The next place the girls wanted to go was a decent walk away along the high street, which Yaki took as an opportunity to pester Sai incessantly. With her practically dragging the poor girl everywhere, I was left to bring up the rear with Pep.

“I’m so glad I thought of doing this, Yacchan and Sai-chan are getting along even better than I expected,” she said, bobbing her head happily as she walked.

“Getting along? I’m pretty sure Yaki’s smothering her. For once I actually feel kinda bad for the girl.”

“You still don’t understand Sai-chan at all, do you, Kabucchi?” She tutted and shook her head dramatically, before raising a finger and putting on a matter of fact tone. “Take a good look at a Sai-chan’s face. What do you see?”

“Uhhh… she looked flustered, I guess? Or overwhelmed?”

“Too right you are, Kabucchi. But tell me, have you ever known Sai-chan to get flustered when she’s annoyed? She’s far more likely to seem that way…” Pep trailed off, inviting me to finish her sentence.

“When she’s nervous or socially anxious. Like the first time she met you.”

“Bingo, my socially inept friend. Sai-chan seems confident and headstrong to you because you and her butt heads so much, but she’s actually a pretty nervous girl. Compliments and positive attention get her all shy and bashful. If Yacchan was really annoying her, she wouldn’t get like that.”

Pep looked particularly proud of herself for her explanation, and to be perfectly honest I was quite impressed. Perhaps it’s my training as a loner, but I had come to pick up any perceived negative expressions as a sign of discomfort or annoyance, but Pep seemed to have a much deeper understanding of the emotions of others than I. It was no surprise that she and I were in totally different social castes. Still…

“You’ve known her for barely more than a week. How do you understand her so well already?”

“Hehe, I assumed that would be obvious to you, Kabucchi,” she replied smugly. “It’s because she’s the same as you.”

“She… what?”

Sai and I, the same? What nonsense was she blathering about? What could I possibly have in common with that nuisance outside of a shared love of chess and disdain for our classmates?

“I know you think you and her are completely different, but you’re far more similar than you realise.”

“Oh? Elaborate. In what way can we possibly be the same?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“The fact that you’re both completely clueless about other people, for starters.”

“Hey, that’s not true. I fully understand people. I know their ulterior motives, their secret hatred towards each other, their plans to stab each other in the back at the first opportunity…”

“You trust people that little?!” Pep put her hand to her face as if dealing with an insolent child. “And that’s not really what I meant. You and Sai-chan both suck at communicating, both in sending messages and receiving them. Hell, sometimes I wonder if the two of you even understand language, you don’t seem to pick up on things that should be obvious.”

“I understand the language just fine, it’s everyone else who uses it wrong. If people would just say what they mean plainly without hiding behind a thousand layers of double meaning, we’d be a much more efficient species, but unfortunately idiot-to-idiot communication is incomprehensible to anyone who actually owns a dictionary,” I scoffed.

“Hmmm?” Pep gave me a knowing smile at my answer. “Y’know, I said the same thing to Sai-chan yesterday. Her answer was ‘Perhaps I would have less trouble if the ignorant majority would cease speaking in tongues.’”

“Geh-” I had to admit, that was something she and I had in common. Perhaps our mutual disdain for unclear and dishonest speech was why she and I tended to resort to insults and arguments so often. Human relationships are held together by an implicit level of dishonesty. I don’t tell you everything wrong with you, and you extend the same kindness to me. To be honest, I loathed such a custom. Sparing one’s feelings from their own faults only sought to enable them further in the future. That’s why, no matter the situation, I always said what I meant and meant what I said. I would prefer to be honest and alone than surrounded by friends with a knife at my back.

“That’s not all there is, though. You two have a lot of similarities. For example, neither of you know how to take a compliment,” Pep declared

“Pish. I’m great at taking compliments.”

“I’m glad you have your hair down today, it makes you look even more handsome than normal.”

“Eh-ah-wh-I- I’m handsome?” I replied frantically, utterly losing my cool immediately.

“Hehe…” Pep put her hand to her mouth and giggled, which was so cute it only made me even more flustered. “See? There’s so many things the two of you have in common. You’re both smart, and funny, and even if other people can’t see it you’re both wonderful friends to have. You really do make a good match…” Pep looked down at the ground, a sad smile on her face. This wasn’t the first time we had this conversation, but it seemed my words had still yet to get through to her.

“Good grief, between Yaki & Saki thinking I’m in love with you and you thinking I’m after Sai, I’m really starting to tire of all this.”

Pep still didn’t look up from the ground, but her ears noticeably pricked up after I said that.

“So… are you?” she asked hesitantly.

“Come on, you know I’m not. I’ve already told you that there’s nothing between Sai and I, haven’t I?” I had hoped to put Sai’s heart at ease, but I was instead met with a hefty sigh. She stepped out in front of me, walking backwards and finally meeting my eye.

“You really don’t understand people at all, do you, Kabucchi?”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“Hmm, what do I mean? I think you’ll have to wait a little longer to find out. I made a promise, after all.”

“Wh- Pep-”

“Ladies, don’t leave us behind! And Yacchan, stop hogging Sai-chan, I wanna hold her arm too!”

Before I could get a word in edgeways, Pep turned back to the girls in front of us and called loudly, happily skipping along to meet them and leaving me in the dust.

I was really starting to get tired of being cut off like that.