Scenes From a Memory

ลำดับตอนที่ #2 : Chapter 1 : The Best Decision

 Chapter I

The Best Decision

“Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”– Keri Russell

December 20,2031
U.S. California Island, Northwest Japan

“Anyone can answer who said the quote “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.?” Mrs. Fukada asked her students in the first philosophy class of the new semester.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Fukada was a new teacher in the school, she couldn’t control the students as well as other teachers did. The class was full of noise and there seemed to be no one listening to her though she kept asking the students to be quiet.

Most of the students played the card games, chatted on the phone or shouted like an animal. Their activities made Mrs. Fukada upset. She finally stopped trying to make them quiet and sat on the chair in front of the lecture room, looked at the students’ activities. She had already realized that it was impossible to continue the class with the situation like this. While she was thinking, she saw a girl walking to her.

“I know the answer, teacher…..” The girl told her and smiled.
Mrs. Fukada was so surprised because she didn’t think that there would be someone still participated with her.
“So what is it?” She asked the girl with the most boring face in her life.
“During the Vietnam War, this quote was always said by John F. Kennedy.” The girl answered.
“It’s right!” she pointed her pen to the girl face.
“You look worried, don’t you?” The girl asked her worriedly and smiled.
Mrs. Fukada looked around the classroom, she acted like this was the most boring time in her life.
“No….I am not” she avoided “Actually yes, I am a bit worried about the class.” She finally confessed.
The girl looked at her face and walked closer to her.   
“Don’t worry teacher, this is the first class of the semester, most of the students don’t want to study anything, they think the first day of the semester is the free day.” The girl whispered.
Mrs. Fukada looked at the girl for a while.
“I am trying to understand…..but….however, I’ll give you an extra mark, what is your name?” She asked.
“My name is Emi Masaru…..” The girl told her.
“Emi?” she seemed to doubt.
“Anything wrong with my name?” Emi asked.
“Such a cute name for a girl” she said smiling.
Mrs. Fukada wrote the marks for Emi on the name list. She was the first student who got points from Mrs. Fukada in the new semester.
“You did well and deserve these marks” She stood up “Oh, I am going to finish the class, see you around”
Mrs. Fukada walked out of the lecture room hurriedly early without the declaration to end the class till she forgot to bring her pen on the table. It was a luxury one, Emi saw it left on the table, she thought it must be Mrs. Fukada’s, so she hurriedly picked it up and ran after Mrs. Fukada. But it seemed to be too late, Mrs. Fukada completely disappeared from her eyesight. Emi tried very hard to find her but it didn’t work because she couldn’t even Mrs. Fukada shadow.  She ran to the entrance of the canteen because she thought it was the last place to find her out.

“What are you looking for, Emi? You seem to be finding something…..”
Emi was completely shocked at the moment, it was her closet friend, it was a small, black long hair and doe-eyed girl, Saeko came to greeted her without any sign.
“Oh shit!!! You made me shocked!!!” Emi scolded moodily “Never mind, do you see Mrs. Fukada???”
“Who?” Saeko asked groggily.
“MRS. FUKADA, a new philosophy teacher, don’t you know her?” Emi got fretful.
“Never heard about…I’m sorry, what have you got to do with her???” Saeko doubted.
Emi hastily took Mrs. Fukada’s pen out of her pocket and showed it to Saeko.
“She left this on the table in the lecture room, I must give it back to her…” Emi explained.
Saeko took that pen from Emi’s hand, she looked surprised to see this.
“Wow!!! I used to see this on the TV, this pen is produced for only 100 units in the world, it cost a lot.” She said. “If I were you, I’d keep it mine.”  She tried to convince Emi.
Emi took it back from Saeko’s hand.
“No matter how much it cost, it’s not mine and I have to give it back to Mrs. Fukada.” Emi told.
“Sometimes, being a good person may take away your chance, trust me…..” Saeko said “ But it’s okay if you want to return it to her, your choice…..” she ended and walked away
“Oh!!! I completely forget, do you want to have lunch with me?” she turned her face back to Emi and asked.
Emi got a bit confused with her action.
“Why not!!!” she said

 They walked into the canteen to have lunch, but after they just saw the line of student waiting to order in front of their favorite noodle shop, they immediately turned back because  they realized that if they waited for their favorite meal, they would surely miss all of the afternoon classes.
“It’s too many…..” Saeko said.
“I see…” Emi told her.
Actually, there were a lot shops open during the lunch time, but their favorite shop was the noodle shop. The problem was this shop wasn’t only their favorite shop, but it was everyone’s.

