Chapter 6

A long time had passed ever since I managed to mend my relationship with my literal partner in crime, Masaki Arakawa.

Things had continued to be as they were, business as usual. We’d keep living our normal lives in the daytime, and at night we’d meet up to continue our translation effort of the Spellbook I had in my possession. My relationship with my girlfriend Asuka continued to bloom, and we were happier than ever.

Summer had finally come, and with it, the hot weather and constant raining that were so common in that season. Also, school exams had just ended, and both me and Arakawa passed with flying colors, courtesy of our magic tricks.

With a lot of money and magic at my disposal, I started to make plans for an amazing summer vacation trip. It’d be just me and Asuka, and we’d spend a whole week in a 5 star resort hotel in the beautiful island of Okinawa.

I’d prepared everything, the money, fake ID’s, reservations, airplane tickets, it was all already carefully set up with a few spells in order for everything to go off smoothly. I even managed to convince Asuka that my family was secretly rich and that’s how I managed to pull all of this off, and she was very much looking forward to the trip. However...

A few days before the trip, she called me saying that her parents were gonna take her to her family’s home at Kyoto and would spend the whole summer break there. Asuka seemed incredibly sorry for having to do that to me, and I’ve never seen someone act so apologetically in my life.

Just like that, my plans for a perfect vacation had gone down the drain.

Even though I was very upset, I still had to perform my part of the deal in the partnership with Arakawa. And so, I went to her house at night and helped in the translation effort as usual. We hadn’t found any useful spells that day, so we just settled for making a bit more money. After the work was over and I was sitting on the bed, I decided to break the silence.

“So, any plans for the summer break?” I ask her, casually, as I put my socks back on.

“Hadn’t thought about it much, really.” She started to talk, brushing her hair in front of her room’s mirror.

“No plans at all?” I was a bit surprised, you’d think that Arakawa would want to enjoy spending the money she got through the spells. That was odd. “Aren’t you gonna hang out with your friends? Maybe try to find a boyfriend?” I suggested, casually.

She turned around to look at me, mildly annoyed. “Why the sudden interest in that?” Arakawa crossed her arms. “Mind your own business, nerd.”

“You don’t have any friends, do you?” I answered, almost certain. That girl didn’t normally get so defensive over stuff that’s this small, I knew it had to be something of the sorts.

“Fuck you.” She turned around right after saying that, continuing what she was doing. I giggled, it felt good to catch her off guard.

“Look, I don’t need friends ok?” She continued, almost as if she was trying to convince herself of that and not me. “And I especially don’t need a boyfriend. I’m doing just fine by myself.”

“If you say so...” I answered, feeling proud of my accomplishment.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind. Arakawa didn’t seem to have any plans for that summer vacation, and I still hadn’t gone to cancel all of the preparations I made for my trip with Asuka. Maybe there was still a chance it could work out after all.

“Hey, Arakawa...” I stood up. “Remember when I told you that I was going on a trip to Okinawa with Asuka?”

“Yeah.” The girl answered.

“Well, turns out she can’t go.” I wait a few instants before continuing. “Wanna come in her place? Just as co-workers, of course. But no book, no translating, and no magic. This is supposed to be a vacation.”

Arakawa turned around, looking quite amused. I knew she was gonna mock me, I was steeling myself for it.

“I can’t believe it!” She started to talk, with her usual bad theatrics. “Are you seriously asking me to stand in for your girlfriend?” The girl made a smirk.

“Cut that out, you know it’s not like that.” I rolled my eyes, already used to this happening all the time. “I just don’t want all of the time I spent planning and setting up the trip to go to waste, that’s all there is to it.”

Arakawa stood silent for a few seconds, probably thinking about what to say.

“Alright, count me in.” The girl confirmed. “I always wanted to go to Okinawa, and it’s about time I started to spend the money we’re making.”

And just like that, my trip was back on. And although it wouldn’t be what I wanted it to be, having Arakawa there was gonna be better than going alone, or not going at all.

