Chapter 5 - Festival Aftermath

Trigger Warning: Swearing

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.

Nakanaka's Evening 4:00

Nakanaka unlocked the door to her house. The house was empty. Nakanaka saw a note on the fridge and walked up to it. It read, 'We're going to be home late tonight, there's some pizza in the fridge you can heat up. Love, Mum and Dad!'

"As always, they're never here."

Nakanaka tends to not think in her chuunibyou voice when alone.

Nakanaka sighed and opened the fridge anyways, pulling out the pizza and placing it on a plate, not bothering to heat it up. She then climbed the stairs to her bedroom.

The room had white walls, a black desk in one corner with an expensive gaming PC Nakanaka had spent her savings on, a TV next to her computer with a Nintendo and posters of different video games, manga and animes stuck on the walls. She also had a bed with pink covers opposite the computer.

Nakanaka wandered towards her bed and sat down, putting her pizza down beside her.

"What should I play? I dunno, I'll just choose something random."

Nakanaka closed her eyes and moved the joysticks in circles for a bit. She was going to play the game the cursor landed on when she opened her eyes.

"Super Swamps Bros, huh."

She started playing against a CPU and easily defeated it.

"This is too easy, it's not enjoyable."

She chose a different character that she wasn't good at the second time but it was still too easy.

"It's only fun when you have someone to play with so it's a challenge," Nakanaka thought for a second. "I should invite friends over more. Then I would have someone to play with."

Laying down on her bed, she sighed and put down the controller. Nakanaka looked at her watch.

"4:30, I have so much time until I go to bed, what should I do?"

Nakanaka sat up and began to eat her pizza, thinking about what she can do.

"Tomorrow's the weekend, I could invite friends over tomorrow. I could bake some cookies for them, I guess."

Nakanaka walked down the stairs to her kitchen and pulled out a tray and some baking paper. She also grabbed cookie ingredients and started mixing everything. Lining blobs of it on the tray, she placed the tray in the oven and went to the table to finish her pizza.

5:30

30 minutes later the cookies were ready. Nakanaka pulled the tray out of the oven and bit into one to see whether they tasted nice.

"Blehh! These taste like shit!" Nakanaka exclaimed out loud.

"Well, that was a disappointment. I'll keep them in case anybody else wants to try them. I just remembered I forgot to ask anybody if they wanted to come over!"

Grabbing her phone, she sent messages to a couple of her friends.

Najimi responded very quickly. Their message read, 'Sry, can't. I'm busy tomorrow!'

"Um, Tadano-kun, Komi-san, me. I need to ask one more person for a four-player match. That's if they even accept. I could ask Tadano-kun if he knows anyone."

She sent another message to Tadano asking if he knew anyone who could join them.

Nakanaka sighed and got up from the table. She walked to the living room and turned on the TV, putting on Juju's Strange Journey.

Tadano's Evening 3:45

Tadano left the classroom/cafe and started walking to the office.

"The school feels so different when no one is in the halls."

Arriving at the office with the envelope of money earned from the maid cafe, he placed it on the reception desk. The culture festival was a chance to have fun, but it also was a fundraiser for the school so all the profit had to go to the office.

"Guess I should go home now."

Tadano walked out of the school and began to go home.

Walking past a small shop he thought, "I have some yen left over in my pocket, I'll grab something for Hitomi-chan."

Tadano entered the store, pulling some coins out of his pocket. He grabbed two chocolate bars off a shelf.

"I'll have two milk chocolate bars, please," Tadano asked the cashier, placing the chocolate on the counter.

"Sure, that will be 700 yen. There's a buy two get one free offer today though, so you can have another chocolate bar if you like."

"Oh, sure. Thanks!" Tadano replied, walking out of the store with his three chocolate bars.

Tadano was nearing his house when someone called out to him from the other side of the road.

"Hey Tadano-kun, hello!" Onemine shouted.

"Oh, hello Onemine-san!" Tadano responded.

"How are you?" Onemine asked.

"Oh, I handed in the money to the office and started walking home. I did buy a chocolate bar for me and my sister. They gave me an extra one for free. Do you want it?"