Normally, Emi always got to the canteen immediately after the morning class finished, but she wasted time finding Mrs. Fukada for today.

“Emi… I think we have to eat something else” Saeko said with a bad mood. “Why don’t we eat Tanaka Sushi, we don’t have to wait for the line.” She pointed at Mr. Tanaka shop.
Mr. Tanaka’s shop was completely free without any student waiting for his sushi. It wasn’t strange because Mr. Tanaka seemed to be the dirtiest man in the school, Many students said that he never took a bath before coming to the school. Emi saw him scratching his head that seemed to be full of the parasite while he was making sushi.

“Eating shit is better than eating this idiot’s sushi” Emi muttered.

The afternoon class began 1.00 pm, but it was already 12.40 at the moment.  Many students who hadn’t have lunch started to get out of the line and walked to the minimart in front of the canteen. Most of them bought cups of noodle to eat.

“We should do like them” Saeko influenced and held Emi’s hand.
“Cup Noodle, I hate cup noodle” Emi muttered.
Saeko grabbed Emi hand. “Let’s move, before we miss the afternoon class”

They finally bought cups of noodle and some soft drinks for their lunch. They went to have lunch at the garden at the back of the school. It was the most beautiful place in the school, full of trees and flowers, the best place to relax was the wooden table at the right corner of the garden, in the afternoon, the sunlight shone through the trees to the table, the smooth light could make students feel very relax. And this winter wasn’t too cold which mean students could relax here without being frozen.

Emi and Saeko had lunch together in the garden.
"How about the situation between you and father" Saeko asked Emi worriedly.
"Not better" Emi answered, she looked upset to talk about this.
"I don't know what the problem is, but you need to talk to your father and things will get better" Saeko advised.
Emi stopped eating the noodle, put the chopsticks down.
"There is nothing to talk with him, he never listen to me" Emi said "and I think we had better not to talk about this, okay!" she told Saeko.
"okay, I don't talk about this anymore, but if you wanna consult, tell me anytime" Saeko said, smiling at Emi.
"Thanks....." Emi said.
“Where have you been just now, you came to the canteen so late today” Saeko asked.
Emi took Mrs. Fukada’s pen out again. “Because of this, I spent about half an hour finding Mrs. Fukada.” Emi replied. “And what about you? You were also late.” Emi asked Saeko back.
“Unsolvable issue, My classmates were talking all time in Math class till Tamada punished all class.” She explained.
They had their lunch very calm till they forgot to look at the time, it was already 1.00 pm and the afternoon class had started started for minutes. Saeko happened to see the time on her watch while she tried to roll her sleeve up.

“SHIT!!! It’s 1.00 pm, my next class is Advanced Biology. Kushov must kill me!!!” Saeko outcried, putting everything into the plastic bag and threw it to the garbage.

“Emi, see you in the evening, I have to go now!” Saeko said goodbye to Emi and ran away to the classroom. She left Emi alone in the garden. It was very fast and Emi didn’t even say goodbye to her.

Dr. Kane Kushov is a Russian biologist, he was well-known as the strictest teacher in Biology department. It wasn’t strange because he was the president of the department, everything and everyone in the Biology department was under his control. Most of his duties were controlling and directing the staffs and the students. The only subject he taught was Advanced Biology that Saeko was studying at the time. He always punished the students who were late painfully, that made no one wanted to study his subjects. And not only students that he always punished, he also did this with teachers who had bad behaviors in the department. Once Mr. Honda, a biology teacher came late for 5 minutes, he entered the office and saw Dr. Kushov right in front of him. Don’t think he would survive because he didn’t.  Kushov took him to his classroom and made him apologized his students by crawling around the classroom and say sorry to students one by one. Most students called him “The Communist Predator”.

Emi’s afternoon class was Information Technology, the environment in the class was completely different from Saeko’s biology class with Dr. Kushov. Emi didn’t really want to attend this class because she felt very upset about her father. She kept sitting in the garden, thought about the quarrel with her father till the time had passed for an hour. It was too late to attend the IT class. The only thing she could do was waiting for the end of the class and went back home.

