I could only watch both of them talking there. While the boy was casually talking and laughing, Amano-san's smile seemed much more forced. Are they friends? Or the boy was just disturbing her?

   I made up my mind and walked towards them and talked to Amano-san, completely ignoring the boy.

   "Here's it, Amano-san."

   "Ah thanks.", she looked at me as if she was relieved.

   The boy looked at me and surprisingly got excited. He said,

   "Hey Amano, is it your boyfriend? Nice to meet you."

   Amano-san hesitated to answer that question. I decided to help her and lied to the guy,

   "Nah I'm her neighbour and also classmate. I'm Arawi Kenji. I happened to meet her here so decided to help her as well. And you?"

   I was quite rude while answering him. For some reasons, I really don't like him. I know it's not good to hate people without knowing them. But he didn't notice my rudeness and answered me.

  "Oh... me and Amano were in the same middle school. So I know her. We happened to meet so we started talking about old days haha."

   Why are you laughing? I don't really get this guy. I glanced at Amano-san and she looked... troubled. It seemed as if she wanted to escape from this guy.

   Suddenly his phone started ringing. He looked at it and shouted, 

   "Crap! I'm going to be late at training. Well bye Amano and bye Arawi."

    After he left Amano-san breathed a sigh of relief. 

   "Thank you Arawi-san."

   "Was that your friend?"

   "According to him, he is. He was my classmate in middle school. But he is... ANNOYING. Most of the time he just talks about himself. In fact I absolutely hate him. It's lucky that he's not in our class. Otherwise he would be disturbing me again."

   "Don't tell me he did something bad to you?"

   "Nah nah... don't worry. He's just annoying."

   "So he is in our school as well?"

   I didn't see him before that's why I don't know.

   "Don't you know him, Arawi-san?", she looked surprised. 

   "No... who is he?"

   "I thought you knew him. Everyone in our school knows him. His name is Yoshida Tasuku."

   Yoshida? Yeah I heard that before. Wait... YOSHIDA! That soccer guy! 

   

   

   I was carrying most of the shopping bags while returning home. Amano-san insisted on carrying some but I didn't let her. My mind was somewhat contradicted. 

   "I'm not a child, Arawi-san. Let me carry some of the bags.", she pouted at me.

   "It's okay.", I continued to walk while thinking about something.

   Amano-san walked towards me and said,

   "I'm not a friend or even close to Yoshida. So don't worry about it."

   "Eh!? How did you know..."

   "It's all written on your face."

   "I'm... sorry."

    She easily read my mind. Am I really this easy to read? 

    "It's okay... I'm glad that Arawi-san is worried about me.", she again gently smiled at me which refreshed my mood.

   She's an angel...

    

   After we had dinner, Amano-san opened her books to do her homework. 

   "Do you still have energy left, Amano-san?"

    "Yeah. You already did your homeworks, Arawi-san?"

    "We only had our English homework, so I would do that tomorrow in school itself."

    I always do my homework in school to be honest. In this way, I have much free time at home.

   "Wow are you good at English, Arawi-san?"

   "Eh? I'm not bad at it, but surely Amano-san is better than me."

   Studying is one of my only strong points. I ranked 15th in the last semester. However Amano-san ranked 9th. So she is expected to be much better than me.

   "I don't think so. I scored 90 in English in last semester.", Amano-san told me with a disappointed face.

   "Whoa! That's too much. I scored 85 only.", I praised her to lighten her mood.

   "Then... can we compare our scores in other subjects as well?"

   "Eh?"

   Her eyes sparkled up. I really don't get it. She obviously got more marks than me in most subjects. So what's the need to compare?

   However I didn't want to disappoint her mood. So I decided to go on with it.

   "Okay so Japanese Literature: I got 97. And Arawi-san?"

   "Wow you're just amazing, Amano-san. I just got 76."

   "D-Dont praise me that much. Then Geography: 96."

   "Amazing! Mine is 87 only."

   "History: I am a bit bad at it. Only 82."

   "Damn I'm even worse. 74 is it."

    It seems she is loving my praise. That's why she is not stopping. I'm a bit embarrassed because she is way better than me in almost everything. But hey, as long as she is loving it, who cares?

   "And finally, Maths: 84."

   "Good. I got 100."

   "Yea... wait?...."

   Amano-san suddenly paused. She checked if she heard correctly or not.

   "Arawi-san... how much you got?"

   "100."

   ".......Eh?"

    Amano-san looked at me with daze. Then she continued, 

   "Our maths paper last semester was very tough. In fact I didn't think anyone even got more than 80. How could you score perfectly, Arawi-san?"

    "Well... it's my only talent. That I'm good at maths. Other than this I don't have anything to be proud of."

    "Can you please teach me?", Amano-san bowed at me.

    "Eh? You don't have to bow..."

    "I want you to teach me. I also want to get great marks at maths.", her eyes were glowing.

    "Then.... Amano-san should also teach me the other subjects."

    I also bowed at her. At that moment, we both laughed. It looked like the awkwardness we had in the first day was completely vanished. We are a little bit... closer than we were before.

   "Well... Amano-san's face was so funny when she heard my score LOL."

   "S-Shut up."

  [To be continued]

    

Next chapter will be published next Saturday as this week is absolutely packed :(