Chapter 8: My Way

After a lot of cleaning up and convincing his little sister not to wake up their mom, Keisuke is finally able to go back to his room and relax.

The day was like usual and yet it felt long for him, probably due to having to ask his mom for permission to take Natsumi out on a “date”.

As he laid on his bed daydreaming of the upcoming date, his phone starts vibrating.

It’s Natsumi.

“Hello? Kei-chan, how did it go?” Natsumi inquired.

“It went well… for the most part.” He remembered what his mom told him, how she thinks that he’s responsible when in fact, he got Natsumi pregnant. Well, it’s not set in stone yet. He’ll find out the truth soon. “But I got permission to go this weekend.” He continued, shrugging off his negative thoughts.

“That’s great! I got permission too.” Natsumi cheered.

“You got your dad to approve?” Keisuke is in complete shock by this revelation. Her father was basically their number one hater so to think that he’d agree on letting his daughter go to a distant place with the boy he despises is truly a mystery.

“Ah, no. I only asked mom.”

“Oh…”

Suddenly, everything makes sense again.

“Is that okay? He’s not going to kill me because we went behind his back, is he?”

“Hahaha, stop exaggerating! He’s… not going to do that... I think.” There was an awkward pause at the middle.

“Natsu…” This girl! I don’t really feel comfortable doing something behind Mr. Morino’s back. Worst case scenario, he’d catch us and force us to break up. I don’t want that!

“Will we be fine?” Keisuke muttered– feeling hopeless.

“Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out.” Natsumi says confidently.

After that, we ended up switching to casual chatter. After some time had passed, we said our farewells and went to sleep.

The next day, things went by normally.

During break time, Keisuke is on his way to the school cafeteria as a hand grabs his shoulder from behind.

“Senpai.” A voice called out from behind him.

Keisuke turns around, recognizing the voice.

“Akabane-kun!” It was his underclassman, Akabane Airi, who’s also a member of the Literature Club.

“Tsuneyuki-senpai! Are you going to the club later?” She asked a leading question. She knows full well that he’ll be there.

“Of course! We’ll be writing poems today.”

She smiles– her expression tells that she’s delighted by what she heard.

“I’ll see you later then, Tsuneyuki-senpai.” She marched gleefully to wherever she was going to. Keisuke flashed a smile as he waved her farewell.

Akabane Airi is a 2nd year student and a member of the Literature Club. She’s a smart yet timid girl who has trouble expressing herself and making friends leading her to become a loner. She joined the literature club in the hopes that she could find someone who has similar interest and she did.

Keisuke really appreciates her enthusiasm towards the club. He ends up seeing himself in her– timid, and no confidence and that makes him more protective of her. The other club members who are mostly his fangirls and some ghost members who only come once in a blue moon to borrow some manga or light novels, have been quite a disappointment for him so having someone who’s actually interested in literature is a godsend.

The girls loitering about noticed him as he walked by them.

“Look, look. It’s Tsuneyuki-senpai.” “Kyaaa, he just looked this way.” “Who was that girl just now?”

A lot of gossip is circulating and it seems Akabane-kun is going to be their next target. I’ll protect her no matter what, he thought to himself.

He approaches the group of girls gossiping.

“Hello.” He interjected with a forced smile on his face.

“Eh?! Tsuneyuki-senpai?!” said one of the girls as the rest squealed amongst themselves.

“How’s it going?”

“U-um… I’m doing good.” Replied the same girl. “Me too!” said by another. The rest follows suit.

He flashes another smile.

The girls squealed again.

No matter how many times Keisuke does this, he just never gets used to it.

Whenever a girl he talks to becomes the next target of bullying, he doesn’t go tell off the bullies. He has seen the same scenario happened before and doing that only made it worse. Instead, he gives attention to the bullies– having casual conversation with them to satiate their envy.

This is why his relationship with Natsumi isn’t public knowledge.

It’s not the best way to deal with these things but for Keisuke, it’s what works.

As he keeps the conversation going, a bunch more students flooded the hallway. A chill runs down his spine. He looks behind him to see four girls walking side by side on their way to get lunch. One of them looked all too familiar to Keisuke.

She glares at him as she walked by. It’s Natsumi and she recognizes the girls he’s talking to. It’s the same girls from before. When another girl almost got bullied.

That’s not good. He quickly wrapped up the meaningless conversation with the girls and left for the cafeteria.

He spots Natsumi and her friends eating lunch at a nearby table.

From a distance, a voice called up to him, hollering to come over to them. He spots his classmates calling for him.

Keisuke raises his hand, as if to acknowledge seeing them.

He went to buy food and made his way towards them.

Keisuke sat on the last available spot on the bench. His friends saved it for him.

“You sure took your time, man.” His friend playfully asked, sitting beside Keisuke without making eye contact with him.

“Yu… I got held up.” Keisuke’s voice is shaky as if anxious. He keeps glancing over Natsumi’s table.

Ichinose Yuu. Keisuke’s best friend ever since starting high school. He’s currently the student council president.

“You alright, Keisuke?”

“Yeah.”

Keisuke couldn’t really contribute much to the conversation. He has more pressing matters to attend to– or at least think of.

Random girls talking to Keisuke isn’t an abnormal phenomenon. In fact, it’s as normal as breathing at this point.