Wait was boring, Emi had nothing to do. She walked through the garden to the football field. It was extremely quiet there, the wind bowled a little, looked very relax. She grabbed the ball and kicked it repeatedly in front of the goal. Because Emi was very weak, her power could just make the ball move forward a little.

“SHIT! I wish I would get stronger…..” She muttered with herself, didn’t stop trying to make a goal, but she couldn’t make it for just once.

After several times, Emi got tired. She walked to the stand and sat on it. She took her cellphone out from her Hermes bag and played her favorite mobile game “Space Fighter”. But Emi’s cellphone always made her moody because it didn’t respond well when she had to play with the accolometer sensor. It wasn’t strange because Most of Emi’s stuffs used to be her mother’s before. This Sony Ericsson clamshell phone used to be so popular in high class society in 2025, the front cover was decorated with real jewelry. But it had passed for six years, its performance had to be decreased as a matter of fact.

Minutes after, she saw the boy in the student uniform, carrying a ball walking to the stand next to her. He put the ball and his stuffs on the stand. He turned his eye to Emi and smiled. He was a very good-looked boy. Elegant dressing and looked attractive. Emi’s heart started to beat severely as he was coming closer. This was the first time for Emi to feel this way with the boy.

“You must have skipped the afternoon class, right?” The boy asked Emi while he was putting his stuffs on the stand.
Emi raised her face up and smiled abashedly at him “Yes, I have. And I know you have done the same with me?” she blamed.
The boy took his ball and put in on the glass field.
“Of course,  I prefer playing football to attending boring classes.” He told Emi and then kicked the ball powerfully.
The ball move fast and enter the goal at once.
“Nice shot!!! Do you agree that?” the boy said and asked Emi.
Emi nodded confusingly. She doubted why this boy acted like he knew her very well.
“Oh!!! I completely forget to ask your name, what is your name?” The boy asked Emi.
His words made Emi confused.
“Emi, Emi Masaru…” Emi answered.
The boy smiled at her and walked closer. This made Emi felt very nervous because her father never let her be close to any boy. When she was close to any boy, she always felt extremely nervous.
“My name is Jun Ichiro.” He told, looked at Emi nervous face. “What’s wrong, why you look so serious?” He asked Emi.
“No! Nothing is wrong, I just……” Emi tried to excuse.
“Shy?” Jun interrupted, smiled at Emi.
Emi’s face blushed immediately, her heart was oppressively beating. Jun knew well that she was extremely shy, but he seemed to be enjoy with this and he didn’t want to stop making Emi felt this way.
“Do you have a boyfriend yet?” Jun continued by asking intense question.
“What the hell? Why he asked me the question like this” Emi thought but finally answered Jun’s question. “
Jun looked happy to hear this, he smiled at Emi again.
“How come a cute girl like you doesn’t have a boyfriend? It’s amazing!!!” he said
Emi didn’t really understand why he said like that.  The word “Amazing!” was exaggerated. It was true that Emi never had a boyfriend, but it didn’t sound amazing because she was not the only one in the world who didn’t have a boyfriend, there were many.

