Have you ever heard something so shocking that your stomach felt like it was going to corrode and melt you from the inside? That your body froze and your head spun? That you felt so sick from a simple statement that you physically could not act? As his hand met Ushinawa’s, Eikou felt like he was on the verge of passing out. His handshake was weak, but it was all he could do to meet her hand. As it fell away from hers, it shook uncontrollably. He struggled to stay up, finding a nearby chair to sit down on. It was the only thing he could do to stop himself from being sick. She didn’t really…forget…me?
Kentaro looked on in disappointment. After all he’d done for him, he was going to back out now? Ushinawa was confused, but, to be honest, she didn’t care that much about him. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal.” Neither of them really wanted to press this matter any further. Kentaro’s forced smile was straining his face.
“Soooo, Kentaro…” She was getting at something and it wasn’t subtle. Her voice was crackling with excitement and wrapped in a high-pitched sing-song tone, the surefire sign of someone who thinks they have deduced an endearing secret. “Why-“
Kentaro put up his hand, killing her excitement. “Wait, hold on. I’m getting a call.” He wasn’t. His phone was off, but he pressed it up to his ear. “Mmhmm.” He nodded. “Yeah.” He looked at Ushinawa apologetically. “I’ll be right over.” Ushinawa was pretty sure he was faking. He put his phone back in his pocket, never having turned it on in the first place. “Ushinawa, I am so sorry, but I just got a call from my friends and they said that they had their own group over there, so I think I’m gonna head over.”
Ushinawa pondered this for a moment. He is trying to back out. But why? He just asked me to be in his group. That has to be a sign. Did I scare him off? No. He must’ve gotten embarrassed and tried to back out. Well I won’t let him! Don’t worry Kentaro, I know how you’re feeling! She completely misinterpreted the situation. With the information present, she drew a “logical” conclusion. Even if she had known the real reason, she wouldn’t have let it go anyways. “Wait! You can’t join anyone else’s group now! You’re already in this group!” She wasn’t the best at formulating plans on the spot.
Kentaro’s marble smile was cracking. “Why not?”
“Because…be-I’ll be right back! Don’t move!” She zoomed off. Kentaro put his hand on Eikou’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry.” Kentaro felt bad for Eikou despite all of his anger. “I can’t do anything more for you.” He began walking off. Unfortunately for him, he found his path blocked. The sea of students had split, allowing Ushinawa to block him from leaving. But she wasn’t alone. She had brought Takara Yuzai. Ushinawa had bolted off to the edge of the room where Yuzai was sitting, waiting for the rest of the people to group up. She had grabbed her arm and pulled her down, parting a path simply by carrying a disease. Yuzai had not been prepared for it. It had confused her, throwing off her composed demeanor. Now, she stood blocking Kentaro. Ushinawa stood behind, looking slightly embarrassed and pretending she wasn’t staring at Kentaro. Yuzai stuttered for only a moment.
“Hello.” She said it completely naturally, coated with ice that put the fear of god in Kentaro. She brushed off her blazer, acting as if she had been standing here the whole time and hadn’t just displaced the entire room. Everyone was watching.
“Um, uhh, hi?” Kentaro’s voice was raised several octaves too high. He was clearly nervous. He towered over Yuzai in both height and stature, but her mere presence rattled him to his core. All he wanted to do was shut his eyes and wait for it to all be over.
“Don’t look so afraid. You’re embarrassing yourself.” The words cut like a knife at his pride. It took all of his effort to raise his head and look her in the eyes. The blue eyes seemed to look directly into his soul, revealing what he carefully kept covered. “It appears we are grouping up.” It was a stated fact.
“WHAT? No, you can’t! I mean, because-“
“Try not to look disappointed. I might get the feeling you didn’t like me.”
“No, I just meant, my group is full.” He laughed a quick laugh, trying to run through the conversation as fast as possible. He regained a slight amount of composure, slipping back into his relaxed self. “Sorry, but we just don’t have the space.” He put his hand on the back of his head as if to say ‘oh well’.
