Chapter Text
Tadano once more leaned against the door to his family's small apartment his insides feeling as if they were on fire. He got it that he was not the most popular guy at school and would have been fine not getting any Valentine's Day Chocolates from anyone, but seeing Komi give chocolates to all her friends made him feel left out. Okay fine, he was glad that someone like Yamai Ren had not given him anything. He would not have trusted it anyway considering their first major interaction was her tying him up and leaving him in her room for a full school day. But not getting any chocolates from his female friends like Onemine Nene or Otori Kaede had been the first hammer blow to his system. The only chocolates he had gotten were from Katai as friendship chocolates and his mother so Tadano did not count them.
When his little sister had him go out to pick up some ice cream for her and he literally ran into Komi on his doorstep, as he accidentally hit her with his front door, he could not help but imagine her stopping by to deliver her chocolates feeling too shy to do it at school. Not wanting Hitomi to overhear them, he had invited Komi to a nearby deserted playpark for a private chat. His hopes had been dashed at getting chocolates from her as she just passed him some work he had left behind that Najimi had given her to deliver to him. Feeling a little despondent, he thanked her and headed back to his apartment. Tadan remained unaware of the battle going on within Komi as she tried to gather the courage to pass over her chocolates to him. Unfortunately, her anxiety got the best of her making her unable to call him back to deliver the special chocolates she had made just for him.
Curled up against the front door, Tadano felt a sharp pain in his stomach due to his emotional turmoil making him feel sick. He only moved from his position when Hitomi asked if everything was okay. He could not answer as still holding his stomach he struggled to his feet and made his way to the bathroom and was violently sick. He was rather surprised by his body's reaction to this for he had only ever gotten some small friendship chocolates before, not to mention ones from his family, but this felt different. Maybe he had been reading too much into his relationship with Komi than what was there. He knew her goal was one hundred friends and he had been her first and had been helping her out in reaching it, but now that she had several female friends, she no longer needed his help so much anymore.
Leaving the bathroom, Tadano still feeling a little ill turned off his phone without looking at it, least he saw messages from Najimi or other of his friends commenting in a group chat about all the chocolate they had received. He was thankful that he had the bottom bunk in his shared room with his sister as he did not feel up to even a short climb into the upper bed, just collapsing into the bunk before closing his curtains before his remaining energy drained from him.
Komi felt horrible for her lack of courage and tried to write a message to Tadano but found she could not find the right words for it, so tried to call him again thus showing some courage in talking to him. But when she finally placed the call she got a message that he had turned off his phone. Komi stayed up nearly half the night writing a handwritten note to leave on his desk at school tomorrow along with the chocolates she had made for him.
Feeling anxious to do so and not wanting to get caught as she had almost been yesterday when she tried to put the chocolates in his shoe locker, Komi arrived at school almost an hour before classes started. She began to fear that the chocolates might get stolen from the desk if she perchance had to leave the room and go the bathroom before Tadano arrived so she placed them inside his desk while leaving her note on top of the desk. She had just placed the note when she heard someone walk up to the classroom door, gulping in fear at being discovered leaving a note on Tadano's desk, she ran for it. Inadvertently causing the letter to be blown off the desk and land on the floor a few places closer to the blackboard.
After Komi had left the room via the door at the front, Satou Amami arrived for her normal early morning cleaning of the classroom by the backdoor. While she cleaned the room she did find the note Komi had written for Tadano but as there was nothing on the outside of it mistook it for some trash and threw it away.
Komi arrived back in the room just before the first bell went off and saw that the note she had left was gone. Her eyes went large and the cat ears that would randomly come out when she experienced strong emotions emerged as she began to look around the room for the missing note. Unaware that Satou had thrown it away and taken it out to the school's trash pit, Komi searched the room in vain and even asked her friends if anyone had removed the note. She guessed that maybe Yamai might have done it due to the girl not seeming to like Tadano, for some reason. But while she hyperventilated, as usual, while talking to Komi, Yamai said she had not touched his desk or stuff. Being unable to find the letter, Komi figured she would have to explain everything to Tadano during a break, but he never showed up for class making her worried for him.
The pain Tadano had felt last night had grown so when he woke up his mental anguish had caused him to become physically ill and kept him home from school. Which he saw as a good thing for he did not know how he would face Komi after everything, and did not want to have to listen to his classmates talk about how good her chocolate had been. He knew that even if Komi somehow was horrible at making chocolates, while good at other food she cooked, no one would complain due to her Goddess status in their class.
As he lay in bed that day waiting for his emotions to settle down so they would not make him sick anymore, Tadano began to wonder if he had also been taken in by her Goddess status as well. Or maybe what he felt was more akin to the feelings of a father's pride at seeing his child succeed. Making him think of the times he tailed her after Najimi had given Komi random jobs to try to help her deal with her Social Anxiety.
He could not help but wonder who would do something like that, as sometimes he was mistaken as a stalker while making sure Komi was alright. Maybe he needed a small break from her to sort out his feelings, which he knew would be a little hard due to their desk being right beside each other and some of their classmates coming to him to find out what was going on in her head, but he felt like he had to do it for his own sanity and health. It might also force Komi to interact more with others and help her achieve her dream of making one hundred friends if he was not around so much.
After the weekend, Tadano felt well enough to return to class as he shifted his mindset. Just like he had done the previous year when he tried to act like a "punk" to impress girls, he began to surpass any emotions he had geared towards Komi. Getting to school he greeted his friends on the way to his classroom, stopping by Katai's desk to thank him for the friendship chocolates, which he had eaten before he had gotten sick and found surprisingly delicious considering they had been handmade. Katai had blushed a little and did his best to respond, which thanks to his experience with Komi, Tadano was easily able to understand. "It is okay, don't force yourself," Tadano said placing a hand on the larger male's shoulder feeling Katai's body relax and getting a nod from him.
