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The day started as uneventful as most others. The only fun thing that happened was that Keita had managed to discretely steal Shuya’s chocolate bar at lunch, then spent ten minutes convincing him he had never bought one in the first place. This caused Shuya to eventually resign and go buy a new one.
“That’s pretty evil,” Yutaka laughed as Keita took a bite out of the chocolate, smiling proudly.
“Nah. Is it less evil if I share?” Keita asked in return, offering a piece to Yutaka, who did not need to think long before accepting.
The moment was so small and irrelevant though, Keita felt certain this would be one of those routine days that you just forget about once they have passed.
Boy, was he wrong.
It happened after school; the basketball team were having a friendly trial game against the Sakaide Junior High team. Since Shinji was playing, it was a given Yutaka and Keita stayed behind to watch, despite the game not being a serious one.
When Yutaka had suggested to Shinji that he would wait for him, the boy had given him a short smile.
“Appreciate having my own personal, sexy cheerleader, little man,” Shinji had joked with a playful wink.
Keita cleared his throat, wanting to get in on this best friend-action.
“Yeah, and I’ll cheer for you too, man! Like a lucky charm!” he added, pointing to himself with his thumb.
Shinji looked less impressed by this, but Keita took no notice. Not even when Shinji told him Don’t worry, it’s fine, you can go home, did Keita feel deterred at all.
Just two besties watching their other bestie play some ball. Like he would miss that!
It was during the second part of the match when it happened. Keita had no real clue about any rules or names of different positions in basketball, so he was not sure what happened. He was munching away on his second chocolate bar of the day, when Shinji, after performing some trick that looked totally awesome, was suddenly tripped by a guy from the opposing team. Something about the speed of their movements and the angles, turned out to be the perfect receipt for disaster. Keita felt like he saw it happen in slow motion, when Shinji fell backwards, and his head slammed against the floor.
“Shinji!” Yutaka cried out next to him, already running onto the court, where everyone was gathering around Shinji.
Keita tried to call out his name too, but his mouth was too full of chocolate, and the only noise he managed to make was inaudible mumbling. He finished chewing and swallowing the food in his mouth, not wanting to risk swallowing it wrong while running, before he followed Yutaka onto the court.
Yutaka was visibly panicking, as Shinji still laid unconscious.
“Okay! No one move him! Where’s the nurse? I’ll get the nurse! And ice! And water? Do we have water?!” Hoovering over Shinji, Yutaka looked up as Keita joined his side.
“Keita! Stay with him! Don’t let him stop breathing!” the smaller boy yelled, shaking Keita’s shoulders desperately, before running off to get some help.
“Eeeh,” Keita responded, unsure how to tackle this. He knelt next to Shinji, who luckily was still breathing. Lifting his chocolate bar up under his nose, Keita hoped the smell might tempt Shinji to wake up.
“Shinji, smell that? It’s Meiji! Your fav, dude!”
Unsurprisingly, it did not work. Looking around on Shinji’s teammates, who were all mostly just scratching their heads and whispering in panic, Keita bit his lips.
“Should I give him mouth to mouth or something?!” he asked, beginning to feel slightly desperate himself. He did not like how long this was taking.
One of guy’s on Shinji’s team frowned in response. “What, why? He’s breathing…!”
Keita ignored this, preparing himself as he leaned his lips closer to Shinji’s.
“If this is what it takes… I’ll do it, man… For you, Shinji… -“
“- Man, I just told this guy he doesn’t have to –“
“- I’LL DO IT, MAN!” Keita cried out with determination, his lips now inches away from the unconscious boy.
That’s when Shinji opened his eyes.
“What… What the hell is going on?!” he exclaimed, wincing as he pushed Keita away from him. “Are you assaulting me?”
“Shinji!” Keita let out a sigh of relief, too excited to see Shinji alive and well to have time to be disappointed about just missing out on his first kiss. And it would have been with the Third Man too… All the girls would have been so jealous.
“Man, are you okay? You got totally knocked out!” Keita continued, his eyes wide as he looked Shinji up and down.
Shinji propped himself up on his elbows, before moving one hand to the back of his head, wincing again as he rubbed it too firm.
“Damn. Yeah, I’m good, I think,” he mumbled, looking around with a confused expression. “Were we… playing basketball?”
An easy guess judging by the court and his teammates uniforms and… The basketball one of them were holding. Keita nodded in confirmation.
“Yeah, you don’t remember?” he asked. He was not too worried still; he often forgot where he was and what he was doing too. The amount of times he had fallen asleep on the toilet, or been in the middle of opening the fridge before remembering he was actually going to get a book, or…
Shinji shook his head.
