Youta returned to his desk and sat down with Mitora joining him by taking the seat in front of him. It had been a long while since they shared a school lunch together, yet everything was as natural as the last time as the pair grabbed out their bentos to enjoy a nice homemade meal.
"Mind if I join in?" Fuwaka walked up to the pair, interrupting their short conversation. After seeing Mitora appear out of nowhere, she couldn't just sit back and watch things unfold.
"Sure." He said, where the other two moved aside their lunches to give her space. It was a bit cramped having three lunches on one single desk, but they made it work.
"Didn't realize it was so easy to have lunch with you." She said as they all began eating. Fuwaka had seen him on numerous occasions eat alone, but would chat a bit with the boys in their classroom. So she had been under the assumption he wouldn't be interested in sharing a lunch with her. Of course, she wasn't good with asking to hang out with people, so that became a factor as well.
"I guess there's nothing wrong with eating together." He replied, wondering on his own preferences. While he wasn't anti-social, it was a nice change of pace to not have to focus on talking to anyone else while eating. Usually he'd get added into a conversation by his classmates where he'd have no choice but to respond.
"So, did you make your own bento?" Fuwaka asked, getting their small talk started. When she asked this, Mitora dropped her chopsticks in reaction, the sound causing them to look at her. "Is everything all right?" The other girl asked, taking a good long look at her to scan her body language.
"I'm all good. They just slipped out of my hands." Was the answer she got from his childhood friend. Though considering the reaction, it was clear that his ability to cook had struck a nerve for her.
"No, my mom made it for me." He answered her question once he regained his focus. "I only cook when I'm home alone on the weekend. It's no big deal then."
"Well, you cooked for me that one time." Fuwaka said, taking a glance over to Mitora to test the waters and see her reaction. "Maybe I should pay you back and make a lunch so we're even."
"I can make you a lunch!" Not wanting to be sidelined in this conversation, Mitora finally made her response.
"You two don't really need to do that." Youta would feel too weird if he had a girl make lunch for him. Not to mention he only cooked for Fuwaka because he believed it to benefit his job, not because he necessarily liked her.
There was also the fact that he'd never accept a lunch from Mitora. Not because he disliked her, obviously, but her cooking would be best described as deadly in all the wrong ways.
"How'd that conversation go with Mifune go?" Fuwaka continued to dominate the talk as lunch continued. For someone who had a reputation for not being sociable, when there was something she was interested in, she became much more outgoing.
"That person I saw you talking to before?" Mitora followed up before he was able to answer. "That's for your club activities, right? What sport are they in?" Now it was Fuwaka's turn to be surprised by the muted response by her. While their first meeting gave a bad impression on how that girl viewed him being with others. It wasn't the only thing she had noticed during Youta's time as sports manager.
He had the opportunity of working with others over the past couple weeks. One thing Fuwaka had seen was that worried look on Mitora's face whenever the athlete he happened to work with was a girl. Meanwhile she was much more relaxed when it came to the boys. So why didn't she seem to mind that someone like Chinemi, who was wildly rich and popular, was hanging around him? Even if it was only for his club.
"Tennis." He answered Mitora's question first before addressing the first one. "And it wasn't anything super important. She just wanted me to check out how her practice's been going on lately."
"Hmm?" Mitora paused in the instance as she had taken a bite, her chopsticks remained in her mouth as she had to address what he just said. "Did you just say she?"
"Uh…" He came to the bitter realization on why she didn't react to seeing him come out of that closet with Chinemi. "Yeah?"
"That was a… Girl?" She took the chopsticks out of her mouth slowly as her mouth remained open. Mitora stared off into space, recounting how she had seen them in the hallway earlier. How he had come out of that supply closest with that girl after their private meeting. "What were you doing in that closet with her!?" She couldn't contain her voice as she loudly asked this question. It was enough for everyone in the room to hear her.
"I-I can explain." He tried to defend himself, but it wasn't only his close friend who looked at him with some level of scorn.
"Where exactly did you go with Mifune?" Fuwaka asked him, giving him the first glare he had ever seen her give. After all this time, he didn't realize she was capable of expressing anything other that lackadaisical look of someone who had taken illicit substances.
"You went where and did what!?" If it was only these two girls asking him this question, Youta might've stood a chance. However Mitora's inability to keep her voice to an indoor level meant all his classmates were now aware of where he went. They already saw him rushing out with Chinemi earlier, but assumed he just took her out in the hallway to get away from the crowd.
Now this new piece of information only served to contribute to their already negative opinion in regards to his relationship with her.
"You are all getting this twisted." He got up from his seat and began backing away from the growing mob. If they could, they'd all have torches and pitchforks by now. "Yes, I did hide away with her in a small supply closet, but we just talked. That's all." It seemed things had gone beyond them taking his word for it. "You can all ask her, she'll say the same thing."
"You know what, Youta? We don't believe you." He found himself nearly cornered as he continued backing away from the approaching crowd.
"Yeah, you looked like you hated seeing her. So you must've blackmailed her to keep her off your back." He wasn't sure on how he'd blackmail someone by taking them where he took her, but from how everyone looked as they were about to end his life. He had an inkling of an idea on what he was being accused of.
"Now that's just too far!" He would not take this slander. "Teacher, can't you put a stop to this…" Youta wondered why his teacher had yet to step in. Even if he was being entertained, this was well beyond normal for bickering students. However he, along with everyone else, realized he was gone.
On the backboard, there was a note written which read 'Gone til lunch ends, have fun' with the name Mikimasa signed under it. Beneath that was another note which was written specifically for Youta. It read 'Also Youta, don't drag girls out of the classroom'. He couldn't help but shake his head upon reading the second part. Why did he have to be the one to get scolded on the note? "Man, the way he wrote it makes it sound worse than it actually was."
He turned around after reading the note left for the class to address the others once again. "Mitora…" He tried appealing to his best friend first, but the look on her face revealed she was out of it and didn't even notice the angry crowd around them. "Fuwaka, you gotta trust me and speak some sense to everyone."
"Honestly, I don't think I can stop them." She said, not even giving it a try. Though whether it was because she sided with them or didn't want to get into conflict was unknown to him with her vague response. "But you might want to run."
When she said that, he realized how dire his situation was. For a moment, which felt like an eternity, Youta stared at the rest of his class while they stared back at him. At this point everyone knew what was about to happen.
Without saying anything, Youta took off in a sprint and rushed out of the classroom with speed even faster than when he ran off with Chinemi.
"After him!" Someone cried out among the mob as the entire classroom emptied out sans Fuwaka and a speechless Mitora.