This Tuesday morning, didn't feel any different to me than the past ones. Despite the turn I took in life yesterday, everything went on as normal. I stood up at the same time as always, cleaned myself, ate something and went to school.

That was just logical, but deep inside me I had hoped this new start would be more special.

I felt dissatisfied to say the least.

Expectations invited this feeling and it reminded me of why I got rid of them in the first place. However, they were an unwanted by-product of my change, so I could only endure the dissatisfaction for now.

Nothing was different in the classroom either. Why would it? The desire for something to change was too big for my own good.
Relax..
Relax...
...

Oh damn, I nearly fell asleep. I followed the lessons most of the time and after the fourth period it was time for lunch. While I wondered how I would spend my 500 yen today, I realised that no one had bothered me till now and it didn't change for this break. Once one was infected by expectations it was incredibly hard to get rid of them again. Maybe I should see a doctor? Spending the fifth period in the infirmary was an appealing idea, as I would be sidelined in the next class anyway. On the other hand, if I went there too often, I wouldn't be able to go there when it was really needed. At least it was a period I could usually sleep through. The reward of sleep successfully fought back the expectations, nothing happened, I got it by now.
The world just didn't care about me.
Thus it was only natural to assume that this would continue till the time for club activities came, but I was wrong.

The sixth period was oral communications class and like usual the students should talk with each other in English.[1]

There was just one detail differently today that changed the entire usual flow.

Normally the partner for the talk would be the person next to you. However, today the teacher had the horrible idea to let us chose our partners freely as long as it was still of the opposite sex. Needless to say the seats around me were vacant in an instant.

When did this turn into another gym class experience?

It gave me time to observe the class though, since I had to wait for whoever ended up to be the unlucky last person to team up with me anyway. I tried to ignore the needle that poked my heart.

The teacher seemed to be pleased with his idea when he saw the students being more energetic than usual.

Out of the corners from my eyes I saw how Miura waited patiently for Hayama to finish his talk with Ebina.

My gaze moved to Yuigahama, who was stuck with her usual partner. Although she glanced at me from time to time, she was too nice to refuse him.
Actually, most of the people stayed with the usual classmate. The noise that the teacher's announcement caused started to soften.

I could see how Miura suppressed her tapping habit, but she couldn't hide the vibes she gave off. At least that caused the other girls to back off Hayama and made them settle for the next available option.

Among those nearby option was Tobe. The poor guy probably wanted to use that chance to spend time with Ebina. What were they talking about that long anyway?

Before I could strengthen my ears to eavesdrop I had a sudden realisation.

Couldn't I use this opportunity to have more Totsuka-time? Now the teacher deserved to grin, I applauded him inside my mind.
My enthusiasm vanished quickly though when I saw that a girl had claimed Totsuka already.

I clicked my tongue as I sent glares of death towards the unknown rival.

If I had known her name, it would make its way on my 'list of people I'll never forgive' immediately.

With my hopes shattered and nothing particularly to do, I tried to listen in Hayama's and Ebina's talk, but it sounded like it was about to end anyway.

As if Hayama had just noticed that Miura waited for him he looked surprised before giving her an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, I still need to talk with Hina some more."

Miura's eyes blinked rapidly upon this sentence, as if she had just seen an alien.

"Huuh? But! Why?!"

The reward for waiting that long was snatched away from her, making her unable to form a proper string of words.

"The HxH thing has gotten a bit out of hand recently, I would like to talk her out of it or at least to tone it down."

I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, but I still received a burning glare. Why was it directed at me? I was the victim here, you hear me? Victim!

After a few seconds the fire was extinguished and the sound of people walking stopped. The class was only filled with foreign chatter.

Heavy footstep approached me after a minute, that was probably the unlucky person.

"What are you doing here?"

At the sound of an elder male voice talking to me I opened my eyes and saw the teacher.

"Go to your partner already."

I stood up to look for a left-alone student who didn't even have the manners to come to my desk. Seriously, what was up with the youth these days?

Everyone was talking except for one. I could barely make out who it was though. The student produced a smokescreen of pure darkness. It reeked of death. The students closest to this centre of unpleasantness had cold sweat on their temple.

I turned my head towards the teacher to give him an improvised excuse, but it looked like he had already written me off as casualty of his new method and paid no attention to me. No excuse came to my mind anyway. Why didn't I just go to the school nurse? If I didn't had to go to the infirmary before, I would have to afterwards though.

I gulped and reluctantly I made way towards the fuming Miura, dragging my chair with me.

With an elbow on the table her head rested on one hand. Whether she looked out of the window or at Hayama I couldn't tell.

Her mood was bad and it was inside the school, thus I remained silent. All in all it wasn't much different then to the normal procedure of this period.

The teacher cleared his throat not far-off from me, which caused me to look at him. Once eye contact was established he seemed to urge me on to talk with the lump of unhappiness next to me.

He was oddly persistent today. Regardless though, he was still the teacher.

Without looking at Miura I obeyed and started to speak to her in English.

"Are you troubled by any chance?"

No reaction. Okay, I tried. I did my best to convey that message to the teacher, but with a small gesture of his hand he still wanted me to continue.

He had no intention to let me off the hook unless she said something. I decided to step on her nerves as lightly as possible.

"Did you have a fight with Hayama?"

The head of the statue moved slightly! It didn't turn around or anything though.

"No." Was the first reply of the day. I succeeded, but unfortunately my teacher had a different opinion of that.

"I coincidentally heard that he wanted to speak about Ebina's fantasies."

"co...coinci...what?" She gave up on the word and asked me for clarification in Japanese. However, the teacher's focus remained on us, forcing me to come up with a synonym.

"coincidentally, it means by chance. I would prefer if he didn't do that though."

"He's doing that for you." Did I hear a subtle reproachful intonation? I was the victim here, really!

I doubted her interpretation strongly. Not that I wasn't bothered by the fuyoshi fantasies of Ebina, but at least no one cared enough about me to make fun of that due to my low position on the social ladder.

"Hayama is wrong to deal with it in this way."

"Ha?!" Miura's loud voice silenced everything for a moment. She even had turned her head to me. Like the time Kawasaki said something about Hayama without praising him, it triggered Miura.

The silence didn't last long as I didn't make any follow up during this time of attention.

I received even glances of pity. There were also a few looks which said 'who was that again?'.

When everyone had returned to their business I explained it to Miura.

"Look, if he really did it for my sake, wouldn't it appear to Ebina as him protecting me? It's bound to create many more intense fantasies inside her head."

"Mhhh.. that could be true." She said so and turned her head back into its original position.

My reasoning was accepted and I let out another sigh. I felt a glance from the side this time. For whatever reason Yuigahama gave me an apologetic look. Did she do something bad to me? I guess she felt responsible for Miura's actions as she was her friend.

The next gaze on me belonged to my teacher. Surprised that I had not been killed off he still urged me on. He seemed awfully proud of himself. This was probably the first time that every student actually talked during his class.

"Judging from the teacher's expression there is a high possibility that this procedure will be repeated."

"Jush... expresh... how do you know all these difficult words? You never talk during these classes, do you?" I could only guess what kind of a face she made while trying to replicate these words as she still looked in the general direction of Hayama. It did interest me to be honest.

"That's because no one wanted to talk with me. It doesn't mean I'm bad at this subject.

Also, judging means to asses something. Expression is what kind of look is on your face. Possibility is the chance of something to happen. Procedure is a method. To repeat is for something to happen again." While I was at it, I tried to explain all the important words she might have problems with in simple terms.

"I know what repeat means." She said in a slightly miffed voice.

"S-sorry." Ooops, got presumptuous there. It was the bad habit of a loner who wanted to show off his skill on a rare opportunity.

It didn't feel like it angered her further though. Despite her bad mood from the start there might still be some consideration towards me left inside her and I continued.

"What I'm trying to say is, there will be a next time of this. Be ready when that time comes. Only if you want of course."