The day of the trip had finally come, and date I say, I was quite excited. It was my first time going on a trip like this, and with this much money to spend. Rare were the days when I woke up excited, and this was one of them. I quickly got up, grabbed my bags, and called a cab to the airport, where I planned to meet up with Arakawa.

“Hey, about time you got here.” Said the girl, as I approached her.

“What? I’m not even that late.” I answered, slightly confused.

Arakawa rolled her eyes, but still seemed to be having fun. She was probably just teasing me as per usual, so I decided to just carry on instead of further pressing the issue. I noticed her outfit. She was wearing an adult dress and heels, very different from what she usually wore. It was because we’d decided to wear these types of clothes in order to better pass as older people, so that we wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.

After a bit of waiting, we both finally got in the plane. At first I was a bit nervous since this was my first time in an airplane, and I tried my best to hide that from my companion, who was sharp enough to quickly notice that something wasn’t right with me.

“What’s up, Kageyama?” She started to analyze my facial expression. “Don’t tell me ... are you actually scared?” I sighed, here it comes... “It seems that the more time I spend with you, the more you manage to disappoint me.”

“Well, but don’t worry. If the plane crashes, we’ll both probably die so fast we won’t even feel anything.” She continued, sarcastically.

“Not helping, dude!” I shivered a bit. I knew there could be turbulence in the trip, so I was really keeping an eye out for those. “And when I’m to die, I’d rather it not be with you around.”

“Why? Too scared my corrupted soul may carry yours to hell with me?” She joked.

“Nope, it’s just so I won’t have to put up with you finding increasingly annoying ways to make fun of every aspect of my being.” I was getting slightly upset, probably because of the fear.

“If you don’t want me to make fun of you, then don’t be a nerd loser with a fear of flying.” She picked up her phone. “Until that changes, I’ll keep doing it.”

I sighed, deciding to stop arguing. I wanted to remark about this behavior probably being the reason she didn’t have any friends, but that would probably just piss her off and making her act even more annoyingly towards me. Better just to shut up and focus on that possible coming turbulence.

A few hours later, we arrived at Okinawa. It was still morning, and the sun shone beautifully in the sky. There was a lot of greenery, and everyone around us, even at the airport, seemed to be in very high spirits.

We once again called a cab and made our way to the resort hotel where I’d booked our room. And as we drove to those beautiful, paradisiac streets, the driver decided to make conversation.

“Are you two on your honeymoon?” He asked, casually. “I know quite a few nice places to visit if that’s the case.”

It seemed that he’d mistaken us for a young couple of newlyweds enjoying their honeymoon at Okinawa, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. “Actually...” I moved to correct him, but Arakawa stopped me.

“Oh, please do tell us!” Arakawa entered her bad acting mode, and ‘lovingly’ grabbed my right arm. “We’d love to know some nice spots, isn’t that right honey?”

I suddenly started to blush. What the hell was she doing? Was that fun for her? Lying for no reason? She probably just wanted to embarrass me to get a kick out of my reaction, and the little twat was probably having the time of her life having achieved her goal.

It would be too awkward to explain the situation now, so I decided to just play along with that. “Y ... yes!” I managed to say. “What she said. She’s totally my wife!”

“By the way, what are your names?” The cab driver asked.

“We’re Saito and Masaki Kageyama, it’s a pleasure!” She introduced ourselves, and the fact that she used my surname instead of hers made me even more embraced, this shit was awkward as hell. And for a girl who’s as bad of an actress as her, this one act was being pretty convincing.

The driver started to go on and on about beaches, restaurants and the local food. He talked for quite a while. “Be sure to take lots of pictures too, there are plenty of beautiful landscapes.” When Arakawa had a chance, she intervened again.

“I can’t wait!” She kept the ruse. “I’m sure we’ll make many wonderful memories here. And we’ll take lots of pictures too, so that we can show them to our kids in the future, isn’t that right, my love?”

