MAY

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The bell chimed, indicating the break between first and second period. Hearing that made Katsuko slump her shoulders in relief. She was definitely tired from that boring history lecture. While her nearby classmates took this time to leave the classroom, Katsuko stretched in her seat. Her arms were over her head and she was slipping in her chair while her legs stretched out like as if she was some sort of cat.

Katsuko had a tired looking on her face when her hands dropped on her backrest. She pushed herself back up on her chair. She could have gone to the bathroom to empty her bladder but she decided that lunch break would always be the fitting time to do so. During the breaks, if she was lucky, she would run into her friends from the other class or they would drop by her classroom to chat until the break was over. Most of the time, she was sitting at her desk, waiting for the next class to start.

She felt a presence near her accompanied by a quick call of her last name. Recognizing the voice, she turned to look with a curious expression. It was Ichigo. He had his hands in his jacket pockets. Seeing as how she gave him her full attention now; he spoke without waiting for any verbal response.

"Do you want to start working on the first part of the assignment later at lunch?"

Katsuko nearly made a face of hesitation. She valued her lunch breaks a lot mostly because her eating speed could be quite slow. Having nearly an hour at her disposal just allowed her to actually slack off on eating her own lunch. But… if this was for the sake of their grade, then she would have to relinquish her 'lunch-lazy-time'.

"Okay."

Satisfied with her answer, he pointed up at the ceiling. "We could work on it at the library."

Katsuko frowned. "But… what about eating? We can't eat in the library."

"Oh, right. That's true." Ichigo rubbed his neck. "Maybe…" he trailed off, trying to think of a good place to get started on their assignment. Even if there were nice clean tables outside, he didn't want to risk it. Those upperclassmen always showed up whenever they wanted. He didn't need his classmate to get involved with that when their business should only concern him. That was the reason why he brought back their attention on him when they saw her staring that one time.

"There's a vacant classroom somewhere on the third floor during lunch." Katsuko informed, deciding to share her knowledge she gained from her strolls around the school. "We could work there… I guess."

She proceeded to share the room's location after saying that they could meet up there later with their things. When it was settled, he left the classroom to make use of his break while Katsuko was left alone with herself. She dropped her head forward on the desk but still held it with an arm propping her head up, palm against her forehead.

Aww man...

Her inner self, who agreed that making this arrangement, was suddenly regretting everything when she thought of all possible awkward scenarios. What if they just stayed quiet the whole time? What if it got so awkward that he decided to change his mind and leave? … Actually, she would be okay with that. But, ugh…

Katsuko's index and thumb pressed on the corner of her eyes around her nose. She still felt awkward around the boy.

She wasn't sure if he remembered her, or didn't… but if he did, then it seemed like they had this unspoken rule between them that they would not bring up the past no matter what. That's what it felt like for her.

She put her hand back down and sighed. And I'm stuck with him for the whole year…

When Katsuko arrived inside the classroom, she found Ichigo already sitting there. He was sitting in the back near the window, just like where he was seated in their classroom. He was scratching his head, ruffling his hair at the same time, while looking down at his notebook. He had a bento open on the side with his chopsticks laying across the top. The window was open and the curtain danced a bit in the corner because of the spring breeze. When his ears picked up on the sound of her entering the classroom, he only looked up and greeted her quickly before jotting down something on the notebook.

When he checked the other page, he kissed his teeth and leaned back in his seat before going back to his lunch. Katsuko took in a deep breath. She took a seat in front of his desk and leaned back against the wall behind her. She started unwrapping her wrapper around her sandwich. From the corner of her eye, she looked at what he was doing. It looked like he was just completing (and struggling) with the assigned homework from yesterday for their next math class, which was right after lunch.

With her sandwich in her mouth, she opened up the history book she brought with her for their assignment. The assignment was for their history class. For the first part, they had to choose an influential historical figure that their teacher had already talked about, and then give the pros and cons of this person if they were alive today. Three in total for the three terms. Suzumura wanted a minimum of one Japanese historical figure just in case they wanted to do a western figure of their choosing. The source of information would vary. For the first term, they only needed the textbook. For the second, they would need to look into the library at school. For the last, it was a combination of both.

So far, they covered the Sengoku period until the Meiji/Bakumatsu period. Impressive figures like Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the Shinsengumi were available for choosing.

Katsuko flipped through the pages and as she came across several figures of the Sengoku period, finding them just as interesting a storybook character. When she finished the last piece of her sandwich as she read about Date Masamune, she heard Ichigo sigh behind her. Curiously, she looked at him and saw irritation displayed all across his face. When he saw her looking at him, he frowned and averted his eyes away sheepishly.

"… Can you help me?"

