“I don’t think I was planning on doing that.” He responded, staring her right in the eye. This was strange coming out of Rouko. For the first time, it seemed as though he was dealing with her being serious with him. No jokes, no pranks. Not unless she was an amazing actress in fooling him to believe there was something more to what she said. “Um, did I do something wrong?”

“Did you?” She replied, not giving him a straight answer.

“I’m not letting you bait me into that.” He didn’t humor her by quickly denying any wrongdoing. Hakuta knew he had done nothing wrong, so he had no reason to be worried from his end. The only problem was the fact she could easily think he did do something bad. “I don’t know what you’re suspect about, but I haven’t done anything.”

“Guess we’ll both have to see about that.” With the way she spoke, he felt himself growing more worried. Despite being in public with a bunch of people able to see them. Hakuta had a difficult time believing he was truly safe. Not with a wild card like her. “Who’d you just text there? Ninka? Shiuka?”

“I don’t think that’s really any of your business.” He replied, refusing to tell her.

“Just seems kind of weird to me since we all already know where all your friends are right now.” It was no secret he was close to few people. It also was clear who it was that could say they were close to Hakuta, which would be all the ones currently still hanging out at Ninka’s house. “I suppose it could’ve been your dad since you’re coming home late.”

“We’ll go with that.” He took another peek at his phone. He stared at her reflection from his point of view. Just what was going on in that girl’s mind? “I mean, nothing wrong with making sure our families know what we’re up to.”

“I have to say, you have a really nice phone.” She commented, staring at the same object as him, able to view his reflection. “I thought you said your dad was bad with money, and I’m pretty sure you don’t have a part-time job.”

“Yeah, my dad got a new job.” He answered. It was the truth, though he did leave out every single detail on what this new career path achieved. “We’re doing a bit better financially now, so really all the money jokes with my friends are just that, jokes.”

“But I guess old habits die hard.” She said as their food got placed before them. She had gotten an assortment of macaroons along with a large bowl of ice cream which she ate together as a mix. It was lavish compared to his simple chocolate croissant which was close to being one of the cheapest options on the menu. “But that doesn’t mean you haven’t been acting differently either.”

“What do you mean?” It was at this point he figured she would move in on whatever it was she had been planning. Hakuta braced himself for anything she would throw his way, but the boy couldn’t have been prepared for what she hit him with.

“You’ve been pretty close with Shiuka lately, haven’t you?” She started, talking while taking bites of her meal. “But it’s Ninka that’s chasing after you.”

“I’m not the one who controls who wants to hang out with me.” He avoided using any terminology that would imply romance between him and Ninka. It was a situation he wished he didn’t have to deal with, but so far had been unsuccessful in getting her to move her sights elsewhere.

“And I would say I wasn’t born yesterday.” She responded in kind, unconvinced towards his answer. “You know, there’s a lot of guys out there who want to just mess with girls’ hearts.”

“I’m sorry, are you accusing me of trying to two-time them?” He was shocked by the supposed accusation. Hakuta would never consider doing anything like cheat on a girl. While admittedly he wasn’t dating either, he also would never try to get two girls at the same time. That would be immoral and far from what his father taught him.

Actually, this would also imply that she believed Shiuka to be romantically interested him. That was absurd to the boy, obviously that girl was just friends. Though he could see the misunderstanding since they appeared oddly close. It was only that they lived together which led to this, which no one else could know. “You’ve got it all mixed up, I don’t want Ninka after me and Shiuka’s just a friend.”

“I don’t believe you’re that dense.” She aggressively stabbed her fork into one of the macaroons. Her eyes had on a fury which looked as if it could kill him without much effort.

While Ninka was obvious, Rouko believed she knew Shiuka’s feelings as well. There was no way they were just friends. Not after seeing how she had acted during their little sports day event.

“I’m… Not… Hiding anything.” He spoke in fear. This was beyond terrible for him. While she didn’t suspect anything about their living arrangements, this was far worst. She believed him to be a bad boy trying to hurt her friends. Which did show him she at least cared deeply for them. That would make him like her more, if only he wasn’t the target of her ire. “There’s no act going on. It is what it is.” He took a bite of his croissant to try and bide his time to search for an escape.

“Then why’d you duck in here to hide?” She asked. Though even if he were able to escape from this moment. That still wouldn’t save him. She didn’t know where he lived, but knew he had to go to school eventually. There was no way she’d forget this meeting of theirs until she was given a proper answer. “All you’ve been doing is acting like you got something to hide.”

“Am not.” He put up the worst defense in history to her continuing interrogation. “All you’re doing is looking for drama. I was right about you gyarus, you really are a bunch of trouble.”

“Maybe that’s what you’re looking for.” She didn’t take the insult as one, instead she turned it around on him. “Maybe you’re like those girls who like some bad boys. Except you’re a dude who wants a naughty girl.”

“That’s taking this too far!” His face turned red over the insulation on the kind of person he was. If there was one thing about Hakuta, it was that he knew who he was and who he wasn’t. This would be one of those points. “You won’t believe me no matter what I say unless it’s what you already made yourself believe.”

“Then I guess you leave me no choice.” She pulled out her phone in response to his accusation towards her methods. “It was funny at first, but I don’t want you messing up my friends.” She did enjoy making Shiuka get a little upset when she pretended to want to give a kiss to him. And it was also funny to see him squirm while watching Ninka flirt with him directly. But the time for games was over and she knew this was a risky spot to be in.

To her, he spelled trouble for her and her group of friends. Having a boy get between them would’ve been the first step towards a breakup and she didn’t want that. Not over a guy like Hakuta who was a loser anyway.

She opened up the camera on her phone and turned it in a way so that it would capture both her and Hakuta. Then she went and grabbed his hand tightly, much to his surprise and snapped a photo. “There.”

“What’s this for?” He asked, pulling his hand away from hers. “Why’d you just do that?”

“Because I’m going to tell Ninka and Shiuka that we’re on a date.” She answered, moving towards her messaging app.

“What!?” He couldn’t believe her. The way she did so nonchalantly and how she felt no remorse over lying to her friends. “How is that going to resolve anything?” It didn’t make any sense to her, she had told him she believed him to be going after the other two. Why would she put herself in this photo with him like that?

“Even if I’m wrong about Shiuka, Ninka’s going to be real angry to know you went out with me even after all those signals she sent you.”

“But what about you?” He didn’t think she would be so willing to put herself in the fire too so easily. If she was worried about their friendship, then wouldn’t this be bad too?”

“The difference between us is that she’ll forgive me.” She gave him a smug look. “But even if she didn’t and we stopped being friends after this, I wouldn’t care. You’re not going to hurt either of them, I won’t let that happen.”

“You’d be willing to go down with the ship?” His body froze up from the dread he felt from her cold icy stare.

“You were right about one thing with us gyarus.” She spoke, looking him dead in the eye. “We’re crazy and we really are a bunch of trouble.” Rouko was about to send the incriminating message when he knew something had to be done or else something regrettable would happen.

“Stop!” He grabbed her hand, giving her a momentary pause. “The truth is that I live with Shiuka!”