🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨
🌸Chapter 54: Sublimation, Part Two🎨
Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
Author's note:
ED: Things move down a path that nobody wanted.
The new canon chapter was just another waste of time and space that a lot of people waited three weeks to see. Another do-nothing chapter where nothing worthwhile happens. Fluff ≠ substance. Just more teasing from Nanashi. Nanashi has no more respect for his audience than Nagatoro has for Naoto. She's smitten, but she's a cunt for drilling it into him—even if she amends her side of it later—that everything that might move in a positive direction for him is "practice". It's a cunty thing to do, and I don't care how anxious she is. And I hate that word, the C-word, and I don't like to swear outside of my story itself, but c'mon. To the young men out there: if you meet a girl like Nagatoro irl, turn around, and walk away.
Onto South Park!
I enjoyed South Park Season 14. I don't normally binge watch TV, but I did for this. PS even directed me towards the uncut episodes of "200" and "201" a bunch of "humorless pricks" decided to "butcher and ban". There were episodes making fun of NASCAR, medical marijuana, New Jersey, misplaced outrage, and superheroes. We even got a Towlie episode, and a special needs child got corked by a freshwater shark.
I'm almost halfway through Season 15 too!
Ask us anything, and we'll add a Q&A section in the next chapter. I would be happy if you ask questions.
Please enjoy what I wrote.
Monday, July 15, 2018
As smoothly as things around the rest of the world might've been getting along, the art room at Kazehaya High wasn't keeping in mesh.
"Stand up, Nagatoro-senpai," Hana Sunomiya demanded.
Looming over Hayase Nagatoro, the older girl seated, the young artiste was stony-faced.
Nagatoro was as flummoxed as anyone else. "…What…?"
The response wasn't rude, just uncertain, but Hana wasn't permitting it.
"Stand up, Nagatoro-senpai," she repeated. "Stand up."
Nagatoro seemed to be in no hurry to do so. "…?"
Oh, fuck! Naoto Hachioji wanted to jump in the river and drown. How can this be happening?! Has Sunomiya REALLY figured out what was going on?!
Maki Gamou and Yoshi Yamazaki surely had no idea what was manifesting.
"Hanacchi…?" Gamo-chan barely whispered, her concern over Naoto and his "bonked knee" morphing into muddlement.
Yoshi… was leaning towards flight; there was no "fight" to be had, and her body was preparing to crap out a polka-dotted egg.
This can't be happening…! Naoto's stomach seemed to be full of lead, and his heart sank to somewhere in his left thigh. Please, God, don't let this happen!
But as much as Naoto prayed for deliverance, as lost as Gamo-chan felt, and as terrified as Yoshi was, none of it did any good, and Hana generously exuded the same energy that they all knew of her older cousin, Sana, the former Art Club president, when she was incensed.
To the room, it seemed obvious what might happen, but it was also not so obvious.
Would Hana throw down?! Nobody knew.
What's going on?! Only Naoto knew, and he still had no idea WTF was about to occur.
"You won't stand?" Hana asked.
Nagatoro was wary, but she wasn't standing. "…"
"Fine." Without even trying, Hana seemed bigger.
Her words sounded grounded, but they were quite plain, even vicious.
They were words that Naoto might never even fathom hearing from his kohai, not even if everything on Earth turned upside-down, the world reversed.
"I think Sakura-senpai was correct, Nagatoro-senpai," she advocated. "Maybe all of us being together is a problem. So, why don't you leave?"
"…?!" The girl in question balked.
"…!" "…!" "…!" Naoto, Gamo-chan, and Yoshi all gave passable echoes of balkiness.
And the three, outside looking in, could tell—as sure as night's dark and day's light—that Hana was deadly serious.
"…" The busty kohai was as serious as stage 5 brain cancer, and there were only four stages to begin with.
The foreboding vibes projecting from Hana weren't missed by a soul in there, but Nagatoro's bafflement edged out what she sensed.
"What did you…?" Cocking an eyebrow, her lip curling on one side, Nagatoro couldn't have heard this kid correctly. "What did you just say to me?"
"You need to leave… Hayase Nagatoro," Hana said uncompromisingly; her question hadn't been a question. "I want you out of this room… now."
Did she just call her by her…?
Nagatoro glared back at her kohai, her hair beginning to stand on end. "…?!"
Oh, my God… Naoto's spine re-tingled, and the collar of his shirt was far past the point of saturation.
