It's Not My Fault We're Together!

Chapter 5: Please Don't Leave (Because I Need You)

Yuri yawned as she disembarked the train, sleep still clogging her brain and leaving everything a fuzzy sea of vague, blurry colors. As she began to leave the station, however, she felt now-familiar arms wrap around her shoulders as a high-pitched, unsure voice enthused, "M-morning, Yuri-chan!"

Sighing, Yuri pried Hina's arms off of her, saying, "Is this going to be how you say hi every day now? That imitation and the hyper-touchiness?"

Sticking her tongue out at the serious girl, Hina said, "Aw, but it's fun! Plus, you'd never let me call you 'Yuri-chan' without the Kuroki imitation! And," pausing for a wry grin, she finished, "there's the part where you like it!"

Yuri turned away, just enough to hide the fact that she was blushing a tiny bit as she replied, "Well, you shouldn't get into people's faces so much. If that's all it takes to avoid being harassed every time I try to go to school, I'll happily accept being called my first name."

Hina's face fell as she hummed in disappointment.

"...including the '-chan'." Yuri muttered, distressed more than she could admit to herself at Hina's crestfallen expression.

"Yay!" The energetic girl cried, throwing her arms towards the heavens and skipping a tiny bit at Yuri's concession. "Yuri-chan is the best! And she helps me whenever I need it! Even with math homework!"

Cocking her brow at this, Yuri said, "'Helping you'? The second I tried to give you a hand with it, you just dodged the assignment and tried to pull me down whatever tangent you could to avoid doing it. I'm amazed you got it done at all... you certainly forgot about it when I tried helping."

Smiling, Hina answered, "That's because I got my math homework done before I even asked!"

Yuri blinked. She turned. She began to walk away.

"Hey! Yuri-chan! Wait up!" Hina called out, turning to catch up with the quickly retreating girl.

Sparing a glance over her shoulder, Yuri said, "If you already had it done, why did you tell me you didn't?"

Playfully knocking herself on the head, Hina answered, "Because I wanted to have an excuse to keep talking with you, of course!"

Yuri's eyes grew wide before she quickly glanced away.

"...plus, if I didn't say that, you'd have made me do the rest of it!"

A flock of birds resting on a nearby power-line took off, startled by the resounding smack of Yuri's facepalm.

...

"...but seriously though, I DID get most of it done! I just have one or two little things left, and then I'm good! Definitely!" Hina concluded with a confident grin.

Sighing, Yuri answered, "Sure, Nemoto-san, you DEFINITELY remembered the English Homework we had last night."

Yuri paused, the tiniest bit of a smirk on her face as she awaited an answer; perhaps a flustered cry as the pink-haired girl realized she had forgotten her homework, or maybe a snarky remark about how she knew there wasn't any in that subject?

What she WASN'T expecting was an irritated *huff*-concerning, as that is exactly the response she received.

Glancing at Hina, Yuri was surprised to find the normally up-beat girl glaring at the concrete as though the act would burn a hole into it. Confused at this behavior, Yuri couldn't help but ask, "Hey... something up...?"

Turning away from the introvert, Hina answered, "Oh... it's nothing. Don't worry about it." Glancing up and noticing they had reached their destination, she continued, "Ah, we're here. See you later, Tamura-san." Before Yuri could ask any more questions, Hina had stormed away, marching stiffly towards the school.

Stunned and frozen to the spot, Yuri could do nothing but mutter, "What was that about...?"

...

"What's wrong?"

Yuri lifted her head from her desk with agonizing sluggishness to see Mako hovering next to her, concern drawn in vivid colors across her face. Trying to concoct an adequate, nonchalant response, Yuri dawdled for a long moment before finally answering, "It's nothing."

With a skeptical frown, Mako replied, "Well... It sort of looks like something. You've had your head down on your desk since you walked in. I didn't want to bother you, but I don't think I could have really paid much attention during class if I didn't make sure you were alright first."

Sighing, Yuri considered Mako's position. The kind girl was right, as usual; the introvert knew something was off, and it didn't surprise Yuri in the least that Mako, being the good friend that she was, had picked up on it. However, Yuri also suspected they didn't have enough time to really explain situation just then.

Lowering her chin onto her desk, Yuri answered, "I'll explain at lunch."

Tilting her head in concern, Mako asked, "You aren't eating with Hina?"

Yuri glanced across the room to where Hina was happily chatting away with her friends as though nothing was wrong. Soon, however, Hina glanced back and jumped just slightly in surprise as their gazes met. For a moment, she shifted as though she was going to say something before she broke off the eye contact and her expression morphed into something incredibly sad. Then her expression changed to one of anger, before finally returning to its neutral happy state as though nothing at all were wrong. Just as quickly as it came, the moment passed, and Hina was chatting with the rest as though nothing had happened at all.

Unsure of what to make of all this, Yuri answered Mako's question with a simple "No."

Mako said nothing for a moment before offering a quiet "Well, if you're sure..." before trailing off, drifting towards her seat.

Just as the bell was about to ring, Hina glanced at the clock and quickly said goodbye to the rest of her friends before strutting over to her seat. However, before Yuri could begin to ask the pink-haired girl a question or somehow engage her in any other way, Hina had already shifted in her seat to look rather pointedly in the opposite direction. Sighing, Yuri considered that it was probably for the best she hadn't invited the extrovert to lunch.

...

"...and then she got mad and started ignoring me. She did it all morning." Yuri concluded, lightly resting her cheek in her palm. "What do you think?"

Pausing to collect her thoughts, Mako eventually answered, "...Sorry, Yuri, but... it's kind of easy to understand why she got mad."

Cocking her eyebrow in confusion, all Yuri could manage in response was a confused, "Huh?"

Shifting slightly in her seat as she searched for an example, Mako began, "Well, what if, say, I..." stopping short, the kind girl lifted her index finger before saying, "Ah, I know! Do you remember that time when you tried calling Kuroki-san by her first name?"

Cringing slightly at the painful recollection, Yuri answered, "Yes, I do remember that. Did you really have to bring it up?"

"See!" Mako declared. "It's exactly like that!"

"...I don't follow." Yuri said.

"Well," Mako began, "You felt hurt when she didn't respond the way you wanted to, right?"

Yuri nodded.

With a smile, Mako continued, "Because you called Hina by her last name when she was getting comfortable around you, she felt like you were pushing her away!" Nodding slightly, she concluded, "Hina felt hurt, so she pushed back!"

Yuri's eyes widened ever so slightly as the connections formed in her head and she muttered, "Oh..." Sighing, she complained, "Why are friendships so irritating to deal with?"

With a smile, Mako answered, "Because important things always are!" Considering the situation for a moment, the freckled girl said, "You should talk with Hina about this when you walk home together! I'm sure you two can fix it if you try!"

Considering Mako's suggestion, Yuri eventually answered with a nod before saying, "Yeah... I think I will." Shaking her head, she amended, "I know I will."

***Chapter 5: Good End***

A/N: You know, coming up with a name for this chapter was surprisingly hard! I don't know what it was exactly, but it was a real head-scratcher! Eh, it needed a name, so I might as well accept that I can't always have an easy time of it. If anyone's curious, I was originally going to call this chapter "I Need You Know (Because I Want to Now You)". Maybe I'll use that at some point...?

Yeah, maybe. Anyway, shoop-de-woo and Love Me Do, see you fine folk who read this story next week!