s go downstairs and drink some tea.”

“Yeah.”

They both got up and hurried downstairs. Tomo put on the kettle to heat water and got the tea out and Ken started taking out cups. Eiko and Natsuhiko looked up in surprised while Haruka laughed.

“She never learns, does she? Want me to help you with that, Ken-chan, Tomo-chan?”

***

Although Sakura had closed the door behind them a few minutes earlier, Tomo and Ken stared at it. In the past, the Hanakawas had surprised them, and they had become cautious to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

After a while, they turned and let their fingers intertwine as they walked through the gate to the street. Their time would be very brief, but Tomo treasured any moment alone with Ken.

“Oh, yeah.” Ken stopped and got his phone out of his bag. “I found this web shop that only sells unisex clothes the other day. Wait a minute, I bookmarked the site.”

While Ken failed to navigate the site with his left hand, Tomo saw Seki come around the corner and instantly let go.

“You win. I couldn’t use my phone with my left hand,” Ken said and started using both hands. “I found this. You think Sakkun would like it?”

Tomo looked at the shirt Ken was showing. It was mostly black with some pastel green details. It wasn’t cute, but it had his favourite colour without looking feminine and he liked that. Ken scrolled a bit and Tomo saw there were multiple colour options and styles.

“Yeah.” Tomo looked up at Ken.

“We need to give her something to celebrate her first leading role. We can go together and pick something out.”

“Good evening, Yamada-kun, Tomoki-kun,” Seki said with a kind smile. “Are you coming in, Yamada-kun? You seemed to be in the middle of something.”

“Good evening, Ichirou-san. I have to head home. It’s getting late and I need to make it to the train. But thank you for the offer.” He bowed to Seki-san. “We’ll plan at work. Later, Tomo-chan!” Ken hurried away towards the train station.

Tomo waved after him. “Bye-bye... Ken.” His voice died out before he finished and he only mouthed the name. He then turned to his step-father with a smile. “Welcome home, Ichirou-san! Have you been grocery shopping?”

***

“Tenchou-chan, I’m going on a break!”

Ken walked through the staff-only door between the counter and kitchen. From what Tomo could hear, Kouta didn’t take any notice of it.

He finished what he was doing and looked around. He couldn’t see Tanaka, so he walked up to the door to the floor, without stepping out of the kitchen.

“Tenchou-chan, can I go on a break? Tanaka-chan’s not in here.”

“Go ahead, Momo-san. Tell Fuu-chan to get back in here,” the owner replied.

He found Fujiki in the men’s changing room, spreading his legs and flapping his skirt.

“Fujiki-senpai, tenchou-chan asked for you.”

“Already?” The sound he made was as inhuman as he looked cute. “It’s so damn crowded today! Running around makes me so sweaty! Kenta, don’t bring so many customers.”

“It’s mostly guys out there today! I have nothing to do with it!”

Fujiki stood up smiling happily, back into his role as Fuu-chan.

“Ken-kun, Momo-san, go back soon, or I’ll steal all of Ken-kun’s customers since I’m too cute! There’s so many who’ll ask for me! But they tell me I’m cute, so maybe it’s fine?” he said thoughtfully while he waved to them as he left the room.

Tomo closed the door behind him and sat down besides Ken, exhausted from standing so much and the constant stream of orders. He leaned toward Ken, who was looking at his phone. But he leaned towards Tomo in acknowledgement.

“Ken,” he said after a while and looked up at him. “You know the web shop you found? They have a physical store in the area. Could we go sometime?”

Ken turned to Tomo and put his forehead against his. “Sure. Anytime.”