Fucking Monday.
After spending half the night tossing and turning and not, say, sleeping, my alarm finally went off.
Now I’m in the school entryway, standing by my half-open locker and trying to remember if I’m holding my indoor shoes or my outdoor shoes.
Yeah. It’s gonna be one of those days.
“Jesus, Sakuragi, you look like hell.”
I glance over to see Kawabe-kun leaning against his own locker a small ways down. His arms are folded, and there’s a baseball bag slung over his shoulder.
Mizuno-kun follows close behind—together as always.
Mizuno-kun adjusts his glasses a bit and squints at me like I’m one of his broken figurines.
“…Wow,” he says with an exaggerated ponder. “Yeah, that’s bad.”
“Did you even sleep?” Kawabe-kun asks.
“I slept!”
For like a couple hours or something, but I did.
Kawabe-kun cocks a disbelieving eyebrow.
“Uh-huh.”
Ugh.
Okay.
Ignoring him.
Now about these shoes—
“You sure you didn’t die in your sleep?” Kawabe-kun continues prodding. “You look a little…” And he makes a tongue-lolling face that I thinkis supposed to be a corpse or a zombie or something?
“Gee, thanks,” I mutter.
Behind me, another locker slams shut with a metallic clang.
“Wait—he’s alive?”
A feminine voice cuts in, followed shortly by a small squeeze to my arm as Hina-chan walks up from behind me.
Her bottle-blonde hair is in double buns this morning—the latest in a long line of subtle outfit rebellions. Together with her trademark warm-but-smug grin, the total effect screams ‘confidence’ in a way I could never pull off.
I turn to smile at her.
She turns to… well, look a little horrified, actually.
“Or…barely alive?” she mumbles.
Oh goddammit.
“Well, good morning to you too,” I deadpan.
She grins, like that was the right answer.
Then her grin drops a bit as she turns me towards her.
She touches the back of her hand to my forehead.
“Seriously, though. Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?”
She’s so close, and I feel my cheeks heating a bit. Hopefully the guys don’t notice.
“I… I’m fine, I think. Just didn’t sleep well.”
Kawabe-kun clears his throat. “Do you two, uh, need a minute alone?”
“Hmm.” Hina-chan turns to Kawabe-kun while staying indecently close to me. “I don’t need privacy if Sakuragi doesn’t.” She touches my face again—my cheek this time—while giving me a predatory once-over.
My face flushes again, and this time it’s definitely noticeable.
Mizuno-kun stifles a laugh. Kawabe-kun does zero stifling.
Hina-chan steps back, and the tension drains from my shoulders a little.
“Sorry!” she laughs. “You’re just so cute when you’re flustered.”
She thinks for a second.
“Well, when you’re flustered and not half-dead.”
I open my mouth to retort but the warning bell rings down the hall.
The room immediately erupts into motion.
Lockers slam.
Someone sprints for the stairs.
I search frantically for my shoes only to realize that I’m still holding them.
“Come on,” Kawabe-kun says to Mizuno-kun, pushing off the lockers. “If we’re late again Sato-sensei’s gonna kill us.”
“I’m still not convinced she’s not a secret kaiju,” the other boy laughs, and they both start toward the stairs.
Hina-chan lingers, but it’s clear from her posture that she doesn’t have much time either, so she keeps it brief.
“Fujimura?” she asks under her breath.
I nod.
“Thought so. I’d love to hear all about it, but now is really not the time. Are you free after school?”
“I’m actually not sure. Job has me on call today, so they might need me to come in.”
She scrunches her face. “When will you know?”
“They should text me either way.”
“So when will you know?”
“End of the school day!” I laugh. It’s kind of cute when she gets impatient about things.
She rolls her eyes, but she’s laughing too.
It feels… nice. Normal.
Finally, she waves me goodbye and starts heading for the stairs.
“Okay, just let me know!” she calls and then she’s gone.
At that, I finally get a second to look at the shoes that have all but become attached to my hands, and I decide that, yes, these are indeed my indoor shoes. I quickly put them on and deposit my outdoor shoes in my locker.
I run up the stairs and make a quick detour to the vending machines to grab a coffee and just barely make it in time for the second bell.
“Nice of you to join us, Sakuragi-kun,” Sato-sensei says. “Please take your seat so we can begin.”
The rest of the class is already seated, and I notice only two desks open: mine and… Fujimura’s.
…Huh.
Class ends, and Kawabe-kun is already halfway out the door.
“Practice!” he calls over his shoulder.
“Do your beeeest!” Mizuno-kun calls back, almost certainly too quietly for Kawabe-kun to hear it over the rising chatter.
Kawabe-kun and the sports guys are always the first ones out of the classroom, followed shortly by the diehard club people, but Mizuno-kun and I linger in the classroom a bit longer. We of the Walking-Home Club do things in our own sweet time.
“Well,” I say, standing and stretching my arms overhead. “We survived.”
“Well, one of us did,” Mizuno-kun says.
“Huh?”
“With you, one cannot kill what is already dead.”
“Oh ha ha. You’re never gonna let that go, are you?”
“Nope,” he grins.
I pack my books and flip my chair onto my desk before following Mizuno-kun out the door.
Once in the hallway, I catch up to him and start guiding us towards Hina-chan’s classroom.
Mizuno-kun must realize what I’m doing—as soon as I start, he glances sideways at me.
