A clown that likes fishing

The day after the date was another regular day at school, and I was getting bored out of my mind – although fully rested, for once. But I felt like a deer naively unaware of their surroundings, and the tigress would jump on me any second. When I looked away, I felt the weight of Aoki's gaze. If I turned to her, she would dodge me and sometimes giggle, exposing the evil brewing inside her happy-go-lucky mind. That went on until lunch when she and Souma dragged their chairs to eat with me. She was still giggling.

"Tell us! Everything." With no teacher to scold her now, she was jumpier than a spring toy.

I tried to remain on top of the situation and be smug, raising an eyebrow. But the truth was that it was embarrassing talking about yesterday.

"Come on, we've been curious the whole morning!" Souma added.

I placed my lunchbox on top of my desk and sighed, finally speaking.

"Don't you two tell each other everything?" She shrugged in a non-answer. That was a dodge rather than a no, I'm sure of it. "So what do you NOT know, I wonder..."

"Ok, mysterious guy." Aoki leaned back in her chair. "I know that she told you her childhood story, and she was excited to go back there fishing."

"You'll teach her like a pro." Like a pro? And what's up with that grin on his face? Noticing my confusion, he added: "You've already fished the biggest cutie."

The audacity of this guy is unbelievable. And so, naturally, I punched his arm. "Shut up, dude." But those two seemed to be having way too much fun. A lost war.

"Oh, by the way, I need to go and buy some stuff for my mom's shop after school. You guys coming?" Smoothly dodging it, I see.

In the time it took me to pick up my thoughts, Aoki replied while shaking her head from side to side.

"Can't. I've been slacking off way too much and now study has come to claim my soul."

"Aww, okay, then. Well, may your poor soul rest in peace." I never took Souma for a good actor, and he still isn't, but that was some good effort. Of course, I had nothing else to do so I said yes. And so later that day we found ourselves splitting off outside of school, with Aoki going in one direction and me standing behind Souma waiting to find out where we were headed. He didn't say a word about it until we were quite a bit far away from school, at which point he looked around, suspiciously so.

"We're going to the mall."

"Okay..." I've never been more confused. "So... What's up with the act?"

"We are, in fact, buying stuff for my mom as I said. But we're also getting Yuina a souvenir." He turned to me and raised his voice, his words scrambled. "Y-you meant that, right? That whole thing about helping me, us?"

I laughed and sighed. He always seems so confident and forward, but this Aoki situation turned him into an insecure puppy.

"Of course I was." I'm not a liar, come on...

That seemed to calm him down, and after an awkward silence, I decided to break the ice.

"I don't get it... If that was the plan all along why did you invite us during lunch? She could've said yes..."

"Nope! I remembered our conversation from yesterday where she said that she'd lock herself up in her room to study. So I gambled on that, I guess." He gave me a thumbs-up. I can't quite decide if he was extremely clever, or jaw-droppingly stupid. It worked out in the end, as they say.

We were at the nearest mall from school (and from home). It wasn't amazing in any way – medium to small size, not fancy. But it got the job done every time, and so I was more than familiar with it. The first thing we did was go to a furniture store, and he explained to me that his mom and the owner were long-time acquaintances, and in the past she's bought shelves and such at a discount, skipping the more annoying bureaucracy of dealing with distributors and retailers. The manager didn't seem to mind the school kid, meaning Souma had done that many times before.

I strolled around a bit and then found myself a cozy corner to stand in while I looked at my phone. Not much there, all I did was browse a little until I came across a recent Momo-chan post. Coming to think of it, the situation had flipped and now Momo-chan was starting to become the character that she was, while Sakurai felt like the real girl – someone whom I was close with and not just a cute face behind the monitor. In that post, she shared a fanart – not mine this time around – and I felt like sending her a little something. I left a like but had no idea what I could even say. "Hi" wouldn't cut it, that's boring.

In the end, we were back at the main corridor and I didn't send a thing.

"That's done, sorry for the wait. Let's go look for something."

"Alright, what do you want?" My mind was still coming back to him, partially stuck on Momo-chan.

"I don't know." Seriously? "I want to first walk around and see if I can figure out something to do, assuming that I can actually ask her out. And hopefully, I find her a little something along the way."

Alright, alright... Sure, let's do that. He stopped to browse every 5 seconds, and it was funnier than it was annoying. He seemed to really want my opinion, so I showed him a display full of accessories.

"Get something for her hair. Soon it'll be summer, right? Maybe she'll want to keep her hair up more than usual."

He was not sold on my idea. Well, that's fair. I can't claim to be a girl's fashion specialist. Nor an Aoki specialist. But we were shooting in the dark here, either way. He walked up and looked at all the items up close.

"Which one would you pick?"

I chuckled and shook my head.

"Dude... You are the one asking her out on a date, do your homework.". He turned back to the glass, his expression a mix of concern and curiosity. I decided to give him a last hint (which was just a guess, anyway).

"She likes light colors. Nothing too fancy and extravagant, but still pretty."

He stood there for a while, and I sat down outside while I waited for him. I looked at my phone once again, and Momo-chan – no, Sakurai – came back to mind. I started typing a word and then quickly deleted it. "Too boring, if you don't have anything to say then don't, Haruto". I let out a dragged-out sigh.

Souma came back, holding the plastic bag with the logo of the store, dangling it around like a prize he'd just won. Eager to show me, he quickly scrambled for the one item he chose after some digging and pulled it out of the bag. It was a hair clip that hid behind a light blue ribbon with a blue pearl of the same tone nestled in the middle. Simple, but safe – can't go wrong with that.

"Did you wanna get something? I'm thinking we finish the lap and go." Souma delicately put his prize back in the bag, as if he somehow could keep the fabric of the ribbon away from a single wrinkle.

"Let's just do that, then. That's fine." I was mentally zoned out. Not bored or anything, but I simply felt like I didn't belong there. I tried to keep the thought away, thinking it was disrespectful to my friend, but it was not easy. Maybe I was just tired from school...

We walked past a lot of different shops, and I was just along for the ride, sometimes window shopping, others talking to him, or thinking about life. Even if whatever happened between Souma and Aoki was not at all my business, it now felt like part of my life. They were both friends of mine, with all that comes with it.

We reached the other side and wrapped back around, almost back at the exit, when I saw a fishing gear store and my mind instantly went back to me and Sakurai at the pond. Some of the prices were outrageous and I wish I hadn't read them, and some were reasonable. I didn't want to linger, so I would have to do my research another day, but I felt like I finally found a conversation starter.

"Souma, come here, I need you to do something."

"Sure." He was trying to figure out what weird ideas I had in mind.

"I need you to take a pic. Here, one sec." I went inside and got greeted welcome, which I awkwardly avoided on the excuse of "not needing help" and grabbed myself a hat and the bottom half of a pole. I pretended to be fishing, struggling with a big catch. After that, I sneaked out of there hoping no one would remember my face.

"How does it feel?" He asked, grinning ear to ear.

"I feel stupid, but it was worth it."

"No, I mean... How does it feel to start going out and then finding your inner clown?"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." With my phone back in my hands, I walked blindly with my screen glued to the screen. I sent Sakurai the photo with the caption: "I'm ready, bring it on, teacher."

He playfully peeked at my phone and teased me for it, pretending not to have seen anything afterward. This guy calls me a clown and pulls that one off? I guess that's my life now, getting abducted by Souma into his circus.