This was bad. Really bad! What was Misaki even doing here?! It felt like all the patching up I just did with Kido was on the brink of being undone. The wound literally just sewn moments ago was going to be reopened and who knows what could happen then.

“My, oh my, Naoki! Did I perhaps interrupt something?” Misaki asked, as she looked with a curious gaze at the handshake between Kido and I.

She couldn’t have more horrible timing…or was it actually perfect timing? Well, it was a given that with my luck, something was bound to happen anyways. Question is, to what degree would my bad luck act up?

Suddenly, I could feel my hand being slowly crushed as Kido tightened her grip on our handshake.“Oh wow! This must be a very close friend of yours given she refers to you on a first-name basis, right? Naoki-kun?”  she said with a calm voice.

<<Ouch! Ouch!>>

Ok, now it was REALLY bad. But before I could even answer, Misaki had pointed at herself and with a smug face would talk first, “Well if we are talking about my position, in the hierarchy of friends that Naoki has then I must say im pretty high!” 

“REALLY NOW? Well I can’t say I'm not jealous, I sure wish I was also up there” With every passing moment, my hand was being flattened more and more.

“Well I don’t see why you couldn’t be up there” Misaki shrugged and looked a tad confused, “I mean Naoki is really nice and kind to everyone!"

<<please stop adding fuel to the fire already…>>

As Misaki finished saying that last sentence, Kido with a devilish face turned to stare directly at me, “Is that so? Say Naoki, I can’t help but start to think that maybe I'm getting a bit of a different treatment compared to everyone else…”

“Haha…I'm sure you’re imagining things…” 

This situation felt like the image I saw a few days ago on my phone, with a cartoon dog sitting in a house fire and saying ‘this is fine’. Of course, the dog at least had a chance to escape, but as for me, im probably more like the table that can’t do shit but slowly accept their demise.

So before things escalated any further, I quickly tried to change topics. 

Finally letting go of Kido, I faced Misaki and asked her, “what…are you even doing here?” to which she seemed unsure if she should say it, but she went ahead with it anyway.

“Well, I was actually looking for you, I wanted to ask if you wanted to walk home together or something.” 

I didn’t even wanna look to my side, I could already feel a fiery aura emanating from the person next to me.

“Well at least that was the plan, but it seems you are busy right now?” 

“Yeah… I was sort of in the middle of some-”

Misaki, interrupting me mid sentence, would spot the little cat from before and exclaim, “IS THAT A KITTEN?” Then in a quick swift motion, grabbed the kitten from the ground and began hugging and rubbing against it.

“Aww~ who’s a little cutie” she would say, as she caressed the cat who also seemed to enjoy it and did not fight back at all.

Kido who was next to me, suddenly extended her hands towards the cat, 

“mr…whiskers…?”  She said, her face was that of betrayal and shock. 

Soon she would fall to her knees and look towards the ground while whispering things to herself, “traitor…you were supposed to be my friend only…”

<<This is fine.>>

I had no idea what the hell was happening anymore, and my brain was too tired to even think it through.

Misaki would eventually snap out of it and as if realizing something, she faced Kido who was on the ground, “That's right! How rude of me, I haven’t even introduced myself to you! I’m-”

“Don’t bother, I'm very aware of who you are, I’d be more strange if I didn’t. Seo Misaki, the popular Idol who recently transferred, right?” Intervened Kido, as she slowly began to get back up once again while dusting her skirt off.

“Yeah! Well that makes things easier, it’s nice to meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you too I suppose. Normally I would not show this crude and uncouth side of me, but due to certain events beyond my control, I was left with no choice so I apologize Miss Misaki”

“Haha, no need to be so formal, you can just call Misaki without any honorifics, but you look rather…familiar?”

“Well it wouldn’t be too strange if you heard of me, after all my father’s company is a rather big deal, I’m-”

“You’re the girl who’s always by herself!” 