I only had to wait a tiny amount of time for her reply.

"What do you think I should do?" Miura asked sincerely for my opinion. It felt good that we came far enough for her to do so easily, But I had only wanted to improve her mood by giving her some hope. It was a totally different matter if that was even the right thing to do.

If I was even partially right about Hayama's intention of keeping Miura close to him, I would help him more than her. What if I my meddling here causes her to suffer later even more than she did now already?

Miura was about to turn her head back to me since I remained silent, before she could do that I broke the silence. Was it some kind of instinct that I didn't want her to connect a face to my doing here?

"If you ask him before he gets into contact with anyone else, I doubt he would refuse you."

"Wouldn't that... be too pushy?" She asked me in return with a small break to think it over.

"Isshiki has some success with that strategy."

It was too late to back-pedal. I have to be more careful in the future to not get into such a situation again. Being meddlesome wasn't something I wanted to be.

I only wanted to help her, but would this be helpful in the end?

While I started to get lost in these thoughts, I could hear Miura growl at the mention of the student president.

A few minutes later, which she spent thinking about my suggestion, I heard her giving me gratitude in a small voice.

"Thanks."

Except for the time I mentioned Hayama, we hadn't looked at each other during the whole lesson. For the most part of it I was grateful, but I somehow wanted to see her face, when she struggled with the vocabulary.

I waited, with some distance from the door, outside the classroom for Yuigahama since she had told me to do that after the end of the fifth period.

The parting with her friends took some time, but it was still endurable. She exited the classroom moving her head several times to the sides till she spotted me. Was my presence so low that such excessive movement was needed? I wasn't even waiting around a corner this time.

Luckily she finally noticed it and her frown changed into a happy smile.

"Uhm, sorry about before. Yumiko being so cold and all. She's normally...uhm, outside of school, mhh.. she really is not a bad person."

There was no reason to apologise and my face didn't hide my confusion. Also, what was with the misconception of acting cold being a trait of bad persons? The way she corrected herself twice would make Miura cry if she heard it. Two times I bet.

"I don't mind." I told her and went ahead. Behind me I could hear some murmur.

"What's with the same reaction?"

So she apologised to Miura as well? Wait girl! What would you even apologise for about me? I behaved as the epitome of consideration, like always. Did she mean that my normal self was reason enough to complain? Now I was about to cry.

She probably just wanted to fix a mood that didn't need fixing. It was her good intention that counted.

Before I opened the door to the clubroom my sleeve ended up stuck in something.

When I looked at that something it turned out to be two of Yuigahama's fingers.

"You... what do you plan to do with Iroha-chan tomorrow?"

Was it embarrassment or shame that coloured her face red? Didn't anyone teach you that spying on others was bad? Probably not with that meddlesome mother.

It took her a lot of courage to ask such a question based on this state of her, thus I refrained from scolding her and gave her the only answer I had.

"I planned to think about that at home, so I have no idea yet."

Yuigahama made a complex faced that didn't know whether this reply made her happy or not.

"Hikki, you do take the dating serious, do you?" I was inquired with a stern gaze that made me cautious on my next answer. Accidentally giving off a false impression of just playing around could do irreparable damage.

"Of course I do. It's just that it didn't feel right to think about Isshiki's date for two days, when there is only one day for you in the schedule." I scratched my cheek while my eyes moved restlessly around. I wonder if I could withstand a girl's strong gaze one day.

The chuckle I heard from her made me focus on Yuigahama again, but before I could ask anything she had turned me around to face the door. A moment later a hot breath attacked my ear from behind.

"Iroha-chan was right that you are a sly one, but you know, I'm glad that you aren't like that only to her."

I wanted to voice my objection but twos hand pushed me towards the door. If I didn't want to crash into the door I had to open it. Inside the clubroom I had no chance to pick up the private talk with Yuigahama again, not with Yukinoshita around.

She would have figured out easily that Yuigahama was prying into my business with other girls. I didn't want to strain their friendship more than I had to.

There were no requests either today. It was normal for the club to have long periods without any students asking for help, but after the many requests prior to Valentine's day, all club members were eyeing the door more than usual. As if we didn't trust this peaceful time, or were secretly longing to be busy again.

Komachi was in a good mood as well when I got the shopping list from her. Whenever she looked at me she had the proud of a mother written in her eyes. It felt so wrong that I escaped quickly towards the supermarket.

"...but later when I went to the Arcade on my own, Oisuu-kun, despite telling me that he would be busy with chores when I asked him to hang out with me, enjoyed himself with Ninomiya-kun at the Karaoke joint next door. That was when I stopped inviting people to spend time with me." [2]

I had just finished another story of my horrible time in middle school, when Miura and I reached our parting spot.

Time out.

I had told her yesterday about my dating plans, thinking that she could help me out when I was stuck. Unfortunately, I had failed to ask her for help directly yesterday. I was cautious during our whole talk to jump at any chance to bring that subject up, but Miura never mentioned it. I doubted she had no interest in my dating matter at all. Yuigahama once told me that Miura loved those kinds of stories. It was more likely that she completely ignored it because it was Isshiki's turn.

It didn't mean that we barely talked today. Like the previous times I had told about my past while she listened and asked questions. It was a pleasurable time for me even if I didn't accomplished my goal. The dating topic wasn't the only thing that wasn't mentioned at all. Today's oral communications class wasn't brought up as well. Was she still in a bad mood because Hayama spent that time with Ebina?

Or did she separate school and shopping completely after my refusal to participate in her group?

I came to terms with overstepping my boundaries when it came to Yukinoshita, we were dating after all, but it was an entirely different matter with Miura.

I got nervous thinking about these things, but it was comforting that our parting included waving at each other as well today.

At home, after the cooking lessons, it was time to think about tomorrow's date with Isshiki.

For that reason I browsed through the many dating ideas I made in my past. Looking at those I couldn't deny my sister's evaluation of me being a dreamer. All those ideas were unrealistic. At least for a high school student. In itself these ideas were fine. Very romantic, a bit cliché-ridden, but they didn't take one of the most crucial things into consideration. Money.

Even without the help of my recent maths studies I knew that it wasn't doable, considering the amount of dates ahead of me.

It took me the whole evening to tone down one idea that fitted Isshiki to a feasible level.

Despite my anxiety about tomorrow I fell easily asleep thanks to the mental exhaustion.

Yumiko PoV

Wasted. What an opportunity I let pass.

It was already late in the evening as I thought this while being in my bed.

I could have spend a whole period alone with Hayato, receiving his full attention. At first I blamed Hikio for being part of the fantasy, then Ebina for having such fantasies to begin with. But in the end I could only blame myself. I should have declared my will to be his partner earlier, just like Hikio suggested afterwards. That was something I should have done, it was something I was capable to do and that is why I had to blame myself.

But there will be a next time. Next time I will act for sure. If Hikio was right about his hunch that is.

Hikio, he was my second regret of this day.

Because of my bad mood I was colder to him than I wanted to. I was no different than those old classmates of his. Even knowing his sad past I couldn't control my temper.

He even tried to make the oral communications class a normal period, something he hadn't experienced so far in class F. I destroyed that chance for him.

And yet he had helped me again by coming up with his suggestion. What does he think when he does all that? I still couldn't tell.

Hikio was weird and full of surprises. It was just today that I learned about him not being a bad student. He didn't participate in the lessons so it was natural to think like that, wasn't it?

His pronunciation was like from an exercise CD and his explanations were easy to understand, even without translating them to Japanese.

Just how good was he really? He hasn't said that.

It didn't feel all to different from Hayato's level. Well, there was one difference. Hayato's explanations were more complicated, so his knowledge must be a bit better.

As expected of my Hayato.

I chuckled into my pillow, hugging it as if it was him.

Hachiman PoV

I barely made it on time for the short homeroom, but in hindsight I should have skipped it. My head had been filled with fantasies about today's date, but it was then, when reality pulled me back to earth. I was prepared for it to happen this year again, but why did it have to be now?

