Author note: hey there. I tried to make this chapter comic, as there's nothing much else going on. Also, I'm afraid I have to change the "adventure" category for something which fits better. Any suggestion?
Also: Summary of the chapter in a single pic in my dA gallery! (SandraMJ)
"Boring?"
"Try harder."
"Insufferable?"
"Keep going, Junpei."
"…Unbearable?"
"No. NO! NOT EVEN CLOSE." Hamuko covered her face in dismay "This is not just unbearable. It's beyond all bearings. Unbearably unbearable!"
"Can you stop your "unbearable" rant? The speech is tedious enough as it is." Minato was in a bad mood. Not only because of the amount of people around, but also because of the fact that the others wouldn't let him sleep through the speech.
"Don't make a show, guys. On a second thought, do it! Maybe the speech will end if you two begin beatin' up each other!" Both Hamuko and Minato glared at Junpei "Just kiddin', man…"
The principal was the one boring the pupils to death for apparently no reason. Hamuko had heard that he was jealous of Mitsuru's speech and judging by Yukari's words, this speech was really similar to their senpai's. Once it was over, all the students ran to their classes almost thankful for having lessons instead of having to listen to the man.
In the afternoon, they had class with Ms. Miyahara, an Algebra teacher who was a bit… Somewhere out there. During her class full of wild results that defied all logic she asked Hamuko when numbers were invented. With a mix of wild guessing and reading the teacher's face as she talked, she guessed the correct answer. People began whispering about how smart she was and she felt she was somewhat more charismatic. After school, Hamuko and Yukari found themselves chatting about several things, not having had the chance to do so in a while. The sound of a door being pushed open without much delicacy interrupted them.
"Arisato?" Hamuko pointed towards the boy sitting behind Yukari. He seemed to be fast asleep on the table. "Uh…"
"What's the matter, Senpai?" Hamuko eyed Mitsuru with curiosity. The red head seemed certainly annoyed.
"I came here to offer Arisato a position in the Student Council. I thought that he could be useful thanks to his great skills as a leader."
"Who, this slacker? In the Student Council? He can't even keep awake during classes! How is he going to help represent us?" Mitsuru seemed even more troubled.
"Well, it was just a small charge to provide me assistance in case of emergency…"
"I can do that. I have enough time to show up to the meetings." Hamuko actually didn't have any interest in the Student Council but her intuition told her she could meet people in there. And hey, Minato himself said that stealing was legit.
"Seems fine to me. Welcome aboard, I'm glad I can count on you." She glanced at Minato. "I had made an appointment for him with the faculty advisor. You can take it by simply telling your homeroom teacher that you're interested. I'll be waiting for you in the Student Council room." Mitsuru walked out of the room and Hamuko muttered a very unconvinced "yay".
"Hey, why did you do that?" Oh crap, Yukari had been listening to the conversation "Why did you STEAL Minato's charge?"
"I didn't steal it! I um… Saved him from having to do that." Hamuko decided that lying was definitely not her thing. Next time she needed to lie she'd ask Minato to use his poker face and do it for her. "Okay, uh, it's kind of a healthy revenge thing between us."
"How is revenge healthy?" the red eyed girl shrugged at the commentary and then left with a mere "see you later".
"Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuurr." Minato made a senseless noise as he looked up from his table "What's up?"
"Hamuko just stole your chance to enter the Student Council!"
"Oh. I see." And with that the boy fell asleep again. Hamuko might have had a point about the boy's reliability during school hours. Unfortunately for him, before Minato could go back to sleep Kazushi grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and dragged him to practice.
The only thing Hamuko had to do in the faculty office was to sign some stuff and soon she was free to go to the Student Council room, but… Rio intercepted her, asking if she would go to practice. The red eyed girl didn't have the guts to say no to Mitsuru and just to go to tennis, so she explained the situation to the tennis captain. Rio seemed quite disappointed but she let her go.
"Everyone, this is Hamuko Seikatsu." Mitsuru introduced her as soon as Hamuko entered the room "She'll be joining us in Student Council." A boy with a yellow band on his arm looked at her suspiciously.
