I tried to recall the details of the nightmare that had caused my messy state this morning. Nightmare might be a bit too much to say as there weren't any abstract monsters, gross displays of gore, or psychotic behaviour in the dream, which would hint at an influence of a recently watched horror movie or grave mental issues.
Not to say it was free of other irritating behaviour, I couldn't exactly deny a strong emotional disturbance either.
I relived the date with Isshiki in my dream. That much should be normal, it was my first date after all. However, the kiss became an endless loop and denied me a relaxing slumber.
How she dancingly positioned herself in front of me, our dialogue, how the distance between us vanished into nothingness, and then the pressure on my lips I had felt.. Everything was exactly as in my memory. I was fine with that much, but of course it didn't stop there. Her confused face afterwards was creating the emotional unrest within me, the sweat I woke up with and the bad mental aftertaste I felt this morning.
Isshiki's reaction had such an impact on me.
It wasn't enough, that the kiss with Isshiki tormented me through the day, now it haunted me even during my sleep.
I could only hope for it to stop once I decrypted this enigmatic behaviour.
This Herculean task proved to be too much for myself though and even my socially reliable sister had faltered before this riddle.
If only I had it in me to freely consult Miura, but that step was still too huge for me. It wouldn't be a problem if it came up naturally, heck, I was ready to jump at any slim chance that would present itself by now.
Life had yet to show me such kindness though, it remained bitter through and through.
It wasn't her confused face alone that made it so hard to bear, ' You were right senpai, hugging is enough for now.' echoed mockingly through my head and had a equally strong impact on me.
Couldn't she have just shown a consequently reaction, like a disgusted face and keeping a certain distance, or a happy one before she hugged me as tightly as she did?
Was it really too much to ask for my first kiss to be normal?
A loud rumble echoed through my room as if to say that I shouldn't question the way of the world. I was denied happiness from the get-go by the world itself.
On closer inspection it was my stomach that cried out for food. Hopefully it wasn't an indigestion caused by the torture I went through last night. I was not allowed to die yet, my sister loved me too much for a bad end to interrupt our route.
Komachi made an appalled face that caught me off guard when I entered the living room.
"Wh-what is it?" I asked as I suppressed the doubt whether my sister really loved me as much as I thought she did.
"Oh it's you. Don't give me such a scare onii-chan." She rolled her eyes and went towards the kitchen.
"Silly sister, who did you expect it would be? Our parents should have left for work already."
Things like these really made me worry about this idiot's future.
"I know that! It's just that you looked so terrible when you came that I wanted it to be someone else." called an upset voice out to me from the kitchen.
The one who should be upset was me right now. So rude.
"Is that another jab at my eyes? Even when you recently told me that they weren't that bad anymore, urgh. Oh my, did you lie to me? I guess it can't be helped since you are a girl and all." So girls gave out fake compliments to get the information they wanted. Another valuable lesson learned from my family.
"Gomii-chan, when you speak about girls like that, it really makes me worry about your future." Huh? This sounded really familiar.
"Isn't it yours and pop's fault for feeding me with all these unnecessary information about them?"
An icy wind came out of the kitchen that made my blood freeze in my veins. "He should really stop talking with you. Or better yet, Stop. Talking. At. All."
Whoah, that came out of nowhere. What did you do now father? That was way over the normal level of coldness from Komachi towards him. It was better to change the direction of the talk before one of those infamous family tragedies occurred that would show up in the news.
"Don't leave yourself out of it so naturally, Missy. You certainly have your fair share in it."
Her head with half open eyes peeked out from the kitchen with 'what are you talking about?' written all over the face.
"Ah? What I do is totally different. Like I said, I only destroy the illusions of yours.."
And like I thought back then as well. I certainly didn't need this kind of imagine breaker.[1]
Oblivious to my thoughts my sister continued.
"...while he simply badmouths everything."
I didn't really saw the difference there as I certainly received similar damage from each of them.
Something else bothered me more at this moment though.
"Anyway, did mom not prepare breakfast for me today?" She couldn't have forgotten her own son completely now, right? The birthday cake incident left behind a huge scar on my heart.
"About that, I ate it already." There was absolutely no hint of remorse in her voice.
Mentally, I fell on my knees as I was dealt such a critical blow. The food wasn't really an issue. I was not like those shounen heroes who had to eat a mountain of food at every possible moment. The issue was my sister turning against me. Of course I knew that the time when a little sister abandoned and stopped taking care of everything for her onii-sama was bound to come, but I thought that was still in a distant future. At least twenty years from now, or something like that.
Just when I needed her help like never before, Komachi showed her worst side.
At least my mother didn't forget me, that kept me from committing suicide on the spot long enough to hear her next words.
"Because of that I could make breakfast especially for you onii-chan!"
...
"Thank you so much!"
My sister is the absolute best in the whole wide world! I'll have to build a statue of her one day. Naturally the best place for it shall be inside my room. That way I could worship her even when society separated us during the nights.
I was ready to stuff my mouth with Komachi's surprise breakfast when I noticed some irritating little red spots inside it.
"Didn't you say you made it specially for me?" I asked carefully..
"Yepp! I did, why?" She responded cheerfully, totally ignoring my clearly projected suspicion.
"It's just that there seem to be tomatoes in it. You know very well how much I dislike to eat them."
"That's why they are in there." Why? Why did she look at me like I was the stupid one? I couldn't follow her logic at all and once more my mood took another hit.
But even if there were tomatoes in it, it was still prepared by Komachi. I had no choice but to dig in. I paid attention to do it in a reluctant way though. Open rebellion against the evil tomato system! That would teach my sister,
I couldn't allow this kind of treatment was to become normal. Unfortunately though, I lacked a proper bargaining chip at the moment to change her behaviour. My time will come though. Hopefully soon. Grrrr tomatoes.
"Good boy, good boy." And now she treated me like a dog. Who was training who? Just what was wrong with this morning? "You know, if you didn't eat so many sweet things, I wouldn't have to do this to you in the first place."
So she did it all out of care for my health?
I'm eating already, don't you see? Stop saying cute stuff like this when my mouth is full. I'm going to choke on my food if you do.
I raised my bowl to my face in order to cover my tears of happiness while I kept eating.
For my own mental sake I trusted her words. She couldn't possible have a hidden, sadistic side right? I refused to believe that there was an evil intent within my cute little sister.
'Don't worry she just wants to play' that were the last words only of brothers who have failed to be one. It didn't apply to me.
I finished my bowl despite the tomatoes and sent one last glance of displeasure towards her way, before I stood up to bring the dish into the kitchen.
I even planned to wash it right then. That was what a proper brother should do after all. It definitely wasn't because I left some of the devilish red vegetables inside of it and wanted to prevent that Komachi saw them.
When I returned to the living room she picked up the conversation again.
"So what was up with you earlier, onii-chan?"
Since I had already told her about the kiss, there was no reason not to tell her how much it affected me and of the nightmare I had.
At times like these the Hikigaya siblings were the closest, my sister even had a look full of pity for me. Thanks to that my mood recovered and hit its peak of the morning.
"Are you even trying?" What a weird thing to ask after such a heart-breaking story.
"Why? Of course I am." I rebuked.
"Yes it was a weird thing, granted. But aren't you a man? Just get over it and prepare for Yui-san's date."
So my sister decided to play the 'be-a-man'-card and sent my poor 'Hachiman' card straight to the graveyard. It was an almighty card that I couldn't even exactly classify as trap or magic card. To me it was a bogus card. Didn't we overcome the traditional roles of male and female? Not like girls wanted a cold-hearted muscle-mountain anyway. Being soft didn't make me any less of a man. I liked my pink anime for children, thank you very much.
Komachi ignored my continuous ramble and pointed at the clock.
"Aren't you going to be late if you keep talking?"
"Ah, damn." I haven't even gotten to the man-tomato relationship part yet.
But she was right about having to leave. I quickly grabbed my bag from my room and then went to the front door where I struggled with putting the shoes on.
"I'm off." I called out to Komachi, who I didn't see after I came out from my room, not really caring whether she heard it at all. Perhaps her lack of consideration towards my confusion about Isshiki stemmed from her non-existent relationship to her?
"Yepp, be careful on the way."
When did she get behind me?! I had serious trouble keeping the little bit of balance I had from being in the middle of putting on the shoes. My sister became a kunoichi, a Komoichi even! Did she learn my stealth skill just from watching me? [2]
Whenever my heart will get over this shock, I would probably start to be proud of her.
But before that, I lost my personal battle against gravity.
However, there was no impact as I was saved by the worlds cutest ninja!
Komachi had grabbed my arm to prevent me from falling to the floor while bearing a sheepishly smile.
I had the feeling that this was one of her planned pranks. Damn, did she toy with my heart.
"Thanks." I pressed a sharp, short gratitude through my teeth.
Escaping her charming grasp was my upmost priority, before I lost control over my body and started to do something unspeakable.
Executing the escape was harder than I thought as she didn't release my arm.
"I'm sure you'll manage to overcome that trouble of yours, onii-chan."
Before I could respond to her supportive whisper I was pushed away towards the door.
When I turned around, she was gone already.
A true Komoichi after all.
But what was with this morning? It had been such an emotional rollercoaster all this time, that I was already tired enough to go to bed again.
As nice as it was to have Komachi's trust and support, once I was alone, the distraction was gone and I was tortured by my memory with full force again. Needless to say that I couldn't concentrate at all during the lessons. Luckily the exams were already over, but I still had to deal with the make-up tests. Hopefully I could press the switch for when the supplementary lessons started and block everything unrelated to learning materials out. The first supplementary lesson for maths was today, but there was still a lot of time until then.
For now it didn't matter that I took it easy and I really could use some relaxing time.
It didn't work out quite as planned though. No matter which posture I entered that normally granted me a peaceful time and stable mind, today I couldn't stay long in any. I continuously shifted from one into the other. The long awaited bell for lunch break saved me from the martyrdom inside the classroom.
The sun shined in stark contrast to my state of mind. Thanks to this, I could at least spend the time on my bench in solitude. The food tasted awful today, not that one could expect more from something with a 500 yen price tag, but it was a mass-produced product which should always taste the same every day, but today the taste was just different.
"Hachiman."
I took another bite and it was even worse than the previous bites. So weird, it was the very same food.
"Hachimaaaan."
Urgh, it reached a state at which it seemed to be poisonous. My whole life felt like I was in the centre of a conspiracy, with the way how badly it always went for me. Usually I dropped such thoughts quickly though. First reason, I wasn't the kind who took himself to be so important that it allowed me to think of others going an extra mile just to deal with me. Second reason, it would have been way too nice to finish me off now that I was already on the ground.
"Hachimaaaaaaaaaaaaan."
Blurgh. I nearly spat out the last chunk I bit off. Didn't look like I could finish it at this rate, thus I put it down on my legs for now. Time to take a break from my break and look around.
"Oh Zaimokuza, you were here?" I asked innocently.
"Hmpf, I have been calling out for you a few times."
"Maybe people would recognise you sooner if you stopped doing it in a creepy way."
"Pnnghyahh! So you did hear me after all. How can you be this cruel to me, partner."
He sank to the ground as if he was cut down, this was the gross Zaimokusa I remembered. Did he break up with his girlfriend already? But he still didn't wear his trademark coat. To confirm his relationship status I threw out a question.
"Isn't that acting included in that contract of yours?"
Immediately he rose from the dead and stood up straight again.
"It's kind of hard breaking with all these ancient traditions, whawha." He replied with an awkward laugh.
It was certainly good to hear that someone still took care of him. He deserved it as, aside from his gross antics, he was a good person, who had helped me out a few times. As one of his few... uhm… acquaintances I should at least reflect a bit on my behaviour towards him.
He was the clingy type so I paid attention in the past not to be too nice to him or else I would never get rid of him again. But I guess I overdid it today, it was not his fault after all that I felt so troubled.
"Sorry, I have a lot on my mind right now and wasn't ready to have a conversation all out of a sudden."
"It's okay partner." He glanced at me suspiciously "But what could cause a problem to you I wonder." What a weird wording, just how much did this guy idolise me?
Nonetheless, an unexpected opportunity presented itself, but was it one I should take advantage of? Would he even be much of a help? Sure, he had a girlfriend now, but that didn't make him an expert all of a sudden.
"Just something concerning the Student Council." I decided against jumping at this chance. Of course I did it purely to preserve his mental image of me. He most likely needed it as spiritual guidance or so.
It had nothing to do with the be-a-man card which Komachi played earlier. There was no abrupt pain that kept me from asking Zaimokuza for relationship advice.
To make sure of that I imagined how I snipped the card into a million pieces. Well, there might had been some pieces that were glued to my finger. How was that even possible? Didn't I only use scissors? Mysterious.
"If you ever want to talk about it, contact me." He offered.
"Thanks." That goodwill of his created an annoying feeling of guilt and I quickly changed the topic.
"Haven't you become thinner? Does it have something to do with your girlfriend?"
"Oh, you noticed?! That's right, there is this incredibly strict diet she makes me go through..."
He continued through all the lunch break and I patiently listened to him, while giving a supportive comment here and there.
This could have been the first completely normal talk I had with him.
Even my food that I picked up again from my legs tasted better now.
I found some form of peace and hoped that it would continue to last after the bell's ringing to end the lunch break.
At least that was partly the case. Not that I dared to ask for more at this point. It wasn't as bad as before, but it was still bad enough for me to hear imaginary 'senpai' calls occasionally. I even started to believe that someone was actually playing a prank on me and whispered it into my ear. That I fell for it every time by turning my head didn't improve my mood either.
Apart from those rare hallucinations though, I didn't notice anything unusual in my own behaviour. I could even follow the classes somewhat. I had my doubts that I could call it a success though, if that stayed only at this level for the supplementary lessons. After all there was the possibility of being held back a year. It was impossible through normal studying to catch up for me. I had neglected maths too long for that. I had to copy everything from these lessons into my memory and papers. I needed myself in top shape.
The supplementary lessons were scheduled at the same time as the club activities. Was this supposed to be a form of punishment? Last year it definitely felt that way, as I was part of the Going-Home Club and everything that reduced my time at home was considered to be a capital punishment.
At the beginning of my time inside the Service Club I wouldn't have cared who was the culprit stealing my freedom. Clubroom, classroom, where was the difference?
Shortly after that though, I would have welcomed a short break from the club occasionally in favour of supplementary lessons, especially during the time that lead to 'the reset' with Yuigahama. The more memories I made within the club, the more I realised that I started to care about being there.
Today, I could feel it as full-blown punishment again, but for other reasons.
I truly missed being in the club, doing the usual things, hearing the girls' laughter and the smell of freshly brewed tea.
"Hehe."
Well I didn't have to miss everything though. I looked at the chuckling girl next to me, who lined up her tools nicely for the upcoming supplementary lesson in maths.
Those who focused so much on preparing for these lessons, were usually the ones who didn't concentrate at all during the actual lesson. Like they were all exhausted from preparing. I would never make such a mistake. Conserving energy was my specialty. So much that I ended up having to attend these supplementary lessons to begin win.
"So they put you in here as well?" I asked that broadly smiling girl.
"Hehe... this is the first time we're next to each other for a class." She continued to arrange her tools. Did she even hear my question?
"You can sit elsewhere if you want. We are free to chose our seat after all."
"Let's do our best! O!"
No, no, you're not Meguri-senpai, stop that act immediately. You're not even close to the image of an older sister. I didn't bother pointing that out loud, I would just get ignored again.
That reminded me though, I still had not received a pat on the head from Meguri-senpai. That was one of the few longings a little sister couldn't satisfy. Maybe I should ask Haruno for that since Meguri-senpai was out of my reach with her graduation?
...
Nah, that would feel way too different from an older sister's patting. A ritual to form a contract with a demon was the first thing that came close to the feeling Haruno would give me in that scenario.
Yuigahama still had her raised hand clenched tightly into a fist, waiting for some kind of reaction from me. Well, if she wanted that.
"Ah right, you mentioned during the first term that you only had scored 12 points and were on probation."
"Nooo! You can't remember that!" The raised fist slammed on the table and made everyone look at us. Her eyes teared up a little. That was only because she hurt her hand right? It had nothing to do with her hating that everyone watched us interacting. "Why do you only recall the embarrassing stuff..." Her voice became softer and softer.
"Then what do you want me to remember?" I inquired.
"Uhm, well you know... something like..." Watching how her face gradually turned red while she struggled coming up with an answer, made me feel like becoming a sadist and watch that expression all day long. "How mean! Stop throwing around those trick questions!" Did my face tell her that I enjoyed her embarrassment so much? I tried my best to erase that grin of mine.
"No, I had no intention to..." isn't it Yukinoshita who comes up with the sudden quizzes? But I never couldn't finish that sentence.
"You idiot! Take that! Poke! Poke! Poke!" I was relentlessly poked, no stabbed, by one of those pencils of hers that she had arranged so neatly before. Odd, I never would have thought her to be the Yandere type. Dangerous and scary. Especially frightening was how she seemed to be so skilled at it. Every attack was a homerun that made me scream internally.
"Oi, quit it! The lesson is about to start."
Reluctantly she withdrew her deadly weapon and started to look gloomy, but the look in her eyes was of someone who didn't give up yet. If I didn't want to fail the make-up test, I had to issue a warning.
"Also no playing around during the class. This is serious."
Her cheeks puffed up and she crossed the arms in front of her chest as she entered her sulking mode. Did I sound too harsh? I tried to save the situation. It would be bad if she failed to advance to the next grade because of me.
"Personally, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I don't want to be in a bad mood because of having to fear repeating a year in the same grade."
When she heard how I mentioned our date tomorrow, she quickly jumped back on her happy-go-lucky train. Just where do they sell the tickets for that?
"Me too." After her chuckle ended, she kept quiet for the whole lesson.
That saved me a lot of trouble. Even my mental struggle with the kiss took a break.
I was such a professional in supplementary lessons that I could quiet everything inside me as easily as pushing a switch.
Well, more likely it was because of Yuigahama sitting next to me. Shielding everything from a date with another girl proved to be the correct way of dealing with the multiple dating. I couldn't let something from the date with Isshiki effect something with her date tomorrow. In Yuigahama's words, it just wouldn't be fair. And I agreed with that.
After the supplementary lesson ended I informed her that I was going to call her tomorrow for the specific time and place where we would meet up for the date.
The moment we separated after the lesson, the switch was turned back to torture.
Couldn't the peaceful state of mind last longer?
The next supplementary lessons for maths were going to be on Monday and Wednesday. The make-up test itself was still far away though. Hopefully, I could resolve the Isshiki-situation till then.
I went straight home on my bicycle to retrieve today's shopping list from Komachi and then I made my way to the grocery store.
Since Miura wasn't here yet, I started the shopping on my own. Towards the end Miura came in as well and I approached her.
"Hello." I greeted her.
She was a bit later than usual, but not too much later for me to start commenting on it.
"Mhm, hello Hikio."
It did seem like something was on her mind, but she didn't say anything about it. I didn't either, as my mind was busy as well. So I simply accompanied her in silence through the supermarket for the whole time as I was practically done with my shopping.
It was the wind that broke my absentminded state. It was not an overly cold one, the weather has gotten gradually better these days, it was just the difference from being inside to outside that got to me to realise that my thoughts had been drifting during all the time in the grocery store.
That kiss.
I just couldn't not think about it. But staying silent would be bad. Without Miura speaking I would never come across a chance to use her words as kick starter to address this topic. Now what could I talk about?
Oh right, the story about how my shoe box became the garbage can for wrappers of local specialty sweets. It even had a girl as main culprit, so it might even open up a chance. [3]
"... and what hurt the most was, that they didn't even try to hide their criminal conduct."
I made it through the story without interruptions. Now that was unusual when it came to my stories and Miura. It wasn't even a boring one. Well, that might have been just for me, as it really did hurt back then. Others might lack the experience to put themselves in my shoes.
It also meant that there was no chance to speak about the reaction to the kiss either. My life continued to be full hardships for me. 'Unfair' wouldn't be enough to describe it at this point. Didn't I try my best when our lips had met? Love and all the accompanying caresses were supposed to come with a natural instruction manual buried deep inside of every person. Even cave men had no trouble with that.
Anyway, back to Miura. Was there a reason for today's behaviour?
I didn't notice anything that could have led to a worsening in our relationsh... connection. That little what we had, I didn't want to miss anymore though.
It couldn't be that my mental state was a possible cause, right? That it jumped onto her like a virus or so.
I refused to believe that. It would prove everyone right who called me Hikigerma in the past. [4] I couldn't allow that.
"Hikio.."
In conclusion that meant something was troubling her for real. What was on her mind? Without any information it was impossible for me to guess the source of her concern. We weren't that close after all. Not that it would have been possible to do that even if we were. Since I had no chance to figure it out, the logical thing to do would be to ask her directly. But was I allowed to do that? I had risked overstepping my boundaries just once, with Yukinoshita. While it was a successful move, we did spend nearly each day together at the club for more than half a year prior to that. My time with Miura was next to nothing compared to that. Even if she told me what was bothering her, could I be of any help to her? In my current state?
I might even mix things up if I were to talk about things like kissing with her, giving her all the wrong signals. The horror that would be the result of such a misunderstanding, I didn't even dare to imagine.
I guess it would be okay. Asking for her problems was way different than pushing my own troubles onto her. That was like...
"Hikio!"
Ouch! One of my numerous nicknames echoed painfully in my ear. Naturally I tried to get away from the source, but a hand on my arm kept me in place. The hand didn't exactly hold me in its grip, it was more like just placed on the arm holding me just enough to not slide off from it, but I surrendered immediately to the little resistance it created.
Since when was it there?
"Wh-what is it?" I felt so confused.
"Really, how can you space out while telling your own story?"
Yeah, how could I?! But was she really the one who could mention that? She didn't seem like she was that into the story herself.
"Didn't I finish it?" My belief that I did was not as unwavering as I wished it to be. Aargh, I couldn't even trust my own memory anymore. It used to be one of my greatest assets! My pride! Stupid kiss.
"Ha? How am I supposed to know that? It was the very first time you told me about it, geez." Her reasoning made sense.
"Well, I probably finished it."
"Probably? ...Hikio, you've been weird lately... Are you okay?" Miura's gaze was locked on me, filled with... what exactly? Hesitation? Worry? Hope? All of them? There were a variety of emotions lingering in her eyes, which increased the difficulty of recognising them. Slowly averting my own eyes wasn't helpful in figuring it out either. The gaze was too strong to withstand though. It wasn't exactly 'powerful' like back in the days when she tried to dominate people with a glare, it was more like... too meaningful to face. It had something of a non-offensive challenge... was such a thing even possible?
I couldn't simply ignore it though, even if I didn't understand it fully.
This seemed to be the moment. I took a deep breath to brace myself. There wouldn't come a chance to sneak in my problem subtly, right? I was a fool to have hoped for that.
"Miura..." My voice was soft. was it even audible what I said? I didn't dare to repeat it though, I couldn't stumble on the very first word or I wouldn't last until the end.
"...could I bother you with a problem of mine?"
There. It was out. I felt like I was going to collapse any moment, this was even more stressful to my nerves than my first confession. I was still pretty naive back then, so even while I was anxious, my mind was more open to a positive end beforehand. Unlike nowadays. Failure, rejection and disposal have become my standard expectations.
Miura's complex gaze simplified tremendously. Instead of a mix of multiple emotions only surprise remained.
However, it was soon replaced by... joy?
Not just the simple 'I'm fine with it' type of joy that she usually expresses with a gentle and calm smile. Her radiant, full blown smile flashed me like a deer caught by the lights of a car. Before my deer-like instinct to escape triggered, both of her hands held my arm now tightly in place with incredible force. That's the tennis ace for you.
It wasn't a squeezing force, but it was nonetheless very powerful in telling me that she wouldn't let me go anywhere.
Miura's new expression didn't last long after seeing the state I was in. 'Just what have I done to the world to deserve these strange reactions all the time' must have been written all over my shocked face. Or more like 'what's up with her to be so happy when telling her I suffered from a problem?' as she had no clue about my specific problem yet. In a panic she visibly tried to calm herself down, albeit she couldn't suppress it completely. Her mouth tried to stay composed as a warm smile, but a few times it twitched into a happy grin.
That wasn't the only thing that remained from that moment the sudden outburst of excitement.
Slowly my brain started to work again after the shock and then I realised...
Like her face, the arms only did half the work. I wasn't completely released yet. One hand was still latched onto my arm. On the side that was the closest to my body to boot! It totally must have looked like a couple's link, but Miura didn't pay it any thought. Wouldn't it become a problem if a neighbour of hers saw this scene?
Her thoughts seemed busy with getting her expression back under her control.
"What kind of problem are you talking about?" There might have been a tiny cough before this question. But if there was, it was too quiet for me to hear and it didn't diminish my adoration for her to sound so casually after such a display. That's a pretty cool skill to have. I often made use of it myself. Unfortunately it didn't activate for my response.
"It's about... the dating thing of mine" I somehow brought out while scratching my cheek, so uncool.
Ouch! Miura's grip tightened strongly momentarily! Was she angry? She shot my a short glance for which her face became partly visible again. The corner of her mouth was raised quite high, what a relief. It was probably her maiden heart that jumped on the word 'dating'. Yuigahama did say that she liked such stories. Good, it should be easier if she was passionate about it. But to even cause a physical reaction, it sure caught me by surprise.
"We kissed during our date."
Ouch! That did hurt. Damn, did she get excited again because I mentioned a kiss?
Wow, did she look angry right now. I couldn't even take a step back because she still held me in her grasp.
"I-it was Isshiki who made the first move! I didn't even notice until it happened!" I could only pray that my verbal emergency protocol would carry me out of the danger zone. With my movement restricted by her like this a physical escape was impossible after all.
Miura's glare softened after I put all the blame on my little Kouhai.
Sigh.
My breathing out to release my tension went unnoticed as we both sighed at the same time.
"That girl again..." Miura said, more to herself than to me. But that last word made me interested.
"Did she do that to Hayayaah!?" 'Hayama as well' I wanted to ask, but the danger I just had escaped was imminent again. Isshiki and Hayama were truly landmine topics for this blonde classmate of mine.
"M-my problem... it's about her reaction... after the kiss..." I quickly tried to get the talk back on track.
Then I started with how we were at the port during sunset to give Miura some context. How Isshiki asked me about on which date to do the first kiss, followed up by my reply being the third one sounded fine. If she weren't that angry shortly before this, I had a hunch that she would have giggled at my rather innocent reply. Damn, now I wanted to hear her do that again to lift my mood as I approached the hard part of the date.
I continued with Isshiki's dance and initial reaction to the kiss, the confused look. What kind of face would Miura make to that part?
Huh? I couldn't see her face that moment. Looks like not only my mood did drop, but also my shoulders and head. When her face moved back into my field of vision I could see how her eyes contained a considerable amount of pity, I could even make out some moisture in the corner of her eyes. Now that was an expected reaction.
But something was amiss.
Compared to my normal stories, Miura had yet to give any remarks. It was obvious that she wanted to do that though, but she bit her lips to keep them shut. I was kind of interested in what she wanted to say...
Wait! I haven't told her the end yet! Based on the information I had given Miura up till now, she probably would mistook me for an awful kisser that got dumped because of that.
Haha, that couldn't be true, right?
I mean, every human should be able to do that naturally. So no way I was one of the rare exceptions haha...
ha...
Urgh, the lack of proper feedback in that area was crushing my spirit easily.
Anyway, I better clear up the misleading train of thought.
For my own dignity as a man.
"A-and then she embraced me and stayed close with me until the end of our date."
"Huh?" Her initial reaction was close to that of my sister, was that a bad sign? I quickly went on to tell her my own thoughts on it.
"She even said that 'hugging was enough for now'. I'm really at a loss what to think of it. Denying intimacy just to seek it again, I just don't get it."
Miura went into deep thoughts, looks like she wasn't giving up yet as my sister did. Instead of feeling trapped by her holding my arm, it now was a source of support. I wasn't the slightest bit anxious while waiting for her conclusion.
"...Have you talked about it with her?"
'Err, this wasn't the answer I was waiting for, it wasn't an answer at all. Answering questions with questions was foul play!' my heart screamed.
'She might simply require additional information.' Luckily my brain interrupted quick enough to stop any unnecessary words from coming out of my mouth.
"No, well,.. wouldn't that be.." I had no real reason that was any good to support my refusal. I simply felt like I would end up inferior to Isshiki if I did that. Such a self-consciously pitiful attitude was nothing I could give a voice too.
Seeing me desperately searching for an answer like this, Miura knowingly sighed.
"Say, what do you think of her?"
What a killer question, no way I could answer that correctly without upsetting someone.
Deeply troubled I looked to the side.
"Uhm, how should I say this?" I adopted the foul play tactic to escape the question.
"Don't you think she is acting too sly?"
"Absolutely." That I could whole-heartedly confirm without delay.
"But despite that, her attacks fail constantly." Straight out calling them attacks huh?
"... they do hit home sometimes though..." Yepp, sometimes they were really potent. Just thinking back on them I had a hard time not to blush.
"That's just because you know even less than her about this stuff." She shot me an accusing look. Why was I receiving the blame? Nevertheless, Miura was right.
"I-I'm sorry for being so inexperienced."
"Hey, don't look so down. It's kinda not your fault... I guess..." That cheer was super... ineffective.
"Anyway, I have seen her doing a lot of various attempts, but they are executed so clumsily. Like her timing is way off, she barely reads the mood and so on. Trust me, in truth she is very inexperienced as well. She might even ask herself the same questions as you do." She took a deep breath to emphasise her solution.
"So my advice is, talk to her about it."
"I see..." Actually her suggestion wasn't that bad, her argument was quite convincing. Thanks to Isshiki always trying to be the sly succubus, I was fooled about her not being a beginner in that field as well.
"Then I'll do that, Thank you."
She gave me a nod, boasting a confident grin that said 'job well done' to herself. It somehow felt like she was belittling me.
Of course I knew that Miura didn't intend to give me such a feeling, but I couldn't NOT act on it. With the mental weight lifted so suddenly, my urge to tease her rose quickly and became too strong...
