Chapter 2 – New Friends

"Hey, Kinshiro-sempai, come look at this," Akoya awoke me from the nap I took on my latest stack of paperwork.

"Ugh…" I resisted the fatigue that wanted to bring my head back down. Unfortunately, my fear of one day literally being bored to tears came true – and right on top of the paperwork. "Dammit! Why… Great, now I'm going to have to give a poor excuse to the principal why this happened – again."

"No, you don't. It's just spam mail from the gym class, asking for you to allow dirty magazines in the library. Every single paper in that stack."

"Oh, good…" Something had to be done about that gym class. What possessed such young students, who should concentrate on their college entrance exams, to even think about such lewd literature, I would never understand. At least this meant that I didn't have to deal with monotony – for a while, anyway. "Anyhow, you wanted to see me about something, Akoya?"

"This is a request to start an animal rights club." Akoya handed me a new club request form.

How… quaint. Considering how wild and animal-like students at this school tended to be, I'm surprised it took so long for this to happen. "Oh, really? Who from?"

"Hakone Yumoto."

The utterance of this name caused me to create a tornado of spam mail throughout the room. I would have flailed about even more wildly, too, if I didn't want to ruin the flowers that Ibushi worked so hard to arrange.

"…So I take it you reject this request, then?" Ibushi asked as he picked up after the mess I made.

"No, no…" I cooled down now, not sure why I acted to rashly in the first place. "Forgive me, I'm just… shocked that such a simpleton could have initiative to do anything other than stuff his face with onigiri. I hereby give this Animal Rights Club my stamp of approval."

"Really?" Akoya eyed me suspiciously. "How unlike you, Kinshiro-sempai. I always thought that you found animals to be unclean creatures and a complete waste of time."

I barely held back a blush as I replied, "Akoya, please. I don't want to discuss it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to deliver this approved form to that idiot."

With these words, I departed the student council room for the one place I knew Yumoto would be – that Defense Club meeting room. I don't know why in blazes I ever approved their use of that room anyway – all they did was laze around and talk about how boring the day turned out to be, if they didn't do so at the Kurotama Bathhouse. Maybe it was because Atsushi pestered me into doing it, in which case the Defense Club better be thankful that I loved the man enough to do such a crazy thing.

It did not amaze me in the slightest that when I arrived in that room, everyone did exactly what I expected them to – Ryuu bragged about the multitude of dates he booked for himself, Io perused the stock market, Yufuin slept with his legs on top of the windowsill, and Atsushi contemplated the jigsaw puzzle he worked on. I suddenly felt like I came here for nothing, because despite my expectations I saw no trace of Yumoto in that room.

"Oh, Kin-chan." Atsushi looked up from his jigsaw puzzle and at me. "How unusual of you to visit during a Defense Club meeting. What can we do for you?"

I wouldn't call "doing nothing but loafing around" substantial material for a meeting, but whatever. "Yumoto is not here?"

"If you're wondering about Yumoto," Ryuu rudely cut in, "he left about ten minutes ago, saying that there was something very important he had to do. I had no idea where he went."

"Is… that so?"

"Anyway, is that all?" Ryuu spoke to me in a near snarl. "I'd rather you not spend to much time here; I'm sure you have some odd tasks for your cronies, like shining your boots or cleaning toilet commodes."

This boy's crude attitude incensed me to no end. I decided that Ryuu was not worth my time, however, especially since I knew that the only person who could ever truly tame him was Io.

Besides, why waste time on him when I could be looking for Yumoto? Leaving the room and ultimately the school, I couldn't really locate that kid. He wasn't at home or the restaurant famed for its onigiri. He wasn't even at that Megawa Rui's house, where I've noticed him spending a lot of his time doing gods know what.

All the walking I endured began to take its toll on my legs, to the point where I decided I should save my energy and just wait for Yumoto to show up for the Defense Club meeting tomorrow. Just when I made way for home, with that club approval form in my handbag, a person very quick on his feet sped past me.