<<Crap…this might make Kido mad>>

“Wait Kido she didn’t mean any harm- When did she!?!”  As I looked to my side to check on Kido, she was on the ground once again before I even realized it, looking completely defeated.

“Misaki…could you have a bit more tact…Kido is uh sensitive when it comes to the topic of friends…” I tried to explain.

“Oh…sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Damn it! This is more humiliating than the time at the rooftop!” exclaimed Kido, once again taking a knee to get up.

“Ha~ well never mind that, it's certainly true that i’m always by myself and that I have no…I have no…” Kido would look to the side all depressed.

“Don’t force yourself” I added, “besides now you can say you have one friend”

“Better than none I suppose…” she would say in a defeated voice.

Shaking her head from side to side,  Misaki got closer, “Tch. Tch. Tch. You’ve got it all wrong Naoki”

“Wat.” I said with an eyebrow raised.

“Make it TWO friends now.” As she said that, Misaki extended her hands towards Kido and with a bright smile continued, “Let’s be friends as well alright? Uh…wait I just realized I never got your name”

“Well you did interrupt her.” I quickly said.

“Ah geez, me and my big mouth…”

Kido, who was next to me, looked with bright eyes at Misaki, however she hesitated to extend her own hand towards Misaki.

“I’m Kido…Kido Tomiko,” she said in a soft voice “Are you sure…being friends with a person like me? I don’t got much experience to when it comes having fr-”

Cutting her off mid sentence, Misaki would rush towards Kido and grab her hands, taking Kido by surprise and making her blush in the process, “Oh my god! You’re Kido Tomiko!? You mean the flower of our school?!”

“F-flower? I have no idea what you mean by that title…”

It seemed Kido was oblivious to her reputation at school as the most beautiful girl. 

“Well you certainly live up to the rumors of being extremely beautiful. Anyways, now we DEFINITELY have to be friends. Heck, let's become the best friends! I’ll take good care of you I promise!”

“W-W-WHAT?!” 

While Misaki kept leaning further and further into Kido’s face, Kido herself kept reclining further and further back. 

As I thought about the situation of the two of them, I had a sudden realization, “Huh, you two would make good besties now that I think about it”  I casually remarked

“WHAT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOU SAY THAT?!” Asked Kido looking overwhelmed by Misaki’s energy.

“He he~ Now, now, Naoki is right Miss Tomiko, we are gonna be the best of friends. Don’t fight it, just let it happen!” Misaki said with her star-shaped eyes shining at the sight of Kido.

“Na-naoki a little bit of help?” Kido struggled to say.

I averted my eyes as I proceeded to finally put the trash in the containers.

Welp, all ends well.

“NAAAOKI!” 

----------------------------------------------------------

“You know you’re rather quiet. I expected a bigger reaction out of you.” I said to Nakai who was in the middle of packing his things after class had ended.

“Yeah? Would you have preferred if I freaked out this morning when you showed up with two of the prettiest girls on our way to school? You wanted me to scream or something?”

“I'm just saying, usually you would be bombarding me with all sorts of questions”

“Oh believe me buddy, I got a lot of em, but my mind is already in enough shock as is. I feel if I asked you any more stuff, I’d just go insane or even worse end up catatonic.”

“Like Katsuo?”

“Like Katsuo.”

At first I thought Kido and Misaki wouldn’t get along for some reason. Turns out they have a lot in common. I guess both of them being pretty famous and rich had a lot to do with it. But it turned out pretty well in the end. So today when I showed up with the two of them, naturally Nakai made the funniest expression, and as for Katsuo, well… he stopped responding all together, his face basically resembled a moai statue.

Anyways, Misaki said for the time being she wouldn’t be hanging out with us and dragged Kido along with her. Although Kido gave off a scared face…well I'm sure she’s secretly enjoying it. So lunch was just the three of us once again.

“You tryna hit the arcade or something” I asked Nakai, given that I had somehow and by pure miracle made up with Kido, I thought it warranted some sort of celebration.

“What day?” he asked looking at his phone’s calendar.

