Chapter 8
Naoto skipped the rest of the culture festival entirely. She was too embarrassed, so she went straight home after locating her clothes. Rise had hidden them pretty well in the classroom. Several team members tried to contact her, but she ignored their texts and phone calls. The most disturbing message was from Rise.
OMG Naoto-kun! You WON the pageant! ┏(＾0＾)┛┗(＾0＾) ┓
It was apparent that the entire student body was insane. She left halfway through the competition, and it should have disqualified her. Naoto frowned as she scrolled through several more texts from friends congratulating her. There was one from each member of the team, except for Kanji. She tossed her phone on the bed, and decided that she needed to forget about this nonsense for awhile. She headed for the bathroom, taking a long, hot shower to clear her head.
Once she was feeling normal again, she headed out, stopping at Souzai Daigaku for a quick bite to eat. She would have preferred something from the tofu shop, but there was no way she wanted to run into Rise right now. So she settled for some steak skewers. Then she headed towards her real destination, anxious to get this errand out of the way. Once it was done, she could go home and sleep and forget that today ever happened. She walked up the steps of the textile shop. Naoto hadn't realized how late it was; the shop was already closed. She tapped softly on the door, anyway. Just when she was about to give up and head back home, the door opened. "Naoto? What are you doing here?" Kanji asked.
"Oh, I-I wanted to return your jacket. Thank you for loaning it to me, Kanji-kun." He raised his eyebrows at her.
"You came all the way out here just for that? Could have just given it to me at school tomorrow."
"I thought you would need it. And… I had some errands in the shopping district anyway." He glanced at her hands, seeming to notice the lack of any shopping bags or other evidence that she had acquired anything on her imaginary "errands".
"Right. Uhh, you wanna come in? I should have asked sooner, didn't mean to be rude."
"Oh, I… for a minute, yes. I don't want to keep you." He ushered her through the door of the shop.
"You know, Naoto… Friends do this sort of thing. Stopping by, I mean. You don't have to feel like you're interrupting."
Her eyes widened. Keep your cool, Shirogane. "Yes, of course. Do the others visit often?"
Kanji shrugged. Souji-senpai does. Sometimes he brings Nanako-chan and we do crafts together. Yukiko-senpai comes by to pick up orders for the inn pretty often. And Ted likes to barge in a lot -" He stopped himself when Naoto raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean, he's Ted. Even if it's nice to see him, he runs around touching everything and saying weird things in front of Ma. So barging in is the right words for it." Naoto giggled. Kanji looked surprised, but she chose to ignore it.
"Were you working on a project when I interrupted?" she asked. He nodded. "Can I see?"
"Uhh, yeah, sure, I guess. Just a scarf." He pulled his scarf-in-progress out from behind the counter. She couldn't help but touch it because it looked so soft. It was a pattern of rich blues with a bit of a cream color weaved in between.
"It's beautiful," she said, still touching the yarn, " I love the colors."
"Yeah?" he asked. He looked as if he was trying not to laugh. Do I look that ridiculous, gushing over a scarf?
"I do," she answered honestly. "Rise-san said you like to make stuffed animals. I wasn't aware that you also did things like this." He just shrugged. She was aware that he was staring at her and the look on his face was odd. Curiosity, maybe. "I should let you get back to it," she said, finally pulling herself away from his project. "Thank you again for… helping me out this afternoon." She walked to the door and pulled it open.
"Naoto?" he called out. She stopped and looked back at him. "You looked good. This afternoon."
"O-Oh... " What on earth am I supposed to say to that?
"But I guess you didn't need to get up there in a sexy swimsuit to win," he said, with a stupid grin on his face.
"I suppose not," she said, smiling back slightly and walking outside, closing the door behind her. Did he just use sexy in a sentence while talking about me? Maybe Rise-san wasn't far off the mark after all. Her mood had lightened enough that she forgot to be on the lookout when she passed the tofu shop.
"Oh, Naoto-kun!" Rise exclaimed, practically pouncing on her as she attempted to walk by. "You look… happy. Did something happen?" she asked with a smile of her own.
"No… not really," Naoto answered, smiling back.
"You're really not going to tell me?" Rise asked, sitting down on the steps with a sad look on her face.
"I'm really not. I'm sorry for walking out today."
"Oh, it's fine. To be honest, we pretty much all expected you to, anyway. As proud as I am of you, I have to admit that it stung a little, being beat by someone who didn't even participate in the second part," Rise admitted with a weak laugh. Naoto put her arm around Rise's shoulders.
"I have to admit I wish they had disqualified me and given you the win instead." Rise looked at her, beaming as she snuggled into the hug. It was rare for Naoto to show affection like that.
"Something definitely happened to make you this cuddly."
"Did not," Naoto said with a chuckle.
"It's okay. You'll tell me eventually. Maybe even at school tomorrow!"
"Definitely not at school," Naoto said, glaring at her. She said goodnight to Rise, heading home to get a good night's sleep.
The next morning, she ran into Satonaka-senpai on the walk in to school. "Hey, Naoto-kun!" Chie shouted, running to catch up. "That was some pageant win, yesterday. I think it's cool that you stood up for your rights and still won!"
"Thank you, Chie-senpai. I am sorry that I ran away instead of showing solidarity." Chie shrugged.
"It's no big deal. To tell you the truth, I thought about not doing it, too. You're really lucky, though. Since none of the guys have seen you in a bikini, you don't have to hear about it forever! Hanamura is never going to shut up!"
"None of them… you're right. I am absolutely lucky about that." The first bell rang as soon as they entered the school gates.
"Oh, that's the bell already! I can't be late again, see you at lunch!" Chie exclaimed as she ran off towards the second floor. Naoto took her time at her locker since her classroom was on the first floor. She walked in to find Rise pestering Kanji about something. She lowered her voice when she saw Naoto approaching.
"I'm just saying, you should tell me if you like her!" Rise said in the loudest whisper imaginable.
"And I'm just saying, shut it!" Kanji whispered back. Naoto said nothing, taking her seat as the second bell rang. Neither of them looked her way at all during the morning classes. Rise waited for her when the bell rang for lunch.
"I hope that wasn't about me," Naoto said quietly as they walked up the stairs to the roof.
"What?" Rise asked, seeming distracted. She pushed open the door at the top and started running. "Senpai!" she exclaimed, throwing herself at Seta. Naoto sat down beside Yukiko, who was watching Chie and Yosuke shout at each other.
"What are they fighting about now?" Naoto asked.
"I haven't figured that out yet," Yukiko answered. They ate in silence for awhile. Kanji was on the other side of the roof, frowning at Rise who was still throwing herself at Souji. "You know," Yukiko said thoughtfully, "you really should just tell him how you feel."
"Excuse me? Tell what to whom?" Naoto asked.
"Kanji-kun. Oh come on, Naoto-kun. You never take your eyes off of him."
Naoto's face fell. "Is it really that obvious?" Yukiko smiled kindly.
"Yes, but there's nothing wrong with that. I think you would be great together. So you should just tell him and get on with it."
"I've tried. I haven't outright told him how I feel, but I have done things that should have made it apparent."
"Maybe Kanji-kun is the sort of boy who needs to hear it to understand it," Yukiko said encouragingly. "And you aren't the only ones who need to get on with it," she added." I would rather those two just kiss each other instead of screaming at each other through lunch every day. It really ruins my appetite." Naoto laughed. Maybe Yukiko was right. Maybe she had been going at this the wrong way all along.