“Let’s start dating.”

“Are you an absolute idiot?” Akane jumps out of her seat, her voice is louder but the tone is still calm. For the first time Akane has a big reaction. She looks around to see everyone looking at her in complete silence.

“Is something wrong, Sawatari-san?” Kitagawa-sensei asked after a few moments. I could sense a faint smile on her lips.

Akane keeps looking around as she composes herself, “No. I’m sorry for causing the disturbance.”

“You should sit down.” I whisper to Akane, which she responds by looking at me with burning daggers in her eyes. I can sense her desiring to torture me.

“You can tell me what’s wrong.” Kitagawa-sensei chimes in.

“Nothing.” Akane finally sits down, facing forward. I can only see her profile from my seat but I can still sense her intent to kill, which she isn’t trying to hide from me.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of that word today.” Kitagawa-sensei goes back to teaching us about the chemical structures of carbon based matter. The smile she was resisting can now be seen completely.

“Look I’m not sayi–”

“Please do not speak. You have already done enough of that.”

This girl has no patience, I mean I did expect her to fight against that idea but she hasn’t even heard it yet. “I don’t mean to go out with me. It’s pretend.” Her eyes were now glaring at me, at that moment I knew if I said anything that didn’t make sense to her I probably wouldn't be going home alive. “You are still with Watari so if he sees you spending time with someone else he might question what’s going on and when he finally decides to talk to us we can just ask him what’s his relation with that girl. You just have to be seen with someone other than him.”

“And you think I will go along with that?”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“Yes. Not following this one.”

“Just hear me out.”

“Fine. I will hear you. But not here. Meet me on the roof after school.”

“Got it.”

With that there were no more conversations to be had until the end of today. So far it doesn’t look like she likes the idea of going out with me, even if it's pretend. It’s not like I wanna do this, it just happens to be the most effective way in this situation. And she doesn’t have to pretend to go out with me, she can choose whoever, it’s the concept that’s the main focus. Maybe I’ll point it out later on the rooftop, she’s free to choose. Right now there is nothing that can be done, I'll just have to wait.

During the wait my eyes wandered a few times in the direction of Akane. Everytime she was composed as usual, there have never been any signs on her face about the things she goes through. I wonder what other things she has to deal with that never never lets others see, does Watari know about those things?

Even if I can make her react in some situations that doesn’t mean anything. It’s still true that I don’t know anything about her. But that shouldn’t bother me, I never planned to know anything about her, I was never supposed to even get involved. I’m only doing this so I can return to my previous life. Maybe if I do this one thing, Kitagawa-sensei will be satisfied and I’ll get my life back.

The sooner I find out the identity of the mystery girl the sooner I can go back to my peaceful life. Just need to wait until the end of the day.

Soon enough the final bell of the day rang.

Everyone was leaving the classroom, the loners had nothing to do so they would go back to their home, others had their clubs, some stayed back just to cheer on others. My usual routine would be walking home alone, which now seems eerily similar to the loners. But today I stayed back in class. Akane clears her stuff from the table and puts it all in her bag, which she clutches in her hands the next second. She opens to the classroom door and gives me a quick glare.

A few moments later I get up and walk out of the class, my destination: The west side rooftop. Reaching the stairs I instinctively look around to make sure no one is around. I finally reach the door leading to the roof, leading to Akane. I have to convince her to follow my plan at least until we come up with something better.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I open the door and see a figure with red hairs flowing in the wind. There was no sunlight reaching earth, the clouds covered the sky.

“You are late.” Akane said, without turning back. She isn’t trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.

“I didn’t run.” I walk forward until I’m next to Akane, we both looking at the school courtyard.

“If you have nothing to say I will be leaving.” Even if she said it she made no attempt to leave.

“I have another idea.”

“Does it involve you and me to be seen together?”

“No. It is the best way to solve this issue. You won’t have to be seen with anyone else and it’s also the fastest way.”

“If you had a solution like that why did you not bring it up before? Were you trying to take advantage of the situation to try and start something with me? That is very lowly and creepy.”

Even when I try to help her, this girl calls me low and creepy. What kind of complex do you have? I didn’t mention it before because I knew you wouldn't like it, but now I have to mention it. “Ask Watari directly.”

Akane peeks in my direction, “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. It’s honestly a pain to think of other ideas.” I shrugged, still facing the courtyard, “The best way to solve this issue is to ask the perpetrator directly. I can’t ask him cause well I don’t know him. But you can just demand to know who the girl was.” I take a step towards the edge of the roof. I could now feel Akane’s gaze on my back. “If you just ask he’ll have to answer and then everything will be solved. I’ll be able to go back to my peaceful life and you can continue to live your life.”

“I-I can not do that.” Akane said with some hesitance in her voice.

“Why not? He’s your boyfriend, right?”

