Hakuta had no idea he was being watched, but it didn’t prevent him from feeling any less nervous about his situation with Iruka. She seemed a nice girl, nothing about her appeared to have any bad intentions. Yet he moved like he was on thin ice. Where one wrong step would have him plunge into a freezing lake, just as doing anything to wrong her might make her act rash.

“See, this place is great.” She said, pointing over where she wished for them to sit at.

“Yeah, sure.” He verbally agreed with her, but there was nothing special about the location she chose for them. It was just a random tree planted along the school grounds. There was a walkway for students to come and go, but that was it. Sure, one could get a view of the outside world while they were confined within the space known as school, but was that really something one needed? They weren’t trapped here, so he didn’t consider it a thing to want to worry over.

“Now come on, sit down next to me.” She plopped herself comfortably laying her back onto the trunk of the tree. Iruka grabbed out her lunch from her bag. The lunch box was filled to the brim with rice, multiple different meats, and a plethora of vegetables to pick from.

It was a far cry compared to his own lunch. Something plain with just some bread, cabbage, and a small amount of leftover beef from last night.

“I’m guessing your mom made you that.” He said, sitting next to her.

“Yep.” She spoke with pride, as if she were the one who made the meal she ate at this moment. He couldn’t help but feel a hint of jealousy. It was fortunate for her that she had a mother who could cook lunch for her. Meanwhile, he couldn’t trust his dad to boil water, and even that would assume he was here in the first place. “So who makes your lunches? You or Shiuka?”

“I cook both our lunches.” He explained. “That girl should be nowhere near a stove, not while I’m still living there.” There was one time he tried to teach her, but it was a regrettable moment he wished to never repeat ever in his life. A second time would likely also be the end of his life.

It was fortunate the group spying on them took a spot so high up in the building. While they were able to watch the pair clearly, they were too far away to be able to hear anything they said. Perhaps if they were yelling, then maybe they’d have a chance. But there was no reason for that sort of thing to occur.

“Funny, that’s what my mom says too.” She laughed. “The more I talk to you, the more you sound more like an old lady.”

“Am not.” He defended himself. How else was he supposed to take her gesture other than offense? It didn’t even appear that she made it out to be a bad thing, but he was a teen boy. How else was he supposed to take it? “There’s nothing wrong with being mature and ready for the adult world. Isn’t that the whole point of growing up?”

“Well, we’ll get there when we get there.” She held a much more relaxed viewpoint compared to him. If he was still as mean as he used to be with Shiuka, he might use the same insult as before about how these years were going to be the only good ones for girls like her. But that would be going too far. Not to mention he didn’t want to get on her bad side anyway. “Anyway, that doesn’t look like you’ve got much. You want to eat some of my food?”

“I don’t know if that’s really fair.” He hesitated on accepting her offer, but his stomach growled in hunger over the offer.

“There’s no way I can eat all this anyway.” She assured him it would be no problem. “Just take some, you’d be doing me a favor.”

“Well, sure.” He held up his bento box to allow her to drop in some of her food. But she wagged her finger in his face to silently tell him this wouldn’t be her strategy.

“It’ll be funner if we do it like this.” She pointed at her mouth. “Open your mouth and I’ll feed you myself.”

“What!?” He was taken aback by her suggestion. From all her actions leading up to this, he had to wonder if perhaps she might actually be hitting on him. It wasn’t like Hakuta to assume a girl was into him. That would require arrogance, or at least some confidence in his charm for the ladies. So he would have no clue why some girl who only met him would want to bother with him like that.

“Come on, it’s not big deal. Just one bite, right?” It was a challenge to want to allow her to do something so bold. But at the same time, to him, they were alone and no one could see them.

“F-fine…” He relented and allowed her this one time. It would only be between the two of them. “Go ahead.” Hakuta opened up his mouth so she could send in some of her food to him.

“Great.” She giggled, picking up a good amount in her spoon. He kept his eyes open to ensure she wouldn’t do any funny business. This was where he noticed there being something specific about the food she picked out from her lunch to put in his mouth.

