HER – UNRESTRAINED

It’s vexing… Aya thought, her gaze fixated onto the textbook in front of her. Why is he sulking? Fifth day since their first exchange, Aya had grown to understand Tyson more and more, but found herself perplexed. Tyson was still sitting in his usual seat, sulking in silence, while still maintaining his cool persona. He seemed fine yesterday. Did something happen? Maybe he didn’t take care of it this morning? (she’s very inexperienced in these matters outside of the standard-issue textbooks).

As the class ended, just as Aya began packing up and preparing to invite him again, he suddenly bolted from his seat toward her. As he approached her, his aloof and tranquil expression wavered slightly, but he quickly recovered.

“What is it?” Aya asked.

“Come on, hurry up. I need to talk to you.” Tyson said impatiently.

“You’re talking already.”

“…”

“I’m done.”

“Good, let’s go.”

Tyson led the pace as they left the university grounds and headed toward the coffee shop in silence. The moment the waitress brought the coffee to the two, his facade crumbled like a destroyed wall.

“You need to talk to Emma, asap!” he said. Eh?

“Eh?”

“Jared and her are fighting, and it looks like they’re going to break up!”

“You want me to console her?” Aya asked.

“Hell no, that’s my job! I want you to tell her you and I were never a thing! If they really break up, I want to be there as a single guy!”

“…”

“What’s with that gaze?! Why are you looking at me like I’m some lowlife?”

“Ah, sorry.”

“It’s okay. Wait, why are you suddenly changing it to ‘utter disgrace of humanity’?! Go back!” He’s really a kid…

“Why don’t you just let them figure it out?” Aya asked. Why is this so irritating?

“… you really don’t want me to be happy, right?! Why do you hate me so much?”

“I’m going.” What am I doing?

“To talk to Emma?!” Tyson looked at her hopefully.

“Home.” she said.

“Wait, why?”

“Huh? If you’re going to act like a kid, I have no interest in hanging out with you.” Ah, that’s it!

“… ugh, fine, just sit down. You’re the only one I can talk to openly about this.” Eh? “Come on, just sit down.” Tyson suddenly pulled her arm and sat her down, walking back to his seat. “Sorry, I… I just tend to lose my mind when it comes to her.”

“You don’t say.”

“…”

“So? What happened?” Aya asked, taking a sip of the coffee.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tyson said, sighing. “I’m just pointlessly getting my hopes up again. Now that I’ve cooled my head, I realized it’s happened before.”

“… why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“Whenever she’d get into a fight with any one of her boyfriends, I acted exactly the same,” Heh, his expression is amusing. “Getting my hopes up like a kid. I know I should just move on, but…”

“…”

“… why aren’t you asking me ‘but….?’?”

“…”

“Hey, don’t go silent! I just wanted us to have a cool, movie-like moment! What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Cool stupid, right?”

“No, just stupid.”

“You’re stupid!”

“I’m ranked 3rd in our entire year, I’ll have you know. However, seeing as you’re ranked 2nd, somehow I feel indirectly humiliated.”

“… that was uncalled for, you know? Studying is one thing, romance is another. You can’t put them all into the same basket!”

“If you’re the basket in this metaphor, then yes, yes I can.”

“You’re surprisingly cold, aren’t you?”

“I’m only being logical and fair.” Wait, am I?

“Ah, the reason you’re ranked 3rd is because you don’t know the meaning of words ‘logical’ and ‘fair’. Oooh, the tigress is back. Scary~~”

“… but…?” Aya gave in, sighing inwardly.

“But, it’s just so hard, you know?” Tyson bit the bait immediately, fearing she might retract it. “I mean, I’ve been hung up on her for so long, I can’t even imagine my life where I don’t think about her at least twelve thousand times a day.”

“…”

“Yep, deserved that ‘you’re the most pathetic thing to have ever been born’ look. What do you think I should do?” Tyson asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” Aya said. “Didn’t she say you had tons of girlfriends?”

“Yeah…” Tyson sighed, shaking his head. “I believed that as long as I kept going out with other girls, I’d naturally forget about her. But… reality is a bitch.”

“No, you are.”

“Ouch.”

“Shouldn’t you just confess?” Aya said after short silence.

“Didn’t we already discuss this? I have a feeling we did.”

“We have,” Aya said. “But, if it’s this painful, wouldn’t it be better to just sever the last thread of hope?”

“What do you mean?” Tyson asked, looking at her curiously.

“If you confess, you’ll no doubt be rejected.”

“You don’t know that!”

“We both know that. So, at that point, wouldn’t it be easier to just give up and move on?”

“… ah, yeah, probably.” Tyson said.

“Then why not do it?”

“It’s unfair to her, to them,” Tyson said, looking sideways through the window. “If I confess, it’s bound to destroy our dynamic. Whatever I say about Jared, I still like him a lot. He’s my best friend after all. And, however simple he may seem, if he knew I had feelings for her, he’d no doubt feel guilt. To cause distress to two people I care the most for, just so I can ‘move on’, I could never do that.”

“… you’re surprisingly a decent person.”

“Heh, far from it. If I was decent, I wouldn’t be so bent on waiting for a chance to wedge myself between the two of them.”

“It’s easy to break people up,” Aya said, leaning onto her hand. “That’s why there are no jobs with description ‘breaking people up’. If you wanted to, you could have probably broken them up tons of times by now. But, you didn’t. It’s admirable.”

“Hurts like a bitch though.”

“However, in the end, they have their lives, you have yours.” Aya said, suddenly patting him gently, stroking his hair. “Shouldn’t you try focusing more on yourself rather than them, for a change?”

