Hakuta couldn’t say why he didn’t realize the truth sooner. How he had been blind to all these advances this entire time and didn’t notice a thing. He knew she had been acting strangely, but it’s not like he could take the girls seriously all the time. If anything, he had done practically the opposite the whole time.

Now it had come to bite him in the butt with her staring at him in the face.

“What’s wrong, feeling a little nervous?” She asked, placing an arm on the wall right beside his head. “You’re always so distant from most people, but it’s looking like you’re just another shy guy.”

“I wouldn’t call myself a super confident person.” He replied, displaying exactly what he had just implied. “But, it’s hard not to be a little nervous when someone’s acting a bit differently than you expect.”

“What’s wrong?” Ninka responded. “You think it’s that crazy for a beautiful girl like me to want a boy like you?”

“Yes.” He answered plainly. Hakuta truly could not fathom in his mind that it could be even possible. There were few things about him that should interest girls like her. Being frank, he’d admit there were few things about him which would make pretty much anyone interested in him. “You don’t want me at all.”

There was another reason for him wanting to hold back. One which was much more important to him than anything else in the world. It was the fact that Yuusen was into her. Hakuta could never dream of encroaching on a girl one of his best friends had a crush on. It was simply inconceivable he would even consider doing so. Therefore whatever it took, he would do anything to get her not to want him. “I mean if anything, I got at least two friends who would be much better boyfriend material than me.”

“But it’s you I want.” She didn’t give up on her pushing though. “I’m sure you probably think I’m messing with you. That it’s a joke and I’ll make fun of you if you actually agree to it.”

“Because that’s what it is, right?” He prayed this would be the case. It was the logical decision considering what he knew of them. Hakuta always felt like he was the butt of the joke, so another wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. “Right?, ha… Ha?” She didn’t follow his laughter as his own petered out into silence.

“No, I’m being completely serious.” She assured him. Though it was less assurance for him and more cause for panic within. “I would like you to be my boyfriend.” That was far from being fine and dandy for him, but the worse part would be her eyes as she looked into his. Ninka didn’t appear like she was prepared to take no for an answer. “You know, you’re really cute this close up.”

“And you’re…” He stumbled over his words, not even certain how he could feel from her compliment on his appearance. No girl had ever done that for him before. “Really close up.”

“Ahem.” Another voice broke up their moment as Ninka quickly turned her head to see who it was. Near them was Iruka, who had gotten their attention as she had decided to split from the group yet again to use the restrooms. “Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“Nothing important.” Ninka finally backed from her positioning over Hakuta, allowing him space to move yet again. She seemed a bit miffed in her tone about getting cut off rudely in her eyes. “I’m just going to head back to the table and let you have you’re own private time.” The hint was made and soon the girl left them be.

“You weren’t, um…” Iruke tried to speak with him, but their continuing past interaction continued to keep her being shy with him.

“Thanks.” He quietly said, moving past her quickly to avoid more conversation. If there were any more reasons for him to want to not hang out with people. It was that awkward social interactions made him want to die. “Oh, didn’t think I’d run into you.” On his way back to the table, Hakuta also happened to run into Shiuka as she too apparently wanted to use the restroom.

“You all right?” She asked. His face was still flushed from his close encounter with Ninka. Not that the boy was ready to admit to her what had just happened just moments ago.

“Of course.” He tried to play it off as best he could. “It’s a little hot today, so I guess it’s making me sweat a bit.” While the heat was far from the reason for his sweating, it made for a decent excuse as he quickly made yet another quick escape from the girl to take his seat back at the table. Even if it brought up back into the danger that was Ninka, at least it was public in front of everyone. She seemed to hold back there for now.

Meanwhile, both Shiuka and Iruka were alone in the girl’s restroom together. Unsurprisingly, the latter didn’t need the toilet at all after using it back at the store. Despite the teasing she got about it from Rouko for leaving the way she did, Iruka was glad she made the decision to. There was something in her gut instinct that told her something was up with Ninka and Hakuta.

When she saw them the way she did, normally she wouldn’t intervene. As a gal, she had seen plenty of her friends back at her old school flirting with boys in similar fashion. However, normally she had the belief the guys were into it. With Hakuta, she could tell he was unhappy.

Not just in his body language, so that much was clear to her as well. She was simply reminded of what he said to her when they were alone. Iruka had to relieve that bitter moment once more, which was more than enough to get her to finally speak up and interrupt their supposed tender moment. It may have gotten Ninka a tiny bit upset, but she would get over it.

Anyway, since she didn’t actually need the toilet. All Iruka did was go to the sink to wash her face and try to forget about the moment she tried to keep buried in her mind. All she wanted was to have a good time with some nice people from school. They weren’t different at all from the people she was used to at her old school. The lone exception being Hakuta. He was quite different from the others. Mostly in the part where he didn’t look like the guy who enjoyed spending time with them, despite also calling them his friends.

“Oh, you’re still here?” Iruka had gotten lost in thought while washing her face. It was long enough for Shiuka to finish her own business and see her just standing around. “You didn’t have to wait for me.”

“Ah, it’s no big deal.” She snapped back into reality and finally got to the part where she should dry her face and hands. “But there’s nothing wrong with getting back at the same time.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with it at all…” Shiuka slowed down as she thought about this girl she was about to be walking back to everyone with. This was one strange girl, nice, but strange. Hanging out with her today showed her that she acted like anyone else thought she would. So what was up with her and Hakuta? She wanted to give him so much attention, then got hurt after he told her he didn’t want to be friends.

That seemed like a massive overreaction that nearly no one believed him, but she told the same story. Which was why they now believed it since she didn’t seem to have any reason to lie. But that was the thing, what if she did have cause to lie. “Uh, you saw those two on your way here, right?”

“I…” Iruka stopped, she couldn’t easily lie about this, but she didn’t know how Shiuka might feel if she thought those two might be interested in each other. “I did. I don’t think anything special was going on.”

“I’m already aware, you don’t have to hide that from me.” She admitted to her the truth about Ninka’s hunt for Hakuta. “But maybe you might care more about it than I do.”

“I do?” Iruka replied, confused. She couldn’t tell where her new friend was going with this point. “I mean, I guess I’m just a little worried for him, but I’m sure Hakuta can take care of himself.”

“You confessed to him earlier, didn’t you?” Shiuka asked the question. “You both say he just didn’t want to be friends, but what if it’s because he doesn’t want to be your boyfriend?”