Today is New Year. I made a promise with some of my classmates to go to Koikana together so that we can do our New Year prayers. I didn’t really want to since that would mean that I have to wake up way early in the morning, but I guess I owe the shrine one for granting my wish. We’re to meet up at Koikana’s entrance. When I eventually got there, everyone was already there. All the girls are even wearing kimonos.

   ‘Morning and Happy New Year.’ I tell them groggily.

   ‘Good morning and Happy New Year, Bandou-kun. You look worn out. Are you sure you’ll be fine?’ Murata asks me in concern.

   ‘Don’t worry Murata. I’ll be fine.’ I assure her.

   ‘Now that everyone is here, let’s go in.’ Kazuki says to everyone here.

   ‘Yup, let’s do this. I want to get this over with so that I could get some sleep again.’ I tell him.

   ‘You’re going to get divine punishment if you don’t take this seriously.’

   ‘Or a whole year of bad luck.’ Masato adds.

   ‘I already got plenty of those, so I don’t think any more will make a difference. But don’t you worry. I’ll take this seriously enough.’

   I notice two things the moment we step inside the shrine. There’s quite a line to line up for praying in front of the wooden donation box, and there’s a really huge guy among those who are lining up.

   Even though his back is facing me, I could still tell that he’s the son of a fishmonger who opened up a shop at the shopping district. He served me once or twice when I bought seafood from there every once in a while. Despite his huge size and scary face, he’s actually quite a gentle and well-mannered fellow.

   The only problem is, those who are lining up don’t know that and got intimidated by him. Pretty much everyone waiting in line looks scared, even those who are standing quite far away from him. The one lining up directly behind him are even making sure that there’s some distance between them.

   After waiting for more than two hours, it’s finally our turn. First, we toss small changes into the donation box. We then take turns to shake the rope that leads to two huge bells. Next, we bow and clap our hands twice. After closing our eyes and pray for a few seconds, we bow one last time and leave the donation box.

   ‘What did you pray for, Bandou-kun?’ Kanae asks me.

   ‘Oh, the usual. World peace and stuff.’ I answer.

   In actuality, I was thanking the mysterious deity that granted my wish. I even tossed a 500yen into the donation box to show my sincere gratitude.

   ‘What? You didn’t pray that the relationship between you and Suzu-chan will improve this year?’ she pouts.

   ‘Kanae, this is getting old. Suzu and I are just friends, okay?’

   ‘Yea, I’m not buying it.’

   ‘Suit yourself. That’s the truth whether you like it or not.’

   ‘Is it me, or the worshippers this year have increased by a lot?’ Kato notes.

   ‘Probably because lots of people have broke up last year, and they want to find new love.’ Masato predicts.

   ‘How could you tell?’

   ‘I mean, the streets during Christmas were unusually quiet. There’s no other explanation for that, right?’

   ‘Now that you mention it…’

   Man, I really love the wish I made. Even though there’s a loophole where new couples can be born, their number hasn’t become that significant until it becomes an absolute eyesore. I don’t know the reason, and I couldn’t care less about it. As long as those pesky couples are very limited in number, I’m happy.

   Next, we go to the main building so that we could visit Suzu. Somehow, Nagano managed to drag her here. Currently, the two of them are selling charms and arrows right next to the main building of the shrine while being dressed up like shrine maidens.

   ‘Hello there everyone~. Happy New Year~.’ Suzu says to us while being half asleep when she saw us.

   ‘Wow, you look really good in that shrine maiden uniform, Suzu-chan.’ Kanae tells her.

   ‘Thanks, Ri-chan~. Would you like to wear one as well?’

   ‘Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to get divine punishment while trying to wear it for the fun of it.’

   Suzu pouts while looking disappointed. ‘Boo~. and here I thought you could relieve me for a while. I’m really getting sleepy here~.’

   ‘No slacking off, Suzu!’ Nagano chides.

   ‘I can’t help it, Aiai~. I’m really sleepy here. Like, really sleepy.’ Suzu complains.

   ‘How did you even managed to drag her here?’ I ask Nagano.

   ‘I got help from Serizawa-san.’ she replies.

   Suzu puffs up her cheeks like some kind of hamster. ‘Seriseri is such a traitor~! I can’t believe that he lied to me~!’

   ‘What exactly did he say to you?’

   ‘He woke me up in the dead of night and told me that a castle made of snack was built near here~!’

   ‘And you actually believed him?’

   ‘Come on, Takkun! That’s actually possible with modern technology, you know~?’

