You Will Marry Me

8

"Hey, Aki!" That voice, that everpresent voice, called out to me once again. My body was covered by shadow as the wind blew my short, red hair slightly to the side. I rubbed some strands away from my amber eyes since I was currently deeply invested in one of my textbooks, the one that was given to us for our math class.

"What do you want, Nakumi?" I groan out of instinct as my skin was bathed in sunlight. Jumping down from the bench that she walked on to look over me, the small child that had a strawberry lollipop in her mouth was Nakumi Tano. She jogged slightly ahead of me and raised her arms to block any path that I could've taken to circumvent her. Long black hair, soft hazel eyes, and a wide grin plastered on her face, she looked at me like she was planning something, which she usually was.

Now, her plans were usually nothing special. "Let's race! The first one to make it home from school wins!" And that one was no different. That girl, sometimes I wonder what goes on in her head. I agreed to her little contest, seeing as she was blocking my path and that I was on my way home anyway. She walked over to stand to my side, wanting a fair fight. I stretched my knees to try and get my blood pumping, strapping my school bag to my back. There was one thing that I forgot to mention about Nakumi, and I only just remembered it as I took a look at the ribbon that was pinned to her own school bag. "Ready, go!" She was faster than me.

Our street wasn't very far, only around a five-minute walk for a pair of eight-year-olds. We both ran as fast as our legs could carry us, her speed already sending her a meter ahead of me in under ten seconds. But I wasn't going to go down without a fight, so I took a turn before she did to take a shortcut. Admittedly, I've never been to this street before, but I did see that it connected to our normal route home.

It wasn't very busy, heck it was practically a ghost street. It looked like it used to be filled with small stalls, but most of them had been shut down and closed their doors. With only a handful of people walking around and even fewer operating the remaining stores, I felt a chill run up my spine that made me run a little faster. I looked over my shoulder after a few seconds, seeing nothing behind me. Maybe I was just paranoid, but... No, there was no use in thinking about it, I had a race to win. But, now that I slowed down a bit, I noticed that I was lost. The street that I thought would connect me to our normal route wasn't here; I had to go look for it.

Nakumi was probably already halfway there, and I don't know how to get back on track. I sighed, I guess it's another loss for me. With no point in running anymore, I walked the rest of the way at a leisurely pace while looking around the shops, though they were things that creeped me out like an old liquor store or a rundown arcade. I happened across a bookstore near the bend that led back to my route, so I decided to stop and take a peek. I wonder if I'll be able to buy a new book.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The store clerk smiled at me. He seemed to be expecting me, and he kept looking at me creepily as I walked around the place. I snuck occasional glances back at him. I don't know why, but I felt another chill run up my spine, one that was similar to the one that I felt a few minutes ago. I decided to ignore him to the best of my abilities, heading as far away from him as possible. That gave me some peace of mind and let me actually browse the selection of books that were here.

Wandering around the room and glancing at all of the covers that lined the shelves, Comics, manga, novels, everything was here. Though, with this wide selection, the amount of each type of literature was limited; nothing really caught my eye in the comics or manga sections. A bit disappointed, I left the manga section and browsed a bit more absentmindedly until a book caught my eye. A thin, leatherbound book that simply had the words "How to Hypnotize" on its spine. Pulling it out to examine it in my hands, I flipped through a few pages.