“Nah, it’s a little fuzzy,” he admitted. Pausing, he studied Keita for a moment. “And… No offence, but who are you?”
Keita was stunned. Shinji could not remember him. Him! What about all their great memories? The food fights where Keita threw spaghetti on him from behind before running away and hiding for hours. The sleepovers where they had played Truth or Dare and Shinji had dared him to go home. The iconic visit to the Alpaca Farm, where -
“Shinji. I’m your best friend. Keita!” he finally said, clutching his chest dramatically. He could not believe Shinji would have forgotten all of this.
One of the teammates mumbled something about how they should probably take Shinji to a hospital, but both Keita and Shinji ignored this voice of reason.
“You’re my best friend?” Shinji asked, pointing to Keita with a slightly doubtful expression. Keita nodded eagerly, taking Shinji’s hands in his.
“Yeah. Yeah, man. For all of Junior High! Come on, you gotta remember…”
Looking down at their joined hands, a small smile finally crept onto Shinji’s face.
“You’re my best friend,” Shinji repeated, this time his tone a little warmer. “Yeah. Of course I remember, Keita.”
A loud thud next to them alerted them that Yutaka, and the nurse, had come back. He had dropped the icepack in surprise when witnessing the scene in front of him, his mouth hanging open.
“Oh, and that’s Yutaka. He’s another good friend too, I guess,” Keita said dismissively, looking into Shinji’s eyes as he patted his hand.
Now, I gotta remind Shinji about all the things he love about me…
“So… Mimura can’t remember anything?” Yoshitoki whispered again. He had asked the same question at least ten times now, but still seemed to not fully grasp that it was true. He was seated with Yutaka, Shuya and Hiroki, relaxing outside on the benches for their lunch period.
“Well, he remembers most things, Nobu,” Yutaka explained again, picking on his food, not really feeling like eating anything. “Like he knows who we are, he knows our school and teachers and subjects and –“
“- So the only thing he doesn’t remember, is that Iijima isn’t actually his best friend?” Hiroki squinted thoughtfully. The boys all through an automatic glance in the direction of Shinji and Keita; Keita had arranged a little BFF Picnic (his words) and laid a blanket out for him and Shinji under a nearby tree. They were currently eating on cold pizza leftovers from Keita’s dinner the previous night.
“Yep. Looks like it,” Yutaka confirmed casually, though having quickly looked away from the scene. “That’s fine. It’s pass, right?”
“Either it passes, or Shinji will start questioning his taste in friends when Iijima drags him to that naked pottery class he’s been talking about for a year,” Shuya laughed, patting Yutaka’s shoulder. “Either way, you’ll get him back, for sure!”
Yutaka could not hold back a laugh at Shuya’s comment. “I guess. Dude, now I kinda just want to let this play out and see what happens.”
“That might be for the best,” Shuya agreed with a nod. “And what’s important is that Shinji is fine, with no permanent injury and stuff, right?”
“Well, for now…” Yoshitoki said ominously, nodding back to the picnic date by the tree, where Keita had now taken his shoe off and was using it to swap away mosquitos who had targeted Shinji; the shoe instead hitting Shinji himself repeatedly. Shinji did not seem to mind, instead laughing cheerfully and complimenting Keita for his good aim.
“This is going to bed a strange few days,” Hiroki remarked quietly, shaking his head.
After school had ended that Friday, Keita had already prepared a fun day out with Shinji. Firstly, he wanted to bring him to the arcade. They had not been in a while, as Shinji had been to busy every time Keita asked him along, but now it seemed like his schedule was cleared up a lot.
After a hard game of Street Fighter, won by Keita (“Wow, are you better than me at everything, man?” Shinji had asked him with a laugh, causing Keita to almost choke on his drink), they were walking through Tamamo Park, enjoying a couple of slushies. It worked out perfectly for Keita, who had told Shinji that he had been the one who paid for their slushies last time, so now it was Shinji’s turn. Shinji could naturally not remember that detail but accepted it. He trusted Keita, after all.
Keita was slurping down the last remains of his slushie, when his eyes suddenly grew wide. He had spotted something that he had always wanted to try out, but all his friends made fun of him for.
“Shinji. Shinji!” he exclaimed, tugging on the other boy’s t-shirt to get his full attention. “Look at that! Doesn’t that look totally awesome? We always said we wanted to do this, man… Should we just go for it?!”
Shinji squinted, wondering if he was looking at the same thing Keita did. There was a small lake in the park, and for the steep price of ¥5000 you could rent a Swan boat for one hour to paddle around in it.
