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It really bothered Shoko that of all her classmates, it was these two nerds that the teachers always grouped her up with. It wasn't like they slacked off, or made her do the whole project while they rested on their laurels – so she supposed it could be worse. There were plenty of boys in the class who wouldn't lift a single finger even if their grades were on the line, happy to rely on Shoko to stop the group from failing. But these two were insufferable in an entirely different way.
Satoru was tall and beautiful and popular in a way he completely failed to appreciate. He was a loudmouth – a bit of a bitch, to tell the truth – and extremely smart. Which meant that projects with him ended up with him telling everyone what to do in that smug way of his and writing exactly his section of the paper so well that it made the other two parts look like they'd been written by children.
Initially, Suguru seemed quieter. But once Satoru got him going they were an even match. He was pretty grumpy and emo, and took a long time to warm up to people, but at least he knew how to talk to a girl without sticking his foot in his mouth. The problem with him was that he would take over whatever practical work they had for the project. He was precise and had steady hands and keen eyes, so he was excellent at taking measurements and setting up experiments just so.
And on top of all of that, they were best friends. The bickering was constant and Shoko found it impossible to tell when they were actually arguing or when they were just teasing each other. If she pointed out that one of them was doing something wrong, the other was instantly coming to his rescue. It was infuriating!
This was the third project she had had to do with them this year alone – and in Chemistry, which was her favorite subject, too. And she wasn't getting to do a damn thing because this pair of insufferable boys had taken over.
"I hate you two sometimes," she complained. Shoko was sat watching them work, arms crossed tight across her chest.
Satoru shot her a grin, clearly misinterpreting the barb as a joke. But Suguru raised an eyebrow at her. "Why's that?"
"You never let me do anything! I'm not incompetent, you know, just because I'm a girl. He," she pointed at Satoru, "talks to me like I'm an idiot and you wade in and take over like you think you're some white knight saving me from the horrors of Chemistry."
Suguru opened his mouth to reply, but his brain was buffering as he tried to think of something to say. Shoko decided to continue before Satoru could butt in.
"You know I'm top of this class, right? And in Biology? Even above Satoru."
"Yeah, he won't stop complaining to me about that," Suguru confessed.
"So, is that what it is? Are you trying to put me down a peg so Satoru can take his spot at the top?"
Satoru put his hands up in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, I'm not like that. I don't really care, I was joking. I care about Math and Physics and I'm top in those already."
"Then what is it?" Shoko demanded.
Both of them paused and they shared a glance. It was so fucking annoying, the way they seemed to have their own little language of glances and eyebrows and head tilts. There was clearly some secret they were deciding whether to share.
Predictably, it was Suguru who answered. "You just always seem really stressed doing group projects. Satoru was hiding in a cupboard one time 'cause of his migraines and you came in and were crying. He didn't want to scare you so he waited for you to leave, but, uh, he told me about it after. I thought you'd be offended if I just asked if you were okay, so we decided…"
Shoko felt like a vein might burst in her forehead. She was sure her face was red with fury. "Uh-huh, you decided for me – what, exactly?"
"Not like that," Suguru corrected quickly. "We decided to tell Yaga-sensei that we're sick of being the only pair when everyone else is in a group of three. And suggested you because your grades are so good, it would be fairer for you too."
Satoru slumped into his chair a bit. He had the audacity to look a bit sheepish. "You were like, really upset that day. But I was just crouched in the corner, I couldn't exactly pop up and risk scaring you."
"Yeah. Ieiri, we're sorry if we offended you. Really. We just wanted to give you a bit of a break from having to carry your group. But we can tell Yaga-sensei we want to be a pair again if you don't want to work with us after this."
Shoko considered the two of them hard. It was… a surprisingly kind gesture. Especially from selfish Satoru and surly Suguru. An unwanted, unnecessary gesture – but their hearts had been in the right place.
She remembered that day when she had to go to the closet to cry. Everything had been so stressful and she was so overwhelmed with it all and just needed to get it out. She had noticed that the light didn't work in there, but it didn't matter anyway because she didn't really need to look at the mop and bottles of cleaning product while she cried.
