Hanae, in her slumber-wear, pushes her bangs back with a band and braids her hair. As she does so, moments of the day rush through her mind. She has been in a relationship for a year now and not her, but Mareo had brought it up and suggested going on a date to commemorate that.

A date! Finally, some time to unwind in all this havoc!

She has had practice every day for a while now, with the competition around the corner and it being the last of hers as a second year. So, some downtime was much appreciated.

And the more conventional ‘stroll, talk, eat, shop, return’ date was more relaxing than the contest-like arcade and sports-centre visits they usually do because of their (mostly her) being so inept at social situations.

Still, dating a certain oddity by the name of Fujii Mareo has been much more unexpected than she had initially thought.

On the one hand, Kawano Hanae, hard-working and diligent ace-but-not-quite of the swimming club of a reputed school, did not have enough free time or energy to commit to a serious relationship and not many have paid attention to the way she does things or commended her for being the way she is outside her family. So, going out with a decent-looking, artsy person did not seem too bad an idea, with him recognizing her time and energy constraints.

And on the other hand, Fujii-kun was more impulsive than he’d like to admit and kinder to others than he is to himself. She would often find him staring blankly at creatures and objects (but much more intently at her). And for how much he endorses common sense, he shows a huge lack of it when around her. Maybe he is stupid like she is told time and time again by the idiot of earphone town who takes up far too much attention from Fujii-kun.

“No. I’m past that now. I am not at all jealous of him. After all, he’s just a lost cause needing Fujii-kun’s help all the time! Yeah. That’s it. I don’t have time for that crap!”

Of course, she had never been asked out before, neither had she thought much of wasting time doing things that didn’t matter later on. So, she had her doubts about this guy from her class, who she hadn’t spoken to at all, showed up one day after practice with notebooks full of sketches of her and asked her to take a look.

In hindsight, confessing right after that was pretty strange. But she was overwhelmed by how earnestly he presented it to her. She’s no princess waiting to fall in love and chewed him out quite a lot for what looked like the work of a stalker.

His buddy- as much of an aberration who had little to no idea of how much of a hot topic he was back in their first year for his academic prowess and will probably never know, now that it has died down with his fall from the upper bounds of the rankings- coming up to her to plead Fujii-kun’s case didn’t help much to raise her opinion, mostly because it wasn’t but one sentence and also because it seemed abnormal to her that a third party would have to chip in.

‘Abnormal’… that’s how she’d describe this relationship. It isn’t normal to find people like Fujii Mareo and Matsumoto Isamu. But normal … “ ‘Normal’ is overrated” as Fujii-kun tells her. Both of them are crazy. Maybe she is insane too, for liking a crazy dude who gels his hair with no concern for the consequences and actually enjoying the company of an idiot who is surely going to go deaf someday soon.

Maybe the world does need more crazy people.

But she would not have it another way than it is now. After all, with the year she’s spent becoming friends with both and far beyond that with Mareo, she is starting to believe more and more in herself and in something Mareo said he had found a while ago, that courage is strength and insanity is power.

She laughs at how absurd it sounds. Her braids were done long ago but she had spaced out for a long ten minutes, reminiscing.

She crosses the date off the calendar. 20 November, 2019. Less than a week till the competition!

She has more people caring about her performance than before. She has put in the work and all she has left to do now is to keep her calm for the remaining duration and do her best during the event.

As she is about to head to bed, she hears a ping. She picks up her phone and taps the notification.

Akira: HANAEEEEEE, WHY COULDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT HIS PHONE BROKE?

Amused, Hanae tucks herself in.

“Come to think of it, Akira’s quite the crazy one too…”

The words pop up on the screen as she types them, white, against the black backdrop:

Hanae: I told you, didn’t I? It’s your punishment for bullying me!

Akira: Bullying?!

Hanae: Yeah! You keep embarrassing me!

Akira: Touché. But that can’t be reason enough!

Hanae: It is reason enough. What goes around comes around!

Akira: Stingy! Petty! Idiot!

Hanae: Stop that and tell me what happened.

Hanae: Also, you’re the idiot here!

Akira: Ahh… I messed up! I feel like an idiot!

Hanae: Yes, child, that is exactly what I told you right now. But save the deprecation for later.

Akira: At least try to understand the situation! And stop trying to get back at me for every petty little thing!

Hanae: Tell me first! How would I know?

Akira: I just told you, didn’t I?

Hanae: When?

Akira: Oh no, wait, it wasn’t delivered...

Hanae: Akira, are you okay?

Akira: I’m not okay! If I was okay I wouldn’t be here!

Akira: Now wait, let me send it again.

Akira: Hanae… do phones show their missed calls and logs after they turn back on in these cases?

Akira: Looks like it worked this time.

Hanae: Yeah it did, but why the very specific question?

Akira: Come on! Help me out!

Hanae: Why do you want to know that?

Akira: What do you mean, why? Do you need a reason to help a friend in need???

Hanae: Tell me already!

Akira: Yeah, yeah, just ignore the problem!

Akira: What a great friend you are!

Hanae: What are you? Sleep-deprived? Coffee-high?

Akira: Bit of both.

Hanae: Mmhmm… checks out.

Akira: Great guess, but help me out first!

Hanae: I’m trying to help here! Will you stop being dramatic and explain it already?

Akira: I might or might not have…

Akira: Called him over 5 times…

Hanae: Wait

Hanae: What?

Hanae: How many?

Akira: I can’t bear to check anymore…  

Hanae: WHY?

Akira: I was going to call Nii-san, but I forgot that I had tried to call Matsumoto-kun’s number once…

Akira: It was at the top of the logs… and

Akira: I was getting pissed that Nii-san wasn’t picking up, so I kept calling…

Hanae: You know you get fixated on weird things in these times!

Akira: Stop rubbing salt into the wound! I’m dying inside already!

Hanae: As you should!

Akira: Hanaeeeeeeeeeee

Hanae: Pray to God.

Akira: Huh?

Hanae: Go and pray that it doesn’t show up

Akira: That does nothing to solve the problem! Why did you ask all that for the most generic answer?

Hanae: Well, I need to wrap my head around the whole problem if I’m going to help solve it, right?

Akira: Since when have you been a philosopher?

Hanae: I’m just quoting it.

Akira: You didn’t solve it at all!

Hanae: Oh but I am about to…

Akira: How?

Hanae: Look it up online.

Akira: That’s worse than the previous answer! Anyone could say that!

Hanae: But did you try it?

Akira: No. I forgot.

Hanae: I told you. You’re the idiot!

Akira: Yeah, I’ll do that

Akira: Thanks, idiot!

Hanae: Get some sleep.

Hanae, too, needs to sleep and so she turns off the lights.

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Author's note:
Attention! Please leave a like if you're enjoying the story, because the algorithm is thinking this story is dead. I didn't want to say this so bluntly, but I hope the readers understand. It is really discouraging to see it happen.