Yoshi gripped the seat of her chair, apparently hanging on for dear life, her eyes wide and twitchy.
Only one of them had it in her to intervene, and it took some doing.
Gamo-chan eked, eking closer, "…H-Hanacchi… Why don't we—?"
"Please, be quiet, Gamou-senpai." Hana's eyes shifted her way, and the big girl halted dead in her tracks.
Someone politely told the Maki to shut up!
"…!" Gamo-chan was thunderstruck, but she didn't shut up at once. "Hanacchi… what's going on…?"
Hana politely said, "Stay back, please."
And the young girl redirected her gaze to Nagatoro, the older girl's disorientation quickly turning to outrage.
The air changed, fetid with electricity and whiffs of ozone.
Nagatoro scoffed, positively indignant but seemingly entertained, "I can't believe what I'm hearing…"
"…!" To Naoto (and probably to Gamo-chan and Yoshi), this didn't seem like the thing to say.
Maybe Nagatoro was too dumbfounded by this swing in "Hanacchi" to react in any other way…
Unmoving and unmoved, Hana stared her down. "…"
"That's no way to talk to your senpai, is it~?" Nagatoro incited from her chair.
"…" Hana showed nothing.
"You're not the president of the Art Club!" Nagatoro swanked. "You're just 'Sunomiya-chan'~."
This time, Hana, unblinking, lowered her gaze, death on her features. "…"
If looks could kill…
"Now, maybe if the president had something to say, I might just listen~," Nagatoro crooned, glancing at Naoto, set in the fringe of her vision.
He knew an imaginary fist twisting at and crushing his balls. "…!"
Stop this, stop this, stop this, stop this…!
He fully expected Hana to turn to him for help, as she had—not long ago—when Sunday brunch came to light, but she didn't.
Hana kept up, a fatal edge to her voice, "Get out. Get out of our Art Club."
Naoto had never given much thought to whether Nagatoro predominantly had courage or was a coward. He didn't think a whole lot of it now either, but he knew fear when he saw it.
Nagatoro, as if a switch had gone off, was thrown off-balance, and she faltered, "…"
She had nothing to say!
And that, as has been established, was unusual.
Naoto and Yoshi were still too floored to say a thing, but Gamo-chan wasn't.
Legitimately worried and even a little scared, she got in there, half-blocking Hana's path to Nagatoro, putting hands on her. "What's going on, Hanacchi? Seriously, what's happening?"
Hana didn't mince words.
As level as it came out, the contempt was clear, "Nagatoro hurt Hachioji-senpai."
Gamo-chan did a take. The lack of the honorific "-senpai" was just as stunning as the accusation.
"She what?" The tall girl stopped short.
It also flabbergasted Naoto, the suffix being omitted!
Hana explained, caring little that both parties of the "incident" were right there, "Nagatoro admitted to doing something before Hachioji-senpai shook the table. She stomped on his foot. I thought Hachioji-senpai was favoring his foot, but now I'm sure of it. She hurt our senpai… out of sheer meanness."
Nagatoro recoiled, Gamo-chan's head swiveling her way. "I…!"
This was nothing compared to Naoto's sudden urge to leap from the window!
Hana added, focusing on the perpetrator, "It's not as important, Nagatoro, but I no longer forgive you for my earlier work being ruined. What you did was no 'accident', and it wasn't Hachioji-senpai's fault for reacting as he did."
Recalling clemency?!
Floundering, Nagatoro attempted to say something, trying to find a way out, "…Uh… I…"
Hana stepped down, having said what she wanted.
Gamo-chan sprang into action, making the short trip to Naoto. "Paisen, let me see!"
"See?" he gasped.
"Let me see!" she ordered. "Show me your foot."
This was the last thing he wanted…
"Gamo-chan, I'm o—" he was willing to try anything.
"Let me see!" she didn't relent.
Too upset and overwhelmed to refuse, Naoto spun on his butt, resting the soles of his shoes well outside of the cover of the able. "…"
He'd taken a grope at the bruise, but he hadn't looked at it.
What he saw made him wince, and he was ALREADY dealing with it.
In addition to the lemony bruise, its expected yellow/brown color covered by his sock, stretched with the swelling, a few specks of blood dotted the white fabric.
The skin had been broken, but that may have been the least of his worries.
"This could be busted, Paisen!" Gamo-chan uttered, incredulous of his manner. "Why didn't you say something?!"
