NOVEL NEXT Arc 2, Ch.5: My system’s getting rebellious
Had I been a bit more courageous, I would have grabbed his arm in a dramatic scene:
Petals falling, he turns around to me. I get closer: “Tell me, what did that kiss mean?”
He turns away, awkward…
Ah, no, doesn’t suit him. He purses his lips at me. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“It isn’t. Tell me.”
Music plays, more petals.
Cliche, but everyone loves it nonetheless.
Eh, I’m getting distracted.
I swerved heavily to the side, avoiding the suddenly appearing lamppost only by a bit. Really, it appeared suddenly, it wasn’t there before! I didn’t get stuck in a daydream, ah!
I heard some snorted laughter from my side, my friends of course seeing the scene. I pulled a face at them.
“What got you so distracted?”, teased Kaoru, jabbing his elbow at me.
Tarou pointedly looked around, rubbing his chin. “I don’t see anyone too handsome… I see some babes, but it shouldn’t be them.”
“Fuck you.”
At least Mizuki and Prez weren’t around to hear that.
“Maybe he realized how good I look”, purred Kaoru, flipping back a lock of hair. I guess he doesn’t look bad from a neutral standpoint, his face is rather average but his body form has an androgynous touch. You could dress him up as a woman and no one would question it. When he’s wearing his uniform you can’t tell, but I know from when we go out to swim.
“Yeah, sure, cause he was looking forward and you were behind him. I didn’t know Riku had eyes on the back of his head.”
“I think something happened when he went out with Mizuki for a moment.”
Not quite, but closer, ahaha… I’m still stuck on last Friday.
“Random topic, am I the only one who thinks that Taizou acts rather cute around you?”, Kaoru suddenly said, raising his eyebrows at me as we slowly walked on.
“Ehh…”, I mumbled, a bit surprised. The other two actually nodded.
“Nah, I agree. I think anyone can see that he’s comfortable around you. I’ve never seen him so relaxed in another group.”
“Yeah, he kind of loses his edge?”
That was flattering enough to embarrass me. I cleared my throat and held back in asking them for more details.
“Your sister depicted it quite well.”
“Eh?”
Tarou and Kaoru mutually perked up at Yuji’s comment, whipping their heads around to me. Instant realization on what he was talking about.
I endured their stares for roughly a minute and then capitulated, opening the images up on my phone.
Tarou whistled.
I pulled my face between my shoulders, wishing for nothing more than a hood I could drag over my head to hide my face.
“She’s really good at drawing! No wonder you didn’t want to show us what she sent you. Does she upload those?”
I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at Tarou with wide eyes. She had said she wouldn’t, right? She had said that?
He gulped, rubbing his neck. “You, uh, made sure that she doesn’t, right? I was joking…”
I snatched my phone back, pressing Haru’s number in panic. I immediately wailed into the phone the moment she picked up.
“You didn’t upload the comics with me, right!”
“Ehehehe~”
She hung up. My hand dropped and so did my face. I groaned.
Kaoru came over to give me a rough hug. “It will be alright~ I’m sure she wouldn’t show your face.”
I was about to struggle when Tarou came from the other side. “Poor baby. Don’t worry. We’re here with you.”
“Let me go! Ew! I don’t want hugs from you!” I seriously began to struggle but their arms held me from both sides, their snickering laughter reaching my ears. Yuji shrugged, then jumped over to complete the hug.
“Ew! What kind of ugly group hug is this!”
I was wailing, caught in the middle.
Thankfully, the route was mainly used by students and the few other people were used to the sight of us youths joking around. During the hottest days, you could even get caught up in guys playing with water-balloons.
The girls were more well-behaved but I guess us guys hadn’t really grown up yet. Or maybe accepting this childishness was part of being an adult?
Eh, whatever.
They tugged and poked me until I got too annoyed, only then did they let me off.
They really had a point; even if Haru uploaded those pages, she should have changed the characters’ looks so that they’re not too much like real-life. I hope.
We trudged on until we reached the point where our paths would part and stopped for a second.
“Tomorrow is the start of the actual battle”, Yuji joked. Three weeks of pure group work with Prez.
“We can do it.” Tarou was joyfully confident and I cracked a smile.
Just like that, several days passed. Haru did indeed change the look of her drawings - making Mizuki more feminine and me considerably more handsome -, so I wasn’t too mad at her.
Prez spent most of his time dancing around Mizuki, helping him whenever help was needed. I was sulking at the side, not daring to intervene. A mob character doesn’t go against one of the protagonists, a voice in my head said.
I was quite happy to see that Prez’ behaviour irritated Mizuki, though only slightly. I could watch his patience wear thin towards the weekend, but I guess Prez wasn’t one to give up easily. There hasn’t been a single time when he asked Mizuki out, after all, so there was nothing to reject him for.
It was the first Friday evening of the project. We had already done our cookie-event and earned quite some money, enough to buy the set we had chosen.
To be fair, most of it had nothing to do with the cookies but with people who wanted to help the orphanage and just came by to donate money.
Anyway, we used a day to order the sets we wanted and then got to work under the children’s curious eyes.
We had already started a bit and finished a sandbox and a swing, which were going to be checked for safety issues over the weekend, since the swing could be a security hazard and none of us were going to take that risk.
Prez had to leave early because of dinner with his family and my friends had found reasons not to stay too long.
In the end, it was me and Mizuki packing up the last things before going home.
I had cold sweat running down my neck.
System!
[(Please choose what to say.)
- “Do you want to go home together?”
- “Do you want to go home together?”
- “Do you want to go home together?”]
...Hey! First off, I heard that sigh. Don’t try to hide it from me!
And second.
Hey!
I’m locked out of freely talking the moment you give me choices, don’t you know that?! Where’s my free will?!
I squinted at my menu button, that cheekily opened as if it didn’t know why I was glaring at it.
I stared another moment for good measure, then closed my menu and turned to Mizuki who was squatting close-by, putting some tools away.
The setting sun was dying his cheeks in a rosy colour and gave him a golden-red halo. His lips parted slightly in a soft intake of breath.
His white hand, looking smaller than mine, was leisurely lifted to brush some stray strands of pitch-black hair out of his glistening eyes. His long eyelashes trembled with every movement, fine like a butterfly’s wings.
Okay, it seems that love turns people into poets.
I’m not sure whether that fact is making me happy or not...
His fingers twitched.
Mizuki’s black eyes moved over to me, vanishing behind his eyelids as he blinked. His lips tugged up lightly as he hummed.
“Hmm?”
I jolted out of my daze, once again thankful that I didn’t flush easily. I awkwardly laughed, hoping that he hadn’t noticed-
Uh, I mean.
I wasn’t staring.
Who was staring? Not me. Definitely not.
Naaaah. I wouldn’t stare at someone creepily like that.
That’s why I wouldn’t be nervous about being caught.
“Do you want to go home together?”, I said, not like I had a choice.
His face stayed calm, but his eyes looked like they were glowing. Most likely just the sunlight, but it was beautiful to look at nonetheless. He nodded without a word, his soft hair falling forward again.
