Things Can Go Wrong

Chapter Sixteen

JACK

"Ha ha ha!"

"What was the point of throwing that paper plate at Aisuru, Danny?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to practice my aim."

Me and the rest of the gang are at the local park for another one of our meetups, and so far this has been the best one yet. Everyone seems to be extremely happy, and now it is just weeks until the end of term/summer festival at Koenji High. All of the previous hardships that we've encountered over this past term have been completely eradicated, and as summer kicks into full swing in Tokyo, so have our lives.

Aisuru and Kirai seem a lot less anxious around each other, which is definitely a very good thing. Tanoshi and Tsuki have collectively almost recovered from their heartbreaks, and Danny and I have been mainly excited over a Japanese vinyl reissue of Discovery, Daft Punk's second album (keep in mind the original issues went for prices up to thousands of pounds)

Right now, everyone has been having a good time, and Suji's complete popularity has died down since his absence from Koenji High. Tanoshi's been practically falling in love with another girl, who at the moment doesn't really seem to be interested in him, but he's keeping faith and texting her every now again.

I am disrupted from my thoughts by Tanoshi, who sits down next to me and huffs, looking annoyed. I ask him what's up and to no-one's surprise, he's annoyed because the girl he fancies ignored his Snapchat messages for the third week in a row. The girl seems fairly chatty in person and around her friends, but doesn't want to talk to Tanoshi outside of school, to his despair. As happy as he is to have gotten over Kyou, he's been trying his hardest to reach out to this girl, and I feel for him.

After we talk for a few minutes, I hear a buzz come from his phone, and he grips his phone excitedly, and he slowly reads the notification.

"New Story from Tenshi Hyoko."

For those that don't know - Snapchat has a feature called "Stories" where people are able to upload photos and videos of any sort, at any time. People usually do this daily, and it has taken over the blogging craze of the 2000s in every way possible. Usually when girls do stories, it revolves on shopping, days out and half-assed ceiling pictures with captions usually stating stupid quotes or quite simply "I need someone to talk to, can anyone call me?" which I've always found rather strange.

I lean over to Tanoshi as he clicks onto the story, and it shows her and her friends hanging out together. As he views the story over and over again, I realize something - if she has updated her story via her phone, then she surely read Tanoshi's texts, right?

I ask Tanoshi to switch over to the Chat function on Snapchat, and he does. And, to my surprise, next to her name is a big fat "Delivered" sign, meaning that the text have been sent, but the person receiving them has not read them. He sighs, and quickly goes to text her again, but I grab his arm and look at him.

"I wouldn't." I say.

"Give it a few days."

"She might seem chatty then." I say.

He nods his head and puts his phone away. He sighs and then goes off to chat and run around with Tsuki and Danny.

I quickly pull my own phone out and go onto Snapchat, and I search up Tanoshi, before adding him and the rest of the gang. I've been meaning to add them all for a while as they all had given me their usernames, but I hadn't been able to due to being extremely busy. I add everyone to a group chat and name the group "Cool Peeps" and almost on cue, everyone gets out their phones (with the exception of Kirai and Danny, who look at their hands, a sight which I still can't get used to) and they all come and sit with me on the bench that I'm sitting on to talk.

We eat lunch happily, before Tsuki asks a question that to be honest, nobody wants to really answer.

"Guys, how do you think Suji's doing?"

Dead silence. At least for thirty seconds, that is. There are a couple of murmurs in the group until Kirai speaks up to us, half a piece of tonkatsu hanging out of his mouth.

"To be honest, I think he'll be there for a very long time."

"I mean, to be brutally honest, he's a pretty big criminal in mine and Aisuru's standards."

"As you know, we both came from fairly safe parts of Japan, so we were shielded when it came to big criminals, like Suji."

"The worst we'd get would be someone taking a single fry from someone's McDonalds' order."

All of us chuckle at Kirai's remark, and I see Aisuru nod in agreement.

Aisuru speaks up next.

"But yeah, we both think that he'll be gone for a pretty long time, six months at least."

"And besides, he's going to have a pretty hard time getting back into normal society, seeing as his gang have gone on without him, Kyou's left him and is probably crying to herself 24/7-"

"Yep." Tanoshi says, cracking up.

"She sends me videos of herself crying daily, which are a joy to watch." he says somewhat strangely, so we can't tell whether he's being sarcastic or he genuinely enjoys watching his ex-girlfriend break down in tears at the thought of him.

Just as he says that, he gets a buzz from his phone and he gets out his phone excitedly hoping it is a text from Tenshi, however immediately his face turns to a face of pure amusement and disappointment.

"Speaking of that..."

I hear Kyou crying on Tanoshi's phone, and he starts laughing quietly to himself before he puts his phone away.

"Bitch deserved it." Danny says.

There's a chorus of "OHs" and Tanoshi pats Danny on the back before slyly remarking "She did."

I look over to the entrance of the park, and I see the same group of boys that I saw when I first met with Aisuru and Kirai, and as per usual, they all have cigarettes in their mouths, aided by energy drinks and pepper spray.

I signal to the group and we decide to leave, as we don't want any business with the group of lads, and we quietly make our way out of the park, not saying a word as we walk back to my parents' place. As we are walking, I realize something - what if the group of boys is Suji's gang?

So, I ask.

Within seconds, Tanoshi's dropped his phone in shock, and I hear him mutter one word.

"Fuck."