There were many things Hakuta liked and disliked. Normally, he liked the month of October as it was the best time for most gamers to pull out some horror games where they’ll start them only to get too scared and turn off the games. Then once November rolled around, it was too late to go back to them and they could just wait until next year to start the cycle all over again.

He had already gone through this song and dance from the first half of October. With Halloween coming up, he steeled himself on considering firing up the latest title in the ‘Quiet Mountain’ series as it had recently had a bit of a revival in the gaming community.

But that also meant needing free time on such a day and it seemed he wouldn’t be getting that as the date fell on a school day. Unsurprisingly a lot of his classmates were more interested in coming up with ideas to celebrate the holiday at school.

The faculty had already allowed most classrooms to decorate and create some haunted rooms for some good times on the day. Today he was stuck being one of the members who decided to take the responsibility for transforming their classroom into something from that of another world.

“Why did you guys have to rope me into this?” He complained as they put up some spooky looking signs in front of the doors after school. Of course, the girls wanted to be the ones to take the lead on something that seemed so fun. “I could be home by now.”

“But you’re the one who came up with the theme.” Said Rouko. “We’d be lost without you.” When they were brainstorming, he had suggested using the concepts from the video game, ‘Quiet Mountain’, as a joke. Hakuta never would’ve figured they’d actually go for it once they looked it up online.

“Next time I’m picking something that doesn’t have sexy nurses.” He responded. The girls were only into it so they could dress up as something attractive without getting too much into trouble. At worst, they could blame it on him as it was his idea. “Of course, I don’t expect any of you to get the deeper meaning of why they look like that.”

“Yeah yeah, repressed feelings, blah blah blah.” She only brushed off his complaints as the boy being a bit too pretentious over a video game. “Anyway, that should be enough here.”

“Hmm, that means all we need are our costumes.” Said Ninka, putting a finger under her chin to think of a plan. “You know, if you’re the so-called expert.” She turned her attention to Hakuta. “Then maybe you could help me pick something out.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious we want to go two separate directions on this one.” They seemed set on the nurse idea, but he wanted to do some of the more grotesque stuff. At the very least, he could do with the guy with the weird looking pyramid on his head.

“What if we helped you instead?” His friends were there to shoot their shots, as always. “I bet we could find something that Ninka could look cute in.”

“That would kind of defeat the purpose, don’t you think?” He said, annoyed with everyone not getting the point of either the franchise or the concept of Halloween at all. “Whatever, all we need for costumes are some plain nurse outfits, a straitjacket, and a wheelchair for ambiance.” That series really liked the hospital theme, so they needed to go all out on that. “And then just some red paint for some blood and that should be good.”

“Ooh, papa’s got plenty of medical items from all his travels, so I think I can get all that.” As the daughter to a man who went on constant adventures that apparently included tons of danger. Shiuka had easy access to obtaining supplies from hospitals.

“Great, then everything should be ready for Halloween tomorrow.” He said, ready to end his day. “We’ll see each other in the morning and take care of all the finer details.” With that, they were able to leave school for the day, but it wouldn’t be the end of things for him.

Ninka took advantage of this opportunity to catch up with him on his walk home. It was a good thing he took a different route compared to Shiuka or else he would appear rather suspicious to her. “Do you need anything else?” He asked her once the boy realized he had been followed.

“Well, I did want to just talk.” She replied. “Nothing wrong with that, right?”

“I just wanted to go home.” He did not share in her enthusiasm for the idea. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow? Or maybe after we take care of everything?”

“But.” She ran up in front of him, preventing the boy from moving forward. “You’re always trying to delay things, and it’s not even something super important.”

“I just prefer it be something important instead of menial.” Hakuta didn’t understand the reasoning for her actions. He had already done plenty today to accommodate them, so was there any need to continue to pester him? “Sorry, I don’t want to sound rude, but it’s just been a long day.” Knowing Ninka liked him was enough to keep him from wanting to go beyond a simple decline. Even if he didn’t know why she did what she was doing right now, he assumed it was connected to her feelings.

“Is being with me that much of a drag?” Her eyes drooped down as she put on a sad face. “I hope not.” She pouted in an exaggerated manner, indicating to him she wasn’t be serious. There was no way Ninka would feel bad for him being so negative. At this point, it was the norm. If he was reciprocating her feelings, then there might be some more worries.

“You’re not that bad.” He responded by sidestepping her and moving past her blockade. There was another problem for him with her pestering him at this moment. That being that he couldn’t just walk home with her following the entire way. “How about this? I can walk you home if you’d like.” Hakuta needed to come up with an idea to get rid of her, so he decided to humor her for now.

“I’m more than happy with that.” She turned her fake frown upside down. “But man, you really don’t want me to know where you live. What’s wrong? Worried I’ll turn into a stalker or something?”

“I’m just a private person.” He replied with unease. It was ironic she said that, when she technically already knew where he lived. It was just more of a matter of knowing that Shiuka’s house also happened to be his. “Don’t take it personally. So, your house was this way?” He pointed down towards the direction he believed it to be. She nodded her head in affirmation and they then walked along the sidewalk down that way.

“So, are you looking forward to tomorrow?” She asked, continuing their conversation. “It is your idea, so I bet you’re all excited to see us doing something you like.”

“I think I’m more worried about you all ruining something I like.” He replied. “None of you really get it, especially Yuusen and Ituski.” Hakuta sighed, wondering if he should’ve held his tongue back then so they wouldn’t create such a poor imitation. “Speaking of those two, how come you don’t hang out with them that much?”

“I see what you’re trying to do.” She wagged her finger in his face. “I’m not interested in guys like them. They’re always so needy.” He had no idea what she meant with her words. Sure, his friends always wanted to do things with the girls, but how was that needy? “Actually, a lot of guys I’ve dated were pretty needy, but you’re not at all.” He figured she’d say something about how he was different from the other guys. Despite always being one to say he was different, hearing someone else call him that almost felt like an attempt to stroke his ego. “You’re actually pretty independent.”

“That’s an interesting way to describe me.” Hakuta wasn’t sure on how she decided he was that compared to other boys. At least the ones she had dated. Perhaps it was because he seemed to be the only one to reject her advances thus far. “But it’s probably because I’ve had a bit of a strange upbringing compared to most. You know, lately I don’t even see my dad because of work. So I guess I’ve gotten used to being on my own.” While he still had Shiuka, considering her poor house keeping skills. He had to learn some things as if he was taking care of someone.

“When you put it like that, it’s kind of sad.” She felt a bit of guilt as they walked up to her own home. While she had no idea what type of house he lived in. Ninka assumed it was nothing compared to what she had been able to enjoy because of her family’s status.

“I don’t need your pity.” He responded as they stopped their walk, knowing this would be where they’d separate. “My life’s not bad at all. After all, you’re a part of it.” Hakuta gave a small wave as he then continued his walk towards his own home.