Soul for a Girlfriend?

I was walking with Shiraishi and Moriko through the busy streets near the downtown crossing. The sound of cars honking and people chattering was all around us. Shiraishi and Moriko seemed to be quite familiar with the area as they were cruising through the crowd with no second thoughts.

I was following them without saying a single word, as this whole thing was rather new to me.

We reached the building, as it appeared to be one of those karaoke parlours. It wasn\'t very crowded mainly because it was rush hour and people were busy with other things. Shiraishi and Moriko walked inside the building casually and followed them in.

They were quite smart with these things.

We were walking up the staircase as I could see a few staff members carrying plates full of food in their hand to certain rooms. It was rather silent in the hallway, and I was feeling a bit nervous.

We came to a stop near a room which had number 206 engraved on a piece of metal. Moriko grabbed the doorknob and turned it. As we walked in, I heard the noise of the other students greeting them.

Apparently we were a bit late as they were already playing music and ordered food. There were 9 people in the room, including me, but I didn\'t know any of them. Assuming their uniforms, they were all from different schools.

We took a seat and Shiraishi sat next to me. It appeared she was familiar with one of the dudes, as she introduced me to him as her boyfriend. He seemed like a rather chill person.

His name was Sekiguchi, as for the first name I didn\'t bother to ask.

We were talking for a bit, as I slowly drifted myself out of their conversation because I was feeling out of place. Without saying anything, my eyes wandered around the room. I could see the music video of the song playing on the screen.

It was a typical karaoke room.

One of them took out a box of brownies from his bag and kept it on the table. The girl sitting next to him instantly took out a few and started eating them. He passed the brownies to our side and gestured for us to take some.

I loved brownies.

Shiraishi smiled at him as a gesture to thank him and took three pieces out. She glanced at me but I was feeling a bit shy to take it from the box. I wasn\'t used to such active social events.

Shiraishi was chuckling at me, as she could tell I was feeling awkward. I hesitantly took a brownie from the box and stared at it for a few moments. They looked delicious in the least, but there was something off about it.

Maybe I was being paranoid.

I kept fiddling around with that brownie for quite a while before I noticed Shiraishi glaring at me. With an awkward smile, I slowly took a bite from it and asked, "Shiraishi… is something weird with these brownies?"

"I don\'t know… they taste like normal ones. Why?" She replied in a confused look. I looked at her hands and she was already done with all the three. Raising my eyebrows, I asked, "You sure?"

She nodded at my question and continued talking with the other students who were sitting in front of me. I took another bite and waited as the flavour melted in my mouth. I mumbled, "It\'s tasty, I wish I had some chocy milk with this."

"You sure love chocolate milk, don\'t you?" Shiraishi replied. I was a bit confused, but then I realised that I thought it out loud. I was having a sudden urge to laugh, but there wasn\'t anything funny. I narrowed my eyes at Shiraishi and said in a loud tone, "Yes, I do!"

"Are you good?" She asked me in a concerned voice and in that instant I felt a strange feeling in my head. Almost as if my vestibular system was malfunctioning.

I stared at Shiraishi for a while without saying anything and she had a confused look on her face, too. I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes for a bit. It felt like my senses were more active than usual.

The noise of everyone talking around me was fading away slowly. It felt like everyone was sitting really far from me. The sound of soothing music felt more prominent than before.

I suddenly felt a soft touch on my forearm, which made me startled. I got back into my senses and the noise around me seemed as close as it was a few moments ago. Opening my eyes in a rush, I noticed that Shiraishi was holding my forearm with a concerned look in her eyes.

I forgot about her questions.

Giving her a slight smile, I kept the rest of the brownie on a plate and replied to her, "Of course I am!"

Something was definitely wrong with those brownies.

Looking at me, it appeared that Shiraishi was relieved since she continued talking with her friends. Everyone was busy talking with each other, while a couple among us were making out in front of everyone.

I don\'t know what they were trying to establish by doing that.

The girl sitting across from me was busy talking with the guy next to him while laughing unusually loud. The guy next to her wasn\'t reacting much, as he was sitting with a straight face while holding his glass of drink.

Shiraishi was busy talking with a boy from another school. Looking at their interaction, I could safely assume that it wasn\'t the first time she was talking with him. They appeared quite familiar with each other.

I thought about the slight possibility that she might cheat on me with that dude.

Knowing how she was, I could disregard that probability.

I slowly sipped my juice while my eyes shifted around. I was observing the whole room because I had nothing better to do. I sucked at talking in such a large group of people, on top of that, I couldn\'t vibe with any of them.

Shiraishi was sitting next to me, and beside her was Moriko, who appeared to be drinking her juice. What caught my eyes were untouched brownies lying on the plate in front of her. Seems like she didn\'t eat that at all.

A tall guy from the same school as Sekiguchi was sitting in front of her and it appeared that they were talking among themselves. He was quite a good-looking guy, but anyone could tell that he was a douchebag.

Maybe I shouldn\'t have judged him by his appearance like that.

I noticed the boy who bought the brownies sitting quietly while scrolling through his mobile. Another boy sitting next to him was making a weird expression while staring at the brownies in his hand. Narrowing his eyes, he asked hesitantly, "Dude… is this hash browns?"

"Yeah." The dude next to him nodded instantly, and most of us stopped for a moment and stared at him in complete disbelief. There was an awkward silence in the room as he stared back at me with a confused look.

I took drugs.

My sister will kill me if she gets to know about this.