"You sound so sure, but as long as I've known you, you never were in an actual relationship yourself, right?" I gave her a doubtful look, before I changed into a shocked expression "Could you be an imposter?!"
My acting must have been more convincing than I wanted it to be. Instead of turning Miura's slightly angry but cheerful mode on, in which she would use my body as drum replacement, she looked downcast and sad.
"You know very well, why that's the case..."
"I'm really sorry." Truly. "B-but there was a time before Hayama right? Did you have a boyfriend back then?" I was so troubled that I blurted that out without thinking about possible consequences.
Miura's eyes widened in surprise. It was only now that I realised what I have been saying. I delved into her past, something I normally would never do. Ack, my time being on good terms with her would end now for sure now. 'Well done idiot' I thought to myself, mentally bashing my head against a wall.
But a few seconds past without any backlash from my classmate. She didn't even took her hand of me, instead she talked normally with me.
"Yes, there were a few guys in middle school I went out with. A lot of the boys confessed to me back then. Well, not like they didn't do that when I entered high school at first too. But then I had already seen Hayato and rejected everyone of them."
It sounded like an awful lot of bragging, but since it was probably all true, one couldn't blame her for talking like this.
"Seems like they kept you busy..." I couldn't even draw a single parallel to my own middle school life. Nobody confessed to me, aside from pranks, and I had the most free time out of everyone from my school.
"But they were all jerks, only interested in my body." Miura not only gritted her teeth, but even her hand tightened its grip again. Urgh, I could really feel how unpleasant those experiences must have been. However, I was really interested in this topic, so I endured the pain and prolonged the theme.
"How could you tell? I mean, they might have been just nervous when looking at you."
She creased her eyebrow giving me a 'what a pure soul' look. Or a 'How naive can you be' one. I hoped it was the former.
"Their hands sure weren't nervous when they felt my body." She said sarcastically before going on a rant. "Some even wanted to go all the way! Like immediately! I was mostly 15 during the last year in middle school, I wasn't prepared for that yet."
"A-all the way?" And here I was, not able to deal with a simple kiss, while Miura was confronted with situations in which boys wanted to claim her virginity already 2 years ago.
"So sooner or later, I always had to leave them, like, when they wouldn't listen to me. A few times it felt like escaping. I was totally scared..."
"Guys sound so scary..." After constantly hearing how girls were plotting evil creatures, I now was told that horny boys were straight up beasts. Was there any hope for this world?
"You make it sound like you aren't one..." Stop looking like I was a wild animal that would go on rampage any minute!
"Heah? But I have never done anything like that!" Aside from thoughts and occasional dreams I was a pure soul! The porn stash my mother had found once, was long disposed of. There were nothing left to proof otherwise!
"Who knows what you would have done if you had the chance..." Wait a moment. Her voice didn't sound enraged anymore at all. Even her lips curled upwards, while watching my reaction. What was going on?
Did she set me up when I was the one who planned on teasing her?
I was at a loss for words with my mouth agape. Watching my face with that expression, Miura started to giggle. And as my face turned more and more sour because of her chuckling, her giggle increased till it became a full laughter.
Urgh, should I press the button to end her happy mood and destroy the conversion and end it with a draw?
...
I decided against it. Even if she was laughing at me, just the sound of it made it worth to listen to. Also nothing was sweeter than revenge. I could press the button for that once she calmed down.
But when did she start to tease me? How much of what she said was true?
I was curious, but there was no way I could ask that now. It would be like asking 'Are you still a virgin?' causing all kinds of misunderstandings.
As she was letting out her last laughs, she shook my arm with her hand, which never had separated the link while we talked, urging me to join in her happiness.
I made a thinking pose which was so exaggerated that it was impossible to miss it.
"If all boys are seizing such chances, I wonder if Hayama-"
"NO!" Damn, my ear rang. Miura gave me an angry glance. So predictable. Now that she didn't think clearly I continued.
"Are you sure? He probably was quite popular in middle school as well. With so many girls around him, it must have been impossible for him to control his hormones."
"There's no way Hayato did such things!" Her glance turned into a full-blown glare that reminded me of the time she pressured Yuigahama because of the time she spent with Yukinoshita. However, I didn't fold. It wasn't like I became super brave all of a sudden, but I knew that the next step would take all the hot wind out of her sails.
"Ah, I wonder about that. Didn't he talk about it during the summer camp or at the trip to Kyoto? Aaahh my bad memory. Just what did he say, what did he say?" I was such a lousy actor, but in her state it did still work.
"Haa?!" Miura received a small mental shock. "Wh-what? Tell me what did he say?" She demanded while pulling my arm several times.
"Mhhhhhhh, I'm afraid I can't do that. Didn't he say those things inside the boys room? I don't think I can reveal such secrets without asking for permission." Hayama never said anything when it came to girls. The only thing Tobe could extract from his was the first letter of the girl he liked.
Y.
But according to Tobe it wasn't Yumiko Miura.
"I promise I won't tell anyone, please!" She pleaded to me quite some time until I couldn't hold back my laughter anymore.
When Miura realised I had fooled her, her cheeks inflated so much that she could have been mistaken for an anime character. Her pouting was ultra high in cuteness points, unfortunately it didn't last long as physical punishment followed swiftly. Her free hand hit and poke me till I had to cough from inhaling to much air while laughing.
Satisfied with that she stopped her attacks and to my surprise we had gone past our usual spot. It wasn't on my path leading home, so we must have walked her route.
However, before we could separate, I had one more issue on my mind.
"About tomorrow, because of the date with Yuigahama, I will have to do the shopping earlier than usual..."
"That's no problem. Is 11am okay?" No, no that wasn't my issue. I had no problem with going alone, I just wanted to notify her. For her to change her schedule so natural just because of that...
"Uhm, sure."
Well, it wasn't like it was bothering me, if she suggested it herself it was fine.
Actually that was quite the good thing.
If only she stopped looking at me like she was the big evil wolf about to eat the red riding hood ever since I mentioned tomorrow's date.
That made me feel quite uncomfortable. She still hadn't let go of my arm at any point yet. Not being able to escape only increased my anxiety.
"I-i was wondering if you could give me advices about the dates again the future."
Miura raised her index finger and pressed it against her lips, acting like she was thinking. But it was as fake as mine. Payback time huh?
"I wonder about that too..."
"Please? Pretty please?" Without any dignity I accepted her win for now.
"But I'll only help with Yui's dates." She said with a mischievous smile.
"Mmhh, just getting one-sided help isn't really a fair thing to do...but it's not like Yukinoshita and Isshiki wouldn't profit as from it as well if I get additional knowledge... okay." With that I accepted her condition and achieved my goals for today.
When I tried to get more space between us to initiate the parting formalities her hand still didn't let go. Even if she was cute, I couldn't just take her hooooome, right?[5]
"Say, what are you going to do with Yui tomorrow?" Dangerous! Her prying eyes was now combined with the mischievous smile.
"I can't tell you yet.."
"Haa?! I thought you wanted my help?"
"I said 'for the future' didn't I. I'd like to do the first set on my own to see what I am currently capable of."
"Hmpf." That dampened her mood and I kind of felt sorry for it.
"But I can tell you that it will be something that I learned from you. So thanks."
As expected it confused her a great deal. So much that she took a step back from me, looking at me with a questioning gaze. Even my arm was raised! I wanted to use that chance to turn around to get back to my own path. While she was deep in thoughts I made a few quick steps away.
"Bye, see you tomorrow at 11!" I even raised the arm above my head and waved at her. Such a cliché way of parting. Did I read too many light novels? But it did feel super cool and I wanted to do it once in my life too.
"Wh-wha? Huh!?" I heard Miura saying, but I didn't stop.
Yepp, that was an awesome feeling!
But this parting was the only thing that was like in a light novel. During the entire time we were linked like a couple, our shoulders never bumped together, nor was my arm pressed against her breasts once...
Real life was really cruel.
On the way home I wondered whether it was still okay to think about such things when I dated other girls. Miura probably didn't even notice how long the link lasted. Before I arrived at home, I had seen a lot of girls linking their arms together. It was just what they do. No matter who walked besides them.
After the cooking lesson I swiftly fell asleep on my bed. Without the mental burden it undoubtedly would be a good rest.
Yumiko's PoV
Half of today's diary entry was filled with complaining about Hikio's teasing. He enjoys that way too much. But at least he does enjoy it. Truly. With smiles on his face and real laughter, not just snickering. It was so different from his attitude in school. Yui must see this side of him regularly, is that why she fell for him? I felt a bit envious that the club members got to know this side for much longer than I did.
Despite this thought, my lips formed a smile. I was reading again what I had wrote today. I sure got him a few times as well. His expression when he realised was so priceless. Just remembering it made me giggle.
"Like I would go down so easily, right?" I caressed my diary.
Mmhh? Did I just talk with it? That usually only happened when I was very excited, like when Hayato did something special to me. Why was that?
I looked at today's entry to find a reason. Another topic was the upcoming date of Yui. While I was happy for her, I also felt a little depressed. She had yet to tell me about it, so that wasn't it.
Then it hit me.
"Hikio?" I even whispered his name. He did tell me. But not only that, he also asked me for help. And even if it was just because of his teasing, he did ask me about my past as well. But once the topic was started, he seemed genuinely interested in it.
All of that made me really happy, but was it enough of a reason to be that excited?
I looked at my diary again. It never lied to me. And today it showed me one half about the teasing, one quarter about Yui's date and the last quarter about Hayato.
My eyes widened in surprise, but there was no mistake what dominated this day. Well, there was a lot going on currently on Hikio's side. With the date and so. Like it can't be helped. And Hayato had been rather quiet today.
Was he exhausted from all the extra training for the club?
Next week was going to be a difficult one.
I sighed and closed my diary.
Hachiman PoV
First thing in the morning I let out a big, satisfied yawn. That was the kind of sleep that even the Tenno would be envious of. [6]
But just because I was in a good mood, didn't mean I would help preparing the breakfast.
Nonetheless my sister got suspicious of me real quick, sending me questioning glances. Even my mother had question marks plastered on her face. Hey, hey I wasn't in such a great mood that I deserved so much attention. Only my father was indifferent as usual, but there was a chance that he wasn't even awake in the first place. It was hard to tell sometimes.
I tried to stay out of distances that allowed a proper conversation to avoid any further escalation.
However, when preparation for breakfast was completed, this tactic came to an end.
I could only sit down, full of tension, and prayed for being ignored as normally.
There was a good chance that my sister would just check with me afterwards in solitude.
My mother on the other hand... I could only hope for her to mistake my mood as a sign for a lack of sleep.
To reduce the chances of being questioned endlessly, I decided to gulp my food quickly and barricade myself in my room.
Talking with my mom about my plans today... that would be like way too embarrassing.
Sometimes my mother had very sharp senses, so lying was not guaranteed to work.
As I took my first bite, my mother asked without an addressee.
"Do you have any plans today?" Everyone who was awake knew that I was meant, but as long as I could pretend not be the one who was asked, I would do just that. Eventually Komachi would pick up the conversation that laid dead in front of me.
I did listen in without getting any details. It was just a colourful speech about not doing anything. Similar to what I did in middle school, when I still cared about my image within the family.
It made me proud that my tradition found a successor.
Anyway, maybe I was the one who was overly self-conscious. After the initial random question, nobody made an attempt to include me in the conversation and I started to relax.
Did my father just snore while eating? That was some Luffy level of skill to eat while sleeping. [7]
As I tried to figure out how he did it, I suddenly remembered that I had to do the shopping earlier.
"Can you give me today's shopping list?" I asked my sister.
"Huh? But isn't there still plenty of time left till then?" Was Komachi's bored response.
"True, but I'm going earlier today."
""Why?"" Mother and sister asked in unison. Damn, I got careless.
"N-no particular reason..."
"Then you can just wait till the usual time."
"But it doesn't matter if I go early, right?"
"Oh silly Onii-chan, of course it does. Think about it, the ingredients will be fresher if you get them just before dinner."
"Nah, it doesn't matter whether they are stored in the supermarket or here..." Really sister, think about it yourself before you use an argument.
"Oh I know! If it's too bothersome you better wait till right before the deadline. Didn't you teach me that? Also the bigger the time gap, the harder it's to plan ahead. Right mom?"
To that reasoning my mother could only make a wry smile. But rather than correcting her daughter's way of life, she wanted to pry into her son's life for the first time in years.
"Can't you just tell us why you have to go out of your way?"
Trapped again. Females must have a natural predator instinct.
With no way out, I was about to give in, but then a miracle took place.
The father sided with the son.
Kind of.
He mumbled something like 'It's probably just another prank or so. It's good that you haven't given up yet, but don't push yourself. Just let the boy go. Leave him some dignity.'.
I wondered what happened to my dignity just with his statement. Still I was thankful for the intervention as I reluctantly received the list from Komachi. However, when my mother watched me with a strong pitying look it was hard for me not to reassure her that it wasn't anything bad, but then I would just find myself being interrogated again. Sorry mom.
The moment I made my inner resolve my mother talked casually with my sister again, like nothing ever happened.
Then I realised... Did my mother just try to trick me into spilling everything?
I'll take the sorry back. Such despicable tactics.
Suddenly I didn't want to go on a date anymore. Ah, but shouldn't my sister know of the date with Yuigahama? So she planned to embarrass me in front of the whole family, that evil little rascal.
I strengthened my peripheral sight, but no matter how intense my look was, a Mikuru beam wasn't shot. Not that I wanted to be bitten by an alien anyway.[8]
Just when I wanted quit my unfruitful behaviour, I saw Komachi having a moment of enlightenment with her mouth and eyes going O before giving me a wicked smile and a thumb up.
Didn't she really know before? I said that I was confident that she would make it into Sobu High, but at a time like this even the faith of Onii-sama was wavering.
After breakfast I relaxed according to the laws of this house as best as I could. The only disturbance was my sister asking me a bunch of question of what I had planned for the date. To avoid any leaks to Yuigahama I didn't tell her anything but trivial stuff like the time.
Then it was time to go shopping.
I leaned against a wall, keeping a short distance from the grocery store, while I waited for Miura to arrive. With some time to spare from being slightly too early, plus taking a girl's fashionably late habit into account, I started to write a mail. It was rare for me to be the initiator, but the topic demanded it. There was no way I would be half-assed about it and I made sure for the recipients not to be as well. Although I was confident that one of them would take the matter 100% seriously, it didn't guarantee a satisfying result. I highly doubted anything decent would come out of it, if that person was left unattended.
As for the other... that was a lost case right from the start.
Various memories flooded my head that supported my reasoning for the need of writing this mail.
Being totally convinced of its need, it didn't make writing the message any easier.
Even if the cause wasn't a selfish one, the request the mail contained was.
So I spent my time waiting at the wall with writing, or to be more precise with deleting and rewriting. What a nerve-wracking thing to do on a weekend.
When I tried to change the mail for the tenth time or so, my shoulder was nudged.
...
The processing symbol came and went by so quickly, that I couldn't do anything to interrupt it. Like it was mocking me, my phone displayed the truth. Mail sent. How could this happen in real life?! I could name at least 20 movies, TV dramas and books which contained this scenario. This wasn't funny at all. It was so unfunny that my eyes got a bit teary.
I looked for the perpetrator and found Miura next to me.
"Just why?" Without paying any respect to formalities of greetings I asked the question that danced around in my head.
Flabbergasted from these watery eyes of mine, she quickly touched the spot she had hit and caressed it softly.
"I didn't really hit you that hard..." My classmate said in a sulky voice before continuing with excuses. "Anyway, this is your fault to begin with. When you are spacing out like this you never react to my words, so I had like no choice but to try something different. Now let's go." With a clap, that was stronger than the nudge, on the same spot she left me behind and went inside the supermarket.
How did it become my fault again, I didn't quite get the logical leaps here.
Well, what happened, happened. There was no need to think further about it. I would have sent this or another rewrite of the message anyway.
So I quietly accepted the blame and followed her into the store.
"Here." Miura took something out of her shopping bag and was trying to pass it onto me. "take this."
"Your Miso Peas? They're too heavy for you?" I had a faint idea what she wanted to do and I felt regret for not clearing up the misunderstanding from before the shopping, when I had the chance.
"These are for you."
"You know, you don't have to..."
"You like them, don't you? So just take them."
Of course I was happy about the gesture, these were Miso Peas after all. But more than that I was troubled, since I didn't believe that she did anything that warranted to be sorry for. I would feel indebted to her if I accepted this.
"Well, I guess I can hold on to it, for a while." Tactical temporary retreat! Beating around the bush would just hurt her good intentions and I had the feeling that she would force it on me somehow anyway.
However, I needed to make sure that I'll return the peanuts before we separated.
I heard a strong sigh from her, whether out of relieve or frustration I didn't know.
Perhaps a mixture of 'why don't you just take it?' and 'finally'. I knew it myself, that I was quite difficult to handle.
"Really, you're such a handful sometimes." That didn't mean I was fine with hearing it though! Like she had a right to say that line. She totally ignored my emphasis after all.
Giving the Miso Peas back to her, might turn out to be a tough battle. Now it was me who wanted to sigh.
My phone started to ring the incoming mail tune. Oops, I forgot to put it on mute mode. My loner habits were wearing off. If it were the old me, I would have activated it as soon as I left home in order to not gain any attention from others or to disturb them. Komachi and Amazon did sent me messages regularly after all back then.
What happened to Amazon-chan anyway? The messages became fewer and fewer. Just where did my allowance go these days?
I skilfully let my hand slip into the pocket and turned the sound off without looking. Even if the habits became unreliable, my skills will stay with me until the endgame!
"Sorry." I offered an apology to my conversation partner.
"Won't you take a look at it or something?" That would be the behaviour of a normal teenager these days, but so shortly after realising the change in my habits, I tried to resist changing all too much. I liked how I was after all.
"Nah, I can do that later."
BbbzzzzzbBbbzzzzz... Curse you vibration mode!
"Looks like it's important." Her eyes urged me, no threatened me, to shift my attention to my phone.
So this was what they call peer group pressure, huh? Miura had such a presence that she could be counted as group all by herself. Didn't nobles in Europe address themselves in plural? No doubt left anymore that Miura was indeed a Queen. Q.E.D. [9]
Oh my, about time my maths study started to show itself! Even if there was no maths involved.
This time I sighed for real as I gave in and pulled out my phone.
Two messages, one from Yuigahama and the other from Yukinoshita. They agreed to the request.
"Oh, you're smiling. Did Yui send something nice?" I was asked in a sweet tone that took its own assumption for a fact, not caring about a proper confirmation.
"I'm not smiling! You're smiling!" An overly childish reaction that even surprised myself, but something in her voice made me quite miffed. Her giggling to my reaction made me feel like I played right into her hands. This was the kind of situation I tried so hard to avoid at the breakfast table and I only had succeeded thanks to my father's interference.
I coughed two times to recollect myself.
Being childish was proof that the inner child was still alive. As long as that was the case, one would be taken care of by the parents, or something.
"It's not what you think. I only got an agreement for something, that's why I smiled." I explained myself.
"But it is from Yui right?"
"Well... that might be the case, b-but the smile wasn't because it was her!" Getting worked up at the end didn't help my cause at all. Instead of an understanding nod, I just got another round of giggling. I started to doubt that I ever had a chance at clearing up the first misunderstanding even if I had tried earlier. People just heard what they wanted to. One more sigh left my mouth today.
"About the date... what are you going to do?" She then asked me the question I already had heard yesterday. Not like I couldn't understand that my words before the parting beckoned that question again. But of course my answer would be the same one she heard yesterday as well.
"I can't tell you yet.."
"But you can tell me, like, ...later, right?"
"Yes, after it's done with I can tell you. I mean, I already asked you if I could do that. So, tomor-"
"Then call me today." An absolute demand that threw off my thinking completely.
"Uhm, I don't even know your contact info." I tried to argue.
My classmate simply looked at the phone I still held in my hand. Yepp, that was a really stupid attempt of an excuse, but you couldn't blame me. I felt like I was hit from a truck after hearing that she wanted me to call her.
"I'll give it you." Wasn't that way too fast? I mean I only got Yukinoshita's and Isshiki's info just recently. As my mind was still in shock, my body reacted on its own and presented her the phone.
Miura creased her eyebrow. What now? I surrendered already, what more could she want?
"And you dared to lecture me about something like data privacy and what not?"
"Mhh I never... oh." So Yuigahama really did relay the message back then? Wow, what a shocker.
"She must really like you." I said. "I didn't think she would care enough about the topic and remember a technical term long enough to tell you."
Her creased eyebrow started to twitch.
"Just what do you think of her? Aren't you going on a date with her like about now?"
"I still have some time before it. Although I have yet to complete some preparations." I skilfully shifted all the attention on the second question to avoid answering the first one. No matter what I thought of Gahama-san, coming to a date with a blue eye would be bad for everyone.
Seems like that wasn't necessary though. At one point Miura must have snatched away the phone from me and focused on the display without moving a finger.
Th-there shouldn't be anything to stare right? I carefully deleted my browsing history, even on my phone.
I made a step closer to look what there was to see. Oh, the address book. Was she wondering how few contacts I had? Nah, she probably had expected that. So what was in it that could create problems?
My family should be in the clear and having my clubmates in it shouldn't be unusual. Totsuka as girlfriend might be a bit problematic, but for Miura he should primary fall in the classmate category.
Before I could go through the rest, I saw a ❤ icon on the display. Not just one, but two. And they were tagged next to a certain name. If I went pale now it would be my end. Luckily I saw ✯YUI✯ right there as well, that would reduce my punishment right?
But my classmate just released her focus along with a deep breath.
"You really shouldn't hand your phone over that easily."
"Then you can give it back to me now." What I found to be an awesome retort was ignored. How unfair was that?
"Hey, how do you call me?" She asked me.
Well, wasn't that Miura? I remembered calling her that during her request about Hayama's career plan and there were probably more occasions. Shouldn't she know that?
...
Ah, I know! it was another trick question, similar to the 'How do you like Yui' one...
Damn, she asked that because she knew! It was such a loaded atmosphere back then that I didn't use any honorifics.
It was probably too late, but I tried to fix up my mistake.
"Miura-sa..." Oh no, her eyes flared up. "...ma?" Nice save, but it was extremely embarrassing to address a classmate with sama.
However, her glare didn't soften. Still not good? I was at a loss.
"Uhm, Miura-sama? You can t-type in whatever you want."
Exhausting my options by calling her the usual way, I tried to make up the rudeness it contained with a very generous offer. How thoughtful of me.
It did have an effect, even if just a small one. Still visibly unpleased, her majesty typed her name and contact info into my phone. Very swiftly I must say, which showed the usual affinity between a high school girl and her phone.
Then a sudden realisation hit me, I did it wrong my whole life!
I just had to wear a phone costume and the girls would be swarming around me.
Yeah, like that would ever work out.
My classmate handed over my cellphone back to me.
What? I was completely caught by surprise. Yumiko was written there.
Nah, she didn't want me to call her that for real, right? I mean, I didn't call Isshiki or Yuigahama on first name basis either, just because they wrote it there.
While my eyes were glued to my display, I felt hers burning through my skin, expecting some kind of reaction.
"Oh, the character for 'tender'... that really fits you." I nervously scratched my cheek.
"Haa? You didn't know that?" Another wrong step? Knew it and you were a creep, or didn't know it and they were upset. Girls society wasn't as conform as I thought it would be.
"You see, I intentionally ignore these things in high school, because I was called a creep in mid- mpfh?!"
Isn't it going way too overboard to suffocate me just because I pretended not know how your name was written?
"Not today. You have a date with Yui later, so no bad memories today. Got it?"
I nodded my head, but you know... just because you shut my mouth with your hand, it wouldn't stop my thoughts.
Well in a way it did. Her hand had a very sweet scent to it. Similar to her hair back when she was leaning against me after I explained her the reason why I thought she was lonely.
Did she just got out the shower before she went shopping? That sweet smell was so unfair. I could feel how my soul left the body behind as my awareness faded gradually.
How much time had passed? I couldn't tell, but anything more than a single moment would have been weird and not Queen-like at all.
And once more she proved to be one. Not only was she able to naturally make a classmate refer to her with sama but also got him to give her a kiss on the hand. Even if the latter wouldn't hold any resemblance to a dictionary entry as I made no active movement at all. How could I being as paralyzed as I was.
Oh we were at the usual parting spot already, not the one from yesterday. Should I tag along like the day before? As I asked myself that, I got the feeling that something had escaped my mind...
"Bye, don't forget about calling me later. Don't drag it out or something like you did with Yui when she was sick. Seriously, don't do that."
As I wondered whether that was supposed to be a threat or a plead, she already had left me behind.
Dumbfounded as I was I could only say my goodbye to her back. "Bye." I wasn't sure whether she heard it or not.
Once I realised what I had forgotten, the shopping bag grew heavier. Great, now I had three complicated issues to solve. The date with Yuigahama, the phone call with Miura and the Miso Peas that were undeservedly in the shopping bag.
I pressed some air out of my lungs.
One thing after an other I guess. As the first on the list was the date, I took a detour to another shop before going home.
After I had finished my preparations, I gave Yuigahama a brief call like I promised. I informed her that I would come to her home in the afternoon and meet her there and at which specific time. Initially she was fine with it, but that was before I heard the voice of a grown up woman in the background. For some reason she made hasty protests afterwards. I quickly dismissed them all, saying 'I would ring her doorbell at 4pm and if she wasn't home I would assume to have been dumped. And no matter who talked to me afterwards would be ignored'.
With a sulky voice she weakly agreed to it and if I had superhuman hearing I probably could have listened to the sound of a fist pump by a certain housewife.
Afterwards I sneaked out of home to avoid a interrogation session with my dear sister. I was nervous enough and wouldn't be able to take another lesson on girls from her.
I constantly checked my bag whether I had everything I needed for today's date. All utensils were there. Not that there was that much to look for, each round of checking only took about 30 seconds off the clock. At least I didn't have as much time to kill like before the window shopping with Miura after I had a couple's dinner with Shizu... Hiratsuka-sensei.
Oh right, didn't Miura forbid negative memories today? Yeah~ that dinner never happened.
When I tried to focus my thoughts on anything but food related stuff, my stomach grumbled.
Great now I was hungry. I thought about eating the Miso Peas, but then I remembered that I had left them in my room. They weren't actually a good choice to eat on the road anyway, due to the paste that would be left on the fingers. Even Gahama-san would notice my sticky fingers if I did. So in order to use the washroom with a good reason, I would have had eaten them together with Yuigahama and gave her a good share of it. Despite her figure she was really into snacks.
Actually I had not decided yet on what to do with them. Trying to give them back was only a theoretical option at this point. It had nothing to do with me actually craving for their taste, or not wanting to share them with others.
Looks like it was time to ring the bell. I took a deep breath before I charged heroically at the dragon called 'home date while a parent was present'. It was always such a great hurdle in dating-sims, but it didn't come even close to the anxiousness I felt in Real Life.
I must have been out of my mind when I thought up the dating course for Yuigahama.
At exactly 4pm I rang the doorbell. If I had hesitated to do that, I would have stood half an hour in front of the door like an idiot only amplifying the nervousness over time. But It was just a simple push after all, everyone inside the house knew I would come at this exactly this time.
The first thing I heard were some quick tip-tap noises from someone running. Looks like I better get ready now.
"I'm leaving now Mama!" Yuigahama's voice came faintly through the door.
"Heh? Wait! I wanna see Hikki-kun too!" I wanted to see Hikki-kun just one time as well, but he probably hung out only with those Hikitani-kun and Hikio guys. No place for Hachiman anywhere.
"We have to hurry, sorry!" We did? She shouldn't have any clue what we are going to do.. weird. But that sentence was wrong anyway. Even though I only heard dampened sounds, I was convinced that she wasn't sorry at all.
The door flung open and from below I could see her beaming smile while she skipped the the greeting completely.
"Let's go-oh?" Her eyes darted around in search for me, when she looked down...
"Whaaaaaaaaa~ Wh-wh-wh-wh...!?" Gahama-san lost her ability to speak. An all-time low for her, to even forget Japanese as a whole.
"What?" I decided to help her find the word she had forgotten in a casual tone.
Regardless of how I treated it as the most natural thing in the world, she still blushed. She surely should be embarrassed about forgetting something do basic, but it was our first date together, so I wouldn't mind if she delayed her reflection of her behaviour for an other day.
"Where you trying to peek under my skirt?!" Now that she mentioned it, she indeed wore only a skirt. Just like Miura always did, regardless of any weather condition. Could you please stop fiddling with the hem of your skirt? I moved my gaze away and explained myself.
"I just wanted to do a proper greeting, that's all..."
"On your knees?!"
"Yeah, it's better than getting tackled straight on..." Stop looking at me like I was the unreasonable one.
"I never did that! What were you imagining of how a date started? Wait, did Ihora-chan..?" As I watched how her blush intensified I was wondering what she imagined right now.
Anyway, how could anyone misunderstand what I was doing, really.
"Woof!"
"Ah, here he comes." As soon as I finished the sentence Sable jumped into my arms, waving his tail wildly out of happiness. I nearly had expected him to be sulking that he couldn't tackle me this time, but looks like he didn't care about that at all as long as he was close to me.
"What took you so long?" I picked the little rascal up and asked him.
"wooff? woof!" He answered something that I didn't understand, maybe I should ask its owner? No good... for whatever reason she seemed to be in a shock. As I pondered whether to use the dog lingo app, the main owner arrived at the door.
Yuigahamama gave of the same kind aura as last time, when Yukinoshita and I came here with her daughter.
"Oh my, it's really Hikki-kun. She didn't want to tell me where she was going to, but when she was humming happily I could guess it, hehe."
"Good afternoon, Miss Yuigahama." I gave her a very formal greeting, I even bowed to hide my face a bit.
Wasn't there something missing? Like a denial or so?
Yuigahama's mother did seem to have the same feeling, but after a short break of silence, she picked up the conversation again.
"Why don't you come in? Here, here." With her hands she waved me inside.
