Authors note: Many thanks to the reviewers of this story, Rhapzody, RimoHikofan411, and DJAK-A**. Same goes to the readers. Please do feel free to review this story to let me know whether you like it or not. Maybe updates might come sooner than expected. Although it may not be much, I enjoy reading your feedbacks, which motivates me to expand this story to great lengths as I feel that the main manga series has too many fillers to focus on those two characters, which I believe won't happen for a while, so this is the reason why I'm writing this story. Don't expect the next "chappy" (lol) to come so soon as I have a summer course during the weekdays. I hope you enjoy this chapter, everyone. Cheers.
Chapter 3: You Should At Least Know That I Love You
The morning bell rung, signaling everyone to take their seat. A green-haired woman suddenly woke up from her desk, properly sitting down from her sleeping position and lazily took out her attendance sheet.
"Alright, class...," said Yukiji, following with a loud yawn. "Yaaahhhh! Let's begin with attendance..."
Just before she called anyone's name, the classroom door opened, revealing two young adults that looked like they have ran all the way here. The classroom stared at the couple with a blank. It's not like they've never seen them together anyways, but the purple-haired classmate analyzed them carefully. 'Something about them today seems off...' Izumi thought. The classroom stared at them as they walked towards their seats. Yukiji, too tired and money-hungry to even care that they are late, continued with her procedure.
"Ehhh...? That's weird," said a tall girl with dark hair. "The student council president would never be late. Let alone, with that poor butler..."
"Don't get any weird ideas, Risa-san," Hinagiku replied with a glare, as she took her seat. "We each ran into our own problems."
Hayate rubbed the back of his head, "I overslept, haha...," he said before taking his seat as well.
"Then what was your excuse, Hina-chan?" asked a girl with light blue hair.
Hinagiku blushed. "I-I overslept too! Geez Miki, can't a lady sleep?!" she said loudly, embarrassed for what she has really done this morning.
'I was just asking...,' Miki thought. 'She can be so scary sometimes...'
"Haa...," Izumi sighed. "Who knows if they could have slept together!"
Hayate, slightly blushing at such an image popping into his head, responded. "You know that would never happen, Segawa-san!"
'But it did...,' Hinagiku thought. 'I should stop talking before it gets worse...' She turned around to face the board, hiding her blush from her friends.
"I mean, just look at them," Izumi continued, "Hayata-kun's outfit is all wrinkled and Hina-chan's hair is out of place!"
Hinagiku's face turned even redder. 'Crap!' she shouted in her mind, remembering how little she prepared before running out of the house.'I forgot to look in the mirror today!' She took out her phone and began fixing her hair using the screen's reflection as a mirror.
"Now that you mentioned it," said Miki, "It really does look like they might have slept together..."
"But Hina-chan, out of all girls," said Risa, "With that poor-looking boy? No way! Someone like her is way too cool for such a lame boy with a hole in his wallet."
All three girls agreed before confirming their attendance. Hinagiku sweatdropped and made no comment.
Hayate took that word to heart. 'That insult really hurt me and my wallet...' he thought to himself as he laid his arms on his desk and slumped his head into it. Hayate smelled strawberries again from the fabric of his sleeves, the same scent he picked up from following the student council president to class. He gave it a second thought. 'But to smell like this... there must be a reason...'. The idea of Hinagiku sleeping next to him to spread her scent all over him while he was asleep was simply unimaginable. 'Hinagiku would never do anything that absurd,' he thought. Before he continued to think, something got caught in his lips. Hayate sat up and caught whatever was in his lips and looked at what it was.
'Pink hair?' he thought, putting that strand of hair on his desk. Hayate checked his chest to find a couple more strands of pink hair and laid them on his desk. Putting the strands together, Hayate could see how much clearer the color pink became. The windows on his side suddenly blew some air into the classroom, picking up those strands of hair to the farther front of the room. Hayate's eyes followed those strands, which led his eyes to the pink-haired girl sitting in front of the class.
Hayate's eyes slowly widened. The strawberry scent, the strands of hair found on his chest, and Hinagiku also waking up late with imperfect hair all lead to one thing.
'I hope that one day, you will be the one stroking through my hair while I'm asleep...'
Hayate felt warm again. That feeling of embracement became familiar again.
"Alright, class!" shouted Yukiji, slamming her attendance sheet flat on her desk. "Open up your books to page..."
Hayate's world slightly muted. As he opened his book, his eyes couldn't help but glance at the pink-haired girl sitting in front instead of the context of his book.
It was a sunny afternoon at Hakuou Academy. Class is finished and Hayate meets with his mistress at a campus bench along with her dark-haired friend who has appeared out of nowhere.
"Hayate-kun, you can go ahead and go to work with that hamster," Nagi said, "I'm gonna go to AberDouche and FitchBag with Isumi-san to see if they really do insult overweight people! This will be good material for my next manga sketch!"
"Ojou-sama, what if there won't be any overweight people?" asked Hayate, who sweatdropped at her rather silly idea.
"No worries... because I have these fat suits!" Nagi replied, pointing behind her some indeed fat suits with a dark haired boy in it.
"Why do I have to wear this?!" shouted Wataru, having trouble balancing himself.
"Wataru-kun, you must use your legs like this," said Isumi, who put on her fat suit and started walking like an overweight penguin.
