Secret of The Night
Chapter 2: The Hunt

“After me, you asked him out on another date?” Incredulous, Mari stared at me with wide eyes as I told her the story of how my trip went. “He really agreed to going on a date with me?”

I didn’t tell her that he had asked me out on the date after her, because i knew from personal experience that Mari’s feelings were easily hurt and that one should tread lightly when it came to revealing news. The slightest thing could set her off, and when that happened, there was no way we were gonna go home on time.

I sighed and nodded again. It was the third time she had asked this question already. Though it was cute every time she made me say how her dream guy had agreed to going on a date with her, her eyes got all soft and she started staring at nothingness with this dopey look on her face.

“Contain yourself until tomorrow, ok, Mari? Don’t show that you’re a weirdo just yet.” I grinned at that last comment and so did she.

“Hai, hai, O-kaa-san (ok, ok, mother),” Mari laughed and flipped her long silver and gold hair over her shoulder as she stood up from her crouch. She grabbed my arm again and then turned back to the see-through cafe window and waved at Yoru, staring at us intently from his seat in Table 5. I managed a small finger wave too. He smiled back and waved at Marigold, but his intense cobalt blue stare was pinned on me. My breath caught in my throat and my palms began sweating. Just what was it about those eyes that made me melt into puddles of Vivi-scented water? I quickly put a hand on Marigold’s cashmere-sweater-clad back and led her away from the window. And that stare.

“Ohhh, I literally can’t wait until tomorrow, Vivi! It’s going to be the best day ever!” Mari sighed, lost in her own romantic world. I nodded, but my mind was clearly elsewhere.

I woke up and got to school, per usual. Mari insisted on going there as early as possible, so she left the house at 8 am to go to the cafe. Yoru said that the date was at 3 pm in the afternoon, but Mari was apparently VERY excited. I sighed when she called me at 1:14 am to get a recap of my talk with Yoru the day before. I was just about to go to sleep, but Mari’s thoughtful call woke me up.

“Mari,” I exasperatedly told her. “It’s two o’ clock in the morning.”

“I know, Vivi! Im just so excited about tomorrow! So tell me again what happened.” Mari’s chirpy and sweetly cheerful voice woke me up enough so that I could give her the details. One more time. Joy.

So after a long long talk about Yoru, she was satisfied and thanked me. I could practically hear her big goofy grin on the other end of the phone. I rolled my eyes and sighed, but I really was happy for her. It had been a while since Mari was so excited about something. I hung up, happy for my friend but now a little dejected for myself as well. I never felt so empty before. It was probably just the lack of sleep.

In school, my head was in the clouds. Not thinking about Marigold, but about Yoru. I didn’t understand why, but I couldn’t seem to concentrate on x and y problems when Yoru’s blue eyes kept floating on the edge of my vision. Those blue, blue eyes that seemed like they could pierce right through me and whatever wall I kept myself secluded in. The stare that seemed flaming hot and freezing cold at the same time.

Well, I was a little worried about Mari’s safety, like any good friend would, but the more I thought about Mari, the more I thought about who she was with, and that led to a whole string of unnecessary thoughts that eventually made me incapable of solving any kind of trigonometry.

HIS face kept showing up whenever I drifted off, as the teacher wasn’t looking. The dark black hair framed his face perfectly, directly corresponding with his whiter-that-white pallor. His high, high cheekbones. And most strikingly, those dark, reflective, mesmerizing pools of blue.

After the torturous day had ended, I went home and watched some of my favorite television shows online, as well as flicking on the TV and browsing for some reality shows. I had a brief chat with my mom, and got scolded by my dad when he found out that on today’s test, I hadn’t even scored a passing grade. Grades weren’t exactly the one thing on my mind today. I couldn’t exactly tell him that I had been daydreaming about a beautiful, blue-eyed, black-haired boy all day long, so I hung my head in shame and accepted his criticism.

When I retreated back to my room after my dad’s hour long lecture, I sighed and flipped up my MacBook. Scrolling the web and checking my status wasn’t the best thing to do, but it sure as hell cured my boredom, at least for the moment. Nope, Mari hadn’t posted anything. I sighed again, and then lay on my bed, just waiting for the minutes to tick by.

Eventually, nearing 4 pm, my phone started ringing with Mari’s customized ringtone that was the song Dangerous Woman by the artist Ariana Grande.

Something bout you........ makes me feel like a dangerous woman..... something bout, something bout, something bout you..... makes me wanna do things that I shouldn’t......

“Finally. Took her long enough.” I dragged myself off my queen-size bed and slipped on my indoor bunny shoes. Padding over to my desk, I picked up my phone and held it to my ear. “Mariiiiiii,” I whined playfully. “Why you take so long??”

“LOL, sorry, Vivi. Today was absolutely amazing.” Mari’s voice turned soft and dreamy and I immediately felt envious of her day. “I waited until 12 for him to come. He came three hours early for me! It was so sweet.”

Seeing her so happy (or hearing, whatever. Spare me the technicalities), I couldn’t bring myself to point out that she had waited for him since 8 am. I smiled and told her to go on.

“Well, then we went to see a movie. Now You See Me 2. Remember, Vivi? We both saw it together with Erica and Yvonne recently. Rhiannon had something or other to do. I already watched it, but I didn’t tell him since he seemed pretty excited. The movie theater was really dark, darker than most. We watched the 3-D version and halfway through he put his hand on mine in the middle seat. I think I melted, even thought the A.C. was on full-blast.” Mari laughed at herself and waited for me to comment before resuming her story.

“Wow, sounds awesome. Did you have fun?”

“Patience, my strange friend. The movie lasted two and something hours but it was fun. Then we went back to the cafe where we met for some post-movie drinks. Yoru stopped on the way at a street stand and bought two umbrellas. It was only drizzling, slightly, but I thought it was a sweet gesture so I accepted. Trying to overlook the fact that mine was bright pink and his was deep blue. Sexist much, huh?”

I laughed outright and mumbled an “Uh-huh. Go on.”

“So we went back to the cafe and ordered some drinks there. I got um....wait, gimme a second... i think it was a mocha latte. Pretty crappy quality, but like that was the most prominent thing on my mind.” I could practically see Mari rolling her eyes.

“What’d he get?” I wondered out loud.

“Nothing. He didn’t get anything. I asked him why and he said he didn’t like anything they had on the menu and that this was simply his place to talk, not to buy drinks. So i was like, seems legit.”

I laughed again.

“then we just talked. Not much after that.” Mari paused. “Well, I did keep staring at him for a long time when he started staring at the manager of the store. She was a really big woman, plump and red-cheeked with pigtails. He stared at her with THE eyes, HIS eyes. I guess this was a little early to start feeling jealous, so I just looked at him. I didn’t see him that well in the beginning when we met, so this was a good opportunity. And Vivi, damn is he hot.”

I giggled. “that it?”

“Yeah that’s it. It was a great day, Vivi. You should look forward to tomorrow.” I detected a small hint of jealousy in her voice but passed it off as normal. After all, I expected any girl to be jealous in Mari’s position. It was natural. Very natural.

I quickly ended the call with a brief “mmhm” and a hasty “see you tomorrow in school then.”

She ’mmhm’ed me back and hung up.

I stared up at the ceiling. Yoru’s face floated in front of me again but I quickly banished that thought. I jumped on my swivel chair, pushed over to my laptop, and lived the rest of my day like any other dreary Tuesday afternoon.

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