"Um, sure. Thanks!" Onemine replied, grabbing the chocolate out of Tadano's hand.

Onemine opened the chocolate bar and started eating. Tadano soon did the same with his bar.

Meanwhile in the Tadano household…

"What's taking Onee-chan so long? He should be home by now," Hitomi asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Is it just me or is it dark in here?" Jeanne, Tadano's mum, replied.

"No, it is really dark, I'll open the curtains," Hitomi responded.

She opened the curtains and saw Tadano and Onemine standing outside, Tadano giving her a chocolate bar and them talking together.

"Um, what is Onii-chan doing?" Hitomi thought, surprised.

Hitomi ran up the stairs into her room.

"Why did Hitomi run away?" thought Jeanne, bewildered.

"Thanks for the chocolate. I'll see you on Monday!" said Onemine.

"Yeah, bye!"

Tadano took a bite out of his nearly finished chocolate bar and began walking inside.

"Hello! I'm home!" Tadano shouted.

"Hello Hitohito, welcome home!" Jeanne exclaimed.

"How was your day mum?"

"Oh, normal. Nothing happened as always," his mum replied.

Tadano climbed up the stairs of his house. As soon as he opened the door he saw Hitomi sitting on the chair next to their desk. The Tadano sibling shared a room.

"Hello, Onii-chan!" Hitomi cheered.

"I've told you, can you not call me that, please? Just call me Hitohito as mum does," Tadano asked.

"No, that's a tongue twister. Anyways, I have a question to ask you," Hitomi responded.

"What it is?" Tadano replied.

"Who's that girl you were talking to outside?" Hitomi teased.

"Oh, that's Onemine-san, she's a friend of mine," Tadano responded.

"Sure, but why did you give her chocolate then?" Hitomi asked, sounding sceptical.

"I bought two chocolate bars at a small store on the way home, and I got one free so I gave it away. That reminds me, here's your chocolate."

"Oh. Thanks," Hitomi said, surprised. She decided to drop the topic of Onemine.

Tadano grabbed a book out of his bag and placed it down next to his and Hitomi's bunk bed. He climbed into the bottom part of the bunk bed and started reading.

5:30

Tadano heard a beep from his phone inside his bag.

"Wonder who that could be?" thought Tadano.

Jumping out of bed he unzipped his bag, pulling his phone out of the bag.

"Nakanaka-san, she never texts me. Weird."

Tadano opened up his phone and checked the messages.

"I've been wondering if you wanted to come over and play some games tomorrow. I invited Najimi-san but they said they were busy. I also asked Komi-san," read Tadano in his head.

"I forgot Nakanaka-san doesn't type in her chuunibyou voice," thought Tadano.

He started typing his reply. 'Sure, that sounds fun!'

Back At Nakanaka's House

Nakanaka's phone beeped.

"Oh, did someone reply? Hopefully, they said yes!"

Pausing the TV she got up from the couch and checked her phone that she had left on the table. She read Tadano's message.

"Oh, that's good."

She replied, 'Ok! Also, do you know a fourth person that could join? Assuming Komi-san says yes we could fit one more person.'

Her phone beeped soon after with Tadano's reply, 'Hold on, let me check.'

Tadano texted Onemine who he had gotten her phone number when they first met.

Tadano's message to Onemine read, 'Hey Onemine-san, Nakanaka-san invited me to come play games tomorrow at her house. She says that another person could come if they wanted to, do you want to?'

Onemine's Evening 4:00

Onemine had just finished her conversation with Tadano and had begun walking the little bit left to her house.

She opened the door and was greeted by her mother and her younger sister. Her siblings were staying at their grandmother's house when Tadano and Komi came over to Onemine's house but they came back to their house soon after.

"Mummy, Onee-chan is home!" shouted Nana.

Onemine had two younger sisters and a younger brother. Nana was her six-year-old sister, Kazuya was her six-year-old brother and Nono was her three-year-old sister.

"Oh, hello Nene!" her mother said.

"Hi, Nana!" Onemine looked around. "Where's Kazuya and Nono?"

"Oh they're in your room!" giggled Nana.

Onemine's face dropped. She rushed up the stairs to her room and quickly opened the door. Nono was lying on Onemine's bed and Kazuya was rummaging through Onemine's manga collection.