“We’ve… Always wanted to try that?” Shinji asked, sounding sceptical for the first time so far.
Keita nodded eagerly. “Yeah! You know how you always call me your… little swan? Well, because of that, we always said we should do this one day!” he lied. In reality, he had just seen it in a movie or something, and always wanted to see if it was as romantic as it looked there. Even if it was with Shinji.
Shinji probably did feel like this made no sense, but slowly nodded.
“Do they take card?” he asked, pulling out his wallet whilst Keita cheered loudly.
Keita and Shinji made their way to the docking area, unaware of the small rustling from the nearby bushes. Once they felt the coast was clear, three heads popped out of them, all facing the lake.
“They’re not doing the Swan thing? Tell me they’re not!” Yoshitoki commented in a stunned whisper. Yutaka was next to him, holding a couple of binoculars; rather unnecessary considering the distance was hardly enough for them to need them, but they had agreed they needed to go all out on this spy mission.
“Guess Keita finally got his way. He’s been obsessed with them ever since he saw that movie with the talking bear…” Yutaka mused, not taking his eyes off the scene as Keita and Shinji entered their hired boat.
“We really should have insisted Shinji went to the hospital, huh?” Shuya sighed. The three of them had agreed to keep an eye on the odd pair out of a mix of concern and amusement. Hiroki had all but begged them not to call him to come along, so he was safe.
“We should have worn disguises! And gotten in a boat to follow them. Like, glasses and a moustache. Nobu could have been a girl. We’d dim the lights, maybe there could be some potential there…” Yutaka was thinking out loud, earning him a nudge from Yoshitoki.
“Hey, cut it out. Do you imagine me as a girl a lot?” he joked, to which Yutaka hummed and shrugged.
“Define a lot…”
“Guys! They’re paddling away from us. We need to go around so we can see them from face-on,” Shuya interrupted, tapping both their shoulders lightly. “Let’s hurry!”
In boat, Shinji was doing most of the paddling, while Keita lazily did a few steps on the the pedals, mainly hanging over the side of the boat and letting his hands run through the water.
It’s just how I imagined it, he thought dreamingly, closing his eyes to enjoy the feeling of the warm sun and the cold water.
“Hey. Can I ask you something?” Shinji broke the silence, looking like he had been deep in thought too. “How did we become best friends? Because I remember… I’ve known Yutaka since primary school, and we were always real close. So when did I meet you? Junior High?”
Keita sat back up, nodding. “Yeah! We’ve been in the same class since 7th grade. I dunno, man, guess we just clicked. Like we have so much in common! Like…”
Pausing, he tried to think of something else he had always wanted to get Shinji to do with him.
“Like… We both love Dungeons and Dragons,” he said, his eyes shining. Shinji raised an eyebrow.
“Sounds a bit… Geeky?”
“Hey, you read computer books for fun, you are a big geek!” Keita responded defensively. Maybe getting Shinji into his games were a lost cause, though. “And we always have pizza nights. Hawaiian pizza!”
“I’m allergic to pineapple,” Shinji said, frowning deeper now.
“Yeah, well, we take those off anyway. It’s fine!” Keita waved a hand in front of his face dismissively. “And yeah, we… We go to the hot springs together! Yep, every Saturday. So, hey, that’s tomorrow, right?”
“That sounds sort of… Gay?” Shinji blinked, unconvinced.
“Well, that’s our style! Come on, we’ll go, and you’ll remember why you love it. I sweeaaar!” Keita insisted. The hot springs was something else he had always seen in movies and animes, and begged his friends to join in on.
Shinji finally gave a small nod, resigning to the idea.
“I guess if that’s what we usually do…” he agreed, rubbing a hand thoughtfully on his chin as Keita exclaimed a celebratory “Yeees!”.
He got up on his seat, wanting to show off his cool, victory dance moves. Flailing his arms and legs around, Keita was watching Shinji too intensely to judge his reaction to his sweet moves and failed to notice how much the boat was shaking. Shinji however did, and had stopped paddling, now just holding onto the metal bars on the inside of the boat.
“Maybe you should sit down. I’m pretty sure the guy at the docks said not to –“
“- Oh yeah! Hot spring, oh yeah, sauna, oh yeah…!” Keita kept chanting loudly, doing a little twirl, which unsurprisingly ended with him slipping on the slippery floor of the boat, and falling out over the edge.
“Keita!” Shinji called out, swiftly making his way to the side of the boat which Keita was now clinging onto. “You okay?”
Keita’s cheeks had puffed up and before Shinji realized why, he spat out a stream of water he had collected in his mouth, all over Shinji’s face. Wiping his face, Shinji let out a stunned laugh too.
