Post
by kosherbacon » Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:22 pm
I was actually going to make his name longer, lol.
Today, we focus on Hisao Kouta and Misha Aimi. Anyone figure out what Aimi's disability is yet?
Have a character who is having trouble getting the girl plausibly? Have him protect her in a street fight. Works every time...
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Harmony and Abundance
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Aimi got up from the picnic blanket, her expression stunned and her lips quivering. With trembling hands, she opened Kouta's letter and read it to herself quietly as her eyes started to water.
“Kokou,” she asked, shaking, “is this how you really feel about me?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Do you want my answer now?”
“Please.”
Aimi dropped down to Kouta's level, looked him tenderly in the eyes and gave him a full handed slap across the face.
“FUCK NO I WON'T GO OUT WITH YOU, FREAK!”
Kouta was crushed. Aimi didn't just reject him, she insulted him. He would've been fine if she just turned him down but to call him a freak? She was supposed to be his friend. Friends don't hurt each other like that. His mind wanted to run away and cry, but his hands trembled, wanting to shake some sense into the girl. Maybe if Aimi knew how much he really cared for her...
“S-Stop it, Kouta, you're hurting me!” she yelped, his hands clutching her shoulders tightly.
“Please, Aimi, I-I love y...”
“No! Stop it! I can never love someone like you back, you retard!”
Things went silent in Kouta's head. Feeling some dark sensation pull himself away from his body, he saw his field of vision withdraw until the scene of his and Aimi's picnic looked like they were being seen through a red tinted telescope.
Aimi was still looking at him, her eyes bulging. Kouta's hands drifted up from her shoulders up to her neck. Even though he no longer had a sensation of what his body was doing, he could feel something crack in his palms just as his hands appeared to crush her windpipe.
No, it wasn't supposed to end this way. Where the hell was Kouta's happy ending? It was her fault, all her fault. Kouta returned to his body just as he was in the middle of punching Aimi's lifeless face.
Over.
And over.
And over.
And over again.
...
“Hey, Kokou! Are you still alive?”
Kouta woke up on the floor of his room in a cold sweat. Still half-believing that his dream really happened, he continued to weep for what he did to Aimi, even though she was just outside of his door, alive and well.
“Sorry to make you wait,” he apologized after getting ready and meeting her in the hall, avoiding eye contact with the girl he just brutally murdered. “I must have overslept.”
“Don't worry about it. We're actually early for your appointment.”
“Why are you doing this for me, Aimi?”
Aimi smiled and latched onto his arm as they walked to his counselor's office. If only she wasn't so nice to only him, then he wouldn't be thinking about her so much. She wouldn't be so affectionate if she knew what he was really like.
“As student body president, It's my duty to attend to the mental well-being of my classmates.”
She gave a straightforward, impersonal answer that partially put Kouta's mind at ease.
“...And you're my friend.”
Or not. He knew that what they had was friendship, but it always felt off-balance, like he couldn't bring himself to truly confide in her. Real friendships don't require people to exercise constant restraint and hold each other off at arm's length. Kouta always felt like he should be apologizing to Aimi for everything.
“Thanks for the escort.”
“No prob, I'll see you in the cafeteria around dinner time.”
Aimi dropped Kouta off at the office and he drifted onto the chair to face his therapist. As if he was in a confessional booth, he spilled his guts to the psychologist and described his nightmare in detail.
“Kouta, bro,” the “hip, young” middle aged therapist reassuringly said, “relax. Sometimes a dream is just a dream. Since your surgery, have you had any incidents like the one from before you came here?”
“No.”
“And you've been taking your medication?”
“Yeah.”
“And practicing those stress management exercises we discussed?”
“Yes.”
“And at any time since you've come to this school, have you ever been angry to the point where you'd feel like you'd lose control?”
“No.”
“Then chill out, buddy. Now tell me more about this girl from your dreams. You're interested in her, right? What's she like?”
“Yeah, I like her. Well, um, she's a bit hard for others to get along with but she's really nice to me. Weird thing is, she doesn't look like the kind of girl I'm normally attracted to. Maybe if she gained about 20 or 30 kilos, maybe more...”
“Uhuh, uhuh,” the counselor responded back, taking notes. “So why don't you ask her out already? I'm sure things will be fine. If she's really your friend, she won't tear your heart into shreds even if she rejects you. It's not like she's that girl you came in with...”