"Hey, Kazuya, don't touch that!" Onemine called out.

"Oh, hello Onee-chan!" exclaimed Kazuya, pulling his hand out of her manga shelves.

Onemine sighed. "Why are you in here? This is my room."

"You weren't home and you never let me come in here, so I came in," Kazuya replied sadly.

"Fine. You can stay in here, just don't touch my shelves, ok?"

Kazuya cheered up. "Yay!"

Nono stayed silent, sucking on her thumb.

Onemine started talking to her siblings when pretty soon Nana came upstairs.

"Hey, no fair! Why didn't you tell me you were talking with Onee-chan!" Nana complained.

"If you want to come in, you can," stated Onemine.

"Ok!"

After about ten minutes of talking Nana asked whether Onemine could read them a book.

"Sure, I guess."

Onemine looked under her bed and pulled out a box. She kept picture books that her mother would read to her when she was little inside.

She pulled out a random book. The title was 'The Princess and the Town Boy'

Opening up the book, she started reading to her little siblings.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. One day the princess met an evil witch who put a curse on her saying she would die in a year. She would need to find true love to break the curse. The king and queen tried to find a prince for the princess to marry to break the curse, but the princess didn't like any of them. Then, one day the princess was buying bread at a store in the town when she was talking with one of the ordinary people in the village. He wasn't extremely handsome, but the princess fell in love anyways. The curse broke and the princess was saved. The end."

Onemine finished reading the story. Nono started clapping, not really understanding the story but enjoying it anyways.

"Why did the princess fall in love with the boy in the town when he wasn't handsome?" Nana asked.

"Well, it's not all about looks. A person's personality is important, I guess?" Onemine replied.

"Does Onee-chan have anybody like the boy in the town?" Kazuya questioned.

Onemine was surprised at the question. "Oh, um, uhh, no," Onemine stuttered.

Onemine's phone, which was lying on her bedside table, beeped.

"Oh, who's that?" Kazuya asked. "Ta-da-n-no?" he read, struggling with reading the words.

Onemine quickly grabbed the phone.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about him, I'll check this later. Where we again?" Onemine said very quickly.

"Him? This is a boy? Do you think this person could be Onemine's town boy?" Nana asked Kazuya.

Onemine panicked. "Oh, no, no, no! He's just a friend of mine, nothing more!"

"Are you sure?" Nana asked.

"Why couldn't he be your town boy?" Kazuya asked soon after.

"Um, I dunno!" Onemine paused. "Well, this was fun, now you three go downstairs, ok?"

"Not fair!" Kazuya and Nana shouted at the same time.

She forced her sibling out of her room. Onemine checked her phone for the message.

"Hey Onemine-san, Nakanaka-san invited me to come play games tomorrow at her house. She says that another person could come if they wanted to, do you want to?" Onemine read in her head.

Onemine sent her reply back.

She put her phone down on her bedside table and lay down, thinking about what her younger siblings had said. Their words echoed throughout her head.

"Why couldn't he be your town boy? I don't know. I could try, but that doesn't mean I should."

Onemine kept on thinking.

"I mean, Tadano-kun is very nice, and I enjoyed the time I spent with him today, both at the festival and outside his house."

Onemine remembered all sorts of things about Tadano-kun from the last two weeks.

"My mum also liked him. What about Komi-san though? She likes him. I wouldn't want to take that away from her, but, I dunno. Why am I even thinking about this? He's just a friend. Nothing more."

5:35

Tadano received Onemine's text back. It said, 'Sure, that sounds like fun. See ya there!'

Tadano texted Nakanaka.

"You know Onemine-san from our class? She was also at the cafe earlier. I invited her," read Nakanaka.

"Oh, I didn't know they were friends. Komi just has to reply then we have four people. This has gone a lot better than I thought it would."

Komi's Evening 3:45

The festival had just ended and Komi was being dragged along by Najimi through the halls of the school. Yamai, with the rest of Pierro Rabioso following her, was running to try to see Komi.

"Race ya, Yamai-san!" Najimi shouted.

