Iruka carried Hakuta without a care in the world, as well as a lack of care when it came to how they presented themselves in public. She weaved the crowd with him in tow with ease. It amazed him just how much strength this girl had, even if she never appeared to be built like a dainty flower.

“Hey, you know I got legs, right?” He said in a futile attempt to get her to drop him. The boy wasn’t even against following her, but this was above and beyond what most people would ever hope to have done to them. “I think this is the opposite of what they meant by don’t cause any trouble.”

“Don’t worry about them.” She said, doing little to give him reason to relax. Though fortunately her trip with him was near its end as she stopped by a temporary bar set up for this part and sat him down on one of the bar stools. “See? We made it.”

“Made it where?” Hakuta looked around to see numerous people staring at them for the spectacular entrance she had just made. “Why did you take me here?”

“You said you need a break, right?” She explained herself. “So I thought, what better than going to get refreshments.” The girl pointed to the bartender, who had still be staring mindlessly in shock and motioned them to make some smoothies. Once they nodded their head, both in affirmation and to bring themselves back to reality. She sat down besides him as they waited.

“Gee, thanks.” He was surprised at how quickly she did all this. The girl wasn’t a part of this party, so everything she had just done had to have been done on impulse. Yet it was as if she had planned out every move ahead of time. “You really know what you’re doing here.”

“I guess I do.” Even she surprised herself with her experience. “But that makes sense. Before I moved here, I used to go to parties, like, every weekend.” This stopped when she moved into town here. As she had other things she wanted to do to enjoy during the weekends, mainly hanging out at Hakuta’s and Shiuka’s house.

“Sounds like something your parents probably didn’t like.” He couldn’t imagine most parents, even people as laid back as Omihiro, to be fine with their child spending all their time going to parties. Especially since she was a young girl doing this mostly on her own. Of course, he wasn’t one to talk. The boy certainly knew many late nights where he might’ve gotten a bit too distracted with video games to remember basic functions like sleeping or doing homework.

“I realize now that probably killed my grades a ton.” She laughed uneasily. “My mom gave me an earful one time when I completely bombed a test. I ended up being forced to enter cram school because of it.” The girl looked like she was about to cry just from having to relive that memory. All the parts about cram school and how boring it was, not the part where her mother got angry.

“Well that wouldn’t have been a problem if you just study a little more.” He pressed his finger up onto her forehead, pushing the girl gently backwards. Their smoothies were now ready and had arrived to where they sat at the bar. “And you should listen to your mom more often. It’s pretty obvious your dad lets you get away with anything.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” She assured him, picking up her smoothie to take a big strong sip of the strawberry flavor. While she enjoyed her drink, he picked up his to see she had gotten him blueberry mixed with some banana. Not a flavor he was known for liking, but also didn’t dislike either. Of course, perhaps it was too much to expect this girl to know all about his favorites when they had only known each other for weeks.

“But enough about me scolding you.” He felt like he was acting more like a parent, instead of a friend whenever it came with these girls sometimes. “I’m sure there’s stuff you want to ask me about.” Realizing she didn’t know him that well, Hakuta decided now was a good time for her to learn some things about him outside of the gaming world.

“You’re pretty sad about the whole class rep thing.” She spoke so bluntly on a matter rather sensitive to him that it nearly caused the boy to spit out his smoothie in response to her saying it out loud. “Was she a friend of yours before I moved in? It doesn’t seem like you two are that close now.”

“I wouldn’t say that we were friends before you showed up.” He regained his composure and saved his throat from choking on the smooth, creamy drink she bought for him. “Sure, we were cool with each other, but it was mostly me just helping with some things. Nothing further than that.”

“If that’s the case, how come you’re so sad about her?” She continued on being confused about the whole ordeal. While it was true she had arrived later than everyone else as a new student. It wasn’t as if Iruka had just missed everything and showed up right after.

“That’s not fair how you’re asking it.” He countered. “I mean, what about your old friend? You were sad when you stopped being close to him.” Hakuta hated having to bring up something that did make her want to cry, but he wanted her to understand his feelings. Even though he didn’t grow up with Ino like she had done with that boy. “I can be sad about it, can’t I?”

“I guess you’re right about that.” She agreed, taking another gulp of her smoothie. “But maybe, I was just wondering if… Do you like her?”

“Of course I like her.” He answered. “She’s a kind girl, who wouldn’t like her?”

“I meant…” He had misunderstood the meaning behind her words, which made her clarify. “Do you really like the class rep?” Iruka scrunched up her lips from the off-hand embarrassment of having to say this out loud.

“I don’t have any feelings with her.” Despite telling the truth and denying it, Hakuta couldn’t help but also get that feeling of being flustered from the air of awkwardness as well. “But don’t you guys understand where I’m coming from? There’s nothing wrong with someone I have a little more in common with.” It was no secret he was the black sheep of the group. And while Ino might not have the same hobbies as him, it was better than having to spend all his time putting up with the antics of the rest of his friends.

“Yeah, you’re right.” She sighed in defeat. “But it always starts like that.”

“Always starts like what?”

“First you say you need someone else you can have more in common with. Then you say you like them and want to confess. Eventually, you stop hanging out with your old friends. That’s just how it goes.” The way she said it made it seem more like something she experienced rather than a reoccurring event.

“Is that what your old friend did?” He asked. While she did give some details, he never went deep into her story in understanding what happened. All that mattered back then was that it was upsetting for her.

“When we were younger, he told me that he had a crush on one of our classmates.” She explained. It was a girl who looked an awful lot like Ino, except younger as they were in junior high at this point in their lives. She was a nice, quiet girl with glasses. The type that got the attention of certain boys because she was a safe choice, but also very cute. “I always wanted to support him in everything, so of course I told him to go for her.”

She encouraged him to confess, which worked out rather well for the boy. Iruka was happy for them, but eventually things changed over time. He became less of a friend to her as he was busy with his girlfriend. Eventually, it got the point where perhaps he realized how different they were after he had met a girl closer to the kind of person he was. “I’m not mad at him, but I think that maybe…”

“You’re worried I might do the same thing with Ino?” He finished the thought for her. Hakuta wished he could make promises, but the boy could never be certain of the future. Not with how his life had treated him growing up and most certainly not now of all times when he had other things to deal with.

It also didn’t help that Ino didn’t like the gyarus because of who they were. If he did get close with her again, then she might pressure him to drop ties with him due to her disdain towards them. Though if she did push him like that, maybe it would be better if he just dropped befriending her.

“You know.” The bartender spoke up to them for the first time after they sat down to lend a little bit of unsolicited advice. “If you’re that worried about him, maybe you should just locked him down and just confess to him now.” He said, telling Iruka to just ask him out.

“Pffh.” She spat out her smoothie in a panic from being told this right in front of the boy. “N-n-no you’ve got it all wrong. You see, we’re just friends. It’s not like I like him like that or anything.” Iruka would then proceed to continue to plead her case, which seemed more done to convince Hakuta, rather than the bartender.