Childhood Part X – Friendships – Start
"-And that's all for today." A black-haired older woman says as she looks at the students from her desk. "Don't forget about your final project, the presentation is going to be at the end of next week." The woman reminds them.
"Already?" Eiji sighs as he looks towards his brunette friend. "Man, I thought we would have some more time to prepare!" The black-haired boy scratches his hair.
Makoto laughs softly. "I mean, we kinda did." The brunette puts all his stuff away on his bag. "We had three entire weeks to do the research and prepare the written assignment."
"I know, I know." Eiji jumps off his chair and the two boys start walking out of the classroom. "Speaking of which, have you finished the written part?"
The brunette nods, adjusting his bag strap. "Yeah, I finished last night." He sighs. "But it was seriously hard, there's almost no updated information on this 'Novaselic' place." He looks towards the black-haired boy. "The only stuff I could find easily was about the new embassy they are opening here on Japan." The other boy nods.
"Yeah, I heard about that." Eiji replies. "Not even going to lie, from the small amount of stuff I could find, that place seems interesting!" Starts appears on the boy's eyes.
Makoto rolls his eyes. "You like to travel Hino-kun." The brunette smiles softly. "So any place is interesting for you."
The black-haired boy shrugs. "I guess." The two boys share a laugh, before they get to the main gate. "Well, see ya tomorrow!" Eiji waves before running off towards the city.
The older Naegi waves back to his friend, before turning around and walking towards the park.
Once he sees Chiaki sitting at the bench, he waves.
Strangely enough, the girl ignores him, not taking her eyes off her handheld.
Makoto frowned, that was weird.
Getting closer to her, the brunette called. "Chiaki-chan!"
Quickly taking her eyes off the handheld, the mauve-haired girl glances towards him, before smiling softly and frowning in quick succession. "Uh, hi, Makoto-kun."
Okay, now he was worried. "Chiaki-chan, did something happen?" He sat down at the bench with her. "You look… down."
"Oh? Do I?" She asks and he nods. Looking back towards her reflection on the handheld, Chiaki blinks. "I-it's nothing." She says, starting her game back on.
"Chiaki-chan…" Makoto watches as she starts playing again, the frown not leaving her face. "You know that if anything is wrong, you can always tell me right?"
"I know." She replies, still not looking back at him.
Silence falls as the brunette just kept staring at her, he knew that something was wrong, but what could he do if she didn't want to tell him?
"Say, Makoto-kun…" Chiaki pauses her game, although her eyes still locked onto the screen. "If I-" She looks at him, but upon seeing his worried face, Chiaki shakes her head. "-Forget it, it's not important." Smiling softly, the mauve-haired girl looks down at her handheld.
But before she can start her game once again, Makoto's hand grabs onto her own, surprising the girl. "It is important." He says with a serious tone. "If there's something bothering you, then it is important." His fingers wrap around hers, although unconsciously. "You can tell me anything, Chiaki-chan!" Closing his eyes, the brunette smiles warmly.
Chiaki looks down at their wrapped fingers and blushes. ' His hand feels so warm…' She smiles, before holding even more tightly onto his fingers. "Well, it's just-" The mauve-haired girl looks towards the park, before sighing. "-I received a invitation to join Hope's Peak Academy."
There's a small silence, before Makoto's opens his eyes widely. "H-Hope's Peak!" He says, and she nods. "You mean, the Hope's Peak?" She keeps nodding and the boy smiles happily. "That's amazing Chiaki-chan!" He grabs onto her other hand and she turns to face him. "That's like, the most important school in all of Japan!" Looking onto her eyes, he continues. "And… and…" Her eyes had a sadness to them, which Makoto didn't get at first, but then, it hit him. "And it's on another prefecture."
Chiaki let's go of his hand and gazed sadly towards the park once again. "If I accept." She closes her fist tightly. "Me and my family will have to move."
A silence falls once again as the two look at the empty park in front of them.
' Chiaki-chan… will go away?' Just the thought of not seeing her again, made the boy's heart stop for a second. "Wait, if?" Je looks once again towards the girl. "Then, that means you didn't…?"
She shakes her head negatively. "Yeah, I haven't accepted yet." Starting her game once again, Chiaki continues. "I have until December 5th to really make my decision."
Makoto stares at nothing with a empty expression. "Chiaki-chan-" Before he can say anything more, Chiaki passes her handheld to him.
Looking at her, the girl smiles softly. "It's your turn." Makoto blinks, before nodding and picking the game device from her hands.
The brunette stared at the screen of the handheld, before gulping. ' Chiaki-chan…'
Tsumugi couldn't possible feel any happier!