Natsumi wasn’t feeling jealousy towards the girls. It was closer to contempt.

She knows full well the predicament that Keisuke is in and is understanding on what he needs to do though the same can’t be said on how he does things.

As this was an occurring thing, Keisuke and Natsumi have argued about this in the past although it never really gets anywhere.

After a while, Natsumi and her group finished their lunch and are heading back to their classroom.

Since Keisuke is seated near the exit, she has to pass him to get back.

As she walks by his table, still feeling mad, Natsumi made sure to show him how upset she is by glaring at him.

Feeling a chill run down his spine, Keisuke curled down, trying his best not to meet her gaze.

“Huh? What’s up with that 2nd year?” Yuu muttered, irritated.

Keisuke’s head sprung back up– his heart beating quite fast with what he just heard.

“Huh?!”

“That 2nd year. She was glaring at me. Give me a minute, Keisuke.” Yuu stood up and followed the girls.

“Wait, Yuu!” Keisuke hesitated but eventually followed him.

In the hallway just outside the cafeteria stands Yuu, who’s towering over the girls. Most of them. He wasn’t particularly tall, just that the girls are short save for Reimu who’s the same height as him.

Natsumi crosses her arms– standing valiantly whilst her friends stood beside her, also possessing the same energy as her.

“Can we help you?” Himeko, the leader of the group, asked with a sassy tone.

Yuu looked at Himeko who he instantly recognizes. He got turned down by her the previous year after all.

Himeko is quite the beauty that the moment Yuu laid eyes upon her a year ago, he was absolutely smitten. It was love at first sight.

Of course, he got turned down but even so, Yuu could never forget Himeko.

“I-it’s got nothing to do with you, Serizawa-san! I’m talking to her.” He points at Natsumi.

Apparently, Himeko’s full name is Serizawa Himeko.

Natsumi, shocked as to why she’s the subject of his annoyance, was about to retort but he cut her off.

“She glared at me back at the cafeteria for no reason at all! I don’t even know who she is.”

Before another word is said, Keisuke arrives and got between the two.

“Yuu! What’s going on?!” Out of breath, Keisuke gently shoves Yuu away from Natsumi.

Before Yuu could say anything though, Keisuke shifted his attention to the girls, mainly towards Natsumi. “I’m very sorry about him!” He bowed his head.

“Wait, Keisuke! She can’t just do things like that.” He talked over Keisuke though he doesn’t resist him.

Keisuke kept on shoving Yuu that there’s now a significant distance between Yuu and Natsumi.

“Wait!” A voice shouted from behind Keisuke. It’s Natsumi’s voice.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do it.” She bowed her head, intensifying the seriousness in her voice.

Everyone is shocked by her sudden apology. Reimu puts her hand on Natsumi’s shoulder as if to get her attention.

“What do you mean?” Reimu asked quizzically.

They were together the entire time. As far as the rest of the girls know, they’ve done nothing wrong.

Natsumi wasn’t sure if she wanted to answer her question but with how things are going, she wanted to get out of this situation while doing things her way.

“The truth is…” There’s a brief pause. The words got caught in her throat.

Everyone, especially Keisuke, watched in anticipation.

“The truth is I was sneaking glances… on Tsuneyuki-senpai!” Natsumi blushed profusely and so does Keisuke.

Everybody is collectively in shock by the revelation. Keisuke, still completely flushed, stopped shoving Yu and instead faced Natsumi.

“W-wait… Na– “, Keisuke is about to say something to Natsumi but she cut him off.

“I like you, Tsuneyuki-senpai!” Natsumi shouted.

A sudden love confession.

It echoed throughout the hallway as every single person stared at them.

Everyone is shaken to their core.

Keisuke just stood there, dumbfounded on what to say or do. He looked at Natsumi’s eyes.

Tears are forming on the edges of her eyes. He knows that she’s embarrassed by what she said.

More and more people start to surround them, wanting to see what happens next– much like the late night tv drama most people watch.

Yuu puts his hand on Keisuke’s shoulder. “C’mon, man. Reject her already like you always do and let’s go back.” He’s referring to the other times other girls confessed their love for him.

It got him thinking. He could reject her here like all the other girls thus saving her from the impending bullying of the Tsuneyuki Keisuke fan club but that would upset Natsumi even if it’s ultimately for her benefit.

“Keisuke?” Yuu tried to get his attention again.

Keisuke balled his hands into a fist, steeling himself for what he’s about to say.

“I… Can you give me some time before I give my answer?” He hesitated. He wanted to accept it then and there but instead opted for a delayed response so he can talk to Natsumi about it later.

The bystanders are whispering to one another: “What?!” “Did that just happen?” “She didn’t get rejected?” “Does anyone know her?”, the people gossiped.

“Ok…” Natsumi said in a whisper. She lets out a sigh of relief as she retreated to her friends. They comforted her– patting her on the back and head, still confused but decided to just roll with it for now.

“Dude! What was that about?!” Yuu, still in shock, grabbed Keisuke’s shoulders and shook him over and over.

What was that about, really? What happened is something that Keisuke doesn’t usually do. That is doing things in a straightforward manner. He feels a chill run up his spine as he dreads the future.