Every student got a printout to hide the fact who of the students had to attend to supplementary lessons. I knew the drill already from last year.

The printouts were basically just a bureaucratic formality, as most students weren't able to hide their feelings when they received them. The teachers were fully aware of that, but played along regardless.

I was one of the few exceptions who could maintain a neutral expression. A splendid poker face, I was Buddha.

That was all in vain though as Hiratsuka-sensei shot me a deeply disappointed glare. I could already guess which subject was responsible for this. However, Hiratsuka-sensei should have known that too. After all she was the only teacher who actually cared about my grades enough to knew them all.

Luckily no one would pay attention to her when she was at my desk. As if a flashbang had been gone off at my seat, the other students averted their faces as I was too radiant to be looked at. At least I hoped so.

Kawasaki was one of the few exceptions who showed no reaction. Her case was probably different from mine though. Despite her aura of delinquency she was actually a try-hard student. It would have been a real surprise if she had actually to do make-up tests. Since disappointment was ruled out, the only other reaction could have been joy. But she only revealed that sight when it came to Keika or that insect. A motherly brocon from head to toe.

Thus she her face was as neutral as mine.

Yuigahama on the other hand was... dead. There was just a gloomy corpse sitting on her chair with the torso sprawled on her table.

I quickly moved my gaze away from her and saw that Miura had a tiny smile on her face as she inspected the handout. Since it was the first sign that not everything was bad on this day, I checked the printout again to know when I had to go to the staffroom.

During the break after the third period I was inside the teachers' lounge as ordered.

I looked through the supplementary worksheets that Hiratsuka-sensei had given me. It didn't look too much different from last year, for that I felt relieved.

"Any problems Hikigaya?"

"None, sensei." I immediately replied to her.

She relaxed upon my answer and leaned against the back of her chair.

"You know, I thought we could avoid that this year. Has the time in the Service Club not taught you to take life more seriously?"

I looked at that, the papers for math, while she took out a Seven Stars from her breast pocket.[3] Compared to the time when she had put me into the Service Club, there were now single threads visibly standing out. Her suit had been strained too much by package of cigarettes and her bust. Did that mean they sold bigger packages now?

It couldn't be that her breasts were still developing even at her age.

Since I feared that the pocket would burst any moment, I had no choice but to look at the supplementary worksheets.

"I do. In fact I have started to study for math, it was just after the exams however." I could only hope that my teacher for math didn't overhear my bold statement of not having studied before.

"Is that true? I'll trust your words."

"Of course it's true." I nodded at her with a wry smile.

Rather than trusting someone's honesty, the sentence Hiratsuka-sensei used was only binding me to my words. Now I could not slack off anymore or I would betray her. How mean of my teacher to exploit her student's personality.

"I'm glad to hear that." That follow-up was the final seal on the deal. "It would be a shame if an university accepted you for your liberal arts and you had to decline because of repeating a year. That would be the first time I see that. You really are a special case."

Hearing her say that I couldn't stop me from making a twisted grin.

"Please say 'unique' sensei."

"That wasn't a praise." Her icy voice shot me down before I could really take off.

In a reflex I lowered my head, so I couldn't see her expression when she sighed.

"By the way, did they accept your plan?"

My thoughts travelled back to the ramen shop and my neck started to hurt.

"It starts today Shi.. Hiratsuka-sensei." She was too good at wiring a conditional reflex into to me that it nearly backfired. Tsurumi-sensei even had looked over to us.

My modern Japanese teacher just played it over by continuing our conversation.

"With whom?"

"Isshiki" I replied meekly.

The cigarette nearly fell out of her mouth. It was balancing only on one lip. When it seemed to have lost its balance, Hiratsuka-sensei came back to her senses and removed it from her mouth.

She took a deep breath.

"You two getting along with each other never stops to surprise me. So you like the younger ones more?"

As if she had just noticed that she brought up the taboo theme herself, her whole mood drifted towards a dark melancholy. I tried my best to stop her on that path.

"I wouldn't say young per se. After all, you see, the younger the people are, the narrower is their preferred age gap. So of course I like my partner to be young as well." I took a look around to assure myself that no one would hear us and added "In my case that narrow range would go from Komachi up to someone as young as you, sensei."

Naturally, there was no way a teacher would go on a date with a student in real life. That was why I could try to cheer her up by giving her such a compliment.

But when I saw the sparkling eyes of hers, I doubted my natural assumption. In fact we had gone on a date already. However, that was just as a fake couple to a ramen shop.

While I was already on the verge of imagining our future together, she finally snapped out of her overly spirited state.

"How mean of you Hikigaya, you would use such a scenario as an excuse whenever the others steal too much of your free time, right?"

As expected, I could trust my teacher to find a way out. No, I could trust this person. Thus I took a bold step forward for a tease.

I could feel how my face turned into a smile I hadn't shown before, or at least for a very long time.

"Aren't you decreasing my options too much, sensei?"

Some muscles started to hurt as sign that they haven't been used for a long time, but I upheld it long enough till she gave me her reply.

"I can only safely increase your options after I have corrected that personality of yours."

Her answer wasn't spoken directly to my face as she had averted her head sometimes in between my question and her reply. I could see a faint, pink blush on the cheek that was visible from my position.

"I'll be in your care then, sensei."

She only gave me a short grumble as sign of understanding. I put the supplementary worksheets in my bag and headed for the door.

"Hikigaya" My hand was already on the doorknob when she called out to me.

"Yes, sensei?" I turned around to see whether there was more she wanted to say.

"Good luck.

I nodded to her and felt it was a pity that I couldn't call her Shizuka with all the other teachers around.

"Thank you, Hiratsuka-sensei."

Before I closed the door behind me, I could hear her rustling in her breast pocket.
I didn't smoke myself, but I knew that people tend to do it to calm themselves down.

Sorry for being such a problematic student I thought in my head.

After the rest of the classes were done, I walked towards the student council room.

On the way there I met the vice-president and since we had seen each other quite often by now we gave each other a nod that recognised the other's existence.

He even started a conversation with me. I don't remember ever raising a flag with him though. Creepy.

"Are you here to help us out again?"

I shook my head without losing my composure from the sudden talk. He did date the secretary after all.

"I just wanted to inform Isshiki about a private matter. Is there a problem?" Isshiki had not said anything the last time I was with her.

"It's nothing serious. We were too lax recently because there weren't any events. But even when there was not much to do, things have piled up when going home early too often. However, they need to be finished soon."

I see, so a sudden deadline appeared.

"Will you manage it?"

He gave me a confirming nod to my question.

"There shouldn't be any problem, but we'll actually have to stay the normal time today."

So nothing that interfered with my plans. Just to be sure that it stayed that way I offered my help.

"I see. If it gets out of hand though you can call me over."

"Thank you, I hope that won't be needed though."

As soon as we opened the door I heard Isshiki calling out to me.

"Seeenpai! Let's go!" Her lips were smiling, but her face had 'I don't want to wooork, deadlines are scaryyyy' written all over it.

She sure was right about it, but hearing that Secretary-chan started to panic with her eyes wandering over the piles of papers on every desk.

"I just wanted to inform you that we meet 17:30 at Chiba Station."

Having said my bit, I immediately left the room. That was harder than usual though. The student council president held one of my arms with both hands and screamed a long 'noooooo'. I used all my strength to go through the door, but she didn't release her grip, with her feet sliding on the ground as I dragged her with me.

Next to the door I gave up and made sure that no one was listening into our conversation.

"After the club is over I come and check up on you, but we still meet 17:30 at Chiba Station for the date. I have to do my shopping duty for my family before, so I couldn't go immediately anyway." I patted her head and endured her teary eyes. "So keep doing your best as my sister will soon go to this school."

Isshiki finally released my arm, mumbling in a quiet voice.