“…”

“Unlike you, I can’t read the odd gazes. Please say it properly.”

“I was saying: I’m utterly humiliated to have been consoled by an alien who can’t even properly emote.”

“I was happy to.”

“You don’t look happy.” … that’s because I’m not.

“Eh, you’re really good at this eye-reading thing.”

“Yes, of co---wait, you really aren’t happy?! What the hell?!”

“Oh, I misspoke. You suck at it.”

“… get out.”

“Ah, sudden deja vu.”

“Ah, sudden murderous desire!”

HIM – IT CAN’T BE

After the fifth day’s conversation, Tyson re-examined himself on the sixth day. And he found something astoundingly impossible. He used to be 1st in the class, but he dropped to 2nd place for some reason! Impossible! He thought, furiously focusing onto the lecture. Then, he glanced sideways; not toward Emma or Jared, or even through the window to see the familiar street, but to the right-end corner of the classroom, where an expressionless alien was sitting, biting her pen, seemingly deep in thought. Wait, what?

He felt suddenly jolt as he immediately looked away, cold sweating pouring down his back. Ha ha, no, no way. It can’t be. Just forget it. Shortly after, the professor ended the class, and students quickly began packing. Emma and Jared bid their farewells; apparently, they made up last night, and that is when Tyson shut off his hearing capabilities for fear of hearing something R18.

As if already accustomed to it, he merely nodded when Aya showed up next to him, never letting her actually ask him anything. Up front a cold, deadpan beauty, with a cool, aloof guy following closely behind. Whenever they passed, the students broke into chatter, and the new legend was born shortly after.

“Aren’t you uncomfortable?” Tyson asked; without even realizing it, he stopped whining about their short after class meetings.

“No, not really. The chair is rather nice. It’s not too cold, nor too hot.” Aya said expressionlessly.

“… pick up on social cues, dammit!” Seriously, this alien…

“Hm?” Aya looked at him, confused.

“The rumors have already begun spreading.”

“Oh.”

“Oh what? You totally don’t know what I mean, do you?”

“Not a clue.”

“Didn’t you hear? ‘Cold, detached beauty and aloof stud are going out?’. You surely must have!”

“Ah, now that you mention it, I did hear some girls talk about in the bathroom when I was taking a piss.” Too much information! Too much fucking information!

“…”

“Ah, don’t worry, I wiped afterwards.” Tyson suddenly choked on the coffee he was drinking, almost wanting to cry.

“Please, do I really look like a person with that kind of a fetish?”

“Fetish? I merely wished to avoid misunderstanding.”

“You’re a walking fucking misunderstanding!”

“How rude.”

“… aah, whatever. Anyway, aren’t you bothered by the rumors?”

“Why would I be bothered?” Aya asked sincerely. “They’ve got nothing to do with me.”

“…”

“What?”

“Oi, for the love of god, how the hell did you survive up until now?!” Tyson muttered, shaking his head. “The rumor is about the two of us!”

“…” a barely noticeable flinch, but Tyson noticed.

“Ah, you emoted!” he immediately exclaimed, smiling brightly. “Finally! You’re adapting properly now, you damn alien.”

“About the two of us? It can’t be.” Aya said.

“No, it is! You’re the cool beauty, and I’m the handsome stud!”

“… how am I a cool beauty? That’s perhaps even more ridiculous than you being a handsome stud.”

“… you’re utterly helpless, aren’t you?”

“How come?” Aya asked earnestly.

“Ah, how much of an idiot can you be?! Don’t you have a mirror back home?” Tyson flipped out for a moment. “You’re actually quite hot! You need to be more conscious of it!”

“…”

“What’s with that ‘what nonsense is coming out of your mouth’ gaze?”

“… you should really stop reading my eyes. Words come out of my mouth, you know?”

“Ah, whatever. Anyway, it bothers you, right? I’m fine with us meeting up, but let’s just meet up here and walk separately. We don’t talk on the way here anyway, so it shouldn’t be much different.”

“It doesn’t bother me,” Aya said. “I was just surprised that even college students can act so childish at times.”

“… you’re just brimming with denseness, aren’t you?”

“Oh! Could it be that it bothers you?” Aya asked with a slightly raised tone. Aah, I seriously can’t leave her alone…

“No, it’s fine.” Tyson shook his hand. “But what if you suddenly find a guy you like? Wouldn’t it be awkward to explain to him that there’s nothing going on between us?”

“… it’s fine.” Aya said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Eh, if you say so.”

“Shouldn’t you be bothered more? Emma probably thinks I’m your girlfriend.” Tsk, you’re acting normal now, when it hurts!

“… it’s fine,” Tyson said, smiling bitterly. “I’ve decided to give up.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t ‘eh’ me, you weird alien! It’s because you told me all that shit yesterday! I realized I was just being childish, hanging onto a stupid, teenage dream. I mean, I can’t forget her right off the bat, but I’m working on it.”

“Oh, I see…”

“Wait, why are you lowering your head? Are you that disappointed with me?!”

“No, I just don’t want you to read my eyes.”

“Stop making it sound as if I’m the alien in this relationship! I can’t read the freaking eyes!”

“Ha ha,” Eh? What? Aya suddenly laughed as the bangs that covered half her face suddenly lifted up, her lips spread out in a fantastic smile, her usually hidden eyes half-closed. “We’ll both be aliens then, ha ha.” Tyson felt his heart freeze for a moment and skip a beat, stunned to silence by a single act of laughing. He didn’t even realize that that was the first time she ever showed any expression besides ‘deadpan’. Crap. Ha ha, no, no way. It just can’t be… right?