Must Be Completely Out Of Mind

“Okay, Mikami-san. Your official time is 11.6 seconds! Good job. You may take a break. Nexxtt!” said the PE teacher in a loud voice.

Class 1-B is out on the tracking field for their physical education lesson, and Kyashii just finished her 100-meter sprint.

“I had no clue you were such a speed demon, Mikami-san,” Hana said as Kyashii sat next to her. She wasn’t expecting such a stunningly attractive girl could also be a formidable sprinter.

“Nah... That’s just the average. I used to spend a lot of time running across rice paddies when I was in grade school.”

“Mmm… Does that mean you weren’t born and raised here in Osaka?”

“Ah... Yeah. I was born in Yamagata. My father’s company asked him to relocate here in Osaka, so our family moved here during my first year of middle school.”

“I see. It makes perfect sense why you’re much more athletic than me. And there’s no doubt you’re even more athletic than Shibasaki-san.” Hana grinned.

“Eh? Why? Yuyo didn’t do good?”

“Well, she went for sit-ups instead of sprints but still had trouble keeping up at it.” Hana chuckled as she recalled Yuyo grumbling about having to attend PE class.

“Ooh~... That’s a real shame. I didn’t witness her suffering. Hmph! Anyway, where is she? I don’t see her in the other groups.” Kyashii scanned the group of running and resting classmates, but she couldn’t find Yuyo.

“I saw her sitting on a bench next to the sinks when I walked by. She seemed to be taking a break there.” Hana pointed to a bench in the shade of some trees.

Indeed, Yuyo was there sitting all by herself, apparently engrossed in her phone again.

“Ohh... Wait... I’ll go to her, Nazumi-san.” Kyashii uttered with excitement when she saw no one was with Yuyo at the moment.

“Of course, go ahead, Mikami-san.” Hana just smiled as she watched Kyashii joyfully dash towards Yuyo. She can’t help but notice Kyashii’s mood shift whenever she sees or talks to Yuyo. She wonders if Kyashii has noticed it herself.

“Yuyo~ what are you doing here by yourself?”

“I guess I’m resting and playing.” Yuyo didn’t even bother to look up at Kyashii while she was fiddling with her phone.

Umm? What’s making this person so busy?

Kyashii took a quick glance at Yuyo’s phone screen. “Ohh! I know that game. I also enjoy playing Horroofield. So you also like scary games, huh?”

“Heh? You play this?” Yuyo looked dubious as she paused the game. The expression on her face suggests that Kyashii is just making things up.

“Why are you looking at me like that?! I do play that game! I’m also into the horror genre. Hmph!” Kyashii scowled.

“Really?” Yuyo doesn’t seem convinced, though. As far as her mind was concerned, she expected Kyashii to be a scaredy-cat who doesn’t do well with scary things.

“Yes! Let me show you! Please hand over your phone.” Kyashii motioned Yuyo for her phone.

“Well then... Here you have it.”

“Hmph! I’ll show you!” Kyashii started the game off with a frown. With a challenged ego, there was no time for her to focus on anything else other than the game. She didn’t even notice Yuyo slowly leaning over her shoulder.

“Hmm… Not bad.” Yuyo is pretty impressed that Kyashii can play such a scary game. She was about to move away from her when she caught sight of something else.

At the very next moment, Kyashii cleared one of the game’s stages. “See?! I told you I’m good at thi–” Before she could gloat about it, Kyashii became aware of Yuyo’s face on her shoulder. “Waahh!” She instinctively recoiled from Yuyo. The sudden closeness of her face caused Kyashii’s heart to skip a beat.

When did she even get that close?!

“What are you doing?! You surprised me!” Kyashii’s cheeks grew hot as she glowered at Yuyo, who was also taken aback by her action.

“Do you have to back away like that, though?” Yuyo lifted a brow.

“It’s because your face is so close! Why do you have to be that close?!”

“So? What seems to be the problem with that?”

Huh??

Yeah… She’s right. What exactly is the issue if her face was an inch away from mine again?

Gaahh! She has some incredibly witty rejoinders! I can’t seem to win against her.

“We- Well... I simply feel— No! Never mind that! You dodged my question twice. I was asking you what you were doing?”

“Oh, that… I just felt the need to get rid of the spider crawling on your shoulder, and I was loo—” It only took Kyashii a millisecond to launch herself at Yuyo before she had the chance to finish her sentence. “Uff! What are you doi—”

“Get rid of it! Remove it right away, please!!” Kyashii is shrieking in distress. Her flushed cheeks turned pale as she grasped Yuyo tight.

Kyashii’s only thought right now is that she has a spider on her tracksuit. Just the image of it crawling on her skin leaves her shaking so bad she feels like passing out. She may have a countryside upbringing, but that doesn’t make her any better at dealing with spiders or bugs.

“Make up your mind. You distanced yourself from me just seconds ago, and now, you’re clinging to me.” Yuyo said in jest while gently stroking Kyashii’s back, hoping she would be distracted from her panicky state as spiders seemed to be terrifying for her. Bearing in mind that Kyashii can handle horror games, she wasn’t expecting her reaction to spiders to be so extreme.

