She could not believe what just happened. He had just left, but she had not left the position from which she was standing. She felt faint and was surprised she hadn't fallen over.
Oh, there we go.
She collapsed face first onto her bed, grabbed her pillow, and screamed into it as loud as she could, wearing out her throat in the process.
Seriously, what the hell happened?!
She could not believe… really any of her senses. What changed?
Could we… actually be friends? I mean, I don't think we're friends right now but there could be a chance, right?
She felt slighted by the fact that she felt that she had been relegated to a metaphorical generic love interest. She was still THE Kokomi Teruhashi after all. But then again, how can you be a love interest if it's unrequited? She didn't know him well enough to love him just yet, but she really liked what she saw under all the walls and prickly thorns.
If he wasn't such a tsundere then this wouldn't be happening, she whined.
Even though she noticed his expressions change, she did not expect something so world shattering. She would try not to think about it too much and enjoy the moments she did get with him. She couldn't wait to see him again, of course, but she decided she would leave him alone for a bit to respect his boundaries.
She smiled warmly. She saw him have what she was sure was genuine concern for her. She had even caught him staring at her. She wished she was a normal person more than ever now.
Is this what they experience when they spend time with their crush?
Her smile faded. If only she had realized how badly she wanted this earlier. She was only 17, but she was wrapped so tightly in her persona she feared that it could never be undone. But she had to try. It was pretty stupid and uncharacteristic of her to want to follow a guy wherever he went, but somehow he had changed her so much that she herself couldn't believe it. She had never felt so vulnerable. As much as it scared her, she felt more liberated than ever.
Stupid boy. You shouldn't have given me a chance, given me hope. You'll regret this.
_
Saiki sat at his desk with his trademark scowl. He had gone and done it again. He had said something out of character and was now regretting it. She was going to follow him around more than ever now. That said, he didn't hate being around her. Her presence was more tolerable than everyone else in his life save his mother.
Even though she had changed so much, she still somehow felt true to herself. He hadn't detected a hint of malice or duplicitousness the entire time they were together. She was very brave for subjecting herself to such scrutiny. She had spent her entire life with only one safe haven, and he made that completely irrelevant. Given the gravity of that concept, it felt so… easy for her to cast aside her mask. Why? He would be horrified if somebody could read his mind. He would mark that down on the ever-growing list of things he didn't understand about people that were not himself. He was annoyed that he let his guard down too.
If I'm not careful, I might change too, he chuckled.
Thankfully his parents were out on a date, so they weren't around to cause trouble for him. He may or may not have given them a little push that way to get them out of the house. Just another day in the life of a psychic.
Now, what would he do for the rest of the day? He hadn't played Monster Hunter in a bit, so he was excited to get back to that. But first, coffee jelly. He hadn't had dessert at the restaurant, so it was only right that he have it now. Nothing they had at that place would have held a candle to coffee jelly anyway. It had only been a few days since he last had the stuff, but he was more than suffering from the withdrawal. He took some out of the fridge and sat down to eat it.
As he peeled off the cover, he felt the succulent, sweet scent of succor waft along the chemoreceptors in his nose. He spent a minute drinking up the smell and admiring the placid, glossy surface of the object of his decadent desire. As an experienced coffee jelly enjoyer, he knew to take it slow and savor every moment he had with it. He spooned more and more into his mouth, each bite more pleasurable than the last.
Time had no meaning to him until his last spoonful of his heavenly dessert. He may have finished, but he was not satisfied. As usual, the coffee jelly kept him on the hook wanting more and more. He could have gone for many more rounds, but he knew he had to have some self restraint. He needed to be able to come back for more later. He longingly replayed his adventure with coffee jelly as he left to go upstairs, basking in the afterglow of his time with his waifu.
*Ding Dong*
His feelings of indescribable pleasure snapped into abject rage fast enough to give him whiplash.
How dare you interrupt my life's only pleasure, my muse, my first and only love?
"I'm not sure if he's home, Nendou. We should probably leave him alone," he heard Kuboyasu explain rationally.
Kuboyasu, you're a lifesaver!
"Nah, I know aibou's here. He always wants to hang out by himself. He's kind of a NEET," Nendou replied dismissively,
WHAT did you just call me?
Saiki felt his face twist into the most wicked look he had mustered in a while and his anger level rise well past 100%. The air around him glowed pink with tortuous psychic energy, growing in intensity with each passing millisecond.
"Luckily I found some nice coffee jelly lying around so I know if he smells it, he'll come running.'"
The door swung open and Saiki was faced with Kaidou, Kuboyasu, and he who must not be named.
"Told ya," Nendou said with his characteristic misleading expression.
Present my offering or I'll destroy this entire planet, Saiki snarled at him.
All of them burst out laughing at Saiki's petulant rage. If they had known the truth they would have knelt in fear before their omnipotent pink god.
Nendou handed Saiki a type of coffee jelly he had never seen before. It certainly did not strike him as the convenience store variety. It had been carefully packaged in a to-go box and protected by a plastic shell. It was still cold, so Saiki immediately left them standing at the threshold and went to refrigerate the stuff. As usual, he had no idea where Nendou found the coffee jelly. Psychometry only brought him to the factories where all the box's materials were made. He would not dare sully the jelly with his touch, even tomorrow when he could just restore it. Nay, He would not risk even the slightest chance to desecrate this hallowed dessert. Nendou was lucky as that was the only thing that could have prevented Saiki from burning him down where he stood and salting the earth that he stood on. He would enjoy this special treat by himself. There could be no distraction when he danced under the pale moonlight with his most sacred of treasures.