“Yeah, okay. Not helping you up,” he teased.
“Maybe I’ll help you down!” Keita teased back, reaching for one of Shinji’s arms in an attempt to pull him in, still holding onto the edge of the boat with his other hand.
Over at the shore, Yutaka, Shuya and Yoshitoki were watching the display in disbelief.
“I swear we’re just interrupting their date at this point,” Yoshitoki commented, a brow slightly raised. “Let’s go home and watch a movie.”
Yutaka sighed. It did look like Shinji and Keita were actually having fun, in some weird way. Well, in a Keita way, to be more precise.
“I guess you’re right… Let’s get out of here before Keita takes him to dinner and rolls a meatball over with his nose like in that Disney movie,” he agreed with a small laugh.
As they walked away, the boys just missed the moment where Shinji voluntarily jumped into the water to join Keita, and the two boys playfully splashed each other while laughing happily
Keita had fully booked Shinji in for that Saturday, telling the other boys that they unfortunately could not make it to the gaming night that evening, as they were having a Best Friends Only: Day Of Fun.
They had to take another trip into a nearby town, Sanuki this time, as the closest thing Shiroiwa had to hot springs were the communal showers in their gym building at school. It was not exactly the vibe Keita was after.
Shinji actually did look rather impressed with the place chosen.
“Huh. This looks pretty relaxing,” he had to admit, as they entered the main area. There were a few different hot springs to select from in the men’s area, and they found an empty one hidden by a couple of tall rocks. Even though they had entered a building to check-in at the reception, the hot springs themselves were in an outdoor area. Keita was a little cold, and excited to get into the warm water.
“I mean, it’d be better with a girl, but I guess guys and girls can’t share the same spring anyway, so…” Shinji continued, weighing the pros and cons with his hands. “I guess my best friend will have to do.”
That comment warmed Keita up more than the spring probably ever could, and he beamed at Shinji.
“Yeah? Even if I do… This?!” he asked, pushing the taller boy into their selected spot. Shinji was caught by surprise, but laughed as his head emerged from the water.
“Can we go one day without some water-related fall?” he asked. “I still smell like pond from yesterday.”
Keita followed him in, letting out a soft moan as the warm water made contact with his skin.
“You sound like you’re enjoying this a little too much, man,” Shinji joked, leaning back against the rocks, closing his eyes.
“Hey! I’ve waited for this for like, so long, you have no idea!” Keita argued, emerging his whole body under water, only his head poking out.
Shinji opened his eyes, giving him a puzzled look. “I thought you said we do this every weekend?” he pointed out.
Uh oh.
“Yeah, but last Saturday was… Eeeh. Nanahara’s birthday. So we had to drop it,” Keita quickly lied, not wanting to reveal this was in fact their first time ever doing this.
“Oh, okay. August 8th is Nanahara’s birthday? I’ll write that down,” Shinji nodded.
“Yeah. Sure,” Keita dismissed this quickly, having no idea when Shuya’s actual birthday was anyway. “So, you probably don’t remember…-“
“- Safe bet, yeah, -“
“- But usually when we go, you give me these awesome backrubs!” Keita figured this was a long shot, but he remained hopeful. “To make all my stress and tension and stuff go away.”
Trying to level up in online gaming competitions could be super stressful, actually. As could working towards winning the upcoming hot dog eating competition. He was worried if he slacked now, Yuka Nakagawa was sure to beat him.
“You’re lying,” Shinji deadpanned, but not looking too certain.
“Like I’d ever lie to you!” Keita lied, slowly making his way over to Shinji’s side of the spring. “And if you want, I’ll give you one in return. I’m not like, selfish or anything!”
Shinji clicked his tongue. “Okay… I guess. I don’t know if I’m even good at this, but if you say I am…”
“Come on, man. What are you not good at?” Keita quickly retorted. The compliment was more than enough to convince Shinji, and Keita could hear him laugh softly.
“Good point. Okay, let’s try this.”
Keita closed his eyes as he felt firm hands begin to rub his shoulders. Yeah, it was even better than he imagined.
“Man. I need to ask something again,” Shinji warned him, his hands moving down his shoulder blades. “Is our friendship… Sort of weird?”
Now it was Keita’s turn to laugh. “Nah, dude. Our friendship is freaking perfect!”
Keita’s original plan for that Saturday afternoon had been to take Shinji back to the Alpaca Farm, where they certainly had a previously memorable experience. However, the man at the reception immediately recognized Keita, and told them a less than nice way to Get the hell out.
“He was kinda rude,” Shinji pointed out, as they walked the twenty minutes to what had been Keita’s backup location.
