Katsuo Confronts Harui, Sort Of

As the next couple of days went by, Katsuo only felt more certain that he needed to confront Harui. Especially with Tasou and Toshihiro openly greeting him and talking to him in class. It made Harui’s already obvious dismissal all the more obvious. The others did a fair job of pretending not to notice, but after a couple jibes towards Harui’s “bad” or “sour” attitude from Toshihiro, Katsuo wasn’t so sure that Toshihiro actually understood what was happening.

The Friday after playing tennis with Tasou, Katsuo finally willed himself to approach Harui. It was time for lunch, and everyone was headed off to their own spots. Hayami had just met up with Kame in the hall, they both looked over to him, and he waved them on. They both gave him a look of confusion and concern, but they left anyway.

Katsuo stood just outside the classroom door, waiting for Harui to exit. Eventually he could hear Toshihiro’s raised voice as he approached the door, likely with Tasou and Harui shortly behind him. Sure enough, Toshihiro exited the classroom, with the other two right behind him. They walked right by Katsuo without noticing him. He waited for them to take a few steps, to allow for enough distance to make it less awkward than it was already going to be.

“Hey, Harui-san.”

She turned to him; annoyance flashed in her eyes, but she didn’t say anything. Tasou and Toshihiro stopped as well, although they remained a short distance ahead of her. Tasou looked back at Katsuo with some confusion at first, but he seemed to quickly realize what this might be about. Toshihiro just looked confused. With all three of them looking at him, waiting for him to say something, Katsuo felt there was nothing for it except to just ask.

“Harui-san, would you please meet me after school? I want to talk to you about something.”

She crossed her arms, the annoyance all the clearer now.

“Why should I?”

“Please? It will be quick.”

“Fine. After school, at the front gate. I’m on cleaning duty today, so you’ll have to wait.”

He hesitated for a moment.

“Okay, that’s fine. And Harui-san, thank you.”

She rolled her eyes at him, turning to catch back up with the other two. Tasou gave an approving look to Katsuo but said nothing. Toshihiro had a funny look on his face, and Katsuo could only just hear him starting to tease Harui.

“Uh oh Harui-san, it looks like Katsuo-san is going to ask you out again.”

Katsuo couldn’t hear anything else said after that, just that Harui had exclaimed something in return and Tasou seemed to be trying to bring an end to the topic. Katsuo just sighed, then made his own way to join Hayami and Kame for lunch.

He stopped and grabbed a canned coffee from a vending machine along the way. When he approached the table, Kame smiled cheerfully and waved to him. Hayami just looked up at him, with a question on her face. Although, it was Kame who spoke first.

“Hey Katsuo-san, is everything okay?”

“Huh, oh yeah. It’s fine. Just wanted to ask Harui-san to meet me after school.”

Hayami looked a little surprised, either by him actually doing it or because he had told Kame about it, he didn’t know. Kame looked a little surprised as well, but also… defeated?

“You aren’t going to ask her out again, are you?”

“What? No, I just don’t want her to act so unhappy to see me all the time. So, I just figured I’d let her know that there were no hard feelings, that’s all.”

Kame seemed to cheer up at this.

“Oh, well good! Because you were kind of cranky when she turned you down last time.”

“I was?”

“Yep! Anytime someone asked you about it, you would get all grumpy and say – ‘Why don’t you just mind your own business?’ To be honest it was kind of scary. It scared me anyway.”

She mentioned the last part quietly, as if she had been thinking out loud. Hayami cleared her throat.

“Well, to be honest, I feel as though he probably was right in saying so. Perhaps he could have been nicer about it.”

Katsuo looked at Hayami like she lost her mind. What on earth was she doing? Was she actually playing along with this? It’s not like he had asked Harui out. And if he had, it wasn’t technically him. It was the other Katsuo, if there was one.

Kame threw up her hands, waving them in front of her.

“No, no, no! Of course, he was right, it was just…”

“I’m sorry, Kame-san.”

“What?”

“I said that I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I had been so grumpy afterwards.”

The words felt awkward in his mouth, like he was trying to practice a line for a part in a play. Hayami was trying to hide a smile by taking a drink. Kame, on the other hand, must have taken his awkward statement for discomfort or embarrassment because she acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.

“That’s okay! That was over a year ago, we’re way past that now.”

