01: A Rock and Hard Place

When Hiratsuka-sensei asked her to take an interest in a first year student, Shiromeguri Meguri briefly wondered whether her homeroom teacher was trying to do some match making by asking her to ask out someone from their school on a date. For an entire minute she was deeply troubled and embarrassed, because she had no idea what to do. As the newly elected student council president, taking over the reins from the illustrious Yukinoshita Haruno-senpai, whose words of encouragement had led her to contest the elections in the first place, Meguri found herself caught between a hard and rock place. Or was it rock and hard. It doesn't matter. Even though she was in her second year now and she had become the student council president, she still had her troubles with idioms and phrases. Was she truly fit to be the president, if she didn't know for certain whether it was 'a hard and rock place' or 'a rock and hard place'?

And now she was wasting both her and her teacher's time over something really stupid. And she actually said so out loud. But to her surprise and astonishment, Hiratsuka-sensei latched onto it and her eyes twinkled with excitement and before she knew what was going on, her homeroom teacher told him exactly what she wanted her to do. And because she wanted to stay on her good side and she remembered Yukinoshita Haruno-senpai's words during the graduation ceremony, she decided to trust her and treat her as an ally during her term as president of the student council.

And as a result Shiromeguri Meguri had the pleasure of meeting a first year student, who simply went by the name of Hikigaya Hachiman.

"There are mistakes here, here and here. I have corrected them. Please look them over senpai."

"Ah, um, thank you, Hikigaya-kun."

He didn't respond back and went back to work on another pile of paperwork. And because she was feeling rather childish, Shiromeguri Meguri pouted.

"Don't pout. You are almost an adult."

Ah, what in the world. He noticed. Hikigaya-kun noticed. Now what? She thought he wasn't paying attention to her, that's why she made such a face. But was he actually looking at her. How in the world was he even looking at her? His eyes were glued to a piece of paper and he was making corrections. And in between he was checking something on the laptop. Was this some kind of witchcraft? No don't be stupid Meguri, she told herself. Hikigaya-kun is a boy. This must be some kind of wizardry.

"P-please forget what you saw."

No way, she was getting embarrassed and now she was blushing. A first year student, a kouhai was making her blush. Really, she was unfit to be the president of the student council. And she made three simple mistakes in a single page.

"That's going to be a bit difficult, senpai." This time he turned around and faced her. And he actually lowered the screen of the laptop. Wait a second, why in the world was he getting so serious. Was this really something so difficult?

"Hikigaya-kun…?"

He let out a world weary sigh. "I feel triggered when someone spells 'writing' with two ts."

What was he even talking about – ah, she quickly checked the piece of paper he had offered her a few moments ago. It was the one he had checked for mistakes and errors. And as he had pointed out there were three simple mistakes. And one of them was the word 'writting' spelt with double ts. Really, what a childish mistake. She was pretty sure even an elementary school kid would do better than her. No wonder Hikigaya-kun was annoyed with her. She was a poor role model. And a horrible senpai. And she was unfit to be the president. And Haruno-senpai would be so disappointed in her.

"Wait, are you crying?"

And now she was crying in front of a kouhai.

What the hell is wrong with her?

And she cursed.

Well,

In for the penny, in for the pound.

Or was it the other way around.

Too late.

She started to bawl.

And it was ugly.

"I'm on my periods!" She wailed.

This was it. This was it. The words kept repeating themselves in her mind. Hikigaya-kun was gonna get grossed out and leave. He was a kid, a scrawny little first year, a kouhai who found out about the ugly little secret and he would blab about it to the entire school. But wait, didn't Hiratsuka-sensei say he was all alone and had no friends in class. If that was true, who would he talk to and who would actually listen to him. In other words, she was safe because her kohai was sad and miserable and was she smiling, was she thinking about laughing at Hikigaya-kun's misery. Didn't Hiratsuka-sensei tell her that he got into a horrible accident? He could have died. And now she was about to start laughing at him.

"I'm a horrible person!" Meguri cried out.

While she cried and wailed and sobbed, letting her jumbled up emotions and crazy hormones wreck her body and her relationship with an innocent little kohai, who didn't seem interested to join the student council as a member, but under Hiratsuka-sensei's advice and encouragement, decided to offer up his services as a volunteer. In between sobs which were slowly devolving into hiccups, she noticed Hikigaya-kun reach into his school bag and search for something, mumbling under his breath the words, 'where is it' a couple of times. Was he looking for his mobile phone, because he wanted to take pictures as evidence to show to his friends? Wait, didn't she already establish that he didn't have any friends. Then why did he want to take pictures of her. To embarrass her in the future? No, to blackmail her. Yes, he wanted to blackmail her with embarrassing photos of her which he would threaten to upload online, if she didn't do exactly what he said. And he was trying to do all kinds of ecchi things with her.

No.

Hell no.

You are damn right.

Shiromeguri Meguri knows a few curse words and she is not afraid to use them.

After all, she is not innocent.

And she is his senpai.

She has to act strong.

No.

Be strong.

Yes.

Shiromeguri Meguri tried not to shed any more tears and all she did was hiccup and muster up what she thought was a heated glare. And she looked at him dead in the eye, grabbed her resolve by the throat and threw it at him.

"Ecchi! Hentai!" Shiromeguri Meguri shouted out.