"Hamuko-kun, huh? I'm Hidetoshi Odagiri. I supervise the Disciplinary Committee." The boy certainly looked strict, so Hamuko thought it fitted him. He gave her the very distinct feeling she got every time she met someone who could become a social link.
"I'm Chihiro Fushimi, the Treasurer. I'm a sophomore, and um… I'm still learning the ropes, so… Please be patient with me, Hamuko-san." This shy girl resulted incredibly indifferent to Hamuko, just like Kenji or that Kazushi guy who was always talking about sport in class.
"Nice to meet you all." Hamuko bowed and Hidetoshi stared at her with a still suspicious face, but he suddenly smiled.
"You must be talented if the President hand-picked you. Nice to meet you." Hidetoshi made a gesture so the others introduced themselves, but time froze before that happened. Once again a social link was formed, the Emperor Social Link, which was represented by the picture of a King with a scepter floating next to his right shoulder and a circle next to the left one. The King also had a red hole at heart's height.
"…Today, we'll just do introductions. It'll be your job to help us, Seikatsu. From now on, you have my permission to enter the Student Council Room whenever you need to. That includes after school too. The Student Council meets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We don't meet on days before tests." Mitsuru smiled "Thank you, Seikatsu, for joining us today."
After everyone was dismissed, Hamuko decided to go to the dorm. In the way out of school, she saw Minato -who had obtained Chariot level 2 after becoming Kazushi's rival- talking to Yuko.
"Wanna walk home together?"
"Ah sorry, Minato-kun. I've got some things to do." The tanned girl then walked away, leaving a defeated Minato behind. Hamuko walked into the scene snickering.
"Eavesdropping isn't nice." Hamuko shrugged and both got out of school together "So Yukari told me you got your revenge, huh?"
"Yup. New social link. Oh also, I met someone there who might interest you!"
"Is it by any chance Chihiro?" the girl nodded "Yeah, I know her. I've been greeting her on the corridor during lunch break for a while. The other day I asked her to hang out, she freaked out, and now every time she sees me she runs away."
"I think every girl can see through your intentions, Minato-chan." Hamuko nudged Minato playfully.
"Hamuko-chan, not everyone is like you." Hamuko stopped and looked at him confused "Wait, no, I mean… I don't have the same objectives as you." The girl rose an eyebrow. "I-I'm just going to keep trying to talk to her."
"Whatever. So what objectives did you refer to, exactly?" The conversation in the way back home was more animated than usual.
"S'up?" Junpei welcomed Minato and Hamuko as they entered the dorm. "Yo Minato, I heard Hamu-chan stole your place in the Student Council! Not fast enough, huh?"
"…I wasn't interested, anyway." Minato's bitterness was obvious. The sudden tension between Minato and Hamuko was obvious.
"Uh, Mitsuru-senpai, are you sure you wanna let a girl who's just transferred in?" Junpei was trying to save the day by cheering up the blue haired boy, but judging by the look Hamuko shot him he wasn't doing it very well.
"Excuse me? Minato just got transferred as well! You sayin' I'm not capable of doing this or something?"
"No one doubts your capabilities, Seikatsu." Mitsuru's voice was reassuring yet there was a hint of a reprimand to the brunette for raising her voice "I only needed some assistance, I won't let the responsibilities stack up too high." Her voice suddenly became amused "Could it be you're interested in helping too, Iori?"
"I'll pass, but thanks for the offer." Junpei chuckled awkwardly. After this tense dialogue, Hamuko wrote her signature in the sign-in book –which she hadn't signed in a while- and left saying that she had to attend to her part time job. Minato went after her and they did small talk on the way to the shopping centre. Once in Paulownia, the girl said bye, only to notice that the bluenette had some sort of devious look in his face.
Hamuko got into Café Chagall and headed to the kitchen. They briefly explained what they expected of her as a waitress, gave her some pointers and… A maid outfit, just like the ones the rest of waitresses wore. Not that she minded, though, so she quickly got changed and began working.
She had served a few tables when a familiar voice claimed her attention. She prayed that her ears were deceiving her as she turned around to see a boy with easily recognizable blue emo bangs and a smug smile on his face.
"M-m-m-mi-mm-mi…?"
"I think the word you're looking for is "master"."