“Jun!!! Is that you?” Unknown voice shouted from another corner of the football field. Jun immediately turned his face to that voice.  Two fat boys with long hair were running to Jun and Emi.
“They are my friends…” Jun told Emi and looked at his friends boring.
Those boys arrived, and then one of them slapped Jun’s head and laughed.
“What the fuck!!! Looks like we are interrupting you, right?” one of them asked Jun.
Jun tried to be ignored with his friend’s word.
“Nothing, you two did nothing.” He told his friend.
Another boy walked to him and held his neck.
“Don’t try to make an excuse, I know what you are up to.” The boy said. “Who is this girl, she is very cute” turned his face with fat to Emi.
Emi stepped away from those guys. Jun saw that his friends were making Emi anxious, her red face become redder. Jun followed Emi every step that Emi tried to move away from him.
“Okay, this is Emi Masaru, I have just known her.” Jun told his friends, nodded his head to Emi.
“It’s okay, they’re my friend and not harmful.” Jun whispered.
Emi nodded anxiously.
Two fat boys looked at Emi and smiled. One of them stepped to the front of Emi.
“Hi, Emi. I am Fumio Kaneshiro.” he introduced himself. Another boy saw his friend introducing himself to Emi, he couldn’t accept this. Then he pulled his friend back.
“It’s my turn, bastard!!!” He told Fumio.
He walked to Emi and louted.
“My name is Rossi Tanaka.” He told Emi.
“Rossi!!! Are you mixed?” Emi doubted with his name. It’s not Japanese but it sounds like Italian or some kind of European name.
“I know that you doubted with my name. It’s not a Japanese one and my family is Japanese. But it’s very hard to explain how it come my father got this name for me.” He explained.
Emi smiled and nodded as a matter of courtesy.
“However, it’s very nice to meet you” Rossi stretched out his hand to shake hands with Emi. Emi smiled again and shook hands with him.
“Me too… Rossi and …..” Emi replied but she forgot one of Jun’s friend’s name.
“Fumio…” Fumio told his name to Emi with a sad face.
Emi saw that Fumio seemed to be sad that she forgot his name. She tried to walked closer to him.
“I am sorry Fumio, I didn’t mean to make you sad.” Emi said and stepped out again.
Fumio looked better after he heard Emi sincerely said sorry to him. He smiled at Emi.
“Why do you have stay away from us? Do we look so scary?” Rossi asked Emi doubtfully.
Emi became silent for a while, she didn’t really know how to reply him this question.
“I don’t know, maybe I am shy.” Emi said gently.
“Shy?” Rossi doubted and tilted his brow.

Jun seemed to realize that Emi wasn’t a normal girl as he thought at first. She seemed to never really have a boyfriend. Some questions she couldn’t answer, just like he asked her about a boyfriend. She looked nervous immediately after hearing the question.

There was a group of boys coming from the garden. They seemed to just skipped the class. All of them walked to the center of the football field, looking for somebodies to play with them. They are the opponent team of Rossi’s.
“There they are. Looks like it’s time to deal them out.” Rossi muttered
“We are going to play soccer, join us after you finish talking with Emi, Okay?” He told Jun and poked Fumio to go. Both of them ran away to the soccer field and played with their opponents.

Emi’s cell phone was ringing inside her bag. She took it out and open the clamshell up to see who was calling. It was Saeko. Emi felt a bit astonished because it was just 2 P.M. and the afternoon class wasn’t finished yet. Emi answered the call immediately.
“Hello…” Emi answered. Then she stood silent for a while listening to Saeko with a shocked face.

Kushov fired Saeko from the classroom as a punishment. She was late for half an hour and Kushov never accepted student who came late since the first class. That was what Emi already knew to happen since Saeko was going to leave her and went to the class, but it was too late to tell her.

“I am here at the football field, you come here, okay? And we will talk about this” Emi asked Saeko to come to the football field.
Then she ended the call and put her cellphone back into her bag.

“Is your friend having a problem with Kushov?” Jun asked Emi with the voice like he got used with it.
“ Yes, seem to be a very big problem.” Emi replied worriedly.

“That’s why we hate communist. I am the one who got F from his subject last semester.” Jun explained.

A few minutes passed, Emi saw Saeko was running cried to her. She immediately ran to Saeko and soothed hugging her. Saeko seemed to be crying unstoppably.

“Come on, don’t cry….. tell me what Kushov has done to you.” Emi soothed and asked what happened.
“I am not allowed to attend his class anymore.” Saeko replied crying.
“That’s just his treat, don’t worry, I think he must forgive you next time you attend the class…..” Emi tried to make Saeko calm. Saeko shove her face on her shoulder.

“DON”T!!!” Jun shouted seriously and walked to Emi and Saeko. “I mean you’d better restraint your mind if you don’t want to fall on an evil day” Jun explained to Saeko.

Saeko raised her face. After she just saw the boy’s face, her heart began beating fast. She stopped crying and stared at his face fascinatedly.

“Saeko” Emi tried to call her. Saeko didn’t answer.
“Saeko!!!” Emi called her again, she still didn’t answer. Emi saw that just calling Saeko didn’t work, and then she shook her body for sometimes. It worked, Saeko responded, but she seemed to be moody.

“Why the hell are you shaking me! Emi…..” She scolded Emi, took her handkerchief and wipe the tears away from her face. Then she turned it back to Jun and continued staring.

