What Were They Doing?!

In Kokogo, the first year classes get a field trip to Okinawa. But during my first year, the Okinawa trip was canceled for reasons I can’t exactly remember. That’s why today, Mr. Inoue started homeroom off with an announcement.

“Since you guys didn’t get to Okinawa last year, you’re going with the first year students this year.”

Good for me. My only 2 friends are first years.

“I trust you’ll be able to exercise moral compass while making your own groups of 4, and we’re letting you group with the first years too.”

Groups of 4, huh. We’ll need one more person, I guess.

“The forms are due by midnight in a week. They’re in the first year classrooms.”

I’ll go on the field trip if Aki and Tsukasa are going. I should ask them soon and grab the permission slips during break.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

When the bell rings, I decide to head down to Tsukasa and Aki’s 1st year classroom before going to the cafeteria as usual. Right when I enter the room, I’m expecting loads of students pushing, shoving, laughing, and so much rough play.

But I walk into the most sane classroom– everyone is at their desks sitting and chatting at an inside volume, and nothing but friendly smiles are worn on peoples’ faces. It was as if the classroom was a peaceful field, and the students were the most beautiful flowers.

I peek into the other 1st year classroom that was next door, wondering if they’re just like this wonderfully-behaved class.

Well, this classroom is just as I had expected before. In this classroom, there were students standing on chairs, drawing things that probably shouldn’t be drawn at school on the chalkboard, and their screams and screeches could probably be heard from upstairs.

I sigh and go back to Tsukasa and Aki’s heaven class, and I look around for the field trip forms. My eyes search left, right, up, down, and repeat a few times. I finally find the stack of papers on a stool in the back of the room.

I maneuver around each desk towards the back of the room. At each desk I pass by are a group of people talking, and when I pass by each group, their conversation suddenly shuts down and they stare at me suspiciously. Aki’s fans that are in this class glare at me even harder than everyone else.

I guess that’s the reaction from these people that I should expect, considering I’m an unknown upperclassman wandering through their tranquil flower garden which doesn’t seem very tranquil anymore but suffocating. I continue walking to the brown stool, trying not to show how extremely uncomfortable I am with all the eyes… hehe…

I make it without falling prey to the intense gazes! I wipe the nervous sweat off my forehead and successfully acquire the Okinawa permission slip.

I take off towards the cafeteria now, with the permission slip in hand. When I get to the entrance, before entering the large, crowded room, I squint my eyes to look for Aki and Tsukasa.

But I can’t find them anywhere in the room. I guess they aren’t here today… but they’re always here! I roam around the whole 1st floor, and both of them are nowhere to be found.

After searching for a few minutes, I have nothing else to do. I can’t find Aki or Tsukasa, so I’ve given up. I just stand in the middle of the hallway awkwardly, with my hands in my pockets until the bell rings. I guess I’ll have to wait until after school at Boba Fans to see them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Aoi-kunnn~ I feel like I haven’t seen you in so long~” Tsukasa bursts into the boba shop like it’s his grand entrance. I had already arrived a bit before him and was working the boba maker as usual.

I ignore him and continue working. After he puts on his uniform and skips to me, he gives me a big tight hug.

“Heyyy, why aren’t you talking to mee~” He whines. I bonk him on the head with my fist and pout.

“Where were you all break?? I was so lonely!” I grumble, then my pouting face turns into a vile scowl. “It was so awkward without you… you’ll pay…” I crack my knuckles and he immediately pulls away from the hug.

“H- hey, calm down alright? Hehe…” Tsukasa panics and backs away from furious me. “Blame Aki-chan. She’s the one who pulled me away.”

A feeling of surprise and confusion washed the evil look off my face. “Shirasawa-san? What did she want?”

Tsukasa’s eyes dash around. He stutters and scratches his head. “Uhm- we studied for our upcoming test. Nothing much.”

I sigh. “Fine then. You could at least tell me first. I was so bored without you two.” He winks a cute wink and apologizes. With that, we’re scolded by the boss once again and we get back to work.

Although I said it was fine, I could tell Tsukasa was lying. His body language gave it away so obviously. I need to get to the bottom of what Tsukasa and Aki were really doing during the break.

I try pushing him a bit about it. When I get the chance, I interrogate Tsukasa. I whisper so that the boss doesn’t hear. “Hey, so how did the study session go? Shirasawa-san’s a really good teacher, isn’t she?”

