“An invitation!?”

I was slightly taken aback when I was performing my daily email checking ritual inside my dark bedroom in the morning of 6 a.m. I am not such an early person to be honest. Only deliberately woke up early today as there was a strange but extremely rare online-game event to join in.

Is this just a spam or something? An unusual sender had interested me with the subject of ‘Middle School Reunion Invitation’. Ignoring the other useless accidentally subscribed promotions which I was also too lazy to unsubscribe. I swiftly clicked on it, and read it enthusiastically. It was from my one of my ex-classmates from middle school. He said:

Dear Yoru-kun,

Long time no see! How are you? Hope you are still fine and remember me.

I miss you all, really miss the time we spent together in middle school. Most of us really haven’t gotten the chance to meet the others ever since the graduation. Some of us, who are still in contact suggested to hold a reunion. How do you think about that? A very great idea, right?

Luckily, I happen to have a suitable or may even be a little too extravagant place for the party. My father had agreed to lend us his mansion deep in the forest and by the shore. It is called The 13 Patrons’ Mansion, and has a really nice view and natural environment. There will even be no one besides us around there. But a little downside though. The signal for communication there may be as bad as has been cut off from the outside world. But still, a perfect place for a private reunion, don’t you think?

I really do hope that all of our classmates or should I call ex-classmates from our class (9-2) could participate together. I realize that maybe not all of us who will be able to attend, while our most favorite teachers had also regrettably declined. But we still want as many members as possible to be able to meet, to share what has been going on from each of us after all these years, and most importantly restoring our long friendship. The time isn’t fixed yet, considering most of us must be in tight schedule because of the study or work.

All of us who have confirmed to go to the reunion purposed to start as soon as possible, 12 December 2013, for 4 days 3 nights. Sorry if it is way too sudden. Any suggestion will be considered. And if you feel like joining in or have any other ideas. Please reply to me as soon as possible. Thanks a lot!

Sincerely,

Araki Ryouta (Ex-Class Leader)

I was nothing but dumbfounded for a moment.

Yes, you are right, Ryouta. It really is way too sudden. Moreover, the reunion is as soon as tomorrow? After our middle school graduation, I absolutely had no contact with anyone from the rest of them before this. It wasn’t as though I was deliberately avoiding them either.

How long had it been already? By decreasing with my current age, it seemed like a story from over 6 years ago. I was really glad that they still remember me, and of course I missed a lot of my friends too. Especially those little brats who used to be in our little gang, and had always been playing together more than anyone else. Ah yes, they shouldn’t be those little brats anymore. They should have become a lot matured since then. Most importantly, I really hoped our close friendship was still unchanged even the slightest.

Sorry I forgot to introduce myself. The name is Tenki Yoru. I am a 21-year-old male for today. Have a decent pair of parents, and a rather clumsy and sometimes kind of annoying 4-year younger little devil sister. Nothing more really needed to be specifically introduced about me. I am just a plain black-haired late bloomer who are still not really ready for the adult society and somehow a little forgetful, until I had even forgotten about most of my childhood recollections. When my parents told me, it was as though not my own history. Not sure if it is normal though. Might also an easygoing person who dislikes to argue about anything, and have gotten a little too creative imaginary mind at some certain moments.

I am definitely not a stand out kind of person. Maybe it is a good thing. But I have still yet to learn the ultimate ability for the benefit of the society, invisibility. Also, my most stand out hobby is to think about something too much until I actually realized that it is just a waste of very much time because I usually overthink that.

For me personally, those years of my middle school were my best moment of life. I had learned so much, made so many friends and happy experiences with them. I really yearned for those years to be repeated again and again.

Unconsciously, I rose and gave a pair of excited punches into the midair and a silent shout of joy, just like a little kid who had just been granted his most longed wishes.

Yet still I felt a little doubtful. My life had been pretty normal these years especially since I entered evening college. In the daytime, just some normal activities for the normal me. Browsing internet, doing light exercise, reading books or playing games from morning till afternoon mostly inside my room which was on the second floor. Just occasionally, cleaning the house and garden or running some errands for my parents. After dinner, I attend to college till the classes are over. Mostly returned straight back home to sleep and prepare for the next day’s daily clichés. Nothing to be proud of, earnestly. Most disappointingly, I still don’t have a girlfriend, Huh.

I walked toward my wall calendar which hung next to my wardrobe. Today was Wednesday and so many scribbles about my boring routine. I could skip over one day or two or even half a week by extra workouts to compensate after I finished slacking off. Nothing really specifically needed to be finished on the days of the reunion. I was free after all. About the college, that was simple enough, since I should be one of the most diligent student who never skipped a class from the start of the current semester. I was very much certain that I could get some absences for those days.

Okay. Let’s do it!

My mind was made up almost immediately. I didn’t care about being unable to online for just a few days. I will be going to the middle school reunion though I doubted many other ex-classmates will be able to show up. Since I happened to know there aren’t just a few of them who study or work overseas. Maybe some vacancies will be inevitable. But if everyone thought like that, nobody will go, right? I still hoped as many of us could participate in the reunion party. The merrier, the better.

