Chapter 7: I̷̧̮̮̒͛̑͠͝ ̷̮͇͌C̶̢͉̰̘͎̠̠̟͕͊̔̕͘Ạ̴̧̃̅Ń̵͔̓ ̷̤̣͉̻̱̳̀͆̂̿͛͑S̷̺̊̈̅̕E̶̞̳͓͚̮͇̓Ḗ̵͍͓̳̮̪̰̫͎̼̈̈́̿̒͋ ̴̩͆́Ŷ̸̮̬̫͎͖O̷̯̲̼̣͋͜ͅƯ̶̢͉̦̘̹̣̎̓͋̀͐̕͝

Hachiman's Lunch Spot

Sipping on the milk box I bought from the vending machine, I look over the poem I wrote this morning. 'No matter how I write it, it'll come out unsatisfactory…When did I become such a perfectionist? At least this way my writing skills won't go rusty. Maybe after all of this, I'll pursue a career in writing…No! What am I thinking? I can't give up on being a house husband.'

Folding up the poem, I continue eating from my bento box. Watching the birds fly by as I eat, or feeling the cool breeze wash past me. The added fact that the sun is hidden behind the clouds makes this day even better. 'Ahh…How I missed this…'

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. "Hachi!" Hearing half of my name be yelled out from behind me, I do the only correct thing, and ignore them. I mean my names not Hachi, it's Hachiman.

Now if only ignoring your problems automatically fixed them, unfortunately the world doesn't work like that…If only it did.

"Mou…Stop ignoring me, Hachi!"

"Why're you calling me that?" I finally acknowledged her. Her being Sayori, if it wasn't obvious.

"Well, Y'know…since we're hanging out again, I thought I'd start calling you that again." Must've been a childhood nickname, not that I want to be called that.

"Well sto-Tch. Know what? Nevermind, do what you want." I just don't care enough, all I want is my peace and quiet.

"Really?! Alrighty then~! Hachi! I need your help." 'When I said "do what you want", I meant "do what you want away from me".'

"...Haah…What is it?"

"Come on…A little more enthusiasm!"

"..."

"...Hehehe, what I meant was, I need to borrow a couple yen." She says putting on her best pleading face. Which isn't cute in the slightest, try as she might she is no Komachi. Little sisters truly are dangerous, but even then I could never hate Komachi, for she is truly the greatest little sister ever… "Gross sis-con."

"...Wait, What?" How the hell?

"I mean, please~?" Must've heard her wrong.

"How much do you need?" She's only my problem for only a couple more days…I hope, so the least I can do is give her this.

"Just a thousand." A thousand?! That's enough for a meal at saize! (That's around 10 USD)

Thankfully my wallet didn't take much of a beating thanks to the sizable amount given to me by my "parents". Handing it to her, she quickly lights up in excitement.

"Thank you so much, Hachi!" I would have been fine with just a thanks, but she decided to go even further. Giving me a hug, I can feel her "hidden assets" on my chest for a few moments before she lets go of me. "I gotta go now, see you at the club later!" And like that, she's gone. Having left me alone, a complete blushing mess.

I mean, no male will come out of a situation like that completely fine. So I'm not in the wrong here!

Pov Change - Sayori

'He's the same as always, acting all tough but still nice…I just hope he's not weirded out by the sudden hug. Maybe it was too soon?'

'I don't really know what to do…all these conflicting feelings all at once. I just want to see him being happy again, and despite all that, I asked him for something again…'

'I'm so selfish, aren't I?'

Doki~ Doki~

Hachiman POV

'Another day of school, Another day of club activities…I miss the go home club.' Walking down the club hallway, I hear the sound of a piano playing, accompanied by a soft voice.

"...In my hand…a poem of me and you~...a dark puddle~..." Most of the lyrics seem to be drowned out by the piano echoing into the hallway. But the closer I get the clearer it becomes.

