Chapter Text
Nakanojou yawned again. He was tired already and it's not even lunch yet. He just wanted to go home... and sleep. He just didn't want to go to school today.
There's two reasons for that...
Firstly, he stayed the whole last night awake reading a strange book about spirits and ghosts due to his own delusions. He himself knew it's not really a good habit. He has to change his habit. He has to get something to enjoy.
But the more importantly reason was Tanaka's absence. Tanaka is his best friend. The duo always stay together. Even when his mood is off, even when he's tired, Tanaka is almost always there to cheer him up.
So where was Tanaka now, instead of being in school?
Well... the reason was a girl. Tanaka recently got a girlfriend...
No... seriously... he got one. Even though Tanaka says she's just a friend, Nakanojou doesn't believe him. Today the girl didn't come to school because of fever. Tanaka is there in her house with her. Ah... sweet couple...
But what about Nakanojou now? Tanaka is busy with his romcom, but Nakanojou is just... bored and tired.
The school bell rang as Lunch time began. All the students were once again lively as usual. Many of them ran outside, many remained chatting in the class. Nakanojou... just rested his head on the table.
Sometimes he thinks he is really lonely. He doesn't have many friends apart from Tanaka. And he too now probably has a girlfriend. So it's obvious that he would not be with him always as before. Maybe he also wants someone to care for him, just like Tanaka has one. A girlfriend...
He took an overview of the class. There are so many boys and girls. Many of them are couples. Nakanojou never noticed this scenario so much before. Did the number of couples increase lately? He was definitely imagining things. Surely there are many boys and girls who are single. However, the cruel reality is that everyone has at least many friends. Nakanojou doesn't even have that.
He quickly noticed three girls leaving the classroom together. Nakanojou knew them. They were Naganohara Mio, Minakami Mai and Shinonome Nano. He always wonders why there is a key on her back. Anyway the strange thing was a girl with a camera, carefully following them from behind, as if to investigate them. He knew her too. She is Aioi Yuuko, one of a kind. But why was she following them like a stalker?
The four girls now left the classroom. Usually some of the interesting incidents always generate due to those four girls, but now that chance was also gone. Nakanojou yawned again and got up. He came to the corridor and opened one window to see the outside.
Some guys were playing baseball. Should he join them? But he was also hungry. A quick snack at the canteen would help him. However he just noticed another strange thing... That girl Aioi-san was still stalking her friends with her camera. What on earth was going on? The three girls fortunately still haven't noticed Aioi-san.
Nakanojou thought 'screw that' and was about to go to the canteen. While walking down the stairs, he noticed a cute girl with a bunny ribbon passed by him. In her hands were some cheese cake from canteen. She was looking happy while climbing up the stairs. Probably she loves the cheese cake. Nakanojou was about to reach the ground floor and at the exact time he heard a 'thud' sound like someone tripping over the stairs.
"Ouch!"
Nakanojou looked over the stairs to find out the cute girl with bunny ribbon was sitting on the stairs while holding her left ankle. It's fortunate that she didn't fall down from the stairs.
Nakanojou rushed towards her and lent a hand to her. The girl accepted his support and eventually stood up in pain. Nakanojou knew her name. Annaka Haruna was it. She had talked to him a few times before.
"Annaka-san, you okay?", Nakanojou asked her being worried.
"Yeah, I...I'm absolutely... fine.", Annaka was still in pain as it seemed. She was holding Nakanojou to stand still.
"Do you need to go to infirmary, Annaka-san? I can take you there."
"No no it's okay, Nakanojou. Thank you for helping. I'm fine.", she tried her best to smile. Nakanojou felt kind of happy to see the girl actually knows his name. Also there are many girls who even hesitate to talk to him because of his mohawk.
"Thanks.... but wait! My cake?", Annaka suddenly realised that her cake was vanished. It was in her hands before she tripped over. Nakanojou also looked for it. At that moment...
"Ow!"
They both looked behind and found out Takasaki sensei... just slipped on the stairs and currently holding his back in pain.
"Ow ow! What the hell did I slip on? Oh! What is this packet?"
"Eeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh?", Annaka cried out loud as her beloved cheese cake were now in a dismal state after Takasaki sensei slipped on it.
“Hm? Oi... Annaka. Don’t tell me this packet is yours? Don’t throw things in public places. It would create trouble just like now. I warn you."
“Eeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh?”
“What are you even doing? Anyone I’m going now. Throw this garbage in dustbin.”, Takasaki sensei handed the packet to Annaka and left.
“Eeeehhhhh...”, tears started to flow from her eyes. Nakanojou felt very bad for her.
“Annaka-san, I think we should throw that in the bin.”
“But Nakanojou... my cake...”, she was more hurt than Nakanojou imagined.
“Let’s just buy another one from the canteen.”, Nakanojou tried to cheer her up.
“But... but this cake is expensive and I have no more enough money to buy another.”
Indeed the cake was a little bit expensive. Nakanojou and Tanaka both have bought it some times. This is delicious too. However, what should Nakanojou do now?
Nakanojou unconsciously checked his money. Tanaka is not there. So he would probably just buy a cheap bread for himself. With that there’s enough money for him to buy at least one cheese cake. Nakanojou might have bought something else for himself but at this moment he doesn’t care. Even though Annaka might not be even his friend, but he didn’t like seeing her crying.
“Well... Annaka-san, I have enough money left. If you have no problem, I can buy you one.”
“Eh but Nakanojou, I can’t take your money. You also have to---"
“Nah today my friend Tanaka has not come. So I have more than enough to buy food for only myself."
“But...”
“It’s okay. You can give the money back next day.”
Annaka was reluctant but finally agreed. Maybe her love for the cake was too much to endure.
............
Yuuko was smiling suspiciously. Even more suspicious thing is that she was hiding inside the bushes. She was secretly stalking her 3 friends Mio, Mai and Nano for interesting photographs. She already got one picture of Nano sleeping in the class. Now she wants some more.
About Mai, she was not very hopeful as she hardly do something interesting apart from trolling others. However she was very hopeful for Mio in this case. Although the recent result is failure for her, she was not giving up.
She wanted some interesting pictures of Mio. But what should she do?
After thinking a lot, she finally got an idea. A fake love letter. Maybe that would make Mio do interesting facial reactions. Yuuko once again smiled like an evil.
...........
"Arigatou, Nakanojou."
"Ah it's okay. Take care while walking up the stairs though this time."
"Yes. I would give back the money next day."
"Don't worry about that."
"By the way, do you want some cake? You only bought a cheap bread. We can eat together."
"Nah I always eat bread. Don't worry about me."
"Umm... okay. See you.", Annaka gave him a bright smile and left. Nakanojou's heart skipped a beat. For the first time a girl smiled at him like that. He suddenly wanted to know more about Annaka. However he knows the possibility of this relationship is sadly almost zero. He remained outside to eat his bread.
Meanwhile Annaka came back to the school building. She was about to change her shoes when she noticed the scene. She saw Yuuko putting something inside someone's shoe locker and immediately ran away smiling devilishly.
Annaka was both confused and curious. She went to check what actually she had put there. It was the locker of "Naganohara Mio".
"What even would she put in Naganohara-san's locker?", she unconsciously asked herself. With some hesitation, she opened the locker.
"Eeeehhhhhhhhhh?"
Annaka's eyes were rolling. A love letter? A girl giving love letter to a girl? What is this? An anime world?
Annaka knows it's not really wrong for a girl to like a girl. But still she didn't think that they would even give love letters...
At this moment, Annaka finally seemed to have understood something. Yuuko was some girl who always mistook every other things. Maybe she put the letter in Naganohara's locker by mistake?
At just the right side of Naganohara's locker, there is the locker of "Nakanojou Tsuyoshi". At that moment everything clicked on her mind.
"Aioi-san must have considered this one.", she then put the letter in Nakanojou's locker. "There's no way Aioi-san is a yuri."
But after putting the letter, Annaka thought of something ....
"So Aioi-san likes Nakanojou, huh?"
Annaka didn't know why, but she felt a strange emptiness in her chest.
[To be continued]