"Remember? She's sick." Ooka pointed out.

Tobe raised his eyebrows. "But good sick or bad sick?"

"Bad."

"Good bad or bad bad?" I could feel a headache already rising, even as their voices were getting increasingly faint.

"Bad bad."

"Whoa. That's like, bad, dude."

"Yeah, way bad."

The buzz of what barely classified as a "conversation" from Tobe and Ooka echoed through the hallway as I hastily made my way to the club room. Before Yuigahama began dragging me as an arm accessory, I would have been lazily shuffling my feet to the club, ignoring the "he's so weird (lol)" and "wow you're so harsh (lol)" from my fellow classmates, which stopped once I began walking with Yuigahama. However, since Yuigahama had come down with her illness, I've had to endure something far worse than the drivel of schoolgirl insults.

Tobe's blunt-force attempts at "getting to know me." Read: Torture of the highest level.

I had previously tried a myriad of things, some subtle, some not so subtle. I tried telling him that I was in a hurry, and he said "No problem dude, only like a minute more." Tobe doesn't agree with father time in the slightest as to what constitutes a minute. I acted like someone was calling me from down the hall, which failed miserably as he would just yell out "Yo~! Hikki's over here!"

I even tried standing up in the middle of his rambling, without saying a word, and just walking towards the club room. Unfortunately he would just follow me there, and continue talking while in the room. He was seemingly blissfully unaware of any sign I gave him. A true dunce.

Today, however, those events will not occur.

"Hey! Hikki-bro's gone yo!"

I nearly tripped on my feet from picking up the pace so suddenly. I swiftly walked down the hallway, ignoring the "he's so weird (lol)" from passing girls that I ended up receiving anyway.

I tore open the door and closed it as fast as I humanly could without producing a sound. Though I knew, if Tobe really wanted to talk to me, it was quite obvious where I would be.

That's why I started propping up Yuigahama's chair in front of the door. If I could shove the chair under the door handle, only the force of a caveman would be able to pry this door open.

In other words, it wasn't likely to stop him. If only Hiratsuka-sensei hadn't lost our club key earlier in the week.

"Running from the police once again Hikigaya?"

"What is this 'again' nonsense? I have an impeccable record with the law."

"I have faith the system will find your many currently undiscovered crimes in due time. Chief among them, your drain on the societal health and well-being of our school."

"There's no such law."

"Only because they haven't met you yet."

"Furthermore, loners, like myself, produce no 'drain' on society at all. Because we have no friends, and next to no acquaintances, we are low-maintenance in every sense of the word."

"Oh, I understand that completely. I have no qualms with loners, rather, please don't bring loners down to your level."

Yukinoshita was perched on her chair sipping tea, delivering steel-cold proclamations without breaking a sweat. The image of an Ice Queen on her throne seemed more apt than I could describe in words. Of course, the slight smirk and "Panda-san" cup brought her back down to Earth in view of us commoners.

"Also, Hikigaya, that chair will hardly hold the door back. Tobe, if he really wanted to, could enter easily, as you already know. And, what's more, you didn't even position it right."

As expected, she deduced the reasoning behind the chair being in that position, and the reason for me barging in earlier, as well predicting my thoughts.

"I know. I only hoped he wouldn't realize he could jiggle the doorknob, and would instead think the door was locked."

Yukinoshita sighed into her scarf while standing up from her chair and walking over to me. "Sometimes I wonder about the well-being of future generations when we already have people like you being produced." She bent down in front of the chair and began pushing the chair along with me. Together we forced it up and jammed decently tight against the door, having to exert a fair amount of pressure to do so. It seems even Yukinoshita was growing tired of Tobe.

We laid with our backs against the wall to the side of the chair, momentarily catching our breath. I turned my face toward her, remembering what she spoke earlier.

"Well, you don't need to worry about my effect on future generations. I won't be outside much other than to do the grocery shopping for my earnest and hard-working wife." She turned to face me.

"Somehow that relieved no distress, and I feel even more worried than I was before." She pretended to shiver.

"If only you and my future family could see things as optimistically as I can now." I sarcastically quipped. Which elicited a very girly and un-Yukinoshita like laugh.

"Yes, if only our future family could be so lucky to be as misguided as you." She said with a smile once she calmed down.

"…" My face and hers began to turn pink.

"Ah... I meant, um, if only both of our future families could—well, not like our families together, but…"

I cut her off. "Yeah, I, uh, get it." I rose to my feet, and turned away, hoping to hide the small tinge of pink.

I momentarily thought of just walking to my chair, but I reached out my hand in front of her instead. She stared at it for a brief second before grabbing it and I helped pull her up. I'm not exactly chivalrous, but even I had some manners.

