The One Who Saved Me

Chapter 8: Kari

Author's Note: This is a bit of a longer chapter than the past ones. I also have it split between POV's. It goes Kari, Ryu, and then ends with Kari. Setting things up for the climax and the ending. Hope you enjoy!

I still can’t believe that I was actually brave enough. I really asked Ryu to have lunch with me today. I never do anything like that, I’m always too shy and something like that is way out of my comfort zone. But I did it anyway because it’s Ryu. I would have been a little hurt if he had rejected me, but it wouldn't have been long before I forgave him. 

He didn’t reject me though. He accepted my invitation and now we are going to spend the whole lunch period together!

I can see him as soon as the cafeteria comes into view. He is casually leaning against the wall, deaf to the world as he plays on his phone while waiting for me. Just this sight has a smile breaking across my face. Butterflies flutter hectically around in my stomach. 

I take a couple of deep breaths then walk over to him. Smiling, I say…

Ryu

“Hope you haven’t been standing here too long. My class got out a little late, sorry.” I recognize Kari’s voice right away. I look up at her and smile as I slip my phone into my pocket.

“No worries, I get it.” We stand here in silence for a minute. If it were anyone else I might have begun to feel awkward. With Kari though, I could stand here for hours and still be comfortable.

After about a minute I realize that I have been staring at her. In fact we are both staring at each other. Things get a bit awkward then. I cough as I look away, my face and neck getting hot. She must have noticed too because I can see her red face looking down out of the corner of my eye. I look down and notice for the first time that she is holding something rolled up in her hand. “Hey, what have you got there?” I ask, pointing to it. 

She looks at me blank faced then down at the large paper in her hand. A smile stretches across her face making my heart skip a beat. “You’ll see,” she says knowingly. “Come on, let’s go get some food. I’m starving,” as she mentions this, I realize how hungry I am too.

We finally walk into the cafeteria and pick a spot to sit down. “Okay,” I say, “if you sit here and guard the table I can go get us food.” She nods in agreement. “So… what do you want me to get you?”

She doesn't even hesitate, “pizza, fries, and… hmm, a root beer, please.” I feel my eyebrows rise in surprise. I try to straighten out my expression, but she sees before I’m able to get it back to normal. “What?” she asks.

“Nothing,” I say. She looks at me skeptically. “Okay.... that's usually what I get when I get food here,” I tell her truthfully. 

“Oh.” She giggles a little. “What a coincidence. You can never go wrong with pizza and fries I guess,” she says with a shrug. 

I laugh too. “I guess so,” I reply. “Alright, wait here, I’ll be back,” I tell her before I walk away from the table and stand in line to buy the food. After a minute, I look behind me and see Kari gazing at me, so I smile and wave at her. She smiles and waves back and I turn forward again, a bit reluctantly. 

As I stand there waiting, the line moving along slowly, two girls come up to me. “Hey, you’re Ryu, right?” she says questioningly. The girl standing beside her has pink in her hair. 

I glance around me, as if they could be talking to someone else. When I realize my searching is pointless - of course they’re talking to me- I say, “yeah, I’m Ryu. Do I know you?” raise an eyebrow at them.