"Sorry for the intrusion" I said and did as she suggested.
"Woof!"
The statue of Yuigahama was now splendidly ignored by everyone, including the dog.
Since my classmate was preoccupied and couldn't lead me to her room, I had more time to look around the living room today. Unlike Yukinoshita's apartment it gave off the feeling of someone really living here with a lot of personal stuff on display. But just because it wasn't sterile or very orderly, it didn't mean it was messy. There was no hill of lazily thrown magazines on the table, just a small unordered staple. The couch with its cushions looked inviting instead of screaming 'be careful not to leave any marks while sitting down'. There was even a folded blanket on it which seemed big enough for multiple persons. It signalled a physical closeness of the family that was incomparable to my own. Well, except for Komachi and mom.
"So tell me what did you come here for today?" A direct question from the start, although she seemed to have the right idea already. Well no matter how kind she was to me, first and foremost she was still Yuigahama's mother. If this was intended to clear doubts and prevent misunderstandings, this was just my type of question. And she appeared nice enough to deserve clear answers. Albeit, after my father's stories, I couldn't be sure whether that was all just part of some secret plan to provoke cooperation from me, or if she was really like this. Nevertheless, I answered.
"I came because we agreed to have a date today..."
"Oh my! You're a couple now? I was a bit worried when I saw Yukinon-san. She has quite the stunning appearance, don't you think?" This could only be a trick question, like for real. How was it possible to even ask that to the guy who dated her daughter at the very moment? "And she was so nice and polite too."
Ah, okay. I got. I was temporary confused, because I thought she asked about Yukinoshita. But that Yukinon-san was a whole different person who I never met before. Was she a friend of Hikitani-kun as well? Well, now was not the time for foolish thoughts, I had to correct the big misunderstanding first.
"Ah, no.. we're just on a test date, like to see whether it can work out or so... we're not together at the moment." A slight sadness hushed over her face, but in the blink of an eye she was back to the cheerful mother.
"Don't worry too much, I'm sure it's going to be fine. Oh I know, I'll bring some snacks."
"Please, there is no need to go that far just for me."
"Haha, you're so modest, just like Yui said, but it's nothing, really. I already prepared a tablet, so don't worry." Looks like I still didn't know the code for 'don't mind me' when I was the guest. So troublesome.
As quickly as she had left, she came back with a tablet full of snacks and drinks. It was so packed that it seemed like she had put a lot of effort into preparing this. It sure was not nothing. No choice then, can't let the effort go to waste. It also looked damn tasty.
"Wa! I've got a good idea how to show you that I wasn't bothered preparing this." She put the tablet on the table, next to the magazines. If the mother had the same type of ideas as the daughter... I had a bad premonition.
She took a small block of Yōkan and faced me.[10]
"Say 'aaahh~'." Yuigahama's mother really knew how to make me feel embarrassed so much that I wanted to vanish into thin air.
Sable, who was still in my arms, poked my chin with his nose as if to say 'There goes the food in'. He probably got fed a lot this way.
"aaaahh~" Once more I was urged to open my mouth. Fine! But just one time.
I closed my eyes and while they were closing, I saw Yuigahamama's friendly smile changing into something ecstatic.
"Aaampfh?!" Instead of receiving the food my mouth was covered by a small hand.
"Wait, you can't do that!" My eyes shot open and saw how Yuigahama's mother made a 'aw, so close' face.
The owner of the hand stood next to me. Oh, Yuigahama regained her composure... or not. Her eyes were widened as if she saw a crime in the making. I mean her mother's action did put me in a tight spot, but I'm sure she just wanted to tease me. It wasn't that serious. Also shouldn't you look at your mother? after all she was the perpetrator behind this, not me. Her eyes made me feel like I was somehow at fault. Perhaps I couldn't see the rationality in all this because of the lack of oxygen I suffered from. Would you be so kind and release me please?
Amidst the small tension Sable moved up his head again and licked Yuigahama's hand. Was he still concerned about the food not getting into my mouth? What a good dog.
"Eeek!" My classmate pulled back her hand and held it close to her body while taking a step back and giving me an even stronger look.
Hey, hey it wasn't me! Damn that little rascal.
"Woof!" Yes, you were meant!
"A-anyway, thanks Mama, but we need to get going." But thanks to him speaking up, Yuigahama realised what really had happened, or she just wanted to gloss over it. I wasn't that sure when it came to Gahama-san's moments of enlightenment.
"Where are you going to? I'm sooo interested." She asked her daughter but since Yuigahama didn't know it herself, she glanced over to me. It was my turn to announce the destination.
"We're going to her room." With this my dating plan was out of the back.
However instead of thunderous applause, I got to see two pale faces that twitched in disbelief. I somewhat admired how in synch they were, what a wonderful mother-daughter relationship. But was my plan not good at all?
Yuigahama's mother was the first to get back to her usual expression.
"Oh my, how bold." With a hand a few centimetres before her mouth, she chuckled. Her daughter on the other hand had the colour returned to her face, an ever intensifying red.
Ah right, they probably got some misunderstanding since I was a boy and all, asking to enter a girls room. Don't worry, I'll clear that up.
"It's nothing like t-that. We're just going to study."
The chuckle turned into a full-blown laughter and Yuigahama's soul was about to leave her body. Hang in there! If you pass on it would turn into a quite disastrous dating experience.
Was 'studying' some kind of codeword for anything? My study sessions were always unspectacular, so I didn't know why it created a fuss now.
"I-i'm serious..." I opened my bag and presented the school utensils that were needed for what I intended.
Yuigahama's room was the same as last time, the desk still looked like nobody ever had studied there, the cute merchandise in the rag had become a bit more and the fried pasta, or room fragrance, still spread a pleasant smell.
After Yuigahama's mother had pushed her daughter into the room, repeating sentences like 'hang in there', she brought the tablet of snacks and drinks inside and took Sable from me. Everything calmed down. Time to start studying! If it only weren't for my studying and dating partner who sat in a corner far away and eyed me in a foul mood. I had a slight feeling that she didn't enjoy her date or something.
"It will be hard to explain anything if you keep sitting so far away." My plan would fail if this continued for the whole afternoon, so I beckoned her to come closer.
"Hikki... before I do anything, I need to ask you...are you taking the date seriously... with me?" Was her mood that bad? Well it wasn't actually the typical date out of a novel or soap, but I had good reasons for it. Sounded like a good time to explain myself.
"I do take it serious." I wanted to sound cool, but I was a bit hurt. She should know by now that there were some things I didn't do half-assed. "With you and this date. Studying is an essential part of it. As you might recognise, if you come closer, these are the notes from the make-up classes." I held them up to show her. "I know that you didn't follow the class properly, but in order to do my method I need you to copy it. After all, without passing the exam, we can't be in the same class anymore. I mean, it's not guaranteed even if we both get to the next grade, but it's 100% not the case if you fail. I feel like I would be happier with you in it..." Now wasn't that embarrassing? I sounded completely like fool with my voice getting weaker and weaker, and the way I played with my hair and my eyes that couldn't stay focused on something.
If that didn't restore her faith in me, I would be at a loss of what to do.
"Wa! How romantic!" I heard from behind the door. No, no it wasn't Yuigahama who couldn't stand my Hachiman point raising speech and tried to escape. She was still sitting in her corner, but with her back pressed against the wall and the mouth opening and closing like a fish. My clubmate didn't even react to her mother's eavesdropping.
I kind of expected that meddlesome mother to do something like eavesdropping. As I was in no position to shoo her away, I started a boring topic, so she would leave on her own. Maybe it might snap the fish out of it as well.
"All right I'll teach you my method, but only because it's too late for the normal way. Next year you have to try not to get in the position at all. I'll try too. So first you have to..."
She started all energetically, once she was back to her senses. But like during the make up class, Yuigahama had no endurance for studying. I had to set up several rewards to keep her motivated. It started with allowing her the snacks, but over time the effect of it got weaker. So I had to step up my game constantly, which lead to the current situation.
"Say 'aaaahh~'" Yuigahama had already a grunting face as it was the fourth time she demanded that.
"No, that would be..."
"But you were totally into it when my mother did it!"
"I don't remember that I was. She didn't leave me much of a choice, did she?"
"Then.. then I'll do that too! If you don't say 'aaahh' I'll...I'll..." If she only showed such determination towards the actual studying... my sympathy with Hiratsuka-sensei reached new heights.
"I know!" She said with a triumphant expression. "I'll tell Komachi that you didn't want to do 'aaahh' for me!"
"Why her?" I was pretty confused at that threat. Was there even a reasoning behind it?
"Because you care for her the most!" She shouted accusingly. Hey, quiet down, your mother will get irritated if she heard such a claim. Also that wasn't true. I cared the most for myself, Komachi was a close second though. At least that was what I'd like to believe.
"Mhhh... I still don't see what this has to do with feeding me..."
"Won't she get angry if you don't try reeeeaaallly hard here?"
"Ah, that might be true." But weren't there more things to consider? As I tried to wrap my head around it Yuigahama got more and more sulky.
"You know... you don't have to give it that much thought... it kinda hurts..."
"That's not true. Surprisingly it's quite the important decision now that I think about it. It might give her the idea to feed me if you tell her." If Komachi truly was willing to do it, I wouldn't know how to calculate her points anymore.
"You would let her do that to you too!?"
"It's fine because we're siblings after all."
"Your sister, my mother... I'm the only one being left out..." You don't have to sulk that much. Of course I knew that the beginning of the date would put her in a difficult mood, but I was serious about keeping the possibility of going to the same class alive. Everything else though, developed on its own. Wasn't I the initial victim of the outrageous treatment by her mother?
Still, I did feel a little bit responsible as the one who thought up the dating course. Everyone managed to corner me today, even now I didn't have a real choice.
"Aaahh..." At long last I gave in to her demand.
"Hmpf!" Yuigahama turned away. The famous cold shoulder! Wasn't she eager about it a moment ago? I guess it wouldn't be satisfying if she had the impression that the other party felt forced to do it. Or she was simply playing to be hard to get now all of a sudden. I knew that feeling all too well though. It was a common dynamic between Komachi and I, where I would get ignored after saying something cool and clever. However, when she felt like her points have dropped too much, she would try to raise them with cheap methods again. But then it was my turn to ignore her in turn.
Didn't that make me a 'cold beauty'? Another proof of my handsome face!
Yuigahama didn't fit that role though. Even when sulking her aura was too warm to create that image. Yukinoshita on the other hand didn't even need to try, it was her natural state.
"If you don't do it soon I might change my mind." I tried my usual method, but...
"blllll" All I got as response was a stuck out tongue. This was troublesome, I already figured out what she wanted but I wasn't confident at all to be able to deliver it.
"Would you please feed me Yuiyui-sama?" A slight tremble! But was it a crack in the facade or anger because of bringing up the ridiculous nickname again? I decided to give it one more push as I had no other ideas left.
"I'll never eat again until you have fed me one Pocky, Yui." Damn, a slip of tongue, that was supposed to be the nickname as well. It just proved that I was still completely bad at being the proactive guy. [11] I hope she did it soon. How could I live without Komachi's food? But wasn't getting food from Yuigahama's hand an equally life and death situations? There wasn't a snack hidden on the plate that she had prepared right? I was on the verge of asking her but she responded to my plead beforehand.
"Hikki, would you... would you close your eyes?" Despite her head facing in the other direction I could see how red it was going by the colour of her ear. It was too late to pretend not to have seen it.
Yuigahama shyly glanced over her shoulder, her eyes were clearly moist. Although we have sat in the room for a while now, I felt like I was entering it again. The sweet fragrance from the fried pasta stimulated my nostrils, or was it the very scent of my classmate? Ever since the studying began we were sitting close to each other. At the moment it felt too close and the room seemed to shrink on top of it!
I gulped, and she must have heard it. She took it as a signal to turn around to me. My heart started to beat like crazy upon seeing her face fully now. It really was totally brightly red. And it became bigger and bigger as she got closer and closer. I quickly closed my eyes. That was too much stimulation for me and it got more and more. If a sense wasn't used, the others were enhanced. Who had not heard of that? If someone would told me that right now though, I wouldn't have heard it. The sound of my own heart beat dominated everything. Or at least I thought so.
"You have to open your lips a bit..." Whoah! that tickled. Why was she whispering in my ear? How close was she? According to my nose, very close. Opening the lips? Didn't one say 'mouth' when it came to eating?
Could she really mean... French Kiss?! Would she go that far? Could I go that far? My head was spinning and as if I were under a spell, my lips did as they were told.
It didn't take long till something touched them, pushed them to open up a bit further, passed them and came into contact with my tongue.
That was the most sensual Pocky I ever experienced.
I opened my eyes slowly and saw a satisfied Yuigahama. It wasn't the expression of someone who was happy about pulling a prank. She probably didn't notice what I went through just now. For that I should have been glad, but a very small part deep inside me wasn't satisfied with just a snack.
Later this afternoon I looked at my phone to check the clock. It was about time to finish the studying session.
"All right, this should be enough for today." I started to put my stuff back into my bag.
"Already?! But, but...we can't do that. It's too early to stop!" Suddenly my study partner got all worked up, where was that energy just 30 seconds ago when she laid exhausted on the floor from all the studying?
"But, but... isn't it so late that we need to go?" Meh, that was a bad imitation. Why could I do it so much better with Yukinoshita and Miura? It was nearly like Gahama-san was too confusing for me to copy her well.
The straightforwardness of those other two made it so much easier.
"Heah? We?" The imitation was so bad, she didn't even recognise that I tried.
"Of course 'we', why would I want to go there alone?" I tilted my head in confusion like it was clear what I was talking about. Teasing was so much fun.
"But where? Right now? Uhh...What should I wear?" Wasn't she planning on leaving the house earlier? So I thought she was ready to go outside already, except for one thing.
"I doubt there'll be many people there today, so barely anyone would mind your hair. Just let us go."
"My hair?" Yuigahama softly touched the hair she had turned into a mess during the study session. Her hands had ravaged through it as if there was a hidden treasure somewhere containing the solution to a math problem by chance.
Once she confirmed the hairs' state she left her room without a word, and me alone in a girl's room.
Alright, time to sniff at her underwear! A wicked smile appeared on my face.
Yeah, like hell I would do that. It was such an obvious trap. Didn't the person who did such a thing always get caught in the middle of the act and ended up being in huge trouble? Not like anyone would do it in real life anyway.
As if to confirm me, Yuigahama's mother entered the room a little later. Was I glad that I didn't give in to the temptation.
"You're leaving?" She asked me curiously.
"Yes, if you allow me to take her to the place where we watched the fireworks together last summer that is." I told her so she wouldn't worry about her daughter, but her mother focused on something else.
"Summer? It's been that long? Shouldn't you..." Yuigahama's mother made a dramatic pause.
She wasn't about to ask me why I hadn't married her daughter yet right? The Sengoku-era has long passed! The modern people don't marry before their 30s anymore. A certain teacher was my proof for that claim.
Seeing me that I had broke out in cold sweat, she didn't pick up the sentence again. Hurray for the puppy protection phase when two people weren't close enough yet to cross certain lines.
Although she was the first one to practice that rule with me. So far I have been always picked on, no matter how few contact I had with everyone back in middle school.
"Hey, say..." She moved her face closer to ask secretly. "...have you kissed yet?"
What happened to the UPPP? According to me limited experience in that field I should even fall under the UP3! [12] I shouldn't be confronted with such questions, like at all. After the trouble I had with Isshiki, I preferred to keep kisses out of the first date.
I opened my mouth to say the truth, whether she would believe me or not, I didn't know though. But I had been honest with her the whole afternoon and even if it was embarrassing, it made no sense to change that now. There was someone else behind the mother's back, who had heard the question too. Judging from the downcast corners of her mouth, she didn't take it well.
"Mama~a!" Her voice sounded pained and had a notable crack in it. Yuigahama rushed from the door to my side and squeezed herself between me and her nosy mother.
"I'm sorry, but we have to go now." She avoided eye contact with her mother and used a strong, strict undertone. That must have been one of those secret girls talk Komachi had told me about. She was definitely angry with her mother. I wonder how loud she would get if I wasn't here. When Komachi and mom argued with each other it got pretty uncomfortable at home, the more so when the entry-exam got closer. That was a scary time as they usually worked in a team to keep pops under their heels.
Without waiting for a response from her mother, she pulled me along with her, making me nearly miss the opportunity to fetch my bag. I spoke some hasty thanks to Yuigahama's mother for the snacks, before I was fully abducted from the room.
Despite all this, her mother didn't lose her composure for even a second and wished us fun while smiling merrily. I didn't know if should be impressed by her acting or fear it. There was no way Yuigahamama's blood wouldn't boil under the surface.
On the way to the next step of the dating course, Yuigahama had first apologised to me for her mother's direct approach. But I assured her that I just took it as a mother being concerned for her daughter and I didn't feel pressured by it. At least not that much.
I felt more pressure from her hand, as she never had let gone of it. Not counting the time we had to put on our shoes. To that she giggled, but still didn't let go of the hand. I'm not being taken serious by anyone, ever.
"So... where are you taking me?" She asked, now back to her happy self, swinging our linked arms back and forth slightly. At least I didn't have to worry about cheering her up again.
"To somewhere not that far." Like Isshiki, I kept her in the dark about our destination. As soon as the Chiba Port Tower would come into view she should realise where we were going to. Compared to summer festival it looked quite different there without all the stalls.
"Oh! How pretty!" Yuigahama exclaimed once the mirror like walls of the port tower did its magic with the setting sun's light. She was right, it was really pretty. Even though for residents of this city it was a common sight to us. But some things were just simply beautiful that you get never tired of looking at them. I thought this way as I glanced over to Yuigahama, who was painted in the same light as the port tower. Uhm, Komachi was a great example of it and I didn't have to board a train to see her either. Komachi sure was great. Yepp.
Yuigahama suddenly lost her balance and now not only hands were connected.
Another thing a resident of this city should be aware of was that the train hit the breaks once the tower came into sight. One only remembered such trivial things after they happened again though. Couldn't expect Gahama-san to remember such little details.
Didn't this happen last time as well? The same soft touch as back then made me conscious me of a certain part from her body. I felt dumber than her right now, how could I have forgotten these huge details?!
Did these monstrous things come with a heating included? I sure got very hot, very fast and my face was probably beat red too.
"Sorry." She might have said that, but she didn't back off after regaining her balance. This girl had no sense for space of privacy.
"D-don't worry, wasn't your fault." I responded in a high-pitched voice. Were the breasts so big that the information of the contact got lost along the way or was she really fine with it? Unable to bear the sensation I took a step back, luckily it wasn't as packed as last time behind me, but in front of me the package was more packed than ever.
Suddenly my thoughts were filled with lactose intolerance and how it concerned the Japanese society.
Her hands were really on the small side though, since she immediately noticed my relocation transferred through it. With a small step she closed in, perhaps thinking that I wanted to pull her over. The new distance was notably shorter than before, but at least I didn't climb Mount Fuji anymore.
After I got off the mountain, we got off the train too.
"It's been a while since we have been here." I casually noted.
At first Yuigahama was puzzled, but then she realised...
"The festival!" She exclaimed. "I almost didn't recognised. It's so empty now..." Yuigahama then giggled and glanced over to me. "...kind of makes you feel cold without all the food stalls."
My classmate then snuggled up, interweaving her arm with mine. Her sheepishly smile looked cute enough to let this bold breach of border pass.
Food stalls, ah right, we checked a bunch of them out for Komachi's shopping list.
"The cotton candy stall was over there." I casually remarked without any special meaning.
"Oh, uh.. and the Ramune stall was over there!" Yuigahama got all riled up. "...and... and, the Takoyaki stall was here!" Did it turn into a memory competition while I wasn't paying attention?
"Nah, I'm pretty sure it was beyond the Ramune stall." I corrected her, but not that it mattered where it actually was.
"Urgh..." My classmate's shoulder dropped as if she had been dealt a heavy blow. "..but, I totally remember the apple candy you bought me! That, that was very sweet of you." After the energetic begin, her voice grew softer, making me subconsciously move my ear closer. When it brushed her hair, the two of us noticed how close our heads were and our cheeks reddened quickly.
"I-I had to wait quite a while for you, I was worried the sweets would get cold." Trying to move on from the embarrassing moment I started talking without thinking.
"Sorry, but Sagamin just..."
Oh an unknown name was dropped, I had absolutely no recollection of the girl that had looked down on me upon first sight, dragged Yukinoshita into a workload that made her sick and than failed at the Cultural festival so hard that she tried to chicken out, which forced me to confront her with the harsh reality of nobody really caring for her so that she failed even more at the closing ceremony.
And somehow I ended up being the most hated guy on the campus.
Being in the centre of attention for a few weeks sure wasn't an easy time for me. But yeah, no recollection of her at all.
After the sport festival we came to the unspoken agreement to ignore each other's existence. For that reason I couldn't have any memory concerning her.
"Sorry." Yuigahama said, looking worriedly at my face. I wonder why it cramped up. Walking around on a date with a dark face was no good.
"I should be sorry here, oh we're nearly there." Better to move on quickly with the topic. Seemingly it worked. After a short phase of puzzlement, she lit up considerably when we walk up the hill.
Of course there were no VIP-seats here anymore, but an old bank should suffice.
After I motioned her to sit down, I took two things out from my bag and set them on fire.
"Back then we couldn't watch the fireworks alone... so here." I handed over one of the sparkler for my date to hold and kept the second for myself.
"Hikki, you... wow."
With the sun mainly gone, even the small fireworks illuminated Yuigahama. As the sparks flew away, the light and shadows danced on her face in a way that had potential to rob my breath. Her radiant smile competed with the fireworks about who was brighter, but I had to say that any jury had no choice but to crown my clubmate as winner.
I tried my best to focus on the sparkler, my gaze however, always found its way back to Yuigahama's face.
Fire was dangerous, so instead of facing each other and holding the fireworks between us, I had to turn my body away a bit.
This was much better, my mind came to rest. But so did my guard. Seeing me defenceless like that, my classmate seized this chance for a sneak attack. Soft lips left their first impression on my cheek.
With my eyes widened to the max, I turned back to the perpetrator and was at a loss for words. Luckily, she had no weird reaction, just a happy face of one who had successfully pulled a prank. As I was unable to recover from my state, her happiness turned into a loud laughter, she even had to hold her stomach.
Against better knowledge, I felt like I had been fooled. Thanks to that though, I was finally able to change my expression. What came out was a sulky face.
"At least let me prepare myself mentally." With arms crossed I once more turned away.
"But.. you...It's not like you would do it if I asked you before or anything, right?"
"Says who?" Even if this was the most logical assumption, I was still a teenager. Just from rebelling against unwanted guesses about how I would act, I got quite the boost in confidence.
It's like your mother telling you to clean up the room because she thought you wouldn't do it otherwise. You get all pumped up to prove her otherwise. Once she left the room though, that lack of trust totally stripped one of all motivation to do it. In the end one wouldn't do it, fulfilling her annoying expectations and giving her the victory. If by miracle I actually did as I was told, mom won too.
The mother always won and the son always lost. Just what was I doing to my own spur of confidence right now?
"You would really do it?!" Yuigahama cried out in disbelief.
"uhm, probably?" Her doubt didn't help to keep the little of what remained from my resolve together either. Nevertheless she decided to jump at the opening I presented her.
"Then, let's do it." Ah, so my resolve resettled inside Yuigahama and she used that energy for another attack on me. Wasn't it up to the donor whether he wanted to contribute to the spirit bomb?[13] I never agreed to this!
Oblivious to my internal nonsense Yuigahama's face closed in, only to coming to a halt halfway. She closed her eyes and presented me her lips for the taking.
Huuuuuh?! Didn't we talk about a kiss on the cheek? That was so cheeky, I cry foul play!
Urgh, fine. This was a date after all, so I shortened the distance as well. The closer our lips came, the more I panicked though.
"Looks like I can't after all..." I chickened out and averted my face.
Yuigahama pulled away as well, looking very displeased while watching the scenery from the hill. It was quite heartbreaking to do that to a girl, so I gave her a peck on the cheek like I had prepared myself too. This was my current limit.
Still, I caught her by surprise so much that all she did after the brief contact, was touching the spot where I had kissed her.
Haha, take that payback and cry! Actually no, please don't cry. I didn't want another round of nightmares. Contrary to the spiting thoughts I had to justify my actions for myself, the smile of mine was very gentle at that time.
"Hikki, you.." She never finished what she wanted to say and just lumped forward to hug me. However, we were still sitting on a bench, with both of us turned to each other. Our knees were already very close, and when she moved towards me, they collided. Because of this she did not cross all the distance and ended up with her face buried in my chest. Her knee must have hurt, at least mine did. She didn't come up and just remained there, hiding her face from me which was probably all red. 'What an airhead' I thought as I put my arms around her.
Embracing someone became quite easy after what had happened with Miura and Isshiki.
Feeling my hug, Yuigahama put her original intent into action as well.
"Thank you for the date, Hikki..." Her soft voice filled my heart with happiness. Even with the troublesome beginning, the date I planned turned to be out quite well. Being acknowledged felt really nice, so I returned the thanks.
"I have to thank you for going out with me..."
We remained like that for quite a while before I walked her home.
Yumiko PoV
I looked out of the window at the dark sky and sighed. It was one sigh of many this evening, so many that I have lost count. Yui still had not called me about her date with Hikio. It might be naive to think she would break her silence on this topic especially this evening, though I had no choice but to hope for it.
If her reason all this time was that she lacked some kind of success story she could tell me of, this reason should have ended today.
Unless he screwed up big time.
His mysterious words of what he had planned, I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Additionally, he didn't have a great record in romance, although that didn't seem to be exactly his fault according to the stories he had told me so far.
But still, all this had me on the edge the whole day. Failure would mean two friends of mine ended up being sad, while success had them both on cloud nine. It was obvious which result was the desired one.
At least that was what I was convinced of. In reality, I barely had any solid basis for thinking that a date gone wrong would make them both really sad. My impression of their personalities was all I had.
And Hikio's words that he liked several things about Yui.
He was a very emotional person, I was sure he would need comfort if something bad happened.
Yui was also an emotional person but without her telling me anything I only knew for certain that she cared enough to go on a date. Which wasn't a bad sign, but people dated often during their school lives and it wasn't a rare occurrence, that at least one of the pair didn't do it out of love but interest at best. If the expectations didn't match the result, those just went on and tried going out with someone else.
It hurt a lot not to know what your best friend felt.
I took a look on my phone to check the time.
Time moved on and each and every time the numbers changed it gave me a little pain.
"Yui..." I muttered and sighed again. Then the phone vibrated and I accepted the call before the ring tone sounded.
"Yes?"
"Ah... uhm...well..ehm..."
Instead of Yui's it was a male voice on the phone. A helpless one at that, which made it easy to guess who it was. His antics sure were something entirely else and as I imagined him being at a complete loss scratching his cheek, a smile formed automatically.
"What are you so surprised for? If you call someone you gotta be prepared to talk, you know?"
"Huh? I know that, I was just so surprised, because you immediately picked up. What was up with that? Didn't expect you to be, like, that desperately waiting for my call. Kinda makes me feel like being totally popular you knoooow?" My eyebrow started to twitch. Even after such an obvious blunder he was able to come up with a sharp retort. Did he underwent some crude training for that? I mentally noted to ask him next time I saw him, today though there was a more important matter.
"So?" Since he wasn't starting the topic on his own, I actively pressed on.
"What 'so?'? I don't know what you're getting at." No way that was true.
"The date." Unintentionally my voice became kind of strict.
"Oh, didn't I tell you about it already? I'm sure you even helped me out with Isshiki. Thanks for that again."
He clearly did that on purpose to tease me... or, did the date went so bad that he avoided the topic?
"Geez, I mean the date with Yui, did it go alright?" He should have no way out of the question now, I hoped.
"Well I guess so... I mean she had a home date, at her place of course, so that she could experience the full benefits of it. Isn't that the dream? I would like to have one someday as well."
"Huh? Home date?" My legs started to grow weak and I feared the worst, I even had to sit down on my bed. Was he still toying with me? That had to be it, there was no way even he would do something so... wrong.
"J-just to make sure, what exactly did you with her at her home?" My voice trembled in anticipation of the next outrageous thing he might say.
"We studied of course." He stated as it was the most natural thing to do on a date. This was too much, I started to scream inside my head and my body gave in completely, making me fall on the bed.
"Thanks for that as well." He continued. What? I was completely clueless to what he meant.
"Wait? Why are you thanking me?"
"Because I got the idea from you."
"NO!" I suddenly shouted out, getting even an 'ouch' response from him. My mind was thrown into disarray, only able to deny his claim instead of apologising for the raised voice. "No way I ever told you that, like, ever.. no, just no... no way..." What the heck gave him the impression I gave him such a horrible idea. I tried to remember where that could have come from, but there was really nothing I could think of. There was just no way I would ever do that. But what if I did? Then I was responsible for screwing up their chance.
No, no, no!
"What are you saying? You were very convincing back then after the marathon. Going that far, accepting the hardships of science, just for a small chance to stay together. If Yuigahama fails the make up classes I would lose that small chance as well, so I decided to help her with that. I was pretty mesmerised by your determination, so stop acting like it didn't happen."
What? My eyes blinked continuously as I tried to understand what he had just said.
"What did you say?" I heard the words but it was just too surprising to be suddenly told something like that.
"uhm... I wanted to help her moving on to the next grade?" He hesitated before answering in a nervous tone, omitting the part I would have liked him to repeat.
"Oooo." I let out a pathetic sound thinking 'don't tease me now.'. "not that, the last part."
"Well... wait, are you crying?" Hikio asked me with a troubled voice.
No I didn't. It felt just nice that my feelings were able to reach out and be conveyed by someone. So much that they weren't only recognised but were really felt. After such a long time it was kind of satisfying. It renewed my hope that Hayato was able to do the same one day. Soon. For Hikio to say something like that so casually, he really had a lose mouth once he started talking.
I wiped away whatever I had in my eyes. "Tha-" I tried to thank Hikio but he went on as I was just about to.
