As Expected He Was More Warped Than Most
"Haruno-san. At this point I've come to a conclusion." Hachiman said to the woman sitting across from him. "You are being a stalker"
"Mah, you'll hurt my feelings if you say it like that." the woman laughed at him. "It's mild infatuation at most Hachiman-kun."
"That doesn't help your case. A woman of your background has no real reason to even look at me." Hachiman chewed on the rice he cooked for their dinner.
"Really? I don't see it like that." her chopsticks dances between her fingers.
"Then why do bother associating with me?" He asks without looking at her. "Also why have me make dinner again? With your money I am well aware you could hire a professional chef to make you better meals."
"Why not? Your cooking isn't anywhere near as good as a pro chef but its pretty good." bits of shredded seaweed along with a well cut potato was taken from the miso soup next to her bowl of rice. "Besides, you interest me. It's not every day I meet someone that shrugs of being hit by a car." she chewed and swallowed. "Why the questions though? You seem tense."
He freezes for a moment, she noticed it. "Just a rough day at work." the change in topic was quick and nonchalant and obvious. He knew that. She knew that. Yet she still asked.
"Is that so? You wanna tell me?" she asks him. He shakes his head with a 'no'. A buzzing sound was heard. A phone most likely. Haruno raises an eyebrow at him. He does not respond.
"Not gonna check?" she asks.
"Its's rude to the food to not pay attention to it while eating." he states, finishing his dinner. He stands up in order to put the empty dishes in the kitchen sink.
"That it is." she nods in understanding. Her amused smile thinned but remained visible. Silence ensued. Till it was interrupted by the woman.
*GRRRP*
Hachiman stopped, turning to the woman with a raised eyebrow his gaze zeroes in on her expression. Said woman was looking away, ignoring what remained of her dinner and him. A tint of slowly forming pink on her cheeks.
She was embarrassed, he was certain of that. Why he didn't understand though. He had made it clear before that he didn't care what she said or did so long as it didn't negatively affect him. "It's completely natural to pass gas-"
"Please stop."
A corner of his lips twitch slightly.
A few minutes later Hachiman stood in front of the sink washing the dishes. There weren't that many so he declined Haruno's offer to help him. "Haruno-san."
"Yes?" she looked up from her phone. Though he had a television set along with a DVD-Player, it was only used to watch any anime or Movies Zaimokuza would recommend him, and since that was the only reason he used it for he didn't see the need to pay for cable TV. Then again Hachiman never expected to get any visitors to entertain.
"You should stop coming here." his back was turned to her so he was not able to see the alarmed look on her face.
"... Now what could I have done to make you say that?" her question makes him pause slightly.
"Let me rephrase that, You should not be coming here this late. It's dangerous to go home at midnight alone." his voice lacked the concern his words implied. However Haruno felt a smile grace her lips.
"I have a car." she watches him put the last bowl away and answer her question with his usual blank stare. "You can offer to walk me home you know."
"It's dangerous for me to go out at this hour as well." The conversation didn't go anywhere useful, but it didn't look like either of them minded the directionless talk.
Later that night, after Haruno left, Hachiman pulled out his phone. Opening it and entering the menu allowed him to notice the text message icon with a red 1 on it. A sense of annoyance came to him. Hopefully it was some sort of promotional text from some random company he never even heard of. He clicked on the icon and read the text message that came earlier during dinner. It was from... Yukinoshita Yukino? Odd, how did she get his number?
Greetings Kotomine-san,
I have sent you this message to notify you of an urgent club meeting that must be done in person. I shall be waiting in the club room twenty Minutes before classes start. Yuigahama-san will be there as well. See to it that you arrive on time.
From Yukinoshita Yukino
'Well, at least it wasn't some sort of promotional text that didn't interest me.' This new 'meeting' thing certainly made him curious, he wouldn't deny. Putting his phone down to his right side he made himself comfortable in his futon. Eyes closed, ready to accept the relaxing embrace of sleep. Moments later his eyes slowly opened. Realization hit him as the true implication of this sudden meeting dawned on him.
He was gonna have to wake up earlier than usual...
"... Damn it."
