8 Chapter 07 - The Childhood Friend Waited Too Long

"Miki, can we talk?"

Miki looked back to see her childhood friend, Takashi, staring at her with a stern expression on his face and felt a small smile tug at her lips.

So.

He'd finally grown a pair.

"Can it wait? I really need to—"

"It can't."

The forcefulness of his tone caught her off guard. Takashi had never been much of an assertive boy – hell, she'd had to protect him from bullies as a child. In that sense, he'd always been more bookish and introverted – always more concerned with his hobbies and studies than in her.

Part of her wanted to treat him with that same disdain and carelessness. To tell him to screw off while she went and enjoyed a drink with her friends before going back to her dorm with one (or more) of the tennis club guys and getting her mind blown with exquisite sex.

But another, more teasing and – to be honest – angry part of her wanted to let him shoot his shot just so she could cruelly shoot him down so that he'd understand how it felt to be in her position back in high school.

"Fine."

Cruelty won out.

She texted her friends to get started without her before agreeing to follow him to an empty classroom. Hmph. Even now, he had no class. Going right for a confession instead of buttering her up irritated her. She did her best to keep it under wraps, though, as she smiled neutrally at him as he motioned for her to take a seat towards the back of the auditorium and she watched as a flurry of emotions crossed his face.

Amusing. It'd be sweeter once she got to see his crushed face when she rejected him.

"So? What do you want to talk about?" she pressed him as she watched him finally stop his nervous, pathetic pacing.

Takashi took a deep breath at her words then sat next to her, taking a moment to contemplate the floor before him before turning towards her.

"Miki, are you seeing someone right now?" he asked her seriously.

She had to restrain a smirk. That was more blunt than she'd expected, but he really was headed in that direction, was he? How amusing.

"Maybe?" she purred with a teasing smile as she leaned forward onto the seat's attached notebook rest, the motion emphasizing her assets. "Why?"

Weird.

Takashi's eyes never once dropped from his steady gaze. Cooler, more handsome men had never been able to resist the move – for, all humility aside, she was very generously endowed.

"Please answer me seriously," he insisted instead.

That kinda pissed her off. Who was he to demand things from her after everything they'd gone through? "What's it matter to you?" she snapped, pulling back.

"Please answer me."

She glared at him. "Fine! Yes! I am seeing someone! Multiple someones, in fact!" she told him forcefully, crossing her arms and smirking at him. "Why? Jealous? Angry someone got there first?"

Takashi's gaze didn't turn angry or devastated as she expected. Not even a smidgen of sadness could she see in his face. If anything…if she had to describe it…

No.

No way.

Disappointment?

"I thought so," he sighed, shaking his head and holding it in one hand. "I didn't want to believe it, but when Saki—"

"Who?"

Takashi looked at her in surprise. "Saki. You know? My girlfriend?"

Miki stared at him in shock. "Your…girlfriend?"

Takashi rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, come off it, Miki! I told you about her last month in that chat I sent you! I even sent you a pic! Are you telling me you never read it?"

Miki couldn't really hear him anymore, her shock deafening her to him and the world around her as she processed the idea that Takashi had a girlfriend. Why? Why did this loser have a girlfriend?

"Like I was saying…" he continued, seemingly unaware of her internal blue screen. "Saki told me there's been…rumors."

Maybe it was what he was saying, or specifically that bitch's name, but Miki was able to momentarily snap out of her shock to stare at him wide-eyed. "What?"

He sighed in annoyance. "I said, there've been rumors."

"R-Rumors?"

"Yeah," he insisted. "She overheard some people at the student union talking about some student from the tennis club who's been sleeping around, and I remembered you telling me you joined that club."

He stared her down sternly. "Miki, please tell me that's not you."

Miki couldn't be sure what it was. Maybe it was the indignation of her childhood friend having the audacity to get involved in her personal life. Maybe it was her own fury and despair at the notion that, after years of trying to get his attention, some bitch had managed to swoop in and – in a fraction of that time – gotten him to go out with them. Maybe it was a combination of both, or something else entirely.

Whatever it was, it made Miki throw up.

She could barely hear Takashi's cry of panic as her sick covered the seat in front of her. She could barely register him dragging her out and getting her to the infirmary. Hell, Miki couldn't even understand how she eventually made it back to her dorm. By the time alert consciousness returned to her, it was pitch black outside and her phone had apparently vibrated itself off her nightstand from the amount of calls and messages she'd missed.

She ignored her fuck buddies' texts. Those were pretty much the same across the board – "where the fuck are you?" "Yo, hit me up" "U up for 3some?" etc… -- and those from her parents (mostly concern fueled by Takashi telling them what happened). Her friends, she texted to let them know she was alright.

And then she scrolled through her chat history to find Takashi's text.

The one about his girlfriend.

There it was. Plain as day – 5 notifications. All from the same day, all from a particularly memorable day, as far as she was concerned.

The day she'd gone to that tennis club mixer and gotten her first taste of sex.

For a moment, she hesitated whether to open the chats. Much easier to just delete the whole convo, tell Takashi to screw off tomorrow, and move on. She had it made, after all – sex, looks, and people to hang out with. What did he have?

Love.

The mere thought of the word elicited a spike of fury within her. Why? Why did Takashi get to be happy? To feel love? Why didn't she?

In that moment of anger, she truly made to delete their shared chat history, even going so far as to press the red Delete icon. But the moment the warning came up, her finger stopped over the final confirmation and lingered there.

Why? Why had he chosen that bitch and not her?

Miki had practically spelled it out for him. The Valentine's chocolate in a heart-shaped container, the walks back home, the physical closeness she wasn't shy to show…she'd given him every signal under the sun that she was interested and nothing! So how had this bitch gotten through to him?!

Cancel.

The warning disappeared, the chat history was kept intact. She hesitated for a moment before rallying her guts, her self-confidence, and opened the chat.

She immediately regretted it.

There was no grand secret revealed within it. No magical trick the bitch had done to get Takashi to look at her as a woman. There hadn't been any grand gestures or overcomplicated plots.

She'd simply told him.

I think we both know I'm pretty dense. If it's not about studying or the stuff I like, I can get pretty self-absorbed. I mean – you know that better than anyone, I think, after having had to deal with me all this time.

So you can imagine how surprised I was when Saki just flat out told me during one of our club meetings that she wanted to go out with me?? I couldn't believe it!! I mean, what did she see in me???

Miki stared at her phone's screen in silence, a mix of grief, anger, jealousy, and despair swirling inside her. She pulled up the picture he sent with the texts and again felt mixed feelings.

Saki was by no means a 10. In terms of basic looks, Miki had her beat on all counts. Her body was curvier, her face was cuter, and her features were more desirable. Saki, by contrast, was your average cute geek, devoid of outward sexiness but making up for it with pleasing features and a bright smile.

But Saki had something Miki didn't.

She had Takashi's affection. She'd gained his attention and even gotten through that thick skull of his. And Miki? She'd wasted her years thinking he had to be the one to make the move, that the burden of interest was entirely on him, and lost her chance.

Saki had understood Takashi, and Miki hadn't.

And because of that, because she – his childhood friend – had waited too long, she'd lost him to someone who'd truly understood him and liked him for who he was.

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A little advice : If you have feeling for someone, then don't wait for other to take initiative. Make the first move. If you want something then ask for it. Getting or losing comes next. But losing for not asking will make you regret for your entire life and there's no pill for regret.