CHAPTER 18

Why was it so difficult to stay awake?

"Making notes about these parts would really benefit you on the exam."

Oh right. It was because Suzuki-sensei was teaching.

As the hag droned on about her lesson, pointing at the board and such, my eyelids began drooping shut unintentionally.

        My cheek dropped onto my desk as a yawn flooded from my mouth. Peering over at my classmates, they all looked so fixated on the lesson in front and I made a face. They were actually listening... Ugh, school was just so exhausting. When would winter break finally arrive?

Right as I closed my eyes to sleep, fluttery pages brushed against my nose and I crinkled it. I opened my eyes only to find an open textbook propped upwards to hide my face. Similar to that one scene in Hiyokoi. I rose upwards, looking down at my own textbook that was underneath my arms then to the one propped up on my desk. Whose was it?

I traced it to the hand holding it and there, I found the culprit: Sato Yuji, sitting in the desk beside me.

"If you're going to sleep, you can be a little more discreet about it," he advised in a hushed whisper, frowning my way. "Suzuki-sensei will chew you out."

My eyelids picked up groggily, clearly not expecting this. What...? "You're in my class?"

I was shocked to find Saki was after my first visit to their clubroom but this guy was in it too? I'd never seen him (granted I didn't pay much attention to my surroundings) but still. Don't tell me they were all in my class and I had no idea?!

         I took a second to glance around the class in search of them. Luckily, other than the humming Saki copying down notes—the only one in this gloomy classroom with enthusiasm—they weren't around. After a period of relief and thanking all things good, I returned my focus back to the male to the right of me.

          "Why am I not surprised you haven't noticed?" Yuji sighed, retrieving his textbook from my desk. "We did the draws earlier today so I sit next to you now."

          I made a face to recall the event. Oh yeah, we did do something like that. But we only ever did those every couple months.

          "I don't really focus for those," I said. "But I haven't noticed you from before that."

         "Of course you haven't."

         "Yeah. This is seriously so weird. Are you sure you're not a figment of my imagination; a ghost? I'm pretty sure I would've noticed if you idiots were in my classes."

         He averted his focus forward, shaking his head. He ignored the term. "Last time I checked if I was living or not, I was living thanks."

         "You may just not be aware," I pointed out. It was common and true. "But if you are out for vengeance, I may have to team up with Kazuya Shibuya, the head of Shibuya Psychic Research, and exorcise your as—"

          "Shh," he said.

          I didn't.

          "Or does this mean I'm the next Takashi Natsume? Is my grandmother actually somebody who brought down countless of spirits and trapped their names inside the Book of Friends?"

         "How can you have so much energy?" Yuji groaned, resting his chin on his palm.

         "Energy?" I repeated with another yawn. I covered my mouth with my hand as tears filled the corners of my eyes. "Nah, trust me, I've been trying my best to stay awake, too. Suzuki-sensei just keeps talking, and talking, and talking... Seriously, we don't even need to know all this useless gibberish in the future."

         "It'll come in handy," he said to reassure me. "Probably," he added as an afterthought.

          I grunted, dropping my head onto the desk. "Hey, can you watch my back? I'm gonna take a nap."

          Yuji stared at me blankly. "I am not 'watching your back'," he immediately refuted. "You shouldn't even be sleeping during class."

          "I shouldn't be," I agreed, drawling out my letters, "but does it look like that'll stop me?"

          He sighed at that. "No," he admitted. "Well... have fun with that then."

          A buzz in my pocket snagged all my attention and I carefully pulled it out. Seeing my notification, my expression brightened. "Bless, it's a new chatroom!"

         "Chatroom...?"

         "Oh my gosh Seven's in this." I scrolled through my phone quickly, eyes glistening at the realization.

          "Seven?" Yuji repeated blankly.

          "Shh! Stop talking," I hissed. "You'll get me in trouble."

