Chapter Text
"I'm surprised to see that you won. Maybe I understimated you. Anyways, this is your new rival and her full information, as I promised. Good luck"
Ayano was combing her hair when she noticed the text message. She smiled with satisfaction after seeing that this rival had a strenght that made her still easy to defeat in case that she was trying to seduce Taro.
Haruka Mizuno was the rival of the week. Maybe she could be the perfect match for Budo. But Ayano started to notice something about her rivals: Osana could barely carry something heavier than her bag, Zuka's choice was to make someone else to carry her stuff and Amai was totally able to carry with 10 kilos of ingredients. Haruka was the swiming club leader and was barely exhausted before the training with coach Kiyoshi.
If every rival had more strenght than the predecesors and she wasn't able to gain more strenght it would be just a matter of time to found a rival that wasn't easy to eliminate with just matchmaking or if she needed to fight only with her fists, Ayano surely would lose.
She was distracted thinking about that until she saw Budo. He greeted her while he was chaning his shoes. And then she had an idea.
"Your cult is going to be here soon, Afrodite"
"Let's see if this week I will found a girl for you, Budo-senpai" she cleared her throat. "I was wondering if I can train with your club some days, even if I'm not part of it"
"Sure, we're always awaiting for people to come and spar with us"
"Also I though that it will be better if I can see you doing what you like. Maybe I misjudged you and that's why I'm failing to found someone for you"
In recess hour, Haruka went to search for Ayano and asking her for help with Taro. New promises were made by the matchmaker and with plenty of confidende on herself, Ayano continued with the day, thinking that soon her weird dates with Budo would be over. The second crush of the leader of swimming club was Budo. Even better, when she saw the boy on his element, she was more convinced that Haruka was the best option for him. They both had such an energetic spirit and a lot of passion.
"Maybe I understimated you, Yan-chan" Budo laughed when the practice hour was over. "You're more than meets the eye. If you joined the club, I would have my heir as leader of the club on you"
"I would think about that, senpai" she said. "By the way. What do you think about Haruka Mizuno?"
"She's pretty but kinda a tomboy. There was that time when she tried to have a duel with me saying that it's harder swimming than Martial Arts because water puts some weight on you and that stuff."
"And what happened?"
"I didn't accepted it."
"But you're still talking to each other?"
"Yeah, sometimes, when we go to the Student Council to ask for new material and that stuff. We chat a little and she makes jokes about that incident. And that's all"
"I should go. See you tomorrow!"
Taro was part of the gardening club so Ayano was still on time to follow him until he reached his house but only if Budo didn't decided before to go out with her before school. And everything would went so normal if it wasn't that her most difficult client was awaiting for her on her house.
"You left this on the club"
The boy showed that he had the pink notebook that Ayano used to plan her moves as matchmaker.
"Thank you very much. So... you want to come in and drink something? You're so nice for coming here to give this to me"
The house was pretty normal. The walls were painted with a warm but elegant color. Comfortable furniture. The living room, the kitchen and the dinning room shared the same room, barely divided by the way that the furniture were placed.
"Nice place, Yan-chan. You take care of it now that your parents aren't home?"
"Yes. You want to drink water, juice, milk or a coke?"
Budo blowed his bangs with some shyness on his expression.
"Shall we order something for dinner? I'm hungry and it's going to take me some time to be back at my house. Maybe I could pass out if I don't eat anything!"
"I know how to cook, Budo-senpai. Don't you dare to doubt about what I can do" She took a big knife and a cutting board. In just a few minutes she had a noodle soup on the stove.
"Hey, I didn't wanted to make you cook for me, that's why I told you to order some food" The boy was surprised of seeing that his classmate decided to cook for him.
"Now you're going to eat what I cooked!" Ayano was still holding the knife when she answered that. The poor martial arts master felt a shiver when he saw her in that pose. The voice that she used to say that wasn't friendly at all.
"Y-yes, Ma'am" He gulped.
"That's right" she left the knife. With more friendly voice and gestures, she continued. "This is going to be ready soon, so help me with to set the table"
Still intimidated by the girl, Budo put every plate on perfect order, looking upon his shoulder once in a while. Anyway, Ayano was only making the rice and some tea. After that, they both eat in perfect peace.