Now this was getting a little bit too sick even for me, but even still, there wasn’t any other way out of that situation. I had to play along. “Sure ... honey!” I forced a yellow smile, screaming on the inside. It was way too weird calling Arakawa that, and my face was crimson red.

Eventually, we reached our destination, and we started to take out our luggage from the car with the help of the driver.

“You guys make a really good couple.” The old driver remarked, seemingly having completely fallen for Arakawa’s joke. “Good luck! Folks nowadays don’t seem to like marrying early too much anymore.”

We gave him out goodbyes and started to make our way to the resort. “What an idiot.” Arakawa started to giggle, satisfied for having fooled the poor man.

“So, we married now?” I asked.

“In your dreams, maybe.” She chuckled. “As if I’d ever want to marry you of all people.”

“The hell was that all about?” I was slightly pissed off about what she’d pulled back at the taxi. “There was no reason to make up all that bullshit.”

“Well, it was fun.” She answered casually, with a smirk.

“What!?” I took a step back.

“C’mon, it was fun!” She gave a light push in the left shoulder. “I know you enjoyed it.”

My cheeks started to get red. It’s true that I thought that lying with no reason like that was a bit morally incorrect, but it’s true that it was quite amusing to watch him so obviously treat us like a couple. Despite all the awkwardness.

“I guess it was a little bit fun...” I conceded, looking the other way. It had been exhilarating, now that’s for sure.

“Why don’t we keep it up through the whole trip?” Arakawa suggested, with a devilish smile.

I took a deep breath. We’d probably never come back here again, or at least not in a very long time. So why not have a little extra fun?

“Alright, we’ll do it then.” I took a deep sigh. Hope that little game wouldn’t get us in trouble.

The resort was probably the most luxurious place I’d ever been in my life. The employees treated us like royalty, and our suite was 1000x times better than both our apartments back home combined. The bed was enormous, it had a beautiful vista of the beach and even a really fancy bathtub.

After changing into our summer clothes, we made our way into one of the nearby restaurants that had been recommended by the cab driver. As expected, the food was very expensive, but still delicious.

And now, in the afternoon, it was finally time to hit the beach. The climate was perfect: sunny, not many clouds, but also not scorching hot. There weren’t too many people on the beach, but I spotted a few others. I took off my shirt, revealing my skinny torso, and Arakawa did the same. She was wearing a black bikini, and contrary to my expectations, it was the g-string I thought I’d be, it was actually pretty modest. Although it did show quite a lot of skin.

We laid our stuff down and sat on the sand, sipping on our water canteens.

“Ahh, now this is a real vacation!” Arakawa laid down on her towel.

Well, she was in a good mood. Andshe did show herself to be a little bit less of a bitch when she’s in a good mood, that made me quite hopeful for the prospect of not getting roasted too much in that afternoon.

I started to look at the beautiful blue sea, its seemingly endless horizon and the waves crashing against the land. The sea breeze kissed my skin, it felt incredibly good. This place was like heaven, I couldn’t believe it took me this long to finally come.

And as I started to daydream, I didn’t notice as two men approached us. They seemed to be locals, their skin was tanned and their muscular bodies made me a little bit embarrassed of my skinny ass.

“Hey, babe.” One of them said confidently, talking to Arakawa and completely ignoring my presence. “Wanna come and hang out with us? We’ll help you apply sunscreen so you won’t get burnt.”

“Is that so?” She replied, intrigued.

Well, that was pretty normal I guess. Arakawa wasn’t bad looking by any means, it’s natural that she’d get hit on by guys on the beach. She’d probably be into them too, being big, strong and confident types. I could totally see her accepting their suggestion, going off to some remote part of the beach to ‘apply sunscreen’ and then fucking them both unconscious. She was single and had already shown herself to be quite promiscuous, so why not? I should just concentrate on admiring the sea and let her have her fun.

However...

At that moment, I didn’t know what the hell possessed me to do what I did. The thought of having her go with other me strangely annoyed me, I was jealous, and felt the urge to act, even though I already had Asuka in my heart and was fully aware of it. It was pretty much an automatic reaction.