Hi,

    today was a brilliant day, brilliant! From the moment I got up, everything was magnificent. You see my children from the future, when you have something to look forward to, everything becomes easier. And that’s the best thing that could happen to you, to have something to look forward to. Be it a TV show, a music video release, a book ending, a report card, anything! Even the smile of someone, when you have something to look forward to, you get happier faster and easier. That’s one of the good things in life. Having something to look forward to.

I went to school on time, which was a first for me, and attended every class diligently, which was also a first for me. But I didn’t see Eriko anywhere, which slightly bummed me out. Mr Eric called for her name during attendance taking and when there was no answer, he just shook his head as he moved onto the next person. So she skips class everyday, how can they still keep her in school? Classes were alright and I didn’t get bored at all because I was just waiting for everything to end. Because when school ends, I will have detention, and Eriko will be there. I had something to look forward to and that something was as interesting as she was intimidating. I had my manager walk to the cafeteria to get me something to eat before I went to detention. I avoided going to places with many people so that I wouldn’t waste my time getting through the crowds and without Eriko around me, I don’t think I will be able to get anywhere on time. It still amazed me how everyone would back away the sight of her. I mean I know how intimidating she is but it’s not like she’s the spawn of satan. Or is she. I shook the useless thoughts our of my head. My watch beeps and I skipped all the way to the detention room after telling my manager to go home. He eyed me weirdly and said he’ll see me at the studio.

I enter the detention room with a huge smile on my face that disappeared after a milli-second, she wasn’t there. The students who were already seated in the confession circle turned to look at me and I sighed as I walked in and took a seat next to a pretty young thing with beautiful thighs. Hey, I’m a twenty two year old man, I have my interests. The teacher hands me a sticker where I’m supposed to write my name and paste onto my shirt so that everyone would know what to call me, or something like that. Cool, you know, I like these stuff, it feels like I’m a normal student with a normal life. I write my name down and pasted it on my pocket as I awaited the uncomfortable things my peers were going to confess. 

I thought of Eriko the whole time, how would she do her hair today, what kind of jacket would she wear, will her jeans be blue, will she wear different shoes. It’s funny how much I wanted to see her, even though I barely knew who she was. But with the lack of knowledge I have of her, I think of her every second of the day. Last night I dreamed about her, I dreamed about how she would look like in a girly pretty dress. I woke up smiling. Has something gotten into me? I wonder. I decided to ask the girl next to me about Eriko. 

“Hey,” I whisper.

“Hey,” she smiles nervously as she adjusts her hair.

“Why don’t I see Kuro Eriko around?” 

Her expression changes drastically, from flirtatious to utterly disgusted. 

“Oh, her.” she pulls a mock-disgusted face as I frown. 

She sighs, resting her hands on her thighs that seemed to have nothing special to me anymore. Because of how short her skirt was and how much skin she was exposing, I lost interest, I got tired, funny huh? Your father’s like that, okay.

“She doesn’t turn up for detention, but when she does, there will be a huge fight between her and the teacher in charge. It’s always something different, politics, religion, youths, adults, life, death. I mean, how can you argue about these things, am I right? We learn about them and that’s just how it is, you can’t possibly question the meaning of an essential concept such as life and death. I honestly don’t understand her, she would argue and argue with the teacher in charge till the session ends then she’d go off without greeting anyone and ride on her bike to God knows where. That girl is something plus she acts as if she’s never committed a sin in her life and I think that’s just a pile of bull, what with the rumours that are going around about her.” she rolls her eyes.

“Rumours?” I ask, realising how much of a terrible person this girl actually is. I was disagreeing with everything that was coming out of but I didn’t bother to waste my time on telling her how wrong she was. Instead I sit back and listen to her poisonous words.

“You know… About her dating a married man… I heard it’s a teacher from our school, but no one knows who. She’s such a , at such a young age too! Do you know she’s only 18! Apparently skipped grades because she’s some sort of genius. Which explains why she’s always arguing about everything with the teachers. You’re from the same class as her right, the one with Mr Eric?”

I nodded.

“Do you know why she doesn’t turn up to your class?”

I shook my head.

“Because she attends classes she wasn’t assigned to. She skips classes, not school. It’s so annoying how she thinks she’s smart enough to not attend her class but it’s fine for her to attend other peoples’ classes. She just sits in classes like Numerology or Astronomy, stuff like that, but somehow manages to pass every exam she takes, with flying colours too! We all think she’s sleeping with the male teachers so that they give her a good score in her exams.”

“We?”

“Yeah, practically the entire student body thinks so, even some of the teachers too! But, then again, no one knows.”

“Oh… But if—“

“Speak of the bloody devil.” 

The person who was apparently confessing stopped her story all of a sudden due to the arrival of this person. I look up and turn to where everyone was looking at, the door. And there she stood, her beautiful hair reached all the way down to her elbows, a long-sleeved pale blue dress hung loose on her slender figure and her feet were wearing brown boots. She was in a dress, it was my dream come true. And all I could think about was how much she suited her first name in that outfit. I was so happy to see her, but the people around me weren’t. The teacher in charge sighs quietly as Eriko walked in, her fearless and brave strut was back. She took a sticker and went to sit at the far opposite of the teacher. I could see her from my left but I avoided looking at her, I didn’t want to cause an uproar in the entertainment world. But seeing her in that dress, I am unable to believe in what the mini-skirt girl told me. Eriko is not what they think she is, I just know it. She writes with her left hand on the sticker and pastes it on her dress.

YOU KNOW WHO I AM

I smile to myself, she has a weird sense of humour. She folds her arms and stares at the teacher, clearly waiting for her to say something.

“I do not appreciate you coming late for detention Miss Kuro.” the teacher says.

“I’m sorry, I was busy. I’ll come on time next time.” she nods.

Everyone around me started whispering but my ears were only for Eriko, I wanted to hear her, just her and not anyone else. I think the girl next to me was whispering something into my ear, but I couldn’t hear her, Eriko was working her magic on me.  She catches me from the corner of her eyes and a small smirk grew on her lips, like she know’s something about me that I don’t. I wondered what she was thinking about. How can the people around me not see what I see, how can the people around me not see how amazing this girl is. While I was lost in my own world, the next speaker let his story out.

“Don’t they know, I am working hard to make them happy. I am doing this for them, why can’t they understand that? I just wish someone understood, I am so lonely…” he covers his face and starts sobbing pathetically. 

The girl next to him hands him a tissue and rubs his back. I think that entire statement he made is most commonly used by the youths of my generation who only want to make their parents happy. But as miserable and pathetic as it sounds, I think that it’s pure bull. Because what will you do when you finally make your parents happy? Be miserable with who you’ve become? I know, it might seem like the right thing to do, but it is really not. At the end of the day, your parents don’t get anything from it, they can’t bring their pride for you to their grave. Your efforts would go to waste and everything will end in the same way, regret. Unfortunately, everyone in the confession circle seemed to think otherwise. They were too busy consoling the boy and feeding him with rubbish hopes of a happier future. I snort out of disgust. And he says he’s lonely, what a pile of bull. I look at Eriko and she has the same expression of pure disgust on her face. How can anyone not notice how brilliant this girl is. 

“Does anyone have anything to add to what our friend here has said?” the teache