“Wow, ouch.” Ninka responded in a slightly hurt fashion. “Come on now, it’s really not that big of a deal.” She tried to downplay the situation, but it wasn’t helping on his end.
“Not a big deal?” He couldn’t believe the nerve of this girl. “It’s a huge deal. Can’t you at least think of people other than yourself.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” His tone made her unhappy. This wasn’t like all the other times he would respond to them in an annoyed manner. Those times were what she considered fun because it was cute to see him get a little riled up. But this time was different, she could sense it in his voice. “I’m just saying that she doesn’t have to worry about me.”
“We both know she’s going to stress out a ton about this.” He countered. “Even if she’s not some emotional girl. I’m pretty sure knowing you know is making her freak out on the inside. Why can’t you take anything seriously?” There was bite in his voice. It was evident that he wasn’t simply just scolding her.
“Hey, what’s up with you today?” She asked. It was uncharacteristic of him to be so harsh with her. While he may be cold sometimes, he certainly wasn’t this bitter. Admittedly he wasn’t completely thinking of her when he got caught up in his feelings. Instead Hakuta was more upset about the meddling of others constantly occurring in his life. Whether it be from girls like Rouko or even Iruka. Unfortunately this was being taken out on one specific person though.
“Why’d you even follow me like that?” He asked her instead. “Can’t I have a life of my own? I don’t need everyone hovering over me like I’m some sort of curiosity. Does it look like I bug you guys all the time?”
“Well, no.” She responded, a bit defeated over the matter. “But I kind of wish you’d take an interest in us a little more.” Ninka would certainly like that more than him putting all his attention on the masked gamer, now known as Ino. Perhaps him being aware of her true identity meant he can return to more important matters at hand.
“I guess we both can’t have what we want.” He replied, resuming his walk away from her. “Anyway, I’m going home now. Please don’t follow me.” While it was a part of his irritation with her. Hakuta also had a logical concern with her following him home to Shiuka’s place. The boy didn’t need her finding out two major secrets in the course of less than an hour.
“Hey, there’s no reason to cut me off like that.” She ran up and stood in front of him. Ninka took his hands and held them up to her chest. “We’re both out, so why not enjoy each other’s company?”
“That would mean enjoying each other first.” He replied, but his attempt to tear his hands from her failed. Ninka took a massive death grip on his, hanging on as if her life depended on it. “I think I should be asking what’s up with you?” It seemed this conversation was much more important to her than for him. While he was upset with her, it wasn’t like Hakuta believed this to be game changing for either of them. People get upset with their friends all the time, it wasn’t like he planned on holding a grudge.
“I just… Don’t want you to be mad at me, that’s all.” Ninka gave him a pair of puppy dog eyes as if begging him to stick with her. “Please.” She heavily accentuated the word like a child begging their parents for a toy. Oddly immature, or perhaps this was on brand of her, in regards to the situation. This acting made Hakuta wonder if she was simply just making fun of him for being upset.
“Can I ask you a question?” He asked, now curious about this girl from her demeanor. “Were you always the one who broke up with your boyfriends?”
“Pretty much.” She answered. “I think I dumped just about every single one… Oh, except there was one guy who broke up with me.”
“How did that go?”
“About as normally as you’d expect.” She was confused by his line of questioning. Were people like him and Ino always this weird, she thought. “Why should I care about some guy who clearly can’t see I’m a catch?” Her statement was rather hypocritical considering their relationship. He very clearly had demonstrated he apparently couldn’t see her value as a girl. Yet she continued to pursue him.
Another part which only served to bewilder him further was her apparent aloof response to the only time a boy had dumped her. If she didn’t care then, she certainly seemed to care a lot more about him. And this wasn’t even a matter of him breaking up with her since they weren’t dating.
Hakuta took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. As much as he wanted to blow up in her face for continuing to be a nuisance to him. It was clear she was coming from a place of care rather than trying to actually harm him in any way.
“Look, I’m not mad at you.” He said to her, trying to assure her things would be fine. “Things just have been pretty hard on me lately. So I kind of took it out on you. That was wrong of me.”
“That’s a relief.” Now it was her turn to take that sigh of relief. “But I thought your family didn’t have money problems anymore? At least, that’s what Rouko keeps saying about why you’re always so uptight.”
“I am not uptight!” He took offense for being referred to something so strict. Hakuta was a gamer, those people shouldn’t be stressed out at all. Not that him believing it made it any true. Especially since earlier he was feeling the same rage he would get when playing a game that was hard because of frustration rather than good design. “And it’s not money either. My dad’s doing fine so you guys don’t have to worry about me.” A part of him wondered how they viewed him before they were friends being aware of his father’s financial issues. It appeared the girls were very well off, so did they hold any stuck up opinion of him beforehand?
Then again, Shiuka never appeared to treat him poorly when he first moved in. At least, not beyond what could be reasonably expected from a girl now forced to live with one of her male classmates. And it likely didn’t matter anymore with Ninka seeing as she somehow fell for this boy.
“And let me guess? You want to just bottle up all those emotions and hide them away so us girls won’t make fun of you?” The way she said this to him almost felt like she mocked him being worried about them making fun of him.
“I’m pretty sure Rouko would.” He said, but that was a lie. Not because he didn’t believe that girl wouldn’t do it. Were the circumstances different she likely would do a lot of mocking. Rather that since she was now stuck with the secret like him, he knew she wasn’t exactly feeling in the mood to put some humor to the situation.
Then again, something as measly as that likely wouldn’t keep her from having some fun with him.
“Well I would never.” Ninka stood up tall to proudly proclaim this fact to him. “You could tell me anything and I wouldn’t laugh at you.”
“That’s fine, but I still don’t want to tell you.” He shook his head over her display towards him. Perhaps he should tell her he preferred mature women, but at the same time that would only get her to annoy him more with trying to change her style as well. If he wanted to date someone, he’d much rather they just be who they actually were. “You know, if it’ll keep you from bugging me. Maybe I will just take you up on that offer to head somewhere together.”
“You will?” She got excited over him finally relenting to her suggestions. “That’s great.” She took his hand and began to lead him to her original destination from before she had even seen him today. “It’ll be great with just the two of us. And I’ll make sure to call this a ‘date’ a ton of times. So it looks like you’ll finally be losing that ‘dating’ virginity of yours.”
“I literally did not agree to go on a date with you.” He tried to fight back from her trap, but it was too late as she continued to guide him along. “And don’t be super weird and call it virginity either!” The worst part was this was all public, but at least no one could see, and more importantly hear, them as of this moment.
