Disclaimer: Oregairu doesn't belong to me, all rights reserved to Wataru Watari.

I've taken an exceptional amount of imaginative liberty when writing this; so if there's anything that seems factually off, please let me know, so I can embarrassingly and discretely edit the chapter(s).

Edit: Recently updated with proper line breaks/formatting. For people reading this as the chapter hits, I hope you refresh because I don't think it will make too much sense without them.

Barefoot on Grass

Tea is not a bad drink. Far from it, considering how much of it he consumed. His mother often would serve tea for her and himself when the two were up late at night; her with office work and him because he needed more things from a Kushala Daora[1]. He had become accustomed to being served multiple varieties of tea in the Service Club's clubroom, and thus found himself taking apart of it more than actual water.

However, he couldn't actually separate tea from water in the hierarchy and classes of drinks. The perfectly brewed pot of tea was still too subtle, lacking in qualities that could make him appreciate it any more than a warm drink. Putting cream and sugar in tea like westerners did only made it seem too artificial and processed.

Coffee, on the other hand, was different. Enough caffeine to make a difference, and with enough flavor and texture of bitter and sweetness that could dissolve away the stresses and troubles throughout the day. Even if the relief was temporary and largely superficial, Hikigaya never took a can of MAX coffee for granted. Any cup of coffee, really, so long as it was sweet. If he had the choice, he would gladly choose coffee over tea at any time that was appropriate.

"Is something wrong, Hikigaya-kun? Shall I order you something else instead?"

"No, tea is fine." His daydream of delicious coffee was as broken as his willpower to tell the truth.

"It's okay to be picky with me. I won't hate you for it." She flashed him a toothy grin, baiting a response out.

Hikigaya furrowed his brows and let out a grunt of frustration, staring at his cup of green tea. She was the one who ordered for the both of them in the first place. The waitress had given him the illusion of choice at the beginning. The moment he opened his mouth to give out his order, she had already spoken for the both of them: "Two cups of regular green tea for myself and him." Like a mother or owner of a pet, she had not even considered what he wanted.

She audibly stifled a laugh. "You don't have to look so annoyed, I'm only playing with you." She warmed her hands around her teacup, her gaze pinning him down and making him sink further into his seat in discomfort. Beautiful women seldom ever give him a spit of attention.

"You really haven't changed at all, have you Hikigaya-kun?"

Only for the worse.

"…Speak for yourself."

She was still remarkably attractive, moreso than anyone else in Chiba. In her mid-twenties, Yukinoshita Haruno lost no sense of youth while maturing further. Her expressions, mannerisms, and tone of voice still emanated the same sense of danger and hiding of an ulterior motive. Even if she had grown out her bangs and hair, he would be able to recognize and pick her out in a crowd instantly.

"You need to get better at giving compliments if you want girls to like you, Hikigaya-kun. There are so many ways to say that I still look as young and pretty as before!"

With a smile and a cat-like laughter, she reached across the table with her arm and pat on him the shoulder with too much effort for his comfort. He stared into his tea while grinding his teeth. He tried to avoid the looks and stares from the other patrons of the café, detesting the scene she was making.

She's still really hard to deal with…

"You look so scared! Don't be like that, I'm playing with you." She crossed her legs under the table and took in another sip of her cup, eye contact with him remaining throughout.

"Yukinoshita-san…" He took a short breath, readying himself to deflect her offhand retorts. "Why are you here?"

"Just two Sobu alumni meeting on a nice afternoon. Isn't it normal for a senpai to reunite with one of her juniors?" She had met his narrowing eyes with her own. "Of course, that sort of statement doesn't mean anything to a person like you, does it?"

"Not really." He almost stammered, becoming increasingly more self-aware the longer he felt her eyes on him. "How did you know I was here? Pester somebody until they told you?"

"The net is vast and infinite," she deeply and slowly spoke, her childish impression of a mysterious voice seeping in and leaving before she could laugh. "You'd never guess how easy it is to find details about somebody through a search engine. I figured you wouldn't engage in social media whatsoever, but your name certainly does come up on various academic journals. Very impressive, by the way. I read some of your papers on my flight over here."

"Remind me to take them down later."

"Aww, don't be like that! Seeing that side of you was actually very intriguing. Imagine my surprise when I found out how well-read Hikigaya-kun became. And you write so eloquently; if I didn't know you I'd say you were a natural academic."