This day was gonna end with a headache. And the day barely got started. Hachiman slowly rode towards the school. A soft sigh escapes his lips. Someone yelled.
"Over here!" probably a student trying to catch the attention of another random student. Not his problem. He needed to head to club.
After locking his bike in place he stood in his slumped posture. He turned, a blob of pink invaded his vision. He leaned back since the blob was too close.
"Kotomine-kun!" it was Yuigahama. And she did not look pleased. "Why didn't you notice me when I waved at you?"
"That was you?" His question made her pout at him with a 'glare'. But her pout made her look 'moe' instead of 'scary'. "Sorry I didn't notice. I'm not used to waking up earlier than usual." he wasn't lying, a little less than six hours was not enough sleep for anyone.
"It's okay." her eyes softened. "Let's go already, Yukinon is probably waiting for us." she grabbed onto his hand, much to his surprise, and pulled him towards their club. He said nothing, slightly preoccupied by the skin contact from her but mostly surprised rather than disturbed. After all this was not the first time someone of the opposite sex had touched him. Including and excluding Hiratsuka Shizukas' punches. Definitely not going the last either. He was still a man with needs.
At a certain point he wondered if she even remembered that she was still holding onto his arm. Right before they entered the club room she seemed to notice what he was thinking of and let go of his hand, muttering a sorry with a face that matched the color of her hair. The door opened and upon entering they came face to face with 'The Queen of The Icy Plains' of Sobu.
"Yukinon, what's up?" Yuigahama asks her.
"I have thought about what Kotomine-kun said yesterday." she said, Hachiman was curious now. "I have decided to modify the requirements needed to present requests to the service club."
Today was gonna end with a headache. And the day barely got started.
Classes were the same as usual. Aside from the one empty seat next to the window nothing was out of the ordinary. He paid as much attention as he should, which was none. The tiredness in his eyes were showing. He definitely needed a max coffee. He wasn't able to grab one from his fridge because he didn't want to risk crashing his bicycle while he was drinking it. He considered bringing one in his school bag but by the time he would be able to drink it, it would already be room temperature. Just a few more minutes till class was over and he could drink from his precious MAX.
"Kotomine-san, Hiratsuka-sensei wanted to see you in the counseling room. When the lunch bell rings."
He perks up when the teacher said that, why would she- was it about his decision to not go to college? 'That woman is persistent.' He nodded at the teacher in front of him replying with a 'Understood'. The teacher raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing as he realized his mistake. Normally that's how he interacted with his coworkers. And that's not how a student should speak towards their teacher. His actions towards Hiratsuka was different. Simply because she didn't register as a proper teacher in his mind most of the time. What kind of teacher involves themselves in their students personal life and has no problem inflicting physical pain on them? That woman also had too much free time on her hands.
The teacher left, saying he needed to do something and told them to wait for the bell before heading out. The room was quiet, completely different to its usual noisy chatter when the teacher wasn't around. He glanced around, most students were either messing around in their phones or talking to someone as quietly as they can.
"Hey, what do you think happened to Hayama-kun?" he heard a girl whisper to her friend. His ears often let him listen in on conversations people had nearby. It was unintentional for the most part. But it had it's uses.
"How should I know? Sensei said something about him being sick." her friend replied. They were both unhappy about it. Expected, Hachiman knew that his blond classmate was probably the most liked person in this entire school. By both men and women. The seemingly perfect person that brightened the day of everyone he touched or even glanced at. If anything, sometimes Hachiman wondered if Hayama Hayato was some sort of anime protagonist. He had pretty much everything down, including the window seat to look at the sky with a melancholic expression and to brood about past mistakes. And he was absent today with the pretense of being 'sick'.
He was definitely in perfect health yesterday, So why was he absent today? Did he have something important to do? Or was he attempting to solve the chain mails by this? How could that work? Did he think the perpetrator was from outside the school? So many questions. Fortunately it was not his job to care about the answers. Although starting from the next request, anything that helped the students and teachers of Sobu would be eligible for a request.
He sighed inwardly. Instead of finding a way to bribe him to help with random nonsense she just found a way around his condition for not helping with said random nonsense. 'Clever girl.'
