Chapter 2: The Promise
It’s lunch break. I haven’t seen any sign of Touka, so I’ll ask Ike if he wants to eat together instead—never mind, here she comes.
“Hey there, Yuuji-senpai! Let’s have lunch together!”
In case you’ve forgotten, Touka’s supposedly my girlfriend. Believe me, she tries her hardest to make sure everyone and their mother knows it. Just to be clear, though, we’re not actually dating. In truth, we’re faking a relationship.
But yeah, back to reality—she enters my class shouting excitedly so that everybody’s eyes are on us. I stare back at them, and they avert their gaze and go back to minding their own business. No matter how many times it happens, I still don’t find their act funny. Sometimes I swear they’re doing it on purpose, but who cares at this point. Maybe I should change up the routine a bit: I could hit them with a new reaction instead of glaring at them and see how they react. It’s been a month already, and this whole shtick is way past its expiration date.
I stand up and head over to the entrance to meet her. As I do, I can sense someone else’s eyes fixated on me; they belong to Hasaki Kana. She doesn’t really buy our relationship, and she’s pretty distrustful of me. I’d really like to have a one-on-one with her to try and clear things up, but I haven’t gotten the chance yet.
“Come on, Senpai! You should be a little more lively when I come to see you! For starters, maybe don’t walk around looking like your dog just died?”
Okay, mom. Sorry I’m not being enthusiastic enough. Jeez.
“Yeah, whatever. Usual place?” I answer, trying to move on.
She looks pissed for a second at my flippant response, but then blushes slightly at the mention of our “usual place”—the courtyard. Huh, that’s weird.
“Something wrong?” I ask.
“Oh, no, I just… I’d really like for us to go to the roof today instead. Do you mind?” she asks while averting her eyes.
She’s carrying a basket with her, so I can hazard a guess why she wants to go there.
☆
We arrive at the roof. Normally, this place is off-limits to students, but Touka noticed a while ago that the door’s lock is broken. Because of that, we’ve come up here a handful of times already.
“Senpai, can you spread the sheet?”
I nod wordlessly, grab the folded sheet placed near the entrance, and lay it out on the ground. If I remember correctly, Touka brought it up here a few days ago. I know she’s very keen on adding more things to the setup up here, as well. She mentioned bringing up a table or something? I guess the rooftop will have a lot going for it in the near future.
We sit ourselves down on the sheet.
“Welp, Senpai—today’s your lucky day! I, your beloved girlfriend, have prepped lunch for you! No longer do you have to eat those nasty-ass cafeteria sandwiches that you always get. You happy?” she chirps. She retrieves a pair of lunch boxes from her basket and hands one to me.
I asked her a while back to make some food for me, so I figure that’s why we’re on the roof today. If we’d had this picnic in the courtyard, where everyone can see us, I can already imagine the sting from the daggers they’d be staring at me. Pretty much every other guy in school would be jealous of me.
“Thanks. And yeah, I’m quite happy about this.”
“O-Oh, really?! I gotta admit, you’re pretty cute when you’re being honest!” she says while looking away, her face tinged bright red.
“So you’re saying that since you made this, I can expect something better than those ‘nasty-ass sandwiches?’”
Her cheeks puff at my remark.
“What?” I ask.
“I just wanna remind you that I didn’t make you lunch just ‘cause ‘you wanted some,’ okay?! I did it ‘cause, well…”
Yeah, yeah—because we’re “in a relationship.” I get it. Despite this not being real, I feel as if Touka and I have come to trust each other a lot. Maybe she made this for me today as a result of that friendship. Or maybe she felt the need to do it because of our situation. I’d like to think it’s the former, though—it makes me happier that way.
“Sure. Thanks anyway. I’m gonna dig in now, if you don’t mind,” I say as I open the lid of the box.
Inside is a variety of foods arranged neatly in a colorful spread. It looks rather appealing.
“Okay, Senpai, open your mouth!” Touka exclaims. She takes her chopsticks, plucks a piece of bacon-wrapped asparagus from the box, and presents it to me.
“Uh…You know you don’t have to feed me, right?”
“What’s wrong with you, Senpai? You never know if somebody is spying on us right now, y’know. We gotta play the part just to be safe!” she says with a smile.
“The hell are you talking abo—Mmph!”
She doesn’t even let me finish my sentence before stuffing the food into my mouth with a devilish grin. I wanna chew her out so bad, but the food’s actually pretty frickin’ good; I’m left chewing the food without a complaint instead. I savor the taste. Man, it’s tasty. What can I say?
“Sooo... how is it, Senpai?” she says with the same devilish grin.
“Pretty good,” I whisper.
“Nice,” she says with a sigh of relief.
Seeing her smile like that brightens my mood, and my annoyance totally dissipates. I completely forget about the fact that she almost made me choke. I guess she notices me smiling back at her and finds it creepy, because hers instantly vanishes. “What’s wrong?” she asks.