He didn't know… He LITERALLY didn't know why he didn't say something; he knew well enough that he was hurt!
And he showed it, shrinking. "…"
"Hayacchi!" Gamo-chan growled, steering towards her best friend. "What is WRONG with you?!"
"…" Nagatoro grimaced, overshadowed by the Amazon.
Naoto reasoned that Gamo-chan could frighten Nagatoro as easily as anyone else.
"You coulda broken something!" the Amazon continued scolding. "Seriously, you could've broken his foot!"
Can't we just pretend this never happened…? Naoto knew there was no hope of that.
"We need to get you to the nurse's office, Paisen." Gamo-chan grabbed his hand. "I'll help you."
"Nope," his stupid, monosyllabic answer came almost robotically.
"'Nope'?!" she exasperated.
Hana spoke up, despite having let Gamo-chan "take over", "Hachioji-senpai, you need to go with her. I'll go too."
"…I'm okay…" Naoto lied.
"You idiot!" Gamo-chan wasn't buying it. "You need to get this checked out!"
She tried to pull him up, but he refused to move.
Again, she tried, and this time, Naoto gripped the table.
Dragging him to standing wouldn't be much of a struggle, but…
Her face fell. "Paisen…"
He was locked away, willfully stuck in his own little world.
Yoshi was stumped, trying to blend in with her surroundings. "…!" "…"
They didn't know what to do…
Gamo-chan was willing to try, hoping he might come to reason.
Maybe she needed to tone it down.
"Paisen… it might not be a break, but we gotta check," she was almost begging him. "You need to get it looked at. There's still over an hour before the English test, so c'mon."
"…" he mumbled something to himself.
Gamo-chan zeroed in. "What?"
"…" He held his peace.
By now, even Gamo-chan was stumped.
But Hana had this. "Hachioji-senpai…?"
Her tenor tore a hole in his heart, and he lifted his gaze her way. "…!"
"Hachioji-senpai…" she whimpered, clasping her hands. "You're hurt… Why did you lie?"
Naoto had been pretty down recently, but this sent his fortitude crashing to a new low.
There was… NOTHING more wrenching than knowing he'd let down his kohai, and it pulled at his guts to the point of spillage.
He couldn't lie, not this time; in a small voice, he said, "I… didn't want to be any trouble… I didn't want anyone to get in trouble…"
"…!" The girls in earshot tensed.
Naoto mumbled, "I just wanted everyone to get along… and quit fighting…"
Yoshi didn't hear, but Gamo-chan and Hana did.
The two were crushed.
Naoto got a gander at the grief in the girls' eyes, and he grabbed at straws.
"But, really!" He fell back to subverting their efforts. "I'm fine! Let's just… just…"
…
"Paisen…?" Gamo-chan reached for him, her voice shaky.
Hana clutched her hands so tightly, her tendons popped out. "…!"
…
"Why don't you just leave him be?" Nagatoro, tired, annoyed, and neglected a moment, made a careless show of rolling her eyes. "He says he's fine."
… … …
… …
…
"…?!..." Something in Gamo-chan uncorked itself.
…
… …
… … …
Naoto wasn't sure what had possessed Nagatoro to say something like that. He took one look at Gamo-chan, and he knew… Nagatoro had made a mistake… a BAD one…
The tall one, hair and eyes like fire, revolved to the petite one, who wanted nothing more than for this whole episode to end.
And Nagatoro visibly realized her lapse, the awareness spreading like liquefied shit flowing downhill.
Oh, no… A tightness seized Naoto, squeezing the breath out of him.
Gamo-chan fumed, bearing down, "Goddamn you…"
Nagatoro drew back in her chair. "…?!"
"Goddamn you!" her friend all but shrieked.
Snatching up the opened bag of pretzels on the table, she hurled it at Nagatoro's face with a terrific sidearm throw.
Nagatoro almost got her hands up.
Thwack!
And the pretzels flew in every direction, salty crumbs bombarding her face. "…!"
Holy shit! Three minds thought the exact same thing.
Clambering, an animal fear in her, Nagatoro half-slid/half-fell from the chair, and she crawled backwards, never turning her back. "…!"
What was happening?! The same minds didn't know.
Gamo-chan didn't advance any further, but she pulled the ugliest face that Naoto had ever seen on her.
She bellowed, admonishing, "What is wrong with you lately?!"
