Chapter 2 - Onemine's House
Many people with communication disorders have a disposition which does not allow them to join their friends when they see them with someone whom they don't know.
And the emotion they feel…
Is something that others might call jealousy.
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As soon as Komi got home she ran upstairs to her brother's room. She grabbed his laptop and opened the door to her room. "He won't mind if I use it for a bit, right?" thought Komi.
Komi powered up the laptop and started to research what the feeling in her chest was. Komi had never talked to anyone before Tadano, so she never experienced a lot of feelings like jealousy.
"Jealousy. The feeling of bitterness to someone who has something you don't." read Komi in her head.
"What would I be jealous of?" Komi thought.
The realisation hit Komi like a truck. She was jealous of Onemine because she was getting closer to Tadano!
"Wait. What if Onemine and Tadano become best friends? What will happen to me!? Will I be left behind?!" Komi thought.
Komi started to panic. Different scenarios played through her head of her being left behind.
"No no no! I don't want this! Tadano's going to forget about me! I'm going to be all alone again!" panicked Komi.
Komi started to cry. She pulled herself onto her bed and buried her head into her pillow. That night she cried herself to sleep.
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Onemine got out of bed and started getting ready for school. While eating breakfast she remembered her conversation with her mom last night. "Damn it, I have to get Tadano over here today."
"Bye mum!" shouted Onemine as she dashed out of her house.
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The bell for the end of school rang.
Onemine was on the other side of the classroom. She walked over to Tadano.
"Hi, Onemine-san, what's up!" asked Tadano.
"I need a favour."
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"So you need me and Komi-san to come over to your house because your mum will ground you if I don't, and this is because you invited me to coffee?" questioned Tadano.
"Yeah. I'm so sorry about this!" said Onemine in a flustered manner.
Tadano chuckled "If Komi-san is alright with it, sure."
Komi nodded her head.
Onemine, Tadano and Komi walked out of the classroom and started going to Onemine's house.
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On the walk to Onemine's house, the duo talked while Komi listened. She noticed that Onemine knew a lot of things about Tadano, some things that even she didn't know!
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Inside Onemine's House
"So Tadano-kun and Komi-san, this is where I live. It's nothing fancy but it's nice!" said Onemine cheerfully.
"That's the easy part done," thought Onemine.
Onemine's mum was walking through the house when she saw the group.
"Oh! You must be Tadano-san! And you are?" asked her mother.
"Hi there, nice to meet you! This my friend, Komi-san," said Tadano.
"Oh ok! I'm going to make some food so you just go upstairs while I cook."
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"Promise me you won't laugh, okay?" asked Onemine.
"I promise," Tadano replied.
Komi nodded her head in agreement.
Onemine opened the door and the three of them went inside.
"So this is your room. I don't know what I was expecting but this was not it," Tadano chuckled.
She had a bed in the corner and a carpet floor. One side of the room was just shelves with a huge collection of manga. She had a wardrobe on the other side with some random items on top. There were also some posters of different mangas and animes.
Komi pulled out her notebook from her school bag.
"Oh, what's that for?" asked Onemine.
"Komi has trouble talking, so she uses a notebook," Tadano replied.
She wrote, 'I need to go to the bathroom.'
"Oh, sure. The bathroom is just down the hall, to the left," Onemine replied.
Soon after Komi left the mood became awkward. Tadano tried to start a conversation.
"You didn't seem like the sort of person to be an otaku," said Tadano cheerfully.
"This is the worst day of my life, why did my mom do this?" Onemine mumbled while having a bright red face.
Tadano turned to Onemine.
"Don't be embarrassed, I think this is pretty cool! Why didn't you say you liked manga though when we talked about our hobbies yesterday?" asked Tadano.
"I-I was afraid you might think I was weird," Onemine responded.
"You shouldn't be afraid of sharing your hobbies. People that make fun of other people are just trying to make themselves feel better by making other people feel worse. You should just ignore them," said Tadano happily.
"Yeah."
Onemine felt a lot more comfortable about her manga collection thanks to Tadano's words. "That was really nice of him, I had never thought of that." thought Onemine.
