Maybe Futaba was a fortune teller. That thought came to me as my phone went off at the ungodly hour of seven A.M. Answering the call, I mumbled something unintelligible into the receiver before flopping my head back onto the pillow.

"Oi. Wake up." It was Sousuke.

I hung up without bothering to reply.

The phone sounded off again. And again. And again. Until I finally groaned and sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes.

"What," I hissed.

"Are you up now?"

I groaned. "Now I am."

"Good. See you at school."

I flopped my head onto the pillow once again, looking forward to at least another hour of blissful, undistrubed sleep. Only twenty minutes had passed before my doorbell rang once, resonating throughout the apartment complex. Then it rang for a second time, then a third, before ringing at a pace where there were no breaks in between. The noise shook me out of bed, making me storm down the hall and swing the door wide open in a fury.

"Are you serious?!"

"Morning, Himari," he greeted, waltzing right in. "Cute pajamas."

I wailed, "Why are you doing this to me?"

"If I let you sleep you're just going to be late again. I met your mom the other night after we had parted ways. We talked for a bit. I haven't seen her in a couple years. Since we live in the same neighborhood, she actually asked me to start waking you up."

"Even if she did ask, couldn't you have said no? Or just lie and say okay and just leave me to sleep?"

Sousuke shook his head. "I can't do that to your mom. She used to always take care of me when we were kids. And I don't really care either way. Now go get ready or else the both of us are going to be late."

I groaned once again before stomping off into the bathroom. Minutes later I emerged before heading into my room to put on my uniform. All the while Sousuke made himself comfortable on the couch flipping through his phone. Maybe if I were Futaba or another girl, I would be freaking out at the thought of having Sousuke in my living room and walking me to school. But this was just plain old Sousuke. We were childhood friends. What development could come out of this? That didn't stop the blood rushing to my cheeks and forming a faint blush, however. I blamed Futaba and her insistent suspicion that made me this self-aware. We were just childhood friends, right?

The bus ride was peaceful aside from my head lolling everywhere as I tried to catch a few extra minutes of sleep. At one point my head smacked into Sousuke's right shoulder causing him to hiss in pain. That woke me up instantly. I spewed a string of apologies, yet he only shook his head and wave me off.

"Sorry, Sousuke," I apologized again as we entered the school and walked towards our lockers.

"It's alright. It's not your fault."

"But it is! My head is as heavy as a boulder, I've been told."

A chuckle rumbled from his chest, reverberating through the air, causing a warmth to fill me. "Alright. Anyways, I'll see you at the meeting, yeah?"

"Yup," I answered as I stepped into my white slippers. With a wave, Sousuke left. A few girls followed behind him, all heart eyes. A tinge sparked in my chest. I frowned. Why?

As I entered the classroom, I saw Futaba perched at her desk, with chin rested in palm as she smiled eerily at me. "I saw."

Acting as if I was unphased, I placed my bookbag down on the desk beside her. "Saw what?"

"You and Yamazaki-kun walking to school together."

"Yeah? Well, it's normal for friends to walk to school together, Futaba."

"You say that now but he might be thinking something else. The Yamazaki-kun who doesn't care about anything suddenly starts walking you to and from school? You can't say there's nothing there. Don't you feel something here," she placed a hand on her chest.

"Actually, I think I do."

Futaba almost fell out of her seat. "Wait, really? I was joking."

"I was joking too."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "You seriously scared me, Himari! You know I support you whole-heartedly with whatever you do, even if it's kind of stupid. But that Sousuke I've heard has a heart of steel."

"How so?"

"He's rejected every girl who's ever confessed to him before. Especially after he made it to nationals, his popularity skyrocketed. I heard from the boys that he gets confessed to at least once a week. At a school this big it's not hard to believe either."

"Say, have you met anyone in his fan club before?"

"Are you really going to go up against them," she asked in shock.

"No. I'm just a bit curious."

Futaba glanced around the room before leaning close. "I heard one of the third year's on the girl's swim team is president. And there's a rumor going around that Haruno-san in the next class is a member. Mai-chan told me that she broke up with her boyfriend just because their class recently changed seating arrangements and she now sits next to Sousuke."

"Scary."

"I know. Be careful out there, Himari. Even if you guys are just friends, people might misunderstand."

"I know, I know."

The sports day and cultural festival dates had been decided. The events would take place two weeks from now, on the first weekend of October. Committee members had already surveyed their respective classes on what they would do, and the clubs who wanted to participate had filled out submission forms for booths and such. Preparations were underway. Whipping out my phone, I sent a quick text to Kisumi, inviting him and the rest of his friends to the cultural festival.

"Excuse me," a soft voice announced as she slid the door open to room 3-5. The girl had a petite figure with a generous chest and a hefty amount of blonde hair that seemed to cascade down her back in waves. "I'm looking for Sousuke-kun. I heard that he was a part of the committee."