“Shut uuppp! It’s not the right time for that! Yuyo, please!” Kyashii’s voice is trembling.

Yuyo tittered. “It’s fine, Kyashii. I already took it off before you even moved away from me. I was just checking if there were any other spiders I could get rid of as well.”

Huh?!

Kyashii felt like a freezing water bucket had been dumped on her. Her mind is telling her she just set herself up for an embarrassing situation.

“Aahh….” She slowly eases her grip on Yuyo. “I’m sorry fo—”

“Ara~! Hugging in the middle of physical education class, aren’t we?” Minori emerged from nowhere all of a sudden.

“Ahh!” Minori’s voice prompted Kyashii to let go of Yuyo in a flash. “A-ha-ha… Ermm... The spider crawling on my shoulder was enough of a shock that I didn’t realize I had already h-hugged Yuyo.” Kyashii was quick to explain. In her confusion, she can’t decide whether she should be ashamed about hugging Yuyo or that Minori caught her doing it.

It seems that the angel of embarrassment has set eyes on me today!

“Ohh~… I see. So you hate spiders, Kyashii-chan?”

“Blergh! I don’t just hate them. I loathe bugs! There’s nothing worse than bugs!” Kyashii’s face morphed into something that not even a master painter could bring to life.

“Yeah… Kyashii’s reaction tells me everything. She was shivering to her core.” Yuyo’s lips curled in pleasure while her eyes flickered with amusement.

Those eyes again...

Kyashii has vivid images of how Yuyo looked at her the first time they met, and that’s the same look Yuyo is giving her right now that makes her feel strange.

Why do I constantly feel weird when she looks at me like that?

“But, Kyashii-chan, are you okay now?” Minori asked.

“Y-Yes. Thanks for asking, Minori.”

“Hmm? Kyashii, you thanked Minori, but I haven’t heard from you about that. Where’s my thank you for getting rid of that spider?”

Kyashii caught Yuyo’s playful smirk. “Hmph! I’ve already thanked you!”

“You didn’t. You just said sorry.”

Huh? I didn’t?

Ahh… I guess my mind is a little cluttered right now. But, hmmph! Yuyo’s just making fun of me. Well, I’m not going to give her the desired outcome she has in mind!

“My best friend shouldn’t ask me to thank her. Best friends don’t need a thank you when they help each other!” Kyashii cocked her brow at Yuyo.

“Ohh…I see what you mean. That makes perfect sense... Ahh! Your shoulder is swarming with more spiders!” Yuyo gasped, pointing to Kyashii’s left shoulder.

“Whaatt!?!” Kyashii was about to panic when Yuyo giggled uncontrollably.

“It’s only a joke. There’s nothing there.” Yuyo said between giggles. “Aww~, you have the best reaction ever! Well, I suppose that should suffice as a thank you.”

“Yuyo Shibasaki! You’re even more of a jerk than I thought you would be! My gosh! I must be completely out of my mind when I thought I wanted you as my best friend!” Kyashii couldn’t help but get pissed as she relentlessly hit Yuyo’s shoulder with her hand. “What I said a few minutes earlier is no longer true. You’re worse than bugs, spiders, or any other creepy crawlies!”

“Aw! ...Ouch! You’re hurting me and my feelings, Kyashii. And here I thought you wanted me to be mean to you.” Yuyo chuckled while ignoring Kyashii’s light smacks on her shoulder.

“I never said anything like that!”

“That’s what you said the other day. You mentioned that it’s okay to be mean to you. As a good best friend would do, I’m just following your suggestion.” Yuyo playfully gives Kyashii an okay sign.

“But that’s in an entirely different context! How come you don’t know that this is different from what I meant? There must be something wrong with your comprehension of what I was trying to say! And as far as I can tell, you’re actually bullying me! Grr!” Kyashii’s eyes are filled with rage as she stares at Yuyo.

“Heeh... I see you are making accusations against your best friend now?” Kyashii’s rage amuses Yuyo to no end.

“Whatever! Consider the word ‘spider’ banned from your vocabulary from this day onward!”

“Ah-re?? Hmm... How about arachnid, tarantula, arthrop –”

“Stop! Just stop naming that hideous creature! Quit talking! What gives you such a wide range of words?! Gosh! You’re stressing me out!”

“Heeh… One more thing, Kyashii…”

“What is it again?!”

“You hate bugs, right?”

“Obviously! Why are you even asking?”

“Then that means you don’t hate spiders since they are not bugs. They have eight legs, while bugs only have six.”

“Gaahh! I don’t care about semantics, Yuyo Shibasaki! Anything with more than five legs disgusts me! That’s it! And I just told you that word is not allowed in your vocabulary!”

Kyashii’s outburst only made Yuyo laugh harder.

Throughout all that quibbling, Minori found herself smiling as she watched her friends go at it. She has already gotten rid of a similar thought to the one she has right now, but the way she sees things, it doesn’t seem like that thought will ever get rid of itself.