Hakuta woke up the next day prepared, but dreading what was to come. With the celebrations underway, he was more than ready for two things.

One was the annoyance of having to deal with his classmates when it came to their theme for the classroom. The second was the part where people thought it was funny to jumpscare others because of the holiday.

“Boo!” Which was how his day started when he walked out of his room. The boy was met with Shiuka, who jumped up and grabbed his shoulders when she tried to give him a fright.

“Ahh…” He gave an unenthusiastic yell to play along, but had fully expected her to do this so it didn’t even startle him in the slightest. “I see you’re dressed for the holiday spirit.” Hakuta commented on her outfit.

For whatever reason, she decided to already don on her nurse gown which had red paint spattered about to simulate blood. “You do know you could’ve just changed at school, right?”

“But I was hoping to scare you with this.” She gave him a twirl, showing off her body from front to back. Shiuka was confident she looked good in her outfit, which was the truth as it rode up likely a bit too high on her legs, but still covered her just enough.

“I think you’ll be getting a different reaction than fear when you show up in school like that.” He responded. “I wonder what everyone else will be wearing?” Asked Hakuta, pondering in his mind the potential appearance of the others. He had no plans of dressing up himself, as he could just pretend to be the “everyman” character that always showed up as the lead.

Keyword being pretend, he wasn’t going to try to be anything and would only respond with that if anyone asked him why he didn’t seem to be in character.

“I’m sure Ninka will look good.” She replied. He gave her a good glare when that name was the only one she mentioned in regards to costumes.

“Haha, real funny.” He spoke in a monotone voice as the pair walked down the steps to head out for the day. “You’re the one who’s best friends with her. Don’t tell me she’ll do something that’s over the top.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Her response was perfect for giving him the anxiety that something stupid was about to go down when they saw her at school. “But before we leave, do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Go right ahead.” He allowed it, not as if she needed any permission from him to ask questions.

“Why do you keep pushing Ninka back?” She asked a question he regretted allowing her to ask. “But you don’t really go out and reject her either.”

“Guess I’ve never been good at saying no to a girl before.” Hakuta never had a girl so persistent come after him like Ninka. She was very determined to make him hers, which was a bit strange for him. She was a girl who had already dated tons of boys, so surely she would just give up and move on to the next poor sap by now.

But he knew that wouldn’t be the case. She already implied as much the previous night that he was special to her. Were those just words to try and butter him up? Or did she truly feel this way? From her actions thus far, it seemed to be the latter, but Hakuta still kept his guard up.

“Wish I could understand why she’s still keeping this up.” Despite being the one who knew her better, Shiuka was at a loss for the reason why as well. “She’s being serious, so I know this isn’t some weird joke, but I don’t know why you got caught up in it.”

“You make it seem like it’s completely random.” Though without them knowing Ninka’s thought process, it might as well have been.

“I’m not saying you’re a bad guy. I like you too…” Her face grew a bit red when she realized how she may have sounded to him. “I-I mean, you know since you’re a cool guy. I’m glad we’re friends.”

“I’m glad we’re friends too.” He didn’t get why she would take such a weird response to saying something so basic. “Anyway, can you go now? I don’t want to be late for school.” Hakuta was still stuck waiting for Shiuka to leave first so that he could do the same. Since she was the first to leave, this meant he would have less time compared to her to reach the same destination.

“Okay okay, you don’t have to rush me.” She grabbed her bag and headed out for the door. This left him with the short boring task of standing around for a couple minutes as he waited for the seconds to tick down for him to be able to leave. Which he would do just 3 minutes after she set foot outside.

He believed it to just be a normal walk to school where he’d be prepared for an abnormal day. However there was one major change to his daily morning routine he would’ve preferred not happened.

“Funny running into you.” It was Ninka yet again, who seemed to have caught up to him as he had been taking the long way around to school. Hakuta thought it was a bit of a strange coincidence as he had never otherwise seen her around before. Not to mention that considering where her house was, this would be a strange place for her to be.

“I could say the same to you.” He responded, not otherwise worried about this encounter. Just like Shiuka, she also already was dressed up in her nurse’s gown. And also just like her friend, it skirted the line of what would be considered acceptable. “I hope you haven’t taken up on stalking me now.”

“Pff, you really are a jokester.” She laughed, even though he was being a little serious in his statement. “Today’s a special day, so why not do something different, right?” She wasn’t kidding about doing things differently, but Ninka wasn’t telling him the whole truth either.

Her running into him in this moment wasn’t just out of mere coincidence. Or perhaps, the part where it was him was coincidence, but she had originally went to Shiuka’s house first before talking to him now. Since today was different, Ninka wanted to see her friend so they could see their outfits together and talk about some ideas. So it came to her as a massive shock when of all people, she saw Hakuta being the one to leave the house instead. The girl knew something had to be up when she also saw him taking an indirect route to school when he should clearly know the right way.

This did give her a good opportunity to get him alone with her, but Ninka hesitated on confronting the boy over why he just so happened to be leaving one of her friend’s houses in the morning for school. It was especially strange seeing as she didn’t see Shiuka coming out of that house either. “So you live around here?” She asked, trying to keep things from sounding suspicious coming from her end.

“Sure, but I’m not telling you.” While his response was sarcastic, it only served to make her more suspicious on why he was where he was. “But I guess since we’re both going to school, I’m not going to tell you to go away.”

“I’d hope not.” She went along with him as they walked together as a strange pair. Ironically because of the date, he was the one who looked odd between them as he didn’t put on anything in an attempt to even appear spooky. “So? Are you forgetting something?”

“What would that be?”

“Ahem, are you going to say something about what I’m wearing?” She pointed at herself, stating she wanted his comments.

“It’s looks fine.” He answered, taking a good look at her body. “Did you get something a size too small though?”

“Hehe, so even you take notice of some things.” She giggled, but revealed that it wasn’t a matter of her wearing something too small. “My dad says I’m a good growing girl. So I figured maybe some things that show me off would be a good idea.”

“I thought you’d stop doing that eventually.” He commented. Hakuta assumed he had made it clear to her he wasn’t interested in girls because of their appearances or bodies, but it seemed old habits died hard for her.

“Nothing wrong with being proud of myself.” She replied. Though he knew she hit, or perhaps even crossed, the thin line between pride and arrogance. “Tons of guys said I was pretty. I bet even you feel that way, but I bet you’re too shy to say it out loud.”

“That’s what I’m too shy to say out loud?” Hakuta said plenty of things to them that most normal people would be reserved about. Mostly in voicing his disdain on many matters on things they liked. “I’ve literally never implied I didn’t like your looks. It’s just not that important to me.”

“Bah, you just want to dodge the question.” As they neared the school, she wondered what she should do about the other important information regarding him. It wasn’t easy to just confront him, but Ninka didn’t want to know that he was just leading her on when he already had eyes for someone else.