Writing was one thing he found little effort to do. Self-expression and reflection especially, considering the sheer amount of genuflecting he had been subject to. It wasn't his fault that his university professors and high school teachers found his writing to be unsatisfactory at times.

"…Though I guess searching for 'Hikigaya Hachiman' and finding a syllabus for some contemporary Japanese literature course in Chiba University is what ultimately got me here."

Ah, damnit. I forgot that was public domain. Maybe I can get Enjou-sensei to take it down…

"Unsurprisingly, you're as crafty and scary with your goals as ever, Yukinoshita-san." He helplessly smiled and raised his cup to his lips.

That, and she was particularly scary for actually going out of her way to meet him in person.

She beamed up at him with delight. "If I want something, isn't it only right for me to work until I get it? Something like this is quite easy, really."

And he started to wonder; if it were so easy for her to find him through a class syllabus, shouldn't have it been equally as easy to obtain his phone number from somebody else?

"…You said you were on a flight? Why didn't you just call a mutual acquaintance if you wanted to speak to me?"

"Hmmm," she sealed her lips with an index finger before continuing. "It would've been a little awkward to just call somebody after being gone from Chiba for so long and not having been in contact with them. I wouldn't want to be a bother to Komachi-chan, she must be busy at school."

Oh, how I wish you would extend that consideration to the other child of the Hikigaya family.

"I don't have a very strong relationship with Gahama-chan either. She never liked me, I believe."

Before he could stop himself, he spat out at her. "Maybe it's because you kept calling her 'Gahama-chan?'"

His companion's eyes widened and her mouth was slightly agape for a split second before she gave a small chuckle. Despite not having expected his sharp retaliation against her for the sake of Yuigahama, Yukinoshta Haruno recovered expertly and deflected whatever initial shock she held.

"Wow. Hikigaya-kun, I didn't know you became this passionate about your friends. Maybe you have changed after all."

Under normal circumstances, Hikigaya would have been reeling in shock for so fervently defending somebody who wasn't even there, much less defending somebody to begin with. He didn't care about what other people thought about other people; he was self-conscious to a fault, if he pretended that hurtful things people thought about him hadn't affected him in the slightest, then what other trashtalk people said about each other behind their backs was even less important, if such a thing were possible.

But he thought none of that. He didn't even have the chance to discard the thoughts from his head, should they have even started.

Hikigaya Hachiman simply acted in pure impulse and frustration, because somebody on the world found it appropriate or even remotely amusing to speak badly about Yuigahama Yui. About a person in the world who had accepted his friendship after years of him shunning her away.

"…You knew she didn't like that name." A cross from him.

"In my defense, I only realized she was bothered by such a thing much later on." A parry from herself, though even she sounded unconvinced of her response.

"It wouldn't have been hard to just add two syllables in front of it, you know…" A returning jab from him.

With a solid thunk, her tea cup harshly hit the wooden table and her voice sunk in tone. "If she was so discomforted by hearing me say it, she should have left every time I did so." Her voice spoke with an almost authoritative-like vigor and will, as though she were stamping out his statements like annoying cockroaches. "Why do I have to make amends for people who won't give me the same courtesy?"

The steel in Yukinoshita Haruno's eyes could have plated warships.

When she noticed him staring at her, she softly gasped and almost instantly her eyes held back the same grossly sparkling twinkle, and hear demeanor was once again back to her prying and bubbly self. "I'm sorry. That was selfish of me to say. Yuigahama-chan and I just never had a chance to get to know each other better, so I wouldn't have wanted to bother her for something like this anyway."

He almost shivered at the sight. Her proficiency in playing her different roles had always frightened him. He tried to live every breath with blunt honesty, while she was quickly unraveling his world just by existing. A person, or rather a human, shouldn't be able to wear and throw off emotions like hats.

But he had seen them before, the moments where Yukinoshita Haruno's AT-field of a mask had holes. He could get small glimpses of whatever entity was behind her grossly charming personality and pretty face. If anything, it had comforted him that Yukinoshita Haruno was probably bitter and cynical on the inside just as he was. It meant that the other side of her coin was human, in contrast to the fake personality she wore at all times.

No. The most disturbing thing to him was that her seemingly constant state of strength in her mask was so easily crushed by him mentioning the fact that she was being unnecessarily distasteful to Yuigahama. He had never actually seen her angry. Cold and stoic, definitely, but never angry.

And he had especially never seen the corners of what looked to be the truth behind her persona.