"I'm not a real maid, you IDIOT!" Minato's smile turned into a smirk and Hamuko suppressed the urge to hit the guy with the tray where she carried the coffee cups. She took a deep breath to calm down and get in character. "Welcome to Café Chagall! We serve the best coffee in all Port Island!" her grin was so forced that it resulted hilarious "Can I take your order?"
"I'm still thinking." The girl bowed and began walking away "On a second thought." Hamuko approached him again. "A cup of Pheromone Coffee. Bring sugar and milk apart, please."
She bowed again and headed to the kitchen. She continued her job serving people and soon came back to Minato's table with his order, ready to leave, but the boy looked at her expectantly and then tilted his head to point at the kettle with hot milk and the sugar cup. "What, can't you serve yourself?"
"Oh, but I'd love it if you could do it for me. Please?" the red eyed girl let out an annoyed sigh and did as asked. "Nice apron. I didn't know you were the kind of girl to wear ruffles and stuff, but you look cute." Hamuko faltered for a second and almost threw the sugar cup to the ground accidentally. She fought back against the sudden rush of blood to her cheeks and glared at Minato. "That's enough, thank you." She knew he was provoking her, but why, though?
Hamuko tried to go on with her job without minding her dorm mate, but for some cosmic plaything she was always the one designed to serve Minato's table. After about the fifth cup of coffee accompanied by some mocking words, she figured out something.
"You're mad at me for taking your place in the Student Council, aren't you?" the girl asked as she sipped some more coffee into his cup. There was way less people in the café at this hour, so she could take a break and talk to Minato. "I thought we were cool, man."
"We ARE cool." Minato slurped the contents of his cup without milk nor sugar. He just showed he could perfectly stand black coffee and in fact he seemed to be enjoying it more like this. "This is just my counterattack to your counterattack. An eye for an eye…"
"Couldn't you just have, you know, stolen a social link or something? This is ridiculous…" Hamuko took a look at her clothes and blushed "…Not to talk about embarrassing."
"Welcome to the occupational world, the only place where you have to wear as a maid to serve coffee." There was a sudden silence between the teens. "So… You seemed pretty eager to wear the uh… "Battle Panties" yesterday around everyone. What's with going all red because of wearing a maid outfit? I mean, if I were Junpei it'd be understandable, but…"
"The problem is it's you and not him." Minato looked puzzled "How do I explain… I love playing with the other boys. Making advances at them to get their attention is fun –make a comment about it and you're dead- but I feel different around you. I don't have to get your attention, I already have it. Making advances at you is just as fun, though, but… It's not the same."
"So does that mean that even you have standards?" the blue haired boy tried to make clear he was joking, so Hamuko only shrugged and sighed.
"Make of that whatever you want." Hamuko grinned awkwardly as she furrowed her brows "Oh, also… I will stop calling you Minato-chan if you don't tell Junpei that I have to wear a maid outfit when I work here. He'd get creepy even for me." She extended her hand "Deal?"
"Deal." They shook hands and a familiar feeling invaded them. The "other" Fools Social Link had just reached level 2. "Is it just me or we get this stuff every time we make a deal?"
"Dunno, but this has to be most awkward way to level up a Social Link ever." They couldn't agree more on that "Oh hey, look at the time I better get going back to work, see ya!"
Not much after, the café closed. The teens still had some time until it was the hour designated for them to come back, so Hamuko suggested going to the arcade and trying out a game called "Print Club". She took a lot of photos with him with her mobile phone until Minato got bored. Her favorite picture was definitely one in which she appeared behind Minato, hugging him by the neck and smiling coyly at him while Minato looked at her with wide eyes and red cheeks. Right after taking the photo, she began laughing and mentioned something about having a proof for a believable rumor. The boy decided he preferred not to know what she was talking about. All in all, the photo looked really good, so they decided to use it for the Print Club game and keep a printed copied of it. It had way more quality than the one in Hamuko's mobile phone.
The way back to the dorm was calm and soon they were in front of the dorm. Minato seemed to want to tell Hamuko something, but he kept it to himself and wished her a good night.
