Daichi Itakura:

After everyone else left, I decided to ask Otosaki about walking her to the bus stoppage.

"Eh? W-Won't that be a problem for Daichi-kun?"

"Not at all. You're also scared after all."

"I-I'm not scared..."

She is still denying it huh...

"So... if you don't want me to accompany you... it's okay."

"I-It's not I like I hate this... it's just that I'm not scared as you think... but if YOU want to accompany, then I have no problem."

I sighed... 

This girl is never going to be honest with me, is she...?

"Fine... I want to accompany Otosaki to her home. It's okay now?"

"Oh so Daichi-kun wants to accompany me so badly? Fine, I'm okay."

We both looked at each other and laughed. 

After 15 minutes of walking, she would get to the bus stoppage from where she could go to her home.

While walking we decided to talk about many things.

"So... I hope your study has been okay today?", I asked her.

"Yeah... if I stayed at my home, I would have gone insane by now. Thanks to you all for helping me."

"It's okay. That's what our club is for after all. For helping people."

"Fufu... you're saying as if it's a charity club..."

"Well... you could probably say it like that too. Haha."

"By the way, your cheater friend has also made the session more entertaining."

"Okay... he's NOT a cheater. At least until there are more evidence to support it, I won't call him a cheater."

"He was literally making moves on Yanami-san though..."

"Are you sure about that...?"

Yanami did look to be amused by him, but I don't believe she had fallen for him. 

"Yes. I hate to say it, but your cheater friend is good looking. So, Yanami-san falling for him is not unbelievable."

"You know... you need to calm down."

I mean... at least you should have some evidence of it rather than constantly bluffing. 

I was walking side by side with her. So it might make the outsiders think we're close. Are we really close though?

We reached the bus stoppage and sat on one of the waiting benches. Otosaki was once again upset for some reason.

"If something is disturbing you, you can spit it out."

"Umm... it's just that... I'm more or less convinced that Rintaro won't be together with me. However, I still can't get over it..."

Poor girl... I was genuinely feeling bad for her this time.

"I see... well it's tough but I think your situation is better than before."

Earlier her yandere side was so bad she was about to commit homicide. Now, she was much more level headed and calm ar least.

"Hey Daichi-kun... you got rejected four times right?"

"W-Why are you reminding me that everytime?"

What did that have to do here?

"I mean I wanted to know what was your mental state when you got rejected. In fact you got rejected four times. How are you still so fine?"

Are you saying that I should have died? It wouldn't have been a bad idea to be honest. 

"Well... you know life goes on..."

"Come on Daichi-kun... please tell me about your experience..."

"Ugh fine...."

I cleared my throat and decided to tell my embarrassing past and present.

"The first rejection was in the first year of middle school. At that time I was cocky and thought myself of someone very handsome which was not the case. When I confessed to a girl I liked I thought I would definitely get accepted. However I was brutally rejected."

"I see. That hurts."

"This one sure hurt. Because it really broke my self confidence. The trauma lasted for almost a year. I even thought about never going to confess anyone again."

"How did you recover?"

"When I came to like another girl in the 3rd year of my middle school."

"Huh?"

Otosaki looked at me in disbelief.

"But Daichi-kun, you really forgot about everything?"

"Yes... as soon as I watched that other girl's smile, I forgot about everything."

"Isn't this a little bit too easy?"

"Yes. After I confessed to that girl, once again I got rejected. But this time, I wasn't hurt like first time. Because I knew it was useless to think about the past over and over. Otosaki too should be like this. It's the first time you got your heart broken. That's why you are finding it this hard to accept this."

Otosaki seemed to understand my words.

"I see... that means I'm going to get heartbroken many times in my life... so I need to be prepared."

Oh no... she absolutely misunderstood my entire story. 

"N-No Otosaki... don't get upset. You're not going to get heartbroken many times. Probably never again."

"H-How can you be sure about this, Daichi-kun?"

"I think you're forgetting something, Otosaki. Otosaki Rei is a wonderful girl..."

"Eh?", Otosaki's eyes sparkled.

"You can't compare yourself to me. I'm a type of guy who would probably get rejected by most of the girls in the world. But it won't be same for Otosaki. Tell me, have you never gotten any confession from others?"

"Ah... yes I got some confession letters occasionally but I didn't respond any of them."

"See? You're the one who is normally getting confessed. Very few guys in the world would think about rejecting you... unfortunately Rintaro's case was entirely different."

"So that means... Daichi-kun would also not reject me right?"

"Right... wait... huh?"

The sudden question completely threw me off guard. Did she... really ask me that? I didn't know how to answer it.

I couldn't help but only look at Otosaki's eyes. Her eyes were sparkling with curiosity. As shown in anime and manga, I got lost in those eyes. In the streetlights, Otosaki was looking even more beautiful. 

"Daichi-kun... why aren't you answering me?"

She asked impatiently. 

"Eh... b-but why are you asking me that?"

"I want to know whether you would reject me or not..."

"But... you didn't confess me right..."

"I'm talking about 'IF' scenario."

What type of problem is this? Why is it always me who gets trapped in these situations?

She definitely didn't like me... and she probably only wanted to know my answer to get confidence. So in the end I decided...

"If Otosaki ever confesses to me, I could never ever reject her."

I said this. She must be happy right now...

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my cheeks. 

"Ouch!"

Just like Tachibana senpai before, she pinched my cheeks for some reasons. What's with my cheeks? Everyone pulling them...

"I knew Daichi-kun had ulterior motives behind helping me."

"W-WHAT! NOT AT ALL! I SWEAR-"

"Just kidding."

"You... almost gave me a heart attack."

"Fufu... you know Daichi-kun..."

"What?"

"You're cute ~~"

She gave me a cute smile and continued to play with my cheeks.

Me as cute...? This girl probably lost her mind.

She was still pinching my cheeks while a bus finally arrived at the stoppage. I stopped her hands and reminded her to get on the bus.

She was somewhat disappointed with the bus coming.

"I'm hungry, I want to eat something.", she told me indicating the nearby food shop.

"You can eat dinner at your home."

She pouted at me and said, "Daichi-kun no baka!"

"Oi. I'm just advising you not to eat outside food."

"Mou~~"

She was still pouting at me. In the end, I decided to give up.

"Okay okay! Let's eat something here. But remember to take the next bus for sure."

"Yes!"

Her mood repaired magically. She was very dramatic and an idiot. But surprisingly I didn't mind her behaviour. In fact, I kind of liked it...

Maybe... I'm too an idiot after all....

[To be continued]