The following day, as I was making my way up to school, I had the amazing luck (or lack thereof) to run into Haruhi. This certainly was a first. It's odd how I've never run into her on my way up to school, after all, we're in the same class and everything. Heck, I still don't even know where she lives.
"Hmf," she huffed at me like indignant royalty, stomping away not quite as elegantly.
"Hey wait!"
I couldn't just let her go like this, I needed to soothe some of my worries and this was the best way. This was the only way I might be able to find out if Haruhi had done something to change Nagato, on purpose or not, as is usually the case.
"What?" Haruhi stopped and turned her head around to look at me, an inquisitive eyebrow raised that managed to also convey her current dislike for me at the same time.
"How" – oh boy, this was going to be awkward – "How are you doing? Anything different in your life? Has something changed for you?"
It's funny how high her eyebrow can go when she's genuinely surprised. "Wha? What are you asking me all of a sudden? What's up with you?" she asked, starting out bewildered, but quickly progressing to a steady and serious tone. But even her serious voice couldn't hide the blush she had developed.
I decided to cough politely, giving her a chance to cool down. This seemed to only further aggravate her and add to her rosy complexion. No doubt she was starting to get angry at the fact that I'd gotten such an intimate response from her.
"Never mind. Forget it!" Haruhi huffed. She raised her nose and strode away quickly with a scowl on her face.
"Wait!" I ran up to catch up with her. "I'm serious! Anything new in your life? Has something changed? I need to know."
Haruhi turned her head away from me to avert her eyes from mine, puffing her lips cutely in annoyance as she continued walking.
"Shuddup. Nothing wrong with me," Haruhi answered through pursed lips.
Abruptly, she came to a halt and turned her head to look me straight in the eye. The last thing I noticed before those eyes of hers drew me in like a black hole was the sudden disappearance of her blush.
"Why are you asking me anyway? You've never really shown any deep interest in me before? What's changed with you?" The detective in Haruhi had awakened.
Her eyes drilled into mine with such intensity, that it caused me to blush in turn. I turned my head away from her questioning face and rubbed the back of my head uncertainly.
Damn, what do I tell her? I can't tell her the truth. For starters, she most likely wouldn't really believe it. We've been down this road before and all I got was laughter and insults in my face the last time. And even if she did believe, well, that just opened up an entire barrel of different problems I didn't want to deal with at the moment. Or ever. I hadn't really decided yet.
So what could I tell her that she would believe and not get angry with me?
"I just… thought that – well, we don't really know that much about each other on a personal level, after such a long time, that… something should be different. I realized that after everything we've been through, we should be close… -er."
She gave me a long stare.
"Shouldn't we?" I added desperately.
Haruhi gave her nose a brief scratch before she turned away from me and continued walking up hill.
Damn, this was going to be even harder than I had first thought.
"Nothing's up. Same old, same old. But thanks for asking," Haruhi answered me, still continuing her trek uphill without turning around to face me.
I gave a deep sigh. I guess I'll just have to take her word for it, not that she'd probably tell me if something was wrong. She just wasn't the type. But she didn't seem to be depressed, jealous, angry or anything on the other hand. So I guess I should move on to different suspects. But before that, I needed to find the problematic person herself and check to see if she'd reverted back to normal.
I had to wait until lunch to go looking for her. I found Nagato in our clubroom, reading. No big surprise there. Unfortunately, my earlier questioning had roused Haruhi's interest and she had tailed me with conspicuous subtlety, leaping behind obstacles too small to hide even her thin frame. Eventually she had given up on that (after I'd called her out on it a couple of times) and had merely started walking by my side, giving me a constant suspicious look.
And I had thought the looks people were giving us earlier, when she'd been inexpertly jumping from one failed hiding place to another had been bad enough.
"Why are we here?" Haruhi quizzed me, giving the clubroom a sweeping glance. Her eyes travelled across the room, not even stopping at the sight of Nagato, who almost everyone treated as such a stable part of the room as was they did the furniture. Her lack of presence within the room would probably be treated with no more suspicion than a misplaced chair would be. It would feel odd, certainly, but no major reaction would be had either, seeing as she didn't leave a very lasting impression into people's minds just sitting there, quietly reading.
It was, of course different for someone like me. Immediately I could list several things that were off about the Nagato sitting there. For starters, her shoulders were higher up than usual, she had, in my opinion, greatly relaxed in the presence of SOS-Brigade. And then there was… You know what, I spend far too much time inspecting the girl than I should, don't I? All I had really needed to have said would have been that she was back to wearing glasses.
"Huh? Yuki, you're back to wearing glasses?" Haruhi asked with genuine surprise in her voice as she quickly strode forth to inspect Nagato. Haruhi stood by the sitting girl and bent over to peer at Nagato's face. It was adorable how her hands stayed on her hips throughout the whole thing.
Nagato continued reading for what felt like a very long moment, and then pulled out a bookmark, placed it elegantly between the pages of her book, and closed it with a gentle snap. She then raised her head and stared back into Haruhi's eyes.
The pair remained like this for a painfully long minute. I actually had time to check my watch, kind of like they do in those clichéd shows. The only things missing were the revolving hands of a clock on the background, the flashing window as days passed and turning pages of one of those old calendars to complete the mental image of time passing I decided to entertain myself with during the awkward interval.
"Hmm, weird…" Haruhi shifted, standing up straight, tapping her chin thoughtfully with her forefinger, before she turned her reflective gaze on me. "Really weird…"
Haruhi continued inspecting me intently, before she asked in a serious tone, "What day is it?"
If you still did your hair like you used to at the start of school, I could have easily answered that question, but right now, it took me a moment.
"Friday. Why?"
"Date?"
"27th."
"Hmm, I see… multiplied by a factor of two and then a one added… a clue perhaps? A decoy by an evil grandmaster, a red herring or maybe a coincidence…?"
I had no idea what she was talking about.
Haruhi started walking around in a small circle, one hand bracing the other which was attached to her chin. You know, the stance people always assume when they want to make a show of contemplation. Such a display usually makes me wonder if there's anything actually cerebral going on under the façade.
"Stupid Kyon… Glasses… anything else? What next?" Haruhi muttered under her breath as she continued spinning like a carousel.
Half expecting someone I knew but somehow different to enter, I turned to look at the door expectantly. No one burst through the door. Sometimes I just feel like an idiot around a person who can manifest her subconscious will. I guess I'm just funny that way.
"Kyon!" Haruhi suddenly came to a screeching halt.
"What?"
"Summon the forces! Something foul is afoot, and I intend to figure out what!"
Haruhi was nearly at the door when I got the rare chance to pull her back by her own collar.
"Geez, what the hell, Kyon?" Haruhi asked, rubbing at her throat as she gave me a glare.
"It's lunch, which is almost over. We've got to get back in a few minutes."
Haruhi glared some more at me before she huffed hurtfully at me and continued her march out of the clubroom. "Fine, we'll just have to return to this later. After all the lessons. It'll be your job to make sure everyone is gathered here, post-haste."
"Fine," I told her, eager to get her to leave so I could myself get my turn to properly inspect Nagato B.
And with the slam of the door, I was given that chance. (I wonder how long that poor door can last the abuse it receives from Haruhi on a constant basis.)
I gave Nagato B a long look. She had remained in her chair, quietly observing us, while her book remained on her lap with her hands crossed over it. She stared back at me for a long time, until she deemed our time together to be over, got up, placed her book in her bag and silently walked out past me.
After that, I remained in a foul mood for the rest of the day for some reason. I tried to rationalize that it had mainly been caused by nearly missing the start of the next lesson, but I knew that wasn't really the case.