Accidentally, I glanced outside through the window because I felt a bit of uneasiness, like someone was glaring at me. Maybe I was thinking too much as always. There was only one person on the small road in front of my house, standing still next to an electric pole, showered the shining street lamp and was facing to the ground in front of me silently. It was normal, the time was still too early for most people after all.

The man wore a high hat of gentleman which had concealed his face from my higher point of view, and a full set of long sleeve dark brown coat down to his knee with black shirt, long trousers, scarf, gloves and boots that basically covered up his entire body. An unexplainable freeze suddenly run through my spine. When I tried to observe him, he started to walk away conscientiously. I noticed from his left side face that he was also putting on a unique mask which revealed only his keen eye and a bit of dark orange hair, I suppose. He should only be mostly around the same age with me.

Orange hair? don’t tell me, he is …. No, that cold-eyed man shouldn’t be him. Though we only met occasionally, he is one of the kindest man I ever know. At least that was what I heard from them. And I had never seen him again since he graduated from our middle school one year earlier than us.

The easiest way to think through about it was, if that man really was him, then why didn’t he say ‘hi’ to me? But still, I felt kind of bad for judging that man even before knowing anything about him. Hopefully that sharp expression wasn’t caused by anything hard in the past and everything would be better off for him. I didn’t put much attention to him anymore. He must be only a common pedestrian in cold.

After that, I just went to do, or rather play that original purpose for waking up early today while waiting for my parents to wake up.

At last, I got the divine concession with a little cheating when my strict parents were in a good mood. I also promised my childish little sister a very huge and expensive yellow duckling doll as the bribery for not bothering me to go together anymore. I had finally passed my last stage toward my long longed gathering.

Were whom I really want to gather with … them? An unknown image flashed by, maybe two, maybe three. Not again …!

I hurried up to my bedroom and sat in front of my computer again to type a reply email to the kind proposer. Basically to tell that I was really looking forward to participate in the reunion and it would also be the best for me if the schedule still remained the same. After the message was sent, I just resumed my daily easygoing activities. But this time, with some sort of indescribable eagerness feeling.

I had even offered myself to be for the service on errand to go to the nearby mini-market. Since some food materials in the fridge were going to be run out in the next few days when I go to the reunion. I went to the outside of the house and walked on the shortcut route like I usually do.

When I was going to turn left on one of the block, I almost stepped on some scattering broken glass pieces in the middle of the road. It was a blind spot for me before turning in. Who the hell had thrown these dangerous things though this is only a quiet place where no one passed by but me at the moment? At least, I wasn’t wounded at all. And I even helped the society to clean up this mess voluntarily.

When I was shopping, I almost bumped into another misfortune. An unpaid chewing gum had slipped into my pocket. Seemed that I had unconsciously dropped it when I was buying sweets. But still I considered it as a good in my bad luck because I realized that first before went to the cashier. Maybe it was a fate? I decided to buy it all along.

On my way back, while I was chewing on that gum of destiny lamentably because of its strange flavor, I was almost hit by a motorcycle, barely evaded a sharp invisible string in the middle of the road and the luck of falling fruits, and even got chased by mad dogs and many others. It was like a series of breathtaking and adventurous incidents on my journey to the mini-market and back to my home sweet home. But I was still safe and sound. I didn’t blame anything at all. Those were just some sort of accidents accumulated for the next few days’ happy reunion. Just forget about it. And no more bad luck happened after that.

I blamed that gum. I would never buy that in the future.

At 10 p.m., I rechecked my email again after I returned back from my evening college. Out of the other junks, there were two new ones which I had been waiting excitedly for. Both were from the reunion arranger, and were sent after the last time I checked just before I went to the college at 7.15 p.m. The first mail at around 8 p.m. described:

Thanks for the reply, Yoru-kun,

We are really-really overjoyed that you are also able to attend to the reunion. And we also decided to continue holding the party as scheduled since all attendants including you has no objection. But for your information, there are only 11 persons including me who have fixed to go. Is it still okay for you? We will be meeting at the fountain park in the south district of the city, and go by private bus at 7 a.m. tomorrow. All right?

Don’t forget to bring your private things. There won’t be any shops nearby.

The second mail was at 9.30 p.m.

The others are still waiting for your answer. What is your decision, Yoru-kun?

As I had expected, there wouldn’t be many who could attend to the reunion. But at least it was better than nothing. And I was still very eager to go. Ryouta hadn’t mention who the other 10 participants are. Hopefully, those had included my little gang members.

I replied to the reunion manager to inform that the participant tomorrow would be increased by one. Might as well the last one. A quick reply of ‘ok’ was received before I went to pack my travelling bag passionately along with the creepy smile that I couldn’t even recognize.

I already made an assumption that today wouldn’t end up as the doomsday by marking the end of the day up front. I didn’t want to care about such tiny thing on a huge day like tomorrow.

After that, I forced myself to sleep earlier than usual, by imagining a formula to calculate the amount of biting on the chewing gum needed before it lost its peculiar taste, to be able to wake up early tomorrow.