A Mile in the Other's Shoe

All night, he could hardly sleep a wink with what was on his mind. At class, he could hardly keep his eyes open.

"Are you all right?" His seatmate asked him, once they finally got their break.

"It's nothing major, just didn't get that much sleep last night." He answered. It was the truth, but the reason was something he didn't want to mention.

"That sounds like a bit of a shame." A shame indeed, but Arata realized. It might be a good idea to try to get to know Erina better, but if she was going to be so hard to talk to. Then maybe the better option was right next to him.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what do you need?" He knew that he probably didn't have to ask for permission because Yogi was generally nice enough to listen to anything. He just wanted to be considerate, seeing what that boy had to put up with on a daily basis.

"How did you meet Erina in the first place?"

"Well, formally, it was when she transferred into our class last year."

"Wait, she was a transfer student?"

"You don't remember, man you really don't pay attention to what's going on around you." That was an understatement. All he remembered from their last year was that Erina seemed to come out of nowhere one day. Otherwise, he never paid any mind to his classmates.

"Well what about on a personal level. I mean, you're friends now." Yogi took some time to think it over. It had been a while, and it wasn't something he always thought about. He snapped his fingers when it came to him.

"Now I remember, the first time we truly talked. Was when the teacher assigned us to take care of the garden on the roof." There was a garden on the roof? That was news to Arata, but he didn't mention it. That would just prompt the same joke from before. "She was so shy then. But I guess it isn't easy going to school the first time after moving away from your parents."

"Away from her parents? I never knew she lived on her own."

"I thought you did, aren't you two close now?"

"No, we're not as close as you might think." That statement sounded laughable. Right now, the pair couldn't possibly be further apart.

"Well anyway, I saw how lonely she was, so I asked her to join me and my friends for lunch, and I guess we just started to hang out more." Arata was aware of some of the adventures he had with her, along with the others.

He never realized that it was Yogi that made the first move for her. Inviting her to join him and his friends. It kind of reminded Arata of what he had been trying to get him to so for so long. Did he view him in the same way?

Without any time to process it, class begun yet again for the two. Putting an end to their conversation. However, it did make Arata see her in a new light. He never understood her situation, nor did he ever try to think of her. So this was all new to him, but was there any way for him to have found out otherwise?

During lunch, Arata didn't have eat with the others. For he had obligations to another teacher. He was afraid that Erina would get mad, but during class, Yogi told him that she didn't eat with them either. Odd, he wondered where she was then.

School went on as usual. Once it was over, he left without comment. Since this was a day off, he thought this was a good time to sneak over to the otaku shop to browse and hear about new things coming out. Erina didn't message him on his phone, so he didn't think she needed him either.

What a surprise it was when he entered the store as he always did. Saying his usual greeting to the store owner, he found none other than her talking to the man.

"Huh?!" He gave a yell that filled the whole store. It earned him quite a few strange looks from the other patrons inside. "What are you doing here?" She stood still, not saying anything to him. It was the store owner that answered for her.

"Oh, she was actually asking me about you." He spoke as if this situation wasn't awkward for the two. "I gotta say, you're pretty luck to have such a nice girlfriend."

"Okay, I'm getting really sick of this joke." He responded in anger.

"I, uh, wasn't saying it as a joke?" The man looked at him, a little unsettled from the reaction to what he thought was a nice moment.

"S-sorry, it's a long story." He apologized. Realizing that it was a bit of an overreaction. He ignored Erina, not out of dislike. Instead, more because he wasn't sure how to approach her.

Of course, he probably would've just browsed the store in peace, if it wasn't for the fact that she followed him around without saying a word. He understood that she simply didn't know how to start a conversation with him after what happened last night. Unfortunately to other people, this just looked like he had some creepy stalker. He sighed, he had to do something.

"You know, you're free to say anything you want." He spoke, not looking at her. He tried to play it cool, looking at the new Blu-rays while talking. "The only reason I haven't told you to leave is because the owner probably doesn't want me chasing out potential customers."

"Um…" She paused, unable to find the words to speak. "This place is kind of weird." Well, he would've preferred kinder words from her. At least she was talking.

"I'm sure for someone not into this type of stuff would see it like that. So why are you even here in the first place, obviously it's not to buying anything."

"Come on, didn't you hear what he said. I was asking about you." She Shew as returning to her usual self. While he might argue with version of her. At least he liked it much better than her being all sad.

"Yeah, I'm sure you've got more dirt on me now. But you know I'm already helping…"

"I wasn't looking for that, you idiot." She cut him off. "I wanted to know why you liked this stuff so much."

"You could've just asked me."

