Chapter 8

Respite

If he had to use a word to describe his week, it would have to be... 'unusual'.

Or 'crazy'...

'Insane' worked too.

'Bewildering' if he wanted to be fancy and use long words that he was sure Yuigahama wouldn't be able to spell.

Alright so there were many words that he could use, but they all summed up the core theme of the week.

Namely, throwing his previous mundane life out of the figurative window.

But at the very least, he was proud to say that he was not letting it all affect his state of mind,

Nope, not even a bit...

"...I need a bigger board..."

Sure, he might have brought the previously unused writing board that they had stored to his room, and yes he might have scribbled down the name of pretty much every girl he knew from Sobu on it, alongside with whatever tidbit of information he found relevant, which just made it all look like one of those conspiracy theory things he had seen on shows, but still.

He was fine.

"Onii-chan, give me back my book!"

"I refuse!" Alright so maybe everything wasn't fine, like him having to lock his door so Komachi wouldn't barge into his room to try and recover the notebook he might have taken from her when she wasn't looking.

But in his defense, the things written there were about him and his rather eventful Saturday.

Sure, an overly romanticized version of it, to the point that he had to wonder how Komachi could write any of that with a straight face, to the point he refused to let any of it going out ot the world for the masses to read.

He was more than willing to help his dear sister, of course, but even he had limits.

He never thought he would discover those limits like this, but that was life, he supposed.

"Now go do your homework or something, Onii-chan is trying to think here." And it was hard to whith the constant banging on the door.

"Who died and made you the boss?!"

"I'm sure if our parents didn't just leave without warning, they would have said I was left on charge."

"That's a lie and we both know it!"

It probably was, but their parents weren't here to argue that, now were they?

"I'll get that back, you'll see. You'll be singing praises by the time I'm done with you, stupid Onii-chan!"

What kind of threat was that? At least she had stopped the banging and had actually left, which meant he could now focus back and more urgent issues.

Like the fact every girl he had interacted through his years at Sobu had gone insane in less than a week.

And he needed to find a way to deal with all of that before he went actually insane, or worse, became a riajuu.

So with that in mind, he looked at the first name he had written, and probably the one that had him with the most conflicting feelings at the moment.

Yukinoshita Yukino.

His fiancée.

And he could still not think of that without getting a bit dizzy.

The only good thing here was that he already had a plan. That's why he had tried to convince Yukinoshita to help him get information from her mom.

And while he had been willing to play it patiently before, well...

That had been before the woman had sent his parents to the other side of the planet.

Which forced him to bring up a change of plans, after all, who knew if she would just stop there?

How long until she decided to do the same with Komachi, for example? He couldn't allow that.

Which is why, when his eyes looked down at his phone, it was with frustration and trepitation that he looked at the last text he received, a direct result of his decisions.

From: Honorable Mother-in-Law

'I will admit to being happily surprised by your proposal, Hachiman-kun, but I can't deny how elated I am about your willingness towards your new relationship. I truly could not have found a better son-in-law. I will make the preparations for this upcoming week, so I hope you can clear up your schedule for Friday.'

Honestly, he had to keep himself from rolling his eyes every time he read it. One would think he had done some grand gesture or something, but he had only texted her to suggest a family dinner was in order given their new relationship.

He had almost gagged when he wrote those messages.

But at least they had worked.

Sure, he now had five days to prepare himself mentally before having to deal with the entirety of the Yukinoshita household, which seemed to grow crazier the older they got, but at the very least it was a step in the right direction, right?

That's what he was going to tell himself in order to sleep today.

Then, there was Kawasaki.

Compared to others, her new found interest on him wasn't that worrying, or at the very least she wasn't acting like a lunatic so far, which sadly by now was something he was craving for.

He just didn't know how to deal with her.

It was his first time being involved with someone that was so...upfront with her feelings, and given everything happening around him at the moment, It only added to his feeling of overwhelmingness.

There was also the thing about her father.

He wasn't going to judge her about that of course, but he only wished that none of that side of her family would somehow affect his life.

He was already dealing with one crazy end of the spectrum with the Yukinoshitas, he did not need the other end of it to come bargain down at his door.

So for now, he truly had no other choice but to take her on her offer of not forcing an answer out of him. Maybe once everything was settled he could give it a proper thought, but as of now?

He could hope that she wouldn't do anything crazy just for him.

Finnally, there was Miura.

And with her, his plan was simple.

He was going to do absolutely nothing.

Why? Because the answer to his issues was simple enough.

It was Hayama.

For as much as the idea of depending on that guy was enough to make him gag, it just made sense.

After all, was it a coincidence that this whole mess with Miura just happened to start on the same week Hayama had been missing from school?

He didn't think so.

Sure, he did believe her about being childhood friends, for even if he didn't remember even a bit of that, the evidence was just there, but Miura's insistance on them somehow following up from a friendship made when they were kids?

She probably just had nothing else to do without Hayama around.

Being hyper fixated on something, or rather someone, and then that person dissapearing could do weird things to people, after all.

So as far as he was concerned, as soon as Hayama returned from...whatever he was doing, he was sure Miura would just go back to normal.

And by normal he meant focusing her attention at Hayama rather than himself, thank you very much.

That only left a few names on the board now, for even though those three were the biggest source the chaos that his life had become, it didn't mean he could lower his guard.

Ishiki? She had acted a bit weird last time he saw her, but nothing to write home about, at least for now.

Ebina? She was firmly helping Miura, which didn't come as that big of a surprise, but it still made her dangerous.

Yuigahama?

...He had nothing on Yuigahama actually, bless her soul.