   ‘Sometimes, I really can’t tell whether you’re a genius or an idiot.’

   ‘More importantly, would all of you like to buy some charms?’ Nagano asks all of us with a smile commonly used by salesperson.

   We all bought some, and I got a charm for good health and studying.

   ‘The charm for health aside, do you even need one for studying, Bandou-kun?’ Nagano asks me.

   ‘These are not for me. They’re for my cousin.’ I tell her.

   ‘Oh, you have a cousin who’s taking the entrance exam this year?’

   ‘Yup, she’s applying for Jindai, and she’s coming to stay over at my place so that it’s easier for her to take the exam.’

   ‘Hold on, your cousin is a she?’

   ‘Any problem with that?’

   ‘Um, there’s plenty. A girl staying over at a place alone with a guy on puberty? That’s a crime waiting to happen!’

   ‘Look, I’m not going to assault her, okay?’

   ‘That said, I’m surprised that your grandfather actually lets her come all the way here from Niigata.’ Masato says. ‘I still remember how doting he was of her the last time we went to visit them.’

   ‘Oh trust me, he was extremely reluctant. It’s just that she was very adamant about coming here. I heard that it took her and her parents two days to convince him.’

   ‘Wow, he’s even more doting than I thought.’

   Masato shudders. ‘Just mentioning the entrance exam gives me the shivers. If I remember correctly, it’s next week, right?’

   ‘Yup. And she’ll be coming over after winter break is over.’

   A line is starting to form behind us, so we had to save the chit-chat for next time and leave the shop. I see Aki-san and Takeda from a distance, so I tell my classmates to go ahead and go back to their houses first.

   ‘Good morning Bandou-kun. Happy New Year.’ Aki-san greets me with a smile.

   ‘Happy New Year, Bandou. How’s it going?’

   Takeda on the other hand, greets me crudely. Not that I mind.

   ‘Good morning and Happy New Year, Aki-san. Takeda. There’s a lot of worshippers this year, huh?’ I note while looking at the line that doesn’t look like it’s going to decrease any time soon.

   ‘No kidding.I’ve been working here for four years, and this is the first time I’ve seen a long line like this.’ Takeda says.

   ‘If only it’s like this everyday, we won’t have to worry about this shrine.’ Aki-san says.

   ‘Is the Head Priest still not back yet?’ I ask them.

   ‘Nope. Bah, it’s better if he’s never coming back. Who knows what he’ll take so that he could gamble it off.’ Takeda tells me.

   ‘Exactly.’ Aki-san agrees. ‘Even if he comes back, we’ll just chase him away.’

   ‘All of you must hate him very much.’

   ‘Hate is a bit of an understatement.’

   ‘Well, I’m leaving now. I’ll come and visit all of you next time.’

   ‘We await your next visit.’

   ‘See ya.’

   As I’m leaving, I happen to look at the direction where people draw their fortune. I see the huge guy holding his, and he looks quite depressed. Everyone near him is giving him a wide berth, but I decide to talk to him.

   ‘Hey there.’ I call out to him.

   ‘Oh, hello. Happy New Year.’ he says to me while bowing.

   ‘Happy New Year.’ I greet him back. ‘Did you get a bad fortune, by any chance?’

   He lowers his head sadly. ‘Yes. Thankfully, my luck in exams isn’t mentioned, so I have that to feel fortunate about.’

   ‘Oh, you’re taking an entrance exam this year?’

   ‘Yes. My high school entrance exam, to be exact.’

   Ah, so he’s a middle schooler. I guess you just can’t judge someone’s age by their looks and size alone.

   ‘Where are you applying to?’

   ‘Jindai High School.’

   ‘Hey, that’s my school. Guess you’ll be my junior if everything goes well.’

   He bows at me. ‘I’ll be in your care when I’m enrolled there. Although you might not want to.’

   ‘Nonsense. Why wouldn’t I?’

   ‘Well, I look scary and all, so you might get bad rumors if you hang out with me.’

   ‘I don’t care about those kind of things at all, so you could always ask for my help.’

   He looks very touched by my offer.

   ‘Thank you.’

   ‘You’re welcome. By the way, what kind of fortune did you get to make you look so depressed?’

   ‘Well…’

   Wordlessly, he hand me the piece of paper. I take it and read it. It wrote that his luck for love will be terrible. So that’s what it is.

   ‘Tell you what, I’m kind of sleepy right now, so I’ll come find you at your shop later at ten. We can go to the park or somewhere and you can tell me all about your trouble.’