She smiled at him, conveying total honesty. Hayami just sipped her juice, nodding a little to give the sense of continued participation in the discussion. They spent the rest of lunch discussing class work while they ate, answering one another’s questions about one topic or another. Then it was time to get back to class.

Throughout the rest of class that day, all Katsuo could feel was an impending dread for his conversation with Harui. He tried to remind himself that it was going to be alright, just a simple informative statement, and then it would be over.

He didn’t feel nervous at all, just the look that Harui had given him a few times really deterred him from wanting to speak to her about it. Of course, this line of thought was quickly matched with the obvious logic that confronting her was the only way to bring an end to those looks and her obvious dismissal of him.

Finally, class came to an end. Katsuo gathered his things, changed shoes, and then waited for Hayami at the front entrance. She appeared shortly after he had.

“You know she has cleaning duty today, right?”

He nodded, appreciative of her not naming Harui openly for everyone on their way out of school to hear.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll just have to wait.”

Hayami nodded once, as if she had expected this.

“I’ll let Kanna-chan know you’ll be running a bit late today.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

With that, she was gone. Katsuo found a bench by the front gate of the school yard and took a seat to wait. First all of the waiting in class, and now he had to wait even more out here. All of this waiting was only making him anxious.

He wished he had thought to bring a book or something with him, but he also hadn’t considered Harui being on cleanup duty today. He couldn’t help but wonder if that hadn’t been true. Maybe she had just said that so he wouldn’t bug her any further? Or maybe she was on duty, but she would try and give him the slip. He was quite sure that Toshihiro’s comment to Harui earlier, certainly hadn’t helped him much.

Eventually, he heard footsteps on the stairs that led in and out of the front entrance of the high school building. He looked up to see Rikuyo Yamazaki making her way out of the building. She walked with her head slightly down, clutching her bag to her chest. Katsuo only recognized her because of her glasses. Which had been hard to notice with her hair coming loose, partially hiding her face.

She kept walking, seeming not to notice him until she had nearly walked by him. When she did finally appear to see him, she stopped, not making eye contact.

“Oh, hey Nakajima. What’re you doing here?”

“Hi there, I’m waiting for Harui-san.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that you too were friends”

“No, we’re not. I just asked to talk to her about something, but she had cleaning duty, so I waited. That’s all.”

“I see, well sorry for bothering you. Goodbye Nakajima.”

He stood up.

“Hey, Yamazaki?”

She turned back in his direction, not quite facing him. Man, she really is shy.

“Yes?”

“You should call me by my given name, Katsuo. Everyone else in class does. And I’d prefer it if you did.”

She seemed to grow flustered, squirming a little as she spoke. Even her cheeks colored a bit, probably from embarrassment if he had to guess.

“Oh- uh, I… Sure, Katsuo-san. And you can call me Rikuyo. If you want to, that is.”

“Of course, and thanks.”

“Goodbye, Katsuo-san.”

She gave a small bow.

“See you later, Rikuyo-san. Have a good weekend!”

“Huh, oh. You too.”

He shook his head a little bit as she left. Poor girl could barely hold a conversation. He turned to look towards the school, hoping to see Harui. And when he did, he almost wished she hadn’t been standing there. She stood on one of the steps, giving him a sharp look of disapproval. He opted not to sit back down and wait for her to approach.

She strode over towards him, like an angry queen in a hurry. Was she angry? When she reached him, she crossed her arms and stood firm. Looking at him expectantly. He honestly didn’t know what to say to her. All of this time waiting, and when it finally came down to it – nothing.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Oh, right. Well, I wanted to let you know that there’s no hard feelings. And that I’m not upset about your answer.”

For some reason she seemed to only be getting more irritated. She scowled at him.

“Is that why you were talking to Yamazaki? Trying to make me jealous? Well, I’ll have you know, it didn’t work.”

Katsuo couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No, nothing like that. She just- “

He sighed.

“Look, I’m not the only one who has noticed how you get when I’m around. You, well you turned me down. Whatever is between us, can we just let it go?”

She glared at him, but confusion showed on her face as well. What could she be confused about?

“I turned yo- what?”

It didn’t come out as a question, or at least not one that she meant to ask out loud. She recovered quickly, certainly before Katsuo could guess what she had been thinking. And the anger was back on her face.

