The day went on, and nothing happened between Hiroyuki and Yuuna.
The next day went on, and nothing happened between Hiroyuki and Yuuna...
At least until school had ended.
Hiroyuki had just finished his soccer practice and was walking towards the student council room to pick up his backpack. He didn't bring it along with him since he thought that it would definitely be safer to put it in the lone room on the top floor of the clubroom building.
As soon as he finished climbing up the three flight of stairs of the clubroom building, he took a minute to catch his breath while wondering about how it might not have been a great idea to put it so far away from the school field after a tiring practice. He then continued on and entered the student council room.
No one was around as it was close to evening. Everyone had already head home. Including his best friend, Nobuo who had already gone on ahead to cram school.
To him, Nobuo wasn't a very studious person and he wasn't the type to study on his own accord. He just figured that attending cram school could force him to at least spend some time studying instead of loitering around at home like a couch potato. Thus, despite being roommates, it's not like he was around him 24/7.
However, before he grabbed his backpack, he had noticed that apparently, not everyone had headed home.
There was a lone dark blue backpack on the sofa where Jin would always sleep on. It didn't take Hiroyuki long to notice whose owner did the bag belong to…
As he once held on to the bag when he felt its owner's waist. He even went as far as to almost have his nose kissed by its owner's nose.
Hiroyuki got a little worried as the person was still avoiding him. He couldn't just leave the bag alone as he was in charge of locking up the student council room before he headed home. However, it's not like he could just wait for the person to arrive and leave her alone with him.
Therefore, Hiroyuki did the most logical thing a normal, considerate senior would do when faced with such a troubling situation.
He panicked.
Hiroyuki couldn't stay calm and walked around the student council room multiple times, forgetting about the fatigue he had during the soccer practice. He played a number of scenarios in his head and pictured the best possible plan for him to hand over the bag without needing them to meet its owner.
Sadly each and every one of those scenarios had a major flaw that either involved Hiroyuki being seen as a weirdo or a stalker.
Thus, Hiroyuki realized he had to do the most ballsy move he could do. He tossed his pride away and decided it would be best to just bring the bag around and look for Yuuna.
And he did just that. Hiroyuki carried her bag along with his stuff and locked the student council room. He then walked towards the stairs and faced his first challenge.
After successfully keeping two bags, his sports shoe and his school uniform down three floors, he had to face his second and toughest challenge yet. Looking for where a 1st-year school student would be after school in such a vast compound. After contemplating his choice of school for the millionth time, he went on a journey.
He went to the school's classroom building and praised the Lord that the entrance was locked. He then went to the auditorium and asked to see if she was around. Thankfully but sadly, the students were helpful enough to assure him that she wasn't inside. He then walked all the way back to the school field and while using his 'enhanced' eyesight thanks to his glasses, he confirmed that she wasn't around here too.
After pondering where else she could be, Hiroyuki finally realized that there was one more place he failed to check which would be the library. However, Hiroyuki once again cursed himself as he walked towards the final destination of his long search.
The library is on the second floor of the clubroom building.
With all the crazy leg exercise he had done today, he thought he could consider taking back in the long-distance rally during the coming Sports' Day. However, that was the least of his worry as he was only caring about finding his target.
Sure enough, Yuuna was in the library, studying. Hiroyuki could finally catch a breath as he finally found what he was looking for. However, he wasn't allowed to enter the library as he was in his school sports uniform. Therefore, he could only wait for her outside as he sat on one of the benches that were placed along the hallway.
Waiting was the final and most agonizing challenge of all.
Hiroyuki didn't know what to say to Yuuna once she came out of the library. Since they still hadn't talked properly since the tour, it would be incredibly awkward to suddenly talk again through an unavoidable situation such as this. Hiroyuki may have come quite far to reach where he was, but he didn't think he would reach this far.
Before Hiroyuki could even panic, the target had left the library.
"Eh! Kazama-senpai?!"
Yuuna said as she had started taking a few steps back and was ready to bolt away on the sight of Hiroyuki. Hiroyuki however instinctively backed away himself as he got up from his seat. He had forgotten that everything was on his lap and as soon as he got up, all of it fell to the ground. Everything except the one object that wasn't his.
"S-Sagawa-san! Here, your bag. I had to lock up the student council room so I had to find you and pass you your bag. I didn't mean to surprise you like this."
It didn't take a while for Yuuna as she noticed Hiroyuki's goodwill. She slowly walked towards Hiroyuki and grabbed her bag while keeping her head low. As soon as she had her bag, she then took a few steps back and bowed to Hiroyuki respectfully.
"Thank you, Kazama-senpai. I'm going to go now. Good work."
With that Yuuna turned around and walked away with her bag.
Hiroyuki then thought this was the perfect opportunity to call out to Yuuna and ask about the incident. However, Hiroyuki didn't know what to say. He gathered his courage and cough out the perfect conversation starter he could think of.
"Yuuna!"
"Eh?!"
Yuuna shrieked in surprise as she turned around with a blush on her face, surprised by the fact Hiroyuki called her by her first name without hesitation.
"That photo you dropped that time, that was Yuuna from Girls' Series. Right?"
.
.
.
.