"H-Haruno-san!" Ushio-kun made his way to her a bit too speedily, tripping over posters and balls of threads. "Yamazaki went to the storage room to get some more supplies. I can take you there if you want-"

"No it's fine. Thank you." She bowed before leaving.

"Hey, Himari-san," the president called from across the classroom. "Actually, I forgot to tell Sousuke to get the buckets of paint as well. Could you go get it?"

Missing the exchange entirely since I was too preoccupied with texting Kisumi, I stowed my phone away before replying, "Sure thing."

Ushio-kun's bottom lip was jutted out and the gap between his brows were knit into a worrisome wrinkle. His sulking face wasn't that bad. I wasn't sure what was troubling him, but I gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder as I walked by.

"Uh! Himari-san!"

"Yeah?"

"Actually, if you see Sousuke in there struggling with any boxes, could you call me over? I'll help."

"Sousuke needing help? Why? He's a big guy."

"He injured his shoulder pretty bad during summer. He was out of practice for over a month and I don't think he's recovered either. We're both on the swim team so I don't mind helping out if its him."

Sousuke injured his shoulder? No way. How could he keep such a huge issue from me? Regardless, I nodded to as I picked up my pace as made way to the storage room at the end of the hall. Ushio-kun was a pretty reliable guy after all.

"He's one of the only chick-magnets on the team," he called after me. "Without him, no cute girls are going to show up at our practice!" Scratch that.

But there was no way, right? I was with Sousuke almost everyday. If his shoulder was injured that badly then that was pretty much impossible to hide it. But now that I thought about it, I did hit him this morning on accident and he did seem to be in a lot of pain. I had to find out.

"Sousuke!" I shouted as I slid the door open.

Upon opening the door, however, I had unraveled a scene I could only gawk at. Although I did find Sousuke in the room, he was not alone. The idolized Haruno-san that practically all the guys fawned over had her arms wrapped around Sousuke's neck, and they were pressed chest to chest. The thought of Sousuke and his injured shoulder completely left my mind with this intimate sight.

The only thing I was exceptionally well at was being awkward, and being awkward was what I did. Spotting the cans of paint right by their feet, I toed around the edge of the room, avoiding eye contact at all costs. "D-Don't mind me. I'm just here to get some paint. I'll be out quick."

"No worries," Haruno-san said as she unwound her arms from Sousuke. "I was just leaving. See you later, Sousuke-kun."

Haruno-san passed by breezily, her scent filled the immediate proximity of cherries and flowers. One whiff of the floral concoction almost made me gag. Last time I checked, perfume was against school regulations because of allergies and whatnot.

Being left alone with Sousuke, I was put into an even more awkward position than I had started with. What am I supposed to say in this type of situation? Was I supposed to leave and come back for the paint later? But then if I returned to the committee room empty-handed the president would wonder what I was doing the entire time-

"Himari. It's not what you think."

"Huh? Um you don't need to explain to me Sousuke." I honestly did not want to hear all the juicy details on how they even got into such a position. Please spare me the embarrassment. "It's not like I care. If you're worried about me telling other people about it, I won't. You know me, Sousuke-"

"That's not it."

I was surprised by him cutting me off. Sousuke usually wasn't the one to rush things. "Then what is it?"

"I..."

"Sousuke. I don't get what you're trying to say."

Finally taking a peek at him, Sousuke had his back turned to me, but his ears were undoubtedly beet red. Strange. But maybe he was just acting this way because I caught him with Haruno-san. If I already felt embarrassed, then he probably felt ten times that.

"I don't get what I'm trying to say either. Nevermind."

"Uhh... alright then."

Shrugging, I walked over towards his side of the room to pick up the cans of paint. There were five cans in total, all of various colors. I would probably have to make a second trip. Stooping down to pick up the cans, I was contemplating how many I could physically carry back to the committee room, when suddenly-

Slam. My eyes went wide. Out of my periphery, Sousuke was standing extremely close to me, with his left hand resting on the wall beside my head. Woah. Something in my chest was stuttering wildly. What was this feeling? When I finally turned towards him, I was met with furrowed brows and an obvious frown. His ears were tinged red.

"Sorry, I lied."

Why was he acting like this all of a sudden? I was seriously confused. I stood there searching his seafoam eyes. This position was a lot more intimate that I initially realized. With my back against the wall, Sousuke hovering over me, and now with both of his hands on either side of my head. This was the infamous... kabe-don? I was in a very precarious situation.

"Umm. Are you okay, Sousuke?"

"The truth is..."

"The truth?" What did he mean by that? That he and Haruno-san were actually going out? That he was actually afraid that I would tell people? What-

"The truth is... that I like you."

What.

Thanks for reading!

Reviews are love~