Eruna ran down the hallway, ignoring the cries from Otone to slow down. She couldn't afford to wait now, not when she was this close to being late again. She thought about the giant pile of homework she had gotten last time this happened. This only caused her to run faster.
The dull thud of Otone's knees hitting the ground barely reached her ears. When that didn't get her attention, Otone yelled after her. "Wait, Eruna!"
"Sorry Otone-chan! I don't want to do all that homework again!" She turned around to wink at her. "Don't worry, I'll come back for you!"
"Eruna..."
Bimii looked back at where Otone had crashed, and felt bad for her. "Hey, I'm gonna go and help Otone-chan. You go ahead without me -ryui." Although he already knew Eruna would've gone without him anyway.
"Okay!" She yelled, not looking back. She had to get to the classroom right away. Unfortunately for her, she was too busy running to notice the boy in front of her.
"Ah!" Asuhi yelped and fell to the floor.
"Asuhi-kun! I'm soo sorry, I didn't see you there!" Eruna quickly apologized, and held out her hand in an offer to help him up. To her surprise, he didn't take her hand right away. Asuhi was looking down and shivering, avoiding eye contact with whatever was above him. "Asuhi-kun?"
"Eh?" He finally looked up, and noticed who was there. "Eruna-san!" He took her hand and got up.
"Asuhi-kun, why were you looking down?" She asked him, temporarily forgetting about class.
He blushed and looked away. "Um, I thought you were someone else." Sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, he explained why. "I still remember when I bumped into Kuzuryuu-senpai..."
Eruna blinked, then realized what he was tlaking about. "Aw, it's okay! Enoyan-senpai is always like that, but I know he's not a bad person!"
"Yeah, maybe..."
"Definitely! You just have to get to know him." She smiled. Then she remembered what she was supposed to do. "Oh no, I'm late!" She ran towards the classroom. It couldn't be too far from here now. "Sorry Asuhi-kun, but I have class right now!"
"Alright!"
The door was in her sight now. She was just about to open the door, but paused. She was definitely late now, she knew that. But how would she enter? Time was ticking, so she decided that she would make a grand entrance.
"I'M NOT LATE!" She screamed, sliding open the doors.
"YES YOU ARE!" Kurumi screamed back and pointed towards her desk, which already had a mountain of homework on it. "Sit down please."
Eruna sighed and slouched over in defeat. "Okay..."
The pile of papers was on the table beside Eruna, who sat in front of a sheet she had pulled from the pile. "This is hard..."
"So you ended up being late, huh?" Otone offhandedly commented while reading a book.
"It wasn't my fault! The play was a lot of fun!"
"Well it doesn't matter who's fault it was. You were still late." She buried her nose deeper into her book.
"And besides, why didn't you get any homework?" Eruna pointed at the empty space in front of Otone.
"My teacher is less strict, I guess. All I got was a warning."
Eruna groaned and laid her head down on the desk, face first. "Hey Otone-chan, can you help me with this?" She asked, words muffled by the paper.
Otone responded by flipping a page.
"Otone-chan?" Eruna looked at her friend. "Are you still mad at me?"
"Hmph."
"Aw c'mon, don't be like that!" She pulled Otone's book down so she could properly look at her. "I won't do it again! I promise!"
A flash of red crossed Otone's face, and she moved away so Eruna was at a more comfortable distance. "I'm still mad!"
Eruna pressed her fingers together. "So... You won't help me with my homework?"
"Nope!"
"Boohoo..."
Bimii sweatdropped. "Well, you can still get someone else to help you -ryui."
"Oh yeah! I have an idea of who could help me! Let's go Otone-chan!" Eruna hopped up and took her homework sheet, grabbing the girl by her arm despite her loud protests.
"W-wait! Let goo!"
Fifteen minutes of dragging and struggling later, they all ended up in front of Seisa's mansion.
"Seisa-senpai can help me! She's probably super smart!"
"I'm sure she is..." Otone muttered under her breath. She already knew how this would end.
Eruna went ahead and rang the doorbell. There was no answer, so she tried again. Still nothing. "Huh? This is strange. Usually they'd answer by the second ring." She said as she tried again.
"Yes, very strange..."
"Gah, there's no helping it! I guess we'll have to go to someone else. Do you guys know anyone who's suuuper good at homework?"
Otone sighed. "I don't know."
"Maybe you could just visit whoever you think is smart -ryui?"
"Hmm, someone smart..." Eruna thought for a moment. "Ooh! Enoyan-senpai seems like he'd be good at this stuff!"
"I think you would be bothering him though."
"That doesn't matter, all that matters is my homework! We have to hurry if I want to get it done!" She grabbed Otone's arm and dragged her back to the school.
"Hey, what do you mean we?!"
"Enoyan-senpai, are you here?" Eruna asked as she stepped into the art club's room.
"Ah, Kuzuryuu-senpai is over in the corner. He's working on a pretty big project though, so I suggest you not disturb him." A club member answered.
"See Eruna, he's busy. So let's just go back to the club room and-"
"Enoyan-senpai!~" Eruna went over to Kyoma's work area and disturbed him anyway. "What are you doing?" She leaned over to take a look at his canvas. "Another painting?"
"I thought I asked the club members to not let anyone in... Look, I'm kinda busy right now. I don't have time for whatever you need me for." Kyoma said as he continued to splatter on some paint.
"Ehh, but my problem is really important!" She put her hands on his shoulders, causing the paint brush to fall out of his hands and onto the ground. "Please, pleasepleaseplease!"
"Agh, fine! Just tell me already!" He turned around, an angry expression on his face. "What do you need?!"
"I need..." She pulled her folded up homework sheet from her pocket. "Help with my homework!"
"...Seriously?"