"You really don't have to worry that much, thanks to you it really went alright. See, she even fed me a snack." The only one who was worried right now was him, I could tell without seeing his face.
"Wait a moment." I placed the phone next to me, turning the speakers on and made myself comfortable on the bed. "Start from the beginning, would you?"
"Sure, the date started with her thinking I was peeking under her skirt." His matter of fact voice just said another outrageous thing as if trying to gloss over it.
"You did what?" I asked, not able to believe what I just had heard. It looked like I was in for a longer story than anticipated. Really, Hikio.
"Hey, I didn't do anything! I said: 'She thought I was peeking.'. I'm innocent, an animal lover even. I just anticipated that her dog would arrive first bumping into me again. He's quite the energetic rascal. So I was on my knee, waiting for him. I'm the good guy here!"
"I get it, I get it. No need to get so worked up." Did I hit a sensitive topic? Well, with this guy it was harder not to hit one.
"But there was that time in middle school-"
"Stop. I know, I'm sorry, okay? Just don't get side-tracked now." I knew it! Did he even have one good memory of his middle school? What was wrong with that school to treat him that badly.
"Ah, sure." I heard Hikio coughing before he continued. "So after that weird misunderstanding on her part, she was quite shocked, thus her mother was the one who invited me inside. She even offered me some tasty snacks and drinks. Of course I tried to politely reject her in order to not cause her any trouble, but she had already prepared some beforehand." Sounded exactly like Yui's mom. Hearing that I wanted to stay overnight at her place again.
"Luckily Yuigahama recovered before her mother started to feed me." They are still not on first name basis? Wait? He tried to hide another weird detail by saying it normally.
"She tried to feed you?!"
"Yeah, with all the 'say aaahh~' and stuff. It was pretty embarrassing to be honest."
"I can imagine that..." There was some rustling sound in the short pause he made, but I couldn't guess what he was doing. It only lasted like three seconds anyway.
"I revealed what we were about to do on the date, but despite not taking it so well, she still lead me to her room." If it were me with someone other than Hayato, I would have kicked him out right away of he had suggested to stay home.
"Although she didn't participate until I told her the reason for it." Figured.
"How did she react?"
"She was speechless, but her mother was all the more joyful."
"Yui's mom watched over you?" That didn't sound like her at all.
"Not really, well perhaps, she eavesdropped a little.." My mouth formed a wry smile. Now that was the mother I got to know. "At any rate, Yuigahama was cooperative from there
on, until she got the weird idea in her head to feed me like her mother tried to. Oh, isn't it getting kind of late? With school in the morning..."
What? Why so suddenly? It wasn't really all that late. Ah, something big must have happened next that he wanted to end the talk before getting there.
"That's not a problem, I made myself comfortable on the bed. Go on." I swiftly made sure that this wasn't the end for today. I definitely wouldn't want to miss out on what's to come.
"I-is that so?" Hikio's voice got all nervous and more rustling could be heard. The next part contained something huge, I knew it! I was already bursting from joy in advance.
"Where was I? Ah, Of course I refused, it's way too embarrassing right? But then she got sulky and even when I gave in, she didn't turn to me anymore. It wasn't until I said... I won't... eat something anymore... unless.. she... fed.. me once." You don't have to push yourself if it's so embarrassing to tell that you can only whisper in bits and pieces. I was really glad he did though.
An image of how I feed Hayato entered my mind and my face got so red that I had to bury it
into the pillow. Even if no one was in my room to see it, my body automatically acted that way. Hikio was right, feeding could put quite some pressure on oneself.
"What then? Did Yui do it?" There had been a silence, thus I had to told him to go on. He was probably imagining something too, like I did.
"She basically took command from there on, telling me to close my eyes and when she drew so near that my ear tickled from her whisper, she ordered me to open my lips. The air was full of her scent, I totally freaked out inside, but I couldn't do anything to resist her voice. When something entered my mouth..." Whaaa, so detailed! They kissed!? "...I feared it was a tongue at first, but luckily it was just a snack. I aged a hundred years in that moment." So they didn't? I didn't expect them to, but since he worded it like this I still felt only a very little disappointed at this. But he sounded so excited while telling me all the details, to that I could only laugh from the bottom of my heart.
Then a loud bang occurred on the other side of the phone.
"What was that?" I asked worriedly.
"Oh that? I just bumped my foot into something. No big deal." Contrary to his words the pained voice sounded like it was a big deal.
"You're really okay?" He told me the most embarrassing stuff, so why did he have a problem now to say that he was hurt? And why was he walking around in his room during a phone call in the first place? Was he that nervous with me? But then again, it took him some time to brave himself enough to give Yui a call too when she was absent due to her sickness. Him calling me didn't seem to be as a matter of course for him as I had thought. Even though he had gotten used to me talking face to face. Him opening up and do stuff like teasing me, was unthinkable just a little while ago.
"Uhm... ah, her mother then asked me whether we had kissed already."
"Seriously, you rather change the topic to that instead of admitting you hurt yourself?" This guy... and this mother! "She really asked that in front of Yui?!" Her mother was surely straightforward at times, but to be that bold...
"Yuigahama was fixing her hair because it was about time to go outside, she wasn't in the room anymore. She had overheard the question when she came back though. It looked to me like she was quite mad at her mother."
"So you didn't stay as at her home the whole time after all?"
"Well, I didn't think she would tolerate a pure home date for whatever reason, thus I had planned another thing to do."
He did things in a weird way, but he always paid the extra consideration for others when it was needed, making him so reliable. I smiled instantly when the good memories of Hikio helping me resurfaced. Oh no, I couldn't get distracted now, there was one thing he had not revealed yet.
"Did you kiss her or not?"
"I didn't get to answer her as Yuigahama came back and lead me outside. But my answer to her mother would have been no."
"Oh, is that so?" What a let down. But that was to be expected, the kiss with that girl had troubled him so much. "Where did you go to afterwards? The Karaoke bar?"
"Huh, no gosh, do I look like one of those cool kids? I took her to the nearby Chiba Port Tower. There was a festival with fireworks in summer which we had visited back then. Oh that reminds me, we did go to the Karaoke bar for her birthday already. But since Yuigahama is part of those cool kids, my participation doesn't really count-"
"H-hold it!" I hastily called out to interrupt him. How unfair to mention such huge events casually like they were nothing. Was it intentional to avoid certain topics? That sounded absurd considering how open and truthfully he told me everything thus far. I couldn't really put it past him either though.
"What is it?" Hikio's confused voice came through the phone, but for now I ignored him.
Which of these juicy topics should I choose? Birthday or fireworks.
I couldn't decide on what NOT to choose, I wanted to know it all immediately.
"Uuuurgh tell me of the festival then!" In the end I opted for the thing closest connected to today. He better don't think I'll forget about the birthday though.
"You don't have to listen if you don't want to." Waah, his shocked voice made me realise how annoyed my tone actually was. Before he took it the wrong way, I better try to assure him that I didn't mean it that way. Hikio was scarred enough as it was, I didn't ever want to become the source of a new one for him.
"I want to listen, definitely! To everything, no matter how long it will take!" I yelled too loudly in my phone.
"You know, we have school tomorrow. If you stay up that long, Hiratsuka-sensei will punch you." And there he opens another topic I was curious about. But at least his calm voice didn't react oddly to my volume. While I still felt ashamed about this outburst, it didn't hinder me from pointing out the flaws in his claims.
"Teachers don't actually hit their students though... " Also we don't have school tomorrow. Was he taking me for an idiot or was he just trying that hard to end the call?
"For real?!" He exclaimed in a exaggeratedly act of sounding surprised. Did he try to cover for my own outburst by pretending to do the same? He couldn't actually be that surprised about it, even to him this should be common sense... I hoped. Just how often did that happen between these two? I could recall at least two occasions. Again though, this wasn't the time to ask about it right now. Unfortunately.
"You went to a festival- with the club?" The next thing I could only whisper, hoping for a new story. "or alone with Yui?"
"To the festival? We went there alone. However for the fireworks, we took up on an offer from Yukinoshita's sister. So just for that part, we were watching it together with her."
That girl who was also childhood friend of Hayato.
"Did she butt in or what?"
"Thanks to her we could watch the fireworks from the VIP area. It was a decent trade-off for her presence." Was he fine with her being there or not? From what he said I couldn't tell which it was. Asking him might trigger a lengthy excursion though, just like any other topic of his. This was going on the list of topics I shouldn't forget about to ask him later.
With Hikio I wouldn't be bored for quite a while, this was an undeniable truth.
"What happened next?" I asked, because he didn't continue right away.
"Oh not much. We accompanied Yukinoshita's sister to her car and then Yuigahama forced me to walk her home with a cunning trick."
"Huh? No way! How? I don't think she would do that." Yui wasn't that type of girl. She was always friendly to everyone, acting selflessly to keep the atmosphere stable. If she was more proactive towards Hikio, did that mean she was just that serious about him? Or was it another side of her, unknown to me, because she kept it hidden? I was quite scared of the possible answer to this question.
"She totally did! Yuigahama started a whole new topic just before the doors of the train closed. I had no choice but to step out at her station as well. That was an evil trickery, I tell you! It took me waaaay longer to get back to my beloved home because of this. Isn't that unforgivable?" Hearing that I could relax again, it sounded like a coincidence. Even if it was intentional, it was entirely harmless. It definitely wasn't something to get worked up about.
"Don't you like your home not a bit too much?" Thus I asked him mockingly.
"It's completely normal to want to spend all your free time at home. I mean the outside world is full of bullies and people faking closeness to take advantage of you. Compared to that, there are only your family members to deal with at home and those don't even bother to fake closeness."
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad! At the very least your family surely loves you." I refused to accept his words this time. He had to be exaggerating here, like the time he talked about his sister. From that talk I could tell that his family did have a special spot in his heart. And his heart was a good one, without a loving family he wouldn't have it.
"Well there are times when they keep nagging about me out of the blue, so I guess that sort of attention could be called parental love? Ah, but that also fits the bully category. Oh my gosh, if bullies express their affection that way, was I actually the most loved guy during middle school?!"
"Stop it with the exaggeration, I clearly remember how your sister praised you so much during the summer camp that I doubted it being all true. I believe that goes for your whole family."
"Sh-she did that? I have no doubt that my sister loves me, that's why I excluded her by speaking only of parental love. But the thing with the praising... I think she did that only to sell me off to Yuigahama or Yukinoshita. Her praises still count as love though, even if her intention was very rude." And suddenly he got all optimistic out of nowhere, sounding even flustered. How he made up his thoughts was still a complete mystery to me and thus I could only smile in wonder to these switches.
Ahh! We went way off-track without me noticing it.
"And there really didn't happen anything when you walked her home?" I knew he had already said to Yui's mom that they had not kissed yet. But if she was proactive enough to make him accompany her home, it wasn't unlikely that Yui went further and he was just too shy with her mother to tell her the truth.
"Huh? I never said that nothing happened..." Wait, what? So they had after all- "Her mom called her cellphone and she ran off. That's how that day in summer ended." I blinked a few times before I could react again. I had started to feel increasingly happy for them, but before that joy could even reach its peak he killed off everything with that addition. Describing the feeling I had now as 'unsatisfied' would be a huge understatement.
"You..." I couldn't suppress a rather menacing tone, but I didn't care enough to put more effort into sounding nicer. Hikio was doing this on purpose to me after all. He timed his words and pauses way too oddly, giving me false impressions. This couldn't be coincidental. Sending my feelings on a rollercoaster trip like this, it had to be intentional.
"Huh? But she ran..."
"Mmhh?" Using the same tone again I interrupted his excuse even if it seemed valid. But this kind of toying around with me I couldn't allow.
"A-anyway, I took her to the same spot on the hill as back then." Despite stumbling a bit Hikio continued where he had left off. ""Since we couldn't watch the fireworks display just by the two of us last time, I wanted to create such a memory today. I shared the fireworks I prepared beforehand with her to do so. Well, compared to the festival the sparkler was quite petty and she didn't wear a Yukata this time either... so it probably did kind of sell short."
No way it did! Yui would like it a lot, she has to. This was such a wonderful idea. It was so romantic I had not expect it at all from Hikio. This was the highlight of the date. It had been carefully planned through and customised to a point that it was only fitting these two persons and their shared memories.
"For me though it was more than enough, just remembering her illuminated face from the sparks makes me still dizzy..." When he said this dreamingly through the phone, my fingers dug into the pillow. I was already joyous from him sharing this with me this detailed, but...
"... how did Yui react?" This was the decisive point on how the date would remain in their memories. My voice was meek and shaking from anticipation.
"When I averted my face because I was so overwhelmed, she landed a kiss on my cheek..."
Great! My feet were kicking through the air as I laid on my stomach on top of the bed. Giggling without restraint as I congratulated Yui's offence in my mind. Well done Yui!
"So sneaky right? I wasn't even prepared for that."
"Oh stop acting like you didn't like it. Are you playing to be hard to get here or what?" I said happily in jest.
"It's not like it didn't feel good, I'm just saying that I would have liked to be ready for it..."
"I see, so you wanted to be, like, the active one then."
"That's the same loop of logic Yuigahama used!" Hikio exclaimed vigorously. "Somehow it turned the situation into her expecting me to kiss her on the lips. Do all girls think like that?"
My feet seized their moving mid-air, in fact it felt like my whole body came to a halt upon hearing this. Another huge chance for them to get together presented itself. With a lot of anxiousness I was only able to bring out two words.
"Did... you?"
"I.. I couldn't." His response had the tone of defeat in it. This meant he actually tried. I let out a long sigh as the tension left my body.
"Sorry." Most likely because he heard my sighing he felt the need to apologise.
"Don't be. It was too much for you to do so suddenly, right? After all you told me so far, it's understandable." Even so I hoped for more to happen between Yui and Hikio and thus I was sighing.
"Don't forget that her actions were quite cunning in the first place. It would have been wrong to let her succeed after using such evil schemes." Back to rebutting just five seconds after saying sorry?
"Huh? She was not doing anything bad!" Just how stubborn could one be? But I also had the impression that he wasn't all that serious with his last words.
"Whaaaaat? For real? Does that mean that I better should not have giving her some payback?" Or was he? His voice was convincing enough to make my face pale and I felt all the warmth leaving it. Oh my.
"What. Have. You. Done?" Even my voice got cold, but I was still collected enough not to shout at the phone as I pressed out the question word by word.
"Yikes! You know, just payback... the eye for eye kind of thing. So when she looked away from me I managed to sneak in a kiss on her cheek too." It took me a few second to let these words sink in and understand them. He did?
I buried my face into the pillow to silence my scream as much as possible.
"Aaaaaaaahh~"
With the pillow being drastically deformed from my action, the phone slid off the pillow, over my arm and towards the edge of the bed. In an attempt to catch it before it fell, I reached out to it. But my hands had held onto the pillow and the distance was too short to turn it around before reaching the phone. With quite the force, my backhand collided with it and sent the phone flying across the room.
"Oh damn!"
Being on all four I crawled off the bed and hurried after the phone.
"Ouch!"
My head collided with the desk-plate under which the phone had come to a halt. Instantly some tears formed in the corners of my eyes as I rubbed the hurting spot.
"What was that?" I could barely hear Hikio's voice calling out to me. The loudspeakers must have turned off from the fall.
"Don't mind it, I just dropped my phone." More or less. I might never hear the end of it, if I described it more accurately. He wouldn't let a chance like this slide, considering his teasing nature.
"You're crying?! Is really everything all right?" My whimsical voice had betrayed my effort to conceal the state I was in.
"It's fine, geez." I tried to back up my words with some pressure, but due to my nasal voice it came out pretty awkward. Even though I tried to keep him from asking further, he didn't let the topic go.
"It doesn't sound fine at all." He sounded truly sincere in his concern. Such a worrywart. It made me feel bad that I thought he would make fun of me at every opportunity. He was so unlike the male idiot trio of our group, who constantly mocked each other.
"H-how did she react?" I tried to go on with the actual topic so he would drop the current one.
"You know her, she can be pretty clumsy when getting excited. She ended up crashing her knee into mine. So what was that just now?"
"It was nothing." So stubborn. "Yui was that happy?"
"Nothingness can't make you cry. Well it might do, because it's you..."
"Ahem!" I coughed strongly to make him stop before he could say something rude.
"... who knows if it was happiness. She might have been simply upset because she wasn't careful enough to prevent my revenge. Did you see something tragic on TV just now? What's up with the tears?"
"No way I would do something like watching TV while talking to someone. You think I would be that rude?"
"Mhhh, it would bother me a bit, but just doing something else while talking to me would still be better than how people usually treat me. Like ignoring me outright, hanging up or not picking up in the first place. So even if it was normally considered rude, you would still be one of the good persons in my eyes. Ah, do you cry because the call lasted longer than you can endure me?"
"What? No geez, I just bumped my head okay? Don't make up such awful reasons, even as joke."
"Hitting something while being on the phone happens more often than I thought. I'm glad not to be the only one. Calls are so dangerous, I probably shouldn't do that ever again."
Ah that's right, it happened to him earlier as well. It made it less embarrassing, if only slightly. Of course I ignored his obligatory attempt to reduce the time socialising with others. If bad behaviour doesn't garner enough attention, kids usually stop their antics.
"Is Yui's knee fine?"
"Asking only about her knee, huh?" I still couldn't tell properly what caused him to become very sensitive from one moment to the next. Not even if he really was effected by something or just pretended to be so.
"Sorry, was anyone of you hurt?"
"Thank you very much for asking, I was fine. Didn't notice any odd motions of Yuigahama when I walked back home either."
"Eh? that was it? The date ended so suddenly? Is that some sort of punishment for not asking about your knee? Are you that mad at me for real?"
"What? No. That's a weird question. One has to go back home after a date. Can't do anything about it. Unless it was a house date that is. They are really underestimated by society."
"There was really nothing more?" Another kiss perhaps?
"I never said there was nothing more, I only told you how it ended."
"Nice. What did you two afterwards?"
"Well afterwards... I walked her home. I feel like we're running in circles here." His confusion sounded legit, which made it all the more aggravating for me.
WAAAAAAAAAAHRGH! The scream echoed in my mind. He couldn't be like this for real, there was definitely some plotting going on at his end of the line. Hikio purposefully wanted to annoy me. I was sure of this.
"I heard earlier on TV that there was going to be good weather tomorrow." I said nonchalantly, but for the next part I dropped the temperature in my voice intentionally. "It's great and all for when I will see you tomorrow at the supermarket... In. Person. Right?" I had to remind him that the distance the phone created wouldn't last forever. For the last part I tried to sound as cheerfully as possible. "So is there really nothing you might have missed to tell me?"
A gulp was coming out of the phone first, but then he told me more of the date.
"Ohhh, I just remembered. She... kind of did thank me for the date while we hugged each other. But that was all." So that was really all huh? He probably scratched his cheek again while saying that. Yui was a nice girl so of course she would thank him. "H-hug?! Where did that come from?"
"Remember when she crashed into my knee? I somewhat pitied her back then and.. well, I'm not really sure why, but somehow I did that." Of course I expected him to cheer someone up with words, he was a very caring from what I experienced with him. But direct physical contact? That left me speechless.
When I cried last week he refrained from anything that added further contact. It could have been just an awkward situation for him, seeing someone cry was not a pretty sight after all. But even afterwards, when we were in a better mood, he always paid attention to keep a distance between us. Only when I dictated the closeness by grabbing his arm and keeping him in place, Hikio seemed to accept it.
How long did Yui and Hikio know each other now? Half a year? No, more. The tennis match was only a few months into the school year. Will it take him as long to warm up with me to this degree? Dropping his resistance to freely interact, just how he felt like. I hoped not and I didn't think that was the case. His teasing side was progressing way too quickly to imagine it taking so long. The rest was bound to catch up too.
Just naturally fooling around, smiling and laughing. Together with Hikio, Yui and everyone else. That was the scenery I wanted.
"Uhm, still there? She probably fell asleep. Well, it's school tomorrow anyway and Hiratsuka-sensei can be scary.. I better hang up now." I snapped out of my thoughts, did I really make him wait that long?
"There is no school tomorrow." For my goal I guess I have to be patient. "But we can stop for today though. We'll see each other soon again, so it's not like it's rally over. At the supermarket as usual, right?"
Yes, there was no need to rush. Things between him and Yui seemed to progress smoothly, so even after graduation he wouldn't be completely out of our world.
"Then uhm.." Despite wanting to end the call all the time, he couldn't without doing it properly. Even if it was hard for him. I guess I'll help him out as thanks for telling me all this.
"Good night, Hikio."
"Yes... good night to you too."
"Hikio? You did well."
After a short silence he ended the call.
Fuuuh, that was one tiring talk. Not that it was only a roller coaster, but keeping him on track wasn't easy at all. And avoiding his landmines was nearly impossible too.
All my limbs lost their strength soon after. With the head resting on the pillow the phone was still in my line of sight. But it was fun, hearing his innocent steps into romance and learning more about his true relationship with my best friend. It was truly a good harvest tonight.
If only I could have heard this from Yui.
But even as I laid there awake for another half an hour, waiting for her to call me, the phone remained silent.
Should I text her how her day was? No. I put the phone down next to the bed. I had to be patient. She will probably tell me soon. Tomorrow maybe. She must just be exhausted from the date as I was from the phone call.
I rubbed the spot on my head which had hit the table earlier. How could such a thing even happen? It was a special call in more than one sense, the first one with Hikio.
Hachiman PoV
Who was the idiot to set up an appointment this early in the morning? I could barely get out of the bed today. Why should I even? It was a Sunday. There were many more of these questions on my mind, but I didn't want to answer any of these. In the end it was all coming down to me, yesterday's hardships and the upcoming event on the day after tomorrow. The third of March would be on that day, one of upmost importance. For that I organised today's assembly with Yukinoshita and Yuigahama.
Last evening, after I ended the call with Miura I fell asleep quickly. The date with Yuigahama went smoothly and even my expert for this stuff gave me her approval. I could sleep without regret. With all the tension gone, I felt so tired that I noticed just how much I was needing some rest. The date was already taxing enough, but the phone on top of that was an overkill for me. Talking alone with Miura wasn't that much of an issue anymore, but did she have to say that she was on the bed like I was at that time? Imagine laying on the bed and the school's most beautiful girl talks directly into your ear, of course one would feel tense. I couldn't lie still from that point anymore. When she laughed so sweetly, I felt like a goblin was about to possess me.[14] I never sat up so quickly on my bed as in that moment. But before I could get off for good, my heels crashed into the bed frame.
Phone calls were way too dangerous for someone as me. Finding a way to prevent others expecting me to do them, was of upmost importance.
Miura would probably prove to be the hardest opponent on that matter. I couldn't really tell who was in charge yesterday. Since I was the one calling it should have been me. But she surprised me right from the get-go, and after her bewitching laugh I seriously struggled to remain in control of the talk. But when she went on the offensive, I had no defence left to speak of.
Thus it was unexpected that she allowed me to finish the call that easily. The Queen showed some generosity to the peasants, huh? And I even felt grateful for that, urgh. This made the whole image of a social ladder a lie. Ladders could be climbed, but I had not advance one step on it.
Robbing me of the concept of an enemy was a strategy of nobility. I desperately needed an opponent for the upcoming battle to prevent further calls. She is way to skilful at handling people. An amateur like me couldn't hope to stand a chance.
I looked at the clock. Damn, thanks to me sleeping this long I had no time for a proper breakfast. My gaze fell upon a little box I got from Miura yesterday. The Miso Peas. Well, she said herself I did well yesterday. I'll just treat the box as reward for that.
So much for returning them.
After the bliss from digging into one of my favourite snacks, I sneaked out of the house without my sister noticing. I had no time for an embarrassing interrogation on two delicate matters.
"Isn't this totally cute?" A girl holding a dog plush said.
"She would probably be more satisfied with this." Another girl holding a cat plush responded to the first girl.
"But she seemed to have so much fun with my dog..." Girl A didn't back off.
"If she preferred dogs she would probably own one instead of a cat." Girl B tried to reason with Girl A, but I doubted there would ever be an understanding between a cat-only person and a dog-only person.
"See? See? That's exactly why we should get her this dog, since she already has a cat after all." A sound argument from the first girl. I must confess it surprised me a little.
The second girl put her hand on the chin trying to think of a way to convince the other. "It might put too much stress on the cat to see a dog inside the house."
She was showing the concern for the wrong being. The one to get the present should be the one fine with it, right?
"She did say that the cat was bothered by the dog last time... but... but... Ah I know! Let's just ask him which one–" Both of them looked my way for whatever reason. The two girls went stiff the second our eyes met each other.
"Hahaha, let's look for something else." Y#1 put the dog back onto the shelf. "He doesn't seem to be fine with plush toys... what a scary look"
"Perhaps something more practical would be better?" Y#2 proposed but kept the cat in her hand for a while longer.
What's with the scary comment? Yuigahama and Yukinoshita should be used to my face already. I sighed and turned my head to look for something else myself.
Woah! What a scary guy! Yakuza?
I was so startled that I didn't realise that I saw my own reflection in the mirror.
Did I had that look on my face for the whole day? No wonder why they couldn't settle for a present if I looked that serious.
Not that I could help it though. Komachi's birthday was that serious to me.
My sister was probably fine with whatever they gave her, but the hurdle of pleasing the brother was too high for them to overcome.
I lost count on how many times I had seen this scene already. They spotted something they liked, argued about it, looked my way for confirmation and then put it back to look for something new.
We would never get done this way.
I stopped in front of another shelf. This might do...
"Oi, what about this? It's not expensive either." I called out to them. Even if it was for my sister, I couldn't just let other people spend too much on her. Our parents were spoiling her enough as is already.
"Didn't he say he would leave it to us?" Yukinoshita remarked as she moved over to me.
"His affection for Komachi-chan is very worrying... but this looks very plain though." Yuigahama remarked as she inspected the item I had presented them.
"Fool. It's about the symbol. If you explain it properly she will love you until the end of time... oh wait, I probably shouldn't let you gift her something so effective." Before I could put it back though Yuigahama had snatched it away from my hands.
"I don't really get the symbol stuff, but looks like we found a super good present."
"I think I understand what he is aiming for with this." Yukinoshita hit the mark with her following explanation. Thank you very much for that sharpness of yours, number one ranked in Japanese. NOT.
"Yukinon, let's look for a better design hehehe." My other club member suggested.
Damn, now it was pretty much impossible for me to top that present.
Like the girls did earlier, I continuously picked up items, evaluated them and put them back after not deeming them worthy to be the best present ever. Unfortunately I raised the bar myself that high.
Being an Onii-sama was not an easy path in life.
Unable to decide for quite a while what was the right present, we took a break to eat at Saize.
To be accurate, the girls ate, while I was grabbing my head in frustration.
"Hikki, don't you overdo it? If I'm stuck, I always take a break."
"If all you do is take a break you'll never get things done." Like a mother Yukinoshita reprimanded Yuigahama. "However, sometimes it's wise to take a step back to see something you previously had overlooked."
"That! That was what I meant!" My classmate cried out.
"Sure... " I mumbled without thinking beforehand.
"I really did! Uuugh.." Now I made her sad.
"That is very unlikely, didn't your mother teach you not to lie?"
Shouldn't she be asking that herself? Yukinoshita seemed more of a strict manner-teaching mother to Yuigahama than the actual Yuigahamama.
The newest club member addition sprawled over on the table, defeated by her foster-mother.
Before the club president could deal the finishing blow, the conversation was interrupted by me.
Grooowl. To be exact my stomach interfered.
"Ah! No way you could find something with an empty stomach." Another birdmen logic from her, but at least her spirit was restored. That was her most potent skill, and maybe the only one she had. There was barely anyone else who could come back so quickly after being talked down. I have seen that numerous times with her. I might have grown soft because of yesterday, but weren't we a bit too hard on her sometimes?
"You might be right."
"She is?" Yukinoshita was as surprised as I was by the words that came out of my mouth.
"I guess so?" Before I could be enveloped in a conversation in which I wouldn't find a single argument to support my agreement, I wanted to stand up and get me a meal myself.
"Oh, here." Aware of my intention, she was quick to pick up on these kind of trivial things, Yuigahama presented me a bit of her own dish.
"Say aaah~"
I shouldn't be blamed for my mouth opening on its own, I was hungry after all. It couldn't be an instantly conditioned automatism, right? She wasn't some kind of secret genius trainer, I hoped.
Yukinoshita watched the scene in front of her with widened eyes.
Now that I thought about it, it was the first time Yuigahama brought something up that happened yesterday. Up till now there wasn't any difference from our usual group dynamic. Most likely out of concern for Yukinoshita, who was the only one still waiting for her turn in this dating cycle, she paid attention not make her feel left behind.
Frozen in midair of standing up, with my mouth opened, I tried to think about what to do now. Yuigahama also became stiff when she realised that she ruined the effort she had put in so far.
I concluded that I shouldn't leave them alone with a situation like this. Not that it would turn into an argument between friends. Thus I sat down again without eating what was offered to me. My heroic sacrifice to endure the hunger would probably not honoured accurately.
Both, Yuigahama and I, were red to our ears, but thankfully Yukinoshita didn't pry into this matter, not even voicing a complaint of any sort. Instead she started a new topic to give us a way out of the situation.
"What does Komachi-san wants to do on her birthday?" At some times, she actually was the well-behaved girl everyone thought her to be. It might have been the first time I ever was on the one receiving it though.
Nevertheless, it made me feel like I was indebted to her. I should try to make her date very comfortable for her.
"Our parents will take her to a restaurant in the evening, but before that I guess she wants to spend time with her brother at home the most." That should be the most logical assumption.
"After all you made us go through you don't have anything planned yet?" Yuigahama remarked astonished.
"Didn't you listen? I clearly said the LOCATION of the EVENT." What's with these popular kids these days? Everything home-related seems to have been banned from their vocabulary. No home-dates, no home-birthdays... what's next? No home-sleep? Like hell I want to be a homeless.
While Yuigahama was making a sour face to my katakana, the ever so quick on the uptake club president directed a very problematic question at me.
