Start of a dispute 4 fold (Part-1)

My life has always been fulfilling. I lived my life the way I always wanted. Always staying on as myself, always getting the best for me, I couldn't ask for more.

But my parents would always nag me about my life. Like at the morning my mother would say, "Hey Akihiko. Can't you get a girlfriend? Will I never see the faces of my grandchildren?"

I purposely ignore her and get on with my daily morning routine. Then my father bursts in, "Akihiko. We need grandchildren."

I also ignore him. But my parents would not stop.

My mother would continue, "Ah, dear. Why is it that my child doesn't want anyone? What sole purpose we are staying here right now? We should just get a train to Kyoto or somewhere and leave him here."

"Yeah yeah. You can go," I agreed with her. "You two might need a break."

"But darling we can't. We need to stay here for our grandchildren."

My head didn't feel right hearing those words from him. "You can stay. And don't worry, you might see your grandchildren in the upcoming years. Though not now. I'm still in high school."

"But son. This is the pinnacle of life. This is where you find your one. We need to see her face at least. The one who would take our son." they synced pretty well.

"Amm but no. I would choose my one when I want. Then you can see her."

My morning usually goes like this. My parents nagging me when I get ready. It made me happy and ease up from the morning.

But at the present, things were unusual. My parents didn't nag me or anything. They would just look at me and greet me over and over again. It felt kind of uncanny. I didn't pay much attention overall. Something might have happened between them. If it would've concerned me I would've been informed by now. So, it wasn't that much of deal.

I put on my clothes and get wrapped up for school. I took my breakfast and went to the front door. I was putting on my shoes when my parents came to me at the front door, grinning, which sent shivers within me.

I smiled awkwardly at them, "I..I'm leaving."

"See you soon, our dear son." they said syncing together, which was a bad sign.

I ran away from them as fast as I could. The grinning gave me creeps. I slowed down at the middle and started to walk towards school.

School has been always the same as it was. Full of books and boredom. Nothing excited me too much. People also talk less with me as I don't want any type of attention leaning towards me, except someone.

"Yo Akihiko. How ya doing?", Adachi Arata called out to me with a loud voice.

"Hello Adachi-san."

"Now now. Don't act that cold towards your best friend."

"When did I ever take you as my best friend?"

"Hahahaha. You're amusing and weird," he bursted out.

"You're the weird one. Coming here everyday and asking if I'm okay or not. I hardly even talk with people and you always come and sit next to me."

"Well, I don't see the problem."

"I mean, you're the problem."

"What? Nah nah. You're good and you talk with me. You could've just ignored me but you didn't. So, you consider me as your best friend, as you aren't that close with anyone else."

"You think that way. Not me." I said, being annoyed.

The school bell rings and we all leaned forward as our homeroom teacher would come. Still some people whispered.

I'm just an ordinary guy with an ordinary life. I don't wanna attract anyone's attention. My wish for myself is to live as quietly as possible. I would never ever let anything get between my life and something else. The way it is, it's now the best.

School ends at 4.00. I greet the school farewell and I start walking towards home.

The distance between my home and the school is 30 minutes by walking. Walking hypes me up. It's nice to see different people living their different lives. I also like extend a helping hand to people, as I like to call myself a people's boy.

The street seemed quite and lonely at that time. The sun setting down gave the streets of Tokyo a new look by emitting a wide and thin orange ray onto the streets. The streets looked beautiful more than the usual, as a large number of people would come and it would go unnoticed. The streets felt empty but astonishing. I felt walking home in these empty streets wouldn't be bad.

Even though the streets were empty the convenience store which I always stop by was open. Walking in the store an automatic door would greet the customers by opening up. Then a usual female voice would greet the customers which I hadn't heard as I walked in. I looked at the cash counter out of curiosity which led me to find a young girl, standing with a cap on her head and looking at the ground. I wouldn't have noticed if she is a boy or a girl. She made some slow and shallow sighs which gave her away.

Assuming she's new I started to look for my favourite strawberry juice. Looking around for a while my mind and body gave up. I felt unlucky. With no other choice I went to the new employee, "Ummm. Did the stock for 'S juice' finish?"

She quickly jumped and leaned towards me with a frightening speed and looked at me with her brown eyes, "The... the...."

She stopped and stood on her ground, looking down when she noticed she was blushing.

"Ummm, if you have a problem talking with me you don't have to force yourself. You can just answer my questions by tilting your head."

She nodded after waiting for a while. I asked the same question as earlier and she answered no.

"Ugh. Now what am I going to do? I can't go all day without drinking any juice for the day."

Noticing my discomfort she grabbed my hand and started looking for the juice with me.

It made me feel embarrassed and I was about to stop her when I noticed she was also feeling embarrassed. Without any choice I also started to look for the strawberry juice, as I don't want to hurt her feelings.