"Oh you have One Piece, I read that one. I really like it," chuckled Tadano.
"Oh yeah, I think it's amazing, the art is amazing, the different arcs, I love Marinef-"
Tadano noticed some manga poking out, hidden at the back and began to pull one out.
Onemine panicked. Onemine tended to hide the manga with more 'suggestive' covers behind her other manga so her mum wouldn't see but Tadano had found them!
"Don't touch that!" shouted Onemine, running towards Tadano.
"Ahhh!" screamed Tadano as he fell because of Onemine.
Onemine was now on top of Tadano, knees around his waist, inches away from his face.
Komi walked in. She immediately noticed the position Onemine and Tadano were in. Komi froze.
"It's not what it looks like! I swear!" shouted Onemine.
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Onemine explained what had happened to Komi, not saying why she rushed towards Tadano though.
"That sounds like a scenario from a badly written fanfiction, what if she's lying?" thought Komi.
Komi would not normally doubt someone, but being jealous of Onemine, her mind was painting her in a negative light.
"If that's the case, then they might be boyfriend and girlfriend already!" panicked Komi.
Komi wasn't the most knowledgeable about how relationships work and how people don't normally get into a relationship right after meeting someone.
"What do you think Komi-san? Um, Komi-san?" asked Tadano.
Komi snapped back to reality.
Komi looked at Tadano.
"Onemine-san was wondering whether or not she could have your phone numbers. I've already given her mine yesterday."
Komi nodded and they added each other's numbers.
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After 2 or so hours of playing games and chatting, the food was ready.
The three of them walked downstairs to the dinner table for some soup.
Onemine's table had four seats, two on either side. Onemine's mother had already sat down. Tadano sat down opposite Onemine's mother. Soon after Onemine sat down next to Tadano.
"Hmm, she normally would sit down next to me," mentally noted her mother.
Komi sat down in the only seat left.
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Onemine's mother took dinner as an opportunity to ask all sorts of questions about Tadano to decide whether he was good for her daughter.
"Mum, stop asking Tadano-kun questions! He hasn't even been able to start eating yet!" Onemine remarked.
"Oh alright. How's the food, Tadano-san?"
Tadano tried some of the soup.
"Oh! It's delicious!" Tadano replied.
"Aww thank you!"
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Once dinner was finished, Tadano offered to help with the cleanup while Onemine and Komi sat on the couch in the living room.
Onemine and Komi silently sat next to each other on the couch. Like most people, Onemine didn't know how to speak with Komi without Tadano. Komi didn't write anything because she was confused about her feelings about Onemine and didn't want to interact with her as a result of it.
Before, she felt afraid about the situation with Onemine because she didn't want to be alone. Now she was shifting towards anger at Onemine and this was only amplified by the situation in her room and Onemine sitting next to Tadano during dinner and when they were talking.
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Meanwhile…
Tadano and Onemine's mother were cleaning the dishes and pans from dinner when Onemine's mum started talking to Tadano.
"I have something to ask you, Tadano-san."
"Oh sure! What is it?" Tadano replied cheerfully.
"Who do you like? Komi-san or Nene?"
Tadano was caught off guard. "Um, uh, what do you mean by that?" asked Tadano.
"As in, who do you like romantically?" quired Onemine's mother.
Tadano's cheeks turned bright red.
"It's not like that! There just my friends!"
"Are you sure? I think Nene's interested in you," replied Onemine's mother.
"I'm sure it's not like that!"
Onemine's mum laughed.
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Komi and Tadano were getting ready to leave.
"See ya at school!" shouted Onemine as she closed the door.
"Well, Tadano-san was much nicer than I expected. I wouldn't mind having him as a son-in-law," said her mother cheerfully.
"MUM!"
Author's Notes
I ended up rewriting this chapter because I didn't like how it was turning out. (Komi didn't come to Onemine's house in the original).
Also, I'm not sure of the quality of the chapter compared to the last one since chapter 1 was based on a manga chapter for 90% of it and this one is original.
Next On Bonding Over Homework: Start Of The Culture Festival