"You basically want to invite us to your home?" She was right, that's what I had said. Although, I never had that in mind. Can't a brother just fantasise some quality time with his sister alone at home?
"Actually no. Komachi would just get all excited and clean the whole house if she awaited you as guests. Better not to make her go through all this effort while she is still recovering from the entry-exams."
"Hikki's home... you could help her out." Yuigahama was really excited out of nowhere. Didn't she see our living room already when she brought Sable over? No need to get worked up over revisiting. Well she went 'ohh' and 'woah' at the most mundane things, to a point it was actually annoying. Or did she expect to have the party in one of our rooms? What if she separated from the group using shady reasons like going to the toilet? I wouldn't be able to monitor her all the time, especially with other guests present. If she was spying around the house she would probably look for my underwear and sniff at them right? Beautiful girls always do such stuff in eroges to the unpopular outsiders. It was probably because she was a dog person that she had no choice but to sniff around. What should I say to prevent that horrible scenario?
"We can't do that, Komachi's sick right now." Perfect reason found, I was so proud of myself that I wanted to pat my own shoulders.
"That's why you should... help her?" My classmate looked terribly confused from my response seemingly having no impact on her solution she already provided.
"If she is so sick that she can't even get started with the cleaning, I can't even help out." Looks like she still didn't get it. Even Yukinoshita was failing to see behind my reasoning according to her tilted head. Thus I had to give some further explanation. "Helping is per definition only a support, If there is no action to support, then the help is obsolete."
"If she's sick, why don't you clean the house on your own?" Oh, I never thought Yukinoshita would be interested in sniffing underwear as well.
"I can't. It's against my principles." I said firmly while crossing my arms.
"That's odd coming from a house-husband to be." Yukinoshita flicked her hair while giving me a mocking smile.
"I'm shocked club president-sama!"I exclaimed overly dramatical. "Isn't it the core principle of our very own club? Teach them how to deal with their own problems, but not letting anyone abuse us as some cheap handyman! Right now I can embrace the Service Club's spirit so whole-heartedly like never before!" A sarcastic grin spread on my face which was creeping my club member out so much that they pushed their stairs away from me.
"Strange. It sounds so horrible, yet I cannot find a fault in your wording. If you twist it like this, I suddenly don't want to be affiliated with this club anymore." Hearing Yukinoshita saying this, Yuigahama suddenly behaved quite unusual.
"Huhuh, it totally makes you feel like being a bad guy for some reason. I don't like that at all." She stared into her president's eyes as if she wanted to transmit her thoughts. Obviously this shouldn't be possible, even among the girl society, unless it was Yukinoshita's fault as she was so not part of this girl society in the first place. All she did was tilting her head in wonder of what Yuigahama was trying to do.
As she made no progress with Yukinoshita, my classmate simply went into action.
"Yukinon, let's quit the club."
The two of us were deeply shocked upon hearing these words.
"Wha...?" I at least nearly managed to get a whole word out to question the meaning of her words, but Yukinoshita was completely unable of a reaction. What was going on?
The one who had dropped the bomb grabbed her friend's arm and and pulled her of the chair.
"Let's go Yukinon." Like a puppetmaster with her puppeteer she lead the, seemingly now former, club president away from the last remaining member.
"You can't be serious...?" My joy of bringing forth a full sentence under this condition was non-existent.
Step by step these two moved away, Yuigahama said something into Yukinoshita's ear, but the distance was already large enough for me not to understand her words.
Yukinoshita nodded! And now they picked up their pace. Were they really going to leave me behind? I didn't think my words were that bad actually to be the source of this development. Cool Hachiman, stay cool. At the very least Yukinoshita had to be able to recognise that my statement wasn't to be taken all that serious. If I think calmly I should be able to-
Ack! They were already about to leave the family restaurant.
"Come back, you can't leave me alone in the club!"
Yuigahama stopped in her tracks and looked back to me grinning like she won a competition. It was very annoying to be the one losing to one of Gahama-san's schemes, if only I had more time to look for a solution. I always knew that deadlines were my mortal enemies.
They came back to my table and Yuigahama spoke to me.
"You said something?" Was it the first time I heard her mocking tone? Yukinoshita's behaviour must have rubbed off on her after all this time.
"Nope." I sure didn't say anything.
"And what is this?" She pushed the display of her phone way too close in front of my face. If I didn't have known the content already, it would have been impossible for me to read it at this distance. And I got defeated by such a person? Urgh.
"Who knows? A text message perhaps?" Like I ever would create a scene in a restaurant by shouting out loud.
"Teehee, for someone, who badmouths the club all the time, this text was all wuuaaah, wuuaaah and totally desperate to the max. Right Yukinon?" I'm not some whiny child, even Miura wouldn't go wuuaah either.
Yukinoshita took a look at the phone after it was presented to her in a more usable manner than when it was shown to me.
"Indeed." She looked at it rather intensively. "I'd like a copy of that."
"No problem, here you go" A second later Yukinoshita's cell phone vibrated.
"I didn't know you were that interested in what I write."
"Don't be silly, this audio recording will serve as good blackmail material, no... slave whip perhaps?...ah insurance for when you're slacking at the club again." Woah, should I count that as an effort to sugarcoat her words or did she aim to scare me out of my mind?
"Demon, are you even trying to-"
"I think Hiratsuka-sensei would like have a copy of it too. Oh you wanted to say something?"
"Not a thing mam." I felt the lash that bounded me to the club getting shorter and shorter. Yukinoshita resembled her mother so much this moment.
"It's good to see you truuuuely caring about the club after all. To me too... it's very precious..." Oh now Yuigahama was trying to be nice again huh? Too bad, it was payback time.
"Of course I care about preserving the club, after all Komachi might like to see it."
"You did that just for your sister?" It was like she didn't know me the slightest.
"Haeh? Why else would I?"
"Oh you! Now I really feel like quitting!" Sweet revenge was sweet.
Talking about Komachi reminded me of our actual topic again.
"Just where do all these popular girls go for their birthday nowadays I wonder. It's like I have no clue at all." I glanced at Yuigahama.
"Hmpf." As expected she entered her sulking mode after I drove her crazy again. The option to get her back to normal from last time couldn't be applied now with Yukinoshita being around. "I wonder if there is a club or something filled with nice people in it that could me help to learn what those kind of girls like to do on their birthdays. If only it did exist, I would be super grateful and all that. Probably."
Yuigahama visibly twitched with her whole body and it seemed like she would only need one little push to give up her resistance completely. "Isshiki knows all the hot and trendy stuff right? Asking her seems like a good idea as she is the closest in age with Komachi. Too bad though that there is no one willing to share their knowledge who actually knows my sister."
Even Gahama-san would see through the most obvious provocation I ever formulated. And indeed, her eyes gave me quite the intensive glare. For her level that was. It was still miles away from when people like Miura and Kawasaki had their stand off, or when Miura and Isshiki competed over Hayama... or Miura and Yukinoshita over Hayama's past... just who did I end up adding to my contact list on the phone yesterday?! She seemed so harmless with me that I forgot all those heated occurrences. However one couldn't even compare all that to the cold eyes of Yukinoshita's mother.
"Fine." She said finally. "Yukinon, let's help Komachi-chan out as she has this completely useless brother." Oi, no need to be that harsh. Graduating to an Onii-sama required years of continuous dedication and solving many situation of life and death to please the whims of a world-class sister.
"For her sake it does seem like the best course of action. It would be cruel of us to leave it to her incompetent brother."
"yeah, yeah, thanks for taking care of her. I'll go and look for a present meanwhile." Their words pained my heart so much that I had to retreat from the scene. Just kidding. It was simply the opportunity for me to look further for a present in peace. From the way they chatted with each other, I figured that the almost-feeding incident had lost its impact already. One thing less to worry about.
"Wait. Before we can conclude on what we can do for her birthday, we need to know how bad her condition is, Hikigaya-kun."
"Oh yes, yes, you said she was like sick or something."
"Indeed I did... she has severe may sickness. So a birthday party at home is no option this time." I quickly thought up a reason and tried to sell it with a serious, deep voice and a stern look. At least with guests that was. A sister and brother only party at home was more of a cure than a bother.
"So it's really no good huh?" Yuigahama whispered to herself. When I created a bit of a distance I heard her questioning her friend behind me. "Yukinon, what's this may sickness?"
My pace increased rapidly while I headed for Saize's exit.
Without any disturbance I quickly found a suited gift for Komachi, I even had time to get a piece of candy on top of that before my phone vibrated. It was Yuigahama wanting to know where we could meet up again as they had settled on what to do for my sister's birthday.
From the meeting spot we went directly to a fitting location and made a reservation for Tuesday. I received a lecture by Yukinoshita and Yuigahama on how may sickness was no real sickness, but over the course of my defence the subpar student among us switched sides and so I won 2:1. I must say that I quite enjoyed how we spent our time and the sight of a slightly sulking honour student.
Afterwards it was time to go home and rest till the shopping had to be done.
With only three hours worth of rest, I made my way sluggishly towards the supermarket. The lack of free time was paying its toll on my mind and body. That, or I started to feel homesick from just stepping one foot out of the door by now. This meant my relationship between home and me took the next step in evolution for mankind. Wow, it sure did sound amazing of me.
So why did someone as great as me had to spend precious time on such a menial task again?
At least with Miura it wouldn't feel as long. Because she would keep my mind too busy with all the talking, I wouldn't even have the time to think about time processing.
Unlike now. Each step was filled with boredom and impatience, could the grocery store not appear already? When I ate the Miso Peas this morning, I was reminded of the phone call with their previous owner from the night before. Ever since then a thought was stuck in my head and I couldn't wait to confirm the mental imagination which I couldn't shake off.
I sighed, so disappointing...
"What?" Miura asked me with quite the irritated expression. Well, that was understandable. When she arrived here, I had stared intensively at her forehead and just sighed out from my crushed expectations- no, dream! Vision even! It looked so cute in my head after randomly imagining it while eating the peanuts.
Hauuhh, no Miunicorn. Not even a little horn was to be seen. My imagination had been running wild ever since, increasing the size of it each time I passed the toy section with the unicorns, to the point it wasn't humanly possible anymore. I nearly bought a unicorn as gift for Komachi's birthday too because of it.
"I just wanted to check whether you were hurt badly yesterday." Which was true, and good for her that it had not been the case, I guess.
Her hand reached automatically to the spot she had hit her head on. So it really was the forehead, such a waste for no horn to show up.
Could I ever look at this madly blushing girl again without thinking of something horny though?
"Could you please not bring that up..." Could you please stop being all embarrassed, I don't know where to look.
To avoid starring at her I turned around and looked for something that was on my shopping list to keep myself busy.
"Thanks." I heard from behind.
For what? Shouldn't it be more like 'sorry' for not being a Miunicorn?
As requested from me, I didn't bring up anything from yesterday's call and thus Miura's face regained its normal colour. Maybe that was an early thanks for that?
Luckily, or rather unluckily, I had enough stories left from my past. Like always Miura proved to be a good listener. While I was standing in front of the snack section of the grocery store to quickly check whether there was anything worthwhile to get for the birthday party, Miura looked at me with suspicion in her eyes.
"Don't tell me you got addicted already." Mh? What did she mean by that? Oh, I realised that subconsciously placed myself directly in front of the Miso Peas.
"There would be nothing wrong with that, even if it were the case. For a citizen of Chiba that is."
"Just because we're pretty much the only ones eating them, it doesn't make us special in any sorts, when dealing with their side effects."
"Side effects?" Was I actually about to get trumped in Chiba Trivia?
"Peanuts actually contain a lot of calories, you have to watch out not to eat too many of them." Ah no. Just the worries of a girl in the spotlight of the school society.
"Sounds like you endured some tough battles..." Miura nodded, looking downcast to my remark with her shoulders dropped. So she could keep her self-restraint despite liking them a lot? Pretty impressive. "Kinda makes me feel pathetic for eating them in one go... oh by the way, thanks for them. They were quite tasty."
"I'm glad you liked them, whom did you share them with?"
"Why would I share these tasty... I mean that present with anyone? That would be quite impolite, don't you think?"
"You ate them alone?"
"Like I said, presents should be cherished by the one who received it."
"The whole package?" She pressed on the matter rather seriously.
"I-It's okay, since I get to eat them so rarely." Why did I feel like I needed to justify myself over a single package of a snack? To the person who gave it to me?!
"It's not 'okay'. Even if you eat the peanuts not that often, calories are not the only danger. They add a ton of sugar for miso peas, and you kind of have a thing for sweet stuff, don't you?"
"How the heck do you know that?" I was caught by surprise. Yuigahama didn't talk about me within her group, so much was sure from Destinyland event. Did she spout random stuff about me when she was only with Miura, similar to the Yumiko-trivia she randomly drops in the club? No, that shouldn't be the case either. So far everything I told Miura was new to her and we had talked quite a lot recently. If Yuigahama really talked about me to her, she should have known two or three things before I told her.
I don't think she saw me eating all that often in the classroom, not that I ate sweet stuff in school regularly at all in the first place. It was not within the budget my mother gave me for lunch. Thus I concluded her being a good observer shouldn't be of any help to her here either.
So how? Usually I would label someone as stalker out of fun, but that thought was just too absurd with Miura. She had such a straightforward personality, instead of stalking, she would just go directly to the person in question and demand address, number, keys, credit card information with such determination that anyone would comply.
"Am I wrong? Hayato said so didn't he? On the day he tasted my Valentine chocolate."
My sweet tooth became an attachment information from eavesdropping on Hayama... one more reason to stay away from that guy.
"I see.. well it's not exactly wrong. Actually it is pretty much the truth. It's one thing to notice when I was consuming sweetness itself like Hayama, it's on a whole new page to remember it from hearsay. That kind of made me loose my cool for slight moment here."
"ah? What coolness are you blubbing about? Yours?" What a harsh comment, but luckily she was only teasing me. Hopefully... She laughed with me, not at me, right? Even if I wasn't laughing.
"I'm super cool actually. The less energy something spends on moving around the cooler it is. By law of nature itself, I, who is mostly at home not moving one bit, is super cool."
"Since you stuff that much energy into you, your fat here probably turned you into a heater already." With a swift movement of her free hand she grabbed into my side with force. If it weren't for the thick coat I would have let out more than the small squeal I did.
"Huuuuh?" That should have been my line at the very least, but strangely it was Miura who expressed her puzzlement. Her hand moved around like predators hunting for their prey. From one side to the other, over the stomach and on the hips, touching and grabbing everywhere. This was pure molestation. Only one middle-aged staff worker had heard my leak of voice and she kept only staring at me in wonder. If Miura's and my role were switched, it was a given that not only would she receive help, but I also would wake up in a prison cell on the next day. For whatever reason it seemed to be fine if I was the victim.
"Aren't you a couch potato? There should be at least one curve somewhere..."
"It's not like I eat sweet things all the time..."
"Still you had a full package just yesterday."
"It really doesn't show up so quickly..."
"Hmpf, this is so unfair..." After Miura said this, her frustration culminated in another deep grip into my side. What was unfair was this treatment. The coat could only absorb the impact so much that it didn't hurt, unfortunately the remaining pressure gave me a rather ticklish feeling.
Time to recite some Buddhist prayers and meditate. Ooohmmm... Nothing can affect me... Oooohhhmmmm... So calm, such relaxed face, much success...Oooohhhhmmmm. I endured it like a real monk.
Suddenly, Miura showed me a smile. Surely because she wanted to praise my efforts on the path of enlightenment. So why did it make me feel like running away at top speed?
The movement of her hand became quicker, more forceful and very erratic, in short more wild. I hereby name thyself Torako.[15]
Instead of looking at my stomach she never took her eyes off my face. It was so irritating that my meditation was on the brink of collapsing. It was so hard to concentrate on remaining calm despite these relentless attacks, that my face twitched shortly in a super manly way of trying too hard.
"You smiled." She sounded like she had accomplished something great. My Buddhism was treated as a challenge to be torn down huh?
"No way I smiled, you smiled!" In hindsight this wasn't my best retaliation ever, not even close to the top ten actually.
"I did, so what?" Yepp, this was the reason why. Someone like Miura wouldn't have a problem with smiling at all. Her whole group within the class was a gathering of smiles, laughter and sunshine, no matter how fake it occasionally seemed to be. Because of my foolishly quick response, I was at a loss on what to follow up with for a moment.
"You should do it more often." She filled the gap of silence with a weird request. But wait a minute.
"I smile plenty as is already." Now that I thought about myself smiling, quite a few of memories came flooding in.
Since normally barely anyone spoke with me, I had to talk to myself on my mind to make up for the human desire to express oneself. And wow, were those high quality conversations. In fact they were super entertaining as well.
That wasn't even the only source for my smiles, there were also books that made me snickering. Although I stopped bringing light novels about evil gods to school after Yukinoshita and Yuigahama pointed that supposedly 'gross' habit to snicker of mine out.
So the chuckles I made now while reading other books were totally fine, since that was never brought up again. I just hoped they weren't too crept out to mention it again.
And lastly there was also my world-class sister. Since she was my sister alone, thinking and smiling about her made my smile superior that of everyone else. So being the loner that I am, I had lots of time to think about her. In conclusion I smiled way more often than I would do inside of a group. Within a group I would just stay silent to not get in the way of the current conversation. And with less time to speak myself, the quality of the talks would be of a lower level than what I was used to with just me. Thus I doubt I would have as much fun too. My free time to spend reading or thinking about my sister would take a huge hit as well. Thus I concluded that I lived my life in the best way possible to protect that smile of mine.
A loner's way of living was really the best, not that I could have endured any different conclusion anyway. Another successful attempt at self-preservation, another good feeling. A wicked smile showed up on my face.
"Gross. I didn't mean that smile." So this really wasn't any good? The only other smile I could think of was that of pity I showed Komachi and Gahama-chan when they sprouted idiotic nonsense again.
Miura placed her free hand on one of my cheeks to shove it upwards and form a new expression on my face.
"That one is much better."
That position felt oddly similar. But without the pain from the muscles, who let the my classmate do all the work of keeping the flesh up, it was a bit hard to recognise. It was roughly the same unusual smile that I had shown to her just recently. Not that I was in the mood to smile now. After having being molested already and now being played with without any concern for distance, I wanted to show my disapproval. However, that was quite hard with just one half of my face being under my control.
"Haha, that look, heck, you're totally lame!" For some reason my mouth looking like └─┐ was very amusing my 'friend'. 'If you had friends, you wouldn't have a need for enemies.' or so the proverb went. Being friendless had been such a peaceful time. Except for the enemies that were out there regardless. Although there was just one enemy for me back then. The world.
"Isn't the lameness not your work in the first place? So the one being lame would be-" Before I could finish the sentence the hand, that had been softly pushing my cheek around, pinched me all of a sudden. Ouch. Well, it was light enough to not really hurt, but it was definitely noticeable.
"Don't get too cheeky here." I guess her majesty wasn't used to direct opposition that much. Being called lame was probably a rare occurrence. Not that I would back off that easily, upon the sign of the weakness called mercy. So I pushed my luck some more.
"I wonder who is actually the cheeky one... the one who plays with the cheek or the one whose cheek gets played with?"
It didn't have quite the effect I had hoped for.
"Mhhh... isn't that, like a thing of perspective?" With this Miura started pondering about the word-playing question that only really had one answer. Thinking that long, took out all the wind of the conversation and it felt like a draw rather than my victory. No matter if this was intentional or just a limit on her apprehension, this technique was good enough to be remembered. It had a lot of potential to drive someone like Yukinoshita crazy. With my mood having recovered from the assaults, I looked gently at my classmate who was lost in her thoughts. Someone like Miura tilting her head, thinking hard about random stuff was kind of cute. Not as heartwarming as when Komachi hit a roadblock in her thoughts and was about to give up from frustration and asking her onii-sama for help, but cute enough to bring a smile to my face. Komachi totally didn't do that to offload more work on me.
When Miura returned to her senses her eyes widened in surprise. I quickly removed any expression from my face.
"Now, that looked more like it." She seemed quite satisfied with what she had spotted.
"What did?" Damn, I wasn't fast enough. I tried to feign ignorance, but the only effect that had was my shoulder being turned into a drum again. Was there a bargain sale for physical contact in this store?
"Geez, not that again. Just admit already!"
Miura seemed to have fun at exercising herself and I had to admit that it was contagious. But I didn't smile while we enjoyed the time at the grocery store. Well, maybe a bit.
However, I did notice that her mood became less and less cheerful afterwards. Even her pace got slower. Especially each time she checked the phone, the drop was obvious. Did she get some sad mails? I was curious, yet I didn't want to pry that far into her privacy. But letting that downward spiral continue wasn't an option I was comfortable with either. I decided to tackle the issue in a roundabout way.
"Phones sure are dangerous."
"Huh? Oh sorry." She put her phone back into her pocket. Mhh maybe that was too loosely connected to be understood right away, but putting the phone away was not only polite it was a good step in the right direction as well.
Wait a moment...did she just apologise? It stopped in my tracks and I stared at her. The world was coming to an end! It probably wasn't that serious, but for her to be so absent-minded was a first to me.
Even her reaction to my stop came delayed.
°What? I already..."
"That's not it, I just wanted to check on you. You hit your head, remember?"
"Ah, you mean... yesterday." The break before 'yesterday' was suspicious. Wasn't her voice shaking when she muttered the word? It was too quiet to tell for sure. "You said the same...sob... then, didn't you?" I had so much trouble just understanding her that I needed to take step closer. Did she have problems referring to the previous day, I could swear I heard a sob.
"I did yeah, did something happen yesterday?"
"Yesterday? Nothing... nothing happened... at all." Her shoulders started to tremble slightly as her voice grew more timid and her speech became fragmented.
"Let me see the injury real quick." There was no rebuttal, she just stood still. I wanted to scrutinise her forehead once more from up close. Maybe I had missed something in the super market. But I couldn't. I couldn't look at anything other than her eyes.
"Hey, are you fine?"
"nothing.. nothing happened!" With that she leapt forward, clutching my coat and pressed her head against my chest. The tears came down and the sobs turned into uncontrollable crying. To call it a déjà vu was an understatement. The very same situation was just a bit more than a week ago, a memory I didn't want to be refreshed.
Something was different though, my heart was in much more pain compared to then. But this wasn't the only change. In order to support her I felt that I could do more as well. Didn't I lament my inability to comfort a girl back then? This was an opportunity to test my own growth, from spending time with others on dates and as friends.
One arm was the result.
One arm I put on her back, but it was only lightly attached to her. Would she even feel it with a thick black jacket on? More memories returned to me. Didn't Isshiki praise my embrace? I was hugging Yuigahama just yesterday... so...so...
My arm moved down to her lower back and pulled her body closer. I was more surprised at the force I used than her. Miura just accepted it, sliding her hands between the gap of my own arms and body. Her head leaned on to my shoulder, turned away from my neck.
With no gap to lean forward anymore, she stood straight in front of me in her full height. Except for the head which was only slightly tilted towards my shoulder. Miura was taller than Yuigahama, not even comparable to Isshiki. So if she had not rested her head on the shoulder, I wouldn't have been able to avoid her watered eyes. If our foreheads would have touched, I would have had little room to breath and stay somewhat collected.
As if to balance the overall pressure I gave her, my free right arm only laid very lightly on her shoulder blades. She wouldn't feel it like this, but that was fine. It was the hand I used to pat Komachi on rare occasions, I had no clue what to do with it on this crying classmate of mine anyway.
Stroking was out of question. I still wasn't completely ready for this after all. This was an intimacy reserved for family and couples right?
Between the heavy crying, she was barely able to tell me what even the problem was.
"Yui, she... hasn't... called me at all! Isn't she my... friend? My best friend? Shouldn't she be... eager to tell me of her happiness? It's as you said... I'm all alone!"
It took quite some time to get this all out. Getting emotionally worked up on top of crying her eyes out, was making it quite hard for me to understand her properly.
My heart hurt a little when she wasn't acknowledging my support to falsify her alone statement on the spot, but I ignored the needle pushed into my heart. To see her breaking down like this, hurt a lot more and overshadowed that comparably small pain. If the problem was a lack of Yuigahama's talk...
"I could tell her to..." Oh no, I slipped! Wasn't this the worst possible solution right now? Even if it was logical acceptable to simply solve the problem, it didn't take her feelings and desire into account. My barely occupied hand started to twirl with Miura's long hair that was spread across her back. She wanted Yui to call her on her own to prove their friendship.
"... no that won't be needed." I tried to take back what I had said, but of course she couldn't ignore it. My slip up practically forced a question to the solution of the core problem. Why didn't Yuigahama call her?
"How can you be so sure?" And here it was, her voice filled with the false hope my mistake gave her.
Yeah, how could I? All evidence hinted at the opposite. If Yuigahama had not talked about the club or me, than why should she do it now? I didn't even comprehend why she did not when I compared it to the random info dump about her other friends. Sure it was embarrassing to talk about the person you ... kind of cared about, but there shouldn't be a problem with her best friend getting some information. There would be no conflict from a declaration of liking someone as there was on the Kyoto field trip. At the very least not with Miura.
The delay of the assurance she sought was getting longer and longer. But I had not found a convincing response to give yet. I could feel her head leaving my shoulder, for a very brief moment I thought about stopping her head from moving with my chin or hand to avoid what followed. Our gazes meet directly. My heart cramped considerably at the sight of the ruined make-up. I wouldn't be able to stand her desperation when I couldn't deliver a solution and the tear-filled eyes made it nearly impossible to concentrate on finding one.
Urgh the pressure. If it weren't for her hair I played with, my head would explode.
Now I knew why she played with her drills so often, so soothing. This should become an official nationwide therapy. Due to the importance of her hair Miura would be renamed to Rapunzel in the history books.
The weight of her head returned to her earlier position on my shoulder.
Argh, I really shouldn't get distracted in such a serious moment.
Despite her head making such a movement, apparently she had not given in to resignation completely yet. She still awaited my answer, at least that was how I interpreted the strength of her grip on my back.
But wait, wasn't my joke the answer I was looking for?
"Say, did you enjoy the Kinkaku-ji temple?"
"Huh? What?" Being thrown into confusion had an imminent noticeable effect on her crying, it came to albeit short, complete hold. It was a bit like with Komachi when she was a little child. When she cried, mom and pops would yell out something like 'look over there!' or 'What is that?' to distract her and when she was wondering what her parents meant the uncontrollable river of tears stopped. It couldn't stop all the sobbing at once though.
However, this side effect wasn't my intent. My answer might really fulfil her hope she was seeking from me.
The realisation hit me once her head was back on my shoulder, looking away again. At that moment the sight to the hair on her back was free once more. Except for the strands that were heavily interwoven between my fingers, they were spread across the black jacket. They looked like a golden ornament again, just like on the black pullover I had chosen for her during the shopping we did together last week.
The image I had of her, when Yuigahama told us that Miura wanted to see the Kinkaku-ji temple, returned to me. Golden ornaments jingling on her, really fitted Miura's gorgeous image way too much.
"You know, Yuigahama mentioned that you were looking forward to visit that temple."
"She did?"
"Yeah, and it's not the only thing she told us. Like you not buying local wrapped candy as souvenirs, or you liking romantic stories. Heck, she talks so much about you, it's like she wants us to fall for you... no it would be more accurate to say she's totally in love with you herself. As her dating partner I should probably get all jelly or something."[16]
"And... you really think that?" Stop looking at at me with those crystal clear eyes still with leftover moist in the corners, my legs gotten like jelly because of it. To confirm this was just a simple matter of nodding once, but as much as I wanted to assure her, I wasn't convinced myself. However, Miura was rather composed again, despite the breathing that made it seem like she had a hiccup and the nasal voice. At least I had the feeling that it wouldn't crush her if I stayed true to myself.
"You expect me to know? I have no idea how the mind of a popular girl like Yuigahama works in the slightest."
"Haeh?" Miura blinked at me in confusion.
".. But if she's anything like me, the way she talks about you is not that much different compared to how I talk about Komachi."
"Komachi...?" Questioning the name like this, I was sure she had forgotten about her, but just when I was about to clarify, my classmate remembered. "Ah! So you're saying we're like sisters? Yui and me?" How did she reach that conclusion? Well, whatever she was comfortable with. I didn't pay it any further thoughts as Miura's Hachiman points were pretty high that moment. I haven't mentioned Komachi by name for a few days and the times they had met each other were scarce and long ago. Compared to Isshiki her first thought wasn't rice when bringing up that name, but not only that, she actually remembered that it was the name of my sister.
Hey Irohasu, you should learn quite a few things from Miura.
As token of my gratitude I decided to give Miura a warning that could disturb the rosy happy ending she imagined.
"If you're not careful though, Yukinoshita might rob that spot from you." I said half-joking.
"Like hell I'd let that happen." She said with the same smile she had when she confronted Yukinoshita during the athletic festival. Yeah, Miura would face this challenge head on. However, she looked quite ridiculous spouting that challenge while having the tear-smeared make-up on her face. Even though I felt like I would be the next challenge she would face head on if I mentioned it, like with a head butt or something, I couldn't remain silent to this. Not because I had an urge to keep her dignity intact. But if I let her walk around unaware of this, she would get super mad if she discovered it at home. I preferred a headbutt over ending up as dead meat.
It wouldn't hurt to carefully select my next words to minimise the damage though.
"I'm not sure if my opinion is worth anything to you, but I think you could do with much less make-up." Wait, didn't this totally sound like a pick-up line? Argh, and the way Miura's eyes grew suspicious of me told me that it was received just like this.
"What do you-"
"It could get you into the museum of modern arts though, if you were aiming for that." I interrupted her quickly, hopefully before she arrived at the end of her train of thought. Looks like I was safe on that front. The realisation of what I meant threw her into a state of panic that was probably enough to make her forget my mistake. Her face had OMG plastered on it.
She removed her arms from my back in order to pull out her cellphone to use it as a mirror.
