Hayate's POV
Secrets are something that people like to keep to themselves. It's something they don't want other people to know. It could be about something awful they did to somebody, going somewhere with friends secretly, a traumatic event from the past, or feelings for somebody.
I could see people's secrets for as long as I can remember. As a child, I just said whatever I wanted, and that made lots of people mad. I learned that secrets aren't to be toyed around with. I learned that secrets aren't supposed to be known without the owner telling you. I learned how to keep my mouth shut.
Now that I'm in high school, it seems that my power to see secrets isn't gonna disappear anytime soon. Through years of experiencing this hell, I've ignored every single secret I've seen. I didn't wanna know about anything I'm not supposed to know. I've avoided using this power, but that was until I discovered that I couldn't see the secrets my family had anymore.
Their secrets always used to just float above their heads inside the house, but recently, I haven't been able to see anything. I thought my powers completely vanished, but I could still the secrets of people outside. I was about to give up on thinking about it, but when my little sister came home, she had a secret above her head again, but then it vanished after I looked at it for a bit. I never saw it again, and that's when I realized that I could only see secrets once. After seeing a secret, they just vanish forever. When I've seen every single secret a person has, I just stop seeing their secrets completely until they get a new one.
The secrets I see look like balloons on top of a person's head with strings connecting it to them. They just float around wherever its owner is. I can also interact with them. I can touch them, and they can touch me too, which is why windy days are hell for me.
When the wind is too strong, secrets get blown away everywhere. I hate windy days so much since the secrets often hit me, making me see something I don't wanna see. Not only that, but their strings get tangled up too. I can also interact with those strings, so I sometimes get tangled up in between them. It gets annoying, but I got used to it.
My name is Yanagi Hayate. I'm a second year in high school right now, and I've been living my life avoiding all of the secrets around me. I have a small friend group I hang out with, and I somehow ended up as the student council president.
I yawned and looked outside of our classroom. It was hot. I watched the class outside that was having pe. I feel sorry for them, having to stay out in this scorching weather.
Their secrets were just lagging behind them as they ran from one place to another. It looked kinda stupid if I were to be honest.
"What are you looking at?" Asked my friend as he sat down on the empty seat in front of me. "Ugh. How can they even think about having pe when it's like an oven outside?"
My friend's name is Mochizuki Masaru. He was in the same class as me when we were first years, and since we got along then, I'm glad we're still in the same class now. He has messy dyed blonde hair and a black piercing on his left ear. He has a beauty mark at the bottom-right side of his mouth. There are a lot of rumours about him circulating the school. They said that he isn't a virgin anymore, that he's dated countless women, and that he's been seen going to love hotels with older women, but I know the truth. He's completely the opposite of that. People just assumed those because of how flashy he looks, but he doesn't deny the rumours because he said it's too troublesome. I didn't use my powers to find that out since he was the one who told me about it. In fact, I can't even use my powers on him since he's a very open person. He doesn't try to hide anything. He's actually the first person I've met that's like this.
"I think you forgot that we have pe later too." I replied as I chuckled. "I hope we get dismissed late. I don't wanna go to the student council meeting later."
"That's not something the president should say. It's surprising how the vice president hasn't gotten tired of you yet."
"It was just supposed to be a joke. I didn't actually expect people to vote for me."
"You've only got Aoi to blame for that. Wasn't he the one who signed you up?"
"Yeah. I regret not backing out when I found out."
"Mochi!" One of our female classmates called Masaru. "Some first years are looking for you."
"Popular people should just die." I said as I gestured a thumbs down.
"I think you forgot that you're popular too." He laughed as he walked away.
A lot of people call him Mochi because of his last name, Mochizuki, but our two other friends and I call him by his first name. He asked us to call him that since he considered us close friends, but it was hard at first since we've been calling him Mochi for a whole year.
"Macchi's with girls again?" One of our friends, Aoi, asked as he rested his chin on my shoulder from behind. "How is he so popular?"
