My First Boyfriend

First year of high school

Having acquired the tool known as makeup, I busied myself with construction work on my face, full of additions, without any actual skill.

About a month after I started this project, I attended a BBQ held by about 15 friends from my middle school days, and I vividly remember being told, “Haru-chan, your eyebrows look like Kappa Ebisen snacks.” I remember that clearly.

If it were now, I would have the composure to raise my eyebrows and say, “Well, thank you very much,” but back then, I was genuinely shocked. I was embarrassed.

Using that shame as a springboard, I went through trial and error and acquired a decent level of face-making technique.
That was when “Hito-kun,” who would later become my first boyfriend, appeared.

I remember receiving an email from a male friend who went to a different high school saying, “I showed a photo of Haru to a friend, and he said he wanted me to introduce you,” and an indescribable sense of exhilaration descended upon me.

When I readily agreed, things progressed quickly, and he decided to come meet me in front of my parents' house.
In front of my mother’s beloved car, a Freed, parked in the garage, I tried to calm my pounding heart by pointlessly opening Mobage (a popular SNS at the time) and looking back at old photos.

After a while, two bicycles approached from a distance. It was my familiar male friend and “Hito-kun.”

“Hito-kun” was dressed like a carpenter, and his hair was blonde, like a lion’s mane.
His eyebrows were thin and had a line shaved into them.

“Hito-kun” was, in common parlance, a country delinquent.

As I wrote in my previous post, I was a fresh, immature high school girl, like a young corn, who attended a college-prep school and had only recently learned how to wear makeup.

Our first meeting was a mix of surprise, nervousness, and agitation.

Contrary to the atmosphere he exuded and his sharp eyebrows, Hito-kun gave me a very soft smile and told me I was “cute.”

It was the moment that the young corn high school girl’s love began in the blink of an eye.