"There is no way for an objection if you say it like that. You're so unfair."

I smiled wryly at her.

"You can complain about that senpai later all you want." I said like it had nothing to do with me.

With that I went for the Service Club finally.

I couldn't read much during our club activities though, as I found myself often staring at the door. That the other two members kept snickering all the time at my behaviour, didn't help either.

After the club activities were over, I fulfilled my promised and dropped by the student council room. Isshiki was in a bad mood from all the work. Oh joy.

I had to prove today that I was rightfully claiming to be good at dealing with problems.

17:30.

Until then I had to make a new dating plan.

Deadlines are really scaryyyyy.

Even with the actual date with Isshiki being today, Miura didn't mention it at all. I was still too unsure whether I could ask her myself without an opener. She and Isshiki weren't exactly on good terms after all.

Thus I had no choice but to tell more of my stories. The climax of the tale came shortly before our parting spot.

"Even though it hadn't been long after graduating from middle school, Oofuna-kun couldn't remember my name anymore. 'Hi-Hiki... meh screw it.' He gave up just like that." [4]

Her reactions this time were not as many and not as energetic as before, but she still listened.

Well, it wasn't the most interesting story to begin with.

Shortly after, we parted making this another failure to get her on board. I knew that I wanted her help, but I was still reluctant to step over the boundary myself. Thanks to the gap from inside and outside of school I had no clue where the boundary even remotely was located.

Just what were we to each other?

However, I had no time to think about that right now. Isshiki's date would be soon. Afterwards the one with Yuigahama was already waiting in line. It didn't look like I had any time in the near future to think about Miura. The only thing I knew for sure, without spending a single thought on it, that we tolerated the other's existence close to ourselves. Mhh that didn't seem correct, it was more than just tolerating. It was something like... Crap!

I really didn't have time for that with the deadline coming closer.

I unloaded the food at home and told Komachi that I was going to the date with Isshiki.

Apparently I had yet to mention that it was supposed to be today. She got all worked up and reminded me to take the photo along with me. I could only calm her down after promising to tell her everything when I returned.

With the photo in the pocket of my coat I was on my way to Chiba Station.

Like always to appointments of this sort I was early and Isshiki was late. Not as much as on the training date with her though. Still, my mind couldn't turn off the Irohasu, you're sooo slow. from repeating in an endless loop while I waited.

I saw her lightly jogging towards me as if she had hurried all the way, but there was no heavy breathing nor any colour on her cheeks that gave away signs of a serious physical effort.

Today she wore nearly the same clothes as on the training date. The fur scarf wasn't on her and the coat wasn't as tightly zipped. Well, it got a bit warmer recently. The short, plated skirt was worn again. Did she noticed how it cost me so many points during the table tennis match? Just thinking back to it made me blush a little. It was such a tease during our game.

"So where are we going senpai?" She asked cheerfully, seemingly pleased from my reaction to her outfit.

We walked side by side without any touching. It wasn't very couple-like, but we weren't a couple either, so it was the right distance.

"It's a secret." I replied.

I did come up with a second plan in case Isshiki was still in a bad mood.
As long as I wasn't sure of that, I couldn't give her a clear answer in the case I had to change my mind on our destination.

It didn't take long to figure out that she was still angry at whatever happened at the student council. Isshiki went on and on with her complaints.

I scrapped my original plan and decided to use the backup I came up with. It was a risky move, but I was somewhat confident after her reactions to the table tennis match on the training date.

It was going to take a while to get there, since there were none of them around Chiba Station.

With nothing else to do I half-heartedly listened to her complaints.

"Even with this being our special day, vice-president didn't let me go."

Everyone was powerless in front of deadlines.

"I see." It wasn't the best reply, but since I knew the situation from the vice-president it wasn't all that interesting.

"He gave me a bigger pile of papers than to the Secretary too!"

Wasn't it natural for the one in charge to have the biggest pile? Those bosses needed to stamp them after their underlings worked so hard to compile those papers. What little I knew about the vice-president was that he most likely had the most workload.

"Mmhhmm." I looked out the window of the train that we were riding. Train-chan, sooooo slow.

"He's definitely abusing his position to favour his beloved secretary!" Said the person who wanted to sneak away from work for a date.

"Ah."

"How dare they treat me like this after I gave them so much time off after the entrance exams? I even had to do the graduation ceremony farewell speech all by myself."

I was pretty sure I had helped her during the time she did it all by herself.

"Okay."

"Senpai, are you even listening?" Isshiki narrowed her eyes after my series of lacklustre responses.

"Of course I'm listening. I was just thinking so deeply about what you said that I could only say short answers though." Girls would get mad if you don't listen to them properly, so I had to make sure that I at least feign interest. Source: My sister.

Just what was she teaching me?

"Then you would have no problems telling me your thoughts, would you?" She raised an eyebrow. Isshiki was doubting me. What should I do now Komachi-sensei?

"I just thought that Hollywood might pick this story up. The battle of a loving couple, that's all the rage nowadays. They are suppressed by a tyrannical boss, who forgot the deadline. Now they have to correct that mistake and fight to exhaustion against the world's strongest enemy: work! Will the power of love overcome everything?" I might even watch that, if it had a happy end, but who could win against work? It was doomed from the start.

After I finished saying my piece, Isshiki's expression looked appalled.

"Are you trying to break up with me? Saying our love is inferior to theirs is a flawed thinking. I'm at least fifteen times cuter than the Secretary, I became the president while he only ended up as vice. As the first first-year in the history of Sobu High even. Oh, and you wouldn't lose to vice-president either, probably. In short, we're the much better couple. Don't try to sell our power of love short ever again. That won't work. I'm sorry." She spoke in a quick and monotone way that felt somehow nostalgic.

"Weren't you only bragging about yourself just now? Nothing of that showed a strong bond between us. Also, we're not a couple yet." I had to make sure she didn't get any wrong ideas here, but she skilfully ignored me.

"Oh senpai, didn't you say we had to get off the train at the next station? Come one, hurry!"

"Hey, we really aren't one yet. Are you listening?" Hello?

I couldn't remember any lesson by Komachi that dealt with me being the ignored one. The situation never arose at home after all, since my sister was practically hanging on my lips all the time. Urgh, this was not the time to be stuck in delusions, I quickly followed her through the door of the train.

When we arrived at the location, Isshiki stood there dumbfounded with her mouth agape.

"Senpai, just to make sure... You're not trying to make fun of me, are youuuu?" Her tone had a threatening ring to it. That wasn't unexpected and I had prepared myself mentally for it.

"Think of it like the time at the ramen shop. Be patient with your opinion after we're done." [5]

I went slowly ahead towards the door, behind me I heard her murmuring.

"This isn't romantic at all..."

She was right about that, but I felt this is what we both needed right now. My pace was slow so that Isshiki caught up quickly to me. Together we entered the batting centre.

The Hoshikuki batting centre was small and cheap, but it still offered enough variety to appease beginners and regulars alike.[6] Naturally I went with Isshiki towards the slowest cage.

Her dissatisfied grumbling was soon replaced with spirited shouts like 'how dare you to show off in front of me secretary!' or 'eat this ball vice-president!'.

Her cute image was blown away like the balls, whenever she managed to hit one. The people in the neighbouring cage looked afraid being only separated by a thin fence to the raging student council president.

However, I was happy to see that Isshiki seemed so immersed in the date activity that she forgot to maintain her public image. Whenever she showed her honest side like this, I felt the closest with her. Delicate sport wasn't her forte though and to cover that up she occasionally showed her sly fake acts. I saw right through them of course, but I couldn't see them at all.

Sometimes when a ball passed by her, she would plop on the ground three seconds later. What's with the obviously late reaction? Was that supposed to be cute?

When she dropped down, the skirt made a seductive movement, pretending to go up enough to let me see the panties. No matter how carefully I looked though, I couldn't even tell the colour. How was this even possible? Isshiki proved to be a professional at teasing once more.

