Kenta barely got his eight hours of sleep when the intense sun rays that seeped through his bedroom windows hurt his eyes. He glanced at his phone, which was charging wirelessly on top of his chest of drawers, and gritted his teeth when he realized there was a note on his calendar.
The note read Pray at the Ebisu-sama Shrine with friends today!
"That's right," the teenager mumbled to himself, "I was supposed to pray to one of the seven gods of fortune on Akira's behalf. I wonder, though, does she really need prayers?"
He mentally replayed the event of last night and was immediately overcome with a wave of indignant sadness at his cousin's remark about his hesitation to sabotage Johan for her sake.
"Perhaps instead of praying for her, I could pray that the judges play fair and don't tolerate contestants who get caught sabotaging other people in the competition," he continued mumbling, "because this is Akira we're talking about. Once she wants something, there's no stopping her but divine intervention. I hope Kami-sama and the army of fortune-bringer gods know when to intervene or I'm going to lose my faith in both Shintoism and humanity."
Kenta's phone screen turned brighter when a notification for text messages popped up.
Baz Arakida: Hey, man, we're not canceling our trip to the grand shrine, are we?
Kaoru Hitomi: Where are you, dude? It's way past the time we agreed to meet. Don't tell me you got lost on the way to the shrine? And here I thought you said you've been here before.
Aiden Swenson: Don't make me regret tagging along. If you don't show up in the next fifteen minutes, I'm going to spam you with pictures of wilting plants and decaying fruits.
Baz Arakida: You read that, Kenta? Aiden's gonna make you cry if you bail on us.
Kaoru Hitomi: Aiden, that's not nice. Also, Baz, why are you siding with Aiden?
Aiden Swenson: What? Pictures can't physically hurt him. Plus, he needs to know that it's rude to be late to a meeting he initiated himself.
Kenta Kinoya: I'm very embarrassed but it seems that it slipped my mind until I got an automatic reminder. Apologies. I will be there as soon as possible. Aiden, please don't torture me, I've had enough torture from the last person I thought would dare to be mean to me.
Aiden Swenson: Not sure what you refer to exactly, but if someone's mean to you then I suggest you be mean to them back. Come on, won't you grow a backbone and defend yourself?
Kenta Kinoya: I can't be mean when that person is my own cousin.
Baz Arakida: You're joking. I thought Akira is protective of you and won't ever hurt you.
Kenta Kinoya: It's a long story. I'll tell y'all face-to-face, okay?
****
While Kenta was busy texting his friends, Akira was in her room doing a video call with Ezekiel.
"I had no luck procuring any information from him," the girl said in Pinean sign language, "he is infuriatingly adamant that his boyfriend deserves his loyalty more than I do."
Ezekiel bit his lips before replying haltingly. "I don't think what we're trying to do is right."
"Not you too, Ezie!" Akira yelled in exasperation. "Remember why we're doing this. Winning Mathlympics as a couple is the only way I can convince my mom that you're not as unintelligent or as bad of a fit for me as she believes. We need to do this to save our relationship."
"But if we go through with our plan to put Johan at a disadvantage, then we're ruining our friendship with him. Not to mention, Kenta would be so heartbroken at knowing that integrity no longer has value to you. Don't do this, Akira. This is not you. You're not this heartless."
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Dreams Upon A Silver Pine Branch
Ficțiune adolescențiThe Kinoya family, one of the most financially well-to-do families on their home planet Silver Pine, seems like they have everything they could ask for. But behind the closed doors of their huge traditional Japanese dojo, three members of the family...