A sigh left his lips just as he moved to massage the bridge of his nose. At the very least, his Sunday had worked as a reprieve from everything else, of which he couldn't be more grateful for.

Excluding the absence of his parents, today had been the most mundane day ever, even with Komachi trying to burst down his door more than once.

He knew tomorrow wouldn't be this relaxing though, and as such he was more than ready to simply treasure what was left of his day.

"What now?"

And he would have, if his phone hadn't suddenly buzzed.

He almost dreaded picking it up if he was honest, considering that barely anything good had come out as of late whenever he got some sort of message.

But when he did, well, it definitly wasn't what he had expected.

From: Zaimokuza_GOD

"Yo, Hachiman! Did you read the novel I reccomended you? Prety great, right?!"

He had almost forgotten that the website he used to check on novels had a private message system, and that the only person he actually had added on that place was Zaimokuza.

He had to hold himself in order to not cringe at Zaimokuza's choice of username, specially since he was too busy glaring at the screen.

Prety great? Was he on drugs?

"No, it was not. I didn't like it. Never recommend me anything like that ever again." Was his response, maybe a bit harsher than neccesary, but he wasn't in a good mood right now, and if he hadn't reccomended that novel, then Komachi wouldn't have been so angry at him.

"Whaaaaaat?! How could you not like it?! It's peak romcom! The best one on the market right now even!"

He would have snorted at that if he didn't know how popular the thing was.

It was also written by Komachi, and as a paranoid as it sounded, he didn't want to say or do anything that might make her even more upset when it came to her writing.

As bad as it was...

"Let me reccomended you another one then, there's this other higschool romcom that just ended, it's a classic in the making I'm telling you!"

"No thank you, I think I'm done with romcoms." He typed it out inmediately, truly not wanting to even think about the genre right now, that's how much of a bad taste Komachi's novel left in his mouth.

Besides, if he was already going to subjugate himself to having to help Komachi, then the last thing he wanted was to rot his brain with whatever other thing Zaimokuza considered a 'classic'.

"...There is no such thing as being done with romcoms, Hikigaya Hachiman."

Now that message did make him pause for just a moment, for something at the back of his head was telling that he might actually have upsetted the guy for real this time.

"Whatever, I just don't care right now." But even so, he just rolled his eyes In the end. If he was going to get upset at what he said then that was even more reason to stop reccomending him stuff like that, right?

"I see."

He supposed that was the end of that then? He was already expecting him to talk his ear off at school tomorrow about how he wasn't getting his impecable taste or something, but that was an issue with the Hachiman of tomorrow.

Hachiman of the present now just wanted to rest for a bit and unwind after the most hectif life of his week-

"It seems more drastic measures are needed."

He could only blink at that last message, before shrugging it off, assuming it was just another episode of Zaimokuza saying stuff he thought sounded cool.

Definitely not what he wanted to spend his time with on a Sunday, to say the least.

Right now, he just wanted to spend time with his dear Vita-chan. With any luck, Hayama would be back to school tomorrow, which would take Miura off his back, Kawasaki wouldn't do anything too intense, Yukinoshita would chill out for a bit until Friday, and maybe even Komachi would forget about the whole 'helping with her novel' thing.

He knew he was just coping, but as some say, hope was the last thing people lose-

"What now?!" Seriously, not even five minutes and he got another message? He swore that if it was Zaimokuza again he was going to flip-

"Huh?" But as he decided to ignore his phone, it suddenly buzzed again...

And again...and again...and again?!

He gave his phone an incredulous look, just as he slowly moved to grab it, a sense of dread slowly forming on the pit of his stomach for reasons that he didn't understand just yet.

But once he saw the cause of the sounds, he realized it had been his fight or flight instinct telling him to flight.

From: Yukinoshita Yukino

"Good evening, Hikigaya-kun. I'm just making sure you haven't forgotten about Yuigahama-san's birthday next week. Knowing you, you probably have yet to purchase a gift for her, correct? In such case, I believe it is only appropriate that we take our time this weekend to buy her one together."

"..."

From: Kawasaki Saki

"Hey Hikigaya, just making sure I got your number right. Also like, I got invited to that Yuigahama chick's birthday next week and I have no idea what to get her for that. Think you could help me? Thought we could go out on the weekend and get the dumb gift."

"..."

From: Yumi-chan

"Don't forget we need to buy Yui a gift, Hikio. We're going out on the weekend, so I don't want to hear any excuses!"

"..."

From: Ishiki Iroha

"Senpai! Let's buy Yui-senpai something together for her birthday! We'll make it a practice date too, aren't you happy?!"

"..."

From: Yuigahama Yui

"Hey Hikki, don't forget you're invited to my birthday, ok? I'll be totes fun I promise! Everyone will be there so...please don't forget."

"...well shit."

And that was that, this is where the fun begins.

Week one ended with four "plots" going on. What will happened with week 2? You'll see.

Glad that the reception to what I did with Komachi was liked. Her plot was the hardest one to decide to be honest, rest came pretty easy in that regard. Can't wait to show the 7th one.

Once more, thank you all for the continuous interest in this story!

Next Chapter: Protection.

Plots so far:

1) Yukinoshita Yukino: "Because of my grandfather, my high-class Club President suddenly became my fiancée."

2) Miura Yumiko: "I discovered the most popular girl in the school is my old childhood friend and now she won't leave me alone!"

3) Kawasaki Saki: "My mundane high school days are being threatened by the Yakuza Princess' constant flirting!"

4) Hikigaya Komachi: "I somehow became the inspiration for my cute little sister's ongoing romantic comedy light novel and now she keeps setting me up with every girl I know!"