'So we're nothing more than glorified volunteers now.' he thought bemused. 'If only I was getting paid for this as well... Maybe I could blackmail her into somehow paying me for this? No, knowing her it would be too much talk with possibly little to no result.' Like a certain homeroom teacher that girl was stubborn when it came to some things. Besides, if he really didn't want to do something he could always quit the club. Instead of watching Yukinoshita struggle to solve 'conflicts' all he ended up getting is wasted time and effort.
He pulled out his own phone to check the time. Two more minutes till the bell rang. He glanced behind him and noticed the Hayama's clique far quieter than usual. The girls looked like they were talking about something, however the boys looked like they didn't even know each other. How odd... Hachiman pulled out the book he had shown Yukinoshita some time ago. It was a book explaining about friendship, how to make friends and how to be a good friend. They acted nothing like how friends were described in the book. He personally remembers using it in middle school with little results, was the information in it faulty? But he supposed it couldn't be helped. The book was informative and likely not the problem. That only meant one thing. The problem was him.
"Caretaker-san, he's looking at us again. It's scaring the other kids."
The bell rang and that was his cue to leave. While walking out he wondered if he should head for the vending machine to get MAX first or to the teachers office for Hiratsuka first. If he were to go to her in his groggy state he wouldn't be able to focus much on what she said... Teachers office first then. Also the MAX COFFEE would help him with the eventual headache he would receive from it. 'Not a bad idea.'
"You're early." Hiratsuka eyed him for a brief moment then returned to grading some papers in front of her. "You'll have to wait a few of minutes till I'm done with these."
'If you had something to do why did you ask for me to be here right away after the bell rang.' he was a little annoyed at that. He looked around for an empty chair. His objective was completed almost instantly, pulling the chair next to Hiratsuka's he sat down on it while still facing her. She didn't seem to notice what he did as a few minutes later she turned to him with a slightly surprised expression.
"... Come with me." she said, he followed. Now sitting in the counseling 'room' an uncomfortable silence took over.
"Yesterday I had come across a troubled Hayama Hayato and directed him to the service club. Today he is absent due to a sudden inexplicable 'illness'... Do you have something you want to say to me?" her arms were crossed under her bust.
"No." the swift reply made her scowl at him.
"Is there anything you should say to me?" the question was rephrased.
There were some things he probably should tell her but this context was not for that. "Hayama-san came to the service club yesterday, telling us to do something about a chain mail that has been circulating around 2-F lately." she raised an eyebrow at him.
"And this chain mail is about?"
"I don't know. I haven't gotten them so far." her scowl returned and her eyes narrowed a little. Did she suspect him of being the chain mail perpetrator?
"Wasn't this supposed mail going around in 2-F? How come you haven't gotten them yet?" she asks.
"It's because no one in this school has my number... At least not with my consent anyway." he wasn't implying anything. How Yukinoshita Yukino managed to obtain his personal number was still unknown to him.
"A-ah. Yukinoshita contacted me last night, asking me for you number. She didn't tell me why though." It looked like she took his answer the wrong way and told him what he wanted to know. It was obvious that Hiratsuka trusted Yukinoshita. Frankly it was of no concern to Hachiman as long as he was not bothered by it. But this was his personal information. With his own arms crossed he said,
"You shouldn't give away the personal information others without permission like that." she actually looked guilty as she looked down and muttered an apology. But almost instantly, as if being caught doing something she wasn't supposed to she looked at him with an embarrassed blush. Being scolded for common knowledge by someone at least ten years younger than her had embarrassed her.
"You guys thought that having him miss a day of school would fix these chain mails?" he shrugs at her. She asked another question "What's with that response?"
"I wouldn't know. His problem did not qualify as a Service Club request. Therefore I saw no reason to waste my time on it. Yuigahama-san and Yukinoshita-san are helping him out of their own will. However Yukinoshita-san has changed the supposed 'requirements' to present requests to the service club. It seems like we're accepting just about anything now. Though I see no point in it."
"You shouldn't need a reason to help someone."
"Hiratsuka-sensei... That part of you has always confused me." Even with the dramatic pause the tone in his words lacked any emotion behind them. "Even with ten more years of life experience you have over me, you still cling onto hope when it comes to helping someone. But you fail to understand... You can not save everyone. Nor should you."