"...Your hand…into his heart~...but in this world…infinite choices~." I may not listen to music too much, but even I can tell whoever is singing has quite the talent.

"...Just to find that special day~? What will it take, just to find, that special day~?" Finally at the entrance of where the music is coming from, the door is open and inside the room is a familiar brown haired ponytail. Said brunette seems to be thinking quite hard.

Knock!* Attempting to get her attention with a knock on the door, she's snapped out of her thinking.

"Hikigaya-kun?"

"Yo, Nice singing but I didn't expect you to be here, Monika-san. Shouldn't you be at the club?"

"I can say the same to you." Touché. "But no, I was just finishing up here."

"Really? All right then, see you at the club." I try to excuse myself.

"Not going to offer to escort me there?" She asks me, with the same teasing smile as yesterday.

"You know the way there, don't you?" I say, finally leaving. Not without hearing her mutter something.

"So much for being a gentleman…" Me? A gentleman? As if.

Sunshine~

Opening the door to the club room, I seem to attract the eyes of the inhabitants. "Yo." Giving them a quick greeting, I look for the seat I sat in yesterday. I find and promptly sit on it, laying my head down until we have to present our poems. But just like during lunch, nothing seems to go my way.

"This is the Literature Club, not the Go to sleep Club." My pink haired junior says in an annoyed tone from what I can tell.

"Really? I must be in the wrong club then." I say jokingly, which only serves to piss her off. "I mean, my bad." I'd rather not have to deal with an angry tsundere, I like not being in pain, thank you very much.

"If you're not going to do anything, then can you give me a hand with something?"

"I was doing something; Sleeping." I probably shouldn't have said that, because now she's looking at me, as if she's going to kill me. She isn't going to… right? My life isn't worth a couple minutes of sleep. "I mean sure, what is it you need help with?"

"That's what I thought. And it's just a couple boxes, nothing too difficult. I'm pretty sure even you can handle that." What's that supposed to mean?

"Sure, Whatever you say." The sooner I'm done, the sooner I get to nap.

Poof~

"So? Which box?" This closet is filled to the brim with boxes, but surprisingly not dusty. They must really like to keep things neat and tidy.

"Just the one up there, the one that isn't sealed." Pointing out which box she needs help with, I immediately understand why she asked for my help.

'Ah I see, she's too short to reach it. You have my sympathies pinky.'

"Why are you giving me that look? Look, if you're not going to help me, then just get out of the way!" She pushes me out of the way, or more like I move out of the way on my own. Placing down a small stepping stool, she attempts to reach the box with little success.

"Oi, stop that, are you trying to get hurt?" I warn her, but she continues stubbornly until she finally gets it off the shelf, just not in the way she intended. Thankfully, I was close enough to stop both her and the box from falling. Wrapping my left arm around her back, I use my right hand to push the box into its place. "Haa…What did I just say? You could've gotten hurt from the fall or if the box landed on you!" I scold her.

"Tch, like I care." She says, turning away from me frustrated.

I'm not going to deal with this right now. "Alright fine, are you good to stand?" I ask, getting only a nod as a response. "Let me get that box for you then." I let her stand on her own, and grab the box off the shelf carefully.

Setting it down on the ground next to her, I stand back so she can open it up. She starts to rummage through it, muttering something the whole time. She completely forgets about me and continues doing her own thing.

"Is that all? Or was there something else?" I ask, getting a bit impatient.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, that's all, you can go now." Finally, my freedom.

I quickly make my way out, not without saying a couple parting words. "So you're a PreCure fan too? Nice to know people still like it." And with that I'm gone, off towards my chair for a nice nap.

HopeL̵̻͂ë̷͔́s̸̖̾s̴͕̓~

'This day has been giving me the middle finger everytime I try to do something.' Looking back up to my childhood friend, ugh that's weird, anyways, I find myself waiting as Sayori goes through her bag for the second time if I'm not wrong. "Did you leave at home? Look, it's fine if you did." I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if she did.

