≫ Chapter 20 ≪

No One's POV

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"It's decided. Our class is getting the haunted house!" Hikari announced cheerily, earning a collection of chorused cheers.

"Yosh! The other classes wanted that one, I'm so glad we got it!" Fumiko exclaimed, students around her agreeing.

"Now, all we need to decide is who gets which role!" the brunette told everyone. "I've got the go signal from Hamako-sensei, so we can officially start working on the whole thing tomorrow! To be organized, I'll just post this... here, there you go, just sign there with the preferred role you want and I'll get the leftover roles to assign to the absentees and anyone who doesn't sign~"

Everyone seemed enthusiastic, cheers and comments shared throughout the bustling-with-business classroom.

In the corner of Sugawara's  eyes, he could see the cheerful brunette watch her classmates delightedly. 

And for a moment, she returned his gaze- but only for a mere second, causing him to look away quicker than he had ever looked away before as he ran his hands through his hair.

What was this? Why was he so flustered? He'd never admit that he was, well, embarrassed, but even if he did, he couldn't figure out why.

Maybe Daichi was right- just some of his teenage impulses, nothing too serious. Maybe that was the cause of his blushing face, a side-effect, perhaps.

It wasn't long before Hikari noticed that the silver-head was red-faced that morning, but payed little attention to his little scene and continued managing the whole event in the same manner, not at all affected.

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It wasn't that there was something wrong with it, nor did he mind, but Daichi noticed how frequent he was bumping into Michimiya. 

And maybe (though he'll never admit) more than once were those 'accidental' encounters sort of planned, but that didn't matter. 

His point was, he was seeing her a lot more often, and it made him question things as he walked towards his classroom, a box full of decor in hand.

Things, things such as why he felt so nervous to talk whenever she was around, why he even bothered, why it was somehow only her.

Was it only Michimiya?

Certainly he had come across several other people. 

But never was he so longing to see someone that wasn't his own mother.

"Sawamura!"

And there it was.

The cheerful, smiling, sweaty Michimiya waving toward him, running at a rather quick pace.

"Oh, Michimiya-san. What's the matter?" he asked her as he stopped in his tracks, putting down the box he had been holding.

"I know it's already the end of school, but I need to talk you about something!" she proposed. "You're on your way to your classroom, right? I need to show you what your dense little head probably missed! Need help with that?"

Somehow, he was unsure whether or not he should've been offended by that comment at the end of her statement, but he nodded anyway and picked his box up again.

"By the way, Michimiya, what happened to your shoes? They're muddy," he commented, looking down.

"Oh, that's nothing. You know how our class is doing a flower-themed cafe? Yeah, some friends of mine accompanied me to the garden to pick some flowers, and apparently, the soil was freshly watered. You know how big the garden is," she explained. "Iku yo! We have something to catch here."

Being led by the seemingly-determined girl, he pondered on what could have possibly gotten her attention. (And perhaps maybe he had also wondered how he, too, could get that kind of attention from her, but that was another story.)

They came to a halt right outside his classroom.

"Sawamura-kun, I need you to be very quiet, alright? Watch with me."

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The classroom looked like a room that a newly-moved-in person hadn't unpacked yet. 

Boxes were everywhere and so were newspapers, and in the middle of it all stood two busy students.

"Aren't you tired?" Sugawara asked, holding up the chair Hikari was standing on.

"Don't you have training or something?" Hikari shot back, sticking up some crepe paper streamers on the sides of the walls. "I don't get why you even bother to help."

"I thought you knew why I was here- didn't Sensei clearly state that there would be incentives if we stayed behind to help?" he answered, handing her the next batch of paper strips. "Ayumu. Grade incentives."

"I made it very clear to you to never utter my name, you windowpane!" she yelled, hitting him on the head with her bare fists.

"Windowpane? Awh, is that Ayumu-chan's biggest, baddest, word? I'm so threatened!" he laughed maniacally, dodging her swift punches with his arms. 

"Urusei! Get out of this classroom, I don't need your help!" she yelled, trying to kick him in the gut.

"But Daichi already excused him and me from half of training today," he insisted.

'And maybe I want to be wi-' Sugawara stopped himself, wanting to slap him for thinking such useless, stupid thoughts.  "Fine, maybe I will go. Anyway I did stay after school hours to help, so I can get my plus points anyway. Mata shita, peabrain." 