Hiratsuka says nothing, his words had stunned her into silence. Her throat felt dry for some reason as she stared into the empty eyes of her student. Her palms clenched into a fist after hearing him say something like that. She frowned, she wanted to see something. Sadness, longing, anguish, hate, remorse, regret. Anything that could have given her a lead! Anything that could let her know how to help him. But there was nothing. She let go of the breath she did not know she was holding. She looks down, breaking their eye contact. "You are free to go now."
Without another word he stood up and bowed at her. Then turned and began to walk away. Her lips parted one more time.
"If-If you ever need someone to talk to." his pace slowed slightly. "I will always be here for you."
'Why?' He asked himself. Why did she care so much? She was his teacher and he was her student. That's all there is to it. Then why did she care so much about what he did? Not like his actions had hurt anyone in Sobu, at least as far as he knew anyway. In less than a couple of years they wouldn't even have the need to talk anymore, a few years later they will probably forget each other. Even if she had a lot of free time that surely was not enough a reason to get involved with him like this.
*Sniff Sniff*
'That scent.' he grimaced. Who the heck smokes cigarettes up here? No one even comes to the school's rooftop. If some other students weren't already in his usual place he wouldn't have come here either. That aside, there wasn't even anyone here. The wind couldn't have brought that smell all the way up here unless someone nearby was smoking it.
"Who's there? Show yourself." his voice raised he looked around for someone to respond. Seconds pass and he thought he was imagining it. Then he noticed a shadow being cast next to him. His gaze followed the shadows legs to its owner. It was-
Black Lace Panties? Very stimulating. Wait, What-?
"Kawasaki-san." his mind focused to the girl he addressed. "Smoking in school grounds is prohibited."
"Tch. Piss off Kotomine." the girl scoffs at him with a glare. Her stance shifted a little to make her look more menacing. The added height from standing on top of the entrance to the staircase made her look more menacing. But He didn't flinch nor back down like she expected. "It's not bothering anyone and there isn't a teacher around here to notice."
"It's bothering me." His unblinking stare was starting to annoy her.
"So what? You gonna tell on me?" she dares.
"No." she narrows her eyes at him but before she could accuse of him having ulterior motives he continued. "I don't care if you smoke your lungs to ash. As long as the smell doesn't get to me I don't care. Right now it is."
"I'm not gonna put this out."
"Then I will take it from you by force then put it how myself."
The entire time they kept their eyes locked on one another. Seconds pass without words being said and then-
Kawasaki blinked.
She made another annoyed 'tch' noise and dropped her cigarette on the platform she stood upon before stomping on it. Hachiman turned away from her and sat down in a corner but still in her line of sight. After the talk with Hiratsuka and little stare down with the bluish-white haired girl there wasn't much time to have lunch. But it should be just about enough.
Lunch ends and class resumes. Class ends and Club begins. He follows Yuigahama to the club. She seemed happy about something but he saw no reason to comment on it. The door slid open and instead of seeing a lone girl there was also a boy with them. Hachiman was a little curious as to why Hayama was here even though the teachers told them he was sick. But it most likely had something to do with his false request. Greetings were done and seats were arranged.
"So how did it go?" he heard Hayama ask.
"Your plans worked perfectly Yukinon." Yuigahama said. Hachiman placed his books in front of him to start working on homework. "Ooka, Yamato and Tobe are getting along now. They even said they're going to the arcade together after club."
So that was their plan. He remembered their inability to acknowledge each others existence before lunch. Now they're all chummy and going to arcades? Normal people certainly had a weird sense of timing. To go from nearly strangers to 'close friends' just like that in the span of three hours was mind boggling to him. Or is that just what normal folk did? That was probably it.
"That's great! They should be able to form a group for the workplace survey without me tomorrow. If the mail sender sees that their plan failed they're bound to stop. Just one more day and everything would be back to normal." Hayama smiled while saying that. Yukinoshita nodded in understanding. But her eyes showed doubt.
"We are not out of the woods yet." she said making the other two turn to her. "Until tomorrow comes and the groups are formally formed its too early to celebrate."