Before she knew what was happening, Hikigaya-kun retaliated. She didn't think he would retaliate. But perhaps he thought she was being mean. Well, either way, he threw something at her. Well, now that she thought about it, he didn't exactly throw it at her. He just slid it across the table at her general direction. She had covered her face and had tried to cover her body with her arms, because she didn't like getting hurt at all. She had almost zero tolerance to pain and if she ever got hurt even just a little bit, she would start to cry. But as she found out, Hikigaya-kun wasn't trying to hurt her. In fact, he was actually being -

"Chocolate?"

And it was a half eaten pack of chocolate. She inspected the wrapper and the foil and turned it around a couple of times in her hand. She even checked the label and the expiration date. It was good. But why in the world was Hikigaya-kun carrying a pack of chocolate around in his school bag. And most importantly why was he giving it to her. But she was beyond confused and she didn't have the courage to voice out any of her confusion and all she could do was stare at him. After a minute, he broke eye contact and looked away. She also noticed that his cheeks were a bit flushed.

"I have a younger sister." He simply said. But when she continued to unnerve him with her stare, he decided to add, "And I have heard chocolate helps with..." Failing miserably to properly articulate himself, Hikigaya-kun just waved in her general direction. "…you know. Stuff."

Ah yes.

Boys.

Each and everyone of them.

They didn't have a good handle on this kind of stuff.

Period.

"Don't laugh senpai!" Hikigaya-kun snapped back.

She couldn't help herself. Shiromeguri Meguri chuckled. And she giggled. And she laughed. She blamed her crazy hormones. It's definitely not because she was laughing at her own joke. Period, hah. If Yukinoshita-senpai was here, she would be laughing so hard, tears would be leaking out of her eyes. And she would have definitely teased her kohai. Well, since she was not here, as the student council president and a senpai, Shiromeguri Meguri better pick up the pace. After all, she had a large pair of shoes to fill. Or would it be heels, because they were both girls, she couldn't help but wonder.

"You look really cute when you blush, Hikigaya-kun." Meguri informed her cute kouhai.

And he blushed even more. By now his cheeks were completely red. "Please don't make fun of me senpai." He told her emphatically.

But she didn't heed his warning. Meguri was happy and she broke a thick slab of chocolate and put it in her mouth, letting the sweet flavours and rich texture work their beautiful magic. She almost got lost in the sensation a let out a moan. For a brief second, a voice in the back of her mind whispered to her that this might be an indirect kiss. How could Hikigaya-kun carry a pack of chocolate around in his bag and not grab a slice. Or was it a bite. Or was he really such a caring brother, that he carried a pack of chocolate around just for his younger sister, to help her during her time of the month. Wait, now that she thought about it, if he really did that for his younger sister, it would weird her out a bit. But wasn't it also a sweet gesture. Yes, Hikigaya-kun was a sweet kid. And he looked cute when he blushed.

"You look like a tomato when you blush." Meguri told him with a smile.

Hikigaya rubbed the bridge of his noise, before staring at the ceiling, praying to a higher power for strength and patience. Finally he remembered, he was a volunteer who offered up his services to the student council president from time to time and he was not obligated to stay here and listen to a woman whose hormones were going haywire, because it was her time of the month. He could simply leave. And he had even coughed up a pack of chocolate. Really, now that he thought about it, he was losing out on a lot of stuff because of this new work arrangement. Perhaps, he should revisit his deal with Hiratsuka-sensei. He was working hard, correcting simple mistakes of the student council and in return he was being called stupid names. Because of course –

"I hate tomatoes, senpai." Hikigaya informed her.

Wait a second. If he hated tomatoes and Shiromeguri-senpai told him, he looked like a tomato, wasn't he basically saying he hated himself?

Well,

What's new?

"But I love tomatoes." Shiromeguri-senpai told him.

Really, she was such a silly woman. He would never understand how she became the student council president of their school. He had definitely lost his faith in the election process. All she had to offer was a bright smile, a beautiful face and a can do attitude. But she had nothing to back her up. Even now she was just munching on a piece of chocolate and completely unaware of her immediate surroundings, living without a care in the world or anyone else in particular. Not that he wanted her to care for him. It would be troublesome. He had enough things to deal with already. He didn't want Shiromeguri-senpai to meddle in his life. And with that one small piece of sane, rational thought, he got up to leave and was almost half way out of the door.

He didn't even greet her on his way out.

He really was a horrible human being.

"Thanks for the chocolate Hikigaya-kun!" A bite. A munch. And swallow. "I love you."

And Hikigaya Hachiman slammed the door shut loud enough to rattle the door frame. Really, why the hell did he get stuck babysitting the student council president.

A/N: I decided to re-upload this story in this account. I don't know why, but for some reason I feel queasy writing stuff on my other account. I don't know how to explain it. Anyway, I think I will use that account to post stories which are not related to Oregairu. Speaking of which, I was thinking about writing fanfics for other fandoms too. I think I am ready to explore a little. So, which other fandoms should I write for? If you can, let me know in the reviews.

Also, I listened to you guys and I started posting my fanfics on other sites as well.

In Archive Of Our Own, my user name is "Betrayed_Dreams" and there you can find "Labcoats and Loners" and "8man's Journal: Looking Into The Mind Of An Unstable Police Detective."

In SpaceBattles, my user name is "Betrayed Dreams"

In Wattpad, my user name is "BetrayedDreams."

But let me say this, I still enjoy writing and uploading stuff here. This is the best platform, in my humble opinion.

Now it's time for a poll -

Poll#1: Which Fic Should I Update Next?

Option 1: Love Is Like A Box Of Chocolates.

Option 2: Ikebukuro : A Bohemian Rhapsody.

Option 3: Ore Ga Iru : As I Expected, My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong.

Please pick accordingly.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.