We stayed longer at the batting centre than I thought as Isshiki had a huge amount of stamina. I should have known that. At the trip to Destinyland she even managed to outlast Miura, who played tennis on a prefectural level in middle school.

However, the moment we had exited Hoshikuki, I felt her tugging my sleeve.

"Please... hold me senpai, I'm sooo tired." Her lips trembled slightly when she looked at me with half open eyes.

"Really?" I had my doubts, but nonetheless I extended my hand to hold hers. What if her claim was true? I would be the worst guy if I didn't do at least this much. It had nothing to do with her charming me with her glossy lips, the reddened cheeks from swinging the bat over and over or the sweet, weak voice she asked me with.

When she noticed my agreement to hold hands, her corners of the mouth turned upwards and she linked her arm with mine before grabbing my hand.

Damn, was she good at playing with me.

"Really, I'm starting to doubt whether you have never dated before. Once more I'm surprised to feel so good after one of your weird suggestions." Venting off her stress with physical activity did a miraculous change for her mood. No matter how unjustified her anger towards the other members of the student council was, it was real and had to be dealt with accordingly.

"Help me, I'm seduced by my sly senpai." She said while snuggling her head against me.

Who was the sly one here? Luckily she wouldn't be able to hear my racing heart with her ear pressed on my arm.

"I-I'm glad you liked it." I was able to stutter that somehow.

"You know, I'm really curious here. How did you decide on a batting centre?" She didn't drop the topic.

Isshiki was so close, smelled so good, smiled so nicely and held me so tightly, that my head got dizzy. It was not a panic like with Haruno, but it was merely three steps before that. To be honest, more like hundred steps, Haruno was on an entirely different level.

Still, I needed to unload a bucket of cold water on this situation to not get swept along with her momentum.

"I picked it because it was cheap." I tried to say as nonchalantly as possible.

She took a step back to look at me with a frown, but the president didn't let go of my hand. That was fine, I could manage that much.

"Really senpai, I can't believe you. To say that on a date is so low."

"Says the person who didn't want to spend even 130 yen on Valentine chocolate." I inflated my cheeks not due to the low price tag, but because I was denied Max Coffee chocolate.

"Geez, it's embarrassing if you remember every little thing I said. Just how much are you into me? Tee-hee." The way she interpreted things was astonishing, but thanks to her laugh I was able to let it slide. It was an ironical laugh, wasn't it?

"So now tell me the real reason." My date demanded from me with a half smiling, half stern look. She totally didn't buy my first answer at all huh?

"It's not like it was wrong. I might have several dates in the near future and I will need money after that as well."

The half smiling part vanished from her face and so I quickly went on with my reply.

"You wouldn't stay with me if I ended up being broke, right"

"What are you taking me foooor? Ahh, but I don't think I can really rule that out completely."

I ignored her comeback and the nudge into my side.

"You also seemed to have too much on your mind for a date, thus I switched plans quickly." With this my answer to her question was complete.

Her blinking of the eyes out of surprise gave off the image of an innocent fawn. An urge to protect her rose in me, but why was she surprised in the first place? It was not like I never did that before.

"You actually thought seriously about this, didn't you?" She lowered her gaze to the ground. "To be honest I didn't think you would put in much effort for me when you have Yukinoshita-senpai and Yui senpai already."

"Well, the dating is for gathering experience after all. I would only hurt myself if I didn't put everything I had in me into it. But even if it weren't the case, I did call you a special person to me, didn't I?" My sympathy for Isshiki was high in that moment, but it was gone with her next mumbling in a barely audible voice.

"In that case I might go after you for real as well."

No. Go away! That sly fox. But honestly you're closer than before, step back. My attempts to free my arm were in vain.

"That makes me wonder, what was your initial plan for today senpai?"

"I'm not going to tell you." I was a bit miffed there after her earlier comment.

Isshiki then squeezed my hand softly and changed her question.

"Then tell me at least where we are going to now."

This I could answer as it would be obvious in a few minutes anyway.

"The port."

It wasn't that far from the Hoshikuki batting centre to the big port of Chiba.

We ambled along the pier, as the setting sun coloured Tokyo Bay in a warm red.

Although I wasn't responsible for the clear sky, nor the sun, I still felt somewhat proud that this plan of mine worked out like I had imagined it.

It worked even better than expected. After half an hour Isshiki had picked up the topic of my dating goals.

"What do you actually want to achieve with all this senpai? I didn't hear everything clearly back then."

"So you were eavesdropping after all!" She was participating and didn't even know that? But I was sure that I mentioned that to her earlier today."It's like I told you, I want to gather experience."

"Yeah I know that, but for what?"

"I need it to achieve something genuine for myself." There was no issue telling her that as she knew about that term already. She was eavesdropping too much on me. "I feel that this is the path to get me there, but I'm not sure of the details yet." Isshiki's genuine thing she mentioned after the visit to Destinyland was probably different from mine, thus I wasn't sure she would understand.

I remained unsure of her understanding as she suddenly changed the topic.

"Senpai, on which date do you think it is okay to kiss?"

Isshiki pulled on my arm to stop me from walking, then she playfully hopped in front of me. My eyes followed her dance-like steps. They were kind of hypnotising, and her question was confusing me on top of it. Didn't that question come a bit too early?

"After the third... I guess?" I scratched my cheek while I replied.

"You really have no experience on dating, senpai." For whatever reason she seemed dissatisfied with my answer.

"Shouldn't things like embracing come before that?" There were so many things to do before a kiss, that I found my estimation to be on the low end of the scale.

She then made a step forward which closed any distance we had before. I could hear her taking a deep breath. My head had to tilt over to look at her properly because she was so close. All I could see though, were her hair.

"We're not kids anymore." She said before lifting her head and our eyes met from a close distance.

Isshiki quickly elevated herself by only standing on tiptoe and the distance was reduced to nil nearly instantly.

Her lips were pressing on mine.

I could definitely feel the kiss besides my state of petrifaction. That state lasted only a moment though. When being talked to I would reply. Haruno's words echoed inside my head like they were mocking me. Even if Isshiki wasn't really 'talking' to me, she still used her mouth and I replied accordingly.

I moved my own lips and increased the pressure on hers softly in return.

It was a new feeling for me and I had trouble evaluating it. I had no experience in kissing, but I tried my best to do it properly.

When we separated Isshiki had a confused expression. Odd, that should have been on my face after her sneak attack on me.
She was quick to react as always and wrapped her arms around my back, burying her face into my chest.

"You were right senpai, hugging is enough for now."

Then don't pull such a stunt in the first place Irohasu.

I felt the same and returned the hug with one arm while I patted her head with the free hand.

Isshiki was always a bit too rash in her approaches, but her courage deserved at least a little reward.

I couldn't sort my thoughts about the kiss yet, but Isshiki's courage was a valuable lesson for me. To ask whether it was a good kiss, I lacked that courage. Or was it a my common sense that prevented that question?

We parted once we came back to Chiba Station.

We embraced each other shortly and then I watched her walking away. After five metres though, she turned her body around again.

"Oh, normally I wouldn't have to say such a thing... but since it is you... don't forget to call me when you get home safely."

Wasn't that something the man should say?

Then she rushed away in the same manner she had approached me at the start of the date. What are you acting again for?

She was already gone from my sight when a thought crossed my mind.

Did I even have her number?

Was it really alright that I made such a forgetful person be the student council president?

During our cooking lesson I reported the date's course to Komachi. She was a good listener as always. Her hanging on my lips was no delusion after all! At least the non-physical part of it. She even clasped her hands together when I told her of the kiss.

My sister had an 'at least he tried' expression when I told her about Isshiki's reaction to the kiss. It was quite the disheartening sight considering it came from my younger sister. Not like I was really cheerful to begin with. The longer I thought about the reaction after the kiss, the more I felt devastated.