"Y-yea." Hayama stuttered slightly. "I'll be coming tomorrow to this club room for an update. If everything goes accordingly I'll be added to the final group lacking one more person."
Hachiman did not like the sound of that for some reason. Was that foreshadowing of something?
The day had gone by soon enough. Hachiman was pleased that it did not end with a headache like he had predicted. Very pleased. He lays down on his futon with a small sigh. Snuggling under the covers to make himself comfortable he drifted off to a dreamless slumber.
He watched Hayama and Yuigahama's shocked expression. He himself was not too pleased but that was for different reasons. HE was displeased that Hayama Hayato was ultimately added to his group. The silver lining was that a Totsuka Saika was also a part of his group. Nothing against the blond boy but his frequent smiles were hard to look at sometimes. Hachiman was not blind, the blond was definitely hiding something that was eating away at him. And it was related to Yukinoshita. His smile disappeared sometimes when he talked to Yukinoshita and got strained when talking to Hachiman himself. Hachiman already knew the reason why the blond struggled conversing with him. But Yukinoshita? No clue.
Back to the topic at hand. He looked at the shocked expression from his classmates and troubled one from Yukinoshita.
Their plan had failed. The chain mails were still being sent by someone. It was a miracle that they haven't spread beyond 2-F yet.
"I do not understand. Why has the mails not stopped yet." Yukinoshita was stumped. "There can not be any other reasons aside having Hayama-kun in their group for them to do this."
Aside too much importance being put on one boy. Like really, how many people would actually ruin the lives of a few high school students just to spend time with one boy that rarely said no to someone. Hachiman had a guess to what went wrong. More specifically what they had not taken into account. But if that was the case then Hayama's clique was in a heap of trouble.
Yuigahama didn't know what to do. Yukinoshita was getting more and more frustrated by the second and Hayama...
With his face buried in his hands he looked like his entire world was crashing down. Their phones beeped again but they did not open it. They already knew what that beep was indicating.
"Kotomine-san." Hayama suddenly turns to him with a pleading tone. "Please, I-I need your help. Tell me what I should do. Anything that could help. Anything."
Despite himself, Hachiman tried his best not not to smirk and he succeeded. The prince of Sobu. The wonder boy that every student in the entire school looked up to was asking him for help. Seeing Hayama like this brought a warm feeling to his chest. And the desperation in his voice made Hachiman feel... He decided to throw his classmate a bone. From the corner of his eye he noticed Yukinoshita frowning. Most likely because of being unable to fix Hayama's problem by herself.
"It's clear that the perpetrator still sees a reason to continue doing this. It's also clear that these mails aren't being sent to make Hayama join another group for the Workplace Visit, supposedly with the perpetrator being in it. Otherwise as you have theorized the mails would have stopped when Hayama joined a different group entirely." Hachiman stated the obvious. "So this could only mean that these mails were sent for different reasons."
"L-Like?" Yuigahama asked.
"Personal amusement is a high possibility if there's no other options."
When Hachiman replied Hayama and Yukinoshita paled. A single thought crosses through their mind in sync, both unaware that the other was thinking the same thing.
"If you're lucky its just someone that hates you Hayama-san. If you're unlucky then it could be a sociopath. It's best if you pray for it to be the former." Hachiman ponders for a bit. "If you fail to identify the culprit then all I can suggest is for you to ignore the chain mails and continue on as if they didn't exist. Hopefully the culprit would lose interest and move on."
Two days passed, the chain mail stopped. Everything was starting to go back to normal. At the end of it Hachiman wondered if he should set a proper monthly budget for MAX COFFEE.
-Chapter End-
Not much going on in this chapter. Next chapter will be a little better(hopefully). I've been wondering if I should change the character tags a little. Seeing as how Yukinoshita and Yuigahama aren't getting much screen time. But I feel like that would be a rude thing to do towards the people that have stuck around for those characters in specific. I'm not even sure what I was thinking when I published the first chapter. Granted It was 3AM and I was really sleepy but that's not much of an excuse.
Changes from the original: Hachiman now has a television to watch anime on. Small spelling errors fixed and a handful of lines removed+added+tweaked.