The day arrived and Mitsuru insisted in going to school with them both together. Neither Hamuko nor Minato liked the idea, but they couldn't just say no to their senpai. In the way to school, Mitsuru explained to them that they weren't allowed to go to Tartarus when she wasn't around, but she usually was in the lounge every night, so they wouldn't have to worry much. She also seemed interested in knowing how they were doing in Gekkoukan.
The day went by quickly. After class, Minato and Kenji left to Hagakure while Hamuko observed them from the class window, planning her own afternoon. Junpei had invited her to watch a film in the lunch break, but she turned him down, promising to go with him the next day as it was Showa Day and there wouldn't be class; right now, however, she wasn't feeling like movies.
"Can I allow myself to turn down Junpei and lose a day in the Competition? Lose a day… Did Igor specify an end date?" she decided not to think about that "When did I get this down? Is it because I didn't buy lunch today?" Subconsciously, the girl walked to the door of the classroom. She'd think better having a walk.
"Oh, Hamuko… Heading home?" Hamuko was taken back to reality by Yukari's words. She looked at her and wanted to tell her that she –surprisingly- needed some time alone. Maybe spend sometime in Wakatsu and eat her sudden sadness with some sushi. However, she got the feeling preceding the formation of a social link, and she couldn't refuse the call.
"Wanna go somewhere?"
Hamuko's new definition of "somewhere" was Café Chagall. She had been promised a small commission for every time she brought a friend –since she and Minato tended to drink impossible quantities of coffee, her boss apparently thought it extended to all her friends- that added to the fact that that night she would be working again meant no more skipping lunch if she wanted to waste money in the arcade any other night. Back to Yukari, the girl seemed really nervous and stuttered a lot.
"There's… Something I need to say to you." Yukari drank some of her coffee as she tried to keep a serious expression.
"This is not a love confession, is it?" The brunette in a pink cardigan freaked out badly, making Hamuko tell her she was just kidding. "What is it?"
"You might not remember but… When you woke up in the hospital… You know after what happened that night the dorm was attacked… You know how I said all those things to you right after you woke up? Like "you're the same as me" and "you're alone" and stuff about your parents?"
"Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was a bit sudden, Yukari-chan." Hamuko said with an awkward smile. She then looked at Yukari intently, trying to encourage her to tell her whatever she had in mind.
"I told a similar thing to Minato. I think that I might've been making assumptions about you. I mean, I lost my father, but you two lost your parents." That's right; Minato was in the same boat as her. She had completely forgotten about that. Yukari went on with her explanation while Hamuko was a bit zoned out. "And even though things may seem the same, people react to them differently…" That was logic. "But I ignored how you might've felt and forced my own opinions onto you."
"Where are you going with this?" Hamuko cut her words, trying to help her get to the point. If the girl sitting in front of her was only trying to explain how she could be a bitch at times, she wasn't saying anything new.
"Look, I've been worrying all this time that I might've said some unfair things to you that day. …And I want to properly apologize for it. I'm sorry." She made a small pause "But… I still do sense something similar between us. You might not like it, since it's the fact that we're missing parents… Still, I've never had anyone who could understand it around me before." Nice. The loneliness inherent of being in the top of the school social chain? "It's different for everyone at school. They have both their parents at home… I get jealous when I hear them complain about getting yelled at for coming back home late. I feel lonely. So when I heard about you… You two… I felt you could save me from that."
Hamuko couldn't avoid smiling, yet it was a wry smile. Yukari had a point in that they all had that in common. However, Yukari had much more than her: She had a mother, and she could remember her father and miss him. Every time Hamuko thought about her parents, she found she didn't remember any of their features; none of the moments they spent together and she couldn't even remember neither their names nor hers, nor how the hell she escaped alive from the incident. The doctors decided that the amnesia she was suffering steamed from post-traumatic syndrome and from the first foster parents she had onwards, she was called Hamuko Seikatsu.
"Yikes! Sorry! I'm being selfish again, I know!" Hamuko snapped out of her thoughts. She began thinking that whatever Minato had that made him be always distracted and in his own world had infected her "But the fact you and Minato are part of the group now makes me feel a lot better. I'm glad that you joined us…" she mentioned something about a pity party, but Hamuko didn't hear it. She was busy paying attention to the card in her mind. The Lovers Social Link had been formed. Hamuko felt a bit bad about this—it was apparent to her that Minato had his eye on Yukari… and many other girls probably; however, he seemed to have a special affection towards her. But, the competition was the competition.