"Do you think I messed up?" I asked her what I couldn't ask my kissing partner.

"I honestly don't know.. mhh... what you described was quite the weird reaction of her." She gave it some serious thoughts from the way Komachi tilted her head.

When she noticed that I watched her intently with an expectant look she shattered my depressed mood.

"I let you know Onii-chan, I won't practice kissing with you."

"L-like I would ask you to do that." Why was I adverting my face in this situation? It only made me look guilty of thinking about that.

"But if you take responsibility by marrying me, I wouldn't mind it. My points went through the roof there!" She added in a sweet voice while blushing.

"What a tease. You know well enough that I can't afford a wedding ring right now."

If anyone else heard our exchange they would freak out, Yuigahama might even faint, but we siblings were able to chuckle it off without spending any thoughts on it.

With this my day came to an end.

Yumiko PoV

It had been a while since the last time our full group spent time together like today. Without purpose but with a lot of fun. We went to play darts in the late afternoon. What we did wasn't important as long as we did it together. I had Hayato teach me this game again, but unlike the last time he only did it vocally. However, that couldn't sour my mood all too much. Just spending time with him was enough, but I will aim for more on the next chance.

Why didn't he notice that I longed for his touches so much?

My Hayato had won most of the games. Such a capable man, there was nothing he couldn't do! I wanted to celebrate his victories close to him, but Ooka and Yamato constantly stuck to him and got in my way. These premature boys were totally annoying.

Tobe still had not given up on Ebina, but at least he paid more attention to the distance she wanted to keep.

The only one who didn't seem to be fully into our activity was Yui.
She fiddled with her phone, constantly checked the time and her eyes were restless.
Ebina noticed that too, but Yui said that everything was fine.

Most likely it had to do with Hikio's date with Isshiki today. I wonder how that went.

That memory made me realise that I had not written about my meeting with Hikio today into my diary. It was the first time in a while. There wasn't much to write about it.
This was weird as the meeting didn't feel any different from usual.

I could think about that an other time though.

Today only belonged to Hayato. Not only today though, tomorrow was the oral communications class again. How could I use this chance?

Hachiman PoV

When I woke up on this Thursday morning I remembered yesterdays kiss immediately. I just realised that Isshiki had snatched away not only my first real date, but also the very first kiss of mine. My hands instinctively covered my manhood upon these thoughts. I was still half-asleep when the fear, of my foxy president taking away my virginity as well, rose within me. Luckily that was the only thing that rose in that region.

Standing up from bed this quickly was a rarity for me. I even let out a long sigh after I finally realised that I was alone in my room.

There was no reason to panic, right? Well, there was one uncertainty inside me that could explain my behaviour. Isshiki's reaction after the kiss was strange. I didn't understand it at all and it gnawed on me.

There was still the whole afternoon to think about it and the day was reserved for thoughts after the date to begin with.

I shook my head as if it let me free myself from the thoughts about the kiss, and I started my normal procedure on a school day.

Inside the classroom I noticed how Yuigahama sent me glances. During the whole morning I got easily distracted and was lost in my thoughts, thus I barely made it in time for the first period. There was no time for a talk with her. What should I tell her if she asked about the date? Should I say what we had done? Was it better to not mention the kiss?

At the first break she came over to me as expected.

Yuigahama was slightly red when she greeted me.

"Hikki?"

Or rather, she did not greet me at all. Was 'yahallo' seeing its end as a fad? It sure was unfriendly to only greet someone by the name. Everything was better than 'yahallo' though and as such I let it slide.

"Sup." I returned the greeting.

"You know, how did yesterday go?" So direct!

Yuigahama's action of nervously moving her feet like she was drawing something on the floor, didn't match the boldness of the question.

"It was okay I think."

I decided to not mention any details.

"That's a bit vague.." She wanted me to tell more. I could understand her desire, but my decision was firm.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Isshiki and Yukinoshita if they ask about our date as well."

I reasoned my decision under the pretext of fairness. Of course I didn't tell her that directly, it would sound like an accusation of her being unfair. To make sure however that even Gahama-san understood it, I added another sentence.

"I look forward to Saturday."

Her nod was a bit exaggerating but it fitted her image so well that I smiled a little.

"Me too!" Yuigahama's mood shot through the roof in an instant. So hyped! Girl, what kind of expectations do you have?!

And most importantly, how could I be able to match them?

The first three periods went by without anything noteworthy, but the fourth was oral communications class again. The teacher came in, bearing a basely smile already. Welcome to another round of picking on loners. He still considered the last class a success, that much was obvious. I strengthened my peripheral sight to check up on Miura. She readied her fork as soon as she took notice of it as well. Like I had predicted last time, the teacher repeated his method from Tuesday.

Instantly after his declaration the sound of chairs being pushed around were audible, among them was Miura's chair. Yuigahama's chair barely moved before she was caught by her usual partner again. His skill to ignore her defeated expression was monstrous as he was able to keep a straight smile.
If it were me I would have started to weep if a girl I asked to stay with me displayed that behaviour.
That was one of the reasons why I didn't ask them in the first place anymore for quite a long time. But that was a thing of the past. At least that was true for a small amount of girls, definitely not everyone.

Hayama was only halfway done with standing up, when Miura entered the striking range in his blind spot. It looked like her extended arm would push him back to sit on the chair again and thus I held my breath. I remembered how I told her to be more pushy like Isshiki, but this would be a giant leap from her usual behaviour towards him that I didn't anticipate it.
It still was not enough to be on Isshiki's level though and I felt yesterday's kiss on my lips again.

I could see how her hand hesitated for a moment and a scream echoed through my head.

Go for it girl! I cheered her on.

The hand accelerated but it had a change in its course. Instead of direct physical contact she knocked on his desk to force his attention on her.

"Can you help me with this?" She laid some papers on his desk, probably English notes.

It was a simple question, but for someone like Hayama, who couldn't decline to help no matter what, it was the perfect trap. Miura could be pretty crafty when she wanted to or was it on instinct?

The perfection of the trap even showed on his face as he sported a troubled smile while numerous gazes of jealousy were directed on him and Miura.

Hayama was wary of those looks as his own wandered through the class and stopped at me.

I quickly closed my eyes as I was subdued by the infamous demons of sleep. With no warning! No way to defend! A full-out attack! [7]

Why are you looking at me in the first place? You don't have to be concerned about me in the slightest. I don't want anything from you, so buzz off.

"Uhm.. sure, sit down."

I didn't open my eyes until I heard those words from him to accept Miura's request. I wouldn't let myself be used as an escape route, nor did I want to be pitied by him ever again. My hand still became a fist whenever I thought back to the scene in Kyoto.
Thanks to Miura's outcry last time, he was bound to be aware of whom I spent the last class with and that I got more reactions from my partner than normally. I didn't need a shining white knight though.

Miura was seemed happy and sat down at the place where Hayama had gestured her.

She glanced over to me and I had an impulse to give her a thumb up, but my hand was still a fist.

I didn't move an inch even when today's loser sat next to me. Of course the girl immediately started to fiddle with her phone. Everything was back to normal for me. The teacher's face twitched but he seemed to be okay with one lost pair of sheep.

Since I had nothing better to do, I watched the results of my questionable encouragement from Tuesday.

Miura followed her success strategy of asking for help, smiling brightly as she monopolised Hayama's attention.

That didn't escape the perception of the jealous girls next to these two.

"Can you help me with this too?" Asked one of them the always smiling Hayama, beautifully ignoring the pitiful existence of her actual partner.

Miura sent her a devastating glare, but everybody's darling accepted the request with a nod.

Others followed suit soon and it became a commotion.

"If you have question you can ask me." Was the desperate attempt of the teacher to get control of the situation.

A girl waved him off. "Isn't it better for students help each other out? That's what this class is for, isn't it sensei?"

Without waiting for his answer she joined the flock of girls around Hayama.