"I really don't know what makes you so stupid, but I guess it works!" she chuckled, hopping down the chair to pick up some of the black cloth that was to be hung up.

"Look, did you want some help or not?"

"I never asked for your help anyway."

"You looked like it, being the only one who volunteered."

Giving him an ice-cold glare, Hikari replied, "You aren't allowed to pity me, got that?"

Sighing, Sugawara let his feelings take over him now, as the tender part of his emotions made him feel sorry for his actions. "Look, Ayumu. We need to get this done and I really can't just leave you here, though a huge part of me wants to. So please just let me help you."

Hikari walked over to him, eyeing him closely. "Stop calling me Ayumu first. Then, make up your mind whether or not you wanna head to training or not."

"Oh come on, we're alone."

In that instant, Sugawara regretted his statement, wanting to crash down six feet under right there. He knew his face was heated and his ears quite pink.

This of course, made Hikari blush ever-so-slightly as she tried her best to pull an irritated face and utter out a "Tch."

After a few seconds, she finally got the courage to reply. "Whatever, Koushi. Just go find Sawamura-kun or something. I need the box."

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"He's coming, run!" Michimiya whisper-yelled, pulling Daichi's sleeves as he ran with her to the nearest hiding spot.

"The box!" Daichi exclaimed quietly as the two watched Sugawara emerge from the door, wherein they could see the boy confusedly ponder on why the box was just left there. "Suga might find out we-"

"Shhh!" Michimiya covered the somewhat-noisy captain, pointing at the silver-head. "Just watch!"

Lifting the box himself, Sugawara called out to Hikari. "Ne, I think Daichi might've seen the whole thing- the box was left here at the door."

Popping her head out of the door, Hikari squinted at the box. "Yeah sure, I wouldn't care much about Sawamura, but..."

The glasses-wearing female pointed to some dirt tracks on the floor. "He wasn't alone. Who could he possibly be with, huh? I wonder," she cackled. 

The two rivals grinned at each other. "Home Ec partners?"

"Home Ec partners. Let's hunt him and whoever he's with down."

From behind the wall, Michimiya turned to Daichi. 

"Sawamura-kun, I think that's our cue."

"Cue?"

"To run."

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a/n: super super bad writing

super trash, is this what hiatuses do to you

man what on earth

what is this

i deeply apologize.

it's just basically a rlly bad filler chapter wth sorry i legit feel bad i have to do this but i have'ta do this

im sorry

i promise the next chapters will be better

pls

dont expect me to go back to updating every other day tho

i dont have motivation to write oneshots rn

im only writing rt at this point

give me some time i promise ill get smth done

thank

ANYWAY uh, i guess i should update y'all on my life ?? idk just so you know why my life is so busy lol

basically my workload has 1. been v v terrible to me 2. i'm p sure i mentioned before that i have a v v competitive side to me and yknow im tryna get to the top of smth rn and yknow, people need to work for that 3. other things that's not writing ?? lol

also maybeormaybenot ive been kinda lazy ?

sorry i just 

i just.

anyway can we also talk about tsukki tho he's hot

but i cant wait for the scene when s- o wait spoilers who havent read the manga oopsoops

yeah okay. um anyways, the real thing i kinda wanted to talk about here is how i... i really am much more of a drawer (yes i store socks and other things), or rather, an illustrator-ish person more than i ever was a writer

let's face it. I kind of really suck at writing. I mean, I do read books. Not just fanfiction, but legit books?? and like,, they are a lot lot lot lot lot lot better than my own writing. i tend to have a perfectionist mood whilst writing. And I can say that my writing is pretty bad in terms of plot and characterizing people- they end up being too cliche and totally not how i first planned it, but i get lazy at points and just let it be. which is totally bad i know

and im really not fishing for compliments or anything like that- i just want to say that i'm sorry if i am not the super great author everyone thinks i am. i get rlly nice comments and messages and they make me v happy but at the same time i feel like i dont deserve them

im sorry im just rambling on and on

but my main point is 

I deeply apologize if I will disappoint you many times i uh, im not v perfect and i doubt myself too much

sorry

see you next chapter !! which will beGIN THE VERY aWAITED SCENES MHMHMHmjfiberiufnaeoinfoainfaeoirngioae

jaa ne

nyx