YOSEN HIGH—Student Council Room , 6:46 am.

Yoshio Hitomi’s POV

Since this month is the so called ‘month of love’; many of the students have been suggesting doing some sort of special love festival for the whole school. And we, student council, have been bombarded with a lot of paper works again. Just great.

Note the sarcasm there.

And second term final examinations are just around the corner. What the hell Yosen students.

But I’m mostly worried about the third years. I mean, it’s their final year, and they have so much work to do. Like applying for college and taking entrance exams. Instead of doing that, the third-year council members are here helping us lower classmen. Even the ever responsible Council President Nanami Suzume is having a hard time despite to be known as a girl who can manage her time.

But it only took 2 days of us cramming; you know why? The principal didn’t approve of it for some reason. Some concluded she was bitter about Valentine’s Day and refused to hold an event at school.

Well that’s the end of it. We all can now focus on the upcoming exams.

“Yoshio-san?” Kaichou appeared in front of my desk as I was fixing up my stuff before heading back to class. We had a morning meeting.

“Kaichou, hello there” I placed down stacks of paper just at the side of my table.

Kaicou smiled at me kindly. “Want to walk together?” she asks as I took my hoodie from the chair where I hung it. I nodded curtly whiling slipping it on before taking my bag and walked out of the council room with her. “Mmm, Valentine’s Day is next week. What are Yoshio-san and Himuro-kun’s plans for that day?” Kaichou said out of nowhere catching me by surprise as I look at her dumbfounded.

“What?” I asked wearily with a gulp. Seriously. Did she and Kensuke team up to tease me now? So as revenge, I asked her: “How about you and Kensuke, Kaichou?”

“Eh?!” Kaichou flinched before her eyes stared at the floor and her mood kinda shifted to… sad?

“What’s wrong?” I ask after noticing her sudden mood change. Kaichou’s hands started fidgeting themselves that tells me something’s bothering her. And it’s about Kensuke. “What did Kensuke do now?” I shot her a question again, annoyance on my tone.

“Nothing… he did nothing wrong…” Kaichou trailed, her hand gripping onto the other as she raises them to her chest. “It’s just that…

…It seems he’s been distant nowadays” Distant? What does that mean? My questioning look let her continue to explain. I can’t help but observe how downcast Kaichou looked.

“What do you mean?” I asked once again.

Kaichou shifted uneasily. “I think he’s been avoiding me” Kaichou—“I don’t know! It’s like… he doesn’t want to even talk to me” Kaichou… well I’ve noticed Kensuke heading straight home after practice. When I came to ask him he says he’s been busy about application forms of college so I guess—

“Ah, don’t worry about that Kaichou. Kensuke’s just busy studying with exams. His mother’s been threatening him that if he doesn’t take responsibility, she’ll kick him out of the house so…” I shrugged, concluding why Kensuke was acting like that. Honestly, he’s like that to me too.

Whenever I call him to talk, he always excused himself and tells me he has some errands to do.

I saw her shoulders relax in relief. I smiled at her.“Plus, guys can be like that sometimes. Even Himuro’s been acting strangely” I say that made her flinch leaving me wondering. What’s wrong?

“Ah, Himuro-kun’s just…” Kaichou tried to comfort me like the way I did to her a while ago. I told her it’s okay and she doesn’t need to say something. It made her sigh in relief. I blinked in wonder. She’s acting odd. “Ah! We should go to our classroom or we’ll be late!” Kaichou derided off the atmosphere we had and pulled me through the hallway so we could attend our morning classes.

Wa-Wait—

I almost tripped there.

CLASS B—YOSEN HIGH, lunch hour.

“Hitomi~” Mayu came approaching me after we heard the lunch bell. Actually she was just in front of me. “Let’s go eat lunch together!” she coaxed pulling me by the wrist. I gave a short nod and took out my bento. On our way to the door, we noticed Nanami—Kaichou’s little sister—walking with Liu while joking around with him. Well mostly it was Nanami who was noisy and Liu gave her a poker face.