They let themselves in and started to talk about what they were doing at the table.
"Hey aibou let's go bowling."
"Bowling sounds fun. Haven't done that in a while. Be good to show my chops," Kuboyasu replied nonchalantly.
"Yeah, me either! It's been about 6 years since I've been!" Kaidou perked up.
What's with the sudden 4th wall breaking?
I don't particularly care what we do. Let's just get it over with, Saiki answered, having resigned himself to suffering this outing.
"Bowling it is then!" Kaidou shouted enthusiastically.
So loud.
They headed toward the bowling alley. The last time he had been bowling, he went with Teruhashi and absolutely destroyed her. That was during the time he was trying to make her lose interest in him, and yet another time she had foiled him by getting her moment at the very last second. He smirked. Maybe he should have gone along with it and saved himself a lot of trouble.
Apparently Kaidou was the first to suggest visiting Saiki. Kuboyasu had already been hanging out at Kaidou's house and they found Nendou wandering around with the coffee jelly in hand. Maybe if they kept talking he could figure out where Nendou got that coffee jelly from.
Unfortunately they switched subjects, and Saiki couldn't figure out a way to get them to get back to the one he was interested in.
"Shun and I have been playing some fighting games recently, and he's been showing me the ropes. It really takes me back," Kuboyasu replied as he reminisced about the good old days.
So that's what they were doing at Kaidou's place. How do fighting games take you back to street fights? Didn't you transfer to "go straight"?
"Well, luckily due to my experience with real world CQC, fighting games were a natural fit for me!" Kaidou said, raising his bandaged hand in a menacing pose.
You aren't Solid Snake, just admit you practiced a lot so you wouldn't lose.
"Heh, I'll let him have this one. It's cool seeing him get excited like this," Kuboyasu thought.
"I had to practice so much because Nendou kept beating me with just jump kicks!" Kaidou complained.
"But now that I know that Pot's j.K comes out frame 10 and has 6 active frames, I can block high and punish the the 15 recovery frames with a DP heheheheHAHAHAHAHA!" Kaidou laughed in an extremely dastardly manner, so diabolical in fact that it would have discredited all of his attempts to play the hero in the future.
You really learned all that just to beat Nendou? Then again, beating cheese requires you to be significantly better than the person using it. Even as a mind reader I can't do anything against someone using the same move every time let alone against Nendou.
"I just hope Nendou never learns to use PB. I'll be a twitter Chipp if he does!"
I have no idea what you're talking about. However, I think you're safe to assume that Nendou will neither learn how to do that nor how to use twitter.
"Gwahaha, runt, it was so easy to beat you using my advanced strategies!" Nendou leaned back and let out a satisfied guffaw.
Kaidou and Nendou started to argue progressively louder with Kaidou prattling on about frame data, Nendou laughing at Kaidou, and Kuboyasu trying unsuccessfully to defuse the situation until they got to the alley. Even in the lane it was obvious that Kaidou was still mad at Nendou and watched his every move with seething rage.
When Nendou picked up a 6.8 kg ball, Kaidou had a very stupid idea. When Nendou stepped up to bowl he threw the bowling ball like a basketball at the pins and nailed a strike. His victory was short lived, however, as the staff angrily corrected him for nearly destroying their lane.
Kaidou picked up the same ball when it came back in the ball return, or at least he tried to. He was straining incredibly hard to bring the ball to the lane, let alone bowl it. Kaidou attempted to use two hands to throw the ball down the lane but only succeeded in dropping the ball on his foot. Kaidou let out a pathetic scream as the ball crushed some of the bones in his foot. Saiki sighed, walked up, and cast restoration on Kaidou. Neither Nendou nor Kuboyasu were doctors so they thought it was just a bruise. Kaidou assumed that he had awakened a healing factor.
You're very lucky I was here.
Now it was Kuboyasu's turn to bowl. He drew the 6.8 kg ball that had crushed Kaidou's foot from the duel disk shaped return and stared at it with burning intensity. A certain pharaoh with ridiculous red and black hair would be impressed by his level of focus, but not as much with his lack of theatrics.
"Man, this takes me back as well. Reminds me of swinging my favorite sign at the Ripper gang," Kuboyasu remembered fondly.
Why does everything remind you of being a gangster?
Kuboyasu's footwork as he approached the lane was a bit sloppy but practically effortless in comparison to Kaidou's. He was a bit inaccurate as expected for someone so out of practice, but was able to zero in his aim by the time they were done playing.
They bowled 2 rounds. Kuboyasu placed first using the only possible means of defeating Nendou: believing in the heart of the cards (or less glamorously, consistent bowling). Nendou placed second because the ball connecting to the pins always resulted in a strike, but he couldn't figure out how to bowl properly. Hairo would be very upset if he heard about this. Saiki bowled for 3rd because he wanted to stay as unremarkable as possible and because losing to Kaidou would have been embarrassing. Kaidou placed last with a whopping 30 pins each round because he insisted on throwing balls that were way too heavy for him even after the 6.8 kg. He was too embarrassed to admit that he could only effectively bowl the 1.9 kg ball.
Afterward they went and picked up some pizza. Despite being utterly humiliated, Kaidou was in high spirits because he was happy to spend time with his friends. The 3 of them were chatting away about a manga they had all read recently. Despite the trainwreck that the last week had been, he remembered what he had learned right before he faced the reality of his existence.
As Saiki watched them, his face teased out a mischievous grin.
This kind of trouble isn't so bad.