         I could feel Yuji's 'you're-officially-crazy' stare from above me, but I ignored him as I discreetly tapped around at my phone screen. As soon as I was in the clear, I shoved my cell back into my pocket and straighted my posture in my seat.

         After a couple seconds of attempting to pay attention to the lesson again, I gave up. Picking up my pencil, I sighed, twirling it between my fingers—a skill I've managed to master after loads of practice.

          "Instead of twirling the pencil you might as well write notes."

          I deadpanned. "You seem to care a lot about what I do with my life, Yuji."

         "I don't."

         "Are you sure?" I rose a brow at him. "It's fine now, but you do know if you keep talking so much like that, you're going to get the both of us in trouble."

         He seemed offended. "I'm only talking because—"

         "Hush," I said, doodling on my notebook.

         "But—"

        "Hush, hush."

        "Miyuki! Is that you I hear talking back there?!"

Immediately, my body went stricken. My head jerked upwards only to find Suzuki-sensei's attention flitted solely on me, anger radiating off of her.

I sweatdropped, knowing just how badly I screwed up with her glare fixed on me the way that it was. "N-no ma'am!" I managed to reply. "It was Yuji who—"

"Yuji?" The devil's glare hardened, proving her dubiousness to my excuse. She gestured towards the said guy and when I turned back to face him as well, my jaw fell.

Taking down his notes in a serious manner, Yuji rose his head with an innocent head tilt. "Yes, sensei? You called?"

Suzuki-sensei put a hand to her hip, unimpressed. "Nice try," she scoffed. "You were talking too weren't you?"

Yuji recoiled at once and I breathed out in relief.

"Either way," Suzuki-sensei snapped, causing my shoulders to tense again. "Both of you have disrupted the class's learning time. Come to my room after the bell. Got it?"

Both of our heads dropped simultaneously. "Yes, ma'am..."

——————————————————

"...That was absolutely terrible," Yuji murmured, trudging through the hallway with his shoulders slumped. "We were just whispering. She didn't need to go all feral on us."

"She always goes crazy over the tiniest things," I said, slumping my shoulders. "I seriously thought she was going to attack us."

Yuji paled at the idea. "Man, how do you even do it?" he demanded. "You have to go through these kind of lectures nearly everyday, right?"

I exhaled loudly, agreeing wholeheartedly with the pity laced within his tone. "Typically after school or even mornings, too. She lectures me left and right like she's my mom or something."

He half-smiled. "She must really like you if she keeps calling you out like that then."

"Dude, don't even joke around about that." I shivered. I scowled at him. "I don't get why you're even complaining. You're the one that started talking to me and yet I'm the one she mainly yelled at."

"She did go on a tangent about your terrible grades." Yuji grinned without an ounce of guilt. "Guess I was lucky."

"...Lucky bastard alright." I clicked my tongue with the roll of the eyes. Putting Naegi Makoto to shame with that damn luck.

"You were the one slacking off," he reasoned, hands in his pockets. "I told you not to do it."

"Well, it was better than listening to the lesson," I responded.

"Hiro must really suffer tutoring you, huh?"

"As if. The guy's blessed having someone like me as his student."

Yuji's amusement hadn't fallen from his features. I rolled my eyes and hunched over, arm over my abdomen.

"Anyway, I'm hungry."

He mimicked me. "Same..."

"But I'm too lazy to walk to the cafeteria..."

"Same..."

We both met each other's eyes. Straightaway, matching smirks grew on our faces.

"What class is Hiro in again?" I asked Yuji.

"Class 1-2 I believe."

"Shall we?" I asked.

"To free food!" Yuji cheered.

I raised my arms up as well. "Free food!"

——————————————————

"Why am I being bombarded like this?"

Yuji and I were too occupied fooling around, swiping and voicing our respective pieces of food.

"No!" I whined.

"I'm telling you this is the end," he said in a squeaky tone for his onigiri.

"No. Have mercy."

"Say your last words. The last piece of that karaage belongs to me!"