"No, it's…"

And when her eyes looked back into him, looking alien and piercing as if to scrape off any hints of him wanting to push in the holes in her mask even further, hints of excitement behind them, Hikigaya cowered. Remnants of his earlier anger not nearly enough to meet her gaze.

"It's alright. I'm probably just overlooking the entire thing anyway, to be honest…" He awkwardly looked to the side, down into the floor tiling.

"Yup! Just an oversight from both of us, let's leave it as that." She nodded her head happily and picked up her purse, sifting through it.

And just like that, he remembered that above all else, Yukinoshita Haruno was a frightening person who never failed in making him doubt himself.

"Check please!" She waved over to the student worker standing by the counter.

"I wonder if this place will ever change. It's exactly the same since I was here; aside from a couple of new buildings."

While he walked in a straight line down the campus sidewalk, the person accompanying him relished in being able to slink back and forth from his side, to circling around him and asking questions to annoy him, and then to powerwalk up to random objects nearby, asking him for an opinion on something she found even remotely interesting.

After ten minutes, he found it much easier to surrender and speak up whenever she pressed him about anything. If he didn't, she would end up coming back and stopping him physically for his thoughts that she forced him to create.

"Come back in forty years and see if this place is still the same then."

"It's a date!"

"Please don't force me into your life…"

"Ahh? Hikigaya-kun would let an old lady walk around all by herself? What if I get lost, or I get held up for my wallet?"

"…That's the police's problem, not mine."

He held back his wince as much as he could when she sharply slapped him on his arm.

"Wrong answer! That's ten points off the quiz!"

He must have been giving off a particularly annoyed look, judging from how quickly she was beaming up at him.

"But really, an academic? And in letters too! I guess you didn't feel the need to follow the advice I gave you years ago, did you?"

"…You remember that?"

She nodded her head. "You were kind enough to walk me home to the station that day. We were talking about what subject everybody was going into when they graduated. I said social studies; history to be more exact, you probably would be bored reading about regular people all day."

Even though he still read manga and light novels in his spare time, he grew to enjoy contemporary literature shortly after graduating high school. Moreso because it certainly held a greater library and thus enough of a reservoir to occupy his time. As entertaining and manga and light novels were, the greatest writers of the world, regardless of region, were truly capable of being profound.

"Though maybe you would have made a decent man at a company as well."

He scoffed. "I'd sooner bankrupt a company with my numberwork than bring any sales." One joy of upper learning was that he was only required to take half a year in anything remotely related to the sciences; he managed to replace it with a class in predicate logic and outright avoid any numbers altogether.

"Oh? You're great with people though."

"I don't really see myself working well with people. Ever."

She rushed up to him and hummed with satisfaction. "But you certainly know them, don't you?"

His frown remained plastered on. "That doesn't mean I like being around them."

"For someone so proficient in maneuvering people to his whims; and then for him to really know said people, you come off as quite the misanthropist."

"I'm..." His feet stopped, and he looked down into the pavement.

He didn't hate people, truly. He found them repulsive at times certainly. All worldly troubles probably originated from people. Despising society and despising people were two different things entirely.

I don't hate people.

"Ah, well, I suppose that's not right, actually. Hikigaya-kun cares too much about the people he loves to ever be considered a misanthropist."

They just aren't…

"After all," the sight of gravel and pavement was replaced with Yukinoshita's purple eyes. He would have inched back from the proximity, had he not been trapped in thought. "How could somebody so willing to offer themselves as a sacrifice bring himself to hate people?"

He found himself scowling. "I didn't do it for them, if that's what you're asking."

"Oh, I'm sure you partially did it just to get people off of your chest," to his relief, she straightened back away from him. "But do you really think you would have done those things, had you been the person you pretended to be?"

"It would have been even more of a pain to listen to my parents and our old homeroom teacher drag me out constantly…"

She sharply laughed. "They would have given up, over time. Shizuka-chan so desperately wanted you to go to that club, but you could have easily and adamantly refused her."

He felt a slender hand gently push up his chin.

"Surely you won't deny it? You did all of that on your own volition. Yes, you may have been influenced, but ultimately you had done those things because you wanted to."

As he reached up to slap her arm away, her eyes narrowed and he found it harder to breathe.

"Even if you regret it now, you can't change the fact that you threw yourself to the wolves for the sake of being acknowledged by other people, even if just those two."

Hikigaya could have prepared himself for hours and he would still fail to hold back a grimace every time he had thought of her.

"…That was years ago."

Unbeknownst to him, Yukinoshita Haruno's eyes glimmered with discovery.