“You’re right. It seems to have filled up while we were talking.” She looked behind her, shooting a dirty look at a girl near Kentaro’s group, who awkwardly stepped over to them. “There are not many options left, so it looks like we’ll have to group up. Otherwise, I would have to join someone else.” Organization had never been so easy! It was simply dependent on motivation, and this sure motivated everyone else.
“But-but-bu-b-“ Kentaro sputtered, out of steam. Ushinawa smiled. Yes! You’re a genius, Tsubame! Yuzai was completely indifferent to this outcome.
“What?” It was a challenge, but there was no resistance left. Kentaro’s eyes fell to his shoes. He wanted to scream or cry or at least do something. This was a yearlong group. And he was stuck with Takara Yuzai. And Tsubame Ushinawa. And he was pissed off at Eikou beyond belief, but he sucked it up and accepted this twist of fate with grace.
“It’s just…” He plastered his smile back on. “…you’re so smart! This school year should be a breeze with you with us! I was worried that we might hold you down.” Ushinawa felt a slight twinge of jealousy. Yuzai did not react.
“Yes, great. Let’s move over, people are staring.” They all walked back to the desk in which the inert Eikou sat. He had missed everything that just happened. Eikou had slightly recovered since then and was very confused on why the group of three was approaching him.
“Sasaki?” She had picked up the name earlier when he was talking. “Looks like we’ll be working together.”
“Why would I do that?” Eikou was already in a bad mood and he wasn’t used to her reputation, so his remark was a bit ruder than it should have been.
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“You were working with Kentaro and now he’s working with us, so it only makes sense.”
“I thought he left the group.”
“He changed his mind. Even if you wanted to leave, you scored too low to be partnered with just anyone. You should consider yourself lucky to be partnered with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“Ushinawa was already in our group. You’re not much better than her.” Ushinawa glowed at the compliment, despite it being from a total stranger.
“Objectively, that is incorrect and irrelevant, but I am not easily offended.” Ushinawa was pretty offended by that comment, though. “It should not matter to you. The work is what is important. Unless you have something else you are after?” She had no idea what it was, but it logically followed that he had some other reason for not wanting to work with her, as it was the objectively best option. Eikou fell for it, clamming up and began worrying that he had been caught.
“No. You’re right.” It was a clean defeat.
“Thank me.” But it was not enough.
“What?”
“Say ‘thank you, Yuzai’.”
“Why?!”
“Your clear superiors are allowing you to be in their group. They are not even requiring you to do anything. A starving man should thank those that give him food.”
Eikou was stunned at the audacity of this girl. “Fuck off.”
“Or else I’ll tell.” She turned around as if to signal that she would tell the school whatever he was hiding. Eikou, however, took that to be turning to look at Ushinawa, further reinforcing his belief that she knew somehow. He was going to hate himself for this later.
“Th-thank you.” It hurt getting it out.
“Good.” She paused. “Now thank Ushinawa.” Eikou turned towards Ushinawa. The pain of what she had said earlier stung him still. Thanking her would be salt in the wound. Still, it would be better than if Yuzai told the entire school about his adolescent mission.
“Thank you.” It was very quiet, almost inaudible, but Yuzai wasn’t that invested in this whole situation. She was mostly on autopilot.
“Oh, you’re welcome!” Ushinawa interjected despite having no prompt to. She had managed to not realize that Eikou was being horribly ridiculed. Her day had been going really well so far, and she was feeling good!She felt almost the exact opposite of how Eikou felt. Kentaro bent down to Eikou, whispering in his ear:
“Look what you did.”
“This is not my fault.”
“Yes it is.”
“No it’s not.”
“So you’re saying that if I hadn’t joined you on your fucking ‘love-quest’, that I would still be in this situation?”
“No, I’m saying that if you were smarter, you would’ve gotten yourself out of this situation.”
“Fuck you.”
“Well, we’re stuck in this together now. We should show a united front.” Enlightenment washed over Kentaro’s face, twisting into the caricature of a weathered wiseman.
“Oh, wow, you really changed my – oh wait, fuck you.” Kentaro was clearly mad at Eikou.
