Things Can Go Wrong

Chapter Five

JACK

Update: there's been nothing coming from Tsuki at all, and she has not been responding to many of my texts. She's read the odd one or two, but nothing has been going on. I don't know her address, so I can't just go to her and see what's been going on with her. I have the biggest feeling that it is something to do with Suji, however I don't think I should completely interrogate her. If she does not want to talk to us, then I guess that's fine.

It's the day of the gathering at the park. I don't think Tsuki or her friends are going to be coming, seeing as I have heard absolutely nothing from her or them. Either way, the show must go on, so I pack up and get ready for the meet up. I bring a load of snacks, a couple of CDs, a football (keep in mind I don't even play football!) and at complete random, I also decide to bring two portable speakers.

Upon getting to the park, I discover that I am the first one there, which in itself feels extremely awkward. Other than me, there is no-one else in the park, and the only thing I can truly hear is the sound of birds tweeting, and my footsteps. I sit down on the usual bench, and I immediately feel bored.

I decide to pass the time by listening to music, so I connect up the two portable speakers, and play a bit of Mint Royale. Soon enough, everyone starts coming in, aided by the music which is booming from the park. By order, Danny, Ichigo, Tanoshi and an unknown girl make their way in, and immediately the group of us start chatting to each other normally. The girl who came in after apparently is Tanoshi's girlfriend, Kyou. She seems rather nice, however today she was very antisocial, checking her phone every five minutes rather than wanting to talk to us.

As much as I found that strange, I think she might be a little less confident around new people, which I can understand, seeing as I was extremely nervous to move to Japan at first. Either way, over the first hour, the sun comes out and the five of us share lunch together happily. We mainly just end up chatting, listening to music and joking around, and a lot of us end up being silly just because we have the entire park to ourselves.

Over the majority of the meet up, Tanoshi and Danny talk about music and video games, while I try to talk to Kyou, however it doesn't seem to go that well. She consistently is glued to her phone, almost completely blanking the world around her, even her own boyfriend could not fix the situation.

With that failing, I decide to just stick to Tanoshi and Danny, as they seem a lot more interested in this meetup than Kyou does. We end up eating most of the snacks, listening to music and joking around for several hours while Kyou stares uncomfortably at her phone, looking extremely bored and aggravated.

Once I notice it happening for the umpteenth time, I quickly get closer to Tanoshi and whisper "Is Kyou always like this?"

"Not really." he responds.

"She's been extremely distant in the past month or so though, and she barely talks to me." he adds.

"She's probably just getting slightly tired of me though, I mean we have dated for two years!" he chuckles loudly.

Kyou looks at Tanoshi menacingly, before returning to her phone. I see her texting someone, and she pops chewing gum into her mouth lazily. It's funny how she is texting someone in the middle of a social gathering. It seems extremely rude, but I keep quiet.

At around 5pm, we pack up, and by this point the sky is slowly beginning to set. I clear everything up along with Danny while Tanoshi frantically attempts to talk to Kyou, trying to be 'lovey-dovey' so she doesn't seem so distant anymore. As cheesy as it is, I can appreciate his work, and if I had a girlfriend who at random decided to stop talking to me, I would do all I could to make her happy.

We part ways for the day, and upon returning home, I see that my parents have gone out shopping for about an hour, so I have the house to myself. I do my usual things, and while making dinner I decide to text Tsuki once again. Even though I have practically spammed her with shitloads of texts, in the end, my main goal is to let her know that her friends are waiting for her.

I pick up my phone, go onto WhatsApp and upon clicking onto her profile, I discover that she has read every single one of my texts, which is a huge surprise. Yesterday, only about three of the estimated twenty I sent over this week, she read, and now every single one has been read. However, there has been no response to any of them.

I quickly type a message.

You: You alright today? You've read my texts, so you must be somewhere.

I see the all familiar two ticks at the bottom right of the message, and within a few seconds, they turn blue. Tsuki's status immediately switches to 'online' and she stays online for around a minute, before her status switches to 'last seen at 5:43 pm' and I silently curse to myself and put down my phone. At this point, I do actually feel like giving up.

I finish making dinner and eat in silence, sulking quietly. At first, I think that she doesn't really care about me and the gang anymore, and in some ways, I do slightly believe that she has ditched us for Suji. But then, what was all of the interest for? All of the times she clearly sat with us, laughed with us and ate lunch with us happily, almost feel like distant memories at this point.

But then, I think something clicks in my brain.

What if it isn't her? Maybe Suji's been reading these texts and then deleting them, so this way Tsuki somehow thinks that I've not been texting her, or wondering where she is at all. Maybe he's manipulating her. With that, I decide to go ahead and text Danny the idea. I quickly grab my phone, half a tortilla hanging out of my mouth, and frantically type a message to him.

You: I think I know why Tsuki isn't hearing us out

Danny: 4 real?

You: Yeah

You: What if, Suji's been deleting our texts, so that when she has her phone she isn't able to see them

Danny: good point

Danny: shall we head to the english class tomorrow

Danny: they could be there

You: that'll be interesting

You: im down ngl

There's a brief pause in our texting, before Danny sends me a message.

Danny: wasn't Kyou weird today?

Danny: she was being a bitch to Tanoshi

You: yeah, i noticed dat

Danny: i don't know why anyone would whip out their phone and start texting other people at a meetup

Danny: that's what you call a strange lady lol

You: fair enuff

Danny: i have to go and make dinner and stuff, ill try to be as quick as i can

You: alr, we'll meet at school yea

Danny: as always brotha

I close WhatsApp, turn my phone off, and go to watch TV for a bit. As I turn the TV on, I notice how beautiful the sun looks, so I go and stand outside of the apartment to watch the sun for a little bit. The sky looks as if it has been painted with bright shades of pink and purple, and even though I know that people can change the colours in the sky thanks to an app on the Holphonia, this feels (and is) extremely natural. It seems that today, everyone has turned their Holophonia's off and decided to enjoy a night of relative peace. I hear a bullet train in the far distance and before going back inside, I look up at the night sky and think about Tsuki.

As much as I want to think of questions and act on them, I do wonder how she is actually doing, and I truly hope that she is alright. My heart skips a beat every now and again whenever I do think about her, and truly; I do miss her. I just hope that within the next few days, I and the rest of the gang can get some answers.