"I didn't had a doubt that you can cook. But I didn't expected that you can do it really well" he said. "Do you alwasy have your dinner alone?"
"Since my parents left the house. I'm kinda used to it. They didn't talked when we had our dinners together so it isn't so different". Ayano put more rice on her bowl.
"It must be hard to be on your own"
"I manage it"
"No. I mean... You barely talk to anyone else and if I try to know if you have friends or something, no one can tell me anything about you if it isn't that you go to school, that your parents are salarymen and your name. You're all alone, Yan-chan. Everyone hates solitude.
The girl left her chopsticks fall, surprised by his words.
"I'm not everyone. I just want a normal life and a normal night, not an existentialist talk, Budo-senpai" she sighed. "You had the option to give me my notebook tomorror. It isn't something that I need that much. So why you came here?"
Budo was off guard, so he didn't knew what to answer for a few seconds.
"I enjoy being with you, that's all. You're a good friend for me and I care about you" he blushed until his ears were red and he had to turn his head to hide his face. "It's okay if you can't feel the same about me or you can't answer in this moment, I know you're reserved about your life. I'm sorry if I'm not opportune with my presence."
"It's okay. I guess that I need someone around me while my parents aren't here" was her answer, with a little smile. She tried to change the topic of the conversation because everything started to feel weird. "Oh, I remembered that I wanted to tell you that I liked the last band you told me to hear. You were right about that I was going to love it because of the lyrics"
The boy was more than happy of hearing that. They talked about music until it was time for him to go back to his house, late in the night, after helping her to clean everything that they used. Ayano was surprised of finding herself singing one of the song that he shared to her. Then she mumbled something to herself while she was puting her pajamas on.
"Maybe we should try"
She looked on the mirror, confused by her own words. What he told her was running through her head Was she only a good friend for him?
Ayano felt a void inside her at the solely though that Budo was sincere about that, that he didn't had an evident crush on her. She looked at the shrine of her beloved senpai, as if he could give her an answer.
"Budo must be for Haruka" she repeated the plan. "After that everything of this will be over. No more meetings, no more dinners, no more songs on my wall on facebook"
That didn't made her feel better. All the efforts that she put to make Taro fall for her and then Budo made her to change plans. The emotions that she started to knew were so diverse at that moment that it was imposible to distinguish them all. Ayano was angry with herself because she wasn't able to be so constant on her thoughs as she was on her actions, she was confused about the reasons that her classmate had to do all of that things for her. At the same time, she was wishing that Budo felt the same for her.
She dreamed that night and Budo was there. They weren't behind the mythical cherry tree but on a bridge upon the river, they said that the bridge could bring luck to the lovers. The moon were upon they and he was smiling to her with the same confidence of always but now his eyes had a warmth that she didn't knew before. Budo took her hand.
Then the alarm rang.
When Ayano woke up, her heart was beating fast and she felt like she was blushing. She wasn't able to see Budo with ease because every time that she tried to talk, the girl felt as if her heart was going to run away from her. Still, it was easy to talk to him as always. On the other side, when she walked near Taro that time, she blushed only a bit and was even able to talk to him
But the matchmaker didn't knew that someone sended a text message to Taro Yama. And he replied to that text.
"Why are you sending this to me? I didn't asked you for anything"
"I guess that you didn't readed what I sended to you. I heard you telling to Osana that you felt that someone was stalking you" Info-chan insisted. "She is the one stalking you. Ayano Aishi".
"Our Afrodite?"
"The goddess of love must love someone, don't you think so? You're so lucky"
"Maybe"
Taro looked the photo of the matchmaker. Definitively, she was pretty. And if she liked to help people in love, maybe she was sweet and kind. But the fact that Ayano wasn't able to talk to him and just limited to follow him back home could mean that she was too shy.
So he decided just to think that it was only a curiosity that Info-chan was sending to him and told to himself that he must forget about that text. But as Taro knew some time before, it was going to be more than impossible.