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"Ne, Megumi."
Megumi nonchalantly flips to the next page of the pocketbook he was reading.
Yuuji was out ghosthunting with some of his friends from his old high school that night. They'd be camping out in the woods, he said then with the biggest grin. You guys wanna come along?
Megumi pursed his lips. And Nobara sneered.
No. They both said in unison. And Yuuji just laughs his head off and walks out of the dorms in a mix of thick coats and fatigues and a large hiking backpack with a million things protruding out of it.
What a piece of work, both Nobara and Megumi frowned as they watched Yuuji walk off with that lump of a bag of his.
So, with Yuuji off to god knows where, Nobara tells Megumi they were getting dinner out. Megumi just nods and wordlessly follows after her with his pocketbook. And they end up seated across each other in a cafe downtown.
"Ne,"
Megumi looks up from his book. And he arches a brow at the serious expression on his classmate's face.
"Tell me the truth."
Megumi leaned in closer.
"Am I attractive?"
And he falls off his seat.
"What?" Megumi narrowed his eyes at her in disbelief, utterly and absolutely blindsided.
Huffing, Nobara repeats herself.
"Am. I. Attractive??"
"...Huh?" He couldn't help but scrunch his face from the sheer awkwardness of it all. "Why would you ask me?" He held his throbbing head.
Nobara grits her teeth. And she leans closer that Megumi's brow perks at the sight of the embarrassed flush on her cheeks.
"You're from Tokyo."
Megumi thinned his lips.
"And you're a guy."
He wasn't amused at all.
"That's a low bar." He mumbles. And he regrets his choice of words when he sees Nobara start to seethe in front of him.
"Just tell it to me straight." Nobara grits at him. "All my life everyone's been saying how easy it is to get picked up in Shibuya. But why?! Why have I never been asked out?! Not even once?!"
"Is it me?!" She started to pull at her hair. And Megumi couldn't help back the amused laugh from escaping his lips. "I'm not as pretty as I thought I was, aren't I?!"
"What?" Megumi scrunches his face in disbelief. And he smirks as he leans back on his seat. And his eyes drift back to his book.
"So tell me the truth?!" Nobara begged him. "I'm not, am I?!"
"You're beautiful, Nobara." He casually tells her, a small smile on his lips as he read on. "You're strong too."
"So don't sweat it."
"A good guy will come."
"Just give it time."
"You really think that?" Nobara huffed, still agonizing over her lack of a love life.
"Hm."
"All right." She sighs and leans back. She was still frowning, unconvinced. And even more so when she drags Megumi with her to the hottest pickup spot in Shibuya; when she stands there looking her best and beaming to the flocking crowd that - hey! this beautiful girl is available!! - because no one -
Not one.
Not a single guy approached her for her number?!!
"Beautiful??!!! YOU LIAR!!!" Nobara cried in utter dismay and hit Megumi with her purse all the way back to the dormitories.
"Maybe you have some bad luck on you?!" Megumi cried back as he shielded his head. And Nobara ran after him and kept swinging her bag at him. "You should pray at shrines more!"
Nobara only saw red. And they enter the dorms in a ruckus, that the second years lounging in the common area could only wonder what small, inconsequential thing made Nobara lose her knocker again...