It was really all thanks to Yukinoshita Haruno.

Summer break had just begun and after an unnecessarily harsh rant from Komachi about his lifestyle as a reclusive loner, Hikigaya Hachiman made the decision to seize the day and take a trip to the shopping district. He had no real desire to shop or buy anything in particular, but the weather outside was warm and pleasant, so he decided to just go do something instead of staying cooped up. One short walk and train ride later, Hachiman found himself amidst a crowd of enthusiastic summer shoppers swarming to empty their wallets. Seeing as it neared lunchtime, Hachiman made the decision to grab something to eat before making any plans. Nearby he spotted a small café along a strip of shops. Daybreak Café, its sign read.

Shrugging to himself, figuring it was as good a choice as any, Hachiman went inside.

And immediately regretted it.

Sitting right there at a table inside the café was someone who Hachiman would consider to be one of his all-time least favorite people. One Yukinoshita Haruno, set and ready to ruin his pleasant morning the moment she locked eyes with him and gave that ominous smirk. She sat at a large table with a group of whom he assumed were college students.

Shit. Time to engage one of his sacred 108 skills, Stealth Hikki-

"Hikigaya-kun! Hey!"

Double shit. Now he regretted ever feeling offended enough by Komachi's rant to step outside. This is what he got for acting like some kind of damn riajuu.

While some large part of him had the sudden desire to turn around and go find somewhere else to eat, some smaller part pointed out that he shouldn't just accept defeat so easily from someone as insufferable as Haruno. So, with great reluctance, Hachiman strode over to the table and opened up with his signature greeting.

"Yo."

"What a surprise seeing you here, Hikigaya-kun," Haruno said, playing the part of the excitable and friendly college girl, plastic smile and all. "Come, join us! These are some friends of mine from Chiba University."

She gestured to the mixed group of guys and girls, most looking entirely uninterested and unimpressed by his appearance. The guys, particularly. Good spirit, guys, but really, your efforts would be put to much better use on anyone but this she-demon.

"Everyone, this is Hikigaya-kun, a close friend of my little sister, Yukino."

Uh, no. "Close friend"? Not a chance in hell.

"Actually," he interrupted forcefully, "we're just clubmates. That's it."

"Hahaha, oh Hikigaya-kun. You're funny."

As Haruno laughed at something that was by no means a joke, Hachiman watched her eyes narrow ever so slightly at him. Cry about it, bitch.

"Why don't you sit with us, Hikigaya-kun?" she continued, gesturing to an empty chair on the other side of the table next to a black-haired girl with glasses.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't want to intrude," Hachiman said, already backing up.

Please just let me go.

"No, no, its no intrusion at all! I'm sure no one would mind. In fact, I'm sure they'd like to get to know someone as… interesting as you!"

Did this bitch just backhandedly compliment him? Also, should Haruno have a pair of functioning eyes, she'd definitely notice some of the guys at the table looking like they very much disagreed. Nevertheless, he might as well concede. As much as he could feel a burning desire to begin engaging Haruno in verbal warfare much like he often did with the younger Yukinoshita, Hachiman decided that he should probably lay off being so confrontational in front of a crowd.

Hachiman let out a sigh of defeat.

"Fine. I'm going to go order first, though."

Haruno let out a radiant smile that reeked of smug victory.

Hachiman went ahead and headed to the counter and ordered a club sandwich with a coffee before heading back with the drink after a short wait. With resignation, he took the offered chair next to the black-haired girl and sunk down into it. Hachiman quickly began tuning out the group's conversation about their upcoming college finals and decided he might as well use the time to figure out where he wanted to go next. It was tempting to just go straight back home after this fiasco, but he figured that since he was already here, he might as well enjoy the day. There was that one aquarium nearby that he'd heard about. That could be interesting. Or, if he wanted, he could just go for a walk in the park a few blocks over. Hmmm.

His musings were interrupted by the waiter setting down his sandwich in front of him. Hachiman nodded and said a thanks, before beginning to eat. He might as well finish up quickly and have an excuse to bail as soon as possible. As he ate, he noticed the girl next to him hum quietly in frustration. Hachiman glanced down to the paper on the table in front of her as she tapped a finger on the table and rolled her mechanical pencil between her fingers. It looked like some review material for a Japanese History class. The question she was stuck on read, "What marked the transition from the Kofun Era to the Asuka Era?"

He swallowed his bite of his sandwich and leaned over a little.

"Buddhism."

The girl's head jerked to the side in surprise. She turned to look at him and Hachiman took in her appearance. Shoulder length black hair, with the top and back pulled into a short ponytail, leaving the sides hanging. Pale skin, pretty green eyes, and wire-frame glasses. She wore a conservative green sundress with thin white pinstripes. In short, she was cute. And somehow, he had just gone out of his way to talk to her.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Oh," he let out, trying to recover from his realization. "Yeah, the question. The answer's Buddhism. Or, more specifically, the introduction of Buddhism, which marked the transition to the Asuka Era."

Her eyes widened, and her mouth formed a little "o".

"Ah!"

She turned back to the page and quickly circled the correct answer. Looking back to him, she gave a small embarrassed smile.

"Heh, thanks. I thought I should've known the answer to that, but, well, its what you get when you sleep in class like I do…"

Hachiman couldn't help but crack a small smile. Looks like they were two of a kind.

"Believe me, I get it. In fact, Hiratsuka-sensei has given me more than a few bruises for doing just that."

Her eyes widened. "Really?" she asked incredulously.

"Sadly yes. I think she just has a bit too much pent-up rage from still being unmarried, and she takes some of it out on me."

She let out a little giggle and hid her mouth behind her hand, and Hachiman felt the strangest sort of fluttering sensation in his chest.