Katsuko held back the urge to laugh.

"With?"

She turned around in her seat to look at the notebook he rotated around for her to see. The homework was about dividing fractions. Pretty simple stuff.

In truth, it was way too easy for Katsuko. She was ahead of her class because she was attending a learning center every Sunday that focused on reading and mathematics. She went there to do math. She would bring home six sets of ten pages (recto-verso) that she had to complete before Sunday where she would submit the work and do one set of ten pages before leaving. Annoying but helpful.

Katsuko poked a hole in her juice box and looked at his homework.

… Oof.

While she drank from her straw, she took the liberty to go back a page to check if he did the same mistake.

He did.

Her eyes moved to look at him, "Why are you flipping both fractions?" Katsuko asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Ichigo blinked. "… Because that's how you divide them?"

Katsuko looked at him with an unconvinced look that said 'uhh you sure about that?'

"What did I do wrong? Am I not supposed to flip them?" Ichigo asked, now wondering if he misheard the teacher while she explained how to divide fractions. "… Because all my answers are wrong and I don't get it."

Katsuko unintentionally scoffed. "Yeah, no crap."

Hearing that, Ichigo looked baffled at the unfamiliar tone. "What?"

"You're only supposed to flip the last fraction. Look," she grabbed his pencil and his answer sheet that their teacher provided them.

Ichigo watched as she brought her attention to the problem that was 2/4 divided by 8/1. She added the equals sign and rewrote the first fraction and multiplied it by the inverse of the second one. From there, she crossed out the 2 over the four and then crossed out the 8 to replace it with 4. Then, she added another equals sign and wrote 1/16. She put the pencil back down and turned his notebook around after placing the answer sheet in front of him. She pointed at the answer on the sheet and the answer she wrote.

They matched.

"You're only supposed to flip the last fraction. You flipped both of them and found an answer that was way off." She told him before removing her hands away from his stuff. "That's how you divide fractions."

His response to that was dropping his forehead into his hand. He was sure that Suzumura said to flip both fractions. It got him confused as hell when he did the homework last night. Now that he thought about it, he was kind of zoning out when the teacher was explaining about fraction division. When he heard Katsuko snicker, he dropped his hand and gave her a look.

"It's just a silly mistake. First kind of mistake I've ever seen though." She said with a grin, enjoying the way he was realizing his dumb mistake. Seriously, even Haru and Jun never made that kind of mistake.

Ichigo closed his notebook hastily and put it away. "Whatever!" he grumbled before going back to his lunch. He muttered a quick 'thanks'. This only added more to her amusement, which she let slip when she let out a breathy laugh as she stood up to throw away her juice box and sandwich wrapper. When Ichigo heard her nearly silent laugh, he shot her a look with narrowed eyes behind her back. He just huffed and finished the rest of his lunch while Katsuko most likely went to walk down the hallway to throw away her garbage.

On her way back, she thought to herself that it actually wasn't as awkward as she presumed it to be. However, it would be too early to give her final verdict as they haven't even started working on their assignment yet.

When she returned to the vacant classroom, she found Ichigo opening the textbook and flipping through the pages.

"Do you have any historical figure in mind?" he asked without looking at her.

"… I was thinking Ishida Mitsunari from the Sengoku period." she said softly when she took her seat back in front of him. He flipped through the pages and looked for the one that talked about the one she suggested. Katsuko waited until he finished reading a summary of him before he looked at her.

"Seems like a good choice. I think we'd have a lot of pros to write down."

Katsuko nodded and hummed in agreement. She turned around and reached for her folder where she stored a lot of spare paper for her use. She pulled out a single loose-leaf paper and asked him to dictate to her whatever he thought should be important to know about Ishida Mitsunari.

Three days later, Katsuko made the decision to eat inside for once. Eating inside or outside the school building was totally up to the students. To avoid adapting to a new area of some sort, Katsuko chose to stay in that corner on the steps during lunch since no one came to disrupt her moment of repose. The empty classroom she and her classmate made use of for their assignment seemed like a good choice for repose too. She had wandered a couple of times around the halls of each floor during a period of almost an entire month. The time of her aimless wandering served her well as she had already an idea of how things functioned during the lunch break. It was mostly the second floor that was reserved for club-room meetings and such. The third floor was the ghost town of all the other floors. She had the whole class to herself. Perfect for repose.

She sat in the seat that Ichigo occupied three days ago. It was a good seat since the open window allowed some fresh air to breeze against her face. However, she wouldn't want this seat in class. It was always annoying to have to move around just to look at the board that was being obstructed by some kid's head when the teacher started writing near the bottom.

