Chapter 6 - ➄

Same normal morning. Wake up at 6 am, brush my teeth, shower and change clothes before breakfast. After breakfast is done, I get on my way to the train station.

To my surprise, my morning schedule was about to change.

As I walked the first 20 minutes on the way to the station, I see Arata waiting against an electricity post, and, as soon as he sees me, he starts waving his hand in my direction.

"Good morning" I say, as he gets closer to me.

"Morning~" He answers back.

"Did you wait long?" I asked him.

"Nah, if anything, I got up earlier than usual" He snickered. "At this time I'm usually just getting out of my house and with breakfast in hand".

"And by breakfast, you mean a single toast right?" I laughed, as he couldn't help but just pout back at me.

"Yeah, but, like, I'd get something to eat at school anyway," He rambles as if looking offended.

"Well, that's good" I say.

«I'd be worried if you didn't» I thought to myself.

And like that, we walked our way to the station, and, on the train, we talked about our project again.

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After the ride on the train and a quick walk, we got to our University.

"Okay, I'll see you in lunch?" Arata asked as he had to go.

"Yeah, sure" He smiled at me, and I let a smirk flow in my face, as I waved his way.

After he wasn't in sight, I started walking the other way, the way to my classroom.

I sighed.

« It'll be so boring until lunch »

"Hey!" I hear as someone clings into my back, grabbing me by my shoulder.

"Kunoichi, you should say Hi properly before clinging to people, you know?" As I scolded him, he let go and started rambling back.

"Yeah yeah, manners or whatever, but, dude, you're friends with the head student of the Commerce Department?!" He asked, completely baffled.

"I mean, isn't he friendly and friends with everyone?" I honestly don't know if that's a fact, but he does look like that's the actual thing.

"Yeah, he is, but not you! You and I know about your little act towards everyone" He said, as I «Shhhhh» him back. "I mean, you are like actual friends with him?" This time, he lowered his voice volume.

"No, not really, we are seeing each other now because we are working on the project as the leaders" I simply said.

"Yeah, then why did I saw you guys walking together ever since the station to here?" He said, and I got... Flustered?

"I- We happen to live 20 minutes away from each other, okay?" I just answered, quickly, and started walking hastily to our classroom for the first class.

"You at him" He caught up to my speed, and implied.

"I smile towards everyone"

"You know what I'm talking about, Takafumi"

I simply let out a ‹ Tch ›, as I enter the classroom and sit down in my usual, comfortable spot, meanwhile, Kunoichi was still trying to get me to talk about it.

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"Man~ Cut me some slack- Class is so bo~ring" As we were on our way to get something to lunch on, Kunoichi started complaining.

"Why did you got into Economics again?" I teased him, as I searched for my wallet in my pocket.

"Listen, I didn't want to, it was my old man that got me here" He sighed, as he took his wallet out as well.

"Well, I'm sorry you're tired Kuno" I mocked him. ★

"Hey. I saw what you did there" He got pissed, and I laughed at it.

As I laughed, and Kunoichi was punching my back, I saw Arata talking to some people, and, when we locked eyes, he smiled at me.

My laugh stopped, and I felt my heart skip a beat, but I waved back, before going into the crowded cafeteria of our University.

"What. Was. That" Kunoichi seemed incredibly baffled, again.

"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered a bit at my own words.

"You're stuttering and everything!" He started screaming again, so I shushed him. "Sorry, but really, is he nice for you to open up?" He lowered his voice and then started dramatizing "I thought we had something special!" He started mocking, so I punched him on the side, and we laughed about it.

I sighed. There's no way for me, Takafumi Atsushi, to open up to this random guy that appeared out of the blue right?

"Nah, don't worry, you're the only one for me" I said, sincerely, yet with a jokester tone to it.

"Eww, that was so gay and uncalled for" He laughed, and I smiled, a bit sad for his comment.

« Guess he's still scared, huh »

"Anyway, what are you having?" I asked him.

"I want ramen and..." I was listening to him at the beginning, but then I dozed off to a wild Hirotomo entering the Cafeteria, smiling and looking strangely... Dazzling. "Hey. Atsushi, you there man?" I didn't react until Kuno-Kun passed his hand in front of me.

"I- Sorry, I was thinking about something" He looked unconvinced and looked to the way I stared at Hirotomo, just to find a girl where ginger was before.

"You got low standards now?" He mocked me.

"You- Shut up!" I got a bit angry at him and then we proceeded to order our food.

As we got our order, we got to an empty spot, «Strange» I thought. We sat down and proceeded to feast. Or, well, more like, Kunoichi proceeded to feast.

I just sat there, completely surprised how he can devour so much in so little time, while I'm just having a simple set of Tempura with Sashimi.

I was calm, eating, as I hear "Atsu!" coming from my side.

I choked in my food as I saw Hirotomo getting closer with a tray of food. All alone.

"Oh jeez, are you okay?" He got so worried so easily, so J brushed it off, as he sat beside me and handed me a bottle of water, telling me to drink some.

As I got Arata to be less worried, I looked back to Kunoichi, who even stopped eating.

"Uh, Kunoichi, this is Hirotomo Arata, leader of the project over in the Commerce Department. Arata, this is my friend Aimoto Kunoichi, we've known each other since middle school"

"It's nice to meet you, Kuno!"

Kunoichi sighed, I looked at him. "In which way you mean it?"

"As in , you don't look like you're suffering given how you're feasting on that" Arata and I laughed, but Kunoichi was strangely quiet. ♪

After a few seconds, he laughed as well. "Okay, nice play there, you are fun".

After all, we just had lunch and skipped the whole project discussion we had planned with Arata.

«Shit. This will pay out debt later» I sighed, as the three of us got back on our way to the rest of our classes.