The Caffeteria. A relentless warzone where students fight to the death over who gets to the rancid food first. Or, at least, that's how Naoto saw it.
In reality, it was more calm than how his mind always thought of it. Sure, a few students were quickly shuffling around the room, trying to get from point A to point B where their friends where, but other than that, most people were just minding their business, chatting with eachother.
And as anyone could guess, Naoto wanted none of it. In fact, he wasn't even anning on being here in the first place! But as fate would have it, the young boy was unfortunate to have woken up late, having no time to assemble himself a lunch.
Not wanting to starve, Naoto reluctantly arrived at the Cafeteria. There was, however, one glaring issue.
THERE.WERE.NO.SEATS!
It felt like a fancy restaurant where everyone but him had a reservation. The boy sighed. Was it really like this everyday? He actually thought himself lucky for not being here most of the time. "I guess I'll just take my meal to the Clubroom." The boy said as he turned towards the long hallway in the distance.
"Senpai! Sen-paiii!" The boy turned to the familiar voice to recognize Nagatoro waving at him from a table. On further inspection, Naoto noticed the table had an extra seat, seemingly the reason she was waving at him.
On the other side of the table we're two girls. One of them had slightly messy, long orange hair, while the other one had dirty-blonde hair, which she tied into two pigtails as a giant cowlick sprang out of her skull.
The boy sighed, looking around him once more. Just like five seconds ago, all the other seats were empty. And now that he thought about it, he'd probably get something in his Clubroom dirty if he ate there. With a reluctant sigh, the boy walked up to her, squishing himself inside as he sat next to her.
The girl's gave him stares, their grins just as sadistic as Nagatoro. Unlike Nagatoro, however, Naoto didn't know these girls at all, so he couldn't even predict how reckless they'd be. This sense of powerlessness temporarily brought him back to his usual nervousness, a slight blush forming around his face.
"Boyfriend?" The orange-haired girl asked. Naoto lifted his head. "N-" He was planning on answering when Nagatoro interrupted him, clinging onto his arm. "Yep! He's my boyfriend! Things are going smoothly."
Naoto's head sank once more as Nagatoro grinned at him, seemingly happy to have the upper hand in a situation. The boy covered his face with his free hand in embarrassment, wanting to smash his head against the table.
The girl's let out a laugh, before Gamo, the organge-haired turned towards Naoto. "He doesn't seem lime much of a boyfriend. More like a pet. Look at how he lowers his head." Nagaotoro laughed. "You're right! He's even nice and fluffy!" She said as she tried to tussle his hair. Naoto responded by moving his head, avoiding her touch.
Yoshi, the dirty-blonde haired girl tried her chance at touching his hair as well. "Fluffy!" She said as she lowered her hand. Naoto was about to reach out and slap her hand away when Nagatoro beat him to it, holding her arm. "You don't want to touch his hair. It's greasy and gross." The girl simply sat back down, nodding.
'I'm going to go to the gym and get buff as hell just so I can beat you to a pulp for that.' Naoto thought to himself, trying his best to ignore them, although it was getting harder and harder.
Gamo broke the silence. "Man, he's not even defending himself, it's hilarious! A slave? No, a Bug! A tiny bug!" The girl laughed. Yoshi followed along. "BUG!"
Nagatoro chuckled. "A tiny bug on the sidewalk!" She said. Naoto could only guess that she was still petty from what happened last time.
"Seriously, you can't be like that as a M-" Gamo was interrupted by Naoto whispering something. "Huh? What's that?" The girl jokingly asked, clearing her ears to hear better.
"I said..." Naoto raised his voice, standing up. "I'm.Not.Her.Boyfriend." He replied with a pissed tone, extending the final word to really dig it in deep. "And if I was a pet, I'd have mauled all of you to a pulp. So do me a favour and shut the fuck up." The boy said. With his tone, they couldn't tell if he was simply saying stuff from being mad, or if he was joking, but from what it seemed it was a bit of both worlds.
"Aww, is my little pet mad?" Nagatoro said, reaching for his hair. He instinctively pushed her hand away. "Fuck off with that pet shit. You're the one who keeps coming to me."
The two other girls turned to Nagatoro, as if to ask "Is this true?". Nagatoro's face flushed slightly. "Well, It's senpais fault for being so creepy! I just want to teach him a lesson!"
Naoto could see the girls face flush, his face turning into a grin. In less than a second, his Blush softened as he got ready to launch a barrage at her. It had only taken one word for him to gain the advantage.
"If my memory serves me right... weren't you the girl who ran out of my art room out of embarrassment after asking me to draw you?"
STRIKE ONE!
The girls face flushed even more. At this point, Gamo and Yoshi remained silent, simply looking at the girl with a slightly shocked face. "Th-Thats just because you were being so creepy about it!
"And weren't you the girl who wanted me to recreate a romantic scene in my manga? Are you sure that was just to embarass me? I feel... like you had anterior motives."
STRIKE TWO!
Nagatoro began to stutter trough her words. "I-I ju-us- it's just tha-" Naoto interrupted her. "And lastly..." The boy decided to go all in with the attack, leaning his face into hers.
"You did just claim I was your boyfriend, didn't you?" He grinned. "Wait- don't tell me." He chuckled as the girls face reddened
"Do you want me to be your boyf-" The girl shut him up with a slap on the face. "Shut up! Creepy! Creep! Creep!" The girl said, her face resembling an active volcano as she stood up and slid her way out of her seat.
Naoto rubbed his face. He didn't really mind the slap, as the massive grin of victory was still solidified on his face. Gamo and Yoshi didn't say anything, however Gamo had an expression equivalent to your favorite soccer team winning.
'Holy shit. Senpai knows how to bite, and he doesn't hold back.' The girl thought to herself, seemingly impressed by his straightforwardness.
Naoyo sat in the Art Room, coloring the sketch from last day. His thoughts wandered back to Nagatoro, specifically to the scandal at the Cafeteria.
Now he knew that Nagatoro wasn't the only weird one. Her friends were strange as all hell too. It almost seemed like they were rooting as he suffocated Nagatoro's cocky attitude into a pulp.
Despite all of this, he still couldn't understand the most trivial thing: Why the fuck him?! From what he knew from seeing her randomly walking trough the hallways, she always seemed to be around other girls. He rarely ever saw her with a boy, much less did he see her act the way she did with him.
Naoto's brain didn't even wander towards the possibility that the girl might be interested in him. After all, it had not once happened in his 17 years of being alive. These moments of her blushing from him calling her out had no evidence behind it, right? Anyone would get flustered if they received the kind of replies he gave.
And despite that, the consideration that it might be the case floated above his head. What if she was doing this because she liked him? What if she enjoyed seeing someone she was interested in flustered at her advances? Naoto couldn't help but consider it. He had to admit that he found it very entertaining to see the girl struggle everytime he gave her a comeback.
"It's not like she'd tell me." The boy thought to himself as he continued to draw. "But maybe, just maybe." The boy had an idea. The girl was easily flustered. Like, really easily.
What if he went out of his way to fluster her? Not only retaliate at her quips but take it further? A rush of excitement rushed down his spine. Was something wrong with him? Why the hell was the idea of making this girl as flustered as possible so exciting for him? Was he actually a creep?
The boy couldn't think about any negatives. If he went out of his way to retaliate, the worst that could happen was her not picking on him anymore, which he'd consider a plus anyways, at least for now.
"Not a bad idea." The boy thought. From today on, Naoto Hachioji would do all in his power to return anything she threw at him tenfold. "Not a bad idea."