'I should just leave...,' Hayate thought, feeling trolled. He walked away and towards the cafe to begin his part-time job.
The pink-haired girl arrives at Violet Mansion, a bit earlier as expected. This was her temporary home due to uncertain yet certain circumstances. 'I might as well relax,' she thought. She sat on the front walkway, taking off her shoes and began staring the sunset, engulfed by the amount of orange and yellow it has spread over sky.
"Thank goodness there wasn't much to do at the tower...," she said to herself. She couldn't deal sitting in her student council office, with those three girls constantly asking her about Hayate, while seeing Chiharu sipping on her tea not even bothering to help her.
She's not even sure of what to do when Hayate arrives. She began to think of whether he should know or not. 'Knowing how dense he can be, he might not even consider me doing something that girly, right?' she thought. Hinagiku twitched. She hates how hard it is to confess to him at this state. 'It's as if we are forbidden to be together...' She made a long sigh.
"What if Hayate knew...?" she asked herself.
"What if he knew what?" asked a familiar voice.
Hinagiku turned her head around to see who it was.
"Ruka-san! Sorry, I'm just talking to myself! Nothing important!" Hinagiku said, rubbing the back of her head with a nervous laugh, at the same time furiously blushing. Wanting to change to topic, she asked right away, "You must be back from touring. How was it?"
The blue-haired idol sat down next to her and also began staring at the sunset. "It was fine," she said. Turning her head to look at Hinagiku, noticing her blush, she asked again, "So what was it about Hayate-kun that he shouldn't know?"
'Damnit, she's good...' Hinagiku thought. She sighed. She accepted her challenge or whatever she believed it was.
"He doesn't know that Nagi-san is hiding a second PSP under her futon. So while he has her primary PSP during the night, Nagi-san continues to play Heart Kingdoms: Sleep by Birth underneath her blanket, which explains her state of sleep deprivation and lack of motivation in school," Hinagiku said with a straight face.
Ruka-san stared at Hinagiku with a blunt look for a couple of seconds. Hinagiku tried to maintain her straight look, fearing of losing her composure from lying. Ruka quickly stood up.
"That's terrible!" she said in shock, believing everything that Hinagiku just said.
'Phew...' Hinagiku thought, 'Good move, Hinagiku!'
"That little girl doesn't deserve to be short forever!" Ruka said loudly. Hinagiku sweatdropped.
Ruka paused for a second before she made a faint smile.
"Then again, I'm kind of relieved," she said to Hinagiku. "For a second there, I thought you were gonna tell me that you slept with Hayate-kun or something like that."
Hinagiku startled, feeling as if she just got hit by thunder. "W-w-w-what? O-o-of course not!" she said loudly. She began sweating a lot. 'What the hell?!' she thought. 'This idol is nothing to be judged for!'
Ruka, who was staring into the sun the whole time instead of Hinagiku mildly panicking, continued speaking. "Of course not," she said, agreeing. "Even someone as charming as Hina-san could never get to his heart..."
Hinagiku, looking puzzled, asked, "What do you mean?"
She looked at Ruka, who raised her right hand and placed it on her own chest.
"Because I tried," said Ruka, clenching the area where her heart lies, before looking at Hinagiku. "I kissed him."
Suddenly, Ruka felt two hands grabbing by her collar as she was pulled to Hinagiku's face.
"You kissed him?!" Hinagiku asked loudly. Ruka, seeing evil intentions in her eyes, began panicking in horror.
"I-I-I couldn't resist!" she yelled. "He was being so sweet! At that moment, I really did fall in love with him and confessed! Please don't hurt me!"
At that moment, Hinagiku was lost for words. Not only does she have another friend competing for Hayate's heart, but this person in particular is an idol, who kissed him!
"Can you let go, please?" asked a horrified idol. Hinagiku suddenly realized where her hands still were. She lets go of her and apologizes.
"Don't worry about it," Ruka responded. "I know my actions weren't right anyways..."
"No, it's not that..." Hinagiku said, "I was just surprised. That's all..." But in truth, she was more jealous than surprised. 'How could she...?' she thought. She turned her face away to wipe down a tear about to roll down her cheek. 'She's so straightforward about her words and action. Why can't I be like that with Hayate-kun?' She tried to let him go once for his ex-girlfriend, although she was told by him that he was dumped afterwards, she then felt relieved. But could she risk letting him go out with an idol?
"He didn't even return his feelings for me," Ruka said. Hinagiku's ears rang. 'Hallelujah!' she thought. Before she was about to sigh of relief, she then notices Ruka frowning, "Because he's the Sanzenin butler, and won't allow himself to be interfered with such a relationship..." Tears began rolling down her eyes. "Damnit..."
Hinagiku sees her tears rolling down her face with a surprised look. Not knowing what to say, there were no noise but the sound of sobbing coming from the idol. Sharing the same feelings of unrequited love, Hinagiku wrapped her arms around the idol, as Ruka slowly began to cry onto her chest. Feeling sad for Ruka at the same time, Hinagiku couldn't help but think of what would happen to her if she were to confess to him as well.
'He even rejected an idol...' she thought. 'Do I even have a chance with him, even if he is a butler?'
She looked up to the night sky, where the sunset has finally disappeared.
"It's getting late. C'mon, let's go take a bath..."