After saying Susumu's name, Ayano then ruins the rood of the moom— mood of the room for me, the narrator, by thinking internally, "I just realized right now, but this is the first time after two months where I've said his last name in front of a friend of mine..."
…Did you really need to remind yourself of this? It would have been awesome, but— *sigh* Calm down... Don't go off on another tangent, narrator...
Moving on, sounds can be heard entering the utility closet, including a familiar, albeit muffled, voice asking, "Are you sure you can hold that stack of bentos, Takashi?"
A posh voice is heard saying, "It's... fine...!" with groans in between each syllable.
…You know what, let me simply walk out and see for myself what these people are doing... holy crap, how is Takashi able to stack eight bentos without them toppling over?!
Fumio stares with a twitchy eye, "If you drop that, so much good food will be wasted..." after hearing that; sweat is basically pouring down his face, Takashi grits his teeth and balances himself, "Don't... remind me... about the... losses!"
Susumu is then seen exiting the utility closet, he immediately places his eyes on the tall stack of boxed food and his eyes widen; under his breath, he says, "What the...?"
Fumio turns to his surprised friend with an awkward smile, he says, "Hey, could you help Takashi with his stack of bentos?" he pauses and looks at the struggling Takashi, "He didn't want to give me half of the bentos, so maybe you could help him instead?"
Susumu walks up to the two of them and sighs, "Where did he get this much bentos?"
"When we were on the way to the utility room, multiple people started flocking him, handing him their bentos, we managed to get away with the least amount of food in his arms..." Fumio explained, scratching his nose while looking at the stack.
Susumu places his hand on his chin as he intakes all this information, he then nods and places his hand on the bento at the top of the stack; as Takashi notices, he growls at Susumu, like a dog protecting their territory.
Susumu moves his hand back and raises an eyebrow, "Uhm..." He looks at Fumio, asking, "What's his problem?"
His tall friend then awkwardly laughs, "Right, I forgot to mention this," he pauses and looks at Takashi, "He said he wanted to carry all of this himself since it would kind of tarnish his reputation of being strong..."
He then slouches his shoulders and sighs, now directing his words to his red-headed friend, "...Seriously, why did you have to make yourself more famous with that dodgeball game?"
Takashi takes a step forward, saying, "I wouldn't... want to disappoint... them...with my performance..." Susumu gets out of the way, and the two friends watch as he proceeds toward the utility closet.
Someone from the inside then swings open the metal door, and voices can be heard fleeing the room, "Where are you going, Mari-chan?"
"I'm going to check on Ishibashi-kun, he's taking his sweet time outside..." A white-haired girl comes out of the utility room, turning around to see a tower of bentos blocking the sun.
A droplet of sweat forms on the side of her head as her eyes widen; and to Takashi's misfortune, he didn't notice the pebble that the students have dubbed 'The Slippery Peb—' ...you may be asking, "Why is it called that way?"
That specific pebble has garnered the reputation of causing many students to trip, other students accompanying the victims mention it, but the victims always trip at the end.. and it seems Takashi is the next victim!
As Takashi takes a step forward, Fumio notices and extends his hand out, "Takashi! Watch out, the pebbl—" but he was too late; and to his dismay, Takashi slips on it, flinging the bentos everywhere, left, right, and upward, but not forward... strange.
As he watches the bentos fly into the air, a tear falls down Fumio's cheek...
Just saying, if this were accompanied by music, a sorrowful violin would be playing in the background.
Allow me to stop time for a moment... *finger snap*...alright, I haven't tried this yet, but what if I do it from one of their points of view? I believe I'm supposed to touch their head, and I'll hear and see from their point of view...
...Wait, will it be another abrupt shift, like when I was brought closer to Su—
(+ FUJIKAWA TAKASHI'S POINT OF VIEW +)
I close my eyes as I come falling to the concrete... dammit, why does the pebble have to be there when you least expect it?
…Huh? Wait, I assumed the impact would be more severe... I feel... I feel as if I'm sandwiched between two cushions, it feels so comfy...
Sniff... sniff, it smells so good, as well; am I in heaven? Let me just raise my hand a little...
I clench my palm as I hear the bentos I worked so hard to bring here smash to the ground.
"Kyah~," I hear a moan, and my body twitches... Who caused that commotion?! Was Moriyama-san playing another joke on me? Doesn't he feel humiliated when he makes these kinds of noises?
