Three Supportive Idiots Help Each Other Out

Bzzt! Bzzt!

Juzo flung himself up from his couch and quickly surveyed his surroundings. He located the buzzing phone on the side table and picked it up. It was a call from Nikko.

"Yo, what'cha need?"

"Was just answering with a "hello" not good enough? Never mind, that doesn't matter. Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Man, I don't ever have anything going on, of course I'm free tomorrow. Why?"

"Wanna hang out with me and Tomoka?"

"Yeah, sure. But have you called Reina yet?"

"No, I was going to after this."

"Alright, good. Bye."

Juzo hung up the phone, leaving Nikko confused.

"Wait, did you hang up? Juzo? What the hell?"

Not wanting to waste time reflecting on Juzo's abrupt end to the phone call, Nikko turned his attention to Reina. It only took a few seconds after dialing her contact for her to pick up.

"What do you want, Nikko?"

"Doesn't anyone say "hello" anymore? Or are my friends just too rude to answer me nicely?"

"Cut the whining out, I don't care. Now what do you want?"

"Would you be interested in hanging out with me, Juzo, and Tomoka tomorrow?"

"Wow, I never thought you'd intentionally bring people to get in between you and your precious Tomoka."

"Just answer the damn question, Reina."

"Yeah, I'd like to."

"Okay! Then I'll talk to you more about it tomorrow. I'll see you then. Bye."

Now Nikko was the one to suddenly hang up, leaving Reina to listen to her phone's silence for a while before she realized that Nikko had ended the call. But she was happy, as she recognized that it was the same old Nikko she'd just finished talking to.

"I knew I was overreacting."

Standing in front of the door in the chill morning, Juzo flicked his hand to knock the door a couple times. Shortly after, the door crept open.

"Morning, Rin… oh shit! You're up early!"

Behind the door was surprisingly the tall figure of Nikko, instead of the usual petite Rinako. Nikko didn't pay much attention to the comment.

"Come on in. I need to talk to you guys, so we gotta wait for Reina."

Seeing Nikko's somewhat serious behavior, Juzo responded by acting as ignorant as possible.

"Yeah, whatever. You got any food lying around?"

"Don't touch my food. You always eat before you leave your house anyways."

"Fine then."

Juzo walked over to the fridge and swung the door open. He grabbed the milk carton out and was about to pour a glass, but Nikko grabbed his arm.

"Don't you dare."

Juzo threw the milk carton down onto the counter, then threw a sneering gaze towards Nikko. Nikko didn't take that too kindly.

"Hey, don't you remember what happened the last time someone drank my milk? You should; you had front row seats to that spectacle."

Juzo filed through his memories for a few seconds before remembering.

"Oh, yeah! You freaked out at Reina!"

Juzo also remembered the events that led up to that incident.

"Hey, Reina hasn't asked to stay over since then, has she?"

"Oh no. She's stayed on her parent's good side for the last while, so luckily she's had no problems."

"That's good to hear. Though, I guess I could've asked her."

Suddenly, Reina walked in through the front door, which was accidentally left open.

"Yeah, you could have. I don't appreciate people talking behind my back."

Reina sneered at Juzo, but her expression quickly changed into a joking smile. Nikko didn't waste any time to guide her towards his announcement.

"Good, you're here. Come sit down, I have something to talk to you about."

Reina walked into the kitchen and joined Juzo, who was sitting at the dining table.

"Just make it quick. It's too early for this."

Nikko paced around for a few steps before turning to face the two.

"I'm in love with Tomoka."

Both Juzo and Reina started expressionless at Nikko for several moments. Eventually, Reina leaned over towards Juzo.

"Is this supposed to be news or something?"

"I think so, just nod along."

Reina followed the advice and slowly nodded at Nikko. He wasn't taking the reaction very well.

"You know, you could give your thoughts. Or just say anything."

Juzo raised his hand up to signal that he had some thoughts.

"Firstly, this isn't news to us. It's been obvious the last few days. Secondly, how the hell did you come to this conclusion three days after meeting the girl? This seems like it will blow up in your face."

Nikko immediately knew how to respond.

"Correction: it's been two days 'cause I came to this conclusion yesterday. But I have this feeling about Tomoka, and I just wanna be with her. I know I have to tell her how I feel."

Now Reina was the one to interject.

"Pump the brakes, Romeo. You can't just confess to a girl that quickly. There's no reason to rush, so just take your time. Spend more time with her so you get to know her better. Then maybe after a few weeks, you can confess to her. But please, be more patient."

Nikko took a seat at the dining table to think through Reina's words.

