As much as Hakuta didn't want to agree with Masahito, especially after he was so harsh on Iruka. He couldn't help but listen to the advice given to him by that boy on giving her some space. Though this didn't mean he completely avoided her as he did send over a message through his phone to her to ask if she was okay.
Unfortunately she didn't respond to him at all. So he left another message telling her to let him know if she ever needed anything from that he could come. As well as also asking for her address. Both these later messages would go unanswered as he was left with nothing else to do until she decided to get back into contact with him.
Of course he was free to ask Shiuka for the girl's address, but decided that Iruka should be the one to determine if she was ready to talk with him or not.
Since it was still summer break and he was left waiting for this to occur. Hakuta spent his free time playing video games, since what else was there for him to do? Of course this was his original plan, so it was nice to be able to enjoy something he actually wanted to do.
The only blemish with this plan came with his attempts to get back into contact with 'TheMaskedGamer' AKA Ino. Though unlike before, it seemed she hadn't gotten back online since the last time they talked in person. He worried he might've done something to upset her again to want to avoid him, such as making the mistake of allowing Ninka to follow him and ultimately find out about the secret.
At the same time, things had been safe so far when it came to that girl. They knew they could trust her and realistically it wasn't as if Ninka had any reason to expose her. She didn't even attempt to blackmail him with that information considering her desires of wanting to date him.
But now it had been a week since the events pertaining to the encounter with Iruka's old friend. Hakuta began to worry that her summer was being wasted considering she continued to not talk to him. While it wasn't like she needed him to do anything on her own, it appeared she hadn't been talking with the other gyarus either.
"It's too bad Iruka couldn't join us." Said Shiuka after she returned from yet another shopping trip with her gals. "...Again." She dropped her bags next to the stairs and joined him as he had been sitting back and watching some TV by himself. "Have you talked to her? I don't understand what's been up with her lately."
"I wish I could talk to her." He replied, lowering the volume on the show he had been watching. A rerun was much less important than the topic relating to Iruka. "I saw her last week, but things kind of took a turn then."
"What did you do?" She stared at him accusingly.
"I swear you guys are always thinking I'm doing something wrong." He leaned away from her glare. "It's hard to explain, but we ran into that old friend of hers. Some boy she grew up with from where she came from."
"Oh, I see." She relaxed once again and allowed him some space. "She must've gotten a bit sad seeing someone she used to be so close with."
"Actually, he was kind of mean." He admitted. "Like I said, I can't really explain it. But it was like he was trying to point out that she was a bad friend for me or something."
"What a creep." Unsurprisingly she immediately went to the defense of her friend. "Just because they aren't friends anymore doesn't give him the right to keep making her suffer."
"Yeah…" He agreed, but also knew she hadn't gotten the full picture. The way Masahito spoke to him afterwards felt odd. It wasn't like he enjoyed being a bully and it sounded more like he believed he had been doing the pair a favor. He brought up things between them Hakuta believed he had kept only to himself. Was there something more to that previous friendship falling out that even Iruka hadn't realized? Or perhaps, she hadn't been willing to admit to herself what the true problem was.
This didn't seem right to him though. Even though she had been admittedly annoying him with her apparent carefree attitude about his feelings. And it would've been nice if she had listened to anything he tried telling her. So maybe that boy might've had a point about her. Still, she was a young girl. There was plenty of room to grow.
"Clearly you need to go tell her that she's not a bad friend." She said to him, but it came off more as a command rather than a suggestion. "Iruka's cool, who cares what some loser thinks?"
"You're right." He said, but still had his own reservations. After getting a week to think things through, Hakuta also didn't want to lie to her face about his feelings. It would be unfair to her to to continue living in a lie at this age. "I should go try to talk to her."
"Great, I'll give you her addres-" She knew he wasn't aware of where this girl lived. So she was about to give him this information, but got interrupted by a ringing at the doorbell. "Huh, I wonder what Noto is doing here?" It was Iruka's dad standing at the door when she checked through her phone. "He doesn't have work here today."
"Strange." Hakuta commented, but didn't think much of it as he went to open the door for the man. This turned out to be a rather unfortunate mistake.
"You've got some real nerve." Those were the first words that came out to greet him.
"Huh?" He was taken aback from the normally kind man being angry. "Um, did I do something wrong?"
"You know what you did." Omihiro invited himself in so he could continue grilling the boy. "I wish I knew what it was you did, but you know what I'm talking about."
"I really don't." He replied, bewildered by this sudden attack. "I mean, I know Iruka's probably pretty sad right now, but that's not my fault."
"It's not what it sounds like to me." Apparently during this past week he has had to deal with Iruka locking herself in her room and only leaving just to use the bathroom or eat. "Every time I try to ask her what's wrong. She keeps saying it's her fault you hate her."
"And you think I'm the problem?" Hakuta would've figured if she had been blaming herself, even if wrongfully, that he didn't do anything wrong.
"Yeah, how could you hate her?" Of course, he was her father after all. That girl could basically do no wrong in his eyes. "She's so lovable, adorable, and cute! What's there to hate?"
"Noto, you're getting things wrong here." Shiuka stepped in between them to attempt to defuse the situation. "It's not his fault she's upset. She just ran into one of her old friends."
"I wonder if I should've done something more then." Even though he wasn't the one directly involved in the confrontation. Hakuta held regret in not speaking up more to her defense. When she needed him the most, it seemed he wasn't ready to step up to the plate for her. Maybe it wasn't her who should've been considered the bad friend between them.
"Anyway, we were just about to go to your house to talk to her." Shiuka continued to come to his aid in supporting him against Omihiro. "So it should be all good once we get to her."
"I doubt that'll work." Despite wanting things to be made right, he wasn't as optimistic. "I can hardly even get her to talk to me. And when I told her I'll come dragging Hakuta to her one way or the other. She said she didn't want to see him. Said if she did, she'll cry."
"That sounds so sad." Shiuka got caught up on the crying bit. Meanwhile hakuta was still hung over on the part where Omihiro planned on dragging him to his house. He wasn't going to be physical, was he? "But it's a little immature. It's not like he's going to hurt her or something."
"But it really does sounds like she wants to avoid me…" Hakuta said, sounding defeated. Now it made more sense why she hadn't returned any of his messages. But if she was so upset about it, why did it have to be around him? Shouldn't she be mad at her old friend for being so mean?
"But don't worry about that." Omihiro returned to his more jolly mood now that he had realized Hakuta was not a problem to his daughter. "I have an idea. I'm sure the two of you know about the festival coming up, right?"