“Why do you have to scold me? I saw that you seemed to be shocked from the situation and got out of your mind.” Emi told Saeko. She saw that her friend was looking at Jun all the time

“This is Jun Ichiro, my new friend.” She introduced Jun.

“And Jun, this is my best friend, Saeko…..”
“Yoshida, Saeko Yoshida.” Saeko interrupted Emi while she was trying to introduce her to Jun. She smiled with enchanted eyes at Jun.

Emi looked at Saeko’s face astonishingly. Saeko never introduced herself to anyone no matter male or female, but she did it with Jun. Moreover, she just confronted with the worst circumstance in her life, she was just fired by Kushov. An arrogant girl who never thought being lost couldn’t accept this for sure. But she acted like nothing happened just now. Emi spent many minutes trying to make her stop crying, but she stopped it after seeing Jun’s face only for seconds. Emi knew that Saeko had already fallen in love with Jun and he seemed to know what Saeko felt with him.

Jun walked to Saeko and shook hand with her as a matter of courtesy, but touching a handsome boy like Jun’s hand made Saeko felt more impressive.
“It’s nice to meet you, Saeko.” He said.
“It’s really nice to meet you too” Saeko replied, she hadn’t stopped smiling since just now.

Suddenly the main buzzer rang, the school ended, it was time to go home. Emi poked Saeko.
“Hey, that’s enough. The school already ended, we’d better go home” She told Saeko at least to stop her from the overacting.

Saeko turned her face to Emi and nodded moodily. “I know, I know. Give me a minute…..” she hissed. Then she turned her face back to Jun.
“Jun, I have to go home now, I hope to see you again…..” She told Jun abashedly and her face was still in red.
“Okay, hope to see both of you again.” Jun tried to avoid any word making Saeko think that he took an interest at her.

“Let’s go” Emi told Saeko and turned her face to Jun “See you around, Jun” then she walked away with Saeko who was still staring at Jun.
Jun stood still for a while looking the girls walking away. He seemed not to know what to do. He didn’t actually want Emi to go home and only Emi.
“Wait, Emi!” He shouted. Then ran across the football field to Emi and Saeko. Emi was very scared.

“What? Jun, you made me scared” Emi hissed.
“I’m sorry. May I……” He tried to say something.
Emi was confused why Jun called her. “What do you want? Jun.” Emi asked.
“I just want to…..” Jun seemed to be speechless for some words.
“To?” Emi asked again, this time she stared at Jun’s eyes.
“I just want to have your phone number, can I have it?” Jun finally asked the question he had been trying to ask Emi.
Emi sighed deeply, and looked at his face.
“I want to, but I can’t” she whispered. Emi turned back and saw that Saeko acted like Jun was going to ask for her phone number like she did with her, but she didn’t know that Jun would never.
“Why? I won’t call you so often.” Jun tried to ask Emi.
“I can’t really give you, I’m sorry.” Emi repeated.

“But you can have my phone number, Jun” Saeko interrupted the conversation.
Jun seemed to be shocked for a while because he didn’t know how to react with Saeko in the situation like this because he did never wanted Saeko’s phone number. He forced to smile.
“Okay, let me add your phone number to my contact.” He told Saeko and took his cellphone out from the pocket.
“You use a BB” Saeko giggled mirthfully after seeing Jun’s Blackberry and took her Blackberry out from her bag and showed it to Jun. It was the newest model of Blackberry smartphone called Bold Hypertouch 9990 and not available in Japan yet.
“I also use it” She said.
“It looks good” Jun admired Saeko’s Blackberry. “Here is my pin.” He opened the profile page to show Saeko his Blackberry pin.
Saeko hastily pressed on the small keyboard with an excitement. She was going to talk with Jun in the BB messenger.
“Actually, you can contact me through Saeko.” Emi used the situation to excuse with Jun.
“I still want your phone number, Emi” Jun asked again.

This time Emi started to feel moody. “I cannot give you my phone number! My father wants no boy to contact me. And please don’t ask anymore.” she explained firmly.
Saeko started to feel strange with Jun’s action to Emi. “You act like you are flirting Emi.” She teased Jun but it was just a joke. She had already thought that Jun felt the same way with her.
“Ye….”
“No! He wants mine because I’m your friend” Emi interrupted before Jun said anything. “And you know I can’t really give, right?” She asked Seko.
Saeko held Emi’s hand. “I understand, you don’t have to” she told Emi. She turned her face to Jun. “Don’t worry, you can contact me anytime, I will pick your call up” She told.
“But I…..” Jun tried to say something but he didn’t finish it because Emi knitted her brows as a sign that “DON’T” to him.