Yamai was tired but kept on pushing on. Najimi turned a corner, swinging around. Otori was not able to keep up with Najimi and was being dragged on the floor, unable to stand up. Yamai stopped.

"Come on, let's just go home. See ya," Yamai panted, out of breath.

Najimi kept on dashing through the halls of the school. Otori's lower body was scraping across the floor. Otori yelled. Najimi looked behind her.

Otori's knee was scratched and was bleeding a lot. There was a short trail of blood from where she had been pulled along.

"Otori-san! Are you okay?" Najimi asked worryingly.

"Yeah, it hurts but I'll be fine," Otori whispered.

"I'm so sorry! I'll bring you to the nurse's office!" Najimi exclaimed, picking up Otori and putting her on their shoulders.

"Jeez, you're a lot heavier than I thought you would be," Najimi mumbled.

Komi stood still, not sure what to do.

"Hey Komi-san, you can just go home, I'll be a while. Bye!" Najimi shouted, walking slowly towards the nurse's office.

Komi paused, then nodded after a little while.

4:10

Komi had walked from school back to her house. As she walked through the door she smelled a strong cinnamon scent from the kitchen.

"Hi Shouko, you're back! I made cinnamon rolls if you want one!" Shuuko, Komi's mother, shouted.

Komi rushed into the kitchen.

"Here you go. I think they're pretty good," said Shuuko, handing Komi a roll.

Komi bit into the cinnamon bun. It was soft and sweet. "Mum's cooking is so good," thought Komi.

"Your father and Shousuke are out doing something tonight, so it is just going to be us tonight!" exclaimed her mother.

Komi bit into the roll again, then nodded.

5:20

Due to Komi's dad and brother going out, they decided to watch a movie. Shuuko and Komi were sitting next to each other on the couch, facing the TV. Together they were eating the tray full of cinnamon rolls.

They were watching the first Toy Story. Komi had never watched it before so her mum thought it would be a good choice. They were nearing the end of the movie.

"Hey Shouko, I forgot to ask, was the festival fun?" asked Komi's mum.

Komi nodded enthusiastically. Her mother could sort of understand what she meant by just her facial expressions, the same as Tadano.

"Oh, that's good!"

5:35

Komi yawned.

"Are you tired Shouko?" Shuuko checked her watch. "It's only 5:20."

Komi nodded, eyes drooping.

"Normally she stays up until 9 o'clock. Maybe she's just had a long day. Tomorrow is Saturday, so she can get some sleep," thought Shuuko.

"Well, do you want to finish the last fifteen minutes, then go to bed?"

"Yeah," Komi whispered, barely being able to speak, and not because of her communication problem.

5:50

The movie finished. Komi got up from the couch and started to walk the stairs up to her room. A small thud sound could be heard but Komi was too sleepy to hear it.

"Goodnight Shouko, love you!" shouted Shuuko.

Komi opened the door to her room and began getting changed into her pyjamas. Flopping onto her blue bed, she fell asleep quickly.

Her mother got up from the couch a couple of minutes later. She noticed Komi's phone had fallen out of her pocket when she walked up the stairs. Shuuko ran over to check whether it was broken.

"Oh thank goodness, it's not cracked. Huh, what's this? Message from Nakanaka," thought Shuuko.

"Do you want to come over to my house tomorrow, maybe play some games? I also invited Tadano," read Shuuko in her head.

Shuuko knew Komi's password from seeing her type it in sometimes. 'Cats' was pretty easy to guess anyways. She typed in a message and clicked send. "This is good, Shouko's getting invited to places now! I should have probably asked her first though. Never mind, it can be a surprise for her in the morning!"

Putting down their phone on the dining room table, Shuuko got ready for bed.

Author's Notes

This chapter took a lot longer than expected, I had a lot of tests to study for and I kept on adding to this chapter. Sorry for the long wait!

Secondly, I decided to do longer chapters but take a bit longer to write them. The wait hopefully won't be as long as this one!

Finally, the number of visitors to this story is insane! Up to 400 readers now! Like I've said in previous Author's Notes, I am so thankful for everyone who reads this story, it really encourages me to go on with it!

New chapter soon (=・ω・=)

Next On Bonding Over Homework: Stay At Nakanaka's