“Wait a second, you’re just offloading your veggies to me!” He called her out on her attempt. Iruka had only picked out all of the different vegetables into her spoon. There wasn’t even a speck of meat, let alone any of the rice, being given to him.

“Hehe, you caught me.” She laughed it off. “But come on, there’s too many of them. There’s no way I could eat all that.”

“That should be what you eat more of anyway.” He scolded her. “Whatever, just hurry up and give me a bite.” Hakuta beckoned her so they wouldn’t be caught, not that it mattered since they were being spied upon this whole time.

“Whoa, she’s giving him a bite of her food.” Said Yuusen, commenting on the situation.

“Good job Hakuta.” Said Itsuki with a smile. “I always knew he had it in him.” While the two boys assumed he had made some nice moves in finally getting a girl’s attention. Shiuka didn’t share in their level of enthusiasm.

First was she knew he didn’t do this out of his own personal feelings for this girl. With Iruka’s knowledge, she was certain he only did this to keep this girl appeased. Still, even with her thinking only of that as the reason. It didn’t keep her from being upset just watching this scene unfold before her. What would be the point of spying on him if she couldn’t stop the things she didn’t want him to do?

“Thank you.” Said Hakuta once he got the bite she shared with him and he had finished chewing. “Your mother really is an excellent cook.”

“Wish I could share her talents.” She responded. “Oh well, this has been a nice day anyway.” Iruka laid back onto the tree to relax a bit.

“I suppose it has been.” He agreed, even if he didn’t feel as strongly as her.

“We should do this all the time.” She suggested. “I wouldn’t mind my high school life being just like this.”

“But should we really?” He asked carefully, not wanting to sound confrontational. It was just that Hakuta didn’t wish to have to spend the rest of his time in high school to be shared with her.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. “Didn’t you just say you liked doing this?”

“Well, what about the others?” He pointed out the other gyarus and his own friends. “I have friends from before you showed up, I’m not some random loner.” Though he could’ve fooled a lot of people with the way he acted.

“We could hang out with all them too then.” She appeared to be trying harder just to keep close to him. “They’re your friends, so I’d love to get to know them too.”

“Heh, you don’t really need me to get to know them.” He nervously chuckled in trying to keep himself out of the way. “They all already wanted to talk to you, so I don’t need to do anything.”

“But don’t you want to be a part of it anyway?” She couldn’t tell why he was so distant. Even with him relenting on everything she asked for. It was clear as day to Iruka that Hakuta was reluctant on anything to do with her. “There’s nothing wrong with me, is there?”

“I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with you at all.” He assured. “But I have to be honest that you don’t want to be friends with me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“It’s pretty obvious we’re two very different people.” He couldn’t hold back anymore. It was time for him to tell her the truth in his mind. Hopefully she wouldn’t take it the wrong way, but at this point he was certain she never wanted to do anything bad to them. “We don’t have that many things in common. You’re honestly better off hanging out with the other gals. Doesn’t that just make more sense?”

“You think I should only be with them?” She no longer spoke with her usual energy. His words had drained her of that cheerful demeanor. “And we shouldn’t talk anymore?”

“Well, my friends like hanging out with those girls. So I’m sure we’ll still interact, but I’m not really into that whole stuff.” There were times where Hakuta was certain he would just eventually ditch them to go do whatever else he’d rather do. Then again, they were certainly some pushy people, so it wasn’t like he had much else of a choice. “I think you’re better off trying to be good friends with Shiuka. I know she’s a good person.” “Does this mean…” She paused for a moment, her voice broke a bit just thinking over what she would say next. “You don’t want to be friends with me?”

“…I… Don’t.” He told her after much hesitation. Hakuta wished he could say he was firm in telling her this, but his heart already didn’t want to be harsher than he already had been. “Personally, I don’t want to be friends with you.”

“I see…” Tears started forming in her eyes. Iruka wiped them as best she could, but even she couldn’t hold back the torrent rushing down her cheeks. “Then I guess I was being silly this whole time.” She stood up, barely able to see with her vision blurred from being about to sob like a little girl.

Iruka ran off in tears as Hakuta felt like he had just delivered terrible news of someone’s passing. It was nearly absurd to him that she would take not being friends so hard, but her reaction made him take it completely seriously.