She had plans with Ichigo the next day to continue their assignment. They both thought that, since the first term only wanted them to take information out of the textbook, then they should finish it as soon as possible before the wave of finals.

Katsuko stretched in her seat and yawned when she felt the cool breeze brush her cheek. A relaxed smiled was on her face when she let her body go limp.

As soon as she took a bite out of her sandwich, however, the door in the back opened, causing her to jolt back up into a proper sitting position. Katsuko hid her mouth behind her hand while she chewed and stared at the door like as if she was caught red handed.

What the hell?

There, standing in the open doorway, was her year-long partner. Surprised, he paused when he took a step inside the classroom. But he quickly recovered and shut the door behind him.

"I didn't expect to see you here." he said simply before taking his seat next to hers. She felt a little bad. Maybe he was fond of the back seat next to the window.

"… Oh um. I just got here…" Katsuko said softly before putting down her sandwich on the wrapper. She fumbled with her juice box, trying to rip the straw off of the box. "Since no one was here…"

Ichigo opened his bento. "I started eating in here three days ago since it seemed like a good place for peace and quiet."

Katsuko didn't say anything. She just brushed off the crumbs on the side of her mouth with her forefinger. She wasn't quite sure what to do with him around now. The awkwardness she felt did not fade completely despite spending at least thirty minutes with him in this very classroom. But now that they were together without a reason, she just wanted to shut her eyes and hide her head.

Yep, still awkward.

Despite telling her two close friends that she felt awkward around him, she was beginning to wish for someway where they might get along. Perhaps it was the desire to connect with this new person that she used to know. She didn't quite know how to describe this feeling of desire standing next to awkwardness.

She was a coward though.

Katsuko quietly gathered her sandwich and took a deep breath before standing up, catching Ichigo's attention who was chewing his food. She pushed her chair back underneath the desk and made a beeline for the door.

"Um, you don't have to leave." He suddenly said, wondering if he just scared her off.

Katsuko stopped in front of the door and glanced over her shoulder. "Um," she faked a surprised look, "I just remembered that I had to do something…" she told him with a calm expression. "So, yeah."

She didn't look back. She just opened the door and walked away from the classroom, most likely to head outside and eat on the steps under the shade.

She could feel her heart beating fast against her chest.

Katsuko bit her lip in annoyance.

I dislike this feeling.

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Katsuko sighed after she exited the bathroom. It was time for another work-reserved lunch period with Ichigo in the empty classroom. They were going to take one bigger stride into the assignment to further advance in their assignment before the due date. Knowing how she just avoided him in hopes to avoid that insufferable awkward feeling, she reinforced her mental state on her way to school. She couldn't keep acting this way she was if she was going to be his partner. She would have to at least try and suck it up so that she could try to get a little used to it.

He was already in there when she arrived. As usual, he sat at the desk in the back near the window. He acknowledged her presence by briefly lifting his hand while eating, making her respond with a brief nod of her head. She took her usual seat in front of him while placing her things on the desk next to hers.

Ichigo looked up from his food. "You gonna bolt after eating?" he suddenly asked out of the blue.

Katsuko looked at him strangely. "Huh?"

The orange haired boy pointed at the window with his chopsticks. Confused, Katsuko looked at where he was pointing. She didn't understand why he was pointing at the other building of their school until he told her to look down on that building. Still fully lost, she trailed her eyes down from the middle of the building down to the ground.

Lo and behold, her usual lunch spot was clearly visible from the third-floor window.

Katsuko's eye twitched. Slowly, she turned her head to look at her classmate who looked at her with a skeptical look. He clearly caught onto her bullshit from yesterday.

Ichigo didn't think much of it when she left. He was minding his own business, reading the manga book he brought from home and eating his food. But when he turned to look outside the window, he saw her in an isolated corner just eating her lunch. It would be creepy to say that he watched her, but that's exactly what he did. It honestly made him wonder what was up with her. If she was scared of him then he'd at least try to attempt to ease her fears again for both of them.

"Seriously, are you scared of me, Hiragi?"

One moment they discussed work like normal people, and then the next moment, she backpedals and goes back to being awkward around him.

"No!" Katsuko shot back almost immediately. "I'm... not."

Ichigo gave her a look. He didn't seem convinced as he shrugged in defeat before returning to his food. He didn't really care about what people thought of him, but did he care about this one time because of his grades.

Katsuko felt the heat from her stress on her neck. This conversation was already stressing her out. She put her sandwich down and fidgeted with her straw on her juice box. She really needed to find a way to deal with it.

"I'm just…" Katsuko mumbled, causing Ichigo's eyes to shift towards her as he chewed his food. "It's awkward." She said quietly, feeling small from the pressure of knowing that Ichigo was aware that she wanted to stay away from him.