Jun looked at Emi crestfallenly. “Okay, but I will contact you through Saeko however” he did his utmost.
“Okay, see you around, Jun.” Emi said goodbye. “Let’s go Saeko.” She held Saeko’s hand and walked away from Jun.

Jun got extremely pissed off with this; all he wanted from Emi was just a phone number. But he couldn’t understand why Emi didn’t give him a phone number. Moreover, she tried to make Saeko understand that he liked her. He angrily kicked the ground which was full of the dust till it spread around himself.

“What the fuck was wrong with you! Jun” Rossi stopped playing football and asked Jun after seeing him kicking the ground.
Jun turned his face to him and raised his middle finger up. “FUCK OFF!!!” He scolded Rossi loudly and his voice resounded in the football field till everyone stopped his activities and looked at him.
Rossi stared Fumio in the face confusingly. “Is he in rut?” Fumio muttered.

Jun didn’t seem to stop it. His clear face was now full of the dust.
“Stop it!!!” Fumio ran to him and tried to stop him but it didn’t work. He locked Jun’s arms but he seemed to be crazy and tried to flick his hands off. Then Rossi walked to him and slapped severely on his head. The sound of slapping resounded to another corner of the football field. This time he got stunned and stopped kicking the ground, stopped everything.
“Are you crazy? What the hell are you doing?” He scolded Jun moodily.
Jun looked around groggily. His eyes stared on the ground and his body was extremely loose. Fumio hold him tight.
“Take him to the seat.” Rossi told Fumio, pointed at the grandstand on the side of the football field and ran to the coffee shop nearby.

Fumio took him to the stand hardly because he seemed to spend all of his energy with kicking the dust on the ground. Fumio put him down on the seat. His heart was beating severely. Panted all the time.
“What the fuck made you like this? You seemed to look so happy just now” Fumio asked worriedly and looked at Jun face. Jun took Fumio’s hand off his shoulder.
“Just a fucking number” he muttered, looking at his cellphone which showed Saeko’s number.
“What number?” Fumio doubted. He took Jun’s cellphone from his hand.
“This is Emi’s phone number, you’ve already got it. Why do you have to be so moody?” He asked Jun and scratched his head confusingly.
“It’s not….” Jun whispered. “It’s Saeko’s” He looked at Fumio face and compressed his lip.
“Saeko? You mean the girl with the red hair who is Emi’s friend.” Fumio asked.
“Yep…” Jun whispered.
“She is also beautiful, isn’t she?” Fumio asked. “I think she’s as beautiful as your Emi.” He smiled.
Jun sighed and took his cellphone back.
“They’re difference, Fumio. They’re completely different” Jun told Fumio. “I really like the way Emi is, I can feel it since I first saw her just now, only a few minutes. But for Saeko, she is also beautiful as you said, but I don’t like the way she acted with me. I don’t know why, I think it’s too much.” He explained.
“But I think Emi also likes you” Fumio said.
“I know she does like me, I can feel it, but the problem is she seemed to know that her friend liked me too” Jun told Fumio and lowed his head.
“You think this is the reason she didn’t give you the phone number?” Fumio asked.
“Yep” Jun facepalmed.