"So do I get freebies if I say I'm friends with the most popular girl in school?" Yukari chuckled but then she seemed to get a bit serious.
"Hamuko, now we're friends and I've confided in you, you can confide in me too, right?" Hamuko nodded "What's going on between you and Minato?" Before the red eyed girl could open her mouth, Yukari added "Those times you've gone to his room, being close even though you guys try to hide it, the fights…"
"We're friends." Yukari looked at her unconvinced. "Well, okay. Maybe not friends. Um… We're just two fools who have the need to compete in everything." It was close enough to the truth.
"…So you two aren't together?" Hamuko smiled deviously at the question. Maybe she could make the afternoon interesting.
"Me and Minato?" she looked in her mobile phone and showed her the photo she took yesterday "You think I'd hang out with a guy with that face?" She could have picked up a… Better photo. One that wouldn't have made Yukari look at her with the weirdest face ever. But no, she chose that one specifically; she wanted to sit back and see the results in school –Yukari totally looked like one of those girls who just love to gossip. Hamuko sincerely didn't like gossips and she didn't gossip often, but unlike Minato, she loved being the centre of attention. She surely had her reason for it… She just didn't remember it at that moment.
"…I see. Uh, anyway, it's getting cold outside, let's head back to the dorm."
As they walked through Iwatodai, they saw Minato wandering towards the dorm. He looked pretty annoyed. Even though Hamuko would have loved to glomp him just to see Yukari's face, she knew better than getting near him with someone else around. Yukari had obviously seen him, but she didn't seem to be willing to approach to him. Hamuko couldn't avoid feeling it was her fault, but oh well, side damage happened often when she had fun.
They entered the dorm separately. Mitsuru was the one to welcome them and right after that, she explained that internet was back. Hamuko didn't even notice it was gone in the first place, she had been too busy trying to put some order in her life to see if she had any Facebook messages from her friends in Tokyo.
"Speaking of the Internet… You play online games, dude? You know, those games you play with a buncha people you never met before. I was totally addicted to this one game, but then I got burned out... Here, you can have it." Minato thanked him and took the game. "It's called Innocent Sin Online."
"I want to play it too!" Hamuko pouted.
"Sorry Hamtaro, it's a one-license CD." Minato explained as he took a look at the cover. It seemed an interesting game.
"Oh I see… Wait, what did you just call me?" Minato ran in direction to the street "Come back here Drowzee!" Hamuko didn't have time to check as she opened the door, but she was pretty sure Yukari let out an annoyed sigh as they were leaving. Hamuko chased Minato to Iwatodai, just to remember she had to attend to her part time job. Minato followed her, considering he could use some coffee. They talked about afternoon in the train.
"I swear I'm sick of hearing about that woman! I don't care just how good she looks, why won't he just shut up?" Minato really seemed out of himself. It was weird seeing him that anxious...
"Hey, Kenji's simply glad because he's got his eyes set on a girl, let him be obnoxious." Hamuko patted Minato's back in reassurance and then began telling about her own day "Yukari spent the afternoon talking about her feeeeeeelings, us and how glad she is that we joined."
"…You became friends with Yukari?" the blue haired boy was visibly down.
"I also kind of told her that we're going out." Minato began coughing like crazy "Well, not really, she asked me and I said no but I showed her yesterday's photo and I think she thought it meant we are going out and I didn't really deny it."
Minato needed a moment to compute the confusing information "Why would you EVER do that?"
"…Scientific curiosity?" Hamuko smiled sheepishly and got a glare in response "It's true! I wanted to see her face!" Minato face palmed much to the girl's amusement. He then groaned something intelligible. "Don't be like that, Minato-kun! I'm sure Yukari didn't really believe me!" Hamuko remembered the promise to stop trying to lie and be convincing after Minato's glare intensified. There was a thick awkward silence between them, only broken by the noise of the wagon. "So like… We also talked about our parents, you know? She was going on and on about how she had felt lonely." Minato was pretending not to be paying attention. "Hey, I was just kidding around, you know how I am. I just wanted to see if it was a believable rumor, duh!" He kept ignoring her "Aw don't give me psychological war bullshit! Talk to me! I'll take you and Junpei to the cinema tomorrow! I'll delete the photos! I'll treat you to-"
"Coffee?"