Even Miura was powerless against these numbers and Hayama's agreements. Her desperation grew as the situation slipped out of her hands, before she turned away in resignation. With her head held by both hands, she had a sour expression.

I ended up being in her line of sight and since I had watched them the whole time our eyes did meet.

To avert the face in such a situation would just reveal one's guiltiness and so I kept looking at her.

I couldn't shake of the feeling that her eyes transmitted some sort of expectation of me to solve her problems, but I was probably mistaken. Was there even something I could do?

Miura gave up the staring contest and I jumped at this chance to avoid it happening again by turning my head to the blackboard.

The teacher seemed really frustrated while he tried to figure out what went wrong this time. That surely was going to put an end to his experiment.

Inside the clubroom another pair of eyes stared me down.

Flaxen hair shook every time a the finger was pointed at me.

"Senpai! I can't believe you didn't call me afterwards!"

The other two clubmembers felt uncomfortable being in the same room as us, since they tried to stand away from us as far as possible. Was it because they wanted to give us some privacy? Why did it felt more like I had been abandoned then? Very mysterious.

"Uhm, he probably just didn't know better Iroha-chan." The meekly voice of Yuigahama made its way over to us. That's the mood saviour for you.

"But I explicitly told him to do so!" Was the loud reply she got and that caused Yuigahama to have a shocked face.

"Hikki! That's really low. Even for you!" No delay in the switch from defence to offence, there had to be a rule against this! Also what was with the last part?

"I get it that you are not good at talking with others face to face, but that it extends to a phone call is astonishing." Yukinoshita butted in and flipped her hair over the shoulder.

"Why are you under the false impression that a phone call would be easier to do? I'll have you know that only thirty per cent of all human communication is done with language. So a phone call excludes like 70 per cent of a conversation from the start. Unfortunately those are the 70 per cent that are a loners only forte. Thus a phone call is much harder to do." I flipped a page on my book. [8]

"Also I don't have Isshiki's number." I added in a relaxed tone. That sounded cool, even I was surprised by it. I was so cool, I got goose bumps from myself.

The president's dumbfounded look was just the cherry on the cake. Deep inside me I felt my heart celebrating the victory over Isshiki. I had no thoughts of revenge over her reaction to the kiss yesterday, but after the whole turmoil it caused inside of me, it was indeed satisfying.

"Impossible..." was the only murmur she brought forth.

"I was surprised as well when I checked my phone. After hearing your demand I thought for sure you entered your number in secret when you had held onto my phone."

She had it confiscated two times during the creation process of the free newspaper to burn the leftover money of the student council budget.[9]

"Senpai.. your image of me... it gets me really worried..." Isshiki sat down on the chair next to me and looked dejected. Had I been that mean to her?

I didn't think I was, but I still felt guilty. My hand reached out, presenting my phone to her. I just couldn't stand the sight of Isshiki being so downcast. It felt so wrong for her to be like that.

"It might be too late for it, but– " I was interrupted by some unpleasant mumbling my ears picked up.

"He fell for her again..."

"It's scary how easily she controls him.."

Yukinoshita and Yuigahama spoke with each other, but they were intensively watching me and the president.

My hand stopped and I wanted to retract it, but Isshiki was faster. After she took away my cellphone, she carried it over to the clubmembers while humming.

I looked at empty chair next to me where the pitiful Isshiki sat a moment ago. I'm so going to sue her for abusing my Onii-sama habits!

"Heah?!"

'What now?' I thought when I turned my head to where Isshiki's voice was coming from.

She alternated her stare between my phone and Yuigahama's puzzled face.

Interested in the reason she took a peek on my display as well.

"You didn't change it?" Her face beamed when she asked me and I finally understood what it was all about.

"It was too bothersome, but I guess I really should change what you had typed in..."

"No!" Her refusal was quick and loud. It wasn't only voice that refused, but her hands shook excessively as well. "You can't do that! It's okay, don't mind it."

Isshiki's face cleared up as she understood the background story of it from the short exchange between Yuigahama and me, and she began to type her number in.

When she was done with it, she went towards me with an impish grin. I had a bad feeling about this, but then some motion behind Isshiki caught my attention.

Yukinoshita's arm moved halfway up into the air towards Isshiki, before it dropped down again. Her eyes stayed fixated on my phone as it was carried further away from her.

Before the student council president had reached me, my cellphone was snatched away from her. Yuigahama hurried back with it to the club president.

She reached it out to her with both hands and a smile. Woof! I imagined how Yuigahama waved her tail in anticipation of a pat on her head. She really was a dog person.

"Thank you." At least I guessed that she said this from watching her mouths. The sound didn't carry over to me. It was unlikely that even Isshiki could hear it as it was spoken so quietly.

Yukinoshita took the offered phone, albeit reluctantly, and pressed a few times on it.

Her eyes widened and were glued to the display. Did she have problems operating it? It looked to me like she swiftly made her way through the menu from the few touches though.

The next thing I saw would probably remain a once in a lifetime experience, Yukinoshita's eyes turned blank. What? Did the genius encounter a problem she couldn't solve?

I imagined how smoke came from her head, even Yuigahama looked worriedly at her.

Then the club president squinted her eyes and hammered something into my phone.

Oi, be careful with other people's property! Can she even see something with the eyes closed?

A brief sigh came out of her mouth when she was done and she handed the phone back to Yuigahama who carried it to me.

"Here you go."

I immediately checked what they had done, the uneasy feeling I had, when the phone was still in Isshiki's possession, never left me.

✯YUI✯ [11]

That much I knew already.

Directly under it a new name appeared though that made me break out in sweat.

❤Ihora❤ [12]

I made a wry smile towards Isshiki, who looked very pleased with herself.

The last name in the list was also new.

Yukinoshita Yukino

So formal, it really fitted her. I tried to make eye contact to show her my approval of the decision her inner conflict at arrived at. However, her averted face didn't turn to me.

My attention was back to the display of my phone.

Compared to the time before I was forced to enter the Service Club, my contact list wasn't even half as long as it was today. It visually showed me how much my life had changed since then. Komachi's words replayed in my head about how my eyes had changed slightly as well. She was right, I had checked it in the bathroom mirror after all, but I couldn't accept it yet. Not the part about the eyes, but a change of myself.

But I couldn't deny that a lot has happened. I ignored the feeling of my lips which tried to remind me of what happened just yesterday and forced my attention back to the contact list. It was probably time to move Haruno and Zaimokuza from the call history into the list as well.

Just what was I ready to do, to escape that irritating feeling on my lips? I questioned myself.

"... Not remembering people from my middle school makes me somewhat apologetic. Like the student council. They were probably good people. As long as I don't remember them, they didn't do anything bad to me after all." [10]

"Don't you remember at least one guy, who did, like, something good to you?"

"I don't think so. After all, people remember only the bad things."

"I think it was the other way around..." Miura said with a wry smile.

Another bait I laid out failed. I even mentioned the term 'student council', but she didn't pick it up to ask how the date went with our current student council president. Was that unknown to her as well like the one in middle school was to me? Impossible, she was there at the Christmas and Valentine event after all! Even at the marathon run, Isshiki fulfilled her duty.

It was more likely that she simply completely tried to ignore her existence.

I couldn't do anything but to accept another defeat.

We separated at the usual spot, but unlike normally I simply couldn't calm down my thoughts.

I should be happy about being alone, but whenever I was today, I couldn't think of anything else than that kiss and Isshiki's reaction. If I didn't find an explanation for that soon, I had no doubt that it could drive me towards insanity.

How could such a little thing throw me into disarray?

If I couldn't ask Miura, who could I ask then? Komachi had no clue yesterday as well. Unwillingly her joke about kissing practice surfaced. I could see Haruno actually pulling such a stunt if I inquired her for an opinion. Hiratsuka-sensei... I wasn't that mean to delve into her long gone past. Seriously, someone should take her already.