"Of course not! I'm sure it's in here somewhere!" She says optimistically. Finally, after what feels like 10 minutes, she pulls out a crumpled up piece of paper. "Hehe, Whoops…"

"...Just hand it over." Grabbing the paper off her hands, I start to read it over.

Bottles

I pop off my scalp like the lid of a cookie jar.

It's the secret place where I keep all my dreams.

Little balls of sunshine, all rubbing together like a bundle of kittens.

I reach inside with my thumb and forefinger and pluck one out.

It's warm and tingly.

But there's no time to waste! I put it in a bottle to keep it safe.

And I put the bottle on the shelf with all of the other bottles.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts in bottles, all in a row.

My collection makes me lots of friends.

Each bottle a starlight to make amends.

Sometimes my friend feels a certain way.

Down comes a bottle to save the day.

Night after night, more dreams.

Friend after friend, more bottles.

Deeper and deeper my fingers go.

Like exploring a dark cave, discovering the secrets hiding in the nooks and crannies.

Digging and digging.

Scraping and scraping.

I blow dust off my bottle caps.

It doesn't feel like time elapsed.

My empty shelf could use some more.

My friends look through my locked front door.

Finally, all done. I open up, and in come my friends.

In they come, in such a hurry. Do they want my bottles that much?

I frantically pull them from the shelf, one after the other.

Holding them out to each and every friend.

Each and every bottle.

But every time I let one go, it shatters against the tile between my feet.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts in shards, all over the floor.

They were supposed to be for my friends, my friends who aren't smiling.

They're all shouting, pleading. Something.

But all I hear is echo, echo, echo, echo, echo

Inside my head.

'This…This is quite the contrast from yesterday's, guess you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover and all that.' I sigh as I try to put my thoughts together.

"What's the matter? Did I mess up?" She asks worriedly.

"Huh? Uh no, you didn't."

"Then why are you sighing? I did something wrong, didn't I?"

"Like I said, you didn't. Anyways, It was good but not something I'd expect you to make."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Exactly, what it sounds like. "And I can write stuff like this too, y'know! I'm not happy, sunshine and rainbows all the time." She's also self aware, that's good.

"Well, your previous poem didn't make the greatest impression."

"But you said it was good!"

"You also made it in the morning, what's your point?"

"Grk! Anyways, where's your poem?" What a horrible way to switch the topic, but I got to hurry this up anyway.

"Here." Handing over the poem, she looks it over once.

Then twice.

Then thrice.

And now she's looking at me, then back to the poem, then me again, the poem, me, the poem, me, poem…

"Could you stop that? What're you even doing? Haven't you read it already?"

"Of course I have, but that's not the issue! It's just…you're not copying this off of a website, are you?" That's what she's worried about?

"No I'm not, what gave you that idea?"

"No reason…But it's really good! This poem's a huge improvement from the one you made yesterday!" Quite the backhanded compliment, but I seriously doubt she meant it that way.

"...Thanks." I accept the compliment, begrudgingly of course. "I'll be going now."

"Aww, Already?" You're not a little kid to be acting that way. "Ok then, but before you go, here." She says handing me…a bag full of cookies? "I know it's not enough to pay you back for today, but I made them during class to return the favor, even if only a little bit."

Some of them look disfigured but none of them are burnt, so that's a plus. "Haa…Thank you Sayori." And sorry because I'm not your Hachiman.

To Be Continued…

…

…

So…It's been nearly three months. How have you all been? I don't have an excuse as to why I haven't uploaded but can I just say, Thank you everyone for the support. When I first started this story it was my first time doing anything like this, so I didn't think it would get this popular.

So, um thanks again.

Chapter 8 isn't even in development as of this update but I can say that I'll start working on it by this weekend. So if I can finish it by next month, I'll update it.

I read all of the reviews so don't be afraid to leave one. That's all I guess, no other issues for the time being.

Side Note- I'll try to make Chapters longer

Love Yall! Buh-Bye!