Hi all. Wasn't planning on writing a second chapter to this anytime soon but I was inspired when I was rereading the manga and got to chapter 30. So yeah, the beginning is set during that chapter. Please enjoy (and review/follow/favourite if you liked it because it encourages me to write more).
"I'll let go if you tell me your name," the guy flirted as he held a tight grip on Houtsuki's wrist. This was so annoying, she had already said that she wasn't interested. Houtsuki just about had enough of being hit on by random guys at the cultural festival.
She felt her arm being liberated from the tight hold as she felt a large body hover over her. "Kudou Chika," a low, familiar voice stated, "birthday: September second, Virgo, blood type O," he said as he held the sleazy guy's wrist firmly. Houtsuki wasn't sure if the guy's hand was shaking out of fear or because Kudou was squeezing his wrist so hard. "Anything else you want to know?" There it was: the Kudou gangster stare.
"We're fine, thank you," the two strangers managed to squeak out while looking like a pair of Chihuahuas about to be ripped apart by a wolf.
Kudou turned his head to see if she was okay, only to be greeted by the back of her head.
"I still can't look at Kudou's face," Houtsuki thought to herself, trying desperately to hide her flush from him.
Kudou dejectedly walked over to the corner where his best friend was leaning against the window. The wild wolf that had shown itself just moments before had now retracted into a sad puppy.
"Are you okay?" Tetsuki asked.
"Shut up, idiot," was the immediate reply, head hung low. "Idiot Tetsuki."
Seeing how depressed the boy was, Tetsuki decided to let Chika get away with that comment without a smack on the head just this one time.
If the dark-haired boy had ever wondered what it would be like if two completely socially inept people liked each other, his questions would have been answered by watching these two bumbling buffoons.
"Tetsuki," he heard his girlfriend's voice and immediately looked up to see her standing at the doorway.
"Hana," he greeted as the two walked towards each other, "you managed to make it."
"Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world," she smiled brightly up to him as the two-stood face to face, only a few centimetres apart. "You look handsome in this yukata."
"Thanks."
She knew he wouldn't hug her. Not in a place like this with all his classmates around. It took a bit of getting used to the first-time they dated, but Hana came to understand that her boyfriend was simply not a fan of public displays of affection. It was pretty on brand, actually. He was a quiet and private person, so of course his relationship would be quiet and private as well.
Even so, the way that he stood so close and smiled down to her with his gentle eyes made up for the lack of physical affection she received in public.
"If your shift isn't over yet, I can have a look around by myself first," Hana said as her eyes wondered around the classroom, absorbing everything from the paper stuck to the walls to the people who were his classmates. For a second, she let herself entertain the thought of them being in the same class again.
"I'll be done in five minutes or so if you don't mind waiting. You can have a seat at a table and I'll get you a drink," he offered.
"Okay."
"Wow, if it isn't Harada," Chika said as he walked up from behind Tetsuki.
Hana looked at the boy standing next to her boyfriend. The two stared at each other for longer than socially acceptable. It only ended when Hana looked at him incredulously, as if she had never seen him before in her life.
"Hey! What the heck is with the stink eye," he asked, offended and still a bit irritated from the previous incident.
"Sorry, do we know each other?" she replied.
"Kudou Chika. Ku-dou Chi-ka," he repeated, gesturing to himself with every syllable.
She looked back and forth between the two boys standing in front of her.
"HAHAHAHA!" she burst out in laughter. "You're not him. Kudou-kun's face looks like this," she said as she narrowed her eyes into a glare, scrunched her brows and frowned. She was demonstrating her version of the 'Kudou gangster stare'.
Tetsuki's attempted to hide his laughter was unsuccessful, earning him a solid nudge from his best friend. Tetsuki hit him back, deciding that he shouldn't have refrained from doing so earlier.
Hana relaxed her face into a smile. "Just kidding, how can I not recognise you with all the headaches you gave me in middle school?" She reached up to pat her old friend firmly on the shoulder, "who knew you could make expressions that don't make other people want to poop their pants?"
"What-" Chika said, about to retaliate.
"You've worked really hard, haven't you?" she smiled gently, hand still laying firmly on his shoulder.
Feeling like an embarrassed child at the hands of his mother, Chika averted eye contact and mumbled a barely audible "yeah."
"Takaoka-kun," Houtsuki said as she walked up to the group. "The class president wanted to tell you that you that your shift is over."
"Oh, thanks," he replied. "Houtsuki, this is my girlfriend Hana. Hana, this is Houtsuki. She's in the Koto club with Chika."
"Hello," Houtsuki said.
Hana gave a knowing look to her boyfriend. "Oh, so this is the girl you were talking about," she conveyed to him in just a fraction of a second.
After examining the girl standing in front of her thoroughly, she suddenly placed both her hands on the other girl's shoulders.
"Yes?!" Houtsuki asked in confusion and shock.
"Houtsuki-san," Hana said as she looked straight into the other girl's eyes, "you are so pretty," she stated in an extremely serious tone.
Chika looked at the two, confused, while Tetsuki looked at his girlfriend in defeat.
"Thank you?" was all the girl could say in her confusion.
"You are too pretty to be fooled by some stupid boy, okay?"
"Okay…"
With an empty, toothless smile frozen on her face, Hana turned to stare at Chika and said nothing.
"What the hell are you looking at me for?" Chika exclaimed. He had no idea what was happening, but he knew that Harada was somehow insulting him. How badly he wanted to yank his best friend's girlfriend away from his classmate at that moment. If Houtsuki wasn't currently mad at him for accidentally breaking her personal space barrier, he'd separate them in a heartbeat. He had done that so many times by now it was muscle memory.
"Nothing," Hana replied, maintaining her ingenuine smile.
