Chapter 16 - A Nonsense Plant

“What are you guys doing?”

“…” I paused doing a noogie to Ari, not noticing Ren standing beside us. I frowned and turned around only to unfortunately see that both Ren and Emi were near us the whole time, watching me as I attacked Ari’s head.

. . .

I immediately released both of my hands off Ari’s head, acting like nothing had happened. I tried to laugh it off, but Ren and Emi looked at me confused; they were not convinced at all.

Yeah…

…I don’t think laughing would make it better.

Then I took a glance at Ari, where she froze at the sight of the two people in front of us, while a tear continued to flow out of her eyes.

No way… No way she is crying because of a noogie…

I thought I made sure that it wasn’t that hard…

“…” I gulped, realizing that I messed up.

“Why’s everyone quiet?” Emi chuckled awkwardly, looking at us.

“Hahaha… Not a bad way to introduce someone, right Ari?” Ren said, laughing about the situation.

The three of us turned to Ari, who was crying.

She shook her head. “I’M NOT CRYING!!!” she shouted in front of us, realizing that we were staring into her eyes.

. . .

Why is she shouting?

“Why are you shouting?” Ren asked.

“Is something wrong about her?” Emi asked Ren.

“You’re not supposed to ask something like that…” Ren whispered to her.

Then suddenly Ari turned and glared at me, she was glaring like I was the sole reason for everything. It looked like she was about to cry and was about to get angry at the same time, it was confusing.

I pressed my forehead, and whispered, “Not again…”

Ari continued glaring at me while sniffling, I was not sure whether she was crying out of sadness, or crying because she was angry with me, both are probably the right answers.

What’s with everyone always appearing unannounced!? For goodness sake!

I sighed and turned to Ren and Emi. “We were doing the Sandwich Game.”

“Sandwich Game?” Emi asked.

“Basically it’s where you noogie someone’s head like it was a sandwich, you know the thing we called sandwich prison.” I explained, making sense of the nonsense that we are in.

I formed a knuckle with both of my hands and softly placed it on my head. “You know something like this.” I demonstrated the supposedly Sandwich Game in front of them.

Fuck fuck fuck what am I doing!!!

“Well, that’s the game, the Sandwich Game.” I ended.

“Oh…” Ren muttered before suppressing his chuckle, trying not to laugh. “The Sandwich Game it is.”

“Sounds like a fun game.” Emi commented.

“It’s not really a fun game.” I replied, chuckling awkwardly at Emi.

“IT’S NOT A FUN GAME!” Ari repeated, shouting at me.

I blinked and frowned at her. Without saying anything, I stood up and approached Ari behind. “You know what’s more fun? Playing the same game twice!” I said before forming a knuckle and doing a noogie again to her.

“AHHH STOP STOP!!!” she cried for help but I didn’t stop, and I have no plans on doing so.

“I was doing you a favor of playing the game you introduced to me Ari.” I said while looking down at her head. I continued on twisting my fist on her temple, making sure that she feel that I was not joking around at playing the game.

Ren looked at us, amused as always, while Emi glanced between him and me, probably looking for an explanation about why we were acting like this. But both Ren and I didn’t bother explaining it to her.

Then after 10 seconds of nonstop twist of my knuckling on her head, I noticed that Ari was not resisting anymore. “Hm?”

I released my hand from her head and took a glance at her face, only to be faced by an absolute dead face of Ari.

I blinked, not sure what kind of face I was looking at. Her eyes were dead, her tears were dried out, and her mouth was wide open. That was the kind of face she was making right now.

Haha…

…I’m dead.

I turned around to both Ren and Emi. “Any of you got water?”

Ren shook his head. “How about you, Emi?”

“A water? I do have a water bottle here.” she said, grabbing a water bottle out of her pocket. “Here.” she handed me the water bottle.

“Thanks.” I grabbed the water bottle and opened the lid.

“What are you going to do with that?” she asked.

I held the back of Ari’s head and poured the water bottle into her mouth slowly.

“Watering Ari.” I said.

“Pfff— HAHAHAHAHA.” Ren laughed.

“She’s not a plant, right?” Emi asked.

“Not really, I thought she might want to drink some water.” I answered, carefully making her drink the water. “Since her mouth was wide open and her tears dried out, I thought she might want to replenish.” I explained, continuing to make her drink.

After making her drink slowly, her eyes started blinking and her tears started flowing again. She looked at me surprised, unsure what was happening.

“Can’t believe that worked.” I muttered, couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

She looked around, her eyes were wide open and confused. “What’s with everyone?” she asked. She continued blinking and staring at me. “ why are you that close?”

“What do you think?” I replied and continued making her drink the water. “You probably need more water.”

She didn’t question and continued drinking until the whole bottle was emptied. I tried to stand but then she held down the top of my shoulder, stopping me. “What are you doing?”

“You’re done with drinking right?” I answered, showing her the empty bottle. “Look how you drank the whole bottle, not leaving a single drop.”

She looked at both Ren at Emi behind me, which both nodded as soon as her eyes met theirs. Then she looked back at me, still not showing any other emotion other than confusion. Her face as straight as it gets, the only difference is that her tears continued flowing.

“I see.” she bitten her lips, her face started turning into frustration. She held my right shoulder and whispered, “Can you release your hand now, please?”

I did what she said, and released my hand on the back of her head. And without saying anything else, she stood up and walked away.

“AHHHHHHH!!!” she bawled her eyes while screaming, running away from the three of us.

The three of us watched her back as she ran away.

Emi chuckled and commented, “What an interesting girl. Her name was Ari, right?”

Ren nodded in response. “Yeah, kind of a funny being right?”

“Yeah. Kind of reminded me of how I was in the past.”

“You were like that? I can’t see you acting like her at all.” Ren questioned.

Feeling curious, I turned to face them. “Do you like sneaking around the school also?” I asked to Emi.

“What?” she exclaimed, confused.

“Forget what I said.” I said before taking a seat back to the chair.

Ren chuckled. “I wonder about that too! If you were like Ari in the past, then it must’ve been mean you like sneaking around the school too!”

“Uh… I can’t follow the both of you…” Emi muttered in confusion.