“She is.”
“Oh, my God,” the therapist worriedly jumped back in his chair. “Her?! You're infatuated with Miss Kondou?! Yeah, I'm sorry Kouta, but I don't think now is a good time to start a relationship with her. She's so... how do I say it... honestly, even I want to choke that little tramp sometimes.”
“Hey, she's one of my best friends...”
“...Sorry.”
...
After his counseling session, Kouta went to the gym to work out furiously. Even though he didn't feel like he had excess rage to deal with, he was going to see Aimi later that day and couldn't take any chances. With every repetition on the weight bench, every sparring partner thrown across the room, Kouta drained his anger reservoir until it was empty.
In the locker room, he gathered his thoughts while drying himself off after his shower. The sudden hooting and whistling from the other guys in the room kept interrupting his train of thought.
Ignoring the others, he thought about Aimi. She was meticulous about her appearance. Her makeup was always flawless, her eyebrows always neatly groomed, her teeth remarkably white and straight, and her hair always sweet smelling and bouncy. Whenever she spoke to Kouta, her voice always lost its arrogant tinge and became soft and melodic.
“Yo, Kokou!” the soft and melodic voice screeched out from behind, slapping Kouta's back and making him drop his towel.
“Aimi? What are you doing here?” He asked, trying not to bring attention to the fact that he was naked.
“Official student council business. And hey, I see you work out. You really ought to wear short sleeves more often.”
“Uh, thanks. So what kind of official business do you have here?”
“I cannot make it to dinner tonight so I'm asking you out.”
“You... what?”
“I like you, Kouta. Let's go on a date. I'll pick you up at your room tomorrow at five-thirty.”
“Well, I, uh... Aimi...”
Kouta's brain started to short circuit with excitement. His worst fears were now moot. Aimi did all the work for him. Suddenly, he wondered just how aggressive she really is...
“Ah, good, you accept,” she said, looking down.
“I-I-I did?”
“Not in so many words,” she replied, dropping Kouta's towel in front of him, where it snagged on his newly made hanger.
“See you tomorrow, loverboy.” she dismissed herself, strutting out of the locker room with Kouta's classmates cheering him on and laughing at his visible excitement.
...
“So, Kouta,” Aimi asked while lazily stirring her rice porridge, “um...”
Kouta saw his date's bored eyes and understood the problem. At the moment, they were just hanging out as friends. Aimi was trying to stir up that “date atmosphere” required to make things more than that. Unfortunately, Kouta wasn't opening up any more than he already had before.
“Hey, what kind of girls do you usually date?”
That question normally asks for trouble, but Aimi was getting desperate to pry something new out of him.
“I... I've never dated before.”
“Oh,” she frustratedly sighed, figuring out the possible source of Kouta's distance, “so you've never had a girlfriend before, huh? Have you ever asked a girl out before or have you always just waited for us to throw ourselves at you? Sorry... that sounded bad... I mean...”
“It's fine,” he solemnly said, cutting her plenty of slack considering his own boring aloofness. “There was this one time when... ah...”
Aimi considered prodding him on but dropped it after seeing how uncomfortable he was with the subject.
“What about you? How many boyfriends have you had?”
“How many, um...” Aimi started counting on one set of fingers, keeping tally of every group of five with the other hand.
“Um, I've lost count, sorry,” she laughed.
That certainly didn't comfort Kouta at all. Aimi apparently had dated several dozen guys in the past. He would have a lot to live up to if he pursues her.
“What about girls?” he asked, not expecting a serious answer.
“Well, I've been with a couple girls but never just with them. Only like in threes... why? What'd Izzy tell you?”
“Izumi?”
“Nothing.”
“So,” Aimi asked Kouta, with her eyes dodging around the restaurant, “you're a virgin, huh?”
“...Yeah. I don't suppose you are, are you?”
“Oh boy,” she wheezed, rubbing her temples. “My friend, that ship has sailed, cruised around the world a couple times, ... and sunk.”
“Hey, hey. It's okay. It doesn't bother me at all.”
“Ya sure? Cuz there's a lot of pressure involved with taking someone's virginity. Part of me feels like you deserve someone who's unspoiled for your first, you know?”
“Wait. We're going to have sex?”
“You.... don't want to? Because it's been forever since I've gotten it. Like, not since a couple months before I started school here.”