Reciprocating the artificial smile and pushing up the sleeves of his yukata, he said, "you know, Harada, I don't beat up girls but I can always make an exception for you."
Hana let go of Houtsuki and turned her body to face Chika again. "Oh? That's a big threat coming from the guy I used to stitch back together."
"Alright, alright," Tetsuki said as he shuffled Hana away, breaking the stare off between the two. "I'll go get changed and we can go look at the food stalls."
Hana's eyes immediately started twinkling at the thought of food. "Good luck for the Koto performance," she called. As she was being dragged away, she noticed the awkward tension between Kudou and Houtsuki. The two immediately turned away from each other with sullen expressions.
After buying all they could carry from the food stalls outside, Tetsuki took her up to the rooftop. He wanted them to be alone and he wanted her to see where he ate lunch with his friends every day.
"Still as popular as ever, aren't you?" Hana said as she took a bite of takoyaki.
"What do you mean?" He replied. That comment didn't mean much to Tetsuki. Popularity depended on how other people saw him. He only cared about what Hana thought. He shifted his body ever so slightly so that his knee was leaning softly against her thigh. To anyone else, this was an insignificant gesture at best. But Hana knew it was his way of showing that he enjoyed being around her.
"I was just thinking thank god I don't go to Tokise," she took a bite of the crepe, "all the girls down there were either staring at you or glaring at me. I feel like my life would be in constant danger if we went to the same school."
"You're exaggerating."
"Maybe," she shrugged.
The two finished the last of the food they had bought, each quietly thinking about their middle school days when they had attended the same school. It was different now. They had to make an effort to see each other. After they had gathered their rubbish in a neat pile ready to be thrown away, Hana leaned her head on Tetsuki's shoulder and felt him lean his head against hers. She swerved her arm under his and began fiddling with his fingers.
"I would like it," Tetuski said, feeling the nice breeze that past.
"Like what?"
"If we went to the same school."
She lifted her head from his shoulder and faced him. One look at her face and Tetsuki knew she was about to talk shit. "If I had to spend every day watching those two beat around the bush, I would lose my goddamn mind."
"Yeah… watching them is simultaneously entertaining and frustrating," he chuckled, thinking of all the weird moments between Chika and Houtsuki that he had happened to see. There were probably many more that he wasn't around to witness.
"I would probably scream 'just kiss already!' at them or something."
He let out a laugh at the thought of witnessing that scene, "that would make things worse." Hana was a straightforward person and hated when people had ulterior motives or didn't get to the point. He vividly recalled her how she 'encouraged' him to ask her out at the end of their second year of middle school.
"Do you want to go see the fireworks at the summer festival together?" a 15-year-old Tetsuki candidly asked as he walked his classmate home. Since they weren't going to be conveniently seeing each other at school every day anymore, he wanted to make sure he had at least one excuse for keeping in contact with her.
"Nah," she replied, not giving her answer much thought.
Silence. Tetsuki was trying to process the situation. He thought that she would happily agree to his offer. He did not have a contingency plan.
"I only want to see the fireworks if it's on a date," she said in a hinting tone, "I don't want to waste my time with someone who doesn't like me back."
"Oh," he said subconsciously. He wasn't properly listening to what she was saying at this point. He was too downhearted from her refusal. Had all these months of them getting closer been all in his head?
Suddenly, Hana stood still and crossed her arms. Tetsuki, two steps in front, looked back to see her expectantly looking at him.
"Oh," he said again after realising what she meant. "Harada, I like you. Will you go on a date to the summer festival with me?"
Her expression grew into a bright grin, "okay," she agreed. "I like you too," she said as she skipped forward to join his pace.
He was planning on asking her out at the festival but she had beaten him to it.
"Speaking of which, those two had a weird aura when we left your classroom. It sent shivers down my spine," she shuddered.
"Yeah, they had a bit of an accidental run-in with each other's bodies and Houtsuki hasn't been normal around him since. Chika's been all sad because he thinks that she's still mad at him, but I don't think that's the case."
"To think the day would come that Kudou would have girl problems - a cute, Koto-princess from a famous music family, at that," she squeezed her boyfriend's hand reassuringly, "you've worked hard too."
He squeezed her hand back and smiled to himself. He'd never admit it out loud, but he had worked hard getting through Chika's darkest days with him. People always asked him why he stuck around. What Tetsuki never understood was why they thought he should give up on his best friend.
The only person who never questioned his choices was Hana. From the beginning to the end, she would always help with Chika's cuts and bruises after a fight without a complaint and never expected Tetsuki to put her before his troubled best friend. Even the reason they broke up the first time was for Chika's sake.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
"What are you apologising so suddenly for?"
He gently untwined his arm from hers and put it around her waist, pulling her into his chest.
"I must have made you always feel second to Chika. Sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry. I know that I said I was jealous when we broke up, but that was just an excuse. I was just trying to tell you that your priorities should have been him at that time. Me feeling jealous of Kudou is like a mum being jealous that her husband is spending all his time trying to discipline their delinquent son," she alluded.
"Son?" Tetsuki said, "you mean pet dog that won't listen."
Hana nodded her head in agreement, "that is a fair comparison, I would say. You're so mean to him."
"You're no better," he said, "you should know better than to bicker with your delinquent son."
She acted oblivious. "When have I ever bickered with Kudou?" she said as she flipped her hair behind her shoulder, voice dripping with sarcasm, "I have never."
He smiled endearingly, "you literally had a go at him for being too stupid for Houtsuki just then."
"I didn't say he was too stupid for her. I was just saying that she shouldn't be fooled by stupid boys, so Kudou should refrain from reverting back to his stupid middle-school self if he wants to be good enough for her," she explained.
"I don't think he got the message," Tetsuki said.
"No, I don't think so either."