"No, because I knew you wouldn't want to talk about it." They weren't so different as it turned out. He felt that was why he had to talk to Yogi to learn about her. He was realizing what their problem truly was. What was keeping each other from dancing.

Like he was sure that she probably wasn't going to tell him. It turned out that the store owner talked about Arata quite a bit. In fact he realized that the man knew more about him than he thought would be the case.

"When you were younger. You tried to stop some girl from being bullied, right?" That story? It was so long ago, but he remembered telling it to the owner. Though it was one that he would never forget.

How could he? He got beaten so badly, he had to go to the hospital. It was on that day, he vowed that he would never bother with people ever again, over time, it seemed that he spent more time with fictional people than with real ones.

"Of course I remember." He said, a bit upset at having to relive a poor memory. "I still have a scar from that day. But I don't need to have you pitying me for something that happened years ago."

"But that's not what I was saying."

"And another thing. Don't act like you have it better than me either." He said, not listening to her. "I heard about your living situation with Yogi."

"H-he told you." She stammered, her eyes widened.

"I guess you weren't the only one sleuthing either." He said. "I wasn't looking for anything to hold against you or anything." He said to calm her nervous look. "I was just thinking about what Hine was saying."

"So you too, huh?" She was feeling the same way as him after their dinner together.

"Yeah, I guess you probably didn't get much sleep either." They shared a laugh. No longer feeling the tension of their insecurities.

"Ha, yeah. I guess the two of us aren't that different after all." She said.

"I guess not, say we should head over the old lady's place right now."

"Huh? Why?" She replied in a nervous manner.

"Well we still need to practice right? Beside, I think that this time around it'll be much better." Erina agreed, and the pair left the store to make their way to Hine's house. There, they found the elderly lady sitting out front. As if she was expecting them.

"Ah, I just knew you'd come back." She said as they walked up.

"Well yeah, after yesterday I think it's clear we need a lot of practice." He told her. Even feeling better about themselves. He was still shaky on whether they had the skills to pull it off.

"I don't know about that." She said. "I hope you did what I said to do last night." They did, well he didn't think it helped with dancing in any way. He wasn't sure how she thought that would work.

"Yes we did." Erina answered. "But I'm not sure what it was supposed to do."

"You'll see…" Hine smiled at them. Grabbing out a pair of blindfolds from her pockets. "You should put these on." She handed one to each of them. They looked at her like she had gone crazy.

"Um, but how can we dance if we can't see?" He asked. She laughed, as if that was a silly question.

"Oh, you don't need sight to dance wonderfully. If you did what I said to do, they this will be no problem." So they did as she said, facing each other. They put on the blindfolds.

She told them to begin. Slowly, he reached up his hands, searching for hers. Holding together, he could sense the nervous shaking she tried to conceal. But this wasn't the time to give up hope again. This time, he resolved to succeed.

Taking the first step, he was surprised to not trip over her. Without vision, he was certain this was going to be at least somewhat shaky. Before too soon, a mess up. Slightly knocking into each other.

"Please take your time." She said, keeping them in check. "Remember what I said before." He felt like she was repeating it to them a bit. Then, that's when it hit him. She was talking about how he didn't try to understand her. Understand why some girl would stoop to blackmail.

Thinking about everything that's been said. He understood now, why she loved him so much. Because that boy gave her something that she desired. Care. It was something he felt from Yogi when the two talked. That he was trying to do the same thing for him.

It was when he finally understood, that he felt that even without seeing. He was matching her, step for step. A proper dance for once in his life. Yet he also felt like it wasn't just him. Was she also thinking of him, while they danced?

"Wonderful. I think the two of you finally get it now." Hine praised them. Receiving her glowing marks made them the happiest they've been this week. In excitement, they tried to hi-five each other. However, being blinded without knowing where one is actually standing, lead them to bop each other in the head.

"That hurt a little." He said, removing his blindfold. He turned to see her doing the same. Their eyes met, and a feeling of emotion came.

"Yeah it did." She smiled at him.

"Congratulations you two. You passed!"

"What? That's it?" They looked at her, thinking that it couldn't possibly be over already.

"Of course, because you two now understand what it truly means to dance with another person." She went on to explain. "If you take the time to understand the other person, even a complete stranger. Then you can understand their movements, and why they'll do it."

As they learned, dancing with a partner can only work as a selfless action. Doing something, anything, with another person means moving beyond the pride of an individual. One that both parties must be willing to put aside to succeed.

"Awesome, say if we can do this. Then maybe you might have a real shot at winning the whole thing." Arata told Erina. With her newfound skill, they might have a shot of getting her to be the best girl dancer. Now the question was if he could find a way to get Yogi to be winning alongside her.