"Then it certainly speaks volumes on how much it meant to you, if you're unable to bring yourself back to spirits." Their eyes made contact, and her head slightly tilted to her side. "From what I've been told, you took it the hardest, to their surprise. You didn't ask for help either, as expected of you. You didn't even accept it when it was freely offered to you."

Wordlessly, he looked back down to his side and bit down on his inner mouth. "I didn't want their pity weighing me down."

"Consideration out of pity is just as bad as no consideration to you, then?"

"…It's not like they would have understood anyway."

"They're not to blame. After all, nobody but a few knew about your and Yukino-chan's budding love, am I right? It was only until after her funeral and when you stopped coming to class altogether that people started to connect the dots."

He found himself being led by his sleeve off of the sidewalk. With some relief, he unstrapped his messenger bag and laid it on the grass, able to lean back into the wooden bench they had just sat down on. Wordlessly, they stared into the setting sun for a dozen minutes, heads filled with thoughts of the past.

"…Yukinoshita-san?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are you here?"

"…To reunite with a junior. I told you before in that-"

"No," he interrupted her, shaking his head. "The real reason. After five years, I can't imagine that I'm any priority of yours."

It wasn't his lack of self-esteem speaking for him. Whatever business Yukinoshita Haruno held, it certainly didn't necessitate his involvement in anything. He was so far away from the workings of the political machine that was the Yukinoshita family; he almost went out of his way to ensure it, if only for the false sense of security it wrongly gave to him when he slept at night.

She got up from the bench, took off her sandals, and walked barefoot into the grass. The sound of wind and the occasional leaf crunching beneath her feet was the only answer he received for a minute, while she walked in cycles facing away from him.

He thought to ask her again, and was stopped by her response a little before he had meant to.

"It was time for me to come home." She swiftly twirled back to face him, the only readable emotion on her face being a solemn smile. "I finished what I had to do elsewhere, and decided that I wanted to come home."

He stemmed his curiosity before it could flourish. He was better off not knowing, or at least better off without her knowing he was curious.

"…Recently, then?" He tentatively asked.

She nodded. "I arrived back into Japan three nights ago. Today is actually the first day I've had some time to myself; being away for this long has compounded a lot of… familial affairs that found their way to me."

Perhaps that was why she seemed slightly off to him. Even though she spared no effort in maintaining her image and personality onto others, he could see the brief outlines of bags beneath her eyes, and her shoulders which seemed to sink into her in relief when they sat in the café previously and the wooden bench just now.

"Hiratsuka-sensei said it was something like that. You decided to continue your studies abroad in… Europe?"

"Germany. It coincided with something I was taking care of at the time; only worked better for me if I studied there too, just…" She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and looking as though she was relishing the cool air that she was breathing in. "I ended up staying longer than my mother and father had wanted me to. I… had a lot to do. For myself, and for the family."

…Sounds like you were just running.

"You didn't want to be in Chiba?"

She laughed shortly and awkwardly, it was a sound he wasn't familiar with. "Yes, if you put it that way." She shuffled back to the bench, seating herself on the opposite end. "Even the elder daughter of Yukinoshita has her limits. We all have our differences in how we react to change."

She turned to face him. "May I tell you a secret, Hikigaya-kun? I haven't told this to anybody else; not even my physician even though I should have."

He blinked once, and then once more before nodding his head.

"I… couldn't sleep. When they put Yukino-chan in the ground, and covered her with the Earth, I couldn't sleep so long as I was in the prefecture." Her smile turned wry and she bitterly looked into the ground. "I moved out of our home and had our driver take me to a hotel in Tokyo for months, before I relocated to Europe."

He almost laughed at the fact that they had suffered in the same way. Except rather than force himself to leave Chiba entirely, he drowned himself with classwork and menial labor until he was too exhausted to be in the position of being an insomniac.

"So, there you have it, Hikigaya-kun. I came back because after years of running away, my father finally threatened to cut me off from the family unless him and his wife could see their daughter's face for the first time in years. And eventually, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to see their faces too, strangely enough."

Strangely enough...?

"I see." He simply said. "I guess I ought to be flattered or something."

Ah! I didn't mean to say it outloud, even if it was sarcastic.

A scratching noise, then soft giggles into boisterous laughter. Hikigaya groaned and considered walking away from her on the spot, her laughter only reinforced his embarrassment the longer it went.

"Ggk… H-hah! Flattered? What's with that, Hikigaya-kun?"