"You know what, I think I'll listen to you about this. I honestly have no idea what I should be doing, so I'll assume that you do. Anyways, thanks. Let's get going to school."

Nikko grabbed his bag and headed towards the door. He turned around and gestured over to the others.

"C'mon, I gotta lock the door."

The two followed Nikko outside of the house and started on their walk to school. While Nikko walked on at the front, Reina pulled Juzo further back to try and get some privacy.

"Looks like he's the same."

"Yeah, I didn't really think that he'd be stupid enough to ditch us."

Reina sighed.

"I'm such an idiot for getting ahead of myself with this whole thing. Sorry for bothering you so much."

"Hey, it's no problem at all. I'm your friend, it's my responsibility to hear you out when you're troubled. Though I doubt my advice was very helpful."

Reina playfully jabbed an elbow into his ribs.

"You got that right. Everything you said to me was terrible."

"Yeah, whatever. It's all good and done with."

Soon enough, the trio had arrived in class, and Nikko was eager to see Tomoka. Sneaking into the classroom undetected, he quietly crept up behind her. Striking like a cobra, he jabbed her in the sides with his fingers. Not surprisingly, her reaction was vicious, as she swung around and slapped him in the face.

"What the hell!? Nikko!? What are you doing!?"

Nikko was gently caressing his now red and stinging cheek.

"It's just a prank."

"Geez, you scared me to death. How's your face?"

Nikko carefully poked his sore cheek, only to wince in pain.

"Pain."

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Friends accidentally beat each other up all the time."

Tomoka gave Nikko a somewhat disturbed look.

"Um, maybe we shouldn't be friends if you think it's fine to hit each other."

"You'll get used to it. Anyways, Juzo and Reina gave the thumbs up for meeting up after school, so it's all good."

"Oh, cool. Can't wait."

"Bell's gonna ring soon, so I'll come talk to you later. See ya."

Tomoka waved to Nikko as he trudged over to his desk and flopped into his chair. Bored, Juzo went over to check on him.

"Are you that tired, too?"

Nikko shook his head.

"No, it's not that. I'm just really anxious for some reason."

Juzo scratched his head while trying to put the pieces together, but couldn't figure anything out.

"Why're you nervous? You did spend some time with her after school yesterday, right?"

"Yeah, but that was at a karaoke joint. We're going to my house today."

"Oh, okay, but if you already told her, there's no reason…"

Juzo finally caught on.

"You haven't told her yet!?"

"I thought it'd be fine if I just casually brought it up as we walked home."

"You sound like some sort of creep. Go tell her now."

Almost on cue, the bell rang, and everyone hurried to their seats. Knowing he too had to go back, Juzo muttered one last word at Nikko before going back.

"Lunch."

"Yeah, yeah."

Forced to wait as the hours excruciatingly passed by, Nikko anxiously panicked over the chance that Tomoka would turn him down. But as the lunch bell rang, he was left with no other option but to tell Tomoka. While he was attempting to muster up his courage at his desk, Tomoka called over to him.

"Hey, Nikko, come over here!"

Taking a deep breath, Nikko got up and grabbed his bag. To his surprise, he turned towards Tomoka's desk and saw that Juzo and Reina were sitting beside Tomoka, eating their food while happily talking. Seeing everyone's enjoyment brought some sense of calmness to Nikko, and he went over and pulled up a chair to join them.

"So, how have you found this school so far? Everything going well?"

Reina was in the middle of a conversation with Tomoka.

"Pretty good. I've had no issues so far, so I'm pretty happy with that."

"Oh, that's good."

Seeing a break in general discussion, Nikko took his chance to jump in.

"Hey, Tomoka, we're gonna go hang out at my house after school. Is that good with you?"

Without looking up from her food, Tomoka gave a straight answer.

"Yeah, of course. Just show me the way."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Nikko's worries were put to rest. But unfortunately for Juzo, who was sitting beside Nikko, a vicious punch to his side was his punishment for making Nikko worry over nothing. As Juzo was hunched over from the strike, he weakly muttered his apology.

"Sorry."

Nikko gave him a pat on the pack, then pulled out his lunch to eat. The rest of the lunch break was filled with friendly discussions and jokes, but the all-too-short break was over much earlier than any of them wanted. Everyone packed up their things and headed back to their desks, but Tomoka stopped Nikko.

"Hey, just wait."

"Hmm? What do you need?"

"I'm looking forward to seeing your place."

Tomoka flashed him a sincere smile, which struck Nikko in a way he'd never felt before. Caught off guard by the sudden cuteness of Tomoka, he failed to find a comeback. Instead, he just returned a smile and went back to his desk to count down the hours until school ended.