Where was this coming from all of a sudden?! Naoto's heart was pounding like a bass drum.
"What is your problem, Hayacchi?!" Gamo-chan fumed. "Why are you being so terrible?!"
Naoto took to fretting, stealing peeks towards the door, not that it was uncalled for. Someone's gonna hear this!
"You know what?! I've had enough of this shit!" Gamo-chan railed on, raining down reproach upon Nagatoro. "I'm tired of the way you've been acting! You're being all passive-aggressive!"
Seriously, what's going on with you, Gamo-chan?! Naoto saw no reason for this extreme.
Gamo-chan had snapped! These two girls were supposed to be best friends!
"You treat Hanacchi like garbage, and all she wanted was to be friends!" There seemed to be no end to Gamo-chan's ire. "She really cared about you, but you didn't care! You ruined her art, and you ruined our lunch!"
Naoto prayed that she'd let up, and his chest constricted all the more.
She was venting everything, and it was only a matter of time until—
"And you hurt Paisen!" she declared in spite of his prayers. "Why did you do that?!"
Nagatoro had made it to the wall, and she had nowhere else to go, shying as far away as her limbs could take her. "Eep…!"
Gamo-chan didn't have to reach far for the tissue box, and she threw that too, so in a state that she missed the smaller girl by a meter. "You're so mean!"
Where's Sakura when you need her?! Naoto was drowning in this awfulness.
But even HER skills of arbitration might not've quelled this mess.
"You're so mean that he won't even speak up for himself!" Gamo-chan had yet more, of her senpai. "He won't defend himself!"
Oof! Naoto felt a little less like a man than he sometimes did, but his apprehensions about his manhood were small potatoes.
What Gamo-chan had just said, that stuck in Nagatoro's craw for some reason, and he could see it.
She was pissed and ready to piss right back!
He saw something else…
She was torn… HORRIBLY torn… between one thing and another…
He was sure of it, though he wasn't sure of why or what…
She was ready to bolt, unable to keep this up!
So, following the path of least resistance, she changed the subject.
After all, she was out of space, figuratively and literally, and pushing back beat rolling to the side.
Nagatoro reached, "What about you?!"
"What about me…?" Gamo-chan rumbled, hesitating a second.
Nagatoro pointed at her, getting her legs beneath her. "You're the one attacking me, Gamo-chan!"
"Because you're being a bitch!" she retorted. "You're being an awful, passive-aggressive bitch!"
"You wanna talk about being passive-aggressive?!" Nagatoro shot back. "You're being passive-aggressive!"
"What are you talking about?!" Gamo-chan huffed.
Hatred dripped, "You're all getting moist about Sunomiya… and then you're rubbing it in my face…!"
"Leave her outta this!"
"Why?! You can't!" Nagatoro sprang up. "You all keep shaking your boobs at each other, thinking you're so great!"
To make her point, she displayed her chest, a defiant scowl marring her features.
"We're just having fun, you idiot!" Gamo-chan puffed up like a cobra. "You got no idea what you're talking about!"
"You don't!" Nagatoro appeared a mongoose.
They were the only two people on Earth at that moment…
"And you keep giving me the cold shoulder!" Nagatoro volleyed, her eyes screwed shut as she hollered, balling her fists. "You keep pushing me out!"
Gamo-chan shot right back, "You're the one that won't even TRY to be friends with someone that WANTS to be your friend! And I don't know WHY she would!"
"…!" Nagatoro didn't like that. "You…!"
"Get it, Hayacchi! People make new friends! And sometimes they're better endowed than you! And they're fun, and they actually respect others! You're just jealous, and you're scared!"
Nagatoro sputtered, "Scared?!"
"Yeah!" Gamo-chan burst forth. "You flat-as-a-wall coward!"
Shit! Naoto thought the Apocalypse might've been nigh.
"I'm the coward?!" Nagatoro squawked.
"Fuckin' A! And flat! You're jealous and flat!"
"FLAT?! Fuck you!" Nagatoro screamed, taking a step. "And I'm not jealous of anyone's boobs!"
Not a soul bought that assertion, especially Naoto…
"Yeah, you're jealous!" Gamo-chan thrust her breasts forward.
"What, those stupid cow-udders you grew?!" Nagatoro derided, eyeballing them. "Why would anyone want those things?! They ruined you as an athlete!"
Gamo-chan tottered as if she'd slapped. "…!"