"Ah, well… it just… you said it was your first free time in days, and… you could have seen somebody else important like your friends – just forget it."

"'Friends' you say. Do I really come off to you as someone who has 'friends?'"

"You seemed to have plenty of people follow you, if anything."

"Do you really not have any friends of your own to not be able to see they just followed me for their own personal image?"

"…You were friends with Hiratsuka-sensei, weren't you? You called her by her first name, even."

"'Sensei'… it's cute you still call her that, even after graduating."

He thought to ask her about their falling out, but decided against it. It wasn't any of his business, and he would much rather ask Hiratsuka-sensei rather than her, should he want to in the future.

"Say… are we friends, Hikigaya-kun?" Her voice was a whisper quieter than usual.

He looked up to his side. What were they, anyway? Even calling each other acquaintances was a stretch of one were to consider how often they saw each other in the past. The only relation they deeply shared was that she too was a Yukinoshita.

And, with her hair grown out longer than he remembered her wearing it, he was starting to see the resemblance. Their mannerisms were completely different, but they both shared the same level of worldly class that regular, run of the mill people were hopeless in wielding. Seeing her only reminded him of her, in the ways that he hadn't expected to.

Unknown as to why, he found himself gravitating towards her; not just because she was pretty or because she unnaturally got everything she wanted. It was mostly because he forgot the feeling of somebody going out of their way to see him. Because he seldom ever knew the feeling before she was the one to show it to him.

He didn't want people approaching him out of pity or concern because they felt like they needed to, just to sleep more comfortably at night.

"...We aren't not friends." His answer was as confused as his opinion.

"Then, logically speaking, we are friends! It's easier to just say that, you know? No need to add any negation in there to make it sound different."

He couldn't help but smile, even if she was a hard-to-deal-with person. "Guess my statement doesn't mean much to you."

It took her a few seconds until she realized she had said the same thing earlier in the day. "I thought you literary types were the kind to look down on plagiarism. That's awfully sneaky of you, Hikigaya-kun."

He shrugged. "I'm more of a fan of tributes than original work. Be flattered."

"So we're both flattered today?" She brought her knees to her chest, resting her head against them.

"…Something like that."

She stretched her arms out and whimpered in relief. He couldn't help but see her pronounced chest out of his peripheral vision. The sweater-shirt combo she wore hugged her tightly; it was a soft beige color that complimented the almost doll-like paleness that she and her sister (and their mother) shared. Her features had grown with age, the girlish eccentricities of her face and body only becoming more womanly and feminine in shape.

Under the darkening red sunset, with hair lightly blowing along with the summer-fall breeze, Hikigaya reinforced the notion that Yukinoshita Haruno could be picked out of a dense Chiba crowd.

"Looks like we lost track of time. It's getting late." She pointed to her expensive-looking wristwatch, signaling that the day had been crawling towards the evening.

The two stood up to re-straighten their clothes. He securely strapped his messenger bag across his body while she had wrapped her sandals around her feet.

"Are you far off, Hikigaya-kun? I'm sorry, I didn't expect to keep you for so long." She apologetically clapped her hands and winked at him, it was a cutesy technique designed to pierce into the hearts of young men.

I rate it a 6/10 on the Komachi-metric scale.

"I live within walking distance… it's fine." He surprisingly evaded her attack.

"Is that so? Am I still entitled to ask you to walk me to the station, then?" Her coy smile returned, though she seemed to be more apprehensive with her demand. Hikigaya wagered that if he wanted to, he could deny her with ease.

"…Yeah, if you want." With little hesitation, he strayed from thinking about denying her. For a moment, he wondered if he should have felt discomfort with the ease of which he did so.

The two walked off the grass and back onto the sidewalk, resuming the wandering trek they had made, though instead their destination was set towards the campus station. Notably, Yukinoshita didn't say much, nor did she get uncomfortably close to him, instead pacing alongside with little exaggeration in her movements.

Guiltily, Hikigaya wondered if it was okay to miss the feeling of her latched onto his arm, and the rush of adrenaline that would accompany it.

"…Yukinoshita-san?"

"Hmm?"

"I know I'm repeating myself for the second time now, but—"

"Why did I come to see you today?"

"…Yeah."

"Because I don't have friends. Acquaintances, classmates, relatives, co-workers, but not so much friends." She looked over to him with earnest eyes, unusually warm and benevolent. "I never had much luck with keeping any I make."

"...I know the feeling." He added quietly.