“I mean, yeah,” Keita sighed. “He wasn’t too nice the last time we were here either. But… If we can’t ride Alpacas, we will riiiiide…”
He stretched the word out for a dramatic reveal, finally finishing his sentence once the sign “Takamatsu Riding School” appeared, leading up the path to another farm.
“Horses!” Keita grinned. “Yeah, sorta conventional, I know. But hey, it’s another thing we… Love to do together,” he lied.
Shinji frowned. “Are you sure? We’ve done this before?”
“Man, you keep asking me that, and yeah, I’m always sure! Who’s the one with the brain damage here?”
Shinji had questioned the same thing for the last few days, but he only gave Keita a little nod. He saw no reason why he would make this up, anyway.
“Guess we’ll give it a go. Can’t say I remember how,” Shinji said, his tone oozing of scepticism.
“It’ll be fine! It’s like riding a bike, or whatever. It’ll be fun!” Keita insisted. Although… He had forgotten how to ride a bike once. And it ended painfully. Eh, how hard could horseback riding be, anyway?
Keita regretted his decision about five minutes after getting on the horse. They had paid and gotten their equipment and everything, but he still did not feel totally safe. The horse was taller than he had expected, and the saddle was not at all comfortable. When the horse started walking around, Keita clung to its mane desperately, glancing over at Shinji to see how he was doing.
Shinji, who was more athletic by nature, seemed to have an easier time sitting upright. It did not take too long before his horse was trotting around proudly, while Keita’s had stopped even bothering to move.
“I thought you said we did this a lot,” Shinji teased him, clicking his tongue to make the horse go even after.
“Oh, yeah, I think… This horse is just scared by my… Power,” Keita mumbled, quietly beginning for the horse to never move again. At least now he was safe.
It did not take Shinji long to feel comfortable in his own, and his horse’s, abilities.
“I’m gonna do a hurdle!” he called out to Keita, who responded with a thumbs up. “I’ve done those before, right?”
“Eeeh. Yeah. Totally,” Keita agreed, still waving his thumb up in the air. “I believe in you, dude!”
He had never seen a horse jump over those things in real life, so he figured it could be fun.
It seemed like the horse was surprised by Shinji’s decision too, because for whatever reason, it did not get enough speed or momentum to prepare for the hurdle up ahead. Instead of jumping it, the horse came to an abrupt stop, causing Shinji to forcefully get thrown forwards.
Technically, Shinji did make the hurdle, Keita thought. The horse just didn’t go with him.
Still, the sight of Shinji groaning on the ground was enough to get him worried. Especially considering this was his second potential injury that week.
Taking several minutes to climb off his horse, having to slide down the side of it and do a little hop down to reach the ground, Keita finally ran over to Shinji once that hard climb was over.
“Hey, man! Are you okay? You totally flew!” he commented, kneeling down next to him in a scene a little too familiar.
Luckily, Shinji had been wearing a helmet, and this time was at least conscious.
Keita looked at him with a nervous yet expectant smile, waiting for him to say something.
“… Iijima?” Shinji asked, his eyes squinting as he tried to focus properly. “What… The hell?”
“Phew! Dude, you got me worried for a sec. I guess horseback riding isn’t one of your many talents…” Keita laughed, but quickly cut it off when he saw Shinji’s confused expression.
“What are you talking about? Look, where are we? Why am I with you? Did you drug me?” he looked around, his eyes widening slightly. “Are those horses?”
“Well, yeah. I said, we’re horseback riding,” Keita repeated, not sure why Shinji was acting so confused about it all. Until his brain cells very slowly started to work. “Hold on. Did you… Did you hit your head or something, just now?”
Taking off his helmet, Shinji rubbed the back of his head, wincing slightly at the contact.
“Yeah, maybe. Are you gonna explain any of this?” he looked around one last time, as if trying to add together the pieces to complete this puzzle. “Where’s Yutaka?”
Darn, fun’s over, Keita internally sighed, but still gave Shinji a small smile.
“It’s kinda a long story, bro… But Yutaka’s doing a gaming night at his place with the rest of the boys. If you wanna, we can just go join them?”
Shinji looked like he considered his options carefully, but eventually nodded. Keita got to his feet and reached a hand out to help the other boy up, which he accepted.
“Thanks,” Shinji said, studying him carefully. “You still got a lot to explain, man.”
Keita hummed, taking off his own helmet too as they walked towards the exit. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell you on the way.”
The couple of days he had spent as Shinji Mimura’s best friend might be over for this time. But at least they still had a lot of days as friends to come. And that would have to do.