Over the course of the day, Ariyama watched Odomura heading to classes, eating lunch, and talking with her friends – which she had quite a few of – including her closest ones, Kazura and Matsuragi.
Seeing Kazura just out of reach ached Ariyama to no end. Dammit, he hated feeling this miserable, but what was he to do? He had to follow them around for the day to track them and ensure there were no oddities in their behavior. For Kazura – whenever Ariyama got around to her – it would be easy, but perhaps Matsune put a bit too much faith in him in the cases of Matsuragi and Odomura. Sure, they were his good friends, but it wasn't like he saw them outside of school often or anything.
Anyways, Ariyama knew she was just being thorough, but he still couldn't believe Matsune was suspecting one of those three to be her mysterious unregistered Tribute.
It was mean to say, but Ariyama could've seem a scenario where the calculative Matsuragi ended up being their suspect – which would end quite funnily, Ariyama imagined, with Matsuragi getting beat up by the girl he had a major crush on – but he wouldn't wrap his head around Kazura or Odomura being the criminal. Was criminal even the right word?
While Matsune was always so kind and extraverted towards everyone, Odomura was always so gentle and nurturing to everyone, as if she was a more introverted version of Matsune.
She was too nice to be the convict.
And as for Kazura, her goofy yet fiery attitude made her definitely not as nice, but she was still one of the most popular girls in the year. Her looks and her tomboyish attitude was the way to go for guys who weren't interested in Matsune's more traditional 'feminine' approach.
And of course, the main reason was that she was his childhood friend and one of the people he trusted the most.
Shaking his head, Ariyama focused back on the current scene.
It was their second lunch break, and Odomura was in the cafeteria, sitting at a table with a tray of food, next to Matsuragi and Kazura.
It was good that the three seemed to still be close. As Ariyama thought back to the times when the four of them had been closer than ever – meeting and chatting with each other every day at school – he half-noticed Odomura standing up with a now empty tray, heading to the garbage.
But man, those days were the best. Ariyama was only now not taking them for granted, and actually appreciating them as the fond memories they were. He couldn't help but smile a little as he reminisced. He realized that was the first time he could remember actually smiling genuinely for the past few weeks. It felt nice, to be able to banish those depressing thoughts, even just for a moment.
"Ariyama-kun?"
The voice that he heard was quiet, soft and filled with unwithheld disbelief.
His face was already pale before he turned around, already drained of blood before he turned around and saw Odomura Airi staring at him, her eyes wide behind her glasses, tray still in her hands and ready to be tossed into the garbage bin he was standing right next to.
Well, crap.
With her hands shaking slightly, Odomura placed the tray on the tabletop beside the bin and took a step forward.
"W-when did you get back?"
Her voice was soft, trying to not break, but Ariyama saw the shine of tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.
He raised his hands slowly to make some distance between them.
"OK, listen to me, Airi. I need you to be quiet, OK–?"
"OH MY GOSH, I'VE MSSED YOU SO MUCH!"
Odomura leapt forward, her face contorting with emotion, her arms wrapping around Ariyama's neck.
Ariyama was momentarily stunned, and could only let out a breathless grunt as Odomura's weight crashed into him.
Instinctively, his hands wrapped around her waist to stop her from squirming too much. As she wailed into his shoulder, Ariyama was already turning his head to glance at the table she was just sitting at. Her crying was luckily not too loud, so it didn't attract the attention of the whole room. But on the other hand, it did make Matsuragi and Kazura stir from their place sitting at that table.
They both looked slightly startled, glancing to each other first, then losing over to the garbage bin.
Cursing under his breath, Ariyama stumbled back behind the nearby pillar, pulling Odomura with him. He pushed her against the pillar by her chest, then peeked behind it.
Kazura was looking at Matsuragi again, shrugging, then they both returned to their food.
Oh, thank God.
"U-um, Ariyama-kun?"
Frowning at the flustered voice, Ariyama looked back to Odomura, who was still pushed against the pillar by him.
Oh, she was probably wanting him to let go, which was fair enough–
Oh.