Part 2

Gamo spent the day hanging about with the regular crowd, noticeable changes aside. The patient red head rested her chin on her fists all the while staring at the art room window above.
She and Nagatoro had not spoken too much since she beat Orihara (another recently missing party). They kept casual pleasantries but that was about it.

"Yoshi?" she said without turning her head. "Do you think I went too far with teasing her?".

Yoshi stared at her…

"… Fair enough." Said Gamo in defeat. "Guess we should find Hayase. Getting of tired of this bullshit".

"Bullshit!"

"Yoshi no!"

Both girls searched for Nagatoro around the school grounds to no avail. By the time Gamo considered that she might have gone to the art room she turned a corner and to see Nagatoro standing off against Sunomiya.

"NOPE! HOLD UP!" she yelled.

Nagatoro turned to see her friend marching towards them.

"Inside, both of you."

"But."

"Not asking."

Gamo surprised both girls with a surprising aura of authority. Both of them entered the art room and stood parallel to each other, whatever friction that might have existed had subsided with the friend's presence.

"Do you mind telling me why in all hell are both of you ready to kill each other?"

"I don't want to kill anyone I want her to shut up!"

"I want her to grow up!" Suno interrupted.

"Fuck you!"

Gamo held a hand up to shut Nagatoro up. "Both of you! Shut up!". Yoshi closed the door and leaned against it, her usual goofball attitude disappeared completely.

The four girls took a breath, silence took over the room as each of them occupied a different corner. Nagatoro took to standing behind the couch and facing the board, she noticed a bit of dust on it and angrily slapped it off.

"Calm down" pointed Gamo.

"I am calm."

"Clearly…"

"What do you want from me?"

"For you to calm down."

"Tell HER! To mind her own business."

Nagatoro pointed at Sunomiya, who in her discreet way had started to sketch something. She sighed in frustration.

"Look Nagatoro-senpai… I admit I took it a bit far…"

"A bit?!" Nagatoro interrupted, clasping the couch's headboard as if ready to charge again.

"But you need to understand… Or at least try. Both me and cousin Sana have been trying to get Senpai to talk about what happened, but he will not open up about his feelings to us. Lately cousin Sana hardly sees him if not in class, she can hardly get him to show up and hang out with us, and even when he does after a few minutes he just up and vanishes."

This seemed vaguely familiar to Nagatoro, the uncanny resemblance of the Hachioji she met two years ago but somehow worse. Her thoughts were immediately cut off by Sunomiya.

"He wasn't like that. Sure, he was not particularly jovial, but he wasn't like that. And the only logical conclusion is that YOU did something."

"I did nothing." Nagatoro interjected.

"That's worse."

Everyone turned in a jump scare to the door. Yoshi held a serious visage towards Nagatoro. Her words got the ball rolling in her head and the adrenaline had given her the courage to say her piece.

"Y-Yoshi…" Nagatoro lost her ground.

"Why do you think that we're all here? In this room right now… Why?"

"What do you…"

"Don't do that, the oblivious act is my department honey. You're everything but oblivious."

Gamo and Sunomiya took a corner each to listen. Nagatoro felt her cheeks burning in guilt.

"It's really funny, you know, that you keep denying it even after it doesn't even matter anymore. This is all a big joke to you. You hang around this guy, tease him, walk home with him, check up on him when he's sick… I'd consider all that completely normal if it wasn't for the jealousy and anger you had towards everyone else. We're friends Hayase, at least I consider you a friend, but you're such a fucking narcissist sometimes."

"Yoshi, you need to pull the brakes." Said Gamo while getting up.

"No! What the hell! You should be angrier than me!"

Nagatoro looked back at Gamo confused at that statement.

"Why should you be angry at me?"

"Y-you're kidding right?" Gamo walked towards Nagatoro. "You mess up with a guy and what? We don't matter anymore? You haven't so much said a word besides "good morning" to me in months! We don't know where you are, we don't hear from you. We don't see you!"

"I…"

"Hayase! We are not here for your convenience. We are supposed to be friends." -Yoshi interrupted "You could have told us anything and we would've listened. Instead, you disappear and wallow over something that we can only make assumptions on. We don't even know this whole depressed Senpai shit is about!"

"Something all of us would like to know…" Sunomiya audibly mumbled.

"Alright…" Nagatoro breathed deeply to calm herself down. "I think it's obvious at this point that I'm in love with Hachioji."

"We gathered."

"Duh."

"REALLY?"

"Who's Hachioji" said Sakura poking her head through the door of the side room. "Door was locked."

"She means Paisen." Said Gamo.

"Oh! Yeah, I knew that, so what's all this about."

The four girls sat on the couch while Nagatoro spent the next hour walking around the room detailing everything that had happened up to the fight with Hachioji. After all was said they deliberated over what she had said, meanwhile Nagatoro herself began understanding the problem by herself. And with that realization, she felt guilt once more, this time it hit her way deeper than before. She had neglected other people in her life for reasons she would most likely criticize. She called herself a hypocrite under her breath.

"You have to meet him." Said Yoshi.

"HUH?!"

"I mean she's right. He deserves some closure." Gamo added.

"W-wait, it doesn't matter anymore, it's over!"

"Of course it does! This isn't about you anymore it's about him! You have to be honest about what happened."

Sunomiya heard everything attentively but hadn't said a word, instead she stared at Nagatoro. Finally she opened up.

"Alright… I'm going to call cousin Sana."

"What? Why?"

"She'll pick you up and take you to his usual spots. You're talking to him, and I'll make sure Sana doesn't let you leave until you cleared things up."

Nagatoro said nothing. She agreed. But first she needed a moment alone with the original trio. Sunomiya left the room.

A few minutes of silence passed. Nagatoro was trying to formulate a coherent apology, but nothing would come out. At that moment Sakura got up and hugged her.

"Just say anything. We love you."

Nagatoro felt a rush of adrenaline rise up her spine, followed by a stream of tears. She kept this strong-willed facade for so long and it all came rushing out immediately. She could only say "I'm sorry" so many times until the three of them piled on her.

Sunomiya eventually came back and signaled her to follow. Both of them awaited by the entrance. Both silent. Nagatoro wiped the irritation of the tears from her face and attempted to maintain her composure in front of Sunomiya who kept her stoic aura.

"You know… I always thought Sana would be the one to date Senpai."

"Huh… Well that's some nice motivation."

"It's not. I had a hard time understanding what he saw in you… But you saw his paintings. I don't know why that wasn't evidence enough. Or "motivation" enough. At least in Sana there was some semblance of security."

Nagatoro looked forward and agreed silently.

"I'm a coward."

"Hm?"

"A few years ago, when Orihara beat me, it broke me. For whatever reason, disappointing myself translated into being a disappointment to everyone else and I became a coward, never honest about my feelings, deflecting everything with jokes and sarcasm. I thought maybe I could set a goal for myself with the deal I made with Senpai… But that cowardice spoke louder. I just didn't expect to hurt anyone. Much less did I expect to fall in love… at least… Not how I imagined it"

Sunomiya stood up. "Well then…" She said as she saw Sana slowing her bike down. "Don't be a coward."

Nagatoro followed her to the bike.

Sana took her helmet off and looked Nagatoro up and down.

"You've been crying."

"Hello to you too."

"I hope you understand… I want my friend back. I don't care what happens to you, so to be clear I want you to understand that you need to accept it if he doesn't want anything to do with you after this."

Nagatoro, furrowed her brow. "Yes"

Sana stared her down. "Let's go."

Part 2 end