Chapter 05
Akimitsu's POV
It started with just one gust of wind. Suddenly, I found myself being dragged around by his pace.
Yanagi Hayate is the current student council president. He's carefree, social, good-looking, the total opposite of me. He ran for student council president as a joke when one of his friends signed him up for it. To his suprirse, he won, but that was only because he was up against me.
I ran for the position because a teacher convinced me, but I never really wanted to do it. I'm glad that I didn't win, but I still somehow ended up as the vice president.
Yanagi-san, even though he ran for the position as a joke, takes his job seriously. He attends the meetings, handles the students properly, and he's respected by a lot of the students in the school. He was somebody I wanted to be, and I hated him for it.
Even though I hated him, I was still the vice president, and I want to help him when he's having a hard time. Whenever he has a lot of work, I do either most or all of it so he doesn't always have to be swamped. I was only trying to help, but somehow, people in the student council thought he was leaving his work to me, which is totally not true.
The secretary, Minami Ayaka, always get all up in his face about it, but it's difficult for me to clear the misunderstanding. Everytime I try to do it, I stutter and I can't get any words out. It has something to do with my fear of girls, and I still haven't gotten over it. I can't even apologize to Yanagi-san since he always glares at me when he sees me. I can't really blame him since he always gets scolded.
That was our relationship before. We were nothing more than just two people in the student council. We wouldn't mind each other's business, we wouldn't talk if we didn't have to, and we both just pretended the other didn't exist. Well, that was until that fateful day.
After our council meeting, I went back to my classroom get my things and go home, but as I got there, it started to rain. Since I didn't have an umbrella, I figured I might as well just study until the rain lets up.
When I finished, it wasn't raining anymore. Instead, it was the wind that took its place. A strong gust of wind blew, but thankfully, none of my notes flew away. I let out a sigh of relief as I could feel someone's gaze hit me. I turned to my right and saw him, Yanagi-kun, standing by the corner with a look of disbelief on his face.
"You... Like Masaru?" He asked.
What? What??? How??? How did he find out???
In a panic, I couldn't deny the allegation. Instead, I basically confirmed it by asking him how he knew. I covered my face in shame, hoping at least he would be gone by the time I looked again.
It's over. My life is over. I just got found out by the closest friend of the person I liked. He'll tell him, then he'll tell the whole school. Why didn't I deny it immediately??? Me and my stupid anxiety...
Suddenly, Yanagi-kun held onto my arm and moved it away from my face. "I won't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about." He said as he let go of my arm. "No matter how much I hate you, I won't stoop that low."
He said he wouldn't tell anybody, but that wasn't enough for me to believe him. To make it fair, he also told me one of his secrets. According to him, he can see the secrets of people, which is how he found out that I liked Mochizuki-kun. I could tell he was just trying to make me feel better, but the power he's saying is just hilariously stupid.
I chuckled. "You're joking, right?" I asked.
"Sadly, I'm not joking." He replied with an annoying, obviously joking tone in his voice. "I'm an honest man, but if you don't believe, then that's your problem. Now that you have one of my secrets too, we're even. To be honest, I didn't expect a guy to be the owner of that secret. I was so surprised that it just slipped from my mouth."
Oh, I was so distracted with his dumb power that I forgot all about why we were in this situation in the first place. Of course he'd feel weird after hearing that a guy likes his friend.
"It isn't really normal for a guy to like another guy." I said, trying not to stutter. "I'm sorry."
I had my head down, but then he lifted my chin up and flicked my forehead. "Why are you apologizing, idiot?" He asked. I backed away, covering my forehead and staring at him in shock. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's weird, but it's not something I'm gonna give you crap for."
Why... Why is it that he can accept this kind of thing so easily? Something like this isn't normal... It's easier for me if he reacted like everybody else. It would be easier for me if he felt disgusted.
As I struggled to say something, anything, to express my gratitude, his friend came looking for him. Coincidentally, this friend of him was the person I liked, Mochizuki Masaru.
The two were talking, then he saw me. "Oh, vice prez!" He exclaimed as he waved his hand walked up to me. "You haven't gone home yet?"
I tensed up, and I tried so hard to force my words out. "N-No." I replied with a shaky voice. That was all I could say. I'm done. He probably doesn't even wanna talk to me anymore.
He laughed. "You probably don't feel comfortable with a stranger talking to you like this, right?"
"I-It's n-not that! Just I d-don't know what to say..."
"Masaru, let's go home." Yanagi-kun called Mochizuki-kun.
"Oh, sorry." He replied.
Yanagi-kun looked at me. "You gonna walk home with us?" He asked.
At first, I declined, but he tempted me with the offer of walking home alone with Mochizuki-kun. He explained that his house was just near here, so he'd leave us alone immediately. My house is near here too, so I just hope we get to his house first.
We started to walk home, and just like what Yanagi-kun said, he split off from us almost immediately.
Mochizuki-kun and I were both quiet. Well, that's to be expected since we really just got thrown into this situation by Yanagi-kun. I don't even know what to say.
Mochizuki-kun started to chuckle. "Sorry for this." He said as he looked at me and smiled. "We don't really know each other, but we somehow ended up in this situation. I'm sure Hayate means well with what he's doing, whatever it is."
I'm sorry for deceiving you, Mochizuki-kun, but he's doing this for me.
"Y-Yeah..." I replied.
"You know... I probably shouldn't say this, but... Hayate's a really nice guy once you get to know him."
"Huh?"
"I've heard about the two of you in the student council. He probably did something to you and didn't notice it. That's why you hate him, right? That guy can get pretty insensitive, but I promise he's a good guy."
"T-That's not why I hate him. He p-probably t-tells you stories about me, but I d-don't hate him because of t-that. Yanagi-kun w-works hard as the p-president."
I realized that I was speaking too much and I immediately covered my mouth. I looked at Mochizuki-kun, and for some reason, he had this light and mellow smile on his face.
He patted my head. "I'm glad to see that there's someone in the student council believes in him." He said.
That was the first time I've seen this expression on him. This smile was different from the smiles he showed to me earlier. This one looked genuine.
He removed his hand from my head and took his phone out. "Let's exchange contact numbers." He suggested. "You don't seem like such a bad guy. I think we can get along well, right?"
Huh? Wait. He said he wants my number, right?
"Ah, y-yes!" I frantically took my phone out and we exchanged numbers.
We continued talking for a bit, but we arrived at my house soon after. The walk home felt shorter than it usually was. I wish it could've been longer. I could've spent more time with Mochizuki-kun. I can't believe I actually talked to him. I guess I have Yanagi-kun to thank for that.
Suddenly, my phone got a notification. I checked to see what it was and saw a message from Mochizuki-kun. I opened it.
"I just got home. Let's talk more tomorrow, Koizumi-kun."