Love Letter

"Got a pretty nice collection again today." Danzo is walking to school with his eyes glued to his phone. He has a big grin on his face as he browses through all the new erotic images he has collected.

After a while, he puts his phone in his pocket and starts lightly skip walking. He notices a familiar female figure walking a few meters in front of me. He speeds up his walk.

"Samie-chan! Good morning!" Danzo greets her with a smile.

"Good morning, Danzo-kun," she replies.

"Not with Koutarou today?"

Samie sighs. "He has a fever so he's staying home today." Her shoulders drop and she slouches forward a bit. Her morning smile turns into a frown.

"You seem upset not going to school with him today. You guys are almost always together. Don't you ever get tired of his face?" Danzo throws a joke to cheer her up.

"Of course not! How can I get tired of my fiance's face?"

"Fiance. Haha! Good one."

"It's true, though. We're engaged."

"Eh?" Danzo stops laughing and looks at Samie. He's trying to figure out whether Samie is joking. Though, judging by her unfazed stare at him, it looks like she's telling the truth. "Y...You're kidding me, right?"

"I'm not," once again, Samie answers calmly and with a straight face.

"What?! How-- When did this happen?!"

Samie looks ahead and closes her eyes as she tries to remember that day. "It was a noisy night that night," she starts storytelling with a warm smile.

Danzo listens intently trying not to miss a single detail of this event that he's about to hear for the first time.

"Kou-chan and I were playing in the living room while our parents are at the dining table, drinking and loudly talking to each other. Then suddenly," -- she places both her hands on her cheeks -- "he just told me that he's going to marry me when we grow up. Our parents even heard it. Kyaaaah! That 6-year-old Kou-chan was so cute and daring back then!"

Danzo gives her a disgusted look. "I see, I see. Good for you."

Samie continues to babble while Danzo walks beside her, too disappointed to listen. This continues until the finally reach the school.

The go to their respective shoe lockers which are across each other. After wearing his indoor shoes, Danzo turns to Samie who hasn't changed her shoes yet. She doesn't appear to be moving.

"Are you not done yet, Samie-chan?" Danzo walks toward her. She is still frozen in her spot. "What's wrong, Sami-----EHHH?!" Danzo gets closer and sees her holding a letter. A love letter.

It reads: I like you. Please meet me at the incinerator after school.

"A classic line," Danzo thought.

Samie is staring at it with wide and emotionless eyes. Danzo glances at her with a worried look on his face. She grips the paper at the top with two hands. Danzo notices what she's about to do and quickly grabs her hands restraining her from tearing the letter in half.

"S-Samie-chan. Calm down."

"Forget what you saw, Danzo. We'll pretend this never happened."

"Like hell I could!" Samie is fighting back hard. A quarter inch of the paper has been torn already. "Listen to me, Samie-chan."

"Please, Danzo-kun. I can't let this happen."

"Listen!" Danzo softly shouts at her as to not startle other people. Samie calms down a bit to let Danzo speak, but she's ready to completely tear the paper so Danzo couldn't let go of her hands. "Samie-chan. It takes a lot of courage for someone to confess, especially this way. Koutarou and I know that very well. If he finds out that you would just tear this off so easily, he might really hate you."

Samie completely stops resisting.

"At least reject him properly." Danzo lets go of her hands which immediately drop down.

"...Fine." The look on her face, it's like she's seen a ghost.

"What's the matter? Do you despise people confessing to you that much?"

"I don't really mind the confession. I just think I know who this person is, and that's making me scared."

"Who is it?"

Samie stays silence for a few seconds. "I don't know. We'll find out. Please never tell Koutarou about this." Danzo knows that she doesn't want to mention a name in case she is wrong. She looks at him. "Danzo-kun, would you come with me later?"

"Huh?! Are you crazy?! Why should I be with you when someone's confessing to you?!"

"You don't have to be beside me. You can hide nearby. It would really make me feel at ease when I know someone is close by."

Danzo sighs. "Sure. Whatever." He is still against it but there's nothing he can do now. At the very least, he convinced Samie to meet up with this guy. "I'll see you later then." He starts walking to his classroom. Samie inserts the letter in her pocket and changes into her indoor shoes.

-----

Lunch break arrives.

"Wanna grab lunch, Yoichi?" Danzo asks. 

"I can't, sorry. I'm heading to the music room now."

"Are you going there with Akari-chan?"

Yoichi just gives them a smile.

"Damn you, Yoichi! How far have you gone with Akari-chan?! What happened yesterday?!" Danzo slams his palm on Yoichi's desk.

"Haha. Nothing happened. She just wanted to practice her violin," Yoichi stands up and heads towards the door. "Well then. Laters," he waves back at him.

That damn Yoichi. He's never smiled that way regarding a girl before. I guess I'll spend lunch with Ren and the others.

After Yoichi exits the door, Danzo notices someone glaring at him hiding behind the door. It's Samie.

"Geh." He walks up to her. "What's up, Samie-chan?"

Samie looks away. "Do you want to go to lunch with me?"

Danzo's face lights up. This is the first time a girl asked me out for lunch! C-Could this be a da-

"Whatever you're thinking, you're wrong," Samie interrupts his internal monologue.

"Stop reading my mind!"

They head down to the cafeteria.

After getting settled at a table, Samie leans closer and starts whispering.

"So... About after school..."

"Hm? What about it? Don't tell me you're backing out."

Samie's eyes wander on the side. "I don't think I can do it after all."

"Samie-chan...," Danzo tries to think of a way to convince her again. At the same time, he's also trying to figure out who this person is and why Samie is so scared of him. "Okay, okay. My bad for forcing you to do it. You don't have to meet up with him if you're really against it."

"But... Kou-chan will..."

"I won't tell him anything. He won't know this happened," Danzo leans back. He looks at Samie who's quietly staring down the floor. This is the first time I saw the ever-cheerful Samie-chan so serious. Damn it. If I knew this was going to happen, I shouldn't have stopped her this morning. What was I thinking? This is none of my business.

"No," Samie clenches her fists. "I don't want to lie to Kou-chan." She raises her head and looks at Danzo. "I'll do it. I'm counting on you to be there, Danzo-kun."

Seeing the determination in her eyes, Danzo can't think of anything else to say but, "S-Sure."

Danzo spends the rest of the afternoon mentally preparing for it.

-----

After school.

Danzo is hiding in a room a few meters from where Samie is standing. He is holding a curtain to make a gap just enough for one eye to peek outside.

"What the hell am I doing?" Danzo mumbles to himself. "This is tenser that when I'm doing the confession myself. And to think that I'm eavesdropping on a confession for two consecutive days. Oh, wait. Yesterday wasn't a confession, but still." He sighs lightly. "I'm so unlucky."

He looks at Samie-chan who is playing with her skirt to keep herself pre-occupied while she waits.

"Good luck, Samie-chan," Danzo quietly cheers for her.

A pair of footsteps approaches Samie. She becomes tenser. Her fists clench tighter than they ever had. Looks like it's exactly who Samie expected it to be. A tall, slender guy with glasses stops and stands right in front of her. Alone.

"Hey, hey," Danzo's eyes widen. He moves a bit closer to the window. "Am I imagining things right now? This is a big scoop!" He breaks out in a cold sweat. "What is the student council president doing here?!"