After that, a few days had passed. When Sunday eventually arrived, I stood in the alleway where I had originally gotten beat up in. Haruka stood around the corner of the alleyway, watching me with anxiety. "Here's your money..now I have nothing else to do with this. And leave Haruka alone." I demanded with the money in my hand, although I was quaking in my boots.
Dejin and the rest of that gang watched me with completely unfazed faces. Dejin then approached me and snatched the money out of my hand while letting out a few comical coughs. "We appreciate that." He then wrapped his arm around my shoulder and turned me away from the rest of the guys.
"What are they saying?" Haruka asked with her eyes practically popping out of their sockets from how anxious she was.
"Meet me in the bathroom at school tomorrow. First floor..I have something to tell you." Dejin instructed me, while I looked up at him with confusion. "Now get on. Leave." He insisted. Afterwards, I walked away from the group of guys in the alleway.
I was still quaking in my boots, while I hoped that he and his group wouldn't jump me. Luckily, they didn't.
When me and Haruka walked away from the alleway, I began thinking of one other person. "Hey um..do you think you could do me one other favor money related?" I asked Haruka, while she looked at me.
Later that day, I approached a very specific apartment. When I knocked on it, a girl opened it for me. It was none other than Misa. She opened the door with her clothes slouching over herself, along with her hair being extremely messy. "What do you want?" She asked me.
As I got a closer look inside of her apartment, I saw a guy with red hair sitting on the couch playing video games. By the looks of it, he seemed to be a third year. "This is the only time I'll do this. Pay off what you owe." I said those words to her, with money held out.
Her eyes lit up the moment they landed on the money in my hand. But before she could grab it, her tall boyfriend grabbed it from my hand. "Trust me..if you give this to her, she'll just use it to buy more. Trust me, I'll take care of it." Her boyfriend said, while she pouted from the side of him.
I gave him a slight smile, before leaving the apartment complex, and walking with Haruka once again. The atmosphere was very bright with all of the stars shining through the night sky. "I'm sorry about that by the way. I don't want you to think I'm using you or something." I said to her while nervously chuckling.
Haruka looked up towards the stars, this time with a smile. "It's okay..You know, I don't know if I've said it before but-" She stopped looking at the stars, and looked at me instead. Her eyes seemed even brighter than the stars in the sky. "You're the coolest, Koyoko." She said those words to me with a beaming smile.
Once she said it to me, I stopped walking. In fact, I was frozen. It felt much better this time around, when she actually said my name. I didn't know how I was cool. I didn't do much, and the money I made selling stuff didn't do much either. But it made me happy anyways. I felt every corner in my body illuminating with happiness, as my heart skipped a beat.
While I watched her walk away, I questioned who Saruto was once again. But maybe I'll ask her that at another time. "You comin'?" She turned around and asked me that.
I quickly knocked myself out from the frozen state that I was in, and followed after her. "Y-yeah.." I responded.
Later that night, I spent all my time remembering those words from Haruka. In fact I was giggling and kicking my feet under my covers.
Then, when tomorrow arrived, I stood in the restroom with Dejin. I didn't know what he had in mind, but I was pretty curious. "Sooo yeah..I lied to you." He confessed to me while rubbing the back of his head. I was too confused at what he meant.
With my confused expression, I kept my eyes on him. "You lied? What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well..one day I heard you talking about how you'd get an anime girlfriend in this very bathroom. I thought it would be fun to play along." He said to me, and my eyes immediately widened with shock, as I knew what he was talking about. "Ofcourse that wouldn't come easy. I had to give you some type of conflict now didn't I? I wanted to see if you'd actually fight to protect the girl you liked. And I knew it was Haruka. That's why I tried to hit on her." Dejin admitted to me with a smile, before pulling out and handing me the money that I gave to him yesterday.
I looked at the money, then looked at him who was smiling in a calm manner. "Then why did you let them kick my ass?! That doesn't make sense!" I yelled out, while he laughed nonchalantly.
"I tried to stop them..they were in on it, but they went a little too far. But it worked out in the end, right?" Dejin responded to me, while my eye was practically twitching from all of the anger that I was feeling. "I was actually gonna call it off when I saw how hard you were willing to fight to protect her. Buuut it was fun messing with you."
"Messing with me? I thought you were gonna hurt her in the worst way possible! You are definitely a psycho!" I continued to scold and call him out, while he laughed and chuckled in an awkward way. But after that, I took back the money that I gave him.