Rossi was running carrying two glasses of coffee. He gave one to Fumio and another one to Jun.
“Drink….. It may calm you down.” Rossi said looking at Jun’s face that is full of the sweat. He sat down beside Jun and held his neck.
“Now tell me what happened?” he asked Jun with worried voice.
Jun sighed again and raised his head. He looked very sad. “Ask Fumio.” He told Rossi.
Then Rossi craned his head over Jun and looked at Fumio. “Looks like you have to tell me.” He told Fumio.
“Let me arrange the story first.” Fumio thought for a while. “Okay, the story is Jun likes Emi and Emi seemed to like him too, but Saeko, Emi’s best friend also likes Jun. To avoid the love triangle, she chose not to give Jun her phone number.” He explained.
“And she let me ask for Saeko’s phone number that I don’t want.” Jun explicated.
After Rossi heard this, he sighed deeply. Held Jun’s neck tightly.
“I understand you, and I also understand Emi. But in the situation like this, Emi seems to be the poorest. You know, she has to act like she didn’t feel anything that way with you because her friend likes you. It doesn’t make any sense to be moody, if Emi knew, she must be worried” Rossi explained.
“And what about me?” Jun moodily asked. “I can’t do anything either, you see. I couldn’t even tell her that I like her though she had already known that I did.” Jun disputed.
Rossi stood up. “One day you will find the best solution for this by yourself, trust me.” He told Jun and got down from the stand. “Would you join playing football with me, I have goals to make” he bragged.
“Let me do it first, bastard!” Fumio interrupted and ran down from the stand.
Jun was looking and smiling at Fumio and Rossi challenging each other. Both of them saw him.
“What the hell are you waiting for? Come down here and join us. We are going to kick their asses, you don’t wanna be chicken, do you?” Rossi defied Jun and ran to the football field that anther football team is waiting for them. This team is full of the students who recently completed their last classes of the day. They thirst for the goal and are ready to defeat every team.
“Looks like I cannot deny!!!” Jun tried to forget everything about Emi and followed Rossi and Fumio to the football field.

On Winters Avenue, the busiest place in California Island, it was the heart of this small island business. Emi and Saeko were walking on their way back home. They always stop at Satellite Ice-Cream every day to buy a cup of strawberry flavored ice-cream that was very popular in the island. The only problem for this ice-cream shop was they had only 2 employers and the shop was extremely small, it was not enough to welcome 150 customers at once. This resulted in long line of customers waiting for the ice-cream from inside to the footpath every day. Fortunately, this winter was not as cold as the last; the temperature was around 9-10 degree Celsius. Emi and Saeko could comfortably stand in a long line waiting to buy their favorite ice-cream. After waiting for 20 minutes, they reached the ice-cream freezer. The strawberry flavor was finished. This made Emi and Saeko moody. However, they had their second choice. The coffee flavor was also as popular as the strawberry one, but Emi and Saeko preferred strawberry to coffee. They finally walked out of the Satellite Ice-Cream with a cup of coffee flavored ice-cream for each one.

They walked through the busiest part of the island that was full of the toxic fumes to the Springfield junction where they had to separate. Emi held Saeko’s hand.
“I think Jun is a good man.” She said and smiled.
Saeko smiled back and held another side of Emi’s hand. “You know how I feel with him, right?” She asked Emi.
“Of course I do” Emi nodded.
“It’s love at first sight, you know?” Saeko told Emi happily. “I hope he feels in the same way with me…..” She imagined with hope.
“Your hope will be fulfilled, I believe so” Emi encouraged and held Saeko’s hand tightly.
“Thank you, Emi. You always walk beside me” Saeko was so cheerful and hugged Emi.

Before they separated, Emi held Saeko’s hand again. “Take care of yourself.” Emi told her.
“Okay, I’ll do my best.” She smiled “See you tomorrow” said goodbye to Emi.
“See you…” Emi replied with a weak voice and separated from Saeko.

After separation from Saeko shortly, she turned back and saw Saeko walking swinging her arms happily as a girl who just fell in love.  Emi looked at her and smiled. Actually, it was a bitter smile. She tried to avoid the love triangle and fulfilled her best friend’s hope with her regrets. She was sure that she had already fallen in love with Jun and this man was the first man that she could accept with herself that she liked him. Moreover, she knew well that Jun also liked her. But for friendship, Emi chose to make Jun down, chose to confront with regrets. Saeko didn’t even know that Jun liked her and she didn’t know that what she dreamt would never come true. Emi promised with herself that she would try anyway to make Jun loves Saeko no matter how hard it would be. It’s her final best decision that she made in seconds by her heart. She chose her best friend.

While Emi was walking through Arizona Park, the biggest public park in the island. The snow fell unexpectedly. Emi walked into the park and sat on the bench which is surrounded by the pine trees. There seemed to be no one in the park. Emi watched pine trees slowly changing the color from green to white by the snow and the tears began trickling from her eyes. She realized that it was true that this winter was not as cold as the last because it is much colder by quietness and sadness.