   ‘You mean it?’

   ‘Sure. It’s a senior’s duty to take care of his junior, after all.’

   I went back to my apartment to get some sleep, then head to the shopping district and look for the guy just like I promised. When I got there, he’s already waiting for me.

   ‘Alright, let’s go then.’

   ‘Yes.’

   We go to the park and find a bench to sit down. After we settled down, we start by introducing ourselves.

   ‘The name’s Bandou Takuya.’

   He bows at me respectfully.

   ‘Bandou-senpai, is it? My name is Motozawa Keizo. Nice to meet you.’

   ‘So Motozawa. What kind of love problem do you have?’ I ask him.

   He starts to look guilty all of a sudden.

   ‘Well, there’s this girl that I secretly have a crush on at my middle school.’

   ‘Uh-huh.’

   ‘And I happen to overheard that she’s applying for Jindai. That’s why I applied there too. It’s not because I actually want to study there or something, but I just want to study at the same high school my crush is studying. I’m sorry. You must be thinking that I’m not taking my future seriously.’

   ‘Not at all.’

   He looks at me in surprise. ‘You don’t?’

   ‘Why should I? Going to school is a huge waste of time and money, anyway. We had to go since it’s required by the law, that’s all.’

   ‘That’s what my pa told me. He also said that unless I want to study something really technical like medicine, he doesn’t encourage me to go to college either.’ he tells me.

   ‘Your pa is very wise. Anyway, have you ever talked to the girl?’

   He nods his head. ‘Just once. A cat was stuck at a tree in our middle school one day. She actually tried to climb the tree to rescue it. The branch they were on broke and pummeled them to the ground. Luckily, I was there to catch them both.’

   ‘And you somehow fell in love with her from just that one incident.’

   He nods again, but bashfully this time. ‘Girls always freak out and ran away the moment they saw me, but not her. After I put her down, she thanked me non-stop and offered to make me a box lunch as thanks. I respectfully declined.’

   ‘What? Why? That was your chance to get closer to her!’

   ‘I know that. But, I didn’t want bad rumors to start surrounding her if we were caught having lunch together. I’ve already got used to it, but she doesn’t deserve it. Also, I don’t really have the courage to have lunch with a girl all by myself.’

   All I could do is sigh. Well, I guess I can’t blame him for chickening out. It is pretty nerve-wrecking to have a meal with a girl that you like.

   ‘Well, you have to get used to that if you ever want to date her, since that’s how dates work. You do want to ask her out, I take it?’

   He nods firmly.

   ‘Good. Listen closely. For starters, use this winter break to do some research on good date spots and restaurants. The restaurants don’t have to be too expensive, but don’t be too cheap either. After school has opened again, muster up your courage and ask her on a date. At the end of the date, confess to her.’

   ‘I-I’ll try.’

   ‘Make sure that you do. I don’t want to put pressure on you, but she might end up getting a boyfriend if you waste your time and do nothing.’

   I pause.

   ‘Um, she’s single, right?’

   ‘As far as I know, yes.’

   ‘Alright then. Just remember one important thing if she agrees to go on a date with you. People around you might whisper some disgusting words about your look and stuff. Do your best to ignore them. As long as you don’t let their words get to you, you can make the date enjoyable for the two of you.’

   ‘I understand.’

   He suddenly has a relieved look on his face.

   ‘Thank you, senpai. I don’t have a single friend at my school, so this is the first time someone listened to my problems and even gave me all sorts of advise.’

   ‘Don’t worry about it. As I said, senpais are supposed to take care of their kouhais.’

   We exchanged contact numbers so that he can keep me up to date on his progress. A day after winter break has ended, Motozawa gave me a call at night.

   ‘She actually said yes to my invitation! I don’t believe it!’ he tells me while being out of breath.

   ‘Well, good for you. Have you done your homework?’

   ‘Yes, senpai. I’ve researched thoroughly on where to bring her on the date. I even borrowed some money from my pa to buy some trendy clothes.’

   ‘Good, good. Well, I wish you all the luck in your date.’

   ‘Senpai, I hate to intrude on you again, but is it okay if you come along and observe us somewhere close by just in case I mess things up?’

   ‘Sure, if you want me to.’

   They’re having the date on a Sunday at Shibuya. They were to met up in front of the famous dog statue at nine. Motozawa already got here at eight-thirty while wearing admittedly stylish-looking clothes. I was quietly observing him nearby while trying my best to act normal.

