Chapter 2:
There’s No Freaking Way It’s All up to Me! Or Is There?
I WAS MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, walking down the hall at school when a peppy voice sang my name. “Ren-a-ko-kuuun!”
“Huh?” I said, turning around to find a girl from Class B skipping up to me. This was Terusawa Youko-chan. We met at the interclass athletics competition. Ahem. “Met.”
“Are you heading home?” she asked.
“Yup. Sure am.”
Youko-chan still seemed interested in me even now that the competition was over. Couldn’t have told you why, really. But it felt nice to have a friend (someone I knew? Idk) in another class. If something happened and I ended up dropping into Class B, at least I wouldn’t be totally alone. The more people you knew at school, the better. Strength in numbers and all that.
“Are you? Then guess what?” Youko-chan clapped her hands together and gave me the most adorable, inquisitive look. Ugh. The lethal blow only pretty girls could get away with. The puppy-dog eyes! Kaho-chan used this bad boy with reckless abandon.
“I’m going to hang out with some friends of mine today,” she said. “Wanna tag along?”
“…With you? And your friends?”
“Uh-huh!” She beamed.
The Amaori Renako that lived in my head put on a pair of specs and scoffed. “Youko-chan’s friends are nothing but total strangers masquerading as friends of a friend. Why would you ever hang out with strangers? What’s she thinking, asking such a stupid question?”
Nope! I couldn’t cause a rift in our friendship! I thought I’d swept most of my trauma under the rug, but I guess I still sucked at turning down invites with a solid no. I just didn’t want anyone to hate me, you know?
While I hesitated, two people came up behind Youko-chan—presumably her friends.
“Is this the friend you wanted to invite along?” one of them asked.
“Wait, you know Amaori from the Quintet?”
Oh my god. They were boys! I flipped the freak out. To make matters worse, the boys were all from Class B. Stranger danger! They were good-looking, well put together, and athletic. Popular. Outgoing. Boys!!!
“So? How ’bout it, Renako-kun?” Youko-chan said.
“Um. Uh. Argh. Um. Well. I. Uh.”
I thought I was starting to get a hang of this whole talking-to-boys thing, but I guess I was in for a rude awakening. The only representatives of masculinity I had any familiarity with were my classmates Shimizu-kun and Fujimura-kun. And even then, we just said hi sometimes.
Youko-chan came closer and smiled conspiratorially. “Guess what?” she whispered. “I think they’re kinda into you. So, how ’bout it? Wanna be treated like a princess for a day?”
Oh my god, here they were: the people who targeted me, out of everyone in the Quintet! See, I told you! I told you the wiki listed me as the easiest route to pursue, every dating sim fan’s fast-pass to instant social status success.
That just makes things worse, Youko-chan! I mentally screamed at her. They’re going to try and…oh, I hate to even consider it…talk to me!
Oh god, oh hell, oh god. I wanted to say no, but how? Youko-chan thought she was doing me a solid, and I didn’t want this to spell the end of our budding acquaintanceship. Was there a way for me to turn her down without hurting anyone’s feelings? Right. There was only one thing to do: develop the superpower to go back in time. Go! Time, rewind! Latent time travel powers, activate! I thought with all my might, bunching my eyebrows together with the effort. Alas, no latent powers materialized. Instead, help came from a completely different quarter.
“What on earth are you doing, Amaori?” asked—
“Satsuki-san!”
Satsuki-san frowned as she stepped out of the classroom and caught sight of me trying to awaken my psychokinetic powers. Then her eyes slid from me to Youko-chan.
“Terusawa,” she almost growled.
Youko-chan giggled. “Hey there, Koto-san!”
Huh? I never realized they knew each other well enough to say hi like it wasn’t, you know, a whole thing. “Are you guys pals?” I asked.
Satsuki-san’s face bore no emotion whatsoever. Youko-chan, on the other hand, was all smiles. She said, “Yup, we’ve bumped into each other once or twice. Anyway, let’s go hang out, Renako-kun.”
Urgh. Could I not? But I really, really didn’t want to turn her down outright.
Satsuki-san clapped a hand on my shoulder. “My sincerest apologies, but Amaori and I have other plans today.”
“You do?” Youko-chan said. Her eyes narrowed, but it only lasted for a second before she reverted to her usual bright grin. “You sure about that?”
She looked over at me for confirmation, and I gave her a jerky nod. “Uh. Yes. Yes! We do. We’re going to…uh… Anyway, sorry I can’t make it!”
“Aww. Bummer. But oh well! See you some other time.”
Youko-chan looked over her shoulder at the guys. They seemed kinda bummed out too, but that didn’t stop them from waving and saying, “See ya.” Man, those were some really nice guys. I felt bad for what I’d just done to them. Ha ha… I waved back listlessly.
But as Youko-chan started to walk away, Satsuki-san said her name in truly chilling tones. Youko-chan stopped.
“I would appreciate it if you stopped taking the initiative without telling me. I thought I told you—I have this handled.”
Youko-chan looked back at us. She smiled in the same exact way she always did, but the edge of her mouth kept twitching. Like she was annoyed.
“Really now?” she said.
“Really now. Keep that in mind while you’re on the job.”
“Okie-dokie. Right back atcha, and good luck!” And with one more cheerful wave, Youko-chan was gone.
Uh…?
I looked up at Satsuki-san, mildly alarmed. There was some weird beef going on here, and it gave me the chills. Come to think of it, Satsuki-san had been super eager to beat Class B in the interclass competition. Maybe there were still some bad feelings left from that.