“Mou, Liu~ Will stop being stern and at least laugh at my jokes?” we could hear them chatter from their seats.

I stared at them blankly but by the way Mayu looks at them, I can see she was… hurt? Jealous? Is that it?

“Mayu…” I called her name as she immediately marched out of our classroom, leaving me behind. “Hey!” I ran after her but she was fast and I felt someone trip my feet when I was passing by Class D. Himuro’s class.

Good thing someone caught before I could fall on the ground. It was Himuro.

“Himuro” I say his name as he assisted me to stand up straight.

“Are you okay?” he asked, holding my arms. I blushed and nodded my head quietly. I can feel glares stab me at the back again. There were Himuro girls surrounding the hallway. I feel so insecure so I put on my hood again. “I would really appreciate if you left Hitomi alone” Himuro’s demanding voice spat at whoever tripped my feet while pulling my head to lean on his chest.

What’s he doing now…?

“But, Himuro-kun! That girl’s no good for you! She’s just one of those social climbers!” accused the girl at me. I’m not like that… It hurts that they see you as something you’re not. How can they judge me when they don’t even know me?

“She’s not—”

“You’re wrong” I overlapped Himuro before he could even finish his sentence. Pulling my head from his chest, I faced all of the haters who are surrounding us and stood there strong to speak up. It’s my first time actually… “You have no right to say that. You don’t even know me that well. How can you judge other people when you’re not even perfect yourself? Himuro hangs-out over you guys because he got to know who I really am and same with me. That’s why he’s comfortable whenever I’m around and so am I. It’s not my fault that he liked me whoever I am. You can’t judge people for who they are and you are not in the position to do so as well. Because no one is perfect in this world. That’s why we have each other to bear that imperfection. Because when you have someone who loves you for whom you are and will bear with that…

…you’ll feel just as perfect as everyone else who has someone special with them”

My speech wasn’t that bad at all but it somehow didn’t relate. I felt so embarrassed so I finished it with a stutter. “M-My point it: wh-why do you even sl-slave yourse-self to someone who do-doesn’t even want you? Th-There’s someone o-out there that will accept you for who you are so why not devote yourself to them and just stop fooling yourself that you’ll be loved back by someone who would never?!” by now, my face turned into a tomato. It was burning red—I should really sing Taylor Swift’s song…

This is how I think when I’m embarrassed.

“Hitomi…” Crap Himuro’s gonna make fun of my ridiculous speech.

“So-Sorry!” I scream, and sprinted away to go to the rooftop to isolate myself from society.

I sweat, I hate public speaking! Gah! Why did I do that?! It was so embarrassing! It didn’t even relate!!!

I ruffled my hair after I humiliated myself from the students of Yosen High. Well, there goes my peaceful senior year.

“Screw my life…” I murmured curses to myself while sulking at the corner…

“Nice speech” I flinched when I heard a familiar voice comment about my speech of mortification. “Is that what you really feel?” He asks, sitting beside me.

“Y-Yeah…” I muttered in reply and tried my best to look at him. But I just can’t… “I looked stupid, didn’t I, Himuro?” I laughed at myself and watched my dignity burn in flames. It’s funny. I’ve brought this to myself. The number one on my bucket list ever since I started in high school has been scratched of the list.

“I think it was an encouraging speech” Himuro commented but it didn’t even put me to ease. I still flinched. He smiled at me while removing my hood; revealing my crimson painted cheeks. “And I can see how much you’ve grown. You’ve become stronger, Hitomi” Himuro’s word made me relax a bit as his soft fingers brushed my cheeks.

His face closer to me as my soft closing eyes saw his eyelids shut. Before I knew it, he was kissing me again—and without my permission.

“Ah, did we come at a wrong time?” Shit.

“Himuro-kun and Hitomin are…”

“Murochin and Shiochin are smooching again…”

Again, shit.