   Precisely at nine o’clock, the girl arrives. She’s all dressed up, and she did her hair in a really pretty way. Suddenly, I think that Motozawa has a high chance of getting the girl.

   The girl kept bowing at him as if to apologize, but Motozawa just smiles and said something to her. Whatever it was that he said, it made her stop apologizing. They then went off to their fun date.

   Their first stop is a cat café. I don’t want to go in, so I had to settle with sitting down at a bench opposite the road where the café is located and wait patiently until they come out. I should have gone in with them as Miyagawa-san and her two friends passed by me after I waited for around an hour. Miyagawa-san didn’t saw me, but her friends sure did.

   ‘Hello there. You were our instructor when we made those sweets, right?’ one of them greets me and asks.

   ‘Um, that’s right.’ I reply without looking at Miyagawa-san.

   ‘What are you doing here all by yourself?’

   ‘Well…’

   Motozawa and his crush came out just as I was trying to explain things. I nod towards those two and explain what I’m doing.

   ‘Oh, that sounds fun! Can we come along too?’

   ‘Um, I don’t mind. But don’t the three of you have anything better to do?’

   ‘Not at all. All we planned to do were walking around and do some window shopping. This is much more exciting, right girls?’

   The other two nod enthusiastically. Great, even Miyagawa-san is on board.

   ‘In that case, let us go then.’

   And so, the four of us continue to tail the two. The three of them aren’t exactly good at acting innocent, so we were kept on getting weird looks. And speaking of getting weird looks, Motozawa got plenty of those. They were even stopped by a cop at one point.

   ‘What’s wrong with that police? All they did were enjoying a cute date!’ one of Miyagawa-san’s friend whom introduced herself as Wakamura Nozomi rages while gritting her teeth.

   The other two nods in agreement while also looking quite upset. I’m kind of glad that they’re not bothered by Motozawa’s scary look at all.

   I have to say, Motozawa is doing quite a good job at escorting his crush so far. And the girl is looking like she’s having the time of her life. Things are looking good for him.

   ‘How nice. I want to have a lovey-dovey date like them too~.’ Miyakawa-san’s other friend, Noya Saori says enviously.

   ‘You’ll have to find a boy first. And we’re studying in a girls school.’ Wakamura reminds her.

   ‘I know that, okay? Seriously, you’re so lucky to have gone on a date before any of us in our class did, Riko.’

   Miyagawa-san laughs awkwardly. ‘I-I guess.’

   ‘But you rejected him in the end, right? What happened exactly?’

   ‘Well, um, I didn’t exactly see him in that light?’ Miyagawa-san answers while trying her best not to look at me.

   ‘Huh. I guess feelings are important too.’

   Oh. Kill me. Someone just kill me.

   Somehow, I managed to survive their girl talk which involves me without dying inside and continue to observe those two from far.

   This continued until evening. The two of them are somehow at a park. The girls watch gleefully as Motozawa musters up his courage and confesses to her. I’m watching too, minus the excitement. After a few seconds, the girl nods bashfully.

   Well, I guess that’s another couple born.

   After the show’s over, we quickly leave the park since it might be dangerous for the trio of girls to stay outside after the sky has become dark.

   ‘Well, we had real fun today. Thanks, Bandou-kun.’ Noya says to me gratefully.

   ‘Um, sure. Although I don’t know what’s so fun about watching two people going on a date.’

   ‘You just don’t get it! It’s fun since it might take us years to be able to experience it ourselves!’

   ‘Maybe you could invite us to observe another date next time.’

   ‘Yeah. Maybe.’

   They went back to their houses by riding on trains. I didn’t know that some rich people actually allows their daughters to go out with their friends without being accompanied by their bodyguards, or at least hire a driver to drive them around.

   On the same night, Motozawa calls me once again. And he couldn’t stop bawling.

   ‘THANK YOU SENPAI! THANK YOOOOOOU!’ he shouts at the phone while crying happily.

   ‘Yes, yes. I know you’re grateful, but you should really tone down before-’

   ‘PIPE DOWN, KEIZO! YOU’RE DISTURBING THE NEIGHBOURS!’ someone shouts on his side.

   ‘Sorry Pa!’

   ‘Well, it’s getting late, so I’m going to sleep.’ I tell him.

   ‘Same here. Again, thank you for your help, senpai.’

   ‘Don’t mention it.’

   After I hang up, I felt slight envious towards Motozawa. Him and all the clients we’ve helped so far. Helping people out can be so torturing sometimes.