"You may not take the words for their face value, but I wasn't entirely lying in that café earlier, Hikigaya-kun. I just wanted to be a senior visiting her junior from high school. That's how I wanted to spend my day off."

"No offense, but you're not exactly the person who does things for such a weak reason."

She chuckled. "I suppose I can't deny it to your face anymore, then." She thoughtfully cupped her chin with her fingers. "Maybe… I'll tell you some other time, then."

"I won't take your word for it."

"Hey! That's just being rude, Hikigaya-kun!" She stomped her foot and playfully glared at him in jest.

He smiled as she broke into soft chuckles. He felt the attention of various stares and his smile faded. The small-talk they had made had no doubt looked like an insufferable couple walking together.

Looking back infront of him, he saw the service sign of the station.

"…Well, I'm off from here, Yukinoshita-sa—"

"Say, Hikigaya-kun?" She interrupted him, though her eyes seemed to be focused onto the station sign. "How about you just call me 'Haruno-san' from now on? We've already established that we're friends, right?"

Firstly, it would be too grossly familiar for me to call you Haruno-san just because we met and talked for a day after years. Secondly, I'm not comfortable with being in a first-name basis with anyone much less you. Thirdly…

"…Maybe some other time, Yukinoshita-san."

She smiled, albeit looking slightly sullen. "Haven't lost your wit overtime, I see. That's okay. I guess it's a little audacious and selfish of me to expect you to want to see me so suddenly." She turned from him and began down into the station.

When she walked down the station steps, he wondered briefly if he should again ask what she was doing in Chiba. It would have been a question designed to basically ask: "Will we run into each other again?" without him having sounded too desperate.

That he was even concerned about sounding too desperate was a sign to be alarmingly concerned.

The odd comfort that he received from talking to Yukinoshita Haruno today was also a sign to be alarmingly concerned. The fact that he was fighting with himself on whether or not he wanted to see her again, pestering and intrusiveness included, was undoubtedly going to keep him up later tonight.

Instead of asking the question, he simply said: "Good night, Yukinoshita-san." He was dangerously close to adding something cheesy and half-hearted at the end like: "And welcome back to Chiba," just to round off his farewell.

She stopped and stood there for a moment before turning on her heels.

"Good night, Hikigaya-kun. Thank you for talking with me today."

It was an unusually refined statement, coming from her. It lacked her upfront persona, and the forced rush of energy in expression and pitch. He garnered that it was likely due to her fatigue, having spent the entire afternoon walking with him, but…

She looks a lot like her sister.

The quick and passive wave she gave to him, the softer tone of her voice, and the way she stood with one arm behind her waist…

Hikigaya Hachiman was still standing there minutes after Yukinoshita Haruno had already departed from the Chiba University station.

Days had crawled by. Time seemed to lavish sluggishness.

Dictated by a mad conspiracy, Chiba University's Department of Letters faculty had unanimously decided to cram nearly every single undergraduate and graduate exam in the same space. Which meant that in addition to having to assist in preparing, proctoring, and grading hundreds of exams and essays, Hikigaya would have to squeeze in minutes and cut hours of sleep just to adequately prepare for his own.

Coming full circle, the Gods of misfortune deemed it necessary to make August the hottest month of the decade. They had decided that before Japan could enter the fall season, every weatherman on the television and radio would have the opportunity to be ecstatic about the fact that their day would reach upwards of 38 degrees centigrade.

He found it somewhat preferable, however. Having an ample workload meant that he could stuff his problems and concerns into the corners and cracks of his psyche. He wouldn't have the opportunity to brood if he didn't have the time to do so.

After the day Yukinoshita Haruno sought him out in Chiba University, pulling him out of the lecture hall to have the longest conversation he'd had with another person in years, she too had become a lingering thought that he could shove into the recess of his brain. He hadn't seen nor heard from her since; he resented the fact that he had felt lonely the night of and day after.

And when he realized why he had thought so much of her, he laughed at himself for how obvious the reason was, and laughed twice as hard when he considered how sad it was.

"Then, logically speaking, we are friends! It's easier to just say that, you know?"

He was desperately longing for anybody who had waddled in despair, even if only for a fraction of the time that he did. That it happened to be her sister only made misery in company more mitigatable than usual.

"How about you just call me 'Haruno-san' from now on?"

"Aaarrgh! Damn!" His forehead landed against the metal work-desk of the office and the loud, booming racketing sound made his peers jump in their seats.

"Hyyah! Hikigaya, what is it?!"