“What do you mean ‘what day’? Obviously right now and why you looking at your calendar as if you gotta schedule it?? Am I supposed to say, in 5 to 10 business days!?”

“Well it is not obvious because in case you forgot, today is first day of orientation for new members of my club, and i'm tryna take this club veery seriously”

“Oh shit.” I said, looking surprised.

“Don’t tell me…you forgot to sign up for a club”

“Perchance.”

“You do know that yesterday was the last day to submit club applications right? Also you can’t just say perchance.”

“So now what? Am I like in club limbo or something?”

“I dunno man, i'm not the one without a club, if you want you can go ask the homeroom teach, she probably knows”

“Damn it, well I guess I'll go check out the teacher’s lounge, hopefully she hasn’t left…also what club did you even join that you are so serious about?”

“Hehe” With a smug face and a perverted smile, Nakai leaned in, “only the best of the best, a place where a man’s dream can become reality, I even dare say, heaven on earth.”

His creepy attitude about it, pretty much gave me an idea of what sort of club he joined, “So…you joined a swimming club or something?” 

“Ha~ you’re thinking inside the box Naoki, think about it, if that was the case, I would just be put with the boy’s division, not to mention there's ample competition there. I thought a step further, a club with a disproportionate ratio of girls to boys, where I alone, reign King! The cheerleading club!”

Nakai would be impressive if he didn’t use his smarts on dumb stuff like this. I guess at least he’s passionate about something.

“Right…well tell me how that works out for you in the end…”

“Ha~ I bet you’re looking down on me right now, but just you wait, soon I'll be a new man. And as such, I gotta go, can’t be leaving a bad first impression you know?”

Nakai began to get up and walk towards the door of the classroom, “Text me what club you got put into alright? Later,” and promptly left.

<<Well let’s go find out what the deal with the whole club thing is>>

As such, I also shortly left for the teachers lounge. Well in the worst case scenario I would probably end up in the library committee or something. Probably end up organizing dusty old books that no one reads anymore, since everyone who reads nowadays does on their phones.

---------------------

“Well since you failed to submit an application before the deadline, you were automatically signed up to a club that was in desperate need of members” My teacher said as she looked at some papers.

“And…what club would that be?” I asked.

“Let me see…” After browsing through some more files in her desk, she found a piece of paper with a few names written on it, “ah yes, the tea ceremony club.”

“Tea ceremony…?” 

Can’t say i'm particularly excited about this club, the fact that it’s in desperate need of members sums up pretty well the general attitude of most people about it. 

“And I know what you’re thinking, before you even ask me if you can change clubs, please give the tea ceremony club a go, it’s in danger of being disbanded and the president of the club is very passionate about it.”

<<Damn can she read minds?>>

After letting out a resigned sigh, I nodded, “I understand…I’ll give the club a try” 

“How exciting! I'm sure she will be happy about this as well, anyways officially the club is set to begin activities on monday so don’t be late okay?”

“Understood miss…”

After talking to the teacher, I left for my shoe locker at the entrance of the school building.

Although it hadn’t been my intention to be part of the tea ceremony club, the club it’s self seemed pretty cool. It’s not often one gets to really partake in an old tradition such as that one.

As I reached my locker and opened it, my heart skipped a beat and my eyes widened. Was it what I think it was?

There it was, laying neatly on top of my shoes; a small white unassuming envelope.I hesitantly grabbed the envelope and began to examine it. 

 I could feel a drop of sweat forming on my forehead.

There was no sort of decoration on the front or back of the envelope, which made me think the sender was a shy person.

After staring at the envelope for a while, and making sure no one else was around, I carefully tore it open and my fingers slightly trembled.

What sort of heartwarming message that a mysterious girl poured her heart into awaited me? Would I be asked to show up behind the school building on monday? 

Know your place or it won’t just stop at your things disappearing.

That was the single sentence formed by letters cut out from news papers and magazines, glued roughly and carelessly into the paper.

Well atleast now I know I wasn’t just forgetting my things around.