13 Letter Of Challenge

(+ FLASHBACK END +)

The flashback then fades back to Susumu sitting on the sofa, staring out into the distance with a less tense expression.

"Earth to Ishibashi-san, wake up!" Takashi exclaimed, attempting to recapture Susumu's attention, he then says, "Good grief, you're acting like a cat, with such a short attention span..."

Susumu then returns to the phone, caressing the back of his ebony hair, and says, "Sorry about that, I kind of drifted off there, haha..."

Fumio chuckles after hearing that, he then changes the topic by saying, "While you were off in your own world, I and Takashi were chatting about what to do this week."

Takashi then adds, excitedly, "Oh! What about the amusement park that just opened last month, why don't we check it out next weekend?"

Susumu nods, "That sounds good," he looks out the window again, the dark sky has faded away, now being replaced by the orange sky, he stands up from the sofa and says, "Ah, I need to get back home now, I don't want to overstay my welcome here."

Fumio nods, "I agree, yet, I still don't understand why she asked you so unexpectedly..." Susumu responds, "That's a secret."

"I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?" he asks with a smile.

Takashi raises his free hand and exclaims, "Suure!"

"Take care now, later," Fumio says as he stares at his monitor.

Susumu hangs up the line and pockets his phone before approaching Ayano's door and knocking, shouting, "I'll be heading back home now, thank you for hosting me."

"Take care now, oh right, make sure to remind me the next time you come here," Ayano adds from the other side of the door. Susumu responds, "I'll make sure of it," he then walks off to the front door and slips on his shoes.

Transition time! Susumu reaches for the front door knob and pulls on it.

Susumu is then seen opening a shoe locker... wait a minute, why was I stuffed into the shoe locker? Whatever. He is facing the other way, probably talking to someone, he then looks at his shoe locker and his gaze is met with his shoes and a letter on top of those mentioned shoes.

"What's this?" Susumu mumbled as he reaches for the letter, as he pulls it out of the shoe locker, he stares at the writing, Takashi, who is now wearing the school uniform, peeks at what he was holding and reads the kanji, "Letter of Challenge?"

Fumio closes his shoe locker and looks at the two, saying, "Why would anyone want to challenge Ishibashi-san?" Susumu then looks at him and says, "Either I did something bad to them, or they're jealous."

Fumio scratches his chin, "The first, you would never do, I have never seen you do anything terrible," he pauses before staring away, "Except that time you accidentally tricked the junior into paying for your lunch..."

Susumu frowns and points his eyebrows down, "Hey, you even stated accidentally, which means I didn't do that nasty thing on purpose, I just used the wrong words, that's all."

Fumio then sighs, "Yeah yeah, whatever you say," he chuckles and continues, "And the second, who would be jealous of you in the first place? You never revealed anything that would cause this feeling of jealousy in the first place."

Susumu returns his gaze to the letter, opens it, and pulls a piece of paper from it. His eyes scan it, and he mumbles, "On the roof during lunch, huh?"

He zips open his bag and slips the paper and letter inside, then closes his bag and pulls out the school-issued shoes, then removes his leather shoes and slips on school shoes, then picks up his leather shoes and places them in the locker before closing it.

…Why did I go through narrating all of that?

The three then proceed to their classroom, walk up to the door and slide it open, Susumu walks up to his seat and sits, Takashi sits on the seat farthest from Susumu, and Fumio sits at the very front as the teacher enters the classroom.

"I need to remember that I shouldn't act as close to Shinsato-san, now that we're back at school..." Susumu thought as he rests his head on his arm and looks at Ayano, who sat by the window.

He then feels somebody glaring at him from behind, he turns around, resting his arm on the chair, and the silver-haired girl behind him turns their stare away quickly before he finishes turning around.

He squints his eyes slightly while staring at her, trying to recall who this girl was, "What was her name... Morishige Mari, huh? Why did it feel like she was staring a hole directly into my back...?"

"I'm probably just dreaming things again," he shakes his head, then returns his gaze to the blackboard, unzips his backpack, and pulls out his textbook.

Class resumes as usual... This quickly became tedious; do you know what time it is? Time to fast forward!

(+ TIME ADVANCE +)

Susumu is walking through the crowded hallway, he then walks up a flight of stairs and exits onto the roof, he walks to the middle of the roof and taps his shoes.

He rests his hands on his hips as he says, "Where the heck is this person who challenged me?" He pulls out his phone and checks the time, "They even told me to come here during lunch..."

