Ayumi gasps in shock — her eyes widening with this new sensation. She slowly looks down as a blush begins to form on her cheeks.
Now staring at how Kane's hand fully encompassed her wrist, her breathing became more weary. She could feel the heat of his grip transfer over to her wrist — yet, all she could do was stare.
"Na-na-nan-nani?!" Ayumi was absolutely confused, her mind was aflutter and her vision became skewed. Her eyes then traveled upward to the face of the boy —- the blush on her face now reaching her ears.
His eyes were hidden behind his bangs as he looked at the floor. However, Ayumi wanted him to look at her. She wanted him to see what he had done — she wanted him to look her in the eyes as he held her.
Kane slowly looks up from the floor, his dark-brown eyes glisten as it fixates on her face. Slowly, he opens his lips — a low voice began to roll out of his mouth, "P-please… wait."
Slowly placing a hand on her chest, Ayumi felt her heartbeat — it was pounding, hard. She pushed her hand deeper into her chest as her breathing grew more frantic. But still, she waited for Kane to speak.
"Boku wa…[1]" Kane spoke, his voice trembling — however, Ayumi only saw him look more cool by the second.
This was driving her crazy. She didn't want to go insane over a boy touching her — she had to put an end to this.
Quickly, she pulls her arm away and raises it high up in the air, her silver eyes glaring down at the boy. With a cute stutter in her high-pitched voice, she panicked, "I… I—"
She slowly takes a step back as she lowers her hand…
…before sprinting out the door.
"I CAN'T RECIPROCATE YOUR FEELINGS!!!" Ayumi shouted, her voice began to trail off into the distance as her pattering footsteps grew quieter the further she ran.
Kane looked at the outline of what was left of Ayumi before she sprinted off — the face he wore was a mix of confusion, and the pain of being rejected despite not having the intention of confessing.
"Why am I the one who gets to experience these kinds of things?" Kane contemplated as he pinched the bridge of his nose, frustrated at everything.
A snicker is then heard from under the sheets of the bed. The black-haired boy looked over at the bed, his face grew even more stern. With a slight tilt of the head, he approaches the bed.
"Alright, that's enough, Erisa-san. You can leave now," he said while crossing his arms and looking completely disinterested. However, the response he got was just the lump moving slightly.
Raising an eyebrow, Kane tightens the grip he has on his bicep as he treats the girl in the bed like a child who doesn't want to get up for school, "Oi, you can get up now."
The lump shuffles around once more, before coming to a stop — this gets on the nerves on Kane as he clicks his tongue. "You defiant little brat…" he spoke under his breath.
Noticing that Erisa had no intention of leaving, he took the initiative and took a hold of the blanket. "If you aren't gonna leave, then I'll make you leave!" he said with a flame in his eyes.
As he began to pull on it, the girl underneath the blanket retorted while holding on dearly to the blanket, "Iyaadaaa~![2] Just a few more minutes— a few more minutes, I tell you!"
Kane kept on pulling while Erisa kept on pulling the blanket back on her. It was like a game of tug-of-war… if it were a one-sided game where one person had concrete tied to their legs and the other had five other teammates.
"How are… you… this… strong!? Are you some kind of demigod!?" Kane muttered as sweat began to form on his forehead.
Erisa peeked over the blanket while pouting, still holding on tightly to the blanket. With a playful tone, she spoke, "Mouu~, you should eat more meat if you want to get as strong as me!"
With a disheveled expression, he shoots a glare at Erisa, before saying with a strained voice, "Are you… calling me… skinny!?!"
Tightening his grip on the blanket, he uses the indirect insult as fuel to power his strength. With one final tug, he pulls the blanket off Erisa, catching her off-guard and frozen.
With a deadpan expression, she says nonchalantly, "Eh? That was actually impressive."
While Kane was huffing and puffing in an attempt to release the build-up of stress, Erisa slowly pushes herself and stretches her arms upward. Slowly, she closes her eyes as she moans, "Guhaaa~, I'm up~!"
Now feeling like a brand new person, Erisa opens her eyes and looks at Kane intently — her gaze fixates on his face. With a flutter of her eyelashes, she lowers her hands and a playful smirk forms on her face.
Purple eyes begin to glimmer as Erisa beckons Kane with a playful voice, "Nee~ nee~, Kane-kun."
As he straightens his back, Kane lazily hangs the blanket on the bed frame, before resting his hand on his hip and answering, "What is it?"
Brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, she puffs her chest out and asks, "Are you free later this afternoon?"
Kane closes his eyes and places a hand on his forehead. "Do you really have to make yourself look hot while saying that?" afterwards, he shakes his head and continues, "Still, no. I'm not free this afternoon."
Unimpressed, Erisa raises an eyebrow and drags out a long "Ehhh?" from her lips. Shortly after, she questions him, "Why~? Are you going out with Ryūzaki-san and Suou-san?"
With hesitation slowly building up deep inside of him, Kane lowers his head slightly. "Should I tell her that I and Inari-chan are going out later?" an inner-conflict began to brew in his mindscape.
Suddenly, a chibi version of Kazuo pops up from a puff of smoke. With a halo hovering over his head, beautiful white wings, a white robe adorned on his body, and a weirdly high-pitched voice, he spoke, "You do know being honest is one of the virtues of a good human being!"
"I suppose you aren't wrong with that logic…"
Then, fire erupts from thin air as a chibi version of Satoshi materializes from the flames. With black horns on his head, black bat-like wings, a black robe, and yet the same weirdly high-pitched voice, he refuted, "That would just hurt her feelings — Just keep it a secret!"