"Seriously! There's more than just this sheet, but it's all in my club room. It was too heavy for me to carry all the way here." She pouted and did puppy dog eyes. "Pleeaase?"
"..." Kyoma blushed and looked back at his artwork. Those puppy dog eyes were powerful. After getting a hold of himself and forcing his cheeks to return back to their normal colour again, he grumbled. "Ugh, fine."
"Yes! Thank you soo much!" In her happiness, she wrapped her arms around Kyoma in a tight hug.
He ruffled his hair and awkwardly shuffled out of the embrace in response. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just go. It's in your club room right?"
"Mhm!" She grabbed his arm like she had with Otone earlier and dragged him towards the door.
"Woah, I can walk by myself you know." He pulled his arm out of her grip and walked over to one of his club members. "Don't touch my painting until I get back." He demanded. Last time had had left the club room for a bathroom break, paint had been spilled all over the painting he had been working on. Needless to say, he had been more then angry and didn't want something like that happening again.
"Oh, a-alright." The student shivered under his gaze. Despite having Kyoma as the club representative, he could still be scary sometimes.
Kyoma nodded and headed out the door where Eruna had already took Otone and Bimii back to the club room. Knowing how fast she was, they were probably already there. Despite knowing that, he took his time with walking. If he was agreeing to help her, then she could afford to wait a bit too.
"Is Enoyan-senpai still not here yet?" Eruna plopped her head down on her desk. They'd just arrived five minutes ago, and it seemed Kyoma was taking his sweet time with walking.
"Maybe, we should've... came here with him instead." Otone breathed out. All that running around had made her tired.
Bimii piped up. "Just start working without him -ryui. He'll come eventually."
"Noo! I need him to help me 'cause I know none of this stuff!~" She whined. "Enoyan-senpai! Kuzuryuu-senpai!"
"Someone called me?" Kyoma opened the club room to reveal a nearly drained milk box in his hand.
"Enoyan-senpai! Why are you drinking milk now?!"
"I was thirsty, so I stopped on my way here to grab some." He paused to say before taking his last sip and tossing the empty box into the trash can.
Eruna groaned. This whole conversation was only wasting precious time that could be spent on her homework. "Can you please help me noow?"
"Alright, I'm coming." Kyoma sat down at the table and noticed the pile of homework. "That's what she gave you?"
"Yes, and I can't do any of it! She never told me when it was due but I probably have to get it in by tomorrow. This is way harder than what she gave me before..." She sulked and laid her head down on the table again.
Kyoma wordlessly took a sheet from the pile and started reading. "We learned this all in class. Has the teacher not been telling you about this?"
"...I fell asleep." Eruna gave a nervous chuckle.
He sighed. "No wonder you can't do it. Which part do you not understand?"
"Umm," She stared at the paper. "This part here?" She said, pointing towards a particularly hard part.
"Ok, so..."
Otone tuned out of their conversation. She couldn't be of any use to them, homework wasn't exactly her specialty. No matter how much she wanted to help...
Wait, what? I don't care if I can't help Eruna or not, since I'm still mad at her!
Truth be told, she was never really mad at her. It was understandable for Eruna to leave her when she was running late, or she just would've dragged her down. She couldn't pinpoint the exact reason of why she acted like she was mad, but perhaps... she just wanted her attention.
Her attention? Why was Eruna's attention suddenly so important to her? She knew that she was her friend, and she did get jealous when she hanged out with others more often than her. But somehow, it felt a bit different from that. Almost as if it was...
"Otone-chan? Are you okay -ryui?" Bimii suddenly asked her, getting up in Otone's face.
"E-eh? Ah yeah, just a bit bored." She whispered back so Eruna and Kyoma couldn't hear them. It would've been rude to say it loudly.
"Oh, you can just go back now. Eruna's probably going to be busy with her homework for the rest of the club time, so I'll be staying here to watch her."
"O-okay." Otone stood up and grabbed her school bag. "Um, I have somewhere to be now so I'll be leaving."
"Ehh, you should stay! I need all the help I can get." Eruna pouted.
"S-sorry, but I really have to get going. I wouldn't be able to help anyway."
"Mm, okay..."
She quickly left and shut the door before her face could get completely red. She wanted to stay and help Eruna, she really did, but she couldn't. Not when she was like this. After gathering herself, she left for the exit.
Oh, I forgot. I have to buy some groceries for dinner tonight. So the excuse she made up about having to be somewhere wasn't completely false.
She made a slight detour towards the supermarket. On her way, she passed by Seisa's manison.
Her mind wandered back to earlier today, when Eruna went here first to search for help on her homework. She glared at the window. Eruna came to you first, yet you didn't answer... Why?
She decided that would confront Seisa about it later on. That is, if she even answered.
Author's Note
There's really no excuse for my several month hiatus. It seems I completely forgot about this story. It's true that I did update my other less popular story, and I was planning on updating this one, but I just couldn't find the right time to do it. This chapter had been sitting on my laptop for the last two months and I finally decided to pick it up, although it ended up being relatively short. I'm sorry :(
And to the guest who berated me on updating the other fanfiction and not this one, I'm terribly sorry for keeping you waiting, but I don't update on stories based on how popular it is. I update them based on how motivated I am at the time and which one I can invest more time in and not lose interest. For several months I lost interest in this story, and I guess that explains my hiatus. I think by now I've regained my interest, so expect more updates coming soon!
And btw, I started this story before Seisa joined Eruna's club, so I'm trying to work that into there without breaking the flow of the story. I probably won't do a good job of it though, so I might just skip it all together/briefly mention it. Hopefully you guys don't mind either way xD
Please review and suggest pairings!
P.S. Do you guys have any suggestions for a new title? I don't really like "We're in love with you" for a title. Sounds too weird and blocky. Tell me what you think.
