Chapter 11

Rin finished her work, which meant she had the rest of the day free. Because Yuto didn’t have a shift today, he had no good excuse to avoid her. So if avoidance was out of the picture, then he would use the time to his advantage.

Sure, his earlier attempt may have failed, but that was only option one. He didn’t spend months planning for this festival only to have one plan. He had contingencies.

“So what are you thinking we do?” Rin asked, shuffling side to side.

Yuto ignored her and grabbed her hand.

“Rin!”

Her face turned red.

“Yuto?!”

“I want you to come with me. There is something I would like to do with you,” he responded, not thinking about how his comments could be misconstrued.

“N-now?” she stuttered out.

Yuto responded with a nod.

Rin averted her gaze as she responded meekly, “Alright, lead the way.”

Yuto’s plan was simpler than the last one. He was going to take her to the haunted house.

Rin had always said she wasn’t good with horror movies, and haunted houses weren’t that different. He’d drag her to it, and when she realised their interests didn’t align, she would realise how incompatible they were and would break up.

“Where are we going?” she asked, as Yuto dragged her along.

He came to a stop, and Rin, who was still looking at the ground, walked into his back. Her hands pressed up against his back softly. To any outsider, it would have looked like they were flirting.

“That’s a secret,” he replied, accidentally adding a wink that he was supposed to keep in his head.

Rin glanced down and nodded, gripping the bottom of his jumper so she wouldn’t lose him.

Yuto ignored it, fixated on making his way to the haunted house. They walked up the steps until he could see the haunted house in the distance.

“We are here!” Yuto exclaimed, giddy like a kid in a candy store.

“Really? You brought us here for that?” Rin mumbled before resting her head on Yuto’s back. Yuto assumed this was because she was scared already.

“That’s right, there was nothing I wanted to do more than visit it,” Yuto replied as a twisted grin grew on his face.

“I’m so excited!” Rin exclaimed, skipping forward and spinning around to face him with a big smile.

Huh?

She twiddled her fingers, glancing in every direction, unable to contain her excitement.

“This was actually on the list of places I wanted to go myself.”

Huh?

She glanced back at Yuto and beamed a large smile.

“Thank you, I’m so excited to go.”

“Really? I thought you’d hate a haunted house,” Yuto checked to see

“Haunted House!” she squalled as if she was somehow surprised despite clearly being in front of her.

“What did you think I was talking about?”

“I thought you meant the fortune-telling,” Rin replied, pointing directly across from the haunted house at a classroom with a small sign reading ‘Mystic Club Love Fortune Reading’.

Yuto stared blankly at the sign.

He really didn’t want to do something so stupid. Fortune tellers were grifters at worst, luck-based at best. There was nothing Yuto wanted to do less than go to one.

“And dear… I don’t know how I will go into a haunted house. It seems kind of scary.”

Yuto smiled wickedly.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” Yuto lied, knowing she was about to be scared out of her mind.

“That’s true, I have nothing to fear when I’m with you,” she replied, latching on to his arm.

Huh? This wasn’t quite what Yuto had in mind.

“Alright, but promise me that we can go to the fortune teller afterwards,” She requested. As much as Yuto wanted to make some sort of excuse, the way Rin’s eyes were sparkling suggested he really didn’t have much of a choice.

“Fine.”

Wait… a bad fortune… that was perfect. If they drew one stating they were incompatible, Rin would almost certainly want to separate. It was perfect. It couldn’t possibly fail.

“Really?!” Rin asked, wanting to make sure her ears weren’t deceiving her.

“You know what, there is nothing I would like to do more,” Yuto smiled, thinking only of the possibility of drawing a poor fortune.

Meanwhile, Rin, seeing Yuto offer a warm smile and his perfect facial features, had her heart rate skyrocket. She had no idea how she was going to manage going into a haunted house when her heart was already beating out of her chest.

The two entered the haunted house, and immediately, Yuto realised what a bad decision it was. How they managed to create such realistic, gory props left him speechless. Surely someone must have reported this place to the authorities already.

A ghoul pulled itself from a well, and Yuto let out a large scream, gripping tightly to Rin.

Meanwhile, Rin was actually having a wonderful time. It wasn’t nearly as scary as she imagined. In fact, it was almost comedic how bad some of the props looked. But Yuto seemed to be pretending to be scared to cuddle up to her.

She wasn’t going to complain.

She found it cute.

They exited at the other end, and Yuto was still shaking, his eyes shut tightly. He slowly opened his eyes.

“What did you think, Rin?” He asked almost robotically, his teeth still clattering.

Rin covered her mouth with her hand.

“I had a wonderful time,” she laughed.

It was at that moment that Yuto realised he was still tightly holding onto Rin’s arm. He quickly let go, his face bright red as he tried to avoid eye contact. How could he show such a pathetic side of himself?

Unless… maybe she found him such a scaredy-cat that she wanted to break up with him.

“I’m sorry I was so scared in there, I couldn’t protect you.”

She smiled back, placing her hand on her chest.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be your knight and protect you.”

Yuto could feel his ears warming up.

How had even this backfired on him? He wondered as he covered his face with his hands.

❤︎ --- ୨୧ --- ❤︎

End of Chapter 11