I can’t tell her that her smile lifted my spirits. I gotta think of something else to say.
“Just don’t go suddenly shoving food in people’s mouths like that, please,” I answer as brusquely as possible.
“Oh, okay! I’ll be sure to let you know next time!” she replies. She picks up a piece of omelet from her box and pops it into her mouth.
Man, does that mean she’s planning on pulling that shit again? Ugh, whatever. Just smile and eat, Tomoki. Smile and eat.
☆
We’ve finished eating, so now we’re sipping some tea and chatting while we wait for the break to be over. I suddenly recall Hasaki Kana’s stare back in class. Guess I can ask Touka about it.
“You and Hasaki have known each other for years now, right? You were basically friends or something at some point, if I remember correctly?”
Touka’s smile vanishes the moment she hears Kana’s name.
“Um, why are you even asking me about that?”
“I’m just curious about her.”
That murderous look she gave me the moment Touka stepped in and called my name flashes through my mind. I’d like her to acknowledge my relationship with Touka, considering she’s the one who’s the most adamant about it being “real.” I know the two of them don’t get along very well right now, but I want to know what they were like before. I’d be lying if I said I’m not curious about it.
“Oh, so you’re curious about it, huh? But, uh, d’you think it’s a good idea to, like, talk about other girls in front of your girlfriend? You sure are tactless when it comes to women, huh? How about, I dunno, not doing it at all?” she says. She’s got a poker face on, but her voice clearly indicates she’s angry.
Man, and she was so happy until now. It’s not teasing, either—she’s definitely upset, and it’s all my fault. I think back to that one time Kana and Ike joined us for lunch. Touka was pretty brutal toward her, but I never expected her to be such a sore topic for Touka even when she’s not around.
“I’m sorry. I just want to understand why she won’t accept our relationship; that’s all. I only want to know what happened between the two of you that makes you act the way you do now. But if you don’t wanna talk about it, let’s just leave it here. I’m not going to force you to discuss it or anything,” I try to softly explain.
“Oooh… So that’s what you meant. Got it,” she says with a sigh of relief. She definitely seems less pissed now.
“What did you think I meant?”
She lets out another sigh and relaxes her posture, but doesn’t give me a response. Seriously? Now I’m the one who’s getting pissed. Finally, she speaks up.
“I guess we got along pretty well up ’til a certain person graduated from middle school.”
“Did something happen?”
“Yeah, let’s just go with that. I feel like it was for a pretty stupid reason, though, so I don’t really feel like talking about it,” she mutters as she plays with her bangs.
“Okay. If that’s the case, I won’t pry any further,” I reply.
“Thanks!” she exclaims with a smile.
It’s a shame, but if Touka’s not open to explaining everything, then it’s not really my place to butt in. As if scripted, the bell rings with perfect timing.
“Let’s get back to class.”
“Yeah.”
We stand, put the sheet back where it was, and head back inside. Right as we’re about to part ways, Touka turns around and tugs on one of my sleeves.
“Oh, right—I forgot to tell you something, Senpai!”
“What?”
“It just came to me, actually. You have tests next week, right?”
Now that she mentions it, yeah. The freshmen have their first round of tests coming up, just like we sophomores do.
“I guess so. And...?”
She looks confused by my reply, but it’s quickly replaced by irritation. “What do you mean, ‘and’? We’re gonna study for the midterms together, duh! Make sure to leave your schedule open!”
“Huh? But you’re a first year. Study meets are meant for helping each other. How will ours be even remotely useful?”
“Well, you could help your cute little kouhai here with her studies!”
“Nah. You’ve got the top scores in your grade. Plus, that event the student council held a while back for the first years was plenty for you. Didn’t you say that you could study on your own, anyway?”
A vein pops up on her forehead, and she loses her cool, “But aren’t we, y’know, a couple and all that?!”
I wish I could roast her and retort with, “No we’re fucking not!” But unfortunately, I can’t, so I just nod silently instead.
“You know when couples have a ‘study meet’ together, they don’t necessarily ‘study,’ right?”
“Okay, Socrates. Maybe chill with the cryptic bullshit and get to the point?” I snap. I legitimately don’t get what she’s getting at with all of this. She wants to set up a study meet where we don’t study? What in the hell kind of idea is that?
She stares at me wordlessly. The awkward silence stretches on until I break it.
“Sigh… Okay, okay. I was gonna study at home alone anyway, so sure. I’ll open up my schedule,” I mumble, and her face lights up.
“Nice! I can’t wait! I’ll fill you in on the details later, okay?!” she replies with a happy tone. She finally leaves my side to return to class. Right before she goes through the door, though, she turns around again and waves at me.
How can she be so ecstatic about a study meet? I don’t get it, and I can’t help but feel like it’s gonna be a total drag. Then again, I’ve never had the chance to experience this sort of thing before. So I guess I might actually be looking forward to it, as well. Man, I’m kinda embarrassed now.