"Ahh, leave him alone. He's probably just stressed out and needs a way to vent out."

"But… but he didn't have to scream out like that…"

"Well you're in the wrong for expecting him to react to it like a normal person…"

Amidst the rude bantering of his fellow graduate students, Hikigaya Hachiman desperately fended off thinking of the person who had marched into the lecture hall a little over three weeks ago.

Had he known it would cause him this much wasted effort, energy, and time spent staring up at his ceiling at night, replaying the odd moments of their conversation, he would have sprinted out of that lecture hall the moment he recognized her.

Wrrr, wrrr!

- Hikki, you're still having dinner with me and sensei this weekend, right?

- You won't be forgiven if you don't show up! (≧ロ≦)

He winced and buried his face into his sleeve. He had forgotten that he made a commitment to Yuigahama and Hiratsuka-sensei a few days ago, seeing as how he hadn't spoken to or seen either of them in weeks. And although his "busy with work" argument was perfectly sound and valid, it would have only hurt him more if he continued to deny them the opportunity.

- Yeah. Please stop asking. This is the fourth time.

Evidenced by Komachi carpet-bombing his inbox with a record breaking 28 messages per minute when she found out that he had decided to ignore both Yuigahama and Hiratsuka-sensei's messages for a couple of days.

He groaned. The demonically brutal assignment he was given just a few weeks ago was due in later the next week. He had been forced to postpone it do to more recent due dates and he hadn't even so much as make a document on his computer for it. Worst of all, it demanded him to go out of his way in all of the ways he hated.

He would most likely have to cram through it and somehow bullshit the other fragments of the requirements the night after his meeting with Yuigahama and Hiratsuka-sensei. Another sleepless night, guaranteed.

He was getting thirsty, and the air conditioning didn't seem to relieve the heat any further.

"Ah, coming!" One of the girls walked over to the door, though he couldn't hear the knocking over his own moping. It was likely Enjou-sensei, coming in to tell them about yet another review session the undergraduates requested. "Ah, who are… Yes, this is… ah, he's right—"

Students were really the worst. Teach them all the material, give them insightful advice and tips on how to study, but half of them didn't even complete the readings and their essays were so damned awful and the desperation behind their half-assed guesses on exams were enough to drive him—

"Holy smokes, Hikigaya! You're really capable of pulling in such high-rank girls like her?!" The other girl came up next to him and whispered this to his ear.

He lifted his head from the increasingly comfortable nest he made with his arms on his desk, and saw the figure who walked over to him.

No no no no nononono not now i cant spare any more time and im going tofaileverythingand

"'Yahallo'! It's me! It took me a while to find your office!" An energetic and feminine voice had stolen Yuigahama's catchphrase of choice.

Dressed in another trendy v-neck (this one with much shorter sleeves leading up to her shoulders) and white pants cuffed to her kneecaps, Yukinoshita Haruno trotted in with a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses raised above her eyes and propped against her head. Her triangular-earrings made a return, along with what seemed to be even more accessories across her neck and wrist that classified her as a different human over others.

In fact, judging from the awe the other two girls in the room looked at her and back at him with, she had definitely given off an aura of pure 'I'm better than you.' Not to say that the other two girls were particularly hard to look at, but…

"Here, Hikigaya-kun. I brought you the canned coffee you enjoy so much, and some bento you could have for lunch."

"Ahhaha… thanks…"

Undoubtedly, this would cause rumors to spread amongst the liberal arts graduate student body. The exact kind of gossiping that he was infinitely grateful for not having ever been a part of nor remotely involved with. Though, he was becoming infinitely grateful that there were cold and refreshing cans of MAX coffee waiting for him in the plastic bag in her hand.

"By the way, I was wondering, if…" she stopped herself short, before looking back to the other two girls in the room. "Oh, hello! I'm Yukinoshita Haruno. It's so nice to meet the people who work with Hikigaya-kun! Is it possible I could have just a minute with him?"

He looked over at her. "Hey, this is an office; and it's theirs too, you know. You can't just ask people to leave—"

"Yes, absolutely!" They both chirped in union.

"Ah. Never mind then. I guess you can."

The two graduate students whom Hikigaya had known to be reliable and usually composed had stumbled over each other and somehow managed to leave the room without falling over each other.

"Y-Yukinoshita?! As in that Yukinoshita?! The daughter of the Yukinoshita pushing urban development reform?!"

"He's practically dating royalty… Hikigaya is really something, isn't he?"

