04. School 2

"...gaya-san…Hikigaya-san, wake up, the morning class is over."

'Is it time to get beaten already?… middle schoolers nowadays are so impatient...'

Having his dream interrupted, he slowly opened his drowsy eyes, thinking that the boys were about to take him to the back of the gymnasium for some classic 'teaching'. But instead, Hikigaya noticed a small hand shaking his shoulders. The fingers were delicate, yet some of them were covered in calluses with straight lines running over the joints. 

'So many calluses… writing? no, the position isn't right… and the lines, string instruments, perhaps…' 

Looking up in confusion, he saw a cute girl with short blue hair, golden eyes, and a mole on the left cheek to complete the look. Had it not been for the monotonous expression on her face, she would be a beauty no less than Orimoto, if not more beautiful. 

Noticing that there was a girl standing beside him, he suddenly remembered that the same experience had just happened again, but now with a witness. He prayed that he didn't do anything weird this time. After all, it was hard to control his body when he was literally living as another person for a brief moment. At the very least, crying was out of the question since he didn't remember any crying moment in this dream, and it was shorter than before too. 

Realizing that he was in a daze, Hikigaya hurriedly replied.

"O-oh, thanks for waking me up." - The face-paralysis girl only responded with a small nod before going away, presumably to get lunch.

'I don't recognize her, is she new? Is that why she can touch me? But why?' - With so many questions on his mind and a yet-to-be-refreshed brain, Hikigaya decided to set them aside and head out to get his refreshments. 

Walking into the canteen, he could feel someone looking at him, but giving it no mind, he continued to get his lunch, which consisted of a simple sandwich and a can of MAX coffee.

Just then, he could feel his phone buzzed, and opening it up revealed that it was a message from none other than Orimoto Kaori. His finger lingered over the open button for a moment, reading that name in this context had sent his mind into disarray.

It didn't matter if he had experienced the most bizarre event recently, he was still human after all, and no human could forget their emotional entanglement after just 1 day. 

However, this wasn't to say that Hikigaya was still in love with Orimoto. The bizarreness of his current situation had distracted him from the failed confession enough to rethink his emotional state when he had sent that text.

Before this, he had never thought that he was emotionally deprived since there was still his mother's and sister's long-term support. However, Hikigaya had greatly underestimated the disparity between family and strangers when came to emotional attachment.  Thus, having been so accustomed to the sole warmth of his family, he was instantly shaken by Orimoto when she came around. The girl was so unabashed in conversing with him that he had mistaken her for the love of his life.

For Orimoto, she had treated him with the same friendliness as everybody else, meanwhile, for him, she was the first stranger to be so friendly to him unlike anybody else. And, perhaps because he had never had any friends before then, 'love' was the answer he had come up with rather than 'friend'.

Sorting out his thoughts, Hikigaya took a deep breath and resolutely opened the message. 

'Can u meet me bhind the main building, plz? I've smth to say.'

'What kind of youth code is this? How does she know I woke up already? I don't remember seeing her in class, maybe it was then.' - Hikigaya remembered the strange feeling of being watched when he walked into the canteen. Looking back, if it was others then the moment they saw him, they would have been whispering constantly, so it might have been Orimoto. Luckily, she didn't walk up to him to talk, otherwise, the situation would become worse for the both of them.

'Still, so discreet? She probably wanted to apologize or something. Or maybe she's waiting there with her friends to beat me up... Nah, it can't be, right? ... Let's turn on the phone recording just in case.'

Figuring that she was waiting there by now, Hikigaya quickly finished his lunch and headed to the destination with the phone already recording in case there was an ambush. 

Arriving at the place, he found Orimoto alone playing on her phone with her back against the wall, presumably waiting for him. He signed in relief after knowing that she didn't have bad intentions like beating him up or anything. 

"Y-yo, Orimoto-san, did I make you wait for long?"

"Oh, Yahallo Hikigaya-kun, I've just arrived too. I'm sorry for taking up your lunchtime." 

"It's okay, I've already finished lunch so you can take your time." - 'As long as you don't hit me, that's okay. I wouldn't be able to fight back if it was you.'

"Well, firstly, I'm really sorry for leaking your texts. I-I had only shown it to my friends but I didn't know that it would be leaked to the whole class." - Orimoto Kaori said in one breath after inhaling deeply. Seeing her eyes quivering like that struck fear into Hikigaya's heart, he couldn't stand a girl's tears even if it was superficial. 

'Why the hell are you the one to apologize? It wasn't your fault in the first place!'

"It's okay, you probably wanted some consultation from your friends, right? And the whole leaked text thing, I don't really mind it so you have to feel guilty or anything."

"E-eh, how do you know that I wanted-Nevermind, are you sure you don't mind it?" - At this moment, her eyes were looking at Hikigaya's face, more specifically his eye corners. 

'Damn it girl, aren't you a little bit too observant?'

"Yeah, and for the record, no I didn't cry over the gossip, I'm not that weak you know. The shampoo got into my eyes last night, it's still stinging even now."

"Oh, s-sorry for assuming. Um, about that confession, I'm not ready for any relationship at this point so… ya know? ...haha" 

'What's with the weak laugh? It seems that the consultation never arrived huh.'

"It's okay, I knew about the answer already. My family was going through some trouble at that time so I was a bit emotional when I sent that text. You don't have to take it seriously, who would confess for real over text anyway?" - 'Perfect excuse, good job me!'

"Phew, so that's what it was, well, in that case, let's just be friends like before alright? Hikigaya-kun!" - Hearing the story behind the text relieved her greatly, and her demeanor became more cheerful instantly. 

"Sure, whatever you want, Orimoto-san."

"Haha, that's settled it. I'm going back first then. Oh, and I will try my best to stop the gossip so you don't have to worry, okay? See ya!"

Looking at Orimoto's back as she skipped away, Hikigaya breathed a sign of relief, thankfully the awkward conversation ended early. It wasn't easy talking to the girl you confessed to, especially after being rejected by the same girl.

Even though they had agreed to be friends after this, he was sure that Orimoto would still be conscious of him so she would either talk less to him or cut it down to casual greetings only.

When he was busy lamenting, a slight rustling in the grass had drawn his attention. The school didn't really bother to cut the grass regularly, especially in this area, so it was tall enough to reach his thighs. 

Hikigaya slowly approached the tall grass, and behold, a girl was swatting in there, chewing on something. As if sensing his presence, the girl also turned her head and looked at him. It was the girl who had woken him up earlier, but now with grass in her mouth. 

Flabbergasted by the sight, Hikigaya didn't know what to say while the girl was staring at him and chewing the grass at the same time. The two were locked in a stalemate for a good minute until the girl swallowed to speak with the same emotionless face.

"Howdy youngling, watcha doin' here in dis rare encounter with thy?"

"What's with the accent, are you a comedian or something? Also, I'm supposed to be the one to ask that question."

"Oh, you actually understood that. A fellow common soul, I see, I see." - 'Why are you talking like an old sage while stroking your beard? Wait… those aren't beards… grass?... When the hell did you put them in your mouth?'

"What are you on about? Whatever, why are you eating grass here?"

"No money…" - She deadpanned.

"Why are you so confident saying that?" - The corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch upon hearing her answer. 

Even after being rebutted, the girl still said nothing and continued chewing on the grass. Still, the look in her eyes said it all, and Hikigaya knew what that look meant.

'Oh, damn it all!!...'