They arrived to the festival in short order as a group. There the event had already begun and dozens of people were scattered about enjoying the festivities all dressed up in the expected outfits. The people around them were certainly happy, and mostly his own group were having fun as well.
It was mainly just Hakuta himself who couldn’t put himself to match the mood of the world around him. He had been too preoccupied with Iruka that it made it nearly impossible to even want to smile.
“Do you actually ever go to these things? Or do you need someone to show you around?” Ninka asked him, hoping to take advantage of the situation presented before her. “Cause I’m a pretty good expert at this sort of stuff.” She bragged.
“I’m more interested in finding Iruka first.” He answered. Omihiro promised she’d be here. So he hoped that man kept up his end of the bargain so he wouldn’t have wasted his time coming here. “It’ll be better if we don’t have anything to worry about first.”
“You know, you’re usually pretty good at this stuff.” She told him. Their own personal experience proved it well, but it also pointed to him getting into messes all the time too. “But what if you mess up? Things could get pretty awkward.”
“I won’t.” He didn’t want to think of the alternative. That would be a bad end, but unlike video games, he wouldn’t be able to reload to the last save point. “And it’s Iruka we’re talking about. She’s not the type to hold grudges.” Hakuta was thankful no one he knew held onto lingering bitter emotions.
“Of course she’s not.” She gave him a big pat on the back, a bit harder than the boy would’ve liked. “And I’m sure she won’t hold it against you if you decided to have a little bit of fun before you saw her, right? It’s not like Iruka’s got you tied up or anything.” Ninka looked back towards their friends. It seemed that Yuusen and Itsuki were talking up a storm with the other two girls.
“You really want to be with me, don’t you?” He also saw the same thing she did, realizing this would make for a decent time to slip away from the others. “Sure, you can show me a few things alone. We’ll probably just run into Iruka anyway.” Hakuta didn’t want to upset her while he was too busy with someone else. That would be unfair and as the gals would put it, uncool.
“Great.” She took his hand and immediately led the boy away.
“You know I don’t need you to do that.” He said, remarking on her grip to his hand.
“Now it’s time I show you what having a girlfriend is like.” She had sprung her trap on him once again. Even though he never agreed to a date with her, just like before, she treated it as such to give him a taste of what life with her would be like. It was kind of similar to that time with Rouko. Apparently gyarus were really good at pretending to be in a relationship.
Though their escape didn’t go unnoticed by their friend group. Particularly by Shiuka, who watched them walk away with hands held. She sighed, disappointed to watch Hakuta once again leave her. This was a far cry from what she had hoped the festival would go back when she considered asking him to come with her and only her.
Now with Hakuta alone with Ninka, she felt a bit of boldness coming along with the situation. While she had already been on what she had considered a date with the boy. Tonight was much different as it was a special occasion which came around rarely. Being all dressed up and ready for some things they’d only have tonight to do together.
“You know, these outfits aren’t all that amazing.” Though he didn’t share her feelings on the matter as he tried to shuffle his yakuta into a more comfortable fit. “Did I really need to get into this?”
“Duh.” She added in that subtle inflection of her making it out to be the most obvious thing ever. “What’s wrong with something cute? I think it’s pretty fun to wear one of these things.” She let go of his hand to do a small little twirl, showing off her complete body in a yakuta. “Well, it’s nice, isn’t it?”
“It’s not like you look any better or worse just because you’re wearing that.” He argued, though even Hakuta would be challenged to deny this wasn’t a good look for her. “It’s only because you went out of your way to put on all that makeup and stuff.”
“Nothing wrong with putting your best foot forward.” She countered. “I know you say you’re not interested in all that, but it’s not like it take much to transform yourself.” Ninka showed this by taking his glasses off as an example.
“Hey.” He reached out his hands to stop her, but the girl was too quick and swiped his glasses right out from above his nose. “I can’t see without those.”
“See?” She spoke without a hint of irony. “It’s like you’re a completely different person without these things.” Ninka took a good look at the boy as he tried to understand where he even stood due to his now lack of vision. “Hmm, it’s a good thing you look a lot cuter with them on.” She took his hand and placed his glasses on it to return the object.
“I should hope so.” He said as he put them back on and restored his vision. “Or whatever, it doesn’t matter to me.” Hakuta realized he’d be walking right into her bait if he actually agreed if there was anything he could do to improve upon his appearance. In his eyes, it was good enough for what he needed in life. Which should be to be left alone most of the time, but that was rarely the case.
When he regained the ability to see once more, he saw something that made him do a double take. It wasn’t Iruka, though a part of him hoped he’d see her sooner rather than later. Instead, it was Ino standing with some adults here at the festival. “Wow, there’s Ino.” He pointed the girl out for Ninka.
“And you want to go talk to her…” Ninka spoke, sighing in disappointment.
“Well it’s not often that I get to see her.” He countered. Hakuta couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing Ninka was the one with him right now. She was aware of Ino’s secret identity, but was kind enough to keep it as such. “I guess the two of you aren’t friends, but there’s nothing wrong with talking to her, right?” Though he was also aware of the distance Ino preferred to have with gyarus.
“Sure, we’ll go talk to her.” She allowed it. “But if we see one of my Exs, then I hope you don’t get mad at me.”
“Why would I?” They weren’t dating yet, so he no reason to worry about those guys. Unless they had some choice words about him ‘replacing’ them, then maybe he might get a little nervous.
Hakuta led them to the girl, who was standing with people he didn’t recognize. “Ino.” He called her name, getting her attention. “It’s nice to see you here.” He said. Meanwhile Ninka walked alongside him, but made sure to hold onto her hand. It was time for her to assert a bit of dominance against the class representative as a silent show that she was pursuing him romantically. Not that she had any clue or belief that the other girl was interested in him.
“It’s nice to see you too.” She smiled and greeted him, then turned her head to look at Ninka. “And I see you’re with one of your friends.” She put a lot of emphasis on the word, your, which confused him. It only made more sense when the man she stood with spoke up.
“So these are classmates of yours, Ino?” He asked, taking a good look at the pair. It seemed he was scanning Hakuta much more deeply compared to Ninka.
“Yes father.” She spoke in a formal tone that was far anything he had heard before. Though it took a moment to process the last word she said, where the realization seemed to hit pair at the same time.
“Oh... That’s your dad.” While the anxiety of meeting someone else’s parents was there, something else also built within the pair, fear. Because Ino’s father wasn’t just some random dad you could find in the streets. He was also a politician, an elected official. Even if those fears were unfounded, it still didn’t keep their levels of anxiety down.
“It seems you keep very interesting company.” He said, almost as if taking a mental screenshot of those who considered themselves close enough to Ino that walking up to her and greeting her casually was nothing. From the things that Hakuta had heard, he got the feeling it might not be the most flattering of mental images.