His full name is Shiraishi Aoi. His feminine name suits him very much since he looks so cute. He's the smallest in our group, and also the youngest. He has short brown hair with bangs that cover his eyebrows. He's the bubbly and playful type that makes everyone around him smile. He has a baby face that he's very conscious about, so people avoid talking about it. Nobody wants to make him cry. He likes wearing sweaters and jackets that are too big for him, but since it's been very hot lately, he doesn't wear them. He said he likes wearing them since he says they're more comfortable, so he steals a lot of jackets from our other friend. He's very popular, but unlike Masaru, he's popular with the guys because of how cute he is. To add to his cuteness factor, he calls his friends by cute nicknames.
"Pipe down, Aoi." Our last friend, Masahiko, said as he carried Aoi away from me.
Masahiko Sato is the last person in our group. He's the total opposite of Aoi. He's tall, quiet, reserved, and the big brother of the group. He has straight shaggy brown hair and droopy eyes. He wears glasses whenever he needs to read something, and takes them off at other times. He's clumsy, an airhead, and very forgetful, but he's dependable and responsible. A lot of people, including those outside our class and underclassmen, look up to him. He's the guy that Aoi steals the oversized jackets from.
"It's fine." I told the both of them. "Class hasn't even started yet."
"Oh, by the way, I read a weather report that said it was gonna be windy later." Masahiko said as he searched it up on his phone. "Here." He showed it to me. "Are you gonna be okay?"
"I doubt it's gonna be windy." Aoi commented. "Just look at how hot it is. It'll be fine."
The people in our friend group know about my powers. I accidentally slipped and mentioned it, but they're very accepting and they didn't feel weird even when I mentioned that I could see their secrets. I'm glad I found friends like them.
"Well, I'm going." Masahiko said as he patted both Aoi's and my head. "Class is about to start. Don't fall asleep."
Masahiko was the only one who got separated from us this year, but it doesn't really matter since he's almost always here anyway. The moment he left, the teacher entered the room and class began. We had literature and PE for our last subjects, which were both very tiring for both the mind and the body. It doesn't help that I can't even go home and rest after classes are done.
The bell for dismissal rang and I fixed my stuff to go to the student council room. I could feel somebody place a book on top of my head as I was kneeling down to fix my stuff. I looked up and saw Masaru, smiling at me.
"Wanna walk to the student council room together?" He asked.
I stood up and grabbed my bag. "Sure." I replied. "What are you gonna do there?"
"I just gotta go to the faculty to talk to Kazu-sen."
"Doesn't he hate it when students call him that?"
"The nickname stuck, so might as well use it, right?"
We split up when we arrived at the student council room. We waved goodbye to each other, and I opened the door to the room.
As soon as I opened it, I could see all of the other members of the student council already sitting down, waiting for me so they could start the meeting.
I scratched the back of my head and apologized to them. I always feel so uncomfortable here. I could see how much they hate me. When I started out, I already knew they hated me. I saw the balloons on top of their heads saying how much they hated me. They didn't want a carefree president, but they couldn't make me quit. I still do my job properly no matter how much they're against having me as the president, so they can't do anything, but there's one person that just hates me no matter what, and I hate them just as much.
"It's nice of you to finally join us, Yanagi-san." The secretary, Minami Ayaka, said as she stood up. She has long auburn hair that she normally ties in a ponytail. She's what one would consider a gyaru. The way she styles herself violates a lot of the school rules. She wears her uniform very messily, she has painted nails, wears makeup, and those are just to name a few. Just like me, she ran for the position as a joke, but she takes her job seriously too, so I expect her to get mad at me right now. Even though she gets mad at me a lot, she isn't the person I was talking about. "Koizumi-kun has been doing all of your work since yesterday. I swear, if you weren't the president, he would be having an easier time."
"I never asked him to do my work." I replied as I glared at Koizumi.
