Slowly, Hakuta began to stir in his sleep. The light from the sun outside began to illuminate the room, which caused him to awaken. He rubbed his eyes to get a view of everything around him. There was a strange sensation of warmth on top of him that came off as unexpected.

Checking on his back, there appeared to be a blanket left atop him. To his side was nothing, which meant Shiuka had to have awoken before him and headed off to her own bed. Though thankfully, she was kind enough to make sure he wasn’t left cold.

“I guess she isn’t half-bad.” He commented to himself. Maybe gyarus weren’t so… Wait a second, the clock is reading… Hakuta was going to be late for school! Quickly, the boy bolted up the stairs, nearly falling back down in his rush to get dressed and out of the house.

Curse that girl, he thought. Just as he was about to give her some credit, she goes and does something stupid. Typical for a gyaru as he believed them to be. People who were just unreliable when you needed them the most. As Hakuta ran to the school, he took note that for the first time they had finally did as they planned. Leaving at separate times were how they were going to avoid unwanted suspicion from their classmates. Though he hated that she thought it meant also not waking him up when she clearly saw him on her way out.

Exhausted, he made it to the front of the school and lockers just in time. There were only a few minutes before the bell rang, signaling the beginning of school. While getting his things set up, he looked over and saw Shiuka wasting time and chatting with her friends. As much as the boy wanted to tell her off about her actions this morning, there was no other option but to keep his mouth shut. After all, in school they were to pretend as if they weren’t closer than people expected.

With nowhere to have an outlet for his anger, he swallowed his pride and tried to forget about the incident. In the end, he wasn’t late for class so it didn’t matter that much. Though the inconvenience of rushing the way he did was annoying.

Either way, the day went by about as normally as possible compared to before the pair started living with one another. By the time lunch rolled around, Hakuta was chatting with his friends in class while her trio did the same. And yes, despite appearing to be a bit of a loner, even he had a couple of guy friends.

“So, it’s been a while since you’ve had anything interesting to say.” Said one of them. His name was Yuusen Miyahara. This boy was probably the top of their class when it came to academic. He was also someone considered rather attractive by the girls, so him getting confessed to wasn’t an uncommon sight either.

“I’m guessing he’s just going to brag about his latest accomplishments.” The other boy eating with them laughed. His name was Itsuku Kageyama. Unlike the other pair, he wasn’t known for his brains at all. Fortunately, his big heart and big muscles were more than enough to make up for it. As the ace of the baseball team, he was preparing for the season and they were supporting him all the way to koshien.

Though on the point at hand. The reason he said that statement was due to the fact both boys would often poke fun at Hakuta’s hobby. It wasn’t meant to be anything more than just ribbing from friends. “So, did you beat some old high score? Or maybe you did one of those speedrun thingys?”

“I haven’t had that much time to game lately.” The was a lie if it was said by most normal people. This was the same boy who also spent the entire day Saturday playing one RPG. However, given that it was the only day where he seriously spent time gaming, it was less for Hakuta’s standards.

“Is something going on at home?” Asked Yuusen. “I hope your dad’s debts haven’t caught up to you.” There was no secret about the strange financial situation going on with his family. However, it was paramount to keep these two out of the loop when it came to his new living situation.

“Of course not.” He downplayed the situation while playing it cool.

“Really? We got worried when you were so adamant about bring Otari’s homework for her.” Itsuku followed up. That would seem extra strange to those closest to him. Hakuta’s disdain for gyarus were known to practically the entire school. “We thought you really didn’t want to go home.”

“Oh no, I would love nothing more than to go home.” The entirety of this statement weight would never be known to those two boys. “So don’t worry about me. You guys are just overthinking stuff, as always.”

“Though speaking of Otari…” Yuusen peered over to that girl’s friend group. As always, the trio of gyarus were hanging about at Shiuka’s desk chatting about random things loudly.

Now, there was a reason as to why Yuusen had remained single despite all the confessions. The rejections he sent their way was not simply just because he had no feelings for the girl’s doing it. Though that certainly played a factor. Instead, it was because of his somewhat secret like for a specific type of girl.

