Kane looked down at his handkerchief — a few minutes had already passed and Erisa sat in silence. She was looking outside the window, almost as if she was reminiscing about something.
Looking back at Erisa with half-closed eyes, he could only let out a slight exhale with a half-smirk , before he pocketed the handkerchief he had been holding.
To catch her attention, Kane clears his throat, which also resets his expression. Erisa looks at him with an innocent yet confused gaze, before questioning, "Hm? Did you say something, Kane-kun?"
Kane looked at her — his gaze was a mix of wanting to care and wanting to be a little-bit condescending. With a sly smirk and a slouched back, he says, "Are you good, or do you still need to sulk in silence a little longer?"
Erisa returned the condescending stare ten-fold to Kane. Despite this seething irritation, she let out a deep exhale and closed her eyes.
She then responds with a relaxed tone, "Nope, I'm all good."
Kane stares blankly at her for a moment, a sense of awkwardness now hovering over him.
He shoots his gaze to the side before straightening his back and scratching his cheek. "I-Is that so? That… that's great."
Turning to him, Erisa then suddenly felt something crawl in her vocal chords. She tried to stop it, but she couldn't contain it. The laughter that had built up after catching how Kane both acted and looked erupted.
Kane, who was now shocked at this sudden turn of events, turns back to her with his inner eyebrow raised up and a wry half-smile on his face.
"W-why are you laughing at me like that?" he questioned as he felt his pride crumble down.
"B-because…!" Erisa stuttered through her laughter — although, she didn't continue any further from that word as she kept on laughing. The laughter, however, was a good enough answer for Kane.
With a twitching eyebrow, all Kane could do was just look at her as she ridiculed him through her laughter. "This girl…" he thought while gritting his teeth.
Looking down, he continued that thought, "...The audacity to laugh while I was being genuine!"
He then gave Erisa a death glare through his bangs. "I'll never act soft around you ever again!!!" The aura around him proceeded to degrade and grow with a dark sense of irritation, but Erisa continued laughing.
Erisa takes off their glasses and flicks away the tear that had formed under her eye as she ended her laughing with an exhale.
Kane's mouth begins to twitch as a wry smile has formed. "Are you done yet?" He grumbled.
Erisa puts on her glasses and pushes them up, before answering with closed eyes and a smile directed at Kane, "Yup! It feels really good, you know?"
With eyes closed halfway, Kane spoke with a sense of irritation in his voice, "Yeah… at the cost of my pride — it must feel really nice, huh?"
Awkwardly, Erisa chuckles at his remark while scratching her cheek.
"Hey, you're still laughing at me," Kane remarked with no emotion in his voice.
With a deep sigh and looking down with eyes closed, Kane resigns to silence knowing that this conversation will just go in circles.
The silence grows between Erisa and Kane. Abruptly, two voices are heard, which slowly grow less muffled with each footstep that echoed throughout the long hallway.
"Kazuo-chan, do you think Koyasu-kun is still in the clinic?"
"Isn't the answer already obvious, Ryūzaki? Better yet, he might still be asleep."
"Fumu~ fumu~, you're not wrong…"
After listening to that short exchange, Kane shifts his gaze over to Erisa, who might also be sharing the same thought as him as they made eye contact. "This is bad… What would they think if they saw Erisa-san!?"
He begins to scramble for words while flailing his arms forward, "U-uhm… What do we do?! They'll see you, a-and then… and then…!"
"I don't mind at all," Erisa spoke with a serious voice.
"!"
Kane froze. All his brain cells which already have been overworking in an attempt to think of an idea, had now short circuited due to this added load of information from Erisa.
Shaking his head, he panicked once again, "Still! Shouldn't you be a little worried or something? What if they say something like: 'What is Erisa-san doing here? Oh my, are you two dating?' Or something like that!"
"Like I said, I don't mind at all," Kane was at a loss for words as Erisa spoke those words with the same serious expression. Contemplating what she would say next, she then continues, "Those two won't assume something like that, because…"
"...we're all friends, right?" Erisa proceeded to give Kane a warm smile — Kane was at an even bigger loss for words as he began to feel flustered as well.
Silence once again fills the room — however, that would soon be broken as the same voice from outside remarks in a surprised tone, "Ah! Okawa-san! What are you doing here?"
Erisa's smile immediately fades away and shadows form over his eyes.
Kane also notices this sudden shift in emotion — which he then immediately understood why in record time.
With a smirk now plastered on his face, he leans forward and asks, his words filled with mischief, "Oh~? What's with that look? I thought you didn't mind?"
"Let me hide in your bed," Erisa blurted out while looking down.
"Hmm~? What did you just say?" Kane spoke with irritating confidence while holding his forehead.
Abruptly, those words finally get processed in his brain. "Wait, what did you actually just say?"
Erisa then jumps onto the bed and grabs Kane by the collar, before shaking him aggressively. "YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! HIDE ME UNDER THE BLANKET FOR ALL I CARE!!!"
"W-what?! Are you insane!? I can't just get out of the bed n—"
The door is then heard sliding open. Erisa gasps as she looks over her shoulder with a terrified expression.
Turning back to Kane, she looks at him with a gaze that indicates that she has made up her mind as her lips begin to tremble.
Kane shakes his head knowing all-too-well what she is about to do, before whispering to her, "Don't you dare…"
THUD!
"Not… again!" Kane groaned in pain as he found himself on the floor head-first.
