Chapter 1 - Ema was alone, so I hung out with her

I was dreaming about a girl sitting alone on a bench. I really had no choice. Even though I knew I was dreaming, I couldn't move my body and take command of the dream at all. So I just let the dream play out like a movie.

As the girl ate her bento box, she would sometimes look around her, and she'd see the amount of people that ate at the benches, just like her. But there was one big difference, the people around her were eating together. Not one person was alone, except for her. 

But the girl couldn't bear looking at everyone else around her anymore, so she took off her glasses and put it on the bench. 

But the thing was, because she couldn't see quite well with the glasses, she'd sometimes make a mess on her face while eating, so everyone around her started to take notice. And as she kept on eating, more and more people started to make fun of her.

"Look at her. She's so sloppy while eating," one person said.

"Ewww, what sort of girl eats so much like a pig?" another person said.

"Guys, her face. She looks homeless," another person said. 

And of course, even though she couldn't see all of them very well, she could feel that everyone didn't want her here. So she put on her glasses so she could clean things up fast, but that was when she saw everyone's mocking faces looking at her. 

And she just couldn't bear it, so she put her glasses in her pocket and just cleaned up her lunch without it. But again, because she couldn't see very well, she ended up making more of a mess, which just made everyone's reactions worse. 

"Seriously? Is she trying to litter her low-quality food all over where we all eat?" a person said.

"Is she blind? Why won't she just wear her glasses?" another person said.

"Maybe we should report her to the principal for uncleanliness! Hahahaha!" another person said.

Thankfully, she finished cleaning up what she could and just ran out of the place.

And that was when I woke up. Fortunately, I didn't have to continue that dream because if the trend continued, the dream might've become a little too sad for me. 

Even though there were a lot of things I needed to think about within the coming day, there was really only one thing that was stuck in my mind.

"I need to make sure that doesn't happen," I said. 

Skipping forward to the beginning of lunch. I hung around the park section, trying to look for her. 

Thankfully, it didn't take too long. She was sitting alone at one of the center benches, with her signature glasses and a bento box in hand. And of course, she was the only one that was alone, all the benches had at least a couple of people on them. 

And just like in the dream, she was looking around at the other benches. 

It was time. 

I walked to her direction. At first, she was taking peeks at the surrounding benches, but as I neared her bench, she spotted me, and for a quick second, we locked eyes.

But she quickly looked down, reaching for her glasses.

She was probably going to take it off any second, so I just increased my pace, almost jogging to her. And when I finally got to her bench, I sat down and took out my bento box. 

"Don't take off your glasses," I said, "You'll see better with them on."

At this point, she did keep the glasses on, but she wasn't really looking at me. She was looking at her unopened bento box. 

And for the next few seconds, she continued to stare at the bento box, while I tried to keep eye contact with her face. 

Believe me, I wasn't trying to scare her or anything, it was just too awkward to stare away after getting no response. 

"Okay," she said. 

And this is where my plan sort of fell through. I actually didn't know what to do afterwards, so I just opened my bento box and ate alongside quietly with her. 

But honestly, as long as that whole thing wasn't going to happen, I guessed it was all fine. 

After we both ate our respective bento boxes, we both put them away. At this point, I really didn't know what to do, so I just sat there silently, staring into the distance. 

She still wasn't looking at me, she was also staring into the distance. In fact, we were both sort of staring at opposite directions, and we were both even sitting at the opposite ends of the bench. 

"It's a nice weather," I said.

Yes, I know you're folding into yourselves by now, but it really was true. Even though the sky was clear blue, the clouds were miraculously blocking the Sun's path. And it was also windy and chilly too, but not too much that our boxes were flying away. 

"Yes, it's nice," she said.

Again, we just sat there silently for the next minute or so. I really only had two plans: just take charge and introduce myself or just play with the stone near my feet.

I sort of chose both. 

I picked up the stone, throwing it up and down. 

"I'm Ryousuke by the way," I said. "What's yours?"

She clasped her hands together, fiddling with her fingers. 

"I..." She covered her face. "I'm Ema." She took a peek at me with a slit between her hands, before covering her face yet again. 

Now I was getting somewhere.

"What do you usually do around this time?" I said.

She took a peek at me again, before staring to her legs and placing her hands down, letting me see her face. 

She fiddled with her thumbs.

"I eat lunch," she said. 

I smiled. I didn't mean to, but the answer was just unexpectedly too captain-obviousy.

"I don't mean that silly. I mean, what do you usually do AFTER you eat lunch?" I said. 

She looked away, before looking down at her legs again.

"I sit," Ema said.

"At the bench?" I said. 

Ema nodded. "Yes."

At this point, I knew I was going to sound a bit insensitive, but I needed to ask her the question for the sake of getting the tense atmosphere over with. 

"Where do you and your friends usually hang around this time?" I said. 

Ema turned even farther away from me. 

"I don't have friends," she said. 

Ah. Well that was understandable.

I wrote my contact info on a piece of paper and offered it her way. 

"Do you want to be my friend?" I said. 

She turned to my direction, looking at the paper. I could tell she wasn't sure what to do, so I just started to retract my arms back

But before I could put the paper away, she took hold of my hands, before quickly letting go after realizing what she just did. 

"S-Sorry," Ema said. 

I put my arms in place, keeping the paper in her vision. 

"It's fine," I said.

Her hands slowly went to my open hand, and she took the paper, examining it.

I finally put my hands away in relief.

"Ryousuke," Ema said.

"Mmhmm, that's my name," I said. 

I gave a thumbs up.

She pushed her glasses up, quickly peeking at me, and slowly put her shaking hands out. 

"Sure..." She peeked at me and looked down. "I would like for you to be my friend."

I shook her with both my hands, firmly but gently giving the handshake. 

"Let's be friends," I said. "If anything, you can just call me."

While shaking hands, she nodded.

"Sure," she said.