Satoru could very well have been in there. She wouldn't have known.
And, she supposed that after that… maybe this was a logical solution.
Maybe it did kind of make sense for them to try and help her like this. Not that Shoko would ever admit it – but knowing that they were trying to help, in their own stupid way, quelled the anger for now.
"No, don't do that," she said. "Just – stop taking over!"
Suguru stepped back from the experiment and gestured for Shoko to take over from him. Within minutes, Satoru was back to his usual bullshit and trying to get a rise out of both of them, writing notes in his notebook that he'd obviously only use for his part of the report. Suguru was eager to be able to make observations without having to also do the whole experiment too.
That was better. Shoko was shocked to find that by the end of that afternoon, her feelings about the boys had completely changed. Where before she was annoyed (okay, they were still annoying), now she was a bit fond.
It was as if in opening up, she had accidentally been inducted into their little friendship group.
After school, they invited her to come with them. Curious, she agreed, and followed them to their favorite convenience store which was inconveniently far away from the school – but was on top of a hill. From the low brick wall around the back, there was a view over part of the city.
Satoru bought an ice pop for each of them, and a couple of Digimon gachapons from the machine by the door.
"You really like Digimon, huh," Shoko pointed out.
"NO!" Suguru interrupted, slamming the ice pop Satoru was currently holding in his mouth further in so he couldn't speak. "Do NOT get him started, or we won't be able to talk about anything else for the rest of the day."
Shoko was about to say that it couldn't be that bad, but then she considered how Satoru was, and had to admit that she could imagine it. Especially with how Satoru was glaring daggers at Suguru.
When Suguru finally released him, Satoru yanked the lolly out of his mouth. "No fair, it's not like I'm the only one! Shoko, it's not fair, Suguru is bullying me. He's such a terrible bully! And a hypocrite, too – he'll talk your ear off about Western metal music for hours and it's so boring."
"You'd know who I'm talking about if you actually ever listened."
"I do listen but how can you expect me to remember all their names—"
"You remember every Digimon's name."
"There are not that many. It's not like Pokemon where there's like four hundred of them."
Shoko sighed a bit. "I don't care about either of those things."
"What do you care about?" Satoru asked.
She shrugged. "Horror movies. True crime. Oh! Have you read the manga Berserk?"
Satoru's face lit up and he practically bounced off the wall to his feet, too excited to contain himself. "You like horror?? Ehh?"
Shoko crossed her arms and scowled at him. "Why shouldn't I?"
"I love Berserk! Guts is so cool!" Satoru announced, and now he was gripping the lolly in his mouth and swinging an imaginary greatsword around so hard he almost toppled down the hill. He was only saved by Suguru's hand darting out and grabbing his shirt, but he was undeterred. "Shoko, what sort of horror movies do you like? Have you seen Human Earthworm?"
"No, but I've heard—"
"Please watch it with me!!!" Satoru dropped to his knees in front of Shoko, bowing down but with his head tilted up, grinning at her.
She couldn't help it. It was silly. Satoru was kind of funny, in his bombastic, eccentric way. She giggled a bit and kicked her foot out to bat him away. "I was gonna say I've heard it's kinda bad. But sure, I'll watch it with you. Should be fun, right?"
Suguru groaned theatrically. "Great, now I've got two of you."
Satoru pouted at him and pointed an accusatory finger at him. "He is no fun, he doesn't like horror."
"That is not true. I like it, just not the crappy, schlocky crap he likes."
"Ooohh you're making me mad, you wanna fight about it?"
"No. You're all sticky from that ice pop."
Shoko laughed at them both. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. Maybe the two of them were okay. In fact, she was finding it hard to come up with reasons not to be their friend.
They idled away the rest of the afternoon, staying out so long that Shoko's mom texted her asking if she would be home for dinner. She tried to slip away to rush back, but Suguru insisted on walking her home. Which meant Satoru came too.
It could have felt like them feeling the need to protect her, but somehow it didn't. It was more like they didn't want her to be lonely or bored on the trip. It was only days later that she found out that both of them lived near that konbini.
Yeah. Maybe they could be friends after all.