Chapter 1
The world beyond my phone didn’t exist. Nope. As long as I waited for Sunita, I didn’t want to look around the lunchroom, or else I would not be possible to eat in peace.
She wrote 7 minutes ago that she would meet me as usual, she just had to talk to the teacher before she could come. But how can a few minutes feel like an eternity?
Come to think of it. How exactly did I survive lunch before she transferred to my school? I guess, I sat somewhere near other students who seemed bored and lonely and forced myself to make some small talk. Everything was so weird, non-stop.
Now, it’s 8 minutes.
I slurped on my juice and weighed my options; would it sound too desperate if I wrote her again?
What if…
“What are you doing human girl? You’re insulting my sacred cooking by staring it down instead of consuming it!” roared a voice and I rolled my eyes before even looking up. Baron Draxum, mad warrior-scientist by night and lunch lady by day stood beside my table with his arms crossed and in full-on greasy uniform.
At least, he was still a better company than some of my classmates.
“No need to stare at me as if I committed capital punishment, sheep-man. I’m just waiting for Sunita.”
“That yokai girl, huh? I guess I see you two together often.”
I know it was a simple remark, but my heart just skipped a beat.
“Together? Us? Often? You think so?” I tried to brush it off, but my voice got more weirdly high-pitched the more questions I asked.
Draxum raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and said: “I just can’t understand why a yokai would decide to live among humans.”
“Don’t you live among humans as well?” I countered.
“Well, yes, but that’s different. I didn’t CHOOSE to be here.”
“Mh-mh, yeah right, you totally didn’t choose to join those foot guys and to put on that evil armor and…”
“I get it, no need to remind me! Do I not suffer enough,” Draxum interrupted my sarcastic rant and waved his arms to point to his surroundings
“True, the cafeteria is quite a severe punishment,” I agreed.
Draxum gave me a weird look, usually, his expression would vary from slightly disgusted to a lot angry but now it showed something different.
“Let me sit down until that crazy yokai comes,” he said and sat down opposite to me. The stool and table weren’t made for his size and it looked a bit ridiculous, which lifted my spirits a bit.
“Is that alright? Can you take a break right now?” I asked
“Yes, yes, it’s fine, all humans were provided with nourishing substances and if someone comes too late, they will have no choice but to perish,” the sheep-man said in a grave tone.
“You are so weird,” I snorted.
“You are much weirded,” Draxum returned. Oh, here comes ‘Human-Nonsense 101’ with Draxum, I mentally prepared myself.
“You small human-versions look at your talk-devices all the time, you still seem very disproportionate in comparison to adult types, all you do is worry about numbers written in red on pieces of paper, but you, out of all these humans here, make even less sense.”
I had fixated my mashed potatoes as Draxum went on his human-rant, but now I looked up in confusion.
“Why? Cause I hang around your kind?” I asked.
“No, that is actually the most sensible thing you do. I mean how you avoid humans who engage in your disgusting courtship rituals,” he said and waved in the direction of a couple who was holding hangs and being completely entranced in each other’s eyes.
“Say what?” I needed a moment to process his words, I don’t speak fluent ‘Draxum’, yet.
“You mean,” I began and noticed that I had raised my voice a tad. I turned it into a whisper.
“You mean, like couples? I look weird at couples? Why would you think that?”
Draxum now wore an all-knowing smile.
“You are here every day April O’Neill and when you are not with the yokai girl, you try your best to avoid looking at…how do you call them? …couples. Like when a male and female human are holding hands, are very close to each other or practice these weird rituals where they have close contact with each other’s lips.”
While Draxum talked on, I buried my face in my hands.
“Please, please stop talking,” I begged him. I wish I could disappear or even better, explode like Sunita’s dad.
“Other humans don’t seem to find this unusual? It’s a common social practice for your kind, right?” he asked with genuine concern.
I sighed and slurped my juice again. I wanted some extra time to figure out how to answer him.
“Well, you know, it just…feels weird,” I said in a very low voice.
“Why?” Draxum kept pressing.
