I mentioned earlier that Ichikawa and Okita were childhood friends, the only real friend Ichikawa had for most of his school years before he became a disgusting harem building man. Since they were friends, it would only make sense they'd hang out together. Especially right before the first day of their high school careers.

I explicitly chose this small hot pot restaurant not only for some good food, but to lessen the chance of me encountering the duo since it seemed like a hidden gem. 

HOWEVER, out of all the places they could've eaten lunch at they chose this hot pot place. My luck truly could not get any worse. I got hit by train, put into an ecchi novel, and now I've encountered the two characters I didn't wish to encounter until tomorrow or even at all.

Life is a cruel mistress.

There was one bright side to this situation. My hot pot had come, which smelled just as delicious as I hoped it would. I had a very specific way that I would eat hot pot, the very best way for me to eat hot pot. I can ignore this situation by getting into my zone.

First always came the noodles which would cook in the broth the longest so they could absorb all the good stuff in the broth. Then were a couple of slices of meat which always went the quickest, then mushrooms, green onions after I ate the mushrooms to add more flavor for the still cooking noodles, and other things.

Hot pot was an art form in itself that I could've got into Matsuuri with, though I don't even know if they have a culinary department. They probably do.

As I was digging into my hot pot, I began to overhear the conversation going on between the two people.

"You seriously haven't listened to any of her music?" Okita asked, mouth agape. She was honestly quite cute. Bobbed blonde hair, big doe eyes, a healthy flush to her cheeks, and a petite frame. If anything, she kind of reminded me of a puppy. That made me more sad to think of her fate as a reluctant harem member.

Ichikawa only shrugged. "I just never have the time to. It seems like everyone is hyping her up for nothing." He replied, face still blank. Well, as much as a trash human being he would become, he was a bit handsome. Tanned skin, dark brown natural bed hair, and soul piercing eyes that almost looked black. There were also the many piercings on his ears. The one that caught my attention the most was a rose gold hanging earring with a cross on it. It was quite pretty.

Actually, who were they talking about?

"Hyping her up for no reason? You really haven't heard any of her songs! Saito Azami is the future queen of the music industry! You seriously need to listen to one of her songs!"

Oh. They're talking about me. Damn.

Ichikawa took a sip of his water. "Then do you have any recommendations?"

"Do I!" Okita's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "If you really want to get addicted to her stuff, you gotta listen to debut single, Bloom, and her first album, Night Dreams. Personally I'm addicted to Bed Of Thorns, her most recent release but,"

As Okita continued to go on and on about the songs I had apparently done, I listened with one ear, ate with one hand, and made a list of all the songs she recommended on my phone. Did I ever mention how good I am at multitasking? But I seriously needed all of Okita's rambling or I'd never know where to start with my, wow that's weird to say, discography.

However, while I'm good at multitasking, I'm not very good at spying.

"Oi."

I jumped a bit at the sudden reintroduction of the gruff voice that had been quiet for so long during Okita's intense ramblings. Oh god, it was the protagonist. I had been caught.

"You've been staring at me for awhile. Got anything you wanna say?" He asked, face still completely blank.

Yeah. I wanna say that I can see why people were afraid of you. But I won't say that outloud.

"Ah, well... Um..." I needed to think of something fast. Nothing was coming out of my mouth though.

"What is it?"

"Hajime! Can't you tell that you're scaring her? How is she supposed to answer when you ask like that?"

"Hah? I was just talking how I usually do."

"And that works out a lot? You're so-"

"Earring!"

My sudden outburst of sound caused more eyes to turn towards us then there already was. I couldn't help but begin to blush in embarrassment, yet I had no one to blame but myself. A lesson to never be nosy again.

"I... I just really liked your earring and wanted to ask where you got it since I've been looking for something similar." I could hear my voice trembling. I had never been good at lying, but this was only a half lie. I really did like his earring, but I was eavesdropping for the most part. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I just didn't want to interrupt your conversation..."

Please fall for it, please fall for it, please fall for it.

Ichikawa looked surprised for a split second, face going back to blank so quickly that I thought I was seeing things. "Oh."

Okita laughed all of a sudden. "While Hajime has terrible tastes in everything else, he really knows how to choose jewellery." I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not, but looking at Hajime still gave me no answers. His clothing was pretty typical. But on the other hand...

THEY FELL FOR IT! THEY SERIOUSLY FELL FOR IT! HOW EVEN?!

"I'm sorry if this idiot scared you at all. As an apology, he'll pay for your meal." Okita's voice broke me out of my celebratory inside dance.

I shook my head so hard that I got whiplash. "That's alright! I was the one bothering you two in the first place."

"Nonsense! I already took his wallet."

""... Huh?""

Ichikawa and I were completely in sync at that moment, both equally confused. As I only stared at Okita, he went rifling through his pockets only to come up empty handed.

Okita, on the other hand, had a black leather wallet in her hand and a grin on her face.

"Give me my wallet."

"After we pay. It's not like you're short on money anyway."

"Neither are you."

"Ah, but you left your pockets unattended around me. Your very worst mistake."

I couldn't even get a word in and could only silently apologize to Ichikawa as my food was paid for with his card. I wasn't really that sorry but I didn't want any association with him. Especially owing him money. Yet I was pulled along anyways.

"We never even introduced ourselves." Okita said all of a sudden once the three of us had left the restaurant. I wanted to leave before them, but it seems that she predicted that and purposely made to so our checks were paid at the same time so that they were returned at the same time. "I'm Okita Natsuko. This scary guy who's afraid of even spiders is Ichikawa Hajime."

I had no idea that she was so conniving. And why did she introduce the both of them instead of letting him introduce himself? Ichikawa said nothing to correct her but did glare at her quite menacingly to no avail.

"Saito Azami. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I just decided to go with it and replied in kind. It took a couple of seconds but Okita's face went from smiling to starstruck. To the point that it kind of scared me.

"Like, THE Saito Azami? The one we were talking about earlier?"

"You were talking about her earlier, don't pull me into this." Ichikawa cut in, still grumpy from getting his wallet stolen. Luckily, he had gotten it back but only once both our meals had been paid for.

Okita clicked her tongue at him and shook her head like he was a silly child who knew nothing. She didn't reply though.

"Um, yes. That's me-"

"Could I please get an autograph?!"

"Ah... I'm sorry, I haven't developed a signature for autographs yet..."

"That's too bad."

That part was actually true. I had no signature as Azami wasn't very public and hadn't even featured in any of her music videos. She preferred to tell the stories of her songs using other people, not herself.

"Are you here to attend Matsuuri?" Okita questioned, eyes bright with hope. She was a die-hard fan wasn't she? It must've sucked to have to share the attention of your trashy boyfriend with your idol. That sounds the worst.

I smiled, though it probably looked uncomfortable. My bag of stuff was really starting to weigh me down and I wanted to go home. Speaking of which, I should probably stop by the grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. "Yes. Are you two attending as well?"

"Mhm! I'm in the Artist Department and Hajime is in the Author Department."

Time to end this fast. "Really? How nice. You guys look like such a nice couple. Okita-san could even do illustrations for Ichikawa-san's works."

Mind you that they were not dating or anything like that yet according to the plot. I just wanted to catch Okita off guard so I could make a tactical retreat.

It worked. The two people were frozen solid long enough for me to do a follow-up to escape.

"Oh, look at the time. I have a couple of errands that I have to complete at home, so I'll have to leave. Enjoy the rest of your date!"

And then I fucking booked it.