“You don’t have to be a smart ass about it. I know what I did, and I did feel bad about it. But now, maybe I don’t.”

Feel bad about what? Turning him down?

“I see this conversation isn’t going anywhere. Thanks for wasting my time.”

With that, she turned and stormed away. As she strode off, Katsuo couldn’t help but feel that his three friends from class 2 – 2 had given the title ‘Cold Princess,’ to the wrong girl. Sure, Hayami was a bit stern and off-putting at first, but once you got to know her, she was actually kind of sweet. Harui Kimura on the other hand?

Katsuo shook his head. Maybe she wasn’t all that bad, Tasou was friends with her after all. He supposed it was probably just him. One thing he couldn’t understand though, was why she was so frustrated about the whole thing. He’d never seen or heard of a girl acting like that just because some guy asked her out. What memories did she have of him?

Katsuo shrugged the whole thing off, putting his hands into his pockets and began walking home. He supposed there was nothing for it, at least nothing he could do about it now. As he approached the intersection where he and his sister usually parted ways with Hayami, he noticed her waiting for the crosswalk light to change. She noticed him and waved, then crossed the other street to meet him as he did. She noticed his questioning glance.

“I walked Kanna to your house, your mother insisted I come in for tea.”

He nodded in understanding, sure that it was more than just being polite his mother was after. Hayami continued.

“How did it go?”

Katsuo grimaced.

“That bad huh?”

“Yeah, it didn’t go anything like I had hoped.”

“Would you like to talk about it? Maybe I’ll spot where you went wrong.”

He shrugged.

“Sure, want a coffee? We can talk at the park near the convenience store.”

She hesitated but nodded. After Katsuo had bought them each a coffee, they walked down the street to the park he used to frequent in his other world. As they walked towards it, Katsuo noticed that the bench was also further from the road, and not just opposite of the tree. He stopped at the cross walk before entering, noting the lack of the large crack he had managed to catch the toe of his shoe on.

Hayami noticed him looking. She stood patiently; a trace of sympathy crossed her face.

“Is this where it happened?”

“Yeah, it is. If it wasn’t just a dream.”

They sat on the bench, with less than an arm’s reach between them. Katsuo tipped his coffee, opened it, and set it beside him. Hayami shook her head at him as he did this, but he noticed her do it too. Katsuo leaned back on the bench and closed his eyes. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes, eventually Katsuo broke the silence.

“I used to come here every morning before school. It’s nice.”

Hayami seemed to understand he wasn’t really trying to spark conversation and more of just filling the silence.

“So, what happened?”

Katsuo blew out a breath, and then proceeded to tell her about his encounter with Harui after school. Hayami didn’t interrupt or even show a change of expression, once he had finished, she asked about his conversation with Rikuyo. He filled her in on the brief interaction, to which she just nodded. She seemed to be processing everything he had said.

“I think you handled it well, but perhaps you let her trample over you a bit. You could have used a bit more tact, but overall, you weren’t disrespectful. But Harui-san… Hmm.”

“Unreasonable?”

“Mm, maybe. On the face of things, perhaps. But I get the feeling that there’s more to this than we know.”

Katsuo nodded; he felt the same way. Hayami sighed.

“I suppose there’s nothing for it but to wait for her to cool off.”

Katsuo agreed, he couldn’t see what more there was to be done. Asking anyone about it didn’t seem to be a good idea either. He sighed and stood up.

“Walk you home?”

“Sure.”

He was a bit surprised she had agreed, but she did look to be thinking about something so maybe she hadn’t really processed what he had asked. Once they had reached the intersection, Katsuo could see Hayami’s cheeks were beginning to glow. She must have just realized what she agreed to. She didn’t say anything as they crossed, and neither of them spoke the rest of the way to her place either. Eventually, Hayami came to a stop in front of a house similar in size to Katsuo’s own home.

“Thank you for walking me home.”

She said with a slight bow.

“Oh, uh sure.”

She walked through the gate and up the steps, she stopped at the door, and he could just hear her call after him.

“Good night, Katsuo Nakajima.”

“Good night, Hayami-san.”

He waved, not sure whether she could see him or not. Despite the day’s events, Katsuo was grateful he had a friend to talk to about everything. He decided that it really did make the difference in one’s life. With that thought in mind, he made his way back home.