Tsukasa gets a bit startled by the question. He hesitates to answer, but then comes out with a pretty good cover up. “Y- yeah. She helped me get the hang of the… the English transitive verbs! It sure was pretty challenging… hehe~”

No matter how ecstatic and dynamic of a character Tsukasa is, he sucks at lying. I can think up over 15 situations where he was exposed thanks to his horrible lying skills… The lies he came up with back then were really out-there… at least he’s improved a little bit by talking about transitive verbs this time.

“Is that so? That’s good then.” I know for a fact that Tsukasa is lying. And I need to squeeze it out of him.

If Tsukasa won’t tell me what they were doing during the break, maybe Aki will.

About 2 hours pass when I finally see red headphones pop into the boba shop.

“The usual please.” She orders at my cashier and gives a friendly wave to Tsukasa working the boba maker. Tsukasa flashes a small grin at her in return.

“One chai milk tea with boba, it’ll be right out.” I type in the drink on the monitor, and it’s sent to Tsukasa to make.

I continue working till the end of my shift. The whole time, I had been on pins and needles, waiting to get out from behind the counter and to study with Aki. I had already given up on getting any information from Tsukasa.

I bolt to change back to my casual clothes and I quickly take my seat at the usual table with Aki.

“Shirasawa-sensei! Please teach me well!” I’ll get her in a good mood tonight by listening well to her tutoring, then I’ll be able to ask her about what happened over the break.

“The answer is this!...Did I get this one right?...You should listen to their new single…” I tried my best to satisfy Aki as much as I could.

The study session goes smoothly, with me only getting a few questions wrong and keeping my focus well.

After a few minutes, I come to an amazing conclusion. What if Aki… to Tsukasa…

Eventually, Aki wrinkles her forehead and questions me. “You’re really efficient today. Is there something going on??”

“No no, don’t worry. Just thinking about… stuff.” I answer without looking up at her and continuing to do my math.

“What kind of stuff?” She asks curiously. There you go, I got her. Now she’s gonna have to tell me, since she’s the one who asked. I evil anime laugh in my mind once again.

I smirk and ask her the question that I’ve been leading to this whole time. “Like… what were you and Tsukasa doing over the break, hm?”

Her cheeks turn bright red, but she shakes her head to make it go away. “I introduced a few of my favorite music groups to him up on the roof. He loved it.”

This time, I evil anime laugh out loud. “Nice try, but you both failed.”

Aki scratches her head nervously. “What- what are you talking about?? I showed him the classics, and the popular releases, and-”

“Tsukasa told me you guys were studying though.” I laugh. “At least you’re better at lying than Tsukasa. I’ll give you both a round of applause.” I clap sarcastically, then pound my fist on the table. “Actually, no need to tell me what you did. I already know.” I sneer and look up in a proud way.

Aki’s face turns bright red again, but she’s too flustered to stop it this time. “Huh- what were we doing then??”

I stand up and point down at her, like I’m some sort of king. “Aki-chan, you confessed to Tsukasa, didn’t you!”

Obviously that was it. She was all blushing and stuff, and I know she likes Tsukasa. I’ve never felt so confident in my life.

Aki stares up at me blankly. She blinks a bit. Suddenly, I’m starting to doubt myself. She breaks out laughing like a madman and bending over her stomach.

“W- why would I do that??” She snorts. I sit back down, embarrassed now.

“T- that’s not it? I was so confident though…” I sigh heavily. Now my face is red, and I can’t make eye contact with Aki. I cross my arms and pout.

I return to doing my math, but I get the next one wrong. And the next one, and the next one…

“H- hey, you were on a streak just now getting everything correct. What-” Aki stutters and sighs.

I grumble and drop my head on the table tiredly. “I was only doing well because I genuinely thought you told Tsukasa you like him. I’m brain-dead now.” I get the next math problem wrong too.

“No, you were doing so well! Come on, continue the hard work! Go Katsuki-san go! Go Katsuki-san go!” Aki tries to cheer me on. The productivity I had been showing today may have gotten Aki too excited for me… I groan and get the next problem wrong again.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

A few minutes later, Tsukasa comes over at the perfect time, and we all leave the shop together just as we do every night.

“It feels like so long since we've all last been together.” I whistle. Tsukasa scoffs.

“You know it was only one break period.” Aki giggles.

“So what were you guys really doing??” I press on.

But Tsukasa and Aki look at each other, then look the opposite ways, and simply shrug.

“Hey, y’all gotta tell me!! Heyyy!!” I throw a pouty fit, and we all laugh a bit.

Once we’re all outside, we say our goodbyes for the day and we all separate.

Oop- I forgot to ask about the field trip! I turn back around. “Hey, are you guys-”

But they were already gone. I sigh. “Meh, I’ll ask them tomorrow.”