"Hey! Watch it!" Before I could berate this intruder any further, I barely managed to recognize that face. Not that I needed to, because there's only one person I know of with agility that acute. "Yumoto, where are you going?"

"I don't really have the time to talk!" Yumoto answered as I attempted to keep up with him. "I need to make it back before Mom gets home! Oh, and you're free to enter the house. I'll explain everything to my parents later."

"You know, Yumoto, you shouldn't be so trusting of people you barely know." I accepted Yumoto's offer, kicking my shoes off before following him to his room. "That friendliness could bite you in the butt one day."

"Yeah, but you helped me the other day and even tried to make sure I was okay." Yumoto sat, grinning at me childishly. "I think we're friends after that!"

"Me… friends with you?" I knew Yumoto was messed up in the head, but this really set the bar pretty high. If he thought that just a simple act of kindness and sympathy could automatically label someone as a friend, then he truly had no idea how social interactions worked. In the middle of my contemplations, I noticed that Yumoto held something close to his chest the entire way here. "Oh? What do you have there?"

Yumoto loosed his grip somewhat to reveal a rather small, but healthy, cat. "Look! Isn't she just adorable? I think I'm going to call her Tama-chan."

I had to admit that despite how I didn't really have a thing for animals, Yumoto was right – the cat was, indeed, very cute. "You didn't pick her up from that alley, did you?"

"You bet I did." Yumoto put Tama-chan down, letting her roam about the room as a much skinnier cat approached him. "I think she's friend's with Neko-chan here."

"Neko-chan?"

"That's what I named her after we rescued her yesterday."

"What a thoughtful owner you are, to give your pets such very creative names." I shook my head in sarcasm.

"Yeah, except I can't really be the owner." Yumoto pouted. "There's no way Mom would let me keep the animals. If it weren't for Gora-chan covering for me all the time, I'd have gotten busted a long time ago."

"So you mean to tell me that you've been hiding all these animals under your parents' noses?"

"Well…" Yumoto looked away from me, as if to hide a shameful expression. "Yeah."

"But you're going to get in trouble!"

"I've got to help these poor guys somehow! There are far too many harmless animals on the streets and in shelters." Yumoto's voice shook, as if he were about to cry. "I… I can't just leave them be…"

The distraught, gloomy Yumoto began to bring to me flashbacks of my own childhood. I have seen my young self in this position too many times before, when I cried for having my heart broken or not getting what I wanted. Poor, poor Yumoto… If there was any way to help him…

Before I could make a motion of consolation towards Yumoto, a rush of footsteps approached the door in loud thumps. I half-expected the footsteps' source to be a huge, looming figure like Yumoto's older brother, Gora-san, or their father. When I turned to identify the source, I couldn't believe it – such a petite, young-looking woman could produce footsteps of that loudness?

"Yumoto, there you are!" The woman sounded exasperated. "Where in the name of all the gods were you for the past hour? You should have come home right after the Defense… Club… meeting…"

As the woman took notice of the cats, dogs, rabbits, and other small animals in the rather large room, her voice slowed down in disbelief. "Yumoto, what are all of these animals doing in here?"

"Um… Uh…" Yumoto didn't sound like he could make a plausible excuse. The poor thing. "I… wanted them?"

"Nice try, mister! You know that I've expressly forbidden pets in this house! Their dander is going to give me allergies!"

"But Mom, you hang out at your friends' house all the time, and they have tons of pets."

"Ugh, that's not the point! I don't want them here! Get every single one of them out of the house, now!"

"No!" Yumoto took Neko-chan and hugged her protectively. "I'm not gonna!"

"All right, if you're going to put up a fight…" Mrs. Hakone took Tama-chan by the scruff. After an awkward, silent pause, she shook the cat violently until it began to meow in pain.