"And you're even acting like kids!" Hiro snapped, snatching the rows of his extravagant lunch, glaring furiously.

Yuji and I sheepishly snorted and fist-pumped.

"I knew it'd take two minutes to get on his nerves," he said.

I clicked my tongue. "Darn, I was so on one minute and thirty seconds."

Mentioning our little deal beforehand clearly didn't make our situation with a fuming Hiro any better.

"I can't believe you came here to wipe my clean," he grumbled, leaning back in his seat and pushing his leftovers towards us. Luckily since a few kids were out having lunch in the cafeteria they allowed Yuji and I to sit in their desks and eat together with him. Thankfully, the rest of the class was too hectic chattering with their own friends to really pay us any mind either.

"You have lots of food so don't be too sour about it," I told him, gesturing to the four stacked bento box before us. "If anything, we must be doing you a favour."

Yuji bobbed his head, throwing more rice into his mouth. "It's such a waste because you never eat it all."

"That's 'cause it's too much," Hiro reasoned. "No normal human being can eat that mountain of food."

"I bet I could," I said.

"I said normal. And human being."

I socked him in the shoulder causing him to yelp in pain. I rolled my eyes and he, a hand to his arm, grounded his teeth.

"If it's too much, you should tell this girl to cut down a bit," I spoke after our mini glaring contest fell short. I picked up the last karaage with the chopsticks I'd grabbed from the home beforehand. "Whoever this girl is."

Hiro flinched and looked away. "I told you it was my mom."

"Yeah right," I drawled. "Then meet my eyes and tell me that."

"No."

"See."

"Shut up." He crossed his arms. "Why does it matter to you who makes my lunches or not?"

"Who says it matters to me?" I snapped. Was he implying something?

"Miyuki so cares," Yuji chimed in with a smile. He pinched my cheeks. "See, look at the curiosity reflecting in her eyes."

I scowled at him, slapping his hands away. "Touch me like that again and I'm using 3D maneuver gear to slice your nape."

Yuji's lips caved inwards and despite bemused, he subconsciously touched the back of his neck.

"Anyway," I hissed at Yuji, rubbing my now throbbing cheeks. "If you know who it is, tell me her name."

"She's not really someone you want to get involved with," Yuji responded.

Considering the way he addressed this 'she,' it must've not been Hiro's mom after all. Knew it. "I don't want to get involved with her, I was just asking," I defended myself.

"Well unless Hiro says it's fine, you're not getting an answer."

I hopefully turned to Hiro and he glared at me.

"No."

"I wasn't going to say anything," I said coolly.

"Sure you weren't."

"I'm serious," I defended. "I was only going to apologize for punching you in the shoulder, even if your comment was a little rude. Is it feeling any better?"

His eyes shifted with vivid surprise as he gingerly prodded the spot where I'd hit him. "It's fine... And I guess I kinda went out of line there— Oh no."

"See, he said it," I told Yuji, smirking broadly. I held up my cellphone and its handy recording app, playing it back to him saying "it's fine."

"No!" Hiro refused. "That doesn't count!"

Yuji laughed. "Damn, she got you there, Hi-chan."

I smiled innocently. "So her name?"

"Yuji!" Hiro cried.

"Sorry, bro."

      "No!"

"Hima—"

"Don't do it! Don't you dare say it!"

"—wari."

"Hey!"

"Raku."

Hiro bolted up and lunged at the guy and poor Yuji wasn't able to dodge the seizure of his collar in time. Hiro shouted stuff at his face, Yuji hissing right back, but I was occupied trying to piece together the name. I smiled when it finally clicked.

"Himawari Raku I see."

"You called?"

My eyelids darted higher than the skies at the unexpected voice and I leaned my neck back. A girl of a tall stature hovered above me, a hand to her hip, dark eyes boring into mine. My jaw fell slowly, similarly as did both Yuji's and Hiro's beside me.

No way. This was...

"Do you possibly have a problem with the lunch I've made for my dear cousin?"