Nagatoro leered, bearing her teeth. "…~!"
…
Naoto, Hana, and Yoshi didn't need any special expertise in the area to know.
Something changed in the room, then and there…
There'd been some changes already had that day, for better or worse, more than a couple of times, but…
Something was wrong in the room… REALLY wrong… Something sick was floating to the surface…
The two girls surveyed one another, as if they'd never seen each other before… as if they were not only strangers, but enemies.
A new sort of Hell opened up, all bets were off, and their resentments poured out.
…
Nagatoro took another step forward.
"You were whining about 'one more thing' you didn't need~?" Blood, nothing, she was out for slaughter. "Those tits are definitely one more thing you didn't need~. You were already clumsy enough~!"
Still wobbly, Gamo-chan couldn't quite recover her poise, stunned, covering her boze. "Ah…!"
"Ha!" Nagatoro went for the jugular. "Look at you… What Rabi-chan said? It's true, and you know it!"
A stricken light shone in Gamo-chan's eyes, and her lip quivered. "…!"
Was she about to…? Naoto immediately became very afraid for her.
He was sure she'd break down and cry. Her nightmare would come to life, and she'd fall to pieces in front of her two oldest friends.
Turning his attention to Yoshi and Hana, he found them distressed, having retreated to Hana's corner, unable to do a thing besides gawp.
He couldn't do much more than them… Some man HE was… but he felt STUCK.
Nagatoro drove onward, moving on Gamo-chan, who was now retreating, "You coulda shut her up before she knew what hit her, and you just stood there~!"
"…?!" The taller girl was withdrawing, but she was stopped by solid mass, forced into the opposite wall.
"…~" panting, Nagatoro bore into her.
She's gonna cry! Naoto couldn't stomach seeing this.
But, to her credit, Gamo-chan didn't cry.
She was very hurt though, and she hung her head. "Do you really think that of me? That I'd just beat up Rabi-chan like that?"
There was some indication as to what Nagatoro thought, refusing to let up, "It wouldn't be the first time."
"…!"
"…~"
"…That was a long time ago…" Gamo breathed.
Nagatoro shook her head. "Not really~…"
"…"
"…"
And then, Gamo-chan said something that stirred Naoto to his foundation.
It took her a moment, but it came out, "I'm… tired of people thinking I'm scary… that I'm just a big, stupid, scary girl… I'm tired of people thinking that…"
...
Oh, no, no, please, God help me…! Naoto exclaimed in his heart, his head full of static.
…
This was… BEYOND… and there didn't seem anywhere worse this could go!
He didn't have it in him to check on Yoshi and Hana, but he decided this would be the end of it.
This bad dream would be over, and maybe he'd wake up in his bed, the whole day having been nothing more than some delusion!
But he was awake.
Even so, he was sure that this would finally stay Nagatoro… but it only emboldened her further. And it sickened HIM.
And that crap about things not getting any worse?
More fool, Naoto.
Nagatoro smirked, cutting where she knew it would hurt, "Well, go do something about it~. Or maybe you can't. It's not my fault you're so insecure~…"
"…!" Gamo-chan cringed, teetering on the brink.
"I don't know why you'd let all that get to you…" Nagatoro ridiculed. "It wouldn't bother me~."
Gamo-chan got some wind back and yelled, "Because nobody would ever say that to you!"
"Pfft!" Nagatoro blew this off.
"…"
"…"
Gamo-chan pulled deep.
"Hayacchi… you could have any guy you wanted…" she mourned. "You have guys that want to be your friend… that wanna date you… and you don't care…"
"You can have those losers~." What did she care? "I don't want any of 'em!"
"…"
"…"
Gamo-chan murmured, "You're scared."
"I'm scared…?" Nagatoro waxed sarcasm.
"You're scared," Gamo-chan insisted.
"You think I'm scared?! You're scared!" Nagatoro wasn't having it. "You've always been scared. You're scared of every boy you've ever met~. You're even scared of Senpai~! No wonder you can't get a guy~."
Gamo-chan lurched, devastated at the onslaught of hurtful truths. "…!"
Nagatoro mercilessly swarmed the advantage, holding the tough girl on the ropes, "Who are you to talk about being jealous?! YOU'RE the jealous one! You've been like that since middle school, and you just let everyone here know it!"
…
Naoto's ears were ringing by now, his body wracked with chills. God… PLEASE…
But God was silent.
