Another new day, another upcoming study session that Ishi was dreading. Honestly, just what was that girl thinking, inviting Rinse like it was nothing. Why would she want to do something like that was beyond him. Chinae seemed to be the last person to care about idols. Perhaps he had gotten her wrong after all and that she was not different from their fellow classmates.
Unless she wasn't enamored with the girl. What if he was reading into it wrong and she actually had a trap planned? That certainly seemed much more up her alley. That could explain why she appeared to be a lot nicer to Rinse than literally any other person he saw her interact with.
Ishi was going to have to stay on his toes around that girl. He might not have cared about whether Rinse got hurt or embarrassed. But chances were that a potentially harmful plan could also affect him as well. Vigilance was key here. Though he wasn't about to tell either of the girls about his suspicion. Not without evidence at least.
Soon there was a knock on his door. Rinse had made her return to his house as he let her in. Right after that, Chinae arrived. They set themselves up the same as yesterday with all the homework strewn across the coffee table.
"Since I'm here, I should be helping you out too." Rinse offered and to his surprise, Chinae accepted without hesitation. If that girl wasn't going to be resistant to her, than his presence was pointless. Of course, Ishi would still lend a hand. Things might be a problem if it came out that he offloaded the work to someone else. Or not, who knows how much the teachers actually cared about this setup given their lackadaisical natures.
"Thanks, that makes a lot more sense now." She expressed her gratitude. Now he could tell for certain that she was acting differently here. Rinse wouldn't have noticed since this was the second time she had ever met the girl. So to her, this was normal.
"Don't leave me out of it." He spoke up, telling them that they should take turns so that this would go by much faster.
"Great…" Chinae's mood took an 180 as he sat besides her. "Go ahead then."
"Since I'm not doing anything, can I go to your kitchen to grab us all refreshments?" Rinse asked him. The nerve of this girl, he thought. Who was she to think that could give away his family's drinks to someone he didn't like. Despite the personal objection, he didn't reject her request and she left the pair to work on some math questions. This allowed him to make his move.
"So, what's your plan?" He asked her bluntly.
"My… Plan?" She raised an eyebrow to his question. Her face appeared to be bewildered at his apparently random question. "To finish all my homework today?"
"I mean with Hattori." Her hand's grip onto the pen tightened when he mentioned the name. The girl's normal confidence seemed to disappear before his very eyes. "I know who you really are."
"You… You do?" Her voice quivered as she spoke. Now he was certain she was cornered by him.
"Of course. You're always so mean to everyone. Until you met her." He explained his thought process. "So clearly you looking to get her to lower her guard. Then you'll strike when the time's right."
"Huh?" Immediately she relaxed when she learned of what was going on in mind. Then her mouth contorted into a mischievous smirk. "Oh I see what this is all about. You're jealous of me."
"Jealous?"
"Yeah. I bet your jealous that Hattori likes me more than you." She chuckled. "I never took you for the type to have some silly crush."
"No I don't." He defended himself. "And it certainly wouldn't be on her of all girls."
"I'm back~" Rinse returned with a tray in a joyful mood. On top of it was three cups of iced tea. "Were you two talking about anything interesting?"
"I was just saying that he's upset that you like me more than him." Chinae held nothing back in revealing this to her in a bid to humiliate him. Ishi wasn't going to fall for this bait, so he did his best to maintain his cool.
"Obviously she's wrong." He said. "I don't care if you like me at all."
"He's right." Rinse giggled at how silly this discussion sounded. "If anything, he'd be jealous of you if I hated you more than him."
"I do sometimes wish you looked at me with a little more disdain."
"That's disgusting." For some reason, Chinae took issue with his small joke. "Are you some kind of pervert that gets off on being viewed like garbage?"
"No… Wait what?" He was lost on what she was referring to. That concept sounded absolutely foreign to him.
"I know it's kind of a joke in the idol industry." Rinse had her own perception with the idea. "A lot of fans seem to want to be treated poorly by us for some reason." That really sounded weird to him. Who would want to be dominated by cute girls known for singing and dancing? Wait a second, why would Chinae think about something like that?