That being gyarus, which just so happened to be Hakuta’s least favorite type of girl. Unfortunately for him, his other friend, Itsuku, was also into those kind of girls as well. So when both those boys were staring over to the gals, all he could do was sigh in disappointment. When did things turn out like this?

He had grown up with both of them. So obviously, they weren’t always into those girls. However, thing seemed to begin to change during their final year of junior high. It was probably that time was also when some girls started to become gyarus and revealed to them what they had been missing all along. Of course, this had no effect on Hakuta. If anything, this change among them as they were growing into high school had solidified his person dislike for those kinds of girls.

“I don’t care about a single thing with that girl.” He said after rolling his eyes over his friends gooking at the girls. It wasn’t a problem of those girls having an issue with it. If anything, it would seem they were quite enjoying the boys peering over at them seeing as usual they had no care for how they appeared. At least in terms of appropriateness of keeping their private parts private.

Even Shiuka was cool with it, especially as he was one of them looking over. The boy himself didn’t care about seeing from them, but was more curious as to what was going on with them that had his friend looking over. Things had a bit more of a different context for the pair, now that they lived together. She smiled at him when their eyes met, which prompted him to turn away in irritation.

The nerve of this girl. Hadn’t they agreed on trying to minimize interaction with each other? Sure, it wasn’t like they were strangers before the changes to their lives. And also sure, he was the one looking first, but that was no reason to act friendly with him like that.

“Since you were busy this weekend.” Yuusen brought his attention back to their conversation once more. They were hanging out for lunch and there were only a few minutes before the return of classes. “Does that mean you can’t spare us some time after school?”

“Oh yeah, we were thinking of hitting up the arcade.” Said Itsuki. “In a couple of weeks, I won’t be able to hang out after school ‘cause of baseball. So let’s not waste the time we got.”

“I’m sure even you don’t want to be cooped up playing video games and abandoning your only friends.” While he could’ve lived without the teasing remark, Hakuta agreed to meet them after school. Firstly because they raised a good point about making the most of the time they’d have until the sports season began. But the latter was also because he truly had nothing better to do.

While the RPG he had was fun, it was also the only game he had in his possession. Things would get boring if that was all he played for his days. Also, this was a good excuse to not have to go home right away. Especially not when that witch of a girl was going to be there too.

He grinned a bit due to pride as if he won a silent battle against her. She wasn’t the only one between them who had friends to hang out with. Even he knew how to have some public fun once in a while. Then again, this wasn’t all the different to what he did at home, seeing as they were going to the arcade.

“You guys don’t need to keep treating me like I’m the loser of this group.” He responded to their offer. Though funny enough, even if those two boys weren’t aware, he was the one living a life they could only dream of. Hakuta was the only one among the trio who was living with a gyaru, which was more of a form of punishment for the one boy here who didn’t like them in the first place. It seemed fate was a cruel mistress to keep people away from their wishes, while forcing others into a circumstance they hated. “Of course I’ll join you.”

With his plans set for the day, the boy went through the rest of the school day with little concern. Thankfully, there was never going to be a situation where he and Shiuka had to fear their secret getting out. The pair didn’t interact much and there was no way someone would get the wrong idea from the few times they did so. Once classes were over, he prepared himself to head to the arcade. He had no reason to tell her, seeing as she wasn’t his mother or anything. Plus, that girl was also likely to head out to hang out with her own friends as well to make up for the lost time of missing classes yesterday.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in an arcade.” He said as Hakuta and his friends headed inside. Since the boy owned a video game console, he saw little need to go to a place where a lot of coins were going to be spent. Especially since the upfront payment of the games he owned were already begging to be played from the comforts of home.

“Well, that’s because you don’t go out often. All the cool kids spend their time here.” Said Itsuki. The difference between playing at home versus the arcade was similar to watching a movie in a theater and streaming it online. The experience going out with friends in a public area just could never be matched compared to sitting in a small living room. Though the living room of the Otari household was one that Hakuta would consider put up a good fight.

“Though I guess someone who’s not looking for a girlfriend would never understand.” Said Yuusen. “And since you don’t care for them… Well we didn’t care about your feelings, which is why we went here.”

“I don’t ge…” Hakuta was about to speak his confusion until a certain person walked into his view. Shiuka...