"Thank you." She muttered under her breath before we both abruptly sat down at the table.

Of course, Yukinoshita had already prepared my cup of tea before I arrived, and she appeared to start reading her novel once more. I rummaged through my belongings, pulled out my current light novel, and tried to begin reading as well. While it would seem we were both beyond that previous moment, I couldn't help sneaking glances at her, and I caught her gaze as she was sneaking a glance at me. We both turned away at the same time, only making it more apparent how mutually uncomfortable the feeling was.

Obviously, neither of us could focus much on our books. It was the times like this where Yuigahama's ability to completely reset the mood was Super Effective on us in the Quiet Type.

"Yuigahama is sick again then, huh?" Yukinoshita asked out of the blue. We both knew the question was pointless small-talk to help ease the tension. All the same, I was glad to try to break it. I found her eyes with my own.

"Yeah. She didn't show up in class today as well. It's been nearly a week now, have you talked to her?"

"Mhm. I've had exchanges on the phone with her a couple nights earlier in the week. Though she hasn't even texted something in the last three days." Yukinoshita had a perplexed look across her face. Seemingly pondering something. Of course, just as she had begun to be able to predict my thoughts, I too, had become more aware of her thought process.

"You want us to go visit her?" I asked, even knowing the answer.

"Ah. Well, I don't consider that an especially safe idea. We will have a known Hikigiya around such a vulnerable woman in her time of sickness."

"Don't use my name as an insult. Also, it won't be just a so-called vulnerable woman with me, you will be there as well."

"Once more, your words have only raised my fears and concerns." She mock-shivered.

"Maybe your radar is malfunctioning."

"Indeed. I may have become so accustomed to being in a state of constant anxiety from your presence that everything has been thrown off."

"Now see here, my little sister is constantly with me day after day. She feels none of these worries you have, and I shower her with love and affection!" I pointed out somewhat excitedly.

"The sense of dread and apprehension that comes from you speaking increases by the day." Yukinoshita had more faux shivers.

"You are just plain wrong."

"Ah, you're right. That dread and apprehension feeling from your words increases by the minute, not by the day."

"Of course you would interpret my sentence to your benefit."

"I know you must live with those thoughts, so it may be hard to understand, but increasing my worrisome feelings is not to my benefit." I could see the joy on her face. Haruno may be far more manipulative and nasty, but Yukinoshita was just as cruel when she wanted to be.

"Look, do you want to visit Yuigahama or not?"

"Of course. I can always count on you to be so blunt and tactless." She put away her book, stood up, and put her chair on the table. "Let's go."

"Sure, sure. I just need to—"

Pounding on the door.

Yukinoshita and I fell dead silent instantly. I thanked the heavens that she and I were of the same mindset here.

"Anybody there?! Heyo~!" We pretended his dead mating call fell on deaf ears.

"Yo~!" I could see Yukinoshita frozen in her pose, same as myself, neither of us daring to move.

"Dude, they're clearly not there. The door's even locked."

"But Hikki-bro usually goes this way. And I know, you know? I sort of like, thought anyway, you know?"

"Yeah. I get you."

?

What did he get?

"Anyway, maybe tomorrow." I could hear the shuffling of feet and Tobe's voice fading as he continued talking. Normally the excitement of others could bring joy to even some loners.

His did not.

"Yeah, for sure tomorrow. I just had this wacky idea to ask Hikki about how those pigs that totally…"

…I genuinely didn't possess even an ounce of desire to know where that conversation was going, and hopefully that question would remain unanswered.

We both let out a sigh simultaneously and shared a smile. Avoiding that brought shared relief.

I stowed my light novel away, before looking at Yukinoshita. She nodded her head, and we both moved over to the wedged chair, pulling it out from underneath the door handle. I held up three fingers in my hand, and pointed at the door. Yukinoshita signaled 'no' with her head movement, and held up ten fingers. I nodded back, and as we counted down in our heads, she lowered her fingers one-by-one.

I slowly cracked open the door at the end, and peaked to the left once, then to the right, then to the left once again. The thought struck me that I was being far more vigilant about the hallway than I normally am when crossing a bustling intersection. Truly Tobe was more dangerous than a careening metal death trap driven by the over-worked salary man. Ah, but just whose fault was it that they were overworked? Never take a job that… ever. Just never take one.

Yukinoshita hovered next to my shoulder. In the past, her being so close, such that I could feel her breath on me, would have elicited a nervous shoving from me. It occurred to me that she was comfortable being so close as well. When had this happened? Her tapping on my shoulder refocused my attention, and I opened the door the rest of the way and we both tentatively advanced down the hallways to the entrance.