I gradually open my eyes... It's still dark, but suddenly I see a white button-down shirt, and I lift myself up by placing both my hands on the concrete.
My eyes widen as I recognize the person I appear to have landed on, "Morishige-san!?" I feel my body heat up as I stare into her yellow eyes, but I can't seem to move as I remain frozen from the shock...
Her cheeks are deep red, almost as red as my hair, and her lips are quivering; I try to stammer something, "S—s—," but I can't seem to find the words.
Morishige-san turns her gaze away from me; as I fully regain control of my body, I throw myself off of her body; before getting up on my two feet.
Man, this is embarrassing... I cover my cheeks with my hand, I hope nobody saw that... I turn around and see my two best friends staring... at me... blankly...
I blink twice, before asking with the calmest expression I could muster up, "Did you two watch all of that?" The two of them look at each other before whispering into each other's ears, what are they talking about?
Moriyama-san looks back at me, before saying, "Nope, I didn't see anything, I was looking away before—"
"I saw everything, I didn't know you were such a perverted person, Fujikawa-san, moving your hand up her skirt and gripping her thigh like that."
…
WHY DOES ISHIBASHI-SAN HAVE TO BE SO STRAIGHTFORWARD?!!?
(+ NARRATOR'S POINT OF VIEW +)
Why... Is it really difficult... to get myself out of someone...? *thud* Ow!
…Don't take that out of context... anyways, I felt like an entirely different person right now; I'll never do that point of view shift ever again; now, where were we?
Fumio returns his stare to Susumu with squinting eyes; Takashi's red pupils have vanished as he remains frozen in place, and Mari is slouching her back against the wall, but her cheeks remain bright red.
Ayano is seen leaving the utility closet, shouting, "I heard a ton of crashing outside, what happened?" She comes to a halt beside the doorway and stares at the sight unfolding directly in front of her safe haven.
She first looks at Mari, who is sitting against the wall, she asks, "What are you doing, Mari-chan?"
Mario looks up at her, and she laughs awkwardly, adding, "I—I don't want to talk about it..." She then glances down at her chest, a flush forming on her face, and shakes her head to get rid of it.
Susumu looks past the frozen Takashi to look at Ayano; she notices his stare and tilts her head, Susumu cocks his head toward one of the fallen bentos, and Ayano notices and nods her head.
After walking over to one of the bentos, she bends over and picks it up; before walking over to Takashi and tapping his shoulder, the red-haired hottie comes back to the real world and turns around to look at Ayano with wide eyes.
She extends the bento in front of her, Takashi looks down at the bento, and up at her face, she has a warm smile on her face, she says, "Don't worry, the food didn't get ruined in the fall."
Takashi blinks twice— thrice even, and takes it wide smile on his face, he bows his head and says, "Thank you, Shinsato-san!" our brown-haired best girl smiles, she then looks at the other bentos.
Susumu, who also wanted to help, walks over to one of the bentos on the grass and picks it up, Ayano walks up behind him and picks up the bento he was about to take, she looks straight into his obsidian eyes.
Ayano straightens her back, before whispering to him, "That was rude, you know?" Susumu raises an eyebrow, "What was rude?" Ayano rolls her eyes and answers, "The way you left my apartment so unexpectedly?"
Susumu squints his eyes, "Didn't I tell you I was going out of the apartment?" Ayano's eyes widen, she then rubs the side of her neck, "You said that?" she awkwardly laughs, "Ah sorry, I was wearing my headphones back then, so I mustn't have heard you..."
Our black-haired friend then shakes his head discreetly, he then sighs, "Moving on, why did you start this conversation with me in the first place?" Ayano looks at the bento she is holding, "You know how we won't be able to talk during classes?"
Susumu gives a nod. "What if we exchanged contact information? We would be able to communicate about the visual novel, no matter where we were, like discussing plans for it, and other things," Ayano says, staring up at the blue sky.
Susumu giggles and whispers, "Aren't you in the..." he pauses, thinking, "Oh right, she left the friend chatroom two months ago..." Ayano tilts her head, puzzled, and asks, "What were you going to say?"
Susumu closes his eyes and chuckles, "Nothing," before reopening them and pulling out his phone, adding, "Alright, let's exchange contact information," Ayano smiles and pulls out her phone.
She opens a QR code on her phone, and Susumu places his phone above it, which scans it in the process, a jolly ding is heard, and the two of them unextend their hands; now editing the newly added information on their devices.