"This actually is Harukas money.." I said to Dejin, while looking down at the money that was in my hand. But even so, does that mean I was being strong? Maybe that's why Haruka thought that I was cool.
Dejin looked down at me in a more serious tone, before walking towards the door of the bathroom that lead into the hallway. "You know..life isn't some anime.." He said to me calmly, as he stopped in his tracks. I quickly looked up at him when he said that to me. "But whether you want a girlfriend or an anime girlfriend, there are going to be plenty of obstacles. You better stay on your guard, or I might just take her from you." He said, while looking over his shoulder at me with a smile.
As he walked out of the restroom, I thought again. Expect the unexpected. But can I really trust him? Definitely not.
Afterwards, I walked into my classroom. I looked towards Dejin who was sitting down at his desk. He gave me a genuine smile as I walked over to my desk. "Goodmorning." I said to Haruka who was already at her desk.
"Goodmorning." She turned around and looked at me while greeting me. Goodness gracious this girl is a true beauty! I see that more and more each time I lay eyes on her.
I then took a seat at my desk. I had been thinking of something earlier, and this time I know I have the courage to do it as easy as pie. "So..would you like to try to eat lunch together again? Hopefully this time I don't get knocked out?" I asked her. She chuckled in response, before looking at me and giving me a nod of the head.
I immediately smiled at her response. And while looking at her, I came to a conclusion. All of this time I've been doing things the wrong way. Using quotes and actions from other anime. All of those were from different people with different personality. But I'm not them, and this isn't their story. All I have to do is be myself. That's how I befriended Haruka in the first place. That's also how I hung out with Ikimisa. If I do that, then she may just become my anime girlfriend.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to join the two of you." Jimini said from the side of us, while speaking in that soft tone once again. I quickly turned to look at her, then at Haruka. I hoped that Haruka would say no, because if I say no then it would sound rude. But I really just want one on one time with her.
"Ofcourse." Haruka said with a genuine smile, and my jaw immediately dropped. There goes my chances of a one on one interaction with Haruka. With my head lowered and an obvious cloud hovering over my head, I felt eyes basically piercing me.
When I turned to look over at Jimini, I quickly understood why I felt the way I was. Even though I didn't do anything, is she still out for me? I felt shivers from her expression alone. "Ayee y'all got room for one more?" Dejin came out of nowhere with a smile and his arm wrapped around my shoulder.
The three of us all looked at him, while Haruka immediately wrapped her hands around her body. "Nooo you got the wrong idea of me. See we were just playing a prank on Koyoko here. We weren't gonna do anything, right Koyoko?" Dejin asked me while looking down at me with an extremely awkward smile.
Even so, I felt like he was being genuine about it. Plus he did give us back the money that we gave him. "Sure.." I sighed while looking away from him. Haruka then started to chuckle from how annoyed I obviously was.
Suddenly, Misa walked into our class and approached Haruka. The four of us then looked at her with shocked faces. I was even more shocked when she practically shoved me out of the way. "Get out of the way!" She said to me, as I fell down on the floor. Even though I literally wasn't in the way.
"You really gotta get your weight up man.." Dejin said to me with his arms crossed, while struggling to hold in his laughter. "Small man.." Jimini added on while camouflaging it with a cough. I looked up towards the both of them with annoyance.
Misa then grabbed both of Harukas hands, while Haruka looked at her with awkwardness. "I heard you're the actual one who paid off what I owe. Is that true?"
"Uhh..yeah." Haruka responded, and Misa immediately embraced her with a hug. "I'll love you forever." She said while hugging her.
Then after that, the guy who was in Misas apartment peaked his head through our classroom. "There you are. Come on before we're late for class." He said quietly as he walked behind Misa and started to yawn. Though Misa had no intention of getting off.
Me and Haruka made eye contact in that moment. Both of us had a smile on our face, despite the multiple interactions that took place around us. "Oh my god are you okay?" Ikimisa came from nowhere and hugged me, despite me obviously being okay. She was practically suffocating me with her boobs.
"Where did you come from?!" I questioned, though my words were a bit hard to understand since I was practically being choked. Didn't help that Dejin and Haruka started to laugh. While the red haired guy was most definitely trying to hold it in.
In most romcoms, there's a group of friends. All I can say is if this is gonna be the friend group, this is gonna be harder than I thought. But who knows, it might be more fun than I think.
The most import thing to me is that future with Haruka. If that can be achieved, then everything will be fine.