"Thankfully the university professors aren't really allowed to do that, but instead they just look at you with disappointment and probably assume you'll amount to nothing," she said with a grin.

Hachiman huffed a small laugh and smiled. Wait, was he actually having a conversation with this-

"I'm Hikigaya Hachiman," his mouth said before his brain could catch up.

"Asano Hikari," she replied, still smiling.

He needed to center himself. He was really getting ahead of himself here-

"So you go to Chiba University?" he asked, now just entirely separate from what his brain seemed to be thinking.

"Yep! Despite the disappointed professors, it's pretty great so far."

Her smile really was infectious, and he felt his face involuntarily grin a little.

"Oh, so are you a first year?" he asked.

"Mhm," she nodded. "I'm going for psychology, or at least that's the plan."

"Ah, interesting," he said honestly. While he didn't think he was interested enough to pursue a career in it, he did think psychology was an intriguing field. He himself took part in some amateur psychoanalysis of his riajuu classmates.

"Haruno said you were her little sister's classmate, right? So you go to Sobu?"

Hachiman nodded and hummed in affirmation.

"Hehe, I actually tried to get into Sobu, but didn't nearly make high enough marks," she admitted abashedly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Er, well, I don't know that I'm really anything special…" Hachiman muttered.

Her eyes took a mischievous glint.

"Oh, so I'm just really terrible then, eh? That's what you're saying?"

Hachiman rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Yeah, pretty much."

She crossed her arms and scrunched her face up in a pout.

"I mean, really," he continued. "I'm about as lazy of a student as they come. So if I could get in…" he trailed off, smirk widening.

Her pout grew and her bottom lip wobbled for a moment… before she cracked and let out a giggle.

They both let out a lighthearted laugh for a moment. Some part of Hachiman asked why the hell he was acting so happy.

A phone's notification tone caught his attention, and he saw Haruno pick up her phone for a moment before standing up.

"Sooo sorry everyone, but it looks like I've got to go. I'll see you all later! Bye Hikigaya-kun!" she winked at him with that last line, prompting an eyeroll.

As she walked out the door, the round of grumbling excuses began as everyone tried to find a socially acceptable reason to leave. Within a couple minutes, only Hachiman and Asano-san remained.

Wait, what?

Hachiman's eyes flicked from his unfinished sandwich to Asano, who looked at him with a shy smile.

"I… don't really have anywhere to be," she said quietly, looking away for a moment and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Ah, me neither," he replied, not really sure what to say.

"Sooo," she began slowly, "I don't suppose you could help me with the rest of this?" she asked somewhat hopefully, gesturing to the review packet.

Hachiman shrugged. It's not like he really made any plans for today. That's really it. I mean really, he didn't particularly want to help her, but-

Ah, who was he kidding.

"Sure."

She gave him a winning smile that had his chest fluttering again

So, as Hachiman ate, he watched her work through the review packet, occasionally giving his input when he thought he knew the answer to one she didn't. Surprisingly, the material wasn't much more difficult than what he had at Sobu. Asano explained that since her Japanese History class was one of the General Education classes, the material wouldn't be much harder than what he had a high-level school high school like Sobu, if not easier.

"For some reason I just expected that everything would be much harder than anything I'd done before," he commented.

"I know right?" she said. "However, what you've got to think about is that pretty much everyone has to go to college, right? Regardless of if they went to a good high school or not. So, when you've got a general education class, which everyone is required to take, it has to be somewhat easily passable by even the bad students."

"Ah, so you'd have to be an idiot to fail, got it," he said. "Weren't you struggling with this a while ago?" he asked, feigning confusion.

She grinned and smacked his arm.

"Anyways," she said, "it looks like that's actually about it."

Hachiman looked at the sheet and noted that they had managed to work through the entire packet, having, between the two of them, known the answer to almost every question. For the ones they didn't, she had simply asked Hachiman what he thought sounded about right and went with that.

Realizing that he had finished his sandwich a long time ago, Hachiman realized that he no longer had an excuse to stay any longer. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he was actually somewhat disappointed.

Seeming to come to the same conclusion as him, Asano looked somewhat uneasy.

"A-ah, well, I guess its probably time for me to go then," she said.

"Ah, yeah, me too," Hachiman replied awkwardly.

They both stood, and Asano picked up a backpack sitting next to her and slipped the packet inside. For a moment they both looked at each other as if waiting for the other the leave first.

"Well then," he began, "I guess I'll-"

"Hey," she interrupted, looking immediately embarrassed at doing so. "My final is actually coming up about a week from now, so, uh…" she trailed off. "Would you… would you mind helping me study again before it?"

Hachiman's mind went blank. His mouth felt dry, and it felt suspiciously like his mouth was hanging open. Reorienting himself, he coughed into his fist, then looked he back in the eye. Her eyes flicked back and forth from his to the walls nervously, and one of her hands clutched her other forearm.

"Y-yeah. Sure. Definitely," Hachiman finally got out.

Her face broke into another winning smile. Yet again his chest seemed to tighten and flutter oddly. Should he get that checked out by a doctor?

"Great! Let me borrow your phone for a moment then, please."

"Uh? Oh, okay," he said, fishing it out of his pocket and handing it over.

He really didn't mind, seeing as there was nothing incriminating on there whatsoever. Those spectacularly cringy "conversations" he had with girls in middle school had been deleted long, long ago.

Wait, what did she need to use his phone for again?

"Okay, here!" she shoved it back in his hands. "I'll let you know when, okay?" she called out as she swiftly turned on her heed and sped for the door.

"Bye, Hachiman-san!"

He waved lamely, but she was already out the door and gone before he could even think about saying anything. He looked down at his phone. A new contact was on the screen.

Hikari.

Maybe running into Haruno today wasn't so bad after all.