Chapter 2: Part 2 - Slow And Steady Wins The Race
While I look in the mirror of the school bathroom, I reflect on what occurred the previous day between me and Haruka. While staring at myself in the reflection, I reflect on how this is the biggest chance I've had to get to that future. "I will get me an anime girlfriend." I say to myself in the mirror with determination. While someone listened in from one of the stalls.
'Say The Word' is one of the best romcoms I've ever witnessed. I'd really put it up in the top spot. In that romcom there's a special moment between the main character and love interest. But that's with nearly every rom com.
It's the moment where she prepares him a lunch with a warm smile that couldn't compare to the food. Maybe it's too soon for such things to happen between me and Haruka as of right now. But as I look at the back of her head, all I could think about was her. She's perfect in nearly every way. Her hand writing is neat and clean. The way she sits is proper and ladylike. And she grooms herself properly.
While I was in such deep thought, thinking about how things could go down between me and Haruka, an eraser suddenly hit me over the head. It took me out of my focus on Haruka, and made me look in the direction of the teacher. "Maybe you should try paying attention Koyoko. It's only the second day of school. don't start slacking off already." As the teacher scolded me, kids in the class started to laugh.
Which caused me to bury my face into my paper and pencil, with an awkwardly embarrassed face. Afterwards, Haruka looked over her shoulder, and watched me with a curious expression. Her acknowledgement of me made some of the other guys look at me with envy.
Soon after, the bell rang. Which meant it was time to go to lunch. While everyone pulled out their packed lunches, I did the same. The entire time, I couldn't help but want to eat my lunch with Haruka. Despite our interaction yesterday, we haven't talked to eachother since then. No phone number, email, social media, nothing.
Yesterday we had agreed to eat lunch together. I'm not sure if it was the heat of the moment thing, but I'm way too nervous to ask her now. I feel my heart racing and my palms sweating. "Koyoko. Do you want to eat lunch together now?" With my head facing down on my desk, the soft words of the girl infront of me felt like a dream. Was I dreaming? I look up towards her to make sure I wasn't fantasizing once again. As I saw her looking back towards me with a lovely smile, I realized this was reality.
Had I traveled across dimensions to some romcom? I'm not sure. But what I am sure about, the longer I look at her, is the fact that she will be my anime girlfriend. "Ofcourse.." I say quietly. And before long, the two of us had merged our desks so that we were facing eachother. I hadn't noticed, but the boys, and even some of the girls watched us. Some with shock, and some with huge jealousy.
This..this is so much more awkward! Facing someone while you eat is the worst. What if she thinks I'm chewing weird? What if she questions what I'm eating and thinks it looks disgusting?? No..No I've made it this far. I can't start this now.
As I lift my head, the first thing I noticed was her perfectly packed lunch. Everything was organized and neat. Then, when she moved the food up to her mouth with the chopsticks, I couldn't help but look at her lips. To break myself from staring too much, I knew I had to say something. "So..do you have any hobbies?" I ask her.
"Hmm.." She wondered as she looked towards me. As she did, I quickly blushed. "I like to read. One of my favorite things to do is origami though." She said with a smile, and that surprised me. Origami? How many anime girls do I know that has a hobby of origami?
"It's calming.." Once she said that, her voice became softer and quieter. She even rested her chin on the palm of her hand, and looked out of the window with a deep gaze. "It's..we'll it's almost like a way to escape. To be here, but not really be here.." As she said those words, I stared at her. This is the second time she did something unexpected.
She then turned to me with a surprised way, before smiling. "You know what I mean?" She asked with a smile. For some reason, in this moment, something felt different. I couldn't explain what it was, but as I looked into her eyes, my thoughts of her being an anime girl had disappeared. Without me even realizing it.
While we stared at eachother, one of our classmates had walked up to us. He was tall and big, with orange hair and red eyes. "Haruka was it?" He approached Haruka, without saying a single word to me. Or acknowledging me in anyway. Haruka then looked up at our classmate with a shocked face. "I'm Dejin." He said with a charming smile, before grabbing her hand, and moving it up against his lips.