Komaru and her friends had passed the entire break with her, and they didn't even seem to mind her otaku tendencies, in fact, the brunette girl seems to actually want her to keep on geeking out!
The blue-haired girl thought it was such a surreal moment, being around people that actually wanted to pass their time with her.
Still, everything wasn't perfect and Hotaru was there to remind Tsumugi of that.
Just as the last bell from the day echoed through the school, Tsumugi started to get up and gather her materials.
The teacher stepped out and in flash, a hand crashes down onto the blue-haired otaku's hand. "Ouch!" She cries as her pencils are send flying.
"Sup'!" Hotaru says with a teasing smile.
Tsumugi tenses up, before starting to massage reddened her hand. "H-Hotaru-san?"
The redhead circles around Tsumugi's desk. "Saw you having lunch with some underclassmen." She smirks as the blue-haired girl tenses even more. "Did you had fun?" Asking, the girl's smirk only gets bigger when seeing the reaction of the other girl.
"I-I-" The otaku girl stutters.
"Well, no matter!" Hotaru grabs the otaku's bag. "We both know they are only hanging out with you for your cash anyways." Tsumugi snaps her head towards the other girl and widen her eyes behind her round glasses. "What? Did you really though someone would approach a weirdo like you with any other intention?" She says with a poisonous tone on her voice. "Wake up girl!" Hotaru quickly turns around and tosses Tsumugi's beg onto the back of the class, making everything inside of it fall onto the floor.
All of the other students that are still at class just watch, nodding their heads negatively at the scene.
"I-"
Hotaru passes by the side of Tsumugi's desk, before waving her arm. "See ya tomorrow, o-ta-ku-chan!" She winks before giggling to herself and walking away from the classroom.
The other students followed soon, leaving behind a vacant Tsumugi.
The blue-haired girl just sighed sadly, before walking towards her fallen materials, she crouches down and starts gathering her things. "In the end, it's just another day." She sighs once again, while grabbing her Distrust themed sharpener. "Just like all the others."
Tsumugi looked at the sky as she waited for her drive home.
She knew deep down that Hotaru was just trying to make her worried, still, the blue-haired otaku couldn't help but feel slightly worse, every time her mind would come back to the redhead's venomous words.
"Shirogane-san?" Komaru called, taking the girl out of her trance.
"H-Huh?" The blue-haired girl blinks, before looking down towards her own feet. "Hi, Naegi-san."
"Girl, you look down!" Chieko comments. "Did something happen?" Tsumugi silently shakes her head.
Before anyone can say anything more, Komaru grabs the blue-haired girl's hands on her own. "Are you free tomorrow after school, Shirogane-san?"
The otaku blinks. "O-Oh, no I believe I'm not." She looks down at Komaru's hands on hers. "W-Why?"
The brunette girl smiles widely. "Wanna hang out at my house?"
Tsumugi's teal-blue eyes blink, behind her round glasses. "H-Huh?" She asks confused.
"There's this new anime I want to watch, but my uncultured Onii-chan doesn't like it, so I wanted to know if you wanted to watch it with me tomorrow?" Letting go of the other girl's hand, Komaru smiles friendly. "If you don't then-"
Just as the request finally clicks in her mind, Tsumugi is quick to cut Komaru off. "YES!" She yells, before putting a hand over her mouth, cheeks turning red. "I-I mean, ahem, yes!" The girl can barely hide her excited smile. "I would love to!"
Komaru pumps her fist into the air and smiles. "Great! Then see you tomorrow!" She then runs past the girl and out of the school, her friends waving to Tsumugi before following her. "Oh, and one more thing!" The brunette turns around and smiles even more brightly. "No need for formalities, you can call me Komaru!"
Tsumugi blinks again, before nodding. "Okay!" The blue-haired otaku smiles brightly. "A-And you can call me T-Tsumugi!"
The younger Naegi winks to the other girl. "Gotcha!" She then turns around and runs off. "Bye, Tsumugi-chan!"
"Bye, Komaru-chan!" The blue-haired girl waves as the three other girls disappear around a corner. She looks towards the sky again, but this time with a smile on her face. "Maybe this really isn't, just another day!" Although the small doubt that Hotaru had planted in her heart, Tsumugi couldn't help but feel hopeful.
Maybe I'll finally have friends!
Komaru excitedly enters her house. "I'm home!" She yells while throwing her shoes away.
"Welcome back!" Honoka replies while sitting on the couch. "Well, you sure do look excited, what happened?" The older woman asks as her daughter gets closer to the couch.
"I made a friend today!" The brunette girl says while excitedly moving her arms. "And I even invited her to come here tomorrow!"
