“Whoa whoa whoa.” Iruka quickly responded to such a strong inquiry. “That’s not what happened at all.” She denied it as hard as she could. The girl knew the truth and this was far from it. “I’m not trying to encroch on your friend, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“But that makes a lot more sense to me.” Shiuka continued on with her line of thinking. “I’m sorry if he really did hurt you. I know Hakuta personally, as you already know, and he’s a nice guy. So I’m sure he has his reasons for doing what he did.”

“I already told you that I’m not looking to date him.” She once against clarified. “Um, if you’re into Hakuta, then you don’t have to worry about me being the one trying to take him away.”

“I don’t like Hakuta.” She denied it with full force. Even more so than Iruka did in denying any potential confessions or rejections. “We don’t live together because of choice. You already know that.”

“That part is fine with me, but you don’t make that much sense to me.” Iruka admittedly they hardly knew one another, so it wasn’t like she had much of a clue on how normal anyone from this school was actually like. “It just seems like you really care deeply for him more than I thought you would.”

“Well, you don’t make that much sense either.” Shiuka only turned it around by saying the same exact thing. “How come you want to be friends with Hakuta so much? It looked like it really hurt you when he apparently told you he didn’t want to be friends.”

“Heh…” Iruka chuckled, thinking deeply about her reasons. “I guess I really don’t make much sense to any of you.”

As they were talking to each other during their bathroom break, Hakuta was still trying to figure things out during this hangout. He didn’t want Ninka’s attention. Why would he? Not only did he not hold any romantic feelings for her, but he also already knew about Yuusen’s intentions with her. So there were multiple reasons for him to avoid her.

“Man, they’re taking a long time.” Said Ninka who laid back into her seat, then subtly placed her arm over his shoulder. Were he actually into her, he might actually enjoy it. Unfortunately this was not the case and all it succeeded in doing was making him anxious on how Yuusen felt about it. “Guess it’s not an entirely bad thing.” She said, staring right into his eyes.

“Hopefully not too long.” He wormed his way out of her grasp to avoid appearing that they were an item. “I would like to go home. You know, I wasn’t planning on sticking around after the store anyway.” Hakuta reminded them of his initial arrival as a means to come up with any excuse.

He still had his goal on trying to get his friend with this girl, even if she didn’t seem interested. The first reason was obvious, but the second was also in the hopes of getting her to change her mind in trying to chase him. The last thing this boy needed was some girl he didn’t like trying to get him to like her.

So what was he to do to try and avoid any more drama? Ninka was a rather strong willed girl, so whenever she wanted something, she normally would do a ton of things to get what she wanted. It appeared that the feelings of others were usually secondary to her attempts, given she was perfectly fine with breaking up with her last boyfriend with few worries.

When he thought back on the poor boy, Hakuta also knew he wouldn’t want to date her after that happened. There was no way his heart that had yet to experience love would want to also experience pain in that manner. At least, he would like to avoid it for as long as possible.

“We’re ba~ck.” As he sat in thought trying to figure out his plans. Shiuka and Iruka finally returned from their little bathroom trip. Unfortunately he still had yet to come up with anything concrete. “Looks like you all already want to go home.”

“Not to say it hasn’t been much fun.” Said Rouko, who had been resting her chin on the table as they waited. “But there’s nothing for me to do, so I think I’ll go take a bath when I get back.” It had been unusually quiet coming from her front lately. Though he assumed she might be aware of some of the more important things going on around her and kept to herself. While she might enjoy a good tease here and there, she was also very supportive of her best friend’s endeavors in romance.

“Aw, I was having fun.” Itsuki spoke in disappointment. He had been the one guy who got to spend more time with her than anyone else. If she appeared to be not enjoying herself, it made him worry that she might not be into him. Or worse, perhaps she might not even like him at all. “I could walk you home, if you’d like.”

This gave Hakuta the idea he had been searching for. When he heard the offer to walk someone home, it made him realize that Ninka still had one more trick up her sleeve to get him alone with her once more. This time, he needed to cut her off before that could be offered.

Quickly, the boy reached around her so he could reach Yuusen. Hakuta gave him a strong nudge in the back to give him the obvious hint to do the same as their friend had just did as well.

“Whoa, you all right Hakuta?” He replied, oblivious to the message which had been sent to him. “You need something?”

“I just think you should…” He tipped his head towards the girl sitting between them to give him the idea without saying it out loud. It was already awkward enough as it were between them. “You know.”

“Oh.” He finally got the hint and gave it a try. “Ninka, could I perhaps walk you home?” Even though he had interacted little with her so far today. He was able to keep things smooth without much nervousness visible.

“I don’t know.” She was uncertain on accepting. Ninka already had other plans in mind before he spoke up, but she also realized there was going to be resistance if she continued the path she wanted. Not that obstacles had ever held her back before. “I kind of wanted-”

“Hakuta.” Iruka spoke up and cut the girl off. “I was wondering if you could walk me home tonight.” She was far more bold than anyone else could anticipate, especially considering who it was she talked with.

“You want to?” He was hesitant, but Hakuta also knew this was his only opportunity to make an escape for the time being. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She answered, feeling the eyes on her. “I just want to talk, if that’s okay with you.” Normally, he would take longer to consider accepting her offer. While he did want to try and patch things up with her, feeling bad about making her cry. Hakuta wasn’t sure if now was the time to give that a shot. At the same time, he was already searching for an escape and this one was too easy for him to pass up.

It also kept Ninka from wanting to cut her off and prevent it from happening for her own selfish desires too. Since none of them wanted to get in the new girl’s way if they believed it would help her feel better in the future.

“Okay.” He gave his answer. “We can get going now if you’d like.” They got up from their seats to leave the others. Hakuta gave a little wink to Yuusen, his signal that it was all up to him to try and get Ninka’s attention. Hopefully that would work out so he wouldn’t have to worry about her continuing to chase him when they returned to school.

He also gave a glance towards Shiuka, who had a look of relief as she watched him walk away with the new girl. Thankfully he wouldn’t have to endure Ninka’s advances for now, she thought.

The couple got outside, where finally he was given some privacy away from the others. “Phew.” He audibly breathed a sigh of relief himself. “I don’t know if you know this, but thanks for helping me get away from Ninka.”

“I had an idea something was going on.” She replied, holding back how knowledgeable she was on the situation. “I don’t know why she was acting so into you.”

“Wish I could tell you.” He responded. “She’s normally not like that at all, so don’t think I deal with it all the time. It has nothing to do with my own personal… opinions on girls like her.” Hakuta slowed down as he wondered if perhaps Iruka got the wrong idea about him. He really wasn’t a gal guy, but it might appear as though he only took issue with them because of one in particular.

“That’s what I figured.” Iruka gave a calm response, much more reserved compared to the girl she had presented herself to be to him when they first met. “But I wasn’t lying about wanting to talk with you.” She directed her arms and pointed him towards the path which would take her home. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to be able to clear things up with you.”

“I do owe you that much.” He wasn’t a fan of having to make tough conversations. The drama was way too much for him to handle sometimes. But Hakuta wanted to pay her back for the help she gave him just now as well as wanted to make amends. He wasn’t a jerk, nor would anyone say he was the one in the wrong from their prior interaction. Still, he wanted to try to make things right so she wouldn’t have to have a terrible high school life in her new school.