"Why? Because we knew each other as kids?"

Katsuko's head whipped in his direction where he was just looking down at his food, picking up a sausage from his bento with his chopsticks.

He just brought up the forbidden topic!

When he put it in his mouth, he simply looked at her while chewing silently. It was probably embarrassment, but she felt herself shrink in her seat since she looked away to focus her attention back on her juice box.

"Yeah…" she replied softly.

She heard him sigh heavily. "Who cares?"

"Boy, I do—!"

"You think this isn't a little awkward for me?" Ichigo lowered his chopsticks. "I'm trying over here!"

Katsuko looked back at him, surprised. "You are?"

Ichigo scowled and looked away, focusing his attention on some students on the ground level outside. "It'll stop getting awkward if both of us just set it aside, alright?"

Katsuko gave him a look. "You can't push it aside like a plate." she said flatly.

It was Ichigo's turn to shoot her a look. "You know what I meant." he replied, making the corner of her mouth twitch in amusement. "You're making things awkward. Just stop thinking about it too much, that's my advice. It's not that hard, you know?"

Ichigo held her unsure gaze just until she gave up with a heavy sigh and slump of her shoulders. Her long black bangs hid away her eyes from him when she lowered her head for a brief moment, enabling him from seeing the relief in them. For Katsuko, just hearing the admission of his own feeling of awkwardness, made her feel like her awkwardness was validated. Sure, she might have felt it more than him considering how she wanted to avoid him when possible, it was just nice to know that it wasn't completely one-sided.

"I probably can't help it at first… but I'll try."

Ichigo found satisfaction in her answer. As long as she was willing to try, then barrier would slowly crumble between the two.

"Alright, let's get started."

With a jolt, Katsuko gaped. "I didn't even finish my lunch yet!" she quickly turned away from Ichigo and started gobbling up the rest of her food to the point where she nearly choked.

The orange haired boy sweat dropped. "I was kidding. Take your time."

"No, it's fine…! I'll be done in a sec— gurgh—!"

"I said take your time!"

Their interactions didn't magically become A-Okay. Despite Katsuko's preference to usually eat outside to enjoy the fresh air, there were times when she wanted to eat inside the classroom. She didn't know what Ichigo's preference was when it came to where he wanted to spend his lunch time, but whenever she wanted to eat in the classroom, he was usually there before her. The sight of him from the window always made her want to flee. But, from what she could tell, Ichigo didn't really care whether or not she ate in the same room as him. That much she knew since he didn't turn and leave whenever she was already settled in the classroom before him. He wasn't exactly expecting her to be there. They had no plans whatsoever about eating together.

Sometimes, she couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to be alone at lunch. Ichigo should have some friends around the school, that's what she thought at least.

Communication between the two wasn't always necessary when they were in the same room. Katsuko would mind her own business by listening to music, surfing the internet, or just simply taking a short nap. Ichigo would pass the lunch time by listening to music, reading manga, or by also taking a nap. It was still awkward, but it became so much more bearable compared to the first time she saw him.

It wouldn't be until the middle of May that the barrier would finally crumble a whole lot to the point where they could hold a decent conversation.

MID-MAY

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Jun and Haru were following their two older friends back onto the school grounds. One of them was telling a story that got the rest of his group chuckling when they anticipated what might happen next. When he finished his story, Haru threw a fit of laughter followed by Jun who literally spat out his soda. The others were thankfully spared when he turned his head when the soda sputtered from his mouth. Jun cringed when he saw that he accidentally got some soda on the can, he reached for his pocket for a tissue he might have. When he couldn't find anything, he remembered that his friend sat somewhere nearby, he could probably ask her for one.

Haru was quick to tell the others to go on ahead since they would catch up, choosing to tag along with Jun just to see his other friend. When the two walked towards Katsuko's usual spot, Haru glanced up when he happened to notice an open window on the third floor. It was nothing more than a glance of awareness. However, he did a double-take and stopped in his tracks when he saw something behind the windows. Two students, two familiar students, were sitting face-to-face with each other. The most familiar out of the two seemed to be waving off whatever the other was saying, making them scowl in response.

Hurriedly, Haru grabbed Jun's arm and pulled him back, pointing up at the open window on the third floor. The sight became an alarming one for the both of them. After giving her warnings about being careful, here she was doing the opposite. She was choosing to hang around with a dangerous delinquent.

Unbeknownst to them, an older-looking student passed by them while slouching, wondering what the hell they were staring at. They looked up and caught sight of a familiar head full of orange hair.

Thank you to GLaDOS2.0 and Beck for dropping a review and as well the 12 followers and 7 favorites of this story!