World already looking bleaker and more troublesome, he twisted his head over to his new guest, who was sitting directly on his desk.

"…What do you want?"

"I thought we were friends. And I don't know about you, but to the rest of the world, friends can see each other without needing any reason to."

"And I suppose it's also normal for friends to visit their friends with bags of their friends favorite coffee and a bunch of boxed lunches?"

Yukinoshita pouted and bashfully looked to the side. "You're no fun."

Hikigaya sighed and started sorting out the contents of the plastic bag on his desk. "…Thank you. I appreciate it. But really, what do you need from me? I thought you'd have been busy with all of the… 'familial affairs' you said you were occupied with."

She nodded her head. "I am. Actually, that's partially the reason why I'm here."

He braced himself. Yukinoshita Haruno never did anything without reason.

"How should I put this… ah, hmm…" She looked deep in thought, finger against her lips. "Well, how about some old fashioned nostalgia to break the ice?"

And, most of all, never did anything without an ulterior motive.

"I'm here to make a request of you, Hikigaya-kun!" Her smile widened and she pointed towards him. "I, Yukinoshita Haruno, request that you be my date for an evening!"

The can of MAX coffee in his hand crashed onto the tile floor, the hand grasping it having lost the will to hold it up.

"Ah – hey! It's going to break and spill if you aren't careful!"

.

.

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[1] An elder dragon from Monster Hunter.

yes hello it is me again i have been dug out of my grave

In their last review, 80K Hikigaya asked how much there was left until the ending without giving any spoilers. Tough to say, because even suggesting the length of the story can kind of tell you where the critical moments are.

So, at the very least, I'll say this and hope it doesn't give out anything I want to give out: there are two major arcs that will take place. Hachiman's and Haruno's. Sorry to crush the dreams of whomever thought I would build and sail the ship for anybody else, but I thought it was rather apparent given that there was a chapter centric to Haruno.

All in all, I won't say that the story will be long, but I don't think I can adequately finish the story in even twice the amount of chapters that I currently have. Just looking at the outline I've built right now, there's enough to warrant myself updating for a while. Which is great as an experience for writing a longer piece, but harder for me to fill in those blanks.

Which brings me to this chapter, which has been long overdue. It's been repeatedly scrapped, re-written, and cut apart until it became what you've read just now. This was a result of me simultaneously losing motivation and time, but also having trouble deciding where to go. And I certainly do have my concerns over this chapter. Primarily, the introduction of Haruno and how strong she would come off into the story.

At the end I realized that at a certain point, being too subtle with what I want to convey ultimately gets the story nowhere. And I promise that while my fears of Haruno just becoming this massively important part of the story to soon is likely justified, it will all balance out with what happens in the future. This is especially important to me, because of the juxtaposition these two will eventually encounter.

Having been away from updating for so long also forced me to reevaluate the characterization and even things as drastic as the perspective. I've read segments of Excor's translations a few more times over just to see if I could get hints of a more accurate Haruno over my image of her. I don't want to follow too closely to the light novel characterization though; the intention being that both hikki and Haruno have changed drastically in ways that are and aren't shown to the reader.

Regarding perspective, I actually at one point thought about switching the perspective to first person when the respective character arcs hit. Still on the fence about that, because it would ruin the consistency I've built so far. I think I've hit a point with this fandom where I really want to write in first person, just because of how much easier and nicer it would be to monologue through with hikki rather than infer it. I've also notably been almost bipolar with the overall tone. It's definitely lighter by comparison to the initial two dread-filled chapters I've written, isn't it? That's intentional. It's mostly to reflect that hikki is coming out of his depressive shell. I feel obliged to say that it's not going to be uphill for him entirely, however.

This author's note is too long so I'll respond to any further thoughts through PM or reviews. The chapter itself might actually clock in as a bit more than usual, but that's obviously due to the fact that I've had the story's lifetime in duration to write it. I can't swear on update times; but my motivation and availability to write has recently been steadily increasing.

Lastly I've tried to fix any glaring mistakes in grammar and sentence construction to the best of my ability, but I'll most likely sift through this chapter a dozen times tomorrow since it's 4:16 in the morning. Doing this without a beta is a bit tough.

also as of this morning the new oregairu game was up and out and there's a screen of haruno cornering hikki against a wall and looking like she wants to disassemble him and there are beds in the background and 10.5 is confirmed with them and aaaaaaaaaaaa

See you next time. I'm very happy to be back and I'm so sorry about leaving this to dry for months.