“You've only been going here five months!”
“That's a really long time...”
Despite the suddenly awkward change in conversation, Aimi managed to relax some of the tension between her and Kouta. They left the restaurant and headed back to the school, arm in arm.
“Hey, Kouta.”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry about bringing up sex and stuff. It's just that sort of thing isn't as big a deal for me anymore in a relationship, you know? If you're not ready or if you just don't want to, then I can wait.”
“Hey, it's okay. Let's just figure this out as we go along, okay?”
“Okay,” she answered uneasily. “But Kokou, what's really bothering you?”
“I... don't really want to talk about it.”
“Fine.”
Aimi worriedly looked up at Kouta. Dating or not, one of her only real friends was hurting and she wanted to help, whether he'd let her or not.
“Aimi,” he said with a deep breath, shaking himself loose from her grip, “I'm sorry. I don't think it's going to work out between us.”
“Oh. I-I... okay. Please tell me why. And don't give me no crap about not you liking me like that. Everyone knows you do.”
“I'm no good for you, Aimi. I've got a lot of bad things going on with me and I don't want you to get hurt in the process.”
“No. I reject your rejection. NOBODY turns me down.”
“I'm serious, Aimi. I can't put you through this.”
“I am serious too. I'm your friend, right? Friends help each other with these things. Now what the fuck is going on with you?”
“AAAIIIMIIII!!!” A desperate voice from across the street wailed out.
“Aw, shit. We gotta go.”
“Who's that?”
“One of my ex-boyfriends.”
Aimi and Kouta rejoined their arms and walked briskly back towards the school. Their guest was not giving up his pursuit.
“Hey! Ey! Ey! Don't ignore me, Aimi.”
“Fuck off, Masaru,” Aimi shouted, turning around to try confronting him.
“Don't be like that, babe,” the scruffy young man with the goatee pleaded. “I came all this way for you. I'll take you back home.”
“Hah! You're late. I like it here now. I have friends, a boyfriend...”
“Um, Aimi...”
“Not now, Kouta.”
“Whaat? This big 'tard?” Masaru turned to Kouta and lumbered at him mockingly, “Durr, what are we gonna do today, George? Duurrrr? Let's go, babe, I know you're not one of those people.”
Aimi grabbed her crotch and flipped off Masaru.
“I am one of 'these people.' And this 'tard is staying where she is. Go choke on a dick. Come on, Kouta, let's go.”
“Woah woah, big Charly,” Masaru threatened, grabbing Kouta by the shoulder to take a swing at him. “I ain't done with you yet.”
“Kouta! Watch out!”
Kouta could have dodged the hit. He also could have taken it right to the jaw and remained standing. And he could've retaliated and beaten Masaru to within an inch of his life. He might have even killed him.
However, he didn't. Kouta allowed himself to be felled by Masaru. With every kick to the face and stomach, Kouta struggled inside, fearing that if he even raised a single finger against his attacker, he would lose control, killing him and possibly Aimi in the process. Soberly feeling every twang of pain in his system, he was thankful that he was still in control of his faculties.
“Ha-HA! How 'bout that, Forrest! Not so tough no-OW! OW!”
From where he lay, Kouta could see Masaru get chased off by Aimi, who was stabbing at him with a switchblade in a circular motion, slicing into his forearm several times.
“DON'T YOU FUCKING EVER COME BACK YOU LITTLE FAGGOT OR ELSE I'LL GO HUNT YOU DOWN AND CUT YOUR THROAT OUT WHEN YOU SLEEP! ...Kouta! Kouta, are you okay?! Can you hear me?”
...
Back in her room, Aimi nursed Kouta's scrapes and bruises with hydrogen peroxide and ice packs. The nursing staff was busy dealing with a group overdose in the library.
“What the fuck was that, Kouta?” she asked, dabbing on antiseptic onto Kouta's lip with a cotton swab. “I've seen you work out and practice judo. You could've ripped him in half!”
“I... can't say.”
“Well what CAN you say? You're lucky I can take care of myself. Otherwise, who knows what could've happened to ME while you were knocked the fuck out? What if he was a serial killing cannibal rapist? Hmm?”
“I'm sorry, Aimi! I'm ashamed. I'm sorry to put you in that position.”
“Hey, sorry.” Aimi laughed at herself for losing her cool. “I'm the one who really is to blame, since that guy followed me here.”