“…So.”
Sigh.
He raises his hands defensively. “I wasn’t gonna ask!”
“You absolutely were.”
“…Okay, maybe a little.”
When I don’t respond, he continues.
“So, um…you were there on Saturday, right? At the game?”
“Uh, yeah,” I say. “Mom made me go.”
“Ah. I was wondering why I hadn’t seen you before.”
“…Yep.”
We make it to the Class 1-3 doorway and lean on the opposite wall while we wait.
There’s a short, awkward pause while we both think of something to say.
Finally, we both speak.
“Is Fu—”“Did the—”
We share a brief laugh before Mizuno-kun gestures for me to continue.
I nod my assent.
“That show you like—the new episode aired last night, right?”
It takes him a second to take the bait.
Then his face lights up.
“Oh! You mean the new Galactic Knights? It was so good.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! The animation budget clearly went into the fight scene this time, so the dialogue scenes looked a little rough, but oh my god it was worth it!”
“They always do that,” I laugh as if I know what the fuck I’m talking about.
Mizuno-kun doesn’t seem to mind.
“Yeah! Oh! And they introduced this new character that might secretly be a traitor!”
“Oh, shit,” I grin.
I’ve never actually seen the show, but it’s one of Mizuno-kun’s favorite things, so it’s worth it to let him rant a bit.
I’m doing my best to fill my quota of “yep”s and “mhmm”s and “oh shit”s when my brain tunes into a familiar feminine voice from the classroom.
I turn instinctively.
For a second, I think I’ve made eye contact.
Except it’s not Hina-chan.
It’s Shizuka-san.
Her eyes meet mine as she leaves the classroom, and her expression immediately sours.
Then she turns away and just glides down the hallway.
…Right.
A trio of girls walks out next, Hina-chan bringing up the rear and laughing at something one of her friends said.
And just like that, the hallway feels a little brighter.
She notices me almost immediately, but instead of breaking away right away, she lifts a finger to me in a quick little one second gesture.
I nod.
She turns back to her friends.
“Okay, okay, text me when you get home,” one of them says.
“Yeah, yeah,” Hina-chan laughs. “I will.”
“And don’t forget tomorrow!”
“I won’t!”
Another quick round of goodbyes later, she slips out of the circle and crosses the hallway toward us.
By the time she reaches the wall where Mizuno-kun and I are leaning, she’s already smiling.
“Hey!” she says to both of us.
Mizuno-kun lifts a hand in greeting.
“Yo.”
She gives a little wave to Mizuno-kun before turning towards me.
“Hey!” she says. “Did work get back to you yet?”
Oh.
Right.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and check my notifications.
“Uhhh, no. Doesn’t look like it.”
“Hmm. You said they usually get back to you by the end of the school day, right?”
“Usually, yeah. Maybe they still will?”
“Maybe,” Hina-chan shrugs. “We can make plans anyways, though, right?”
“But… what if they ask me to come in?”
“Well, then you can just explain that your other boss needs you.”
“Boss Hina-chan?” I grin.
“Exactly,” she grins back.
“Fiiine.”
Mizuno-kun snickers on the sidelines. “He didn’t stand a chance.”
“He really didn’t,” she confirms.
Then turns back to me. “So I was thinking maybe Café Parfait again?”
I scrunch my nose a little. “Parfaits? But that’s so… girly.”
“And yet somehow half my parfait disappears every time we go,” Hina-chan muses.
I… can’t argue with that.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “But only because it’s strawberry season!”
“Of course,” she smirks at me.
“2-0,” Mizuno-kun observes, and I shush him.
“Great!” she continues. “So I was thinking, like, 5:30ish?”
“Huh? Why wouldn’t we just leave straight from school?”
“OMG you’re such a boy,” she laughs. “You think I’m going on a date looking like this?”
I blink.
“You look… fine?”
She gestures vaguely at her uniform.
“This is school Hina.”
“…Is that different from regular Hina?”
She gives me a small glare.
“I’m going home first,” she decrees. “I’ll see you at 5:30, okay?”
“…Yeah.”
And like that, she’s off.
“3-0.”
Goddammit, Mizuno-kun.
I open my mouth to respond—
—and my phone buzzes once in my hand.
Hina-chan pauses a couple steps away.
“Work?” she guesses.
“Probably,” I say.
I look at the text on my screen, and…
It’s not work.
It’s Fujimura.
Fujimura: Are you still at school?
…Huh.
I stare at the message for a second.
I haven’t heard from her since the library, and this is the message she sends?
Really?
…
No.
I shake my head.
Now is so not the time for this.
My phone is locked and sliding back into my pocket when—
BZZZT. BZZZT. BZZZT.
—someone calls.
…Sigh.
…I take it back out.
Glance at the screen.
Caller ID: Fujimura Ren.
Shit.
“Sorry, I have to take this…” I excuse myself.
I step a few paces down the hall, then answer the phone.
“Did you seriously just call me right after texting me?”
Library or no, she’s got some explaining to do.
But she doesn’t sound contrite.
She sounds… completely normal? Cheerful, even?
“Hey, Sakuragi-kun!” she says. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just a little urgent. Couldn’t wait for you to answer a text.”
“O…kay? Is there something you needed?”
“Yes, actually!”
She pauses.
I wait.
“Can I, uh, use your bathroom?”
…
What.