Haruka seemed awkward and embarrassed as she moved her hand away from Dejin. All I could do in that moment is watch, as thoughts rattled around my head about what to do. In every romcom there's conflict, especially when others get jealous. How did I not think of this before? Someone like Haruka? All the guys would want her.
While I look up towards Dejin, I realized that he was bad news. He's tall, big, and most of all, he's charming with confidence. All things that I lack. If he were to go after Haruka, he would get her. So what should I do? Should I stop it? I would try what I've seen in romcoms, but that hasn't been working for me so far.
While Dejin continued talking to Haruka, she seemed to have a hard time keeping eye contact with him. She came across as awkward and uncomfortable, despite Dejin not picking up on it. "Umm.." I mutter out, though Dejin completely ignored me. So I looked back up at him and raised my voice. "Dejin." I called out to him once more. This caught both his and Harukas attention.
Dejin looked at me with an offended expression, along with a raised eyebrow. While Haruka watched me with surprise. Which was shown by her lips slightly parted.
Looking eye to eye with Dejin, my heart began to race. And my breathing also started to speed up. I can't come across as uncool, or else Haruka will leave me immediately..and my chances of finding my dream anime girl will be gone. For that reason, I strengthen my resolve, and poked out my chest.
"We..we're eating together right now..I-I don't mean to sound rude, but...yeah.." Awkwardly, I mentioned that to Dejin. After I did, Haruka surprise increased. But so did Dejins offended expression.
Not even thirty seconds later, I felt myself fall down from the hard push that Dejin sent my way. With a fearful face, Haruka gasped. The other students watched in shock or humor, just before I hit my head and passed out.
With my eyes closed, I started to hear something. It sounded like the moans and weeps of a girl crying. The noises end up fully awakening me. Once I wake up, my surroundings felt distorted, but I could still make it out. The first thing I noticed was that I was in the nurses room, laying down on the bed. And as I looked around, my jaw dropped.
Haruka was laying down with her head buried in my stomach. I quickly realized that the weeps and cries that I heard from before wasn't just some dream. It was reality. And in this reality, I had no clue what to do.
Once again, this girl broke me out of the fantasy world that I had been trying to make come true. And once again, without me noticing it. "Haruka..?" Once I call out to her, her weeps and cries suddenly stop. She then looks up at me with glistening eyes, and tears coming down from them.
As we make eye contact, I can't help but feel shocked, conflicted, but most of all concerned. I was shocked from seeing her like this. While I was also conflicted as I didn't know how to handle it. Lastly, I was concerned with if she was okay or not. "Are you okay?" She rubbed the tears away from her eyes after I asked that question. Afterwards, I slowly sit up on the bed, and continued looking at her.
Haruka proceeded to smile as she rubbed away any trace of her ever crying. She then smiled and looked at me. "I'm good. Thanks for asking." With her response, I could tell that she wasn't okay. She sounded like something was stuck in her throat. The terrible feeling you get when you feel really emotional.
"What you did was..well it was brave." Haruka said with a slight giggle, causing me to chuckle as well and rub the back of my head in an awkward manner.
After seeing her cry, I had completely forgotten that I was knocked out by Dejin. She must think that I'm a total loser now. "Yeah.." I responded awkwardly, before looking down towards my lap. "I must be the lamest huh?" I asked.
She looked at me with shock for a second, before she smiled and shook her head. Her shake of the head gained my attention, but most of all, it made me confused. "I don't think that at all." My heart fluttered with those soft words she said to me. Is it possible that I don't have to be so anxious and worried all the time around her?
We make eye contact with eachother. My heart race as we do. "You were the coolest, Saruto." She said those words to me with a smile. But after she responded to me with that, my face dropped. And I only had one question. Who's Saruto?
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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