She sighed at her own crude bedside manner and ducked behind a privacy screen.
“Here, let me show you something.”
Aimi emerged from behind the divider, completely nude.
“So you're ashamed of something, huh?” she confessed, avoiding eye contact with Kouta, outlining a frame around her body with her hands. “This is what I'm embarrassed of. Even all those guys I've been with before have never seen me like this. I always do it in the dark.”
“What... I don't understand? You look bea...”
“Don't give me that 'you look beautiful' bullshit. I've had literally EVERYBODY tell me that since I got out of the hospital to try making me feel better. Tell me what you think of my body.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Say the brutal, honest truth. Think of the kind of girl you spank it to every night and tell me how I measure up. I promise I won't go berserk if you give me an unpleasant answer.”
“Honestly,” Kouta quietly said while dropping his head, “you're way too skinny. I mean, you look good and all when you're clothed, like a model, but seeing you like this I'm seriously scared for you.”
“And that, friend, is probably the truth. Thank you. You might find this shocking, but this is the biggest I've been in years. I weigh a little less than forty kilos now. Last year I was down to thirty four.”
“Oh my God! Why?”
“BECAUSE I'M A FAT FUCKING PIG, THAT'S WHY!” Aimi screamed. “Or at least that's how I feel. Sometimes, when I even eat rice porridge, I could taste fat in it. I could feel grease coating my tongue, going straight to my ass, with all that food stretching my gut out. I mean really, fucking soft boiled rice?! I KNOW there's no fat in it but sometimes I swear that whoever cooked it added some in.”
“Is... this why you're at this school?”
“Yes.”
Aimi sat on the bed next to Kouta, who put his arm around her, all of her, which was terrifyingly easy to do.
“When did you start doing this to yourself?”
“I dunno, like... three or four years ago. I used to be pretty chunky and... I was okay with that. Then when I got braces, I lost a lot of weight because it hurt to eat. It sucked at first but I realized how great I looked without the baby-fat. Once the hardware came off, I decided inside to never be a big fat ball of lard again.”
“Do you make yourself throw up?”
“I did at first, but it's really bad for your teeth and throat. Well, I didn't care about those things, I just didn't want to get caught by my dentist. So I just... stopped eating so much. After a while, if I'd eat anything at all, I'd just feel so grossed out, like I ate poison that I HAD to get out of me. They say I'm getting better and that soon I'll be able to eat more real food again but... I wish I didn't have to look so gross.”
“Have you told anyone about this?”
Aimi fell out of Kouta's embrace and sprawled out onto her bed, looking eerily like an emaciated corpse.
“No. I mean, you can kind of tell by looking at me, but the only ones who really know that this IS my problem are my family, doctors, and school staff.”
“Hey, Aimi,” Kouta said as he gingerly laid himself down next to her, still in pain, “you don't have to endure this alone. Even if you don't want to talk to Izumi about this, I'm here for you.”
Aimi jabbed a spindly finger against Kouta's swollen lips to shut him up and made a whiny face.
“Yeah, funny you should mention not going at things alone, Mister 'I don't wanna talk about it I'll only hurt you waah, waaah, waaaah!'”
“Please, Aimi. Don't make me...”
“Oh for fuck's sake, Kouta. You got the most popular girl in school to get naked in front of you and admit for the first time ever to anyone that she's anorexic. Now spill it!”
Kouta squirmed uncomfortably and took several deep breaths, mentally preparing himself for when Aimi inevitably kicks him out of her room and out of her life.
“You know how I keep saying I'm afraid of hurting people? That's because I've hurt people before. I had a really bad temper. Whenever people would piss me off, I'd just... completely lose my shit and black out. I've always been pretty big and tough. Usually, by the time I snapped out of it, I'd have already beaten the shit out of whoever I was fighting with to a bloody pulp. Even if I was outnumbered, I'd usually win.”
“So? That actually sounds kinda bad-ass to me.”
“It's not. It scares me to death. If I could fight off several guys who were bigger than myself, what would keep me from straight up KILLING guys who were smaller and by themselves? I got scared of what I could do and I swore off getting into confrontations. I did pretty good at staying out of trouble but then...”
Kouta put his palms over his eyes to hide the tears and scooted away from Aimi.