"Ah crap." Should a lady use these kinds of words? Thinking about it, did Miura talk a bit more like when she was around her clique recently, or was it just my imagination? Was it the effect of the phone call? This seemed like an awful lot as in one of those dating-sims, in which you unlock different stages of affection and the NPCs promptly changed their lines into something new. What would await me at the end of this route?
My classmate turned away from me and wanted to make a few steps further but... Damn!
"Stop!"
"Wha?-aahhh!" A loud yell echoed through the empty sideway. My fingers were stuck in Miura's hair. When she widened the distance to hide her face and fix her make-up without me watching her directly, the length of her hair quickly came to an end and Miura's head to an unexpectedly early halt. Fortunately She did react to my 'stop' and I stretched out my arm somewhat in time. It did lessen the force and shouldn't hurt that much past the initial shock, but it was enough to make the eyes wet again. Not in a crying sense like earlier though.
Still, I was so dead hahaha.
That wouldn't have happened if she were a real Rapunzel haha.
haha...
"Wait a moment, I'll entangle it real quick."
"What were you even doing?" Either she was really the sage I took her for enduring her classmates' obscure greeting, or her voice was too weak to yell after the earlier crying. By no means though I could be sure to come alive out of this yet. I did my best to reduce the punishment by swiftly resolving the problem.
Miura was watching every of my movements, hence the hair that I was stuck in, hang over her shoulder and between our faces.
I couldn't back away much with my head since I had to look closely in order to get my fingers out of there without inflicting further pain. Neither could I pull the hair for the very same reason. Due to all these factors our heads were closer than I was comfortable with. Well, we were even closer just a minute ago, but the pressure from being watched was on another level. Should I begin to apologise or stay silent in redemption? I started to get nervous again, the urge to play with her hair grew stronger. But while I was fiddling with the hair, this time it was far from playing with it.
"So?" She asked without mentioning anything.
"What so?" I have to concentrate right now, could you please be more specific?
"You haven't given your answer yet."
"Oh, that wasn't a rhetorical question?" No easy way out then, huh?
Did she really expect me to come up with a believable reason to which she would say 'Oh, I see, that's totally fine then.'. Was there even anything that could explain my behaviour to play with her hair while she was crying her eyes out? Well if I was about to be executed, I might shout my real intention to everyone like a true upcoming pirate king.[17]
"There wasn't anything else I could do..."
"You were bored?!" Her eyebrows creased in disbelief, telling me 'Is this guy serious?'.
"No, it was quite the opposite... I was completely tense. Nervousness got me so hard, I couldn't... do anything els]e. The only option was to follow your example again."
"You're totally making fun of me, don't you?" She sounded far from pleased, I wonder why haha.
"It might seem like it, but that really isn't the case. You know, I fared quite well so far by learning from you. The dating idea for Yuigahama and... other things. Thank you for lending me your hair unasked as well, it was a huge help in calming me down." Phew, I made a mental sigh of relieve as I finally freed my last finger.
"You... you're exaggerating."
"No way, I was completely paralyzed just then. Not even my sister would be that close to me when crying. I had zero experience with that." After I got out of the hair, the only thing left to do was to get out of the conversation alive.
"Still, you can't just pull off something like that."
"Hey, you play with your hair all the time when you're nervous, so don't be that stingy. You know it's actually a criminal act not to share medicine in an emergency."
"How did I end up being the bad one?!" Miura took a step back in surprise as she tried to keep up with the flow of our conversation.
"I wouldn't be thanking you if you were that bad, so don't worry." Yepp, no need worry about the details, while I brought my victory into a safe haven by changing the topic.
"Are you fine now?" I asked as I remembered the reason that has started all of this.
"It's okay... at least for a while."
Nobody would wait for someone else indefinitely. That's why I had a deadline imposed on me for my dating plea.
And everyone's patience was different. Even Miura the sage had enough of waiting for Hayama to get his act together and started to move forward to her greatest desire. It took nearly 2 years for her to come to this point.
The blonde had a lot of patience, how good for Yuigahama. Having Miura as your friend was something everyone should cherish. If one doesn't mind being used as a drum, the crying, the fiery temperament... and some of the good stuff that comes along with it too.
A temporary solution was better than none. There was no reason to doubt her words, thus I considered the case closed for now.
"If you say so,... then that's it for today. Bye-bye~"
"H-hey, wait a minute!" So much for a quick escape. I wasn't off the hook after all. The sidetracking was too short for making Miura forget about the hair incident. I should have been more patient, and more clever about my parting formula too. Where did that 'bye-bye' came from? It was so out of place for me that even Gahama-san would have noticed.
When someone called me out while I was already in motion to leave, my natural response was an annoyed glare with a face filled with impatience. Since people only prevented me from leaving to give me more work in the first place, I didn't feel any guilt.
"Is that how you are supposed to look at the girl you assaulted?" Greeted with the dominant aura of a queen my act crumbled in no time. Turned into an obedient servant in an instant, there was only one thing I could say as humble as possible.
"Sorry." I even meant it truthfully.
"About tomorrow, are you free?" How nice to ask a person when his execution would be convenient for him. Of course the right action was to delay it indefinitely.
"Well there is school tomorrow, so..."
"After." Doesn't school drain enough energy as is? No need for additional activities.
"There would be the make up classes... with Yuigahama." I decided to add some unnecessary information in case she would want me to skip it. Riajuus and delinquents had the same skippy feeling when it came to obligations interfering with their ideas of fun.
"Later, I mean like after the shopping." Well then say that first, I had an unbeatable excuse for that.
"After shopping I get to have some quality time with my sister. Mom ordered her to refine my cooking... so they can feel less guilty when they kick me out, probably."
"It's really no good then huh?"
Now, now, don't look so down. It makes it seem like you were looking forward to spend time with me. It hadn't been long since the crying, thus her appearance still was quite the mess. Red cheeks, widened nose, moist eyes and smeared make-up. Didn't she want to fix that? Ah right, the hair incident I caused interfered with that. And she actually meant it, when asking me if I had time. Unlike all the others floating around me, who just assumed I was free whenever. All these reasons created quite the killer combo and I had become pretty weak to requests thanks to Iroha's constant bugging us too. Still it was quite the surprise when I heard my voice saying the unprecedented words.
"Well, it's not like I can't postpone the cooking lesson... Komachi will of course be heartbroken, but she is very understanding." That was part of her charm that made her a world class little sister. "So what do you need my help for?" Please cheer up, will you?
"Let's go to the cinema tomorrow." Somehow that response didn't correlate with my question, but that wasn't the only reason why I was confused.
"Am I really the one you should be asking?" There should be plenty of other options for her available.
"You know, the movie I want to see... I can't watch that kind of stuff with Hayato." Was Miura too embarrassed? What kind of movie was it? Not like Hayama would care which film it was if he was asked out. He wasn't the type to refuse when everybody went. If she aimed for a romantic one with just the two of them, then he would probably start to make excuses. In that case though she could just go with her female clique, if the movie was so interesting. Anyway, it felt wrong for me to with her.
"Ebina or Yuigahama are no good either?"
"They.. they are not into this kinda movie." That was surprising. While Ebina sure gave off the vibe of clearly stating what she not wanted, Yuigahama seemed like she would tag along regardless of what it was. The Romance genre should align with her interests as well according to how she made a fuss about Tobe's request during the field trip. And Ebina... she was totally into love too. Boys love that is. So yeah.. that might really rule her out.
"I don't really mind going to the cinema, I used to go quite often actually." Before the Service Club clocked up my schedule that was. "Ah, just to make sure.." I applied my recently acquired girls knowledge from Iroha now. "You're the type that wants to see the same movie when going with someone to the cinema right?
"Heah? What a strange question is that? Why would anyone go together to watch different movies? That's just too ridiculous." My classmate started to chuckle. What was ridiculous was a high schoolgirl giggling with streams of ruined make-up from her eyes on her face. At least she was in a cheerful mood again, so I didn't point it out.
"I see.." 'Even if the times are the same?' I decided not to ask this question as Miura's giggle continued. But couldn't she just go alone if every friend of hers was no good? "... So it's a punishment." I concluded.
"Haeeh? You think It's a punishment to spend time with me?" She looked quite shocked and I was too at this reaction.
"How did you come to that conclusion? Didn't you lose a penalty game that forces you to watch a movie with me?"
"Just how did you grow up?! We totally need to fix that self-degrading thinking of yours. So tomorrow at 8pm in front of Screen 10."[18]
When did I agree to this? Somehow I had no recollection of it. But there was something else I remembered.
I reached into the pocket of my coat and prepared the handkerchief hidden from her eyes to hand it over to her.
"Here." I threw it casually in her direction. "Consider it a thank you for the miso peas yesterday, though I don't know how useful it will be to help you with getting the make-up off."
Miura easily caught it and looked at it confused. "Your handkerchief? That's not how you remove-"
"Then just return it at the cinema. Goodbye." I interrupted her and took my leave while I could. Staying here was too problematic... and she didn't want to see me her messed up appearance anyway.
"Hey! Huh? What?" Hearing her confusion clearly amplifying, I left my classmate behind without turning back. I wouldn't know what kind of expression to make anyway.
When I arrived at home Komachi laid on the couch in the living room browsing through a fashion magazine with a bored expression. If she drew no fun from it, then why bother reading it? I could give her some interesting alternative reading material anytime. At least she would collapse without hitting the hard floor that way when she hears my message. Very carefully I said the lines I had prepared to ease Komachi's pain of not having cooking lessons together with me tomorrow.
"Mhhhhm." She replied without even glancing at me. She must be suffering on the inside right? Right? It brought me to tears. Stay strong girl.
Before I entered my room, the pocket of my trousers vibrated. How unusual for my phone to announce its present. Was it my sister who wanted to tell something she couldn't say face to face in her pain?
Nope.
Instead it was a text from a schoolmate who accused me of cheating.
Yumiko PoV
I looked into the mirror again. There was no trace left of the smeared make-up that could have proved today's loss of control. Yet, even though I confirmed it several times already, the urge to check it again and again didn't disappear.
"How often was it that Hikio saw me crying already?" I murmured to myself. Of course I used the proper tools to remove it and not his handkerchief like he offered, but I doubted he was serious with the offer anyway.
Although it was totally unnecessary, it was still a nice gesture. A side of his that that I recognised from the dating stories he told me. At first I was irritated since I couldn't find a reason for it at first. But then I remembered and remembering the reason made me happy. Geez, it was such a minor thing so long ago...
When Yui and the other girl were confronted with similar gestures, they must have felt the same. Yui's possible expression to these actions appeared on my mind on its own. She got it good. If only Hayato was mine already, he would probably do similar things for me. That wonderful time couldn't come soon enough...
There was another time which I impatiently awaited, at least till today. Now I felt like I could endure it for a while longer after Hikio comforted me.
Yui spoke of me often and showed that I was an important person to her. That was the message he had for me.
Even if strange stuff happened, his way of doing things worked. Somehow.
There were so many things I didn't understand about his methods yet. Was everything planned and intended? Like getting stuck in my hair? Did it serve a purpose I didn't get? Or did he act and react naturally? Was he genuine in his ways? I felt he was... but it didn't all add up yet. There was also the summer camp trip. I shuddered from the unpleasant memory regarding that elementary school girl. Even if the intention was good, everything else felt wrong. The whole situation was a mess to begin with, but his plan was the worst. Everyone knew it was wrong. I even spoke up against it, but... Hayato... not only him but Yui went along with it too. I was deeply shocked by that. But he said he wanted to prove Hikio wrong. Thus ultimately- I played along.
When we carried out his plan, the girls showed their nasty side very quickly. It made me so furious that I didn't need the prepared notes anymore. However afterwards I felt horrible. Tears were the only result from this whole facade. Mine included.
Yet, when I saw the little girl again at the Christmas party, she looked happier than ever. What a relief... but how did everything ended up in this result? I didn't understand. I should add that to the things I needed to ask Hikio about. This list was growing longer and longer, didn't it? Starting tomorrow I should try to shorten this list. There should be plenty of opportunities with the shopping and the visit to the cinema.
So good that he agreed to it as he was about the only person I could go there with. And just in time too. The movie will be sorted out soonish. I was really looking forward to it.
Hachiman PoV
I barely arrived for school in time. What happened to the refreshed feeling after weekends? It was gone, just like my free time at home. These two things were deeply related to each other, just my hunch though. Up till recently I strictly spend my weekend time at home, religiously practicing the two holiday system of the Hikigaya-household every week. So how should I have known, teehee~
Thanks to the math supplementary lessons I had to seek out Isshiki in between the periods, but how should I do it? Picking her up from her classroom again was... yeah people would start talking and stuff. I shouldn't give her that type of trouble. Calling her put via phone... I refused to click on the heart symbol embraced name. Just no.
It was probably the best to drop by the student council room and hope that she would seek refuge there from her classmates. Nothing suspicious about a student going there too. Thus I decided to sacrifice my lunch break and talk with Isshiki about the awkward moment from our date.
I knocked on the door of the student council room.
"Oooohh~" Isshiki's cheerful voice came from inside the office. BINGO.
Her being here saved me quite the trouble and she appeared to have a good mood. JACKPOT even. Argh, I really need to shake off the habit of using Kata-lingo around her. The Christmas collaboration event left behind some deep scars.
"Excuse me for the intrusion." With this I opened the door. I only caught a glimpse on the smile that had matched her happy voice, because it was gone the second she recognised me.
"Oh, ... it's just you senpai." Her new expression and voice were a match too, just a very disappointed one. Was the atmosphere in this room so cold because Isshiki didn't close the refrigerator she was standing next to?
Thanks for the warm welcome prez, it totally boosts the students moral on the campus, hurray... I wanted to say, but instead I automatically apologised.
"I'm sorry for not being Hayama."
"As long as you know it's half-good."
"Err, Only half-good?" I closed the door behind me and went over to her.
"Well, no matter how often you say you're sorry, you won't be turning into Hayama after all." She said with a smug smile.
"True, not like I'd want to anyway. I'm pretty fine being myself." Or not, if you make that kind appalled face. "I guess saying 'sorry' doesn't have enough magic to it. Maybe I should try a different method next time." Why was I trying to become Hayama again? Did Irohasu cast some dark magic spell on me? Damn witch.
"Magic, eh?" Isshiki paused for a bit and put her index finger against her chin, but I didn't have the feeling that she was really thinking hard. Must be a preparation for her dramatic act. In any case, I braced myself for what was to come.
"I know just the right spell to turn you ugly duckling into a swan." Isshiki launched a direct attack against my lips. She was staying true to her style. Was Miura wrong and Isshiki had no trouble at all about the first kiss? And what's with calling the person you were about to kiss ugly beforehand?
Not to mention that she mixed the stories up. It was the frog who turned into a prince upon being kissed. The ugly duckling was a wonderful story about a loner duck growing up, chased out of society. Don't mess with it! Just the ending was kind of off. The swan should have recognised how fulfilling a loner's live was, but no... it made the grave mistake to join others of its kind based on superficial attributes. I would never- wait a minute. Someone being kissed at the very moment didn't have the right to lecture the ugly duckling. But yeah, why were my thoughts trailing off so easily? Isshiki had a look of irritation on her face as well. The first kiss with her had at least 'something' to it, but this one lacked even that.
"... why? This isn't how it's supposed to feel like..." Isshiki expressed her irritation finally with words, giving me the relief of knowing that I wasn't alone with this feeling. Miura was right after all. Part of that credit goes to me though for being brave enough to ask that blonde classmate of mine.
Argh, if I had known she was this reliable, I should have asked how to do the talk as well. Or better yet, let her do the talking for me.
...
But that was just a pipe dream. Miura's and Isshiki's relationship was still way too hostile because of Hayama. Not even the caretaking during Destinyland trip helped with it all that much. I had the feeling though that they gained some respect for each other. Their forks however were as pointy as always.
So I had to do this myself. Was that included in the 'be-a-man' card Komachi pulled on me recently? Didn't I send it to the graveyard already? How can I get rid of these stereotypical duties... that was a thought for later though. Now it was time to clear up the confusion. Hers and mine.
"What... what is it supposed to feel like then?"
"Err? You don't know?" She made a gesture as if she wanted to suppress her laughter, but wasn't this too serious to joke around?
"Not really." I got straight to the point. "I have my imagination of course, but that is fuelled purely by works of fiction. Reality might be completely different though. However, there is no way for me to tell how big the difference between these two is... Do you?"
"H-how... how should I know what you're imagining." My honest direct approach made Isshiki nervous as she avoided not only eye contact with me, but also my question. Guess she wouldn't open up this way, thus I returned to our usual dynamic. To make her comfortable or something.
"Maybe you can understand my thinking once you've grown up a little."
"heeeah? But I thought you preferred them being younger! Or is it that your imagination is something suuuuuper perverted?" I didn't know she was into shipbuilding. Wouldn't she flash her nipples next?[19] I liked her attitude of not wanting to grow up, so I wasn't all too bothered when the room's lighting didn't change.
"Don't think I have figured out my preferences yet, but I'm totally fine with girls being younger. My sister is younger, so that's a proven fact. One good thing about the young ones is that they're not as picky. For example, they have no issue with stuff like Saizu." It was cheap and tasty, just perfect for high schoolers by any reason. However, since it was a family restaurant those superficial wanna-be grown up students disregarded it as not cool enough.
"So SIZE is really that important, huh?" Isshiki's face became really gloomy from a sudden depression, as she looked down along herself and putting her hands on her chest.
No, massaging won't make them bigger, contrary to popular belief. Just what was that girl doing inside the sacred student council room?!
"What's with the Kata-lingo? Are you from Kaihin Sougou High? Gross. How is that misunderstanding even possible? I was talking about Saizeriya! But if it's about chest sizes you want to talk about, I can share you some of encouragements my little sister uses on herself."
"Are you putting my breasts on the same level as that of a middle schooler?!"
I ignored the president's angry glare out of sheer survival instinct. If only I could ignore her saying 'breasts' just as well...ugh. Should a middle schooler-look-alike really talk that openly about these topics?
Halt! Wasn't this exactly why I came here? I better get my thoughts into the conversation from now on. Where did we left off... breasts... level... ah!
You can't apply the logic of levels on chests, they won't level up no matter how many opponents you defeat. But you could say yours look rather levelled, although it wasn't as flattened as that of the youngest Yukinoshita.
"'If they are too big, they had little to offer in cuteness'. my sister says." Lucky for me, my thoughts and spoken words were quite different. Instead of a death penalty, I just received an expression of mixed feelings from Isshiki.
"I'm not really sure if cuteness is all that of a positive word when it comes to breasts..."
"Looks like her comforting is as flat as her body." Isshiki wasn't convinced in the slightest by Komachi's last line of mental self-defence. She would grow depressed about it if I fail here. Hopefully the growth rate would be akin to that of her chest. "But she still does have a point though. If I think of my sister the first thing that comes to mind is 'cuteness' after all." The world's cutest even.
"Senpai, you're starting to sound like a criminal you knoooow?" Her voice might have been sweet, but there was a strange hint of being grossed out in it.
"So calling someone cute is now a crime? Good too know before I called you that."
"Eeeh? You were about to call me cute?" She was half beaming, half sceptical. Isshiki changed her mood so quickly I wondered whether she has gotten pregnant. She couldn't get pregnant from these failed kisses with me, could she? Yes the school system was bad, but it wasn't THAT bad, I reassured myself. I probably could trust my academic knowledge in this field.
At least she was in a positive mood again, I better set the talk back on track while I had the chance.
"About the kisses, how do you feel about them?"
"Errr, I ... I... let me try again!" The student president exclaimed loudly.
"S-sure...third time is a charm they say." This would be the first kiss I was actually informed about beforehand, it did do jack about decreasing the nervousness though. In fact I was as anxious as I could get. Once more Isshiki closed the gap, this time she was much slower, allowing me to hold her properly.
We separated and for the first time, this felt like a correctly done kiss. According to how she rubbed her cheek against my chest, she felt comfortable with this none-rushed version. I couldn't verify it from the face directly because of the position we had. This reminded me on how Komachi snuggled with our cat Kamakura though. That got to be a good thing. It was for me at least.
"Does it feel good senpai?"
"This much is fine, I don't think I'm up for those pushy approaches yet."
"You don't call this pushy?!" She said flabbergasted.
"Erm, no? Rubbing your cheek against me feels very calming actually."
"THESE ARE MY BREASTS!" Isshiki stomped on my foot with all her might. Thanks to her light build I was more worried about people overhearing her shout rather than about the pain. Looking down at her extremely sulky face, the thing I should really worry about was damage control. I better avoid joking around that her puffed cheeks looked puffier than an other certain area.
"I knew of course! Isn't 'cheeks' a trendy codeword for chest? I think I overheard some noisy first-years saying that at the front gate. Something like 'Yo yo, did you check this CHEEK out?' 'I totally did, so big and bouncy!', although I probably understood only half of the stuff they said, but I was pretty certain that's what they meant."
"Uhm, I guess they said 'chicks' you dummy."
"How am I the dummy if they don't know simple English? How did they even pass the entrance exam for this school? You must have it hard with those kind of guys in the same grade.." I patted her head gently.
"Hehe, you bet! It is reeeally hard for me, especially with that one senpai of mine." The president giggled and tightened the embrace, which I did in return too.
"I wonder who this could be... well, not like I really care though." Now that I successfully defused Isshiki, I reeeeeally didn't care anymore. I had the feeling that I was better off not knowing anyway.
"Mmmhhhh this feels good..." While had her in embrace my hand moved around, stroking her back.
"So why... " She kissed me once more...
"...why..." and again
"...doesn't this?"
and again.
Her eyes got watery and it stung my heart seeing her trying so hard. True, we hadn't talked about the kiss yet, just the embrace. Or so I thought at least till she brought up her chests. Even though the kiss felt like it was done correctly, we both didn't mention it. It's because there was nothing to say about it, as there was nothing to it. No butterflies or some other 'special feeling' that was used to describe a good kiss in literature.
...
"That might be nature at its work..." I started trying to give an explanation. "You see, there is that subconscious selection going on when kissing someone. There is quite a few data exchanged in the process of a kiss. At least that's what I have read once."
"That would be a pretty un-... lame reason..."
"Can't argue with mother nature, even if it is unfair." I explicitly used the word she wanted to avoid. It really was unfair as there was nothing one can change about it, unless you permanently drugged your senses with alcohol. Especially for such a hardworking individual as Isshiki it must have been hard. Thus I stroke her head and back in order to comfort her.
"I'm.. I'm sure you will find someone more suited than me." Saying that hurt quite a bit, but for her sake I was prepared to receive the mental scar it would cause. It didn't hurt just because I had to say I wasn't the right man, but it also marked the end of us. It wasn't just difficult for her. For the relationship with my first dating partner to end because of this reason, it will make me definitely tear up in anger at home tonight. At least we shared the same pain, that was a small comfort. It made me feel like I wasn't just a replacement for that guy.
"You mean Hayato?" Without much time to waste she named the person I wanted to be compared to the least. Let alone admit he was better than me for anyone.
"Urgh." What's with that ridiculous high damage multiplier in her words? Now I would cry as soon as I get out of the room for sure. "I-I guess, he's a possible candidate too. Whatever makes you happy." I was so done with this girl. Bye-bye Isshiki. Au revoire~~ "At least I will have more free time now..." I murmured to myself.
"What are you saying? Just because you're not fit for me doesn't mean we will have to stop dating!"
"Isn't that exactly what it means though?" I was so confused, just what the heck was going on inside this head of hers?
"Didn't you promise not to reject a girl?"
"There should be an exception clause for those who go after other guys from the start.."
"There is none. No crying about spilled milk, when you're the one who made the rules." So merciless, but she wasn't done yet. "I know it's not what you intended, but... the dates with you, they are not half as bad as I thought. You're trying so hard... that feels very nice."
"Just so you know, I won't put any effort into a date with you from now on." I instantly retorted, a nice Isshiki was still dangerous to my hormones, so I tried to make her back off with my words.
"Hehe, I know you will though. Senpai, you're just that kind of person."
"I'm definitely not such a person." I wasn't a good person at all. That description was reserved for someone else, someone I had no chance of winning against. Thus I didn't even try to be one. Life was much more comfortable this way too, when no one expected something from you. Expectation was just the first name of disappointment.
"No, you are, that's why you..." tears started to accumulate in her eyes. "why I..." Her breathing got harder. "just why can't this work?! wuuaaah..." And then she yelled out her frustration before she fell into a full crying fit. There were no useless appealing acts nor a tough front left. Just the real Isshiki who lost control over her emotions. Seeing how she suffered cramped up my own heart too. Her pitiful state alone was heart-wrenching enough, but because it was of me... that was the real killer that pushed a picket into my heart. It didn't stop there though. My heart was smashed into pieces by a hammer for an overkill.
Deep inside I was convinced that I didn't deserve her admiration, her love, that caused all her pain now. When thinking about it, what have I ever done FOR her? Nothing. I only did things TO her. I tricked her into picking up a huge time-waster with the presidency. I was coincidently present when she was at her lowest after Hayama had rejected her, giving her a false perception of comfort. When she came to us help, I blocked her off, only to get help from the club as a whole later again. I made the situation much worse by wasting all that time. When going on the practice date the score she gave me was so low it couldn't be used as reference for Hayama at all.
And now this. Because I went through with my selfishness of the dates, this wonderful girl was now crying.
I pressed her head against my chest so the tears wouldn't ruin her makeup, but get soaked up on my school blazer instead.
We stood like that past the chime for the next period. I used this time to mourn over the loss of a relationship that was denied by subconscious interpretations and decisions of the smallest parts in our body and my own faults that had lead to this point. This was really unfair.
Oddly enough, this was very helpful regarding my mood. It was similar to a storm refreshing the stifling air of summer.
Luckily it wasn't time for homeroom yet or Hiratsuka-sensei would have punished me for being this late with a flying kick or so, but our maths teacher didn't give a damn about me. So I entered the class as quietly as possible, just giving a weak apology, and moved over to my desk. Not only the teacher didn't move his head a single centimetre to me, the rest of the classmates didn't either. Except for the usual ones. I was really glad for Totsuka's confused reaction, it cheered me up instantly. Kawasaki's head moved too... instantly away from me towards the opposite direction, to where the window was. I took it as her way to announce that everything was right with her. Miura's face was bored from class as usual. When our gazes met, an ounce of interest showed itself, as she slightly tilted her head. But I wasn't ready to start a conversation with our eyes alone. I would have understood nothing at all anyway. One blink means no and two for a yes, or the other way around? I would probably start a cold war with everyone by accident if I tried.
Damn secret youth lingo I was never let into. So I didn't understood anything when my classmates blinked so quickly that it looked like they kept their eyes closed when they saw me.
It wasn't like they were really closed to avoid looking at me! At least that's what my middle school me convinced itself of to not break out in tears.
In order not to embarrass myself with my lack of knowledge about these useless things, my gaze wandered further. Yuigahama came into view, who showed her curiosity way more with her expression than Miura. Rather than a small interest she had her face plastered with question marks. I gave her a stern look that only confused her. Yepp, I really wasn't able to communicate with eyes alone as expected. I used my chin to point at the teacher.
Suddenly Yuigahama straightened herself and behaved like an enthusiastic student should, who was in danger of being held back in the very same subject. Having managed to inspire one of my classmates into following the lesson it should be fine to rest myself in exchange. I didn't want to throw off the balance of the universe after all. On top of that I couldn't rest properly during the last break. Everything pointed at me having the right to lay down, thus I did. I wasn't even near the topic the teacher discussed right now in my personal studies, so learning here was useless. All I could do was to rely on the information from the supplementary lessons to pass the grade, thus I recited that like counting sheep.
Unsuccessfully. There was someone throwing daggers at the back of my head with her gaze. Urgh, she didn't follow the lessons after all despite my efforts. Since when did I become a role model in math lessons? Don't slack off just because I appeared as taking it easy. Repetitions inside your own mind were actually a great method to check your memorisation process. You couldn't cheat yourself if there were no notes lying around.
Since I didn't want to be responsible for her failing the make-up tests though, I straightened my back to give a good example. So bothersome. Was that a first glimpse of being in a relationship with someone? Urgh...
Not that I changed anything but my pose. I continued my memory exercises while ignoring the teacher as best as I could. I knew he was doing the same with me.
More sheets of test question from the supplementary classes. The amount increased by roughly a third, or like 33 percent. Yeah, my math skill levelled up to that of a 7th grader! My private studies progressed quite well.
I wasn't particularly worried about myself when it came to passing on the grade, but as I learned from teaching Yuigahama during our date, she was already reaching her limit in memory capacity as it was.
Was there anything else I could do so that my methods were usable by her? Thinking about supporting others wasn't really my forte.
At least my inspiring behaviour during math paid off already as I glanced at the same desk partner from last time. Yuigahama was humming as she lined up her utensils carefully... Nah, she did the very same last time as well. Except for that she ignored the new staple of paper the teacher had handed out. Tch, I totally ruined my rest for nothing. I clicked my tongue mentally, I could tell that she had the same worries as me about her memory, or else she wouldn't have ignored the papers.
For now though, all we could do was copying the answers the teacher gave us as he explained the solutions to the class. Without the correct answers, memorisation was pointless after all. Dealing with Floppygahama came later.
I probably had to warn her about staying away from magnets too...
After the class was over my classmate exhaled deeply.
"Haha, this is no good at all..." Inspecting her more closely revealed that she passed the point of depression a while ago and started spouting funny ideas. "Hey, hey, we can't fail if we don't take the test right?"
"Not taking tests makes you fail them by default, unless you have a certificate from the doctor that is. Also what is up with we?"
"I guess mom would hide us for a bit until we found a new place to stay." She totally ignored me.
"Wouldn't the school authorities not check up on the house first? And seriously... where did the we come from?"
"We should go to Hawaii, I've always wanted to go there, it's sooo beautiful!" Her mind had already drifted to Hawaii as she stared at a far away place... I better put a stop to these delusions.
"No way! I can't elope without outliving my first wife for the inheritance. A divorce would be fine too if it nets enough money. But there's no way I'm gonna be a penniless runaway!" I declared loudly to get through her mist of nonsense.