"Hm… He also has a good point about that…"
The angel chibi version of Kazuo casts a nasty glare toward the devil chibi version of Satoshi. "Oi! What are you doing here?! Get lost!" Shortly after, he dashes toward the devil and begins to give him a noogie.
"Ouch, that hurts— hey, stop!!!" Devil Chibi Satoshi cries out in pain. Shortly after, the two chibis disappear in a cloud of smoke, leaving Kane to his own devices.
With a deep sigh, Kane had come to the conclusion that he should just come clean with Erisa. "Nope, apparently Inari-chan wants to treat me to dinner as an apology."
Erisa sits frozen for a moment as she continues to stare at Kane blankly. "Is that so?" she says as she hops out of the bed.
She then walks toward Kane and stops right in front of him. She THEN looks up at him for a moment — as they lock eyes, she turns to the side with a small blush and a pout.
Deep in thought, she stands in silence, which also piques Kane's curiosity. Although, that would soon be answered as Erisa mutters with a soft voice, "W-would it be too much to ask if another person joined you two?"
As he stares down at her, he recalls the same expression she had worn back during their elementary school days. A faint smile had begun to tug on his lips.
With a defeated sigh, he shrugs and speaks with a carefree tone, "What can I do? I suppose you can tag along — Inari-chan probably won't care about having another person tag along."
Looking back at Kane with sparkling eyes, she excitedly says, "Really?!"
Kane nods before answering, "Really."
Erisa cheers energetically, before sprinting past Kane. As he turns around however, he notices Erisa spinning on her heel to look at him, before giving him a warm smile. "I can't wait, Kane-kun!"
As those words echo on in his head, Erisa sprints out of the clinic, her voice trailing off into the distance as she shouts, "I'll see you after claaaassssss~!"
Despite all of that, Kane could only bring himself to let out a snicker. As he holds his hip with one of his hands, he says to himself, "Jeez, you really are excited, huh?"
"Mataku, you really still are the Erisa-san I met way back then…" He then looks down and closes his eyes before shaking his head.
Abruptly, he looks back up and opens his eyes. "Wait, will Inari-chan really mind having me invite other people?"
Kane squints his eyes for a few seconds, before shrugging it off with a careless attitude. "Eh, as if that girl would really care about having more people — you know what they say, the more the merrier."
And with that thought, he tosses himself back into the bed and stares at the ceiling — completely unaware of what event he just set in motion later this afternoon.
⋆｡°✩
"WHY THE HELL ARE THERE TWO MORE PEOPLE JOINING US!?!" Inari shouts as she points at the two girls who are standing in front of her — Ayumi and Erisa.
"It's rude to point at people, Inari-chan," Kane says as he is seen in the school uniform, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his leather briefcase balanced atop his head
Inari casts a glare towards Kane. Through gritted teeth, she voices out her pent up anger, "It's also rude to invite people without telling me! I am definitely not paying for the food of all four of us!"
In order to ignore her completely justified anger, Kane looks the other direction and begins whistling.
While those two are bickering, Ayumi leans in closer to Erisa and whispers in her ear, "Nee~, Fujikawa-sama, why is the pink-haired girl shouting at Koyasu-sama?"
After hearing what Ayumi had to say, Erisa looks at her with raised eyebrows and speaks with a worried tone, "I think Koyasu-san forgot to tell her that they were gonna get more people joining them…"
"Sou nan desu ka?[3]" Ayumi mutters before pausing as she takes a look at the two bickering students in front of her, before looking back at Erisa and saying, "Although, I'm still surprised that you got Koyasu-sama to invite us."
Her tone then gets a little bit creepy as she continues with a warm smile on her face, "Because of him inviting you, I also get to spend time with my number one person in the entire world~!"
She then begins rubbing up against Erisa's face like a cat, her left cheek squishing up against her right cheek. A soft purr then escapes her lips as she fully embraces the cat allegations.
Erisa, who was now being suffocated by the cute aura her white-haired friend was giving off, softly pushes her head down as she says, "But… but still, this thing may be cut short if they call it off…"
She then looks forward and adjusts her glasses — the two are still arguing with what seems to be no end in sight. With no clear way out for the two of them, Erisa sighs with regret knowing this was just wasted time.
…Is what she thought, but a lightbulb suddenly comes alight in her head. With her once defeated expression now resigning, she walks up to the two while looking for something in her leather briefcase.
"If I may interject…" Ayumi says, which brings a ceasefire to the two arguing as they both turn to the purple-haired girl. Slowly, she brings out her wallet and says with a confident smile, "...what if I just lend some of my money as well to pay for the food?"
"If you're so worried about having to pay for all our food — why don't I just pay for my food and Ayumi-san's food as well?" is what she suggests, which brightens up Inari's mood from the almost devilish anger coming from the pits of hell, to the angelic yet playful smile.
As white rays straight from the heavens begin shining upon Inari, she claps her hands together as she says with an angelic sing-song voice, "Oooh~ is that soo~? Well~, I gladly accept your offer~!"
Kane clicks his tongue as he slides his hand into his pocket as he lets out a sly remark, "Tsk, I haven't even talked with you that long and I'm beginning to see how much of a cheapskate you are."
And thus, with the help of Erisa's wallet and Inari's quick change of attitude, the family restaurant event begins! I wonder what these four will order… my mouth is already watering!
[1] [?]: “Boku wa” (僕は) in this scenario, translates to “I am”. It is traditionally used by young boys and men.
[2] [?]: “Iyada” (嫌だ) roughly translates to “I don’t want to”.
[3] [?]: “Sou nan desu ka?” (そうなんですか？) translates to “Is that so?”.