“I hurt a girl, Aimi! A girl I LIKED. And she was my friend! I... I asked her out, and she turned me down... and then she called me names and I... I pushed her over and hit her. And then I kept hitting her and hitting her trying to make her shut up and take back what she said. The next thing I knew, like twelve guys were holding me down while the ambulance took her to the emergency room.”
“Kouta... hey,” Aimi reached out to try comforting him.
“I almost killed her, Aimi. I almost killed one of my FRIENDS!”
“So what happened after that?”
“I spent some time in an institution. Some doctors found a tumor in my brain that was making me more aggressive or something and they took it out. I'm supposed to be all better, plus they put me on drugs just in case. But I don't believe it's that easy. You can't just snip a bean sized piece of flesh away and suddenly fix a monster and act like nothing happened. I can never return back to my hometown after what I did and even now, I still have dreams where I just lose control and kill someone. The other night, I... I killed you, Aimi. I killed you!”
Aimi shushed Kouta and slid over to his side of the bed to give him a kiss.
“Kouta, I'm proud of you for not killing Masaru. In fact, I've never been so proud of any boy for losing a fight over me.”
“And you know what else?” she added, “I know you're not like that anymore. You've put up with the biggest bitch in the whole school for this long and you still haven't lost your head.”
“But what if something like this happens again, even if it doesn't involve you?”
“Then I'll protect you,” Aimi said, wrapping her scrawny arm around Kouta's torso. “I'll get healthy and big and strong so you won't have to fight anymore.”
“Hey, Aimi,” Kouta said, taking Aimi back in his arms when he noticed her shivering, “about what I said... about how you look. No matter what shape you're in, you're beautiful to me.”
“You know, I never fall for this 'inner beauty' crap. Until now. What kind of figure do you find attractive anyway?”
“I like big girls. The curvier the better.”
“What?”
...
“Oh, my God, this is so good,” Aimi squealed, taking a big enthusiastic bite out of her ice cream cone.
“Hey, are you sure you can eat that?”
“Probably not, but fuck it, I haven't had ice cream in over a year. It sure beats canned vomit shakes.”
“Well, slow down, okay?”
“Yes, Dad. I promise to keep it down.”
Aimi grabbed Kouta by the hand and dragged him down the street to the theater.
“Now doesn't it feel better to actually be a couple than to do this as friends?”
“Heh, yeah.”
“AAAAIMI!!!”
“Ugh, not this, again.” Aimi gestured to hand her purse and ice cream over to Kouta. “Hold my shit.”
“No,” Kouta stepped in front of her and held her back with his outstretched arm. “I have to do this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Something like this was going to happen sooner or later. I can't hide from myself forever.”
“Sup, Timmay? Ready for another one?”
Before he knew it, Masaru's wide swing at Kouta was deflected, leaving him wide open.
“Ack, Help me, Aimi!” He choked out, trapped in a headlock.
“You're on your own, buddy,” Aimi shrugged, casually licking her ice cream. “My new boyfriend is like that big green dude from the comic books. Piss him off and he kills ya.”
“Well then, fuck you, Aimi. Fuck you and your big fat jiggly stretch marked ass.”
Aimi's ice cream cone fractured in her grip. Shivers traveled up her spine and filled her eyes with rage.
“Did. You. Just. Call. Me. Fat?”
Aimi clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, struggling to remember the importance of controlling one's temper. Instead of turning the other cheek, she decided to pass the problem on to someone else.
“Eh, I guess I have put on some weight,” she sighed, feigning embarrassment. Aimi took her ice cream and mashed it into Masaru's eye, crumbling the cone and smearing the contents all over his face. “Here, finish it for me.”
“Kouta, be a dear and protect my honor, will ya? Holler if you need me to help you out.”
“Sorry, bro,” Kouta calmly said to his prisoner before letting him go to take him on face-to-face, “you heard the lady.”
...
“So, did ya kill him?” Aimi asked, rinsing her sticky hands off with bottled water while in line to buy another ice cream cone.
“Nah. I guess you're right, I'm not like that anymore. I was able to show some restraint, pull some punches, and I merely taught him a lesson instead of murdering him.”
“That's too bad. Because nobody calls me fat. Nobody.”
-End-
Aimi is about 5'2/157cm. She weighs 40kg/88.18lbs during the story and was 34kg/74.96lbs when hospitalized(!!)
Last edited by
kosherbacon on Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Don't worry, everyone will live, at least in the foreseeable future.
