My life, which was already a complex romantic comedy, has now become a mystery novel where I am the only one who has read the last page. I know Aiwa is LUNA. I know Aiwa is the little girl from my past. I know I am the boy she is looking for. And I am desperately, frantically trying to pretend I know nothing.
But now, a new, baffling variable has been introduced. Aiwa is acting weird.
I walk into class on Monday morning, my usual sense of dread slightly elevated. I slide into my seat and give Aiwa my standard, friendly-but-slightly-panicked smile. "Morning, Matsuki-san."
Normally, she would give me a shy, sweet smile back. Today, she just glances at me, her eyes wide with something I cannot read, and gives a short, stiff nod before immediately turning her head to stare intently at the blackboard, a furious blush coloring her cheeks.
It is a full-on cold shoulder.
I am completely bewildered. Did I do something wrong? Did our secret look at the magazine party freak her out? Is she angry with me? My internal monologue is a frantic mess of self-doubt. 'Was it my smile? Was it too weird? Did I have something in my teeth?'
This new, glacial shift in her behavior does not go unnoticed.
"Dude! What did you do?!" Kenji hisses, leaning over from his desk. "You broke the new girl! She is giving you the cold shoulder! Did you confess your love and get brutally rejected?!"
"No, I did not!" I hiss back. "I have no idea what is going on!"
Rina and Haruka, who are now professional Rui-watchers, see her strange behavior and come to a completely different, but equally wrong, conclusion.
"Well, well," Haruka says with a smug smirk as they "casually" pass my desk. "It looks like the honeymoon is over."
"He must have finally shown her his true, dorky self," Rina agrees, a look of triumphant satisfaction on her face. "No girl can resist that for long. Except me, of course."
They are both secretly pleased. Their perceived rival has been neutralized. But they are also suspicious. The change is too abrupt. They start to think I did something to upset the "poor, shy transfer student," which, in a bizarre, roundabout way, makes them angry at me on her behalf.
Lunchtime is excruciating. Aiwa sits with us, but she carefully positions Hana between us, creating a human buffer zone. She refuses to make eye contact with me and angles her body away from me. My very existence seems to have become an inconvenience to her.
"So, uh, Aiwa," Kenji says, trying to fill the awkward silence. "Did you see that new figure of Princess Astra they just announced? The limited edition one?"
Normally, this would spark a passionate conversation between us. And it does- just not with me. Aiwa's entire demeanor changes. The icy wall she has built around me does not extend to anyone else. She turns to Kenji, her face breaking into a warm, genuine smile.
"Oh, the one with the translucent sword effect? I saw it online!" she says, her voice full of its usual shy, sweet energy. "The details on the armor look incredible, do they not, Tanaka-kun?"
"Right?!" Kenji exclaims, thrilled to have her full, undivided attention. "And the base is designed to look like the palace steps from the finale! It is a work of art!"
They launch into an animated, nerdy conversation. Aiwa is cheerful, engaged, and friendly to everyone at the table- except for me. When I try to chime in with a comment, she gives a brief, polite nod in my direction before immediately turning back to Hana to ask about her day.
I am being actively, surgically ignored.
The table goes silent as everyone processes this new, bizarre dynamic. Kenji looks at me, his expression a mixture of horror and confusion. Haruka and Rina are staring, their brains trying to compute this new variable. Why is she being so nice to everyone else, but treating Rui like he is a piece of furniture?
My one island of normalcy, my one simple friendship, has been swallowed by a sea of inexplicable awkwardness. I spend the rest of the day in a state of profound confusion, completely unaware that Aiwa is not being cold because she is angry. She is being cold because every time she looks at me, her entire brain short-circuits with the mortifying possibility that she is sitting next to her first love, and she has absolutely no idea what to do about it.