"That's your reason for refusing? Also The poor wife, you're horrible! Ah! Eh? Eeeh!? Eloping?!" Yuigahama's face turned bright red as she realised what her spouting actually meant. It was quite interesting in which order she worked herself up. So the poor wife came second huh?
"Calm down." It would be bad if someone overheard that. "I have an idea, but it's a bit risky. You see, you don't have to get a perfect score on the make up tests, it's fine as long as you get half of it right. So we can reduce the amount you need to memorise to about two third." The difference between two third and 50 per cent was a safety net since she wasn't called Gahama-san for nothing.
"That.. doesn't sound like a good plan.." My classmate made complex face. I could see where she was coming from. Yuigahama saw every question as a chance to get points as she collected them randomly. My proposal was quite disrespectful to the subject, way more than my scumbag way of passing the tests already was. Additionally to that, it was her future on the line. Getting held back a year was not simply a pain in the arse for wasting a whole year, but every company would inquire about it endlessly.
Regardless of all this Yuigahama took a deep breath. "But you've got to help me then! O-okay?" What started as a bold demand, ended up so weakly that I got worried about her lung capacity on top of her memory. Those huge knockers were probably at fault, pressing all the air out. Must be hard to deal with something that soft.
I could only imagine about the hardship and the softness... or better not. I had the feeling I would just end up making a weird face.
Most likely she was just surprised about her own strong voice that she grew all timid.
Still, learning was best done alone and I had no idea how I could be of any help with memorising. I only did it by spending time on repetitions, there was no trick to it or anything. Thus I refused her.
"Nah, I don't know..." Yuigahama leant forward, giving me a pleading look. "...err I-I guess I can at least accompany you, or something." Or at least I wanted to refuse. Those puppy eyes were too much to endure. I definitely could see something of Sable in her. Now I was really worried about her advancing to the next grade, if she kept learning from a dog. And the dog wasn't particularly smart either.
This created another problem however, wouldn't it be unfair to Yukinoshita if I spend much more time alone with Yuigahama? Well, looks like we'll need to sacrifice club time for it so that they were both there. There goes even my reading time in school.
I wonder if I could still pull out of the dating ordeal, it's eating up so much time. At least I wouldn't have to worry about including Isshiki anymore... well, not that much.. I guess.
My mind took a moment to recall what had happened during the break. It didn't take long for me to resign to my fate and sigh deeply.
I would totally have to do it right? She was in a pretty terrible state and one could argue that I was responsible for that... I so wanted to quit.
Urgh, that reminded me, if Mrs. Correct and Strict found out about my teaching plan being based of knowingly discarding school material for Yuigahama. I had to quit something for real. My life.
Improving yourself was her strongest belief, so it would naturally include the practice sheets from the supplementary lessons.
I shuddered already at the thought of her killer glare. She could be so scary. Oh no! Wasn't she my next dating partner? Now I was twice as scared!
I couldn't push back Yuigahama's private lesson either. She would need any minute she could get as tomorrow was Komachi's birthday. To force Yuigahama to learn during this special day, Komachi wouldn't forgive me. I had to avoid a cold war Komachi at all costs. The vacations weren't that far off and it was a pain to rest at home when the mood was sour. My classmate might get upset a little too.
We walked down the stairs where Yukinoshita waited for us. Was it a paranormal premonition that lead her here? The fear-meter kept rising through the roof as my back stiffened. Yuigahama was going ahead, hopping around till she was in range to jump-hug the club president. She had no idea she was the lamb in front of her butcher.
"You're here?" I asked her directly. After the first supplementary lessons she didn't went out of her way to welcome us.
Despite my blunder of asking in a slightly high pitched voice, I was kind of tense at the moment, Yukinoshita averted her gaze looking a bit embarrassed and didn't seem to find quite the right words. Upon this human reaction from her, my stiffness disappeared into thin air. Heck my body was growing so soft at this sight it might end up as a puddle. Yukinoshita could be quite cute at times. As if having the same thought Yuigahama rubbed her, cheek on cheek.
"Yeaaah~~ You came to pick me up for tonight's sleepover!"
Again? The doors to the Yuri-end flung wide open.
Didn't Haruno move in her sister's apartment? Yukinoshita shouldn't feel lonely around her. Annoyed, perhaps. Bothered, definitely. I wonder how their relationship was coming along, now that the baseline problem was dealt with. I doubted that I would get an honest answer from either of them. The answers would range from 'buddy-buddy sisters' up to 'so meddlesome', depending of which sibling was asked.
We had a short exchange of saying our farewells at the school gate and once again I reminded them not to forget my sisters birthday tomorrow. I took a moment to see them off, before I headed home to Komachi in the opposite direction.
When I got the shopping list from my sister she gave me the cold shoulder. I bet she was saving up her affection for me to let it out all at once the next day. Her occasional glances were all the clues I needed to keep me from worrying.
In front of the grocery store I was greeted with a very strict gaze. Oh right, there was that too. The message I got on yesterday's evening. The schoolmate who accused me of cheating.
Not like I cared though, I only did it for payback. I was the cheated one in the first place, so I considered myself innocent. It all was based on a simple misunderstanding too.
So whatever she was accusing me of, I would stay strong like bamboo.
I thought so to myself, but in reality my knees were weak. Something was flashing, not in her eyes but in her hand! A weapon?! Isn't this taking it a bit too far?! Where was the referee? I cry foul play! Which game were we playing again? Apparently the reflecting wrapping of the candy I mistook for a weapon was part of the game.
Through the transparent wrapping, a well known feline smiled at me. The candy sported the face of Destinyland's best mascot Sassy Cat Marie-chan. Although there was a very small minority which claimed Pan-san the panda should be decorated with this title.
But nothing of that mattered now anyway. I decided to avoid any direct confrontation with my current opponent and aimed directly for the automatic doors that lead into the super market. I would find shelter in there, right?
Probably not, at least I remembered nothing in their advertisements that would support my hope of finding a refuge in there.
Robbed of all escape routes I came to a halt in front of her, the only thing left that managed to avoid direct confrontation were my eyes. In the end I walked normally up to her, it would have been rude otherwise.
I really should have thought more about the time I would meet her again and to justify my stunt, but my head had been too clouded by revenge to look so far ahead.
For a high school girl, who was so strict on her nutrition, tossing her candy was wrong in itself. I was about to get punished twice as hard wouldn't I? My despair grew stronger and stronger, only the sky was the limit. No space was!
"What were you thinking with this?" She held the wrapped candy in front of my face. It was useless to feign ignorance and snatching away the evidence was only what she wanted. When cornered even the smallest and weakest pet would fight back, thus I went into a full head-on attack.
"That's for revenge of course." I even growled like a puppy for a bit.
"Revenge?" She creased one of her eyebrows and demanded an explanation with her glare. Just where did she pick up this intimidating queenly atmosphere? But as her majesty wanted I gave her my reasoning.
"You see, when you gave me the Miso Peas, I didn't deserve them."
"You were crying though..."
"My eyes accumulated only a tiny bit of moist! It didn't have anything to do with the beating you gave me." Crying was such an overstatement, I got a bit worked up when refuting it.
"Like I said, I didn't hit you all that hard..."
"Exactly. You didn't do anything wrong back then." It was entirely my fault for sending the mail to Yuigahama too early by accident. "That is why I didn't deserve your apology gift as there was nothing for me to forgive. It made me feel being unfairly indebted to you and I was quite troubled by it. Hence the revenge."
"Geez, you don't have to take it that seriously you know? We're friends, remember?"
"If being a friend really matters in this situation and I'm not entirely sold on this having anything to do with it..." And I made sure my voice conveyed the doubt I had on this perfectly.
"It does matter!" Instant interruptive reply. Her belief in 'friendship tops everything but love' was a sure-fire bet. Before she could even formulate an argument I presented the paradoxical issue of the situation.
"Then you should have had no problems accepting the sweets too right? Yet you trying to give it back to me."
"Huh? I-I wasn't going to return it... but now that I know you wanted to punish me with it for something ridiculous, I feel like doing just that."
True, at least she never said she wanted to return it. Although it was hard to tell whether she really meant it or just acted on impulse. At first I had the impression of it being a baseless denial, but in the end she did sound genuinely miffed. Did I hurt her feelings by going against her idea of friendship? I remained quiet to avoid making it worse while pondering whether I made something wrong.
Miura however, had no intention to wait for me reaching a conclusion, perhaps feeling my uncertainty on how to continue the talk.
"So, why did you choose her?" She asked me in a normal tone as if nothing ever happened. Maybe it was just me overthinking everything, or she was just that good with glossing over stuff that ruined the mood.
"Her?" Did she mean Yuigahama? I-I hadn't chosen anyone yet! What's with the girl getting ahead of herself about her best friend and me? Everyone was equal! Except for my sister who was ahead. Was she even in the race though? She didn't go on a date with me her yet, which nearly sent me into depression, but then I reminded myself of tomorrow in the nick of time. Her birthday was totally a date, it didn't matter if there were a bunch of people tagging along.
"The cat." She tapped on the candy with her fingernail.
"Oh, you meant Marie-chan." Haha, nearly got me thinking weird stuff. Seriously though, be more clear in the future. It will save my heart from a lot of stress. Miura tilted her head with the obvious question plastered on her face 'what was he thinking about?'. Thus I continued quickly before she could inquire specifics.
"You said you liked her didn't you?"
"Did I really say that?" My classmate had a doubtful look on her face, I guess she didn't remember.
"Maybe you weren't serious then and just tried to appeal to Hayama during the visit to Destinyland. Sorry if I assumed too much."
"It's no big deal if you know, so stop with the apologising already." Contrary to her words it was at least a big enough of a deal to create a pink flush on her cheeks. Pink was an awesome colour, the best of them all. Although it was entirely dedicated to the name drop of Hayama. Perhaps feeling some heat on her face Miura quickly went on with the topic. "But you really are an idiot." Nah, this wasn't the topic at all, was it?
"Err, how so?" I made a scowl with my face showing my displeasure with her conclusion.
"Still haven't figured that out?" My classmate flashed me a teasing smile. How annoying, didn't she hang out with Tobe and Gahama-san? Was I viewed really on the same level as them? Guess that made her the stupid one. On the other hand, she was always next to Hayama, one of the two people who ranked above me even in my strongest forte. Perhaps there was really something I overlooked, so I tried to think about it. However Miura was a cruel quizmaster by cutting down the graze period to barely three seconds.
"At first I thought you were trying to ridicule me by giving me a child's gift, but you actually knew I liked Sassy Cat Marie-chan. You're 'revenge' does make zero sense that way." In itself it didn't, but I never aimed to hurt her with my revenge. I just wanted to be even and not end up indebted to her.
"I see..." I gave her a weak reaction and had my doubts I brought my distress properly across from receiving something based on a false premise. It was fine though as long as she understood that I meant no real harm, which could have created another, bigger misunderstanding.
"That's got to be like the most hilarious punishment ever." Miura broke out into a light-hearted laughter while She grabbed my wrist and lead me into the grocery store. I wasn't particular bothered by the fact I appeared to be the outwitted one, but couldn't she be a bit more quiet? We got quite a bit attention the very moment we entered the store. This was so uncomfortable. Even the middle-aged staff member looked at us, interrupting her work. Then again, did she ever work properly? My classmate's crisp voice continued to laugh and giggle while dropping some more teasing commentary in-between, as the owner of the voice was completely unaware of my uneasiness.
'Please stop that... in a few minutes' I thought to myself as I tried to make the best out of the situation and recorded her cheerful laugh to my memory.
Miura was in a good mood during and after the shopping. She lead the conversation and talked about how excited she was in regards to the movie and being happy that I came along. However, she refused to reveal anything about the film yet. I would go to a movie I didn't know the name of nor what it was about. Not even the genre.
So when my sister asked me which movie I was going to see that was responsible for ruining our cooking lesson, I could only say that I had no idea yet. She eyed me suspiciously and often appeared out of nowhere when I was roaming through the house, surprising me to the point I feared of getting a heart attack. Komoichi strikes again! But something felt off and it wasn't the fact that sneak attacks of ninja sisters had to be done at night while the brother slept peacefully.[20]
Instead she kept nagging me with what I was going to wear and stuff like that. I had no clue why that mattered for a visit to the cinema and when I left the wardrobe unattended Komachi's attention for me dropped quickly for some reason.
"Why did I get my hope up...?" She murmured while staring into the distance.
Was she disappointed I didn't change in front of her? So lewd.
If she expected of me to go on a surprise date with the Service Club members, she should have known her brother better. Unscheduled dates were a paradox by definition. As a top student in Japanese I couldn't allow myself to participate in this youthful recklessness. Words had meanings for a reason, I wasn't going to invalidate them. For the sake of my timetable I couldn't make an exception either. According to my book knowledge, couples were prone to turn exceptions into regular events. Especially Yuigahama reeked of danger in that regard and Yukinoshita seemed like a mixed bag. On one hand she stuck to the rules, on the other hand she liked to take control over every inefficiency. There was a good chance she thought of people not spending their free time together as such an inefficiency, when a relationship was the goal in mind. Opening this door, I bet she would work very hard on us being married within three days before losing all her stamina.
Just before leaving I had second thoughts though about my attire. Was it time to ditch the muffler? It had become warmer, the snow was no more, but the wind was still chilly enough to make you shiver occasionally. After imagining the cold I wrapped the muffler around the neck three instead of two times, burying my face with in it, and left the house.
I arrived at the Cineplex Makuhari 10 minutes earlier than Miura had said. How much time remained till the movie was actually shown, I didn't know yet.
The Screen 10 movie theatre inside Makuhari was pretty big and movies started all the time, so I couldn't even figure out the movie I was going to see through process of elimination. I waited for about 5 minutes in a good spot, from which I could see most of the people entering and leaving the movie theatre, before Miura showed up.
This was a surprise. No, not that she made males of all ages turn their heads around, and a few jealous glances of their accompanying girlfriends and wives along with it. Even among this many people her black high heels were heard clearly clicking on the floor, so even those with their backs to her became aware of her quickly. Since I was used to her carelessly free display of her legs I skipped those with my eyes. The skipping took a bit of time though, weird, just how long were those?! When the legs vanished under her skirt, I finally noticed that she wore an orange, unzipped jacket. This was a stark contrast from the thick, white one she wore earlier at the grocery store today. Perhaps practicability did play a role in her fashion thoughts after all?
I wouldn't have wanted to deal with an inconvenient, not foldable jacket either within the cinema. Most likely my eyes weren't the only ones trying to see what she was wearing under the jacket. The gap of the unzipped jacket wasn't big enough to allow more than the colour to be revealed though. It had a reddish tone, quite flashy for a cinema visit, but it went along fine with the orange. My eyes were already satisfied and I had yet to see the movie. How strange.
This was pretty much a given as she looked always stunning with the flashy state of the art fashion. As far as I could remember back, this had been the case since the first time I spotted her in Sobu High during the first year all the time up to now.
Now that I thought about it, it was a bit weird though.
Sure, she exposed a lot of skin just with her legs alone, and her summer attire was even more daring, but that was mostly only in regards to her back or shoulders. Her chest and panties were always well hidden. After all, I only got a glance of her pink panties just once despite keeping an eye out for them. Of course that was only due to my weakness for my favourite colour and probably scientific reasons. Perhaps that was the reason why so many took a long look at her from the distance, because they couldn't see anything from a quick glance. I should test that theory occasionally. So there really was a scientific motivation for me huh? That was the second surprise for me, but the first one was Miura arriving ahead of the time she told me. And for some reason she seemed very nervous, looking around a lot.
The one who should be all nervous was me though. How should I get into contact with her while there was still a fair amount of attention on her? If a guy, casually dressed like me, walked up to a flamboyant beauty like that, I would receive death letters till the end of my life. Even my actually handsome face wouldn't save me from of crowd screaming injustice, as there was no way to compete with her gorgeous look.
Anyway, it was unnecessary to worry about how to approach as Miura spotted me quickly and came over to my lonely corner hidden by darkness. My classmates observation skill was over the top as ever, damn her. But due to the isolated nature of my habitat she did lose mostly all of the spectators in the process. All is well that ends well I guess, even the most persistent onlooker gave up when he saw her taking off my scarf.
Uh?
"You're here already? I was extra quick so I'd get here first, whatever, I guess this is fine too thanks to you being you." She gave me a little smile at the end I couldn't really appreciate. Not only couldn't I make sense of her words, but her actions were even harder to understand.
Hey...
After she took off my muffler, she rearranged it properly around my neck like it was the most normal thing in the world to do. It was terribly embarrassing. 'I could dress myself just fine you know?' I thought to myself.
Because I wasn't the little kid she must have taken me for, her arm brushed my head when she lifted the scarf to lay it around my neck. Even her tiptoeing didn't avoid it. She thought nothing of it though. Once she was done, she patted the end of the scarf that rested on my chest with a satisfied smile.
"There you go." She said.
Did she wrap it around too tightly? All of a sudden it has gotten very hard for me to breath. Shouldn't my cheeks turn blue instead of red in this case though? I gave up on pursuing this thought as my brain didn't get enough oxygen anyway.
I shouldn't be this weak to an exposition of niceness and touchy-feely girls anymore, but there was something fundamentally different with Miura compared to the girls I was dating.
Yuigahama was still wary of my feelings of uneasiness whenever she tried to get closer or climb a new hurdle, and then reacted to it accordingly, Yukinoshita even 1000 times more so.
Isshiki on the other hand showed no restraint in regards to my feelings. Instead she acted in a way to provoke certain reactions from me on purpose, cunningly planning in advance and trying to manipulate me this way. Haruno even 1000 times more so. I could only hope for them to stop in time and beg mentally for mercy.
What was with the Yukinoshita sisters and their extreme multipliers? Well, my sister had a 1000 factor too, in cuteness. I guess that trait was automatically tied to the sister status. From this I could derive that Yuigahama and Isshiki were single children.
With Miura it was different to either side of them.
Acting the way she wanted was her only drive without any hidden intention or restraint. If she wanted to smile, she did so accordingly to her true mood. She wouldn't timidly smile and blush over it before backing down, nor getting unnecessarily close, being all buddy-buddy while beating me up with her breasts. Seriously, Haruno has way too much free time to get this bored. Miura's eyes would simply pin me down and make me accept this honest smile head on.
I guess having someone not being interested in me in that way was quite refreshing, but it was also weird for me to feel that way. After all, I had longed for this unattainable romantically involvement for so long. That was before I backed down from that field entirely on my own, because I couldn't endure the pain of rejection anymore.
Despite how illogical it was, Miura's kind of attention, or none-attention, did feel good right now.
"Now you can go." It lacked the dominance of an order, especially when said so friendly, but according to the wording it was obvious what she meant. Rearranging the muffler was pointless if I did enter the auditorium, as I would take it off anyway. This meant...
"Go? To home?" The movie watching went smoother than expected. Rather than treating it as an order I probably should label this as a permission. Miura was really a caring girl.
"The ticket-counter! You want to leave me alone here?" My classmate looked more surprised and troubled than I had thought she would be. Was my impression of her being very nervous earlier that right on the mark?
"Ah right, sorry. So which movie is it going to be?" The 98% probability of what she meant prevailed huh? Well, since I already made it all the way out here, I had no problems with staying a bit longer to actually watch the movie.
"The next one on screen 4." Miura said and gave me the money for what seemed to be the amount of one ticket.
She still didn't tell me which movie it was. What was the big deal with that?
"Gotcha." I said and made my way inside towards the ticket counter. On my way I quickly noticed that she had not followed me, aside from her eyes tracing me and the feeling that I was intensively under observation.
The way to the counter wasn't that far so I could amuse myself only shortly at the irony of basically leaving her alone not even a minute later after she told me not to do so.
"Welcome Sir, What can I do for you?" The woman on the other side of the ticket-counter greeted me politely and I issued my order in the same way.
"Two tickets for screen 4 please." This went way smoother than in the past when I got nervous at unavoidable, forced encounters like this one. Actually I felt quite at ease this time around and it probably showed on my face too. At least there was no sign of an appalled reaction towards me on the cashier, nor any other judging expression I had received regularly till recently.
This peaceful feeling didn't last long as a commotion arose at the counter next to us.
"But I really am an adult!" An unknown boy was yelling, according to his looks this was clearly a lie.
"I request you to leave before I have to issue a ban, Sir." The male staff worker behind said counter replied calmly. He seemed used to this to stay this calm in front of a raging youngling like that. The lack of threat in his tone though just edged the youthful boy on to argue further. Apparently he gave no thoughts to the stated consequences as they were said so casually.
"Of course, could I see your-" The cashier I had to deal with tried to say something, but I was too distracted.
"Younglings, just go blow yourself up, dammit..." I accidentally let out while my face distorted in a very distasteful grimace. Even I was scared instantly by the dark aura I oozed off.
"Er, uh,... eek!" She made some weird noises now.
'Could I get a new cashier? Mine seems to be broken' I thought. All of a sudden my own cashier's actions became very odd. I realised that I still had the awful expression on my face.
"Y-your tickets Sir." She hastily handed me out the tickets.
"T-thank you very much." To make up for my blunder I tried to reply as politely as possible, but it was so out of place for this kind of interactions and my voice was so high, that it made the situation even more awkward. The best course of action I could take was to retreat quickly.
'It was so scary' the cashier would say later, weeping uncontrollably, while being comforted by her co-workers, probably. Imagining this hypothetical scene brought me close to tears.
In order not to make a scene and break down, I focused on the tickets I had just received. It had the director's name written on it, so he must have been quite the household name. Indeed, although I couldn't pin it down exactly, his name seemed familiar, so I read it out loud to hear if the sound of his name rang a bell.
"You know him?" At some point Miura had come out of nowhere and posed me a question.
"I think I saw a movie by him last summer." Hearing his name really did trigger a memory. It must have been because Totsuka and some grunting, sweaty bear kept mentioning him afterwards.
"Oh!" She got all excited and guessed the movie right just from me mentioning the time I watched it, was she a fangirl of the director?
"Yes, that was the one." I replied casually.
"How did you like it?"
"It was a great experience." Obviously because I saw it together with an angel.
"Really?! No kidding?"
I gave her an affirmative nod.
"I've seen it last summer as well." She said. A weak memory flashed in front of my inner eye. There was indeed someone I took for Miura upon a quick glance, but most of my attention was focusing on Totsuka so I couldn't remember clearly.[21] It would have been quite the coincidence if she had really watched it at the same time in the same cinema as we did.
"Ah, good job on getting the tickets." Miura said and laid her hand on my shoulder to say 'good job!' physically as well. I could deal the drumming by now as it were just short contacts and went by quickly, but these soft, longer touches still made my heart race uncomfortably.
"Even I can do basic deliveries just fine." I said in an attempt to lessen her need of feeling grateful. It didn't have quite the desired effect though. It was weird for her to mention it in the first place. There wasn't much that could have gone wrong, right?
"You can? That's good to know." She was smirking at me in a way that instantly made my inner alarm go off.
"Err, nooo? Please forget I said anything." I begged to no avail.
"Hehe, no can do." Did I sell myself into slavery just now? I got a bad feeling about this.
Miura switched the topic back to the movie I had seen with Totsuka last summer and asked me all kind of questions about how I found this part and that part. It was an entertaining movie, flashy yet easy to understand, but I had serious troubles concentrating on it as Totsuka was sitting next to me.
Of course I left out the Totuska part, someone who clung to a guy like Hayama couldn't possibly understand the greatness that was Totsukyute. Somehow my answers were still fine enough for her as she seemed to enjoy herself. Her excitement did jump on to me and I started to look forward to the actual film a well.
So much that I remembered barely in time all the important things to look out for from my experiences with Totsuka, like staying away from the armrest.
When the lights turned off, another memory came back to me that forced the question 'Wasn't Miura an actual scaredy-cat?' into my mind. In the memory I was inside a Kyoto underground shrine in which she kept rambling on how dark it was, sounding so scared that my own anxiousness skyrocketed to the max.
"Is this a horror movie as well?" I whispered to her, trying not to bother anyone else in the audience.
"Mhhmm." She confirmed my speculation absentminded, as she was already engulfed into the commercials.
I hoped Miura was just acting scared on the Kyoto field trip to appeal to Hayama, otherwise this movie would proof to be some harsh trial. I wasn't that good with horror to begin with, if Miura's emotions would continue to jump on to me I'd probably end up with more than just a dry throat from all the screaming.
However, there was the general thing about movies, and especially horror movies, that nearly applied all the time.
There would be a shocker in the opening to get the audience riled up, then the tension drops to almost zero by switching to the actual cast of the movie. This would continue for a while, gradually rising the tension with a mix of false alarms and low key action, until it went all out again for the climax.
So as long as I made it through the first five to ten minutes, I should be fine.
The movie started out as expected, by showing glimpses of the films antagonist in action. However the pictures were so dark and fast paced, I couldn't even make out whether it was a ghost, a monster, or, the scariest of them all, a human.
The loud music and sudden sound effects were enough to make my heart race quickly.
Same director and same genre equals same movie, or so I anticipated. Looks like my maths study had still a long way to go. Because I was barely ever so wrong.
Just when I thought I could somehow deal with it, the climax of the opener arrived. It was more gory than I expected because it surpassed the first movie by miles in that department.
When the film gave me some room to breath afterwards, I noticed the soft feeling in my left hand. Now I was filled with more terror than during the opening scene. I quickly let go of Miura's hand and stuttered out an apology somehow. At least my lungs weren't completely paralyzed yet.
But Miura didn't seem to mind and just kept watching after nodding her head slightly to signal that she had heard me.
Looks like I dodged the bullet for now. Not just thanks to Miura's generous mercy, but also with the first shocker scene as well. The breather should give me time to recover from the over the top opener and to get accustomed to the upcoming horror bits.
I tried to position myself further away from my classmate to avoid another accident, but I bumped into my right seat neighbour this time. I gave the fatso a brief apology, but I doubted he had even felt the contact through all this fat layers. Even Zaimokuza would appear as normal healthy boy compared to him. But that only applied to the physics, his psyche would make him abnormal regardless as that isn't so easily changeable. Even if Comiket-chan tried her best. With such a neighbour I was forced to stay in the middle of my seat.
I took a deep breath to clear my mind as I wanted to concentrate on the movie again. That turned out to be a huge mistake.
My head cocked backwards from the stinky smell and my nose complained that it couldn't crawl into my skull. For a brief moment I wished to have been born as a snail.
It was a huge struggle to keep my position and not move closer to the blonde who was fully absorbed by what happened on screen. I sighed only mentally, because I didn't want to ex- and inhale air as much as possible and followed her example.
The phase of introducing the main characters should take place right now, but for whatever reason the music was still playing its creepy tune. On the screen, a boy walked through his house at night. Obviously one of those fake tension things, my brain didn't even bother to emit stress hormones.
I nearly jumped out of my seat when the monster-ghost-human thingy popped out with a bang and devoured half of the body, splashing blood all over the place.
What. the. heck. was. this?
This film was way redder than anything I had seen so far. My eyes were wide open like my mouth as I stared in shock at the screen.
Yumiko PoV
This was too much, the poor boy! So this is what a R18+ movie was like. My eyes were tightly shut, but therefore my ears and other senses were picking up the reactions of the people and the sounds of the film all the more. Just when it got louder again something packed my arm! I shrieked, but it vanished within the reactions of the others. The feeling on the arm wasn't an imagination though, so I forced my eyes to open and looked for the reason.
Hikio's hand was the culprit! Just a few moments ago he even apologised before removing his hand quickly. How unusual of him... or was he trying to scare me or what? That might be totally like him.
One quick glance told me this wasn't the case. His back was pressing so hard into the seat, I could tell immediately that he wanted to run away. His face filled with fear looked so hilarious, I barely could hold back my laughter! The shock helped with succeeding though. He was completely immersed into the movie, that was the magic of this genre. The more scared one was the greater the effect. It was a total plus to be easily frightened. This made it all so much funnier! I was glad he could enjoy himself like this when I hadn't told him anything up beforehand.
Even if he would think about it differently this very moment with his eyes being fear-struck. I patted the hand which held my arm slightly to calm him down, otherwise he might really just stand up and run away.
What a relief we got in without a hitch to experience all of this.
"Oh, sorry." I could hear vaguely amidst all the noise. A moment or two later after I patted his hand, it was gone.
"No, I wasn't telling you to remove it." Was what I as saying, but another wave of screams erupted amongst the crowd. They were so loud I couldn't even hear my own words properly. There was no chance Hikio would have heard them. When the chance to repeat myself came, he was already back to focusing on the screen. I didn't want to disturb him again. It should be me to concentrate on the film as much as him, as I was the one to suggest watching it. But it was soooo scary! This really was something else to anything I have watched so far.
Just when I wanted to force my eyes to set their sight on the screen again, I noticed something else about Hikio this evening.
He didn't seem as distant as usually. Of course this didn't apply to his mind, that was about halfway to the afterlife. No, it was his body that was closer than normal. I nearly had expected him to move to the opposite edge of his seat because he always was so overly mindful of keeping his distance. I'm glad this wasn't the case today.
Urgh, my eyes got a glimpse at the reason for Hikio' behaviour. It was actually hard not to see it! A fat, messy guy was next to him. I swear one ring of his fat covered Hikio's right armrest fully just by him sitting there. It was a really gross sight.
I had it checked earlier, my neighbour was a plain girl. The kind you could find about anywhere. Her existence would have escaped my mind completely, if it hadn't been for this awful reminder. Considering how little space Hikio had, I decided to let him have his left armrest at least to use entirely for himself and looked finally back with open eyes at the movie.
Hachiman PoV
Just what was up with this movie? It just kept going on and on introducing new characters just to gruesomely kill them off a few minutes later, adding to the mental torture of the main character girl, who sought them out to help them. The scenes to recover from this ordeal were way too short to provide any healthy relaxation to the mind.
I even messed up with Miura again to the point she chased me away. I couldn't even do something about it. Normally one would expect the nose to get used to its surroundings, but it never got accustomed to my neighbour as new smells were picked up constantly from the many people inside the auditorium. Every time the pig next to me moved I was hit anew with his sweaty, self produced perfume.
