After Story: Compassion

Chapter Seven: Complications

"O-Okazaki-san?"

I turned to find Furukawa staring up at me with puppy-dog eyes, and found myself wishing that Ryou had stuck around rather than going to lunch with her sister. "Wh-What's up?"

She shifted her weight from foot to foot as she knotted her fingers repeatedly. "We have a play that w-we'd like to do for the festival, but...but..."

"'But' what?" I prompted.

Furukawa suddenly grabbed onto my arm. "We...We need a boy for one of the roles, but all we have a-are girls."

"So have one of them cross-dress," I said. "They do that in real theater, don't they?"

"That's true, b-but..." She started fidgeting again. "N-None of us are comfortable doing a romantic role with another girl."

"You're doing a romantic play?" I blurted. "That's pretty gutsy for you, Furukawa! Good job!"

"The play isn't romantic!" she cried, latching onto me again. "It's just...one scene."

I looked at her in disbelief. "You're telling me that none of you can suck it up and cross-dress for one romantic scene?" I had a feeling where this was going, but I was going to run from it as long as I could.

She averted her gaze to the floor. "We-We can't."

I sighed. "And you don't have any other plays you could do?"

She shook her head. "Ichika-san's working on a screenplay, but we don't have enough time to finish it and rehearse and everything." She looked up at me with puppy-dog eyes again, and I knew exactly what she was going to ask. "Would...Would you be willing to be play the man's role? You wouldn't have many lines, and it wouldn't take much of your time."

I sighed again, more heavily this time. "You're asking a lot of me this time, Furukawa. I'm already Ryou's boyfriend, and you're asking me to pretend to be someone else's love interest?"

She nodded before looking at the floor again.

"Who's playing the girl that this guy's supposed to be talking to?"

She answered so quietly I had to ask her to repeat herself. "Me," she finally answered meekly.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I smelled a rat, but was sure that Furukawa wasn't a man-stealer, so... "Look, I'll talk with Ryou about this, but only because you asked. Honestly, I think you should find another guy to do this, one who's not seeing anyone." I sighed again. "I'll talk to her, but don't expect a 'yes', you understand?"

She said nothing but nodded quickly.

I managed a smile as she scooted off yet again; it took a lot of courage for her to approach me about this, me being someone's boyfriend...and being Okazaki Tomoya, for that matter.

***

"She...She did?!" Ryou squeaked. "She couldn't find anyone else?"

"I told her that she should find another guy for the part, but...I think she asked me because of our friendship...and desperation. I think we have a couple of options." I started counting off on my fingers, "One: We tell her 'no', and that's that. Two: We tell her 'yes', but only on the condition that you're there for every practice and performance. I don't want to give you a reason to doubt me."

"I-I'd never doubt you, Tomoya-kun!"

I rested a hand on her head. "Thanks cutie, but I'd rather not take that risk."

"I think...I think...you should h-help her as m-much as p-possible," she said, to my surprise.

"You sure?"