A few days had passed since Kiyotaka Ishimaru had helped Mondo Oowada save a dog, and the stares when they bumped into each other and nobody threw a punch were getting a little irritating.
It was strange, how comfortable it was to talk to Oowada. There wasn't much awkwardness between them, especially when they were talking about Rusty – after much debate and discussion about the name, they had eventually decided to settle it with an arm-wrestling match, which Oowada had won – and though the dog did cut into his studying, he had found that he was quite adept at keeping one eye on the dog and one eye on his history notes. Alongside that, Ishimaru had presented a schedule as to who would take care of the dog when – Ishimaru, who got up earlier, would take the dog on a morning walk as soon as he got up at five and then tie him up outside. Oowada would take care of the dog during the day, make sure it had food and water, and take it on an evening walk. It slept in Ishimaru's room.
And, on the weekends, like today, they would share responsibilities. This meant that they were spending a lot more time together than Ishimaru ever would have thought he would spend with Mondo Oowada.
At the moment, they were outside, Ishimaru studying and Oowada playing with the dog. It was fairly silent. Kuwata had roped Souda into playing catch with him (Ishimaru still wasn't quite sure of the relationship between the two of them, and didn't really want to know), Asahina and Sakura were stretching, and Koizumi and Saionji were picnicking in the shade, but other than that, it was fairly silent.
That is, until Souda and Kuwata abandoned their game to come and speak with Oowada.
"Hey, Oowada!" Kuwata said, grinning. "We're thinking of going out to find something to do. You wanna come with?"
"Yeah, sure," Oowada said, standing up. Rusty barked at him, and Oowada looked down. Then at Ishimaru. He made a face. "Uh… you can come too, I guess, if you want."
"Really?" Ishimaru asked, jumping to his feet. "Of course, Oowada-kun!"
Souda gave him an awkward half-smile. Kuwata rolled his eyes. "What're you gonna do with the damn dog?" he asked.
"Tanaka-kun," Ishimaru said promptly. "He can watch over the dog."
Kuwata sighed. "I guess we can go see if he'll do it. Gotta go get Fujisaki, anyway. Hey, Souda, you wanna go with Ishimaru to do that? I've gotta talk to Oowada."
"Uh, sure," Souda said. Ishimaru crouched down to put away his books and pick up the dog. The two of them headed into the school. The dog was fairly well behaved, especially for a dog, which was good. "I'll… come with you to Tanaka's room. Sonia-san might be there!"
Ishimaru didn't say anything at that. Souda was talking quickly, like he was excited. About seeing Sonia. Or maybe about going out with his friends. Ishimaru wasn't sure. Either way, when he knocked on Tanaka's door and Tanaka answered, he peeked in to try and see if Sonia Nevermind was there.
"What do you – the beast," Tanaka said. "What? Has he fallen ill?"
"No!" Ishimaru said. "Neither me nor Oowada-kun will be available to care for it, so we have decided that you are the best surrogate parent for the afternoon!"
Tanaka nodded, grabbed the dog, and slammed the door shut. Souda made a face, lips peeling back from sharpened teeth in a sort-of scowl. He kicked the door. "No Sonia-san. Let's get it over with and find Fujisaki."
"Yes," Ishimaru said. "I do not think Fujisaki likes me much."
"Who- er, uh, never mind," Souda said. Ishimaru paused.
"What?" Ishimaru asked. Souda wouldn't look straight at him. "What were you going to say, Souda-kun?"
Souda swallowed. "Nothing," he said. He was backing up steadily, holding his hands out in front of him like a shield. "I- I- let's go find Fujisaki, yeah? We'll- we'll go find Fujisaki. They're waiting, right? So we should run and find Fujisaki so they don't get pissed. I mean, we only have a little bit of time, that's right! Let's go!"
Ishimaru crossed his arms and stood where he was. Souda sighed.
"Look, I- it doesn't matter, right? So stop looking at me like that!" he said. He still looked nervous, though, no matter how much he yelled. Ishimaru thought about it and decided that he could get the answer out of him later. Perhaps while they were on their outing, where he couldn't really back away from it like he was doing now. Or if Souda got detention in the near future.
"Fine," Ishimaru said. "But I still want an answer sometime."
"Yeah, yeah, right," Souda said, nearly deflating with relief. He turned around. "Let's go find Fujisaki! I texted him, he's in the library, so we can just run up there and grab him and be on our way!"
"Perhaps I should go and wait with Oowada-kun and Kuwata-kun," Ishimaru said, turning away from Souda.
"Mhm, yeah, sounds good, whatever," he said. Ishimaru headed outside, where Kuwata had pulled Oowada into a close conversation. It was quiet; Ishimaru could only barely make out what they were saying when he got fairly close.
Kuwata was speaking.
"-and I mean, sure, he helped you save some dog, but he's not really someone I want around, you know? Total bastard, total weirdo, total-"
"Ishimaru!"
It was Souda, running for him, looking panicked, Fujisaki a few feet behind him. Oowada and Kuwata turned to see him, frozen, a few feet behind him. Oowada cursed. Kuwata grimaced.
"Uh," Souda said, breathing hard. "I… didn't mean to let him leave-"
"Well, shit, we give you one job," Kuwata snapped. Ishimaru swallowed and took a step back.
"C'mon, Ishimaru, it's fine, Kuwata's just a prick," Oowada said. He reached out a hand and Ishimaru took another step back, nearly running into Souda, who swerved and went over to Kuwata. "I still want you to come, he-"
"No," Ishimaru said, shaking his head. "No, no, I don't – I have homework to do, studying, and tutoring, and," He searched for more excuses, heat rushing to his face and hands shaking a little. "Disciplinary Committee things to attend to, I need to- I need to go."
He swallowed and hurried away, shoulders hunched a little and hands drawn into tight fists, fingernails biting into his palms. He was so stupid. He should've known better than to think… than to think that he'd actually made some friends. It was just like everywhere else. Oowada was… well, he wasn't trying to copy homework, but the dog was the same sort of thing. He was using Ishimaru, probably because he couldn't handle taking care of a dog on his own, so he was using Ishimaru and his tendency to get up early.
He headed back to his room, walking quickly, hands shaking as he unlocked the door. He wasn't going to fall for it again. He'd been desperate. That was his excuse. He'd been desperate for a friend and Oowada had seemed like he was going to be it, but that wasn't the case.
He wiped at his eyes and resolved to get some studying done before he was a complete mess. He could do it. He could shut off his emotions and throw himself into work, into adding and subtracting and memorizing dates and writing papers.
And he would never fall for that sort of thing again.
So I'm back to update every Monday until August! Have some sad Ishimaru!
Also, I just gave the dog a stupid name and said it was because of Mondo, because someone who names their first dog Chuck is probably going to name their second dog Rusty or something like that.