“Stop whispering. We still need to find two more group members.” Right on cue, two girls walked up to the group. The first was slightly taller than the second, with messy red hair, long and wavy, giving the girl an appearance of casual relaxation. Her blazer was somehow lopsided, her shirt wrinkled; she had the look of someone who had just rolled out of bed and walked into class. She was attractive, but she was far overshadowed by the girl next to her. The second girl was slightly shorter, with white hair that hinted at silver. Her hair was slightly longer than her partner’s, falling just below the waist. Her hair folded into two buns on the back of her head, placed too high to be functional but merely stylistic, almost looking like some sort of flower. Her eyes were large and innocent, her face pure and smooth, undeniably beautiful but somewhat childlike; all of these factors combined to create one feeling, she was absolutely adorable! Eikou and Kentaro both felt the need to protect her at all costs. They thought that her looks may have even surpassed that of Ushinawa or Yuzai. She kept her eyes tilted downwards, sneaking glances and becoming embarrassed if caught. Kentaro’s eyes lingered on her, causing Ushinawa to feel a little bit jealous. Her body was meticulously crafted, dainty and perfect like something made of glass. Does Kentaro prefer her over me? He’s clearly looking at her over the other girl. Was she fucking born like that? That’s unfair! I think…yep! Even her chest is bigger than mine! And her innocent schoolgirl act already has him fooled! Who does she think she is? There’s a fucking code! Find someone else! She contemplated dropping some muscle and maybe some confidence while she was at it, but decided she would just have to win her own way.
“Mind if we join?” The girl with red hair asked. “There’s no other groups open. I’m Sachi Yagi. I scored under twenty, by the way.”
“Of course. And her?” Yagi shrugged.
“We just met. She isn’t very talkative.”
“Well?” The white-haired girl looked up nervously.
“S-Saki.” She shut her eyes hard like she was bracing for an assault.
“Open your eyes. What’s your surname.”
“Um-uh-justcallmeSaki!” She ran through the last part of the sentence like it was her final words. Immediately after, she put her head down and shoved her hands in fists at her side like it had taken extraordinary amounts of willpower to have said that. Ushinawa found it quite annoying. Mostly because Kentaro found it endearing.
“It’s okay, you have nothing to worry about. You shouldn’t feel nervous talking to us. We’re going to be partners for the rest of the year.” He flashed a real smile at Saki. If it helped, nobody could tell.
“Kaneshiro, I feel kinda nervous toooo. Could you please comfort meee?” Ushinawa put her hands behind her back and twisted her foot on the floor, putting her eyes to the floor and trying to put on a cute expression.
“Ushinawa, don’t make fun of Saki.” Ushinawa was shut down. She looked maliciously at Saki.
“It’s on, bitch,” she growled under breath.
“We should all get along. We can make this a great semester, but it’s on us!” He began faking his smile, remembering the unfortunate situation he was in. Nobody noticed. It looked the same to them. Maybe even more real.
Except Saki. She could tell the difference. She hadn’t been faking anything. She wasn’t trying to hurt Ushinawa. She was just being herself. However, she could tell what others were faking. She could tell that Yuzai wasn’t feeling well. She could tell that she was zoned out. Yuzai wasn’t in focus, lost in a daydream where she didn’t have to be here, at least not like this. She could tell Ushinawa was jealous. She would try and signal Kentaro that she wasn’t interested. She didn’t want to cause any trouble. Ushinawa had brushed Yuzai earlier. Yuzai hadn’t reacted beyond mild surprise. They were closer than they were showing, she was sure of it. Eikou had some sort of relationship to Ushinawa. He was always sneaking glances. He looked like he had just gone through a rejection. Perhaps he had. Kentaro was fake. All of him. She could see right through him. He thought it was Yuzai that could, but it wasn’t. She knew that he was trying to be someone else: she could see it in his hair, his skin, his smile, his friends, the way he stood, everything. She was used to something similar, so it was easy to see for her. Yuzai had asked her about her surname earlier. She had asked because she had the list of the scores and she was remembering them by surname. Saki couldn’t give Yuzai her surname for other reasons, but that was a convenient coincidence. Saki was sure that Yuzai would have recognized her if she had given her full name. After all, she had placed the highest in manipulation/insight, often considered the hardest category, scoring a perfect 100.