A couple of hours later, Hiroyuki found himself in the corner seat of the cafe, 'Mix'. Hiroyuki somehow managed to convince Yuuna that he wanted to talk to her about the picture of her with Yuuna, a member of a famous Korean pop group, 'Girls' Series'.
Hiroyuki was sitting anxiously while waiting for Yuuna to pick up her drink from the counter. It wasn't long till Yuuna returned. With that, it was once again the usual silent and awkward situation.
Hiroyuki gathered his courage and broke the silence.
"That picture. How did you get it?"
"My mom knew her from work while she was still in Korea. So when Girls' Series had a tour in Japan, I got the chance to take a picture with her."
"I see."
It was silent again.
There were many more things Hiroyuki had wanted to ask. Like how he wanted to know if she was her favourite member in the group, or if her name was related to the K-Pop artist, or how he was also a fan of the group and had the chance to be at the rock zone during their tour in Japan.
But before he could ask another question, Yuuna spoke out and uncover the truth of the mystery that haunted Hiroyuki.
"... androphobia…"
"Excuse me?"
"I have a fear of men."
It was a sentence with a mere six words but it was a sentence that answered a thousand questions for Hiroyuki.
"Because of my position, I was mostly surrounded by girls my whole life. The closest I had ever come to know another boy was my father and my brother. My brother is still an elementary school student so it is fair to say my father was the closest image of what I think a man is."
There was a short pause but Hiroyuki didn't want to say anything and let her catch her breath. Yuuna looked up and faced Hiroyuki to see that he was prepared to listen to her story towards the end. She then buried her head once more but continued on.
"My father is a very strict person. He only ever cared about the reputation of his position as a businessman and how my academics should be at the top among all my priorities. So because of how my father is and how I hardly get to know someone of the opposite gender around my age, I slowly developed a phobia towards them."
Everything started to make sense to Hiroyuki. He finally understood why she had always tried to keep her distance away from the other male members of the student council.
"It's not like I hated you or anything. It's just that the way you held me during the tour caught me by surprise and triggered the phobia even more. I know you are a nice person, especially how you went your way to hand me my bag. So, I thought I should at least thank you properly. I'm so sorry, Kazama-senpai! Please forgive me."
Yuuna made a bow so low that made Hiroyuki felt a little uncomfortable. Hiroyuki panicked but immediately spoke up, hoping she could raise her head back up as soon as possible.
"A-Apology accepted. It's fine really. I'm glad you explained things to me. I was genuinely worried that I might have done something wrong. In fact, I should be the one apologizing. I'm sorry, Sagawa-san."
"No, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry that I made you think that way."
As the two of them eventually realized that the conversation was turning into an apology contest, they quickly liven up the mood by laughing at the moment.
Hiroyuki was relieved as his biggest questions were finally answered. Hiroyuki wanted to keep the conversation going so he asked the once unimportant but now biggest question he could ever come out with.
"What made you join the student council though? Seeing how you have this thing going on, I thought you would have left by now?"
"Because I want to fix it!"
"Yes?"
"I know not all men are like my father and there are good among them. I don't want to constantly live in fear and not be able to properly communicate with one. I-I want to overcome it! So, I agreed to Kazue's recommendation because I thought it would be a good place to start."
"I see."
Despite saying one of his catchphrases, Hiroyuki was glad that she was taking steps to overcome her fear. He was genuinely happy to know she was willing to change. However, Hiroyuki didn't know what he could really do to help her in her progress of being the person she wanted to be. Therefore, he could only give an empty promise, at least giving her some sort of moral support.
"Well, if there is anything I can help you with. Don't hesitate to let me know, I'm willing to help."
Yuuna was happy to hear she had someone to know about her condition and was willing to lend her hand. However, before she had the chance to thank him, she received a phone call that reminded her of something she had forgotten.
"Ah!"
"Is something wrong?" Hiroyuki said worriedly.
"It's my father! He was supposed to fetch me from my school. Oh no… I need to pick this up. I'll be right back."
From here on things went on as how things should go on.
Yuuna told her father that he was having tea with a friend in the cafe nearby and asked him to pick her up at the cafe near the school. Hiroyuki then spent some time with her until her father arrived.
They finally had the opportunity to talk about their favourite K-Pop group and bond together because of it. They even managed to exchange contacts and to keep each other in touch.
It wasn't long till her father arrived as the sight of an expensive luxury car parked outside the cafe was hard to miss. Hiroyuki guided Yuuna to the door and waited for Yuuna to get into the car before making his way.
Hiroyuki caught a glance at the driver's seat and noticed a stern-looking man with short and neatly combed hair. He had wrinkles all around his head that ensured he was at an age where he was not a man to be messed with. He was also in a business coat that confirmed that he was no doubt the father of his junior, Yuuna Sagawa.
Hiroyuki gathered his courage and nodded to her father, a simple greeting that was universally known among men. Unexpectedly, the man did not flinch at all and instead continued glaring into his eyes. Hiroyuki quickly averted his eyes and saw Yuuna waving at him with a smile.
Hiroyuki did the same but only for a second before the car took off and left him alone on the street.
Hiroyuki then skipped back home with glee, recalling the time he had just now with his junior. He was so happy that he was dancing his way back home because the only thing he could think about was Yuuna's smile...
If only he could recall Nobuo's words that he was in charge of buying dinner that day.