Getting to his desk, he gave just a small nod of greeting to Komi as he sat down and began to put stuff in his desk only to find it blocked. Reaching in he pulled out the bag of chocolates Komi had left there, recognizing the design from the chocolates that she had given everyone last Thursday. He did not catch Komi's eyes widening as he pulled out the chocolates which she had forgotten about due to her worry at his being absent.
Tadano felt a small surge of emotion as he held the bag, but surpassed it thinking of his new goal. As class had not started yet he decided to taste the chocolates as he lowered the bag below the level of the desk, so he would not get in trouble with the teacher and pulled out a piece. It felt a little hard which since it had been lying in his desk for three days was a little understandable. Giving Komi a small smile he brought it to his mouth and took a bit only to find it a little dry, it had been moist and succulent when freshly made, but due to the passage of time had dried out. He quickly closed the bag again thinking he would need milk or some other type of drink to make them more palatable as he turned to look at the teacher as class began.
To distance himself from Komi, Tadano joined Katai, Naruse Shisuto, Kometani Chūshaku, and of course Najimi for lunch. He was sort of glad for his friendship with Komi for without it he might not have become friends with Katai, Naruse, and Kometani even after the school trip put him in Naruse and Katai's group. It was also nice to have some guy friends, as well as whatever gender Najimi saw themselves as being at the moment. Though he could have done without Najimi talking about all the chocolate they got on Valentine's Day, even if they were friendship chocolates.
Tadano did learn that he had gotten more chocolate than he realized, not counting the stale and hard chocolates Komi had given him possibly as an afterthought. Najimi confessed to leaving some in his shoe locker. Which Tadano had mistaken as a small pebble left in his shoe. With a small laugh for that was just so typical of Najimi, Tadano thanked his old friend.
Komi worried she had done something wrong when Tadano had gone to eat lunch with Katai and the other boys. She had also noticed his grimace at the start of the day after eating one of her chocolates. She could not help but wonder if the praise she had gotten from them on Friday was due to how the other students saw her rather than any cooking skill he had. Maybe they did not even eat their chocolates and instead placed them into some sort of shrine they kept of her, something she could easily see Yamai doing.
As Tadano had left them in his desk when he had headed out to eat lunch with the others, Komi looked around, and while many were gazing at her in awe and worship they were not paying that much attention to what she was doing. Using her somewhat feline-ish nature, she quickly removed the bag and pulled out one of the chocolates to taste it. She could not help but grimace as she bit into it finding the texture alright but overall rather hard and dry. It still tasted like normal chocolate, so she did not accidentally mess that up when she had baked it, but it was not that good when eating it by itself.
Komi felt a little lonely during the lunch break since Tadano was eating with some of his other friends, and Yamai was once again arguing with Nakanaka Omoharu over who Komi liked better as a friend. Even Najimi was missing though that was not unusual since the overly popular pink-haired student tended to overbook any free time they had and would spend lunch with sometimes six or ten groups of people before returning to class.
Tadano was rather shocked that Najimi spent the whole lunch break with him and the others rather than go meet other of their friends for some possible free food. Moreso when some groups of people showed up and invited Najimi to eat with them, Najimi just waved them all off. Najimi actually seemed to be worried about why Tadano had been absent on Friday and barely left his apartment during the weekend without calling for Nagimi to stop by. "I mean you did it last time you got sick," Najimi said.
"Yeah but last time my family was gone for the day, and I had a temperature," Tadano said. "I just had some stomach issues and pain wracking my body, I could still get around and take care of myself."
"Don't care," Najimi protested waggling their food-filled chopsticks at him. "If you get sick you give me a call, so I don't worry about you. You are my childhood friend after all."
"Just like most people in this school and district are," Tadano shot back with a smile.
"Hey you are not like most people, after all, you were my first," Najimi said using Tadano's distraction from the conversation to spear the cherry tomato in Tadano's bento.
"I find that hard to believe," Tadano said.
"Believe it or not, but it is true," Najimi said eating the cherry tomato with a small smirk while Tadano just rolled his eyes at them.
"So how was your guys' Valentine's Day?" Tadano asks the others to move away from Najimi's teasing.
"The girls were put off by my natural beauty, they were too shy to give me any chocolates at all," Naruse said as he took on what he thought was a sexy pose as he normally did.
"I got some from my family and some older woman in my neighborhood," Kometani said with a shrug not caring either way, as he had more fun just leaving commentary on what was going on around him and sometimes deciphering Naruse's speech, thoughts, actions as well as translating slag or other languages. A hobby which for some reason made some older females like him.
Katai managed to get out the fact that Katō Makuni had given him a strange box at school, but not trusting it to be some sort of prank had waited until he got home to have his younger sister check it out for him. The box contained some chocolate which surprised him since he had not interacted with the glasses-wearing girl apart from the train ride back from their class trip. Katai still had his sister take a piece of the chocolate to make sure it had not been altered in any way. Only after she had gobbled it down and informed him that they were good did he taste them. However, this did leave him with a problem of what to do for Katō on White Day. "Just get her something Shogi-related, she loves that stuff," Najimi suggested as they stole more of Tadano's food. Tadano did not mind since Najimi had always done this so he always made sure to pack a little more than he needed in his Bento.