At one point my company had retreated from the armrest. 'She really was such a caring person!' I thought to myself in order to avoid the truth that she just was simply fed up with me invading her personal space. I would be too, so I didn't blame her. Although it was a bit sad.
To maintain my self-protective delusion of her offering the armrest to me out of good will, I picked up on it. I took a quick glance to see if she truly didn't mind my bold action, but as soon as I did I realised that I didn't need to worry about that.
She was so self-immersed she wouldn't even notice! Not even what was going on on the screen. She actually had covered her eyes with her hands, not looking at the movie at all! How unfair! Forcing me through this ordeal but choosing the easy escape herself. Now that made me so angry I kept staring at her for a minute or two.
It had nothing to do with avoiding eye contact with the screen myself!
But the longer I did, the higher the risk rose that I was found out. Thus I turned my head towards the horror show again.
Yumiko PoV
Suddenly I received a kick, brushing my left leg.
Ha? Plain girl trying to mess with me? I shot her a warning glare... but it had no effect at all!
Plain girl was actually a young woman, but that wasn't the reason for my stare to not work on her. It couldn't have had an effect as she looked in the opposite direction, to her left neighbour. And she had her hands all over him. Heck, she was halfway on his seat across the armrest.
She paid her feet no mind, probably she didn't care about anything in this room other than about kissing and touching her boyfriend. That guy was equally daring as he groped her ass thoroughly.
Making out in a place like this while a film like that played!? Luckily she didn't wear a skirt yet thanks to the whether, or else that man's hand wouldn't be kept from slipping under it to... there, with no textiles in-between.
Just imagining this made my face beat red, like no way. Then I remembered how I got to notice what they were doing in the first place. A cold shudder went down my spine and I backed away from them immediately. My leg felt dirty from having touched them while they were so close to doing it.
When I retreated from them, my back bummed into someone's shoulder. I quickly turned my head around to see what I had done. Hikio's arm wasn't on the armrest anymore, most likely I had just pushed it down. He wouldn't misunderstand again right? He probably would, after all I had left it for him, just to take it away now. But, how should I even start to explain this? No, no, no! I would die from embarrassment!
My mind was still thrown totally off, I couldn't think straight at all. Ah, I should at least apologise, Hikio would accept that no matter how cruel the action was towards him. That was a sad thought though, but I couldn't think of anything else right now.
"S-sorry... heah?"
It didn't seem like he had even noticed what happened to him, he was just sitting there looking paler than the ghost that had appeared earlier in the movie. I saw his mouth moving slightly, that was the only sign of life being within him. He kept repeating something which I couldn't hear at all. He wouldn't die out of fear... right?
Another wave of noise went through the crowd and Hikio jumped halfway up from his seat. A reaction!
Looks like he was fine, he got me worried for a second there. With this everything was dealt with right? Apology delivered, armrest free to use, being out of plain girl's reach. I calmed down and finally could enjoy the movie like Hikio again, ignoring everything that happened left of me.
I mentally apologised to Hikio once more, but it couldn't be helped. I had to get away from that couple. He would allow me to use the armrest anyway if I asked him. Whether he truly wouldn't mind I doubted though. I had felt more pity for him right now than for the endless series of victims on the screen.
The movie was just too much. It definitely deserved its rating, but it didn't make it necessarily better. It was way to thrilling to follow it all the time.
Thinking of Hikio's condition, it would be unfair of me to chicken out though, when I made him come along with me and all. I prepared my heart with a deep breath and set my eyes on the screen for the rest of the movie. At least I tried, but when I noticed how Hikio himself looked sideward ever so often, my own determination dwindled somewhat.
Hachiman PoV
Somehow I survived this, unlike the main cast of the film. With everyone dead, I could relax the last bits of the movie as some police members tried to make sense of the bloody trail they had found.
My senses slowly returned to me and pushed the numbness out of my system. I performed a quick maintenance to see if I functioned correctly by moving toes, feet and legs one by one. Everything was up and running fine until the left hand gave me an unexpected report of holding something soft.
I slowly turned my head and stared blankly at the source of the erroneous feedback. Since I rebooted from bottom to top my mind proceeded the information at snails speed.
I was holding Miura's hand, that much I had recognised rather quickly, but since when? The left hand was way warmer than the right one, it was an indicator for it having been like this a while. I couldn't remember anything but retracing my hand a few times before. However, this option was now unavailable to me. This time the hand wasn't just latched on to her, but we were hand in hand with fingers interwoven.
As if my heart wasn't the motor of my body anymore, pulses of warmth came from the left hand instead, as well as all other kinds of stimuli. Actually I was starting to get overwhelmed from all the signals I received from my hand.
It didn't even top there. To make matters worse, my system check continued by going upwards. It felt like my eyes watched each skin cell whose turn it was to currently give me its report to my brain.
No contact, yes/no?
Skin to textile contact, yes/no?
Skin to skin contact, yes/no?
Size of area of contact, temperature, softness... the report was very detailed and when one bit was through with giving the feedback, the next one started its own.
My eyes who followed through the whole process finally stopped at the shoulders. Even those were touching! With Miura's shoulder also touching the back of the seat, while my shoulder was in front of hers.
This meant, I was the one who initiated the touch right? Unless Miura squeezed her arm between mine and the backrest, which I found unlikely to be the case, it must have been me. I looked at her face, hoping to see whether she was aware of the situation or not. If I was lucky, I could still get away unnoticed.
A sweet smell was in the air. That was way different from my last memory though. Looks like it had been my nose's turn to reboot. Why did all the girls smell so nicely? Had it something to do with the genes? Not that I was complaining after the subpar odour from the neighbour to the right.
Oh shoot! I had no time to daze around!
But it was too late, the music signalling the end credits started to play and Miura stopped looking at the screen.
"you feel better now?" She asked me with a smile. No, a mocking grin would be more accurate.
"What do you mean with that?" That was totally a jab at me! I didn't even want to imagine what kind of faces I pulled of this time during the movie. Unpleasant memories of Hayama, Orimoto and her whatever her name was friend surfaced. Not like I was trying to forget it, but wasn't it her fault to not have an easily memorable name like Kawasaki Saki? Stupid Nakamachi Chika, she should be somewhere on my people to kill list so no point in remembering her name right now.
"I didn't think you was this much of a coward." She told me bluntly.
"Says the scaredy-cat herself, tch." I clicked my tongue at her provocation.
"Ha? Tough words, I'm actually surprised your brave enough for a retort." Where did her courage come from? Just a few minutes ago, there was no trace of it.
"Err, I have you know that I was about a hundred times braver than you during the movie." If she thought she had me in a tight spot just because of my lack of composure during the film, I would fight back.
"Someone who didn't have his head turned towards the screen shouldn't be spouting nonsense like this."
Oh, I had been found out, huh? True, I caught myself watching Miura from the side several times. She once told me about knowing it from school already, so I was free to watch her whenever I wanted right? This was basically an 'Out of Jail'-card she had given me, although thinking of it like this had more of a 'getting me into jail' vibe.
Meh, details. What was important was the knowledge I gained from it.
"At least I had my eyes open." Take that ultimate secret technique!
"Ehhhh?!" Looks like I scored a critical hit, Miura backed away from me. Well, she would have if we had been standing, but since we were still in our seats the distance remained about the same. Too close.
It was than that I noted the lights inside the auditorium had been turned back on and gave off a dimmed light. The credits were still rolling and more than half of the audience had left already.
And here we were, still holding each others hands. I had missed the opportunity again to separate them. Miura had not mentioned it yet though and it would be awkward to suddenly do it without a proper trigger. The next natural chance would be when the credits were over with, unless she stood up beforehand.
I focused back on my classmate and found her to have a somewhat sulky expression. My attack power was over 9000.
A weird feeling of sympathy overcame me and instead of the bickering we had going on, I tried to cheer her up now.
"But you know, if you shut down one of your senses, the others get enhanced all the more, so closing your eyes was kind of a daring act..."
"Yes, that! Exactly that! When you suddenly touched me while I had my eyes closed, I was freaking out so hard! Nearly killed me there, wew."
"So-sorry!" My touches were deadly? And I had cursed my classmates for calling me Hikigerma all the time. Did I have to apologise to them now? I barely could hold back my tears from coming out. That was what you'd get for trying to be considerate for once.
And since she had brought up the topic of touching, I tried to remove my hand from hers while I said sorry. But I was unable to do so. Her hand hold mine firmly now. without me applying an overblown amount of strength, I wouldn't be able to free it. I gave her an inquiring look, waiting for her to reveal her intentions. My heart was racing like crazy, more so than at any time during the entire movie.
The cause for this was Miura's triumphant smile, with a look on her face like she had known what I tried before I did. Being looked through was a thrilling feeling when it was paired with clear, big green eyes.
"W-what is it?" I put in great effort to push out this question out of my mouth. If I had remained silent, I might have been devoured by her eyes. Not in a violent way, just like I would have lost my soul or something. Succubus teachers were quite common in manga. Why ever that thought popped up in my mind now.
Her hand was too soft.
"I'm not letting you get away again."
Her hand was too warm.
"It's normal to happen with a movie like this."
Her hand was too gentle.
"It's really no big deal."
Her hand was too much of a big deal.
"So, don't be worried over nothing, really."
Her hand was too... wait, I nearly got caught up in her pace. This was her actually denying my free will right there, when telling me what to do and what not. That's the point where the soul was harvested! Even if she wasn't a teacher, be careful Hachiman.
"A movie like this? Yeah, what was up with that movie? I've never seen something as drastic as this. How did it ever pass with a R15+ rating?" I quickly tried to redirect the topic to something she would get excited about. Power of diversion, do your magic!
"It didn't." She flatly said.
"Huh?"
"It's R18+, sorry for not telling you earlier, but I didn't want you to get all nervous when getting the tickets."
Why would I get nervous from just that? I simply did something illegal and could have gotten a ban for it, making it impossible to see movies at this convenient place ever again. What's there to get nervous about?
"I'm really sorry!" She apologised once more, must have been because I stared at her with an open mouth. Her second hand latched onto to my arm, probably to smooth over things, wasn't this the complete opposite effect of what I wanted to achieve with a switch of topics?
"It's fine, I mean, I got to see something new, that's got to count for something, or so." While I struggled to find some words to make Miura stop with the gentle touching, which I wasn't accustomed to, the movie theatre came to my rescue. The credits had ended and the light switched from dim to full power.
I used the opportunity to stand up. Miura couldn't have any objections to it as it was the normal thing to do, to leave the auditorium once the movie had ended.
As expected her grip loosened immediately and her hand slid slowly out of mine. I had my back turned to her as I was the one being closest to the exit and thus had to move first. Without seeing her hand, the sensitivity of it sliding out of mine must have been amplified or something. It wouldn't have been an issue if it had been over quickly, like everyone just taking their hands back to where they belong.
But this didn't happen here. Her hand was simply moving out of mine because of gravity, not because she took it away actively. Our fingers rub against each other in the process, as slowly one finger after the other vanished from my senses. It created a weird intense feeling. As her middle finger slid over the tip of mine-
Before I knew what I was doing, I had turned around to her and 'caught' her hand with mine. Caught was the right way to describe it, as my action must have been triggered by a reflex that was designed to prevent things from falling, when they left your grasp.
Damn nature putting me in an embarrassing situation in which I blinked at Miura. I surprised by my own actions as I held her hand once again. How could I explain what has happened to her? I didn't understand it really myself. The reasoning I thought up wasn't even convincing to me and I would probably stutter too much trying to bring it out. It was sure to create more of an misunderstanding as opposed to me remaining silent.
So I carefully put her hand on the armrest, hesitating a tiny split of a second whether to pat it like you do to an animal when it should behave and sit down, or not. But I could suppress that urge successfully. I did that in complete silence as the heat in my head increased rapidly.
"Hikio?" Miura looked dumbfounded and probably wanted to know why I had done all that. I would have liked to know that myself. I felt my thoughts going in circles.
"I'll be going ahead and grab drinks for us, my throat is so dry from all the screaming." Escape was the only option, my voice did sound quite horse, hopefully that made my excuse more convincing. Without waiting for a reply or her order on which drink to get for her, I rushed towards the exit.
"Uh huh? Hey, w-wait!" Behind me I could hear Miura's protests, but no chance I would obey her command this time. The idea of getting an ice coffee and splashing it on my head didn't sound very unreasonable at this moment. Anything that would cool off my head would do.
Fortunately it took my classmate long enough to find me waiting in the line of the theatre specific shop that I didn't need to resort to this extreme measure. I took the nudge on my shoulder for running off so suddenly like a man, asked her for the drink she wanted and paid for it.
This should be enough of an apology to get us even again. Actually she should owe me a favour now. After all I didn't went straight home after paying for our drinks. I sacrificed more free time! Unless she took me buying her a drink for granted as some sort of natural duty for a social underling. I mean, she had Queen-like temperament with that personality, but she wouldn't go that far with it, right?
Miura never mentioned the drink though and thus I remained unclear how she thought about it. What she did let me know was how she felt about the movie, to no end even. I was actually impressed how much she could talk about it, when her eyes were close like half the time.
However, she didn't just leave it at that but asked me about my own opinion several times about various things that happened. Honestly though, I had quite some trouble to string everything together as quite some portion of the movie seemed to consist of a young, blonde high school girl, who was too scared to look at some sort of screen, according to my memory at least. Despite that I still managed to come up with answers she agreed to wholeheartedly with a joyful expression. I focused on the sound effects and music, a topic she didn't need her eyes for. Even when I complained about the overdone gory bits she nodded her head vividly.
We continued to chat for quite a while about the movie, actually this was the most enjoyable thing about this evening. Turns out she was just a fan of the genre and not the director. Thus there was no harm in saying what I didn't like about the movie without having to fear a heavy backlash just because a certain name was attached to it.
So when the time of separation came, we were both still in a mood to continue, but there was school tomorrow and Komachi's birthday as well. This made the parting a bit awkward compared to the end of our daily shopping.
Oh right, I haven't said anything about tomorrow yet.
"You see, there is my sister's birthday tomorrow... so, uhm, I won't come to the supermarket because of this." There was no need to be feel uncomfortable when simply informing her, yet this was harder than expected. Must have been due to the good mood we had up till now.
"Mmhhmm, will Yui be there?"
"Yepp, somehow my sister is really attached to the club members, so she invited them all."
"I see." Huh? She didn't sound as happy as a minute ago, was she sad because she wasn't invited? Could it be... my sister charmed her as well?! If Komachi hadn't invited me, I would feel down too. Luckily, I was her brother as well as a club member, double safety net!
But when did Komachi get her clutches on someone like Miura? During the [People ~Look Closer And One Person's Taking It Easy While Leaning On The Other Cultural Festival~]? Ah no, the name wasn't chosen for whatever reason, even though it did get the most laughs. Probably Haruno didn't count for being only a former student.
If I remember correctly they saw each other only two times, the summer camp and upon the shrine visit at New Years. I had no clue if something went on between them during summer when they shared the same room, but it didn't seem like they stayed in contact afterwards.
I mean, Miura didn't even talk to her on New Years. Well she didn't talk to me either... but again, I wasn't my sister, so there is nothing to conclude from that.
Miura was probably moody too as Hayama declined their invitation to visit the shrine together. It was all about circumstances which made humans so damn complicated. I vaguely remember Ebina saying to Komachi how that it was the first time seeing each other since the summer camp though. The probability of them being friends were basically nil. I doubt they'd accounted even as acquaintances.
And yet, there was this weak reaction from Miura and a disturbing pause after it. She might be that kind of girl that took it for granted to be invited to everything automatically. Perhaps that's why she lost her vigour when she found out this wasn't the case for once.
Which put me in a troublesome spot. I had no right to invite her to someone else's birthday when the celebrated person didn't even knew her all that much. So it became my duty as onii-sama to invite her out, even though she wasn't invited in the first place.
"Err... uhm, you...you see...my sister.." I couldn't find the right words to start with.
"It's okay, you don't need to." She said, giving me an understanding smile. What was okay? I didn't need to refuse her? This sounded weird, but anyway, what's settled is settled and it did save me a lot of trouble.
Miura continued. "I'll hang around with Hayato tomorrow."
'My condolences.' I thought. it didn't really interest me, but to be nice I decided to ask.
"Really? So what are you guys going to do then?"
"Huh, that doesn't really matter at all." Her words didn't match her happy expression in the slightest.
"I-I see." The words may be rude, but I could guess what she meant. It's one of those 'as long he was there' kind of stories. But should she really be satisfied with just that? Attacks should be carefully planned, choosing the battlefield was an essential decision for this.
Oh well, it had nothing to do with me.
It was time to head home anyway. Before anyone could accidentally mention words like 'hands', 'holding' or any other words that could be associated with the embarrassing parts of this evening. Better to keep such things under the rug.
After stating my intention to leave, I accompanied her to the station without a hitch. Then it was time to head home and call it a day.
The nightmares I would surely have this night, will probably be of an entirely different nature, but I wasn't sure how happy I should be about that. It made me anxious just thinking about the possible nightmares.
Ah damn it! A sudden realisation hit me. Why had I not thought of playing with Miura's hair again in the dark auditorium?! She wouldn't have even noticed with the movie playing and I would have calmed down tremendously. With the fear gone, I would have had a peaceful night sleep by now. Damn it for real, such misfortune. It was the obvious solution to everything! From balancing my personal feelings all the way up to world peace.
At least I wouldn't face these new nightmares entirely alone, but with the feeling of someone's invisible hand holding mine to calm me down. That's what I told myself before falling asleep. The movie was really scary...
Yumiko PoV
It has gotten so late already, and yet I couldn't sleep at all. Telling my mind to just shut off and get some rest had no noticeable effect. I didn't want to look tired around Hayato at all cost, so please. Let me sleep already!
It must have been the movie's fault. R18+ was really on a totally different level. Whenever I thought back to the images of the film I wanted to pull the blanket over my face. The only things that prevented me from doing so were the flashes of Hikio's scared expressions that came along with these memories.
He was indeed a one-of-a-kind person in everything. If he didn't look that funny I would have pitied him to no end. Hikio had probably even more trouble then me finding some sleep tonight.
And that's when he had an important day tomorrow too! Was it a mistake to watch the movie then? No, it was too exciting not to do and I would have regretted it if I had not watched it.
I just hoped he felt the same way about it, regardless of his sister's birthday.
Yui would be there too. It didn't happen often that she wouldn't come along with us, so I had asked her already why. I'm really glad she told me about it before finding it out from Hikio.
Another of his expressions came to mind. Another helpless one, but it had nothing to with being scared or the movie. It was when he tried to invite me to his sister's birthday party so I wouldn't feel excluded. He tried to, even though I hardly could say I knew his sister. According to Hikio they were really close siblings, making him stuck between his consideration for her and me. It must have been quite the dilemma for him. But going through these troubles, was what made it such a heart-warming gesture.
Lucky for him that our group met up as well tomorrow, this way I could ease his trouble quickly. And lucky for me that I could be with Hayato again!
...
Although I was partly interested in going to his sister's party. Just to see how it was like when they all spend their time together. The surely would have fun, tons of it. However that could work with someone stuck up as Yukinoshita-san around. Well, she wasn't as bad as I first thought either. She had her issues too. But why had those issues have to be related to Hayato this much?
This felt so irritating that displeasure began to show on my face. Best not to go there, not when I actually was trying to sleep.
...
Did he really have problems with falling asleep too? The movie had a similar effect on him as it had on me, but I wanted to make sure.
I grabbed the phone next to my bed and typed him that question quickly.
...
No reply. Well, he might be just slow to react with his phone. I could totally see him being all surprised by a sudden message. When I had his phone in my hands I saw that the first few mails all were between his sister and him, aside from one exchange with his 'mum'. It didn't seem like he texted all that often with others outside of his family.
So yeah, he might go all crazy about what to do. He did have a troubled face when he fiddled with his phone in front of the supermarket just the other day.
He definitely couldn't stay like this forever. Yui was the type of girl who typed a lot, so to improve their relationship I should lend him a hand at getting used to it and text him from time to time.
I didn't want things to become awkward between them, because of such minor stuff. Thinking of awkward, there was this sudden hand grabbing after the movie too. It caught me completely by surprise. Just what was that about? It came, like, out of nowhere and then he just put my hand on the armrest. He seemed to be surprised by it as much as I was, being all frozen up for a moment like time had stopped for him. And then just storming off like that. It was an all around weird event. I would have asked, but I had a hunch that he didn't even know himself why he had done it. So there would have been no reply anyway...
...no reply. My phone remained silent without an incoming message from Hikio.
Maybe, he really did fall asleep easily despite the movie's horrors. This would go totally against anything he did during the film though and was hard to believe. Or was it that he wasn't really sleeping, but like entered a stake of shock instead? I could see that being the case.
Musing over this thought I finally fell asleep at some point.
[1] He had that thought in V6.5 already, Imagine breaker is the ability of the MC from Toaru Majutsu no Index which destroys illusions and other magic.
[2] Kunoichi is a female ninja. Wordplay with his sister's name
[3] Story from V 5.
[4] One of his insulting nicknames, combination of family name + germs
[5] Catch phrase of Rena from Higurashi whenever she finds something too cute/adorable. (I wanna take it hoooome~~)
[6] Japanese emperor title
[7] One Piece main character
[8] From the Haruhi Light Novel, A method by an alien character to inject a cure by biting someone
[9] quod erat demonstrandum, used for mathematical proofs
[10] Yōkan, thick, jellied dessert made of red bean past, agar and sugar, sold in blocks, mostly eaten in slices
[11] Pocky – chocolate-coated biscuit sticks
[12] UP3 or UPPP is the acronym for Underdeveloped Planet Protection Pact from the Star Ocean series, meaning no that no contact between advanced and underdeveloped societies is allowed
[13] Spirit Bomb or Genki Dama, is an attack from Dragon Ball Z, using spiritual energy from donors for a powerful attack
[14] This expression was also in the Light Novel, I think it refers to the Dokkaebi, Korean Goblins, unless the Japanese have goblins of that type too, which I don't know.
[15] Torako, Tora means Tiger in Japanese, ko means child just like in Yumiko. Characters with the name usually have a wild side to them.
[16] urban speech for jealous.
[17] Noticeable scene early into One Piece, MC was about to be executed as he shouted his ambition
[18] Screen 10, a movie theatre in the Cineplex Makuhari, mentioned in Vol. 5. It also has arcades and stuff like that under the roof. Hachiman and Totsuka went there together to watch a horror movie, Zaimokuza was present coincidentally too.
[19] Franky from One Piece, known for his catch phrase 'suuuper' and his nipple lights ability.
[20] A scene from ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai in which the sister sat on top of her brother in the middle of the night and slapped him awake
[21] Happened in Vol. 5 as well, He thought he saw someone like Miura in the auditorium, disregarded that thought though. I'll treat his observation as reliable for the story though
Author's Note:
Anyone remember me complaining about a chapter's length? This one takes the biscuit, in both word count and production time.
Now what has happened? To be honest I was quite lazy in spring after the last chapter, it was really warm and I did more summer stuff than writing. After that phase I did work on it again for a long time. The problem was and is, I just don't have as much time as I used to have. My workplace changed but I don't want to give up the city I live in.
So I actually had half of my lunch time to write the chapter on the digital screen of my tablet. On the way to work I was too tired, and after work my mind wasn't fit enough anymore for some creative production. I only have three hours which I spend awake at home, if I want to have the minimum of 6 hours of healthy sleep. So there is no real recovery there either as I have to keep it clean and me fed too. I spent my weekends mostly on recovery and family.
Just very recently there was some more change. A positive one, my mind and body got accustomed to the new schedule. I can now write reliably on the train ride to work, and even sometimes on the train after work. And unlike for lunch break I can use my laptop for that with a physical keyboard. It also reduced the problem of fragmentation of the text and having to get into it anew each lunch break.
Nevertheless I will apologise for the wait. Some people used the PM function to ask about the progress. I answered each of them, albeit with some delay every now and then. If the waiting time gets to long, you can use the same method. Just know that I'll finish the story (unless I get into an accident or so).
Now about the chapter itself:
With it covering four days it was bound to be long, but at one point in the story I wanted to have a detailed scene, which Hachiman experiences, how he tells Yumiko about it, how she perceives it and lastly how Hikio interprets her reactions.
Yui's date was the most logical point in time to do it as Yumiko's interest would naturally be on a peak for this.
I probably forgot to mark a few sources from the Light Novel, so if a past reference feels new to you, it's from one of the extra stories. Like Hachiman telling Yui to warn Yumiko about the danger of using real life references in email-addresses.
Except for the Yumiko's dating past in middle school. That has no hard fact foundation in the LN. Thus I made it so that Hachiman doesn't know whether it really happened or Yumiko was just fooling him.
Now that I finished this chapter, I can finally reward myself with reading the 12th Volume! Also note, that Vol 12 and beyond will not have an effect on this story as it is already fully planned.
Next chapter will be a three day issue and thanks to it using a day to day format the next day has to be Komachi's birthday (3rd March, Tuesday). Would be odd to pretend it doesn't happen for the sake of a shorter story workload with such a brother. With the day after being Yukinoshita's date and in the end of the supplementary lessons. Thursday will finally be an unknown day to you again.
Now for the reviews, hoping they're not too harsh because of the long wait. As always I will address those with issues or questions.
FuegoesFiyerd I hope the chapter explained Iroha's confusion. While I have not yet experienced this situation myself, or at least I wasn't that aware of it as Iroha here, that is a scientifically researched subject.
Wildarms13 I understand your feelings, it would make my writing much easier if I reduced everything to the core of progression too. But unfortunately Yumiko is a character that was only developed in the LN. So I had to spend time explaining her to the anime viewers, or those who missed her characterisation within the LN. Since it is a continuation story of after Vol.11 I can't just drop every girl for the sake of Yumiko. But be rest assured, in every chapter there are already hints towards future plot elements.
BitteOrca The Light Novels don't have that many more of canon middle school stories. I doubt I will invent new ones. The unknown past is a touchy subject for a continuation story. I also feel that I advanced far enough to focus more on present and the future.
TheLaughingStalk Lenny-kun About the Yumiko route in the PSPVita game. Haven't played it, but for your question I researched about it.
Hachiman finds Yumiko on the rooftop of the school, being frustrated of Hayama. She tells him her woes, but also said he should forgot about what she said. He said 'no' to this request.
Yumiko felt embarrassed by Hayama announcing her name after the marathon so she hid in the clinic and treated Hachiman's injury, like in repaying the favour.
At the Valentine's event Haruno said that Yukino gave Hayama some chocolate back then. Yumiko escapes the room, being all down. Iroha finds her and mentions the 'genuine' term.
Because of this Yumiko confesses to Hayama, but gets no answer.
At the following Ski-event Yumiko sees Hachiman having trouble and teaches him how to ski. During the night he finds a crying Yumiko. She tells him about the lack of answer and the genuine thing. He cheers her up by saying that she is 'real'. Flustered she says that she doesn't know how to respond to this and also asks him not to mention anything to anyone.
They clean the sauna next day and she hurt her leg. He tells her to rest and cleans her part as well. They have another talk about the genuine thing. She asks him what he would do, and he replies that she should confess to him directly. Not just giving him chocolate with an implied meaning.
Before she did that, she had another talk with Hachiman to prepare herself for the confession and told him to wait for her return.
She got rejected by Hayama. First she cried, then she goes on about drawing a line for Hayama's sake and freedom. Hachiman says she is a really cool person. She gets flustered, Hachiman continues that Hayama must like Yumiko's friendship or he else he would have avoided an answer altogether.
Next time the boys are all in the bath at the same time, and Totsuka just rambles on about Hachiman's good points to Hayamat. Yumiko was on the other side, in the girl's bath, and heard all that. She mumbles something like 'Hikio's unexpectedly popular'. Hayama heard her and said, that despite Hachiman denying it, the people around him really like him. Totsuka is teasing Hachiman 'oh look, he's blushing'.
Back in school everything is normal. He stands up, but Yumiko calls him out and asks where he is going. Hachiman responds he wants to buy a drink, so she says to bring him one too. He leaves a snarky remark, but Yui is already deeply surprised. He indeed comes back with a juice, but only for Yumiko. Hayato and Yumiko invite him to the group and make him sit down.
This continues and expands, but Yui and Yukino don't mind in the Visual Novel.
Hachiman and Yumiko go to watch the penguins together (which for other routes, is a date) and Yumiko says that they have it easy. Hachiman says that's not the case as they always will have to live together in a flock. Yumiko is curious and then reflects about her own academic future as her choices were only related to Hayama. She then asks Hachiman to hear her out again one day, when she had settled her feelings.
Epilogue: At the swimming pool after their high school life. She demands of him to apply sun oil on her back. He is all flustered, but then she says that Hayama has mailed back and he returns to Japan. She wants to meet with everyone.
He gets pessimistic and doesn't want to. He then asks what she would do if Hayama changed his mind and chose her.
She response with "What are you on about aren't we dating?" And apparently Hachiman didn't know.
Credits for my source material is an Anonymous from reddit. I only summarized his summary.
curious george Added one, a self-edited picture using Anime material. I'm getting a Stylus the next month, not sure yet how proficient I'll be with that. Maybe I'll make one entirely of my own.
DiPG Thanks for the detailed comment, but please don't skip university classes for my story. Yes it's a long story and I try my best to keep it updated.
DiceWW I like Iroha a lot, making me a bit overprotective of her, haha.
Flash Falcon It's too early for her to feel jealous about Hikio's heart, with hers being dedicated to Hayama. She is jealous about not being part of his group by now though and to experience the fun they have.
Lactobacillus Sorry, I can't deny/confirm anything about the future.
Super Saiai Again, sorry that I can't say much about the future. But I can say there won't be 20 dates. That would just kill me.
Syclone903 It's indeed weird that stories often stop when the author has the intentions of faster releases. Now I can finally understand them! Life is hard.
If there is something you want to ask about, just do so. Answers will come with the next chapter.
So hopefully I'll see you at chapter 7 again.