…
Gamo-chan, hands bunched near her sternum, took in a great, shuddering breath and blew it out.
She seemed to realize something, casting her eyes to the floor.
"I don't know if you mean half the stuff you're saying or if you don't, but that's not it," she said. "I know what this is about…"
"…?!" Nagatoro hadn't been sure what to expect.
She surely wasn't prepared for the next.
Gamo-chan gulped but forced it out, "Hayacchi… how can you treat Paisen like that?"
"Like what?" Nagatoro reacted unthinkingly, gaining a little pink near the cheekbones.
"…" The Amazon was expressionless.
"…?!" Raising her guard, Nagatoro felt a shiver.
"Maybe, I'm…" Gamo-chan swallowed hard. "No… I am… I am… I'm jealous…"
Neutralized a few seconds, Nagatoro froze. "…?!"
"Yeah, I am…" Taking strength, Gamo-chan pushed back. "I don't get you… I don't… It doesn't make any sense to me. Do you have any idea how lucky you are…?"
"…!" There was no quick escape for the farm-tanned girl.
"You have a guy who really wants to be your friend…" Gamo-chan mused sadly. "And you treat him like this?"
Nagatoro faded, suddenly unsure what to do with her hands, "Gamo-chan…?"
"Do you really not care?", her face changing, she asked with the brokenness of one who'd had faith in something her entire life, only to see it erode to nothingness.
Stammering, Nagatoro said, "H-hey… That's not—"
"You rag on him all the time…" Gamo-chan stated this certainty. "You make fun of him, like, all the time…"
"You make fun," Nagatoro retorted, fumbling.
She conceded, "I do, but… this is different."
Uncertain, Nagatoro stood her ground… for the moment. "…?"
…
Something was about to happen… The familiar sinking feeling in Naoto's stomach told him so.
Gamo-chan plummeted again, losing the steadiness she'd held onto for a short time.
"How could you…?" her trembling voice fractured.
"…?!" Nagatoro eased off, taking a step back.
"Hayacchi…" Gamo-chan fought to maintain. "How could you be so awful to him last Saturday?"
This juddered the other girl. "…?!"
It juddered Naoto! He never expected to hear that from her.
Things had moved to a new level, past any upset over his "mere" foot injury…
…
"Do you have any idea how much that hurt him?" Gamo-chan persisted.
Both angry and surprised, Nagatoro yipped, immediately going red, "What did he tell you?!"
"He didn't need to tell me much…" She shook her head. "I don't need to know exactly what happened, but it hurt him."
Nagatoro abruptly spun to Naoto, and he beheld her crimson, miserable face, directed at him, a mixture of shock and of… betrayal? HIS betrayal?!
Or he could've just been nuts…
It sent his scalp prickling, and he gasped for a breath, his head swimming…
…
"…I talked to him the day before, that Friday…" Gamo-chan hadn't even bothered with all else happening around them. "He was so happy you two would get to hang out… and you hurt him…"
Naoto supposed that Yoshi would've been the last to know about that lousy day; he'd told Sakura and Hana within 18 hours… Now, they ALL knew…!
…
Gamo-chan visibly wrestled with some unseen force, but whatever way it went, she wondered, "Do you know how much he cares about you? Do you have any idea…?"
Fwump! Naoto nearly fell off his chair, smarting like he'd been thrown across a judo mat.
Oh, shit! His pupils dialated, and his heart raced. She COULDN'T know! She DOESN'T know, does she?!
Silently begging for reprieve, he knew he couldn't stop this, if what he thought was happening was indeed happening.
Did Gamo-chan know that he was in love with Nagatoro…?!
…
Taking a shaky breath, Gamo-chan beseeched, "Hayacchi… do you know how much he cares about all of us?"
She didn't know?!
Phew. Naoto's ass unclenched, but no one was out of the woods yet.
Nagatoro, in response to all this, had blanched.
For her part, she couldn't answer, save in single syllables, her gaze darting around, searching for any breakout, "I… uh…"
"Why, Hayacchi…?" Gamo-chan repeated.
She succeeded, quaking, in getting out, "…Why, what…?"
It was less of a matter of "why" and more a matter of—
"What is it with him…?" Gamo-chan had to know. "Do you think anything of him? Hayacchi…?"
"What…?!" she squeaked.
"Hayacchi…" Gamo-chan needed to know. "I can't even tell anymore… Is he…? Is he even your friend…?"
Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are welcome!