“Gah!” I gasped for air, pulling away from Himuro, at the same time, unintentionally pushing him away. “Ma-Ma-Yu-YuMi! Murasakibara…” there is nothing left of my dignity. These three just saw me and Himuro kissing—what the hell.

“Ah, Mayu-chan, Yumi-chan, Atsushi. Hello there” Himuro greeted them casually as if nothing happened. This guy has a million layers of faces. Do I need to rip them off one by onefor the rest of my life?

The three of them soon joined us on the floor. I suddenly recalled Mayu’s walk out earlier. I wanted to ask her but when I was about to do so—she suddenly opened up a topic. “Ne, did you guys know, Yumi-chan and Murasakibara-kun are dating?!” WHAT?!

“Mayu-chan you are so mean! We are not!” Yumi came whining as she cried comically and hid behind me. She does that often. Well at least it’s a bluff.

“Dating? What does that mean?” of course Barney has NO idea what that shit is.

“It’s when you commit to someone you love, Atsushi” Wtf—Himuro’s explaining things to his air head buddy now. Well, good luck with him understanding that.

“Mayu, stop joking around. Yumi’s drowning in red over here”

“Like the way you were when you and Tatsuya-kun kissed?”

“OI!”

I decided to shut my mouth so that Mayu would quit messing with me. There’s something bothering me about Mayu though. It’s like there’s something lacking about the way she acts right now.

“Ah, Hitomi, you brought your bento?” Himuro noticed, taking the box of food out of my hands and open it without even asking my permission. He should really learn how to ask that from me. I’m really generous with it; he just has to ask. He took out the chopsticks I brought for MYself. Let me tell you why I used caps on that; because he used it to eat MY lunch.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!?!” I screamed, trying to steal back my lunch from him. He lifted it up, dodging my hands and swiftly fed me a chopstick of rice into my mouth. “Mmm!!” I chewed on my lunch and couldn’t yell at Himuro.

“You look like a chipmunk Hitomi~ How cute” Himuro cooed and gorged all of my side dishes and even fed me some—continuously—not giving me a chance to talk.

“Hitomin, you might choke. Here” Yumi gave me a can of juice that I took and gulped it in one go. Now I can scream.

“HIMURO! What is up with you?! That’s my lunch! Don’t just take it from me and feast on it!” I practically shouted, grabbing back my half-eaten bento.

“But I like your cooking”

“You never tasted my cooking!”

“I just did…”

“Ugh!!!”

As I continued complaining to Himuro, I noticed Mayu walking out of the rooftop. Yumi and Murasakibara were too occupied with each other while Himuro’s… eating my lunch.

I called her name several times until we reached the floor under the rooftop as I snapped her out of her trance and asked her what’s wrong and why was she ignoring me.

“I didn’t hear you, sorry…” she apologized quietly and stared at ground. I was about to asked why she looked glum when she overlapped me and opened up a topic about the upcoming Valentine’s Day. “Ne, are you going to give something to Tatsuya-kun?”

“Uh” I blushed, scratching my cheek sheepishly. I was thinking about baking him cookies… “Nah” I wave it off, brushing that idea. He’ll receive tons of gifts from girls anyway. I can anticipate that. “How about you?”

After I asked her that, Mayu flinched and stopped on her tracks, going back to that glum side of hers again. “Mayu?” I called her attention.

“I’m not… I don’t like anyone…” it took me a while to register those words in my brain.

“But what about Liu?”

“Hitomi!!”

I didn’t know why but Mayu yelled at me for mentioned the Chinese dude. “What? It’s obvious that you like him” I stated blinking at her curiously. I smiled and patted her shoulders since it’s the first time she’s ever liked someone dearly. “Fine. If you give something to Liu then I’ll give something to Himuro, deal?” I offered a handshake to her. She looked at me skeptically so I bugged her to just agree.

“Sigh, fine. But don’t back down on me Hitomi!”

“As if I will!”

So hello people. I know I know, I haven't updated for a while but please let me violently blame school :) I did told you that updates will get slower because of classes~ But I'll try to update every friday or on weekends -w- so hope you like this chapter~