"Mom, stop it! Let Tama-chan go!" Yumoto pleaded, desperate for no further harm to come to Tama-chan. His efforts proved to be almost futile, however, because by the time Mrs. Hakone let Tama-chan down, the cat was visibly shaken, dizzy, and in agony.

"Listen up, and listen good." Mrs. Hakone stooped to glare at her son. "You've got until the end of the month to get rid of all of these pets. If they're not gone by then, I'm going to return them to the animal shelter. Is that clear?"

"S-Sure…" Yumoto's tone sounded scathing as he mumbled. "…Just remember that I dislike you and I will not forgive you for this, you bitch."

"What was that?" Mrs. Hakone threatened a slap, and at that point, I knew that she had truly gone mad. To prevent this madness from getting any worse, I arose and blocked the slap that had come within a foot of Yumoto's face. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

"Preventing the need for me to take you to an asylum, that's what."

"This is between me and my son! What right do you, a stranger, think you have in telling me how I discipline my child?"

"Mrs. Hakone, I'm not a stranger…" I looked at the woman with a serious expression. "I'm his friend."

"G-Grr…" Mrs. Hakone appeared exhausted at all the energy she expended in anger. "I'll deal with you another time. For now, I need to go chat with my friends on Facebook after all the agony you've caused me today."

Just the now-lack of that insufferable woman's presence brought me great reprieve. Not that her opinion mattered, however, because what did matter now was Yumoto and how shaken he appeared. I nearly felt afraid to even touch him or open my mouth in an attempt to make him feel better. But to my astonishment, he was the one to reach out to me. "K-Kusatsu-sempai… I don't know how I can repay you for this, but… Thank you so much for helping me – again."

"It's the least I could do." I smiled, hoping that Yumoto would return the expression – and he did.

"You even called me a friend." Yumoto's grin turned to be even warmer than my own. "You have no idea how happy that makes me."

"Er, well…" Did those words really come out of my mouth? Did I really call someone other than Akoya, Ibushi, or Atsushi a friend? And the utterly helpless, idiotic Hakone Yumoto, no less? "I guess we are friends now, aren't we? We both want to help needy animals."

"Y-You're going to help me?" Yumoto spoke with hope.

"Sure, why not?" It was at this moment that I just remembered the club approval form, and I now took it out of my handbag. "Why don't I start with this?"

"Why…" Yumoto perused that form for a while. "This is…"

"Congratulations, Yumoto. The Animal Rights Club is now an official club at Binan High."

"Yay!" Without letting go of the form, Yumoto swung his arms around my neck and drew his face close to mine. "Thank you, Kusatsu-sempai, you're the best! I feel happy now."

Despite how small Yumoto's frame was, he sure knew how to hug with a ton of force. More than that, though, his face appeared so much more adorable up close than it did from afar. I also had no idea that he used strawberry-scented shampoo, because that smell began to permeate my olfactory senses, and soon I found myself utterly captivated by it…

Dear gods, what the hell am I doing, letting myself being charmed by this dunderhead? To prevent my thoughts from going any more awry, I arose with the intention to head to the movie theatre.

"Kusatsu-sempai, you're leaving now?" Yumoto asked.

"Yeah…" I couldn't turn around, because to do so would likely reveal to Yumoto what I had been thinking. "I'm going to the theatre."

"Really? I'd love to come along!" Yumoto jumped up. "As for the pets, I'll call Gora-chan and tell him to come here. The bath is going to close any minute, so he should totally have the time."

"All right, if you insist."

With that, we both made our way out the house, completely disregarding Mrs. Hakone and the complaints she made over Facebook to her friends. Not that I would care if she tried to stop us, anyway, because I wanted really wanted to spend time with Yumoto. I didn't think I'd ever acquiesce to doing something like this, but… I needed a break from all of that dull paperwork anyway. And it seemed a lot more fun to actually go to the movies with another person.

Maybe I can actually open myself up to others after all.