“Do not talk about things you do not understand.”

Her voice wasn’t usual, it felt like it was carrying her true emotions for once. I could feel something like hatred coming from her voice. It’s true I have never been in a relationship but I understand how humans act. You don’t stay with someone you hate. Now that I think about it, what’s going on between Akane and Watari that they can’t just talk about it? It doesn’t make sense, I hadn’t thought about it until now. Maybe I should just ask her.

Before I could say anything I heard the sound of the roof door opening behind us. We both turned around to see who was trying to enter through the door. As the door opened a student in our uniform was visible. The blonde hair that flew in the lowest wind was the first thing I saw and already knew who the student was. Watari Washirou.

“Sawatari-san, what are you doing here at this time? Shouldn’t you leave for home?” Watari said in a concerned tone. He didn’t even look at me.

“Washirou-san, I was leaving but then decided to take a look at the view from the roof. I am sorry if I caused any concerns.” Akane’s voice was polite. I had never heard her talk like this before.

“Oh please, you don’t have to apologize. I was just asked by Kitagawa-sensei to check if the door was locked or not.” he said smilingly. Still not looking at me, it’s like he doesn’t want to acknowledge my existence. “I guess you can take your time, I’ll leave.”

“You do not have to worry, I’ll be leaving now.” Akane walks back through the door that was still open. Watari finally turns his eyes towards me, still smiling. I decided to go home.

As I walk past Watari I hear his polite voice.

“You know, I don’t think we have met before. My name is Watari Washirou.”

I turn around to find him looking at me. “I don’t think you need an introduction, everyone already knows about you.” I say in an amusing tone.

“You embarrass me.” Watari chuckles. “In fact, I could say the same thing for you, Youhei Arima.” he’s still smiling, I sense no malice from him.

“Watari Washirou knows my name, it has to be some kind of achievement.” It didn’t surprise me that he knew about me, I am the guy his girlfriend had a fight with. The one she pushed. It makes sense he found out about me.

“You think too high of me.”

“You’ll have to say that to everyone at our school. Anyway, I think I should go now.”

Watari extends his right hand towards me wanting to shake my hand. “It is nice to finally meet you, Arima-san.”

‘Treat others how you wanna be treated’ is another one of my principles. I don’t want people to interact with me so I don’t interact with people. I don’t want people I just met to touch me so I don’t touch people at all. That’s why I like traditions where you don’t have to touch people to show respect.

I bow my head, “Same goes for me.” Watari pulls his hand back and bows. I turn around to face the open door.

“If you walk this path you’ll only find yourself disappointed. I’m saying this as a friend.”

A friend? I just met you. You are nothing to me. And what path do you mean? I haven’t done anything to you yet. Don’t talk like you know anything about me, someone like you will never know anything about me.

Wait! Could it be that the path he was talking about included Akane? I mean he just saw his girlfriend with a random guy who recently started sitting next to her. Could it be that Watari thought I am after Akane? That would mean my idea is effective. I have to tell Akane, she has already left for her home. I have to catch her before she leaves the school area. I have a general idea of her route because I have seen her leave school many times. I know what direction to start from.

I ran through the school courtyard and followed Akane’s usual route. Soon enough I found Akane walking alone. Should I call her out? No. it would draw unnecessary attention. I decided to run past her and stop her that way.

“What are you doing here? Have you now decided to stalk me? Creepy. How much lower can you fall?”

“I… I… air. Need. Give… me… a…”

“Did you run all the way here? Are you an absolute idiot?”

“...don’t… call… idiot…”

Akane sighed. “It better be something important.”

I finally catch my breath. “It is. Watari talked to me.”

“What do you mean talk? What did he say?”

“Not important. The important part is that my plan works.”

“Your plan?”

“The one where you are seen with someone else and Watari ends up asking who that guy is.”

“I thought I already made it clear I am not gonna follow that plan.”

“Yeah yeah I know what you said. But it’s already working. He thinks I’m after you after seeing me with you on the roof. If we can just push him a little, he’ll play right into our hands.”

Akane shakes her head, “That is nothing but your imagination. He will not fall for it.”

“Even if it’s imagination, wouldn’t you say it’s worth trying? Look, today’s friday we won’t see each other until monday. If you can think of another plan till then we’ll follow it. If you can’t think of anything else the choice is still yours. If you say no, we won’t go through with it. Just think about it.”

Without giving her a chance to respond I ran past her on my route to home. I don’t know if she’ll agree to it but right now it is the only way I can see. I still think the best route for her is to talk to Watari directly.

I still don’t know why I’m getting so involved in her life. The best route for me would have been to leave Akane on her own. Somehow for both Akane and I the best routes are also the routes that seem impossible.

So I leave the decision to her. Whatever she decides I’ll follow.