Erisa tosses the blanket over herself just in time as Satoshi, who was still in the gym uniform, turns the corner — who then freezes as he makes eye-contact with the boy on the floor.
Kazuo, who was walking behind Satoshi and still in the gym uniform, peeked over the shoulder of his friend with closed eyes as he held the nose of his bridge. With a disappointed sigh, he says, "What's with the hold up? Did Kane-san do something dumb—"
Slowly opening his eyes, he is then met with the same sight. "Oh… he did do something dumb," Kazuo flatly said.
Slowly pushing himself up, Kane rubs his head while speaking with a strained voice, "I-It's not like I did it on purpose…" now straightening his back, he looks at his bed, which has a noticeable lump.
"Crap, how am I meant to explain this to them?" Kane thought as no ideas popped up in his head.
Turning back to them, he also notices Ayumi, who had pulled open the curtain that separated the bed from the main room.
"Have you seen Fujikawa-sama anywhere?" She said as she held the curtain with her long, pale fingers, before looking over her shoulder — her white hair resting on her other shoulder as it had been tied up in a ponytail.
Kane rubs the back of his neck and answers lazily, "Nope… wait, why are you asking me anyway?"
Ayumi turns over her heel and looks directly at Kane. "I've been looking around everywhere for Fujikawa-sama. The bathroom, the library, even our classroom. Yet, she isn't anywhere to be found."
Kane begins to rub his chin. "Naruhodo, naruhodo[1]…" he then places the same hand he used to rub his chin on his hip, before shrugging. "Have you tried looking at the cafeteria? She might just be getting a snack."
"I already checked there," Ayumi crossed her arms while tilting her head down.
"The swimming pool?" Kane questioned.
"Why would she go there?" Ayumi's eyebrow twitched.
"Hmm… how about the clinic?" Kane asked with a blank expression.
"That is why I am here…" Ayumi felt her patience running out with the boy in front of her.
She exhales through her mouth as she feels like she's just wasting time here. Turning her back to Kane, she defeatedly says, "I might as well try in the courtyard…"
The sound of fabric rustling then reaches the ears of all four of them. Kane's expression remains lackluster, but deep down…
"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MOVE, YOU IDIOTTTT?!?!?!?!" …he was already seething.
Satoshi was the first to call it out. Pointing at the bed meagerly, he states with a raised eyebrow, "I… think I just heard something come from the be—"
Kane then attempts to push Satoshi out. As sweat begins to roll down his face, he says, "HAH!?! That must be your imagination, I-I-I don't know what you're talking about, Ryūzaki-kun!"
"Crap, crap, crap! This is starting to get even worse!" Kane thought as he tried his best to push Satoshi out of the room.
"What do I do…" An idea then pops up in his head thanks to a stroke of luck and his brain cells working in overtime. "...That's it!"
"Oh, right! If I'm not mistaken, there's a free roll event happening right now on that gacha game you play, and the signal is pretty weak here! You should go check it outside!" Kane said with a feverish expression.
Satoshi's eyes fill with excitement. "Really!?!" He then grabs his phone from his pocket, beginning to tap on it aggressively before running outside, his voice trailing off into the distance as he shouts, "I'll be right baaaaack!"
With one problem down, Kane shifts his gaze to Kazuo. "I think you should go accompany Ryūzaki-kun, he might get into trouble!"
"Do I really have to~?" Kazuo moaned as he slouched his shoulders.
"He might accidentally find himself surrounded by girls! You wouldn't want to miss that opportunity to make fun of him, now would you, Kazuo-san?!" Kane said while pointing his finger upward.
Kazuo's eyes fill with excitement. "You're not wrong!" He then begins to run after Satoshi — leaving behind a smoke trail. His voice trailed off into the distance as he shouts, "I'll make sure to record iiittt!"
Two done — one more to go. Now turning over to Ayumi, Kane reaches out to her while smiling with his eyes. "I-I think you should go ahead and check out—"
"What are under those sheets, Koyasu-sama?" Ayumi asked with a steadfast gaze directed toward the lump on the bed.
Kane had to switch up his plan, and fast! While rubbing the back of his head, he says with an awkward tone in his voice, "T-that? Those are just some pillows…"
Ayumi squints her eyes at Kane, which immediately makes the boy uneasy. "This is bad, she isn't as easily persuaded compared to those two," he thought while still holding a calm expression.
"Hmm?" Ayumi wasn't so easily deceived. "Could you at least pull up those sheets? You might be lying, after all," she demanded while crossing her arms and raising her chin.
Kane grumbles at what she just said. Slouching his back, his eyes half-close in a way that his dark-brown eyes can barely be seen.
"Look, if you have a fetish for seeing what people's beds look like after they wake up, you can just say it outright," a warm smile then washes over Kane's face. "I won't judge!"
"Are you stupid?" Ayumi said with a wry smile and closed eyes — a vein also began to pop out of the side of her head.
With a deep sigh, she began to make her way toward the bed. With her gaze downcast, she muttered, "Whatever, if you aren't going to do it, then I'll do it."
Kane couldn't let this happen — if Ayumi, of all people, was to find out that Erisa visited Kane, the misunderstandings would spiral out of control and bring havoc to their lives.
In a list ditch attempt, Kane threw his hand forward while shouting, "W-wait!"
CLAP!
[1] "Naruhodo" (なるほど) is a Japanese expression that roughly translates to "I see," "I understand," or "Indeed."