"Anyway, let's get back to work so I can leave." She immediately forced them to get back to the task at hand. Now it was Rinse's turn to help, so all he had to do was observe and not be a distraction. That was smart of her, she seemed to tip her hand and took away his opportunity to confront her. That girl was craftier than she looked.
And so their shifts continued on and on until all the papers were filled out with answers. Hopefully Chinae learned a lot so that she wouldn't need any actual help with getting her homework done. Though he had his doubts on whether she would continue to have the motivation to keep it up.
"Can you please not be so lazy to let all this pile up." He scolded her as she was shoving it all into her bag. "At least then we won't have to share anymore miserable days together."
"Don't tell me what to do." She glared back at him, sharing her displeasure of his existence. "I can take care of myself."
"Clearly not, or else you wouldn't be here right now." She ignored his words and prepared to head out of the door. However, Rinse stopped her with one final request.
"We should celebrate all our hard work." She said, which caused the girl to put the brakes on. "Since you both don't have to worry about school work we should got out and do something fun."
"Pass." Ishi responded with zero hesitation. A proper celebration for him would be both of these two girls leaving and allowing him some peace for the rest of the break.
"Same here." Chinae also declined. "I got some things to take care of over this break." Without saying anything else, she left them. The girl couldn't get out of his home fast enough in both his and her eyes.
Rinse sighed in disappointment over the rejections. She was looking forward to doing something special over this long Summer break. Unfortunately for her, the two people available at the moment weren't known for their social desires.
"Such a shame she didn't want to do anything." She said. "Chinae seemed like a nice girl and I wanted to get to know her."
"Good thing she rejected you." Ishi was on the opposite side of the fence. "I don't trust her." Why did she want Rinse here? It didn't seem like she did anything with the opportunity. If there was malicious intent, then she never acted on it. Maybe he was overthinking it and she actually liked the idol. But, even if that was the case, she didn't do anything to take advantage of it. Such as that offer to celebrate. Why didn't she accept?
"You don't trust anyone." It had only been two seconds since they were left alone and already the pair began to argue. "I bet you don't even trust me."
"I don't know how anyone can trust someone that wants to 'observe' them." To be fair, he was right that most people would take issue with being told that. "And what are you still doing here? I never wanted you to be in my house."
"Well sorry that someone else wanted me around them. With the way you act, I'm not surprised she didn't want to be alone with you."
"Good, that's why I act like that." He believed that should've been obvious since the first day. "Now, can you please go home? I'd like to spend my entire break without spending another second of having to see your face." Even if it sounded unlikely given that she was his neighbor. Ishi was certainly going to make every attempt to make his dreams a reality.
"Okay, I'm leaving now." She made her way for the front door. "And you know what? I don't want to see your face either." For once they actually agreed on something as he closed the door behind her. That girl really couldn't understand him at all. This attempt to learn about him failed.
As he made his way up the stairs, he ran into his mother who was hanging around in her own room while they were doing homework. She left them alone not out of respect, but rather her own attempt to not disturb her son in case he decided to pull out some moves. If one knows what she would be talking about.
"Ahh, you're finally finished." She pretended that she wasn't attempting to snoop around in his life. "So, did anything interesting happen during your study session?"
"No." He answered plainly as he walked past her for his room.
"Really? You didn't have any fun with those girl?"
"We did her homework… That's it." His extended time with school had taken a lot out of him. All Ishi wanted to do was plop himself in bed, and hope that his break could finally begin.
As he laid down, he wondered if he would actually get what he wanted. After all, most of his life happened with things out of his control. So what was going to ruin his Summer vacation? The boy spent the next hour daydreaming out possible scenarios of what could happen in his future. Perhaps Rinse would decide that she wanted to annoy him and break his window with that broom of hers. Or his dad could lose his job and Ishi would be forced to work part time at some convenience store. Maybe Youna could get turned into a zombie and he would be the only one who could cure her with something stupid like a kiss.
…Now he was getting a little silly with his thoughts. The boy chuckled as his mind began to fade. For he was drifting off to sleep.