Honoka giggles. "Really Komaru? That's so like you!" The woman puts a hand over her mouth and her giggles turn into a full-blown laugh as Komaru pouts.
"What does that mean?" The younger Naegi asks while pouting cutely.
"Nothing bad." The brunette woman stops laughing and smiles. "It's just, you always gets so giddy whenever you make a new friend." She gets up and walks towards her daughter. "It's pretty adorable."
"Oh, so that's what you meant!" Komaru smiles as her mother nods.
Honoka goes towards the kitchen, but before she enters, the woman turns around and says. "Oh, and Komaru-chan?" The younger Naegi looks towards her mother. "Could you talk to Makoto for me? He's been pretty distracted since he got home and I think there's something bothering him." She then sighs. "I tried asking, but he didn't say anything to me, but maybe he'll talk to you." The woman didn't like that, but it was true.
Komaru blinks. "Something wrong with Onii-chan?" She whispers to herself before biting her lip. "Okay, I'll talk to him!" The girl turns around and quickly runs up the stairs.
After changing her clothes to something more comfortable, Komaru stopped at Makoto's room and knocked on the door. "Onii-chan?" She calls, yet he doesn't reply. "Onii-chan!" Again, no response. "I'm getting in!" The younger Naegi says impatiently.
Opening the door, the sees her older brother reading something on his computer.
Getting closer, the younger sister looks to the screen and asks. "What are you doing?"
Makoto snaps his head towards her. "Komaru?" He then blinks before turning on his chair. "What are you doing here? And didn't I told you to knock first?"
The brunette girls jumps onto his bed and crosses her arms. "I did, but you are so distracted that you didn't notice." She smirks. "So I entered anyways."
"Oh, really? Sorry, I didn't notice." Makoto replies, before turning his chair again and going back to writing something in his notebook. "So, how was your day?"
One thing that the Naegi siblings always did, was after a busy day at school, they would just sit down at one of their rooms and talk about it.
Komaru didn't really knew why, but spending time with her older brother like that always made her happy, to the point of being anxious to get back home and talk to him about how her day had gone.
And so, she did just that, she told him all about how she managed to befriend Tsumugi and that she would be coming to their house the next day.
"-And so I asked if she wanted to come here tomorrow." Komaru explained with a happy smile on her face.
"And she said yes?" Makoto asks and the girl nods. "That's great, maybe then you'll finally return her glasses." As he says this, Komaru blinks before gasping.
"Oh, yeah! I completely forgot about that!" She scratches the back of her head. "Hehe, sorry."
The older boy rolls his eyes. "You shouldn't be apologizing to me." He then smiles softly. "Congrats on getting to her."
"I know, I know, I'm awesome!" Komaru smirks while pointing to herself.
"Well, Awesome-san, don't you forget to give her glasses back tomorrow!" The brunette boy smirks when she shows her tongue to him.
"Well, enough about me." Komaru starts kicking her legs. "How was your day?"
Suddenly Makoto's smirk disappears and he looks to the ground. "It was okay." He turns towards the computer once again. "Nothing interesting really happened."
The younger Naegi lifted a eyebrow. "Makoto." She says, making him look towards her again. "Okaa-san said that you looked really sad when you came home today." Komaru's eyes fill with worry. "Are you okay, Onii-chan?"
Makoto blinks, before smiling softly. "Yes, I'm okay, Komaru." He was about to say what's on his mind, but seeing that his sister was so happy about finally getting to Tsumugi, he decided to not say anything for now. "I'm just worried about my assignment." Pointing towards his computer screen, he closes his eyes and smiles.
Komaru looked at him for some seconds before sighing. "Well, if you say so." She jumps off his bed. "I'm going now, have to prepare my room for tomorrow." The girl goes for the door, but she stops just in front of it, before turning around and running back to where Makoto is. "Really, if anything is wrong." She blushes, before kissing him in the cheek. "You can tell me, okay Onii-chan?"
The brunette boy blushes, before his lips turn into a small smile. "Thanks Komaru."
The younger Naegi smiles before getting out of the room.
Once outside, Komaru puts a hand on her chest. "You're a terrible liar, Onii-chan." Her smile turns sad. "Something is bothering you."
Yet, Komaru knew that Makoto would always keep all of his troubles to himself. He was always like that, and she could only hope that he would eventually tell her what is wrong.
But for now, she will just keep cheering him on, like she always did.
Childhood Part X – Friendships – End
Another chapter done.
Makoto and Komaru get closer, their mother gets more suspicions and Tsumugi finally gets some well deserved friends.
Next chapter will be way more fun, at least I hope so.
Anyways, hope you all liked the chapter, see you around!