He immediately looked away as soon as our eyes met. He's the person that truly hates me, and the one that I hate as well. Koizumi Akimitsu is the vice president of the student council. Contrary to his name, he's gloomy and quiet, and I bet he was just forced to run because a teacher told him so. The only reason I became the president was because he was the person I was up against. Nobody knew him, and he didn't stand out either, so I ended up with the responsibility of being president. He has unkempt black hair that covers both of his eyes. He's thin, awkward, and from what I've heard, doesn't have any friends either, and yet a lot of people in the student council come to his defense whenever he does my work. The thing is, I still do my shit, just at my own pace. I always finish on time, but this guy just likes to take my work and finishes them early. I'm sure he's just doing it to spite me. The moment I met him for the first time, the secret that was floating above his head was that he hated me.
I clicked my tongue. "Look, I can do my own work. It's not my fault that gloomy asshole keeps doing what I have to do. I never told him to do anything."
"Then you should do them before he does it!" Minami-san exclaimed. "He's doing your work because he knows how irresponsible you are!"
"Enough!" The treasurer, Ueno Nozomi, scolded the both of us. She has very short black hair that's in a pixie cut. She's tall, athletic, and she's the captain of the track team. She's the one who always stop the bickering in their classroom, and coincidentally, she does the same here. She glared at the both of us and gestured for us to sit down, which we immediately followed. I'm not about to let this muscular girl snap me like a twig. "Let's hurry up with this meeting and finish it quickly. I still have club activities that I have to attend to. Yanagi-san, if you may."
I took a deep breath and began our meeting. It went smoothly to say the least. After the meeting, I sat down and began some of the leftover work I still had to do.
"Hey." I could hear Minami-san say as she sat down on the table.
"Can you move?" I replied. "Can't you see I'm doing the paperwork that you told me to do."
"But if I don't bother you like this then you won't even hear me out."
I groaned and put my pen down. "So? What do you want? Hurry it up so I can finish this and go home."
"You face is really your only saving grace. Anyway, Sato-kun told me to tell you that the wind's starting to pick up."
"What?! Really?!"
"I went outside earlier and the wind was strong. It might rain since the sky looked dark too."
I groaned. "Alright, now move so I can finish this quickly."
She stood up. "I don't understand why you hate windy days so much."
"I don't want you to understand." I replied as I gestured for her to go away. 'Take care on your way home."
"Whatever. Good work today." She said as she went out and closed the door.
Alright. Time to get down to business.
About two hours passed, and I was almost done. I only had a few more papers to sign for the sports festival, but I'm already feeling very tired.
"Good work today." Somebody said as they placed a cup of coffee on my desk. I looked up and saw Masaru standing across the desk.
"Masaru?" I asked. "How long have you been here?"
"I just got here."
"Why didn't you go home yet?"
"Masahiko told me it was gonna be windy, so I thought you might want some company later." He chuckled. "I'll walk in front of you so you won't get hit."
"How long have you been waiting???"
"Just around a few hours. Don't worry about it, okay? I'm gonna go to the bathroom for a bit."
"Sure." I replied as I stretched my arms and started to write again.
I finally finished and stood up. Why hasn't Masaru come back yet?
I headed out the room, leaving my bag behind. As soon as I opened the door, the wind blew hard, messing my hair up immediately.
I closed the windows that were open in the corridor to stop the wind from blowing. The moment I touched the window's handle, something light suddenly hit my face. I grabbed whatever it was, and to no surprise, it was a secret, but the secret was something weird.
"I like Mochizuki Masaru."
I don't mean it's weird that girls like him. It's just weird that there would be this type of secret here at this hour. Is somebody stalking him? Maybe they're still in the school to wait for Masaru to go home.
I scratched the back of my head and looked around to check where it was coming from, and noticed the string was leading right around the corner.
I held onto the secret tight and followed the string. I don't want anything to do with this secret. I just wanna give it back and maybe tie it to their necks so I don't have to get hit with another stupid secret anymore. It's probably only a girl anyway, so it's not really surprise.
I turned the corner, and the only a person I saw was the gloomy kid, Koizumi. I noticed that the secret's string that I had in my hand was connected to him.
No way.
It can't be.
He looked at me, and his expression turned sour. There was obvious disgust on his face.
I didn't know what to say. The only words I could mutter to him was...
"You... Like Masaru?"