“I don’t know,” I gestured at my food, “like some food combinations just don’t work for me. Seeing these couples feels like something I’m not a part of.”
How did I end in a situation where I try to explain myself to a former sheep-man who wanted to conquer the human world for his own kind?
Life is strange and works in mysterious ways.
“So you don’t want to engage in your kinds’ worship rituals?” Draxum looked again at that one couple nearby and the pair noticed his stare as well. They stopped goggling each other, picked up their trays, and walked quickly away. He shook his head in disappointment, murmuring ‘weaklings’ under his breath. I was about to give in to my urge to look at my phone again.
“It doesn’t really look that way to me,” he then said, and I stopped in my movement.
“Huh,” I said cleverly.
“You didn’t notice yourself?” he asked. “Well, as an excellent scientist I always observe my test subjects. After all, I need to know if my supplements have any side-effects, so I tend to pick up on such details as well.”
“You observe what for what?” I protested but Draxum ignored me.
“You look at Sunita like that human couple looked at each other just now.”
In an instant reflex, I rammed my knife into the table with all my strength. I looked down at the knife that now stuck upright in the old wood in a mix of surprise and confusion.
“Those physical enhancers in the spaghetti sauce seem to work properly,” Draxum noted with satisfaction and I didn’t even care.
“I…to…Sunita?”
No words, only emotions. Many, many emotions.
“You’re usually a rather receptive person, I’m surprised you didn’t notice,” he continued.
“Or do you think it’s different because she is a yokai? I admit there are not many reports of interspecies couples, but I heard of some during my time in the hidden city,” Draxum mused.
I took a few deep breaths. There was so much I wanted to say. Where do I even start?
“No,” I began (a solid start), “it’s not because she’s a yokai. It’s because she’s is…a girl. For humans, that is not exactly…normal.”
Draxum crossed his arms again and leaned back.
“You humans really don’t make sense,” he said.
“Isn’t it common for yokai as well? You know, that a couple is a boy and a girl being together?”
“No,” he said, “Gender is generally different for yokai and we don’t have these weird distinct categories as humans. Don’t lump our concepts together,” Draxum said pridefully.
I was genuinely impressed.
“Woah, I didn’t know that.”
To be honest, it blew my mind. Why did I even have this strong sense of being out of place? Like the way I feel is not how it’s supposed to be? Of course, I knew there were many different types of people and apparently even more different types of yokai; how they identified themselves and who they liked, there wasn’t one true category that everyone belonged to. But being constantly surrounded by mostly straight couples never helped with figuring myself out and being sure who I was if not THAT.
“You humans, are really dense and close-minded,” Draxum said, “why worrying about what other humans partake in if you clearly have your own thing going on.”
During his last few words, he stood up and smoothly changed the topic.
“Let me know if you feel any side effects from the spaghetti substances,” he said casually, waved at Sunita who approached the table in hurried steps and walked to his kitchen.
“Girl, I’m SO sorry! It took forever to talk to Ms. Kingston about this art assignment we got to do,” she made several apologetic gestures and she put some extra distress in her voice. I immediately cheered up and couldn’t help but smile.
“No worries, I didn’t wait long,” I said in a cheerful tone.
Then I remembered Draxum’s words and glanced past Sunita to see the warrior-scientist disappear behind the kitchen doors. That guy is as mysterious as the food he serves.
Sunita noticed my glance and quickly turned around but he was already gone.
“What were you two talking about?” she asked while sitting down.
“Just small talk,” I assured but then added, “actually, he helped me see things from another perspective.”
“He is such a weirdo,” Sunita said and placed her lunchbox on the table. Then she saw the knife that was still stuck in the table.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “but in a good way.”
“Is that YOUR knife,” she asked and carefully poked it. “Damn, it’s stuck for good.”
“Well, that’s another story. Did you know Draxum puts some kinds of supplements in our food?” I asked her and leaned forward as if I was talking about a huge conspiracy.
“No way,” she whispered back and leaned forward as well.
Up close, she was even more beautiful.
The thought crossed my mind and this time, I didn’t shove it aside, I embraced it.