In the end, we couldn't find that type of juice anywhere. She looked a bit distraught. Again, having no choice, I sincerely started talking, "Please, don't let it get to you. Things can happen. If you don't mind can you suggest me a juice not minding my choice. I actually never drink that much juice beside it. That's why I don't know much about juices except it."

She got more down which shaked me.

"I mean I need another drink if you could suggest me another. The others aren't that much tasty and a friend of mine always suggest me bad ones so I stick with the strawberry."

She brightened up and started looking for a drink. I let out a sigh of relief. I stood at the counter while she looked for my drink. She's taking quite a while so I started asking her question, "Are you new here? I didn't notice you around anywhere."

She startled which made me a bit worry but she answered no as I thought.

"Is this your first job?"

She nodded.

"You don't talk much. Are you shy around people?"

She nodded.

"Any other reasons?"

She disagreed swinging her head multiple times and came towards me with my orange juice.

"Thanks. Is it 350 yen?"

She nodded.

Handing the money over to her I started to walk away when I stopped at the door, "You should stand up straight. Taking a job as a salesperson for a shy person is really brave. Good work." I smiled at the end.

She made a fist with her right hand and grabbed it with her left, desperately speaking, "Wh.... What's your name, sir?"

"Aikawa Akihiko. It was nice meeting you."

I took my exit and started to walk home.

Some time passed by when I reached the only overbridge which I encounter on my way to school. Some birds chirped away. I was looking around at a different Tokyo when I noticed someone laying down at an alleyway.

My mind blanked out for a while. Quickly getting my senses back I started to shake that person, "Hey hey. You alright?"

She didn't respond. I made a decision that she's dead. Scared I wanted to call the cops and ambulance when suddenly, she started to snore.

That pissed me off. When I was scared to bits she was sleeping. Even though she seems more mature than me she's acting more like a child than me. At that point, I had no idea what to do or expect.

I didn't even recognize her when I first saw her cause her face was hidden with a mask and a cap. Then again, she was laughing while she was sleeping. Talk about nothing more!

I lift her up and drag her out of the alleyway. Now for a destination, I didn't have one. As it goes, I sat down in the empty street hoping she would woke up. At that time, I lent her my shoulder.

Minutes passed by, she didn't wake up. I started to worry if she would ever wake up. Looking at this scenario abstractly, what was I even doing? Lending my shoulder to a young woman at an open street, waiting for her to wake up. I felt embarrassed and I had to question myself, "What am I even doing? Most of all, why am I even thinking?"

She woke up after a while. She gave me a glance and quickly stood up. She quickly took up a defensive position, in which her stance was a lot off. Not to make anything more awkward between us I started to explain, "Please ma'am, it's seems you're misunderstanding. You were lying around that alleyway when I found you. I tried to wake you up but it was to no avail. So I lent you my shoulder. I didn't try to do anything."

She gave me a confused look and looked at the alleyway. Realizing her mistake she started to apologize by bowing. I quickly stop her as things would just get more complexed, "Do you need any help? I can walk you a few distance, if you might feel sick."

She looked down and just nodded.

As she took my offer my escorting mission began. We took the overbridge and started to walk. Her house wasn't that far. She pointed her home from the bridge. The worries inside me calm down but the uneasiness rose up. I was noticing the few glances she was giving me. Her house wasn't that far from where we were. So I tried asking her, "Ma'am, is there something on my face? You're just glancing second after second."

She jumped and denied hastily.

"Then is it that you want to thank me?"

She thought for a while and nodded. I knew she lied, but I decided to leave it there.

"No need to. I'm okay just for helping." I waved my hands showing that I didn't need anything.

Her mood went down hearing my answer.

I felt I was in a pinch with her. Why had her mind just went from upwards to downwards? That just made my resolve not to take anything back from her more weak.

"Ok ma'am. You can give me something. I don't take things from strangers usually. But if you want to give something to me so drastically you can give it to me."

Her green eyes glowed through her glasses as she handed out a orange juice to me. Without questioning her any longer I gladly accepted it.

We reached her house after walking a few blocks.

Her house wasn't a house in particular. It was an apartment, precisely. It was a luxurious one at that. The type of luxurious where you can't find anything like it.

"Wow, you are a really rich person." I exclaimed in disbelief.

After a while noticing that I was rude towards her I started to apologize like her, "Sorry. My mind tend to speak loudly. Please forgive me for my rudeness."

She smiled through her mask while patting me behind my back and straightening me up holding my hands. I stood up and hid my face from her.

"Well, I'll be taking my leave," I said, as normally as I tried. "I'll catch up with you later."

When I was about to leave she spoke up, "Hey. Could you give me your name before you leave?"

I bolted out as soon as I blurted out, "Aikawa Akihiko. Then I'll be going."

I ran from there as fast as I could.