Wait a minute... if you look at the opposite roof, you can see a silver-haired person standing there... why are they flailing their arms in the air? Wait, why'd they start running and leave the roof through the door?

After a few minutes, hurried footsteps are heard approaching the door, and the door is then slammed open, Susumu raises an eyebrow and immediately realizes the person who opened the door, "Morishige-san? What're you doing here?"

He then slouches his shoulders, "And why do you look so exhausted?" Mari is resting her arms on her knees, she is breathing heavily, and sweat is dripping off her brow.

She says while under her breath, "Why... were... you on... the opposite... roof...?" Susumu raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean by..." He connects the dots and comes to a conclusion, "Were you the one who put the letter in my locker?"

Mari straightens her back and straightens her long silver hair, wipes sweat from her brow, and adds, now in an intimidating voice— actually, it sounds more like a bubbly person attempting to deepen their voice— "Yes, and do you want to know why I requested you to come here?"

Susumu lowers his arms and tilts his head, saying, "No," as he stares at Mari, he asks, "Did I do something to make you send this letter?"

"I've seen you with Ayano-san before."

Susumu's eyes widened as he heard that, and he mumbles, "H—how..."

"I saw you enter her apartment yesterday, and the day before yesterday," Mari says as she approaches Susumu.

His eye twitches as he asks, "What? How did you find out...?" Mari then replies with an awkward smile plastered on her face, "Keep this a secret, but I always follow Ayano-san whenever she leaves school..."

Susumu's expression shifts from terrified to dissatisfied, "So you're a stalker?"

Mari crosses her arms and turns away with a pout, "I'm simply making sure she gets home safely, it's none of your concern."

Mari then returns her gaze to Susumu and gestures at him, a vein on the side of her head protruding, "Hey wait, stop shifting the subject, you— you trickster!"

"Why do you always behave so cold toward everyone..." she sighs, "moving on, nobody has ever escorted Ayano-san home before like that, and so I came to the conclusion that you and her..."

She pauses and looks away, a blush had formed on her face, "You and her are se—"

"Hey! HEY! Morishige-san, what kind of misconception did you get from us two!? Me and Shinsato-san aren't like that!" Susumu yelled, cutting her off so she couldn't complete her sentence... He saved my skin, right there.

Mari begins tapping her foot on the ground, "But it seemed like you guys were close like that..." Susumu's cheeks turn pink as he murmurs, "You have such a wild imagination..."

"And you seem so mature, too," he says, his gaze traveling someplace below Mari's face... ah, I see what you're talking about, Susumu you pervert, ha... ha...

Mari then crosses her arms exactly below her chest and asks, pouting, "What are you staring at?" Susumu asks, with an emotionless expression, "You promise you won't smack me if I tell the truth?"

Mari nods, "I promise." Susumu breathes in through his mouth, adding with a still deadpan face, "I was staring at your bo—"

He is then karate chopped on the head by Mari, her face is completely red as she exclaims, "I can't believe how straightforward you are, Ishibashi-san..."

She then lowers her arms and shakes her head, "We've completely gone off-topic, this was supposed to be a challenge, but now we're just chatting about my boobs..." She sighs, "Pervert."

Susumu says, feeling the swelling bump on his head, "Okay, so what's what's your challe— ow... what's your challenge?"

Mari closes her eyes and holds her hand behind her back, "Well, we can't do any card games or board games, so the next best thing..."

She says, her eyes widening, smirking, and pointing a finger at her lips, "Let's debate."

"Debate?" Susumu asked, his bump has now disappeared as he raises an eyebrow, then continuing, "About what?" Mari replies, "I dug some information out about your background, and I heard you won many music competitions with an acoustic guitar."

"And since I am quite well versed in the art of digital music, why don't we argue the best approach to write music?" Mari recommended.

Susumu squints his eyes, "I never asked this, but why did you challenge me in the first place?" Mari lowers her arms, and looks straight into Susumu's obsidian eyes, "It's because I'm jealous of how close you and Ayano-san are."

"Hmm? Aren't you two best friends who spend the most of your leisure time together?"

"Well, certainly, but it appears like she is becoming more devoted to you than to me."

"That's probably your wild imagination again," Susumu says as he cocks his head back. Mari begins twirling a strand of hair with her finger, "I don't know what you're talking about..."

She then says, "Let's stop stalling, we can go pick an appropriate room—maybe one of the club rooms will do—and discuss in there."