"I'll treat you to all the coffee you want, just stop being mad at me!" Minato smiled and Hamuko noticed what she had got into "Aw, you're a bastard, you knew that? You're not getting any coffee!" Minato had a brilliant idea.
"Am I, sweetie?" Minato put an arm around the girl's shoulders making her squirm "What's wrong, angel?"
"Minato-kun this isn't funny." Hamuko's face was beginning to match her eye color.
"I thought you wanted a believable rumor, Hamuricchi! And I once played a game about how rumors, if believed enough, became true." Minato pulled her close "It's not so much fun when you're the one feeling awkward, is it? Well, imagine just how awkward I'm going to feel on Thursday when Yukari tells someone who will tell another person who will tell more people about your stupid rumor."
"I'm sorry, okay? Just tell Yukari it was a lie! She'll believe you!" Hamuko's face was getting redder as Minato approached her even more "I'll treat you to coffee!"
"The expensive brand?"
"YES." Minato freed her from his embrace and the girl began cursing at him, attracting the attention from all the passengers.
"Hey, I was just pretending to be you."
"I don't act that way!" Minato shot her an unbelieving glance and Hamuko pressed her lips together as she narrowed her eyes at him "Alright, maybe I do, but you don't have to be a jerk about it." Right in that moment the train stopped and the red eyed girl stormed off. Her anger seemed to go away after a while.
"You know…" Hamuko had already finished working and she was having a last coffee cup with Minato. She was the one paying it, so the boy had better enjoy it. "Yukari asked me what's up between you and me, and I wonder myself. It's like if I knew you for a really long time. I think that makes us act completely different around each other. Why would that be?"
"It's Igor and the Personas' fault."
"Is it just me or you blame them for everything?"
"Could be." The boy enjoyed the smell of the stupidly expensive coffee before he carried on talking. "I have never spoken this much with anyone else, and I don't believe I would dare embrace any other person just to make them get angry at me in a train either."
"Hmmm. I'd normally be the one doing that, wouldn't I?"
"Yeah, you're the ditz of the group." Hamuko kicked his shin under the table. "Maybe we had too much Pheromone coffee?"
"You can never have enough of that stuff." Hamuko gave him a thumbs up. Well she got a commission for bringing her friends. "But yeah you've been drinking hideous amounts of it lately."
"Pheromone excess?"
"Sounds fine."
"And Personas."
"And Igor?"
"And Igor, yeah." Minato and Hamuko stared at each other for a while before slumping on the table simultaneously, completely defeated. "Maybe it's more like… We can be ourselves around each other."
Hamuko looked up at him. "Be ourselves?" In retrospective, maybe she should have thought up that Freudian excuse for her spunky behavior when she was in the thinking mood. Maybe it was Minato the one who wasn't being himself? "Ugh, my head hurts. Let's just leave the topic for now. Wanna watch a film tomorrow with me and Junpei? You don't need him as a social link, do you?"
"Nope, but sorry, I'm going to stay home. I want to play with Junpei's videogame. Also, I don't think he'd be very glad if I went with you two."
"What do you mean?" Minato rose an eyebrow "Oh. OH. You think we…? Nah, man, he's like my bro. Just like you! PERSONABROS!" she raised her hand in the air ready to do a high-five. She lowered it after half a minute with no answer.
"…You know people don't act that way around their siblings, don't you?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure he can tell I'm just kidding." Hamuko furrowed her eyebrows seeing Minato's awkward expression. "Right? Ugh, why do you have to mess with my head so much?"
"I could ask the same question." For the first time since they began talking, Minato looked down and noticed his cup of coffee. "It's cold."
"No shit, Sherlock. I'm not buying you a new one."
The night continued peacefully. As peacefully as it could be with the teens bickering around, that's it.
You must have noticed this by now, but Hamuko suffers a bad case of Butt Monkey. It's just derived from her personality, that's it 8D;
