“What?” He shook his head from hearing her words to him. For a moment, Hakuta believed himself to be in a dream. Under what circumstances would the class rep tell him to just break off a friendship so easily?

“I spoke quite clearly.” She responded to his obvious confusion. “You would be better off not being her friend.” Ino made her advice loud and clear to him.

“I’m sorry, but isn’t that kind of not what most people would say?” He replied. Hakuta would’ve figured someone in her position, regardless of the circumstances he gave to her, would tell him to talk things out with Shiuka. While he never divulged into details on the specifics, surely she knew that things between them weren’t irreparable.

“You asked me for my opinion not coming as the classroom representative.” She told him. This wasn’t her being informal anymore, despite her tone and manner of speaking sounding the same as it always had. Right now Ino was speaking in a manner most people would call frank. I don’t believe she’s worth trying so hard just to maintain the relationship.”

“But… But why?” He asked. “It’s not like you really know much about the two of us. And I came to you because I do want to mend things.”

“It sounds like you only came to me to hear things you wanted to hear” She replied, scolding him a bit. “You’re not looking for advice, you’re just looking for assurance.” Ino raised a solid point. Hakuta had gone to a lot of people for what seemed to be a minor issue. What was the point in asking people for their opinion if he only wanted them to say specific things? At that point, he might’ve as well already know what he wanted and worked towards it.

“I just wanted help.” He meekly answered. Hakuta knew she was right. Even just moments before talking with her here, he had looked over at Shiuka and hoped for a certain outcome. As if he already knew what it was he wanted to do and say to her. “But either way, you never came across as someone who would want me to just stop being friends with her.”

“I do have to be honest with you.” She said, and apparently without saying it she would be blunt with it as well. “I don’t really know why you’re friends with her.” He recalled when she had her own suspicions on his sudden new relationship with Shiuka. Especially considering that before he had a rather poor viewpoint of girls like her. “Clearly I was wrong if you are asking me to stay being with her.”

“But, if you know that now, then that means you’re not worried about it, right?” He asked, hoping it would throw her off his trail for good.

“Why don’t you tell me what makes her so special?” She didn’t give him any assurance things would get better. In fact, he got the feeling it would get worse before anything resembling it would occur. “You two always seemed so distant before, but now you’ve changed so much.”

“I’m surprised you’ve noticed.” They weren’t friends, so he didn’t think she’d paid much attention to him. At the same time, they did interact fairly often during school time. So maybe it was just something unavoidable. Either that or he made a much more drastic change than he realized. “But people just happened to run into each other.” Unfortunately he couldn’t tell her the truth as to why they got close. Hakuta had to be vague about it to her, which did little to convince her as to his feelings.

But this didn’t mean he didn’t think about his extraordinary circumstances with the gyaru. They really were forced into that living situation. So of course they’d end up spending a lot of time with each other regardless of their feelings to the matter. If all they had between each other were forced, then why did he care so much?

“And what exactly is it you’ve done that’s gotten her a bit fussy?” She continued to interrogate him. Hakuta felt more like a criminal explaining he did nothing wrong instead of someone asking a friend for him. “You don’t look like you’d be a jerk on purpose, but I could be wrong.”

“Actually, she’s not the only one to bring it up.” He was fortunate enough that there were other people who had told him about their concerns and it just so happened to align with hers. Therefore he was able to have some confidence nothing about it would cause her to know the truth.

Hakuta explained to her the weird situation about how he had met some other gamer whose identity was a mystery. Then he went into his gaming habits, which felt strange to do with someone who wasn’t close to him. “So basically everyone thinks I’m spending too much time in front of my computer.”

“Hmm.” She didn’t seem to judge him for making friends with someone who hid their face, but she did take time to consider his story before giving a response. “Well, have your grades suffered? Have you been failing to take care of your duties at home?”

“I have.” He answered. “I still make sure to do all my chores and homework every night. So my grades are still as good as they’ve always been.” It wasn’t like he was at the top of the class, but they were certainly better than most.

“Then I’m not seeing the problem on you spending so much time with this stranger.” She told him, which also caused him surprised. Ino had an odd opinion different from everyone else for some reason. “It looks like you’ve seen them in person, and they don’t look like a predator from how you’ve described them.”

“Hold on.” He stopped her, bringing it back to her first sentence. “I’m surprised you’re just fine with me gaming.”

“I understand my father’s position.” She explained. “But I can share different opinions from my father.” It seemed to cause her distress to even say those words. Her hands tightly gripped her desk as she spoke. “But I would agree with him that you better not start declining or else I might have to do something about it.”

“Have no plans on that.” He stood up straight and gave her a salute out of fear. If she ever wanted to become a strict teacher, then she was already well on the track for that.

“I understand you care a lot about your video games. So I wanted you to understand that speaking frankly as a person, not your class representative, that you shouldn’t be worried over friends that want you to make big sacrifices just for their sake. Not unless they’re willing to compromise too.”

“Huh…” He sighed, realizing how accurate an observation she made about him and his friends. Normally things did consist of him being the one having to deal with things just because they were already on board with each other. Hakuta was the one who had to do things he didn’t want to do for their sake. Of course, they were fine with joining him on the gaming tournament, so things weren’t all completely one-sided.

“You’re free to listen to me or not.” She continued speaking when he failed to add to their conversation. “If you want to ignore it and say it’s because you’re talking to me, a girl with few friends, then go ahead.”

“You don’t need to beat yourself down like that.” He responded. “Truthfully, I think I went to you because the two of us are pretty similar.”

“The two of us really are.” It did little to brighten her mood. Especially considering she knew what she’d say next wouldn’t be well received. “Then you should understand my own feelings, correct? My feelings that just as you used to be, that I hold gyarus with disdain.”

“I mean, I guess I could’ve assumed.” He suddenly found himself unable to look at her from anxiety. Hakuta stared outside through the windows as he fiddled with his hands and kicked his feet for no reason.

“Don’t worry, I would never in a million years consider using my position to cause any of them issues just because of my personal feelings.” She assured him. “That would be a gross disrespect and violation of my role in our class. I’d hope if I ever was like that, you’d all treat me poorly.” Ino only told him now as she wasn’t speaking from her position, but from her personality.

“Right.” He believed her. There had never been a piece of evidence to suggest she had done any misconduct. “But if you don’t mind me asking, why?”

“It’d be easier to tell you all the things I don’t hate about them.” Once given the green light, she then proceeded to speak poorly of girls like Shiuka. “They’re very loud and boisterous, their outfits are just inappropriate, They’re disrespectful.”

As she spoke about them, despite them being targeted towards the girls, Hakuta couldn’t be angry at her. After all, he was known for being the number one gyaru hater in school. In fact, even he had said and believed the same exact things she was saying. “Most of them are quite frankly dumb. And worst of all, they play with the feelings of the boys all the time. I’ve seen some of the ones in other classes making boys like you being their gophers to get lunch. Somehow their teasing works for some reason.”

“Wow.” He was near speechless after her tirade. It was the most informal he had ever seen this girl. Which while it was harsh, did show him another side of the girl who normally hid away from others when it came to who she was.

“Am I incorrect?” She asked, waiting to see how she’d reply. “I know from how you used to be, that you’d said some of those things.”

“Heh.” He chuckled. She wasn’t wrong in saying this about him. “Actually, I think you’re completely right about girls like Shiuka.”