The rest of the day was uneventful. The only thing that worked out properly was the cooking lesson with Komachi. Thanks to her my mind was distracted from my ordeal. The studying and reading session failed horribly thanks to the nagging thoughts and the lingering feeling on my lips. I just wanted to sleep and be done with this day.

Yumiko PoV

The diary was filled with so many angry sentences today that just looking at them made me depressed. It even started so good! We were together, Hayato and I. His smile only belonged to me. Unfortunately just for a short while. Suddenly so many girls came out of nowhere and ruined everything.

I grabbed my head with both hands ruining my hair in the process.

Just why was making him mine so difficult? My strategy worked good, but it did backfire at some point. He was just too nice to everyone. And those girls abused that shamelessly.

Will such a chance will ever come again? The teacher looked as he was as fed up as me.
Just because of those girls everyone else had to suffer too.
Yui still hadn't grabbed that chance either to spend that class with Hikio. Why is there always someone in everyone's way?
Hikio totally wouldn't have to look this lifeless if she managed to get away from her desk neighbour as well.

I couldn't figure out what he was thinking at all when we looked at each other. Somehow, that was like normal though. Did his date go well? I would have loved to ask him about that, but all he did was talking about his past again. It was great and all that he did it, more so than most of my friends. But somehow that didn't feel enough for me. Why was that? It deeply irritated me. I didn't write anything about him in the diary yet either today. I had been focused on venting my frustration from the class first and then I lost all will to write more.

I let out a long sigh and closed the diary.

That was enough for a day. I better put it out of my sight, or my mood would have like no chance at all to change. I felt frustrated at Hikio for some reason as well, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. Nothing good would come out if I wrote about him with this feeling, I would just regret it.

I looked at the clock.

Still a lot of time till it was time to sleep. I won't even be able to think about Hayato like this. What a frustrating day, and no way to end it. What to do...?

My gaze fell onto a small box.

Mhhh, yes I could practice my hobby today.

[1] The class/time was mentioned in V3.

[2] The story wasn't any longer than that in V4 either.

[3] Cigarette brand mentioned in V1.

[4] This past event was in V3.

[5] They went to a ramen shop together in V10.5

[6] I researched that batting centre.

[7] Lucky Star episode 15

[8] These are the numbers used when he spied on Tobe, Ooka and Yamato during the spam mail incident

[9] V10.5

[10] V9

[11] Yui entered her name into Hachiman's phone like this in the LN: (white star)(Black star)YUI(Black star)(white star), but I couldn't find other star symbols that were accepted by this site.

[12] similar to [11], imagine that this is (white heart)(black heart)Iroha(black heart)(white heart)

Author's Note

This took longer than anticipated and it had two reasons. 1. I was very busy, rarely even had a lone hour late in the evening, but that is over. 2. I lately read Web Novels on the way to work on my tablet. When I was done with the chapter I noticed that it greatly influenced and reduced the quality of my writing for this story. (WNs tend to have low quality translations, and the original writing is often not the best either.) I basically had to rewrite the whole chapter. I will check if previous chapters suffered the same fate at some point, but that will only happen after ch7.

This chapter was less Yumiko-centric for two purposes. 1. Hachiman should progress/learn from others as well. 2. The stagnancy between Hachiman and Yumiko was needed to make her at least question whether she is satisfied by what Hachiman currently offers to her. Even if she was unable to find the answer in this chapter. The stagnancy will stop here as development (and there will be a lot of it) is much more fun to write (and hopefully to read as well).

The next chapter will be a 4-day issue thanks for the 'free' day between Yui's and Yukino's date. This will of course increase the time needed to write it, but on the other hand I have way more time now to actually write. Overall it should be way quicker than this one.

Now for the reviews, and wow there had been a lot on the last chapter. As always I will address those with issues or questions.

AnimeloverQ8 I'm sorry but such information about the future of the story, I won't share. This and similar questions might lead to important spoilers. I have to protect the fun to find it out for everyone else after all.

wildarms13 I'm sorry, the same answer as to AnimeloverQ8 applies here.

fluffpenguin I cannot answer the Haruno question, see the replies above. I will explain the Hayama x Hachiman relationship partly in the story and in detail outside of it at a fitting point. Not everything about it would be natural for someone to say it directly to an other person and requires more like an analysing approach.

Guest There will be always differences in the interpretation of characters, I try my best to convey mine as good as possible. I'm glad that you find some entertainment in it, despite it not going along your interpretation.

BlackPsych Oh, you want to know who watched them? Too bad! I can only direct you to the reply of AnimeloverQ8, but keep speculating, it's fun for me to read that.

jam99chgo I have the same feeling about a lot of stories I read. It's only natural that not everyone stays until the end because of things that bug them. As for you finding Hachiman to be not in his character, I could only say the same to you as I did to Guest already.

NirvanaFrk97 Thank you for the hint, since another reviewer said the same thing about being to formal, I will put it on my to check list after ch7 and fix it if necessary. For this chapter I already kept an eye on it on direct speech. The diary parts will stay a bit more formal than her direct speech though. It seems more natural to me that one puts a bit more effort into writing/thinking about what to write and thinking about what was already written, which raises the quality of the usage of language.

Akira9393 You mean the Kyoto trip with the Ebina/Tobe-request? I don't think there is a need for it. Yumiko herself moved past that point of preserving the group at any cost and actively tries to conquer Hayama since V10 already. And The whole incident is a dark memory for Hachiman. He fought with its consequences a great part of V8. Given these facts from both parties, it would be unnatural to bring it up again.

The Sixth Day of Division NirvanaFrk97 pointed that out too, please see the reply for him on the being formal issue. I like the transparency of this reply method. In my opinion it's worth the decrease in speed of the reply, but to each their own. As for the diary parts, I always have problems getting into them. Yumiko simply doesn't 'think' in the LN. Like I said to NirvanaFrk97 I have the impression that a heavy youth speech user liker Yumiko (in the JP version at least) will think slightly bit more formal when she is about to bring something to paper, or thinks about it afterwards. I tried to break 'essay'-like impressions by making it a bit more 'jumpy'. Suddenly picking up a previous thought. I might have a revelation about the diary part and rewrite them all in the future when I find a good style for them. It's a point that will definitely stay on my mind.

Reborn as a Hot Spring The comment on the length was not that serious! I was simply completely drained after reading it again and again and running various spell checkers through it. The urge to comment on that pain was too strong, not to do it.

Flash Falcon She was a bit upset, but he changed the order of his explanation for her that it settled quickly. As for romance, she still is in the state of only seeing Hayama. Like I said in the A/N, the next chapter will see a lot of development though.

Soni The LN doesn't directly mention something in which he is better than Hayama. Even without being 'better' than Hayama in things like Japanese or playing an instrument, Hachiman is a good guy with lots of qualities. He only lost by 1 rank to him in Japanese anyhow and even if he can't play an instrument, his personality makes up for it. There is a lot to love about him. Don't give up Hachiman!

MSalih Flattery won't make the chapters coming faster, as I have to obey the overlord that is work completely, but it was a really potent try! Thank you.

GioM. Meow Thanks for the compliment on the writing. Hopefully you'll find a fic more to your taste. Considering Hachiman's past, dating seems like a huge deal to him. It took him eleven Volumes after all to accept going on dates.

Verno SSS It is what I advertised in the tags and description, I won't change anything of it later. So yes, it is about Yumiko and Hachiman with Romance and Drama. Considering where it is coming from, it indeed takes time to get there.

grecefar2 The tags really give away a bit, but it's the journey that's important right? The story is already completely planned so there won't be no surprise changes in the tags. As for the not dropping, I intend to finish this. After all I have one more story and one one-shot that are planned through and ready to be written. And two more stories that are halfway done in the planning phase. But this fic ends first, before I do anything else with them. I have a really good feeling about all four of them already though.

If there is something you want to ask about, just do so. Answers will come with the next chapter.
So hopefully I'll see you at chapter 7 again.