“Get this,” I told Kaho-chan the next day. “She’s actually studying at home even while not going to school. And like, staying on top of it and everything.”
“Wow,” said Kaho-chan. “That’s kinda legit.”
We were enjoying the last of the good autumn weather by eating lunch on the benches in the courtyard. Unlike my gloomy expression, it was a bright and beautiful autumn day. Not a cloud in the sky, nice and warm. The kind of weather you just ate up.
“But does it really count as playin’ hooky if you’re still hitting the books?” Kaho-chan said.
“See, that’s what makes me wonder.”
I repeated what Satsuki-san told me as she left: “Your sister said she can afford to have her grades slip, didn’t she? That suggests she intends to go back to school at some point. You might consider this closer to a school strike, perhaps.”
“Hmm.” Kaho-chan folded her arms. “It kinda makes sense. But there’s still gotta be some sort of reason for this, y’know?”
“Yeah, right? Not like she’ll ever tell me what it is.”
If Ajisai-san and Satsuki-san couldn’t get the answer out of her, what chance did I stand? Bluh.
“I’ll hit up Serarara Serara tomorrow and ask,” Kaho-chan said.
Of all my Quintet helpers, Kaho-chan was the only one whose assistance took an indirect route. “You gotta go through her buddies,” past Kaho-chan said. “I’m moots with one of them! Maybe that’ll be some help.”
Like she said, Kaho-chan went way back with my sister’s friend Seira-san. Let’s not beat around the bush—they were cosplay buddies. Seira-san probably knew why my sister had stopped going to school. And so Kaho-chan decided to ask her. I would never have come up with that idea, not in a million years.
Kaho-chan slurped from the straw of her juice box. “But she keeps leaving me on read. I spammed her DMs on LINE and Insta, but no dice. She’s told me nothin’.”
“What’d you expect? It’s the same person behind both accounts,” I said. Actually, wait a sec. “Do you think that means Seira-san knows what’s up?”
“Yeah, totes. She’s gotta.” Kaho-chan nodded as assertively as a detective who’d already discovered the conclusive evidence. “Leave it to me. I’ll help your sis ’cause you’re my one and only Rena-chin!”
She smiled with such confidence that my treacherous heart sang. “Kaho-chan!” I exclaimed. “I’m the luckiest person alive to have such a good friend in you!”
“Darn tootin’. And don’t you forget it…again.”
“I said I was sorry! Give it a rest, will you? I promise I’ll remember you this time.”
“Mm-hmm. You keep telling yourself that.” She gave me a “Sure, Jan” look. It’s hard being a reformed criminal, I tell you. Society never looked at you the same way.
“What can I do to make you believe me?” I asked.
“Hmm… Ah ha.” The expression on Kaho-chan’s face was anything but good. “You can get my name and a li’l heart tattooed under your belly button!”
I grabbed my lower belly. “Something less permanent, please!”
Imagine if Mai or Ajisai-san saw. How the heck could I ever explain it?
“Aww, but then I’d finally know how much my Wifey loves me,” Kaho-chan teased.
“You rotten liar. You’d be creeped out to hell and back, I know it! And I’m not going to get a tattoo anyway!”
I paused to wheeze for breath. Kaho-chan was majorly messing with me again.
Speaking of messing with me, remember the Kaho-chan in Ajisai-san’s lap incident? Ajisai-san already apologized, so that part was chill. But I wondered if this counted as flirting too. Would it make Ajisai-san jealous if she knew?
I glanced at Kaho-chan. She caught my eye and went “Hmm? Wassup?”
Nah. This was just friends shooting the breeze, right? Normal friendly banter. So it was fine. Right? I put the mic up to the Ajisai-san who lived in my head. What do you think, Ajisai-san? And she said, “Yeah, don’t worry about it! It’s totally okay.” Sweet, thanks!
“Yeah?” Kaho-chan prompted again.
“Never mind; it’s all good. What would I do without you, Kaho-chan?”
“Are you tryna come on to me again?”
“Oh, for the love of—no!”
Making a pass at Kaho-chan went beyond jealousy. That was just cheating! And cheating was for bad people!
“Y’know what, Rena-chin?” Kaho-chan said. She folded her arms and propped her chin up on them. What now? “You’re dating Mai-Mai and Aa-chan at the same time, aren’tcha?” she went on.
“Y-yeah.”
I took a quick, fearful glance around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear us. Fortunately, Kaho-chan wasn’t an idiot like me, so no one was in earshot.
“How’s it going for you guys? You happy?” she asked.
I tried to say “Yeah, totally!” but a whole host of things—the heavy weight of responsibility, the awareness of eyes on me, my spinelessness, my failure to give my relationship my hundred percent—all raised their hands and belted out, “I object!”
So I hesitated and finally said, “Uh, I mean. Kinda.”
“Don’tcha think you might be happier if you guys became, like, a quadrouple?” Kaho-chan said. “Or maybe even a quintouple?”
I fell silent for a moment before my brain kicked in. “What kind of question is that?”
“I’m just askin’. Idle curiosity and all.”
Idle curiosity. Idle curiosity? To be fair, if three of my friends had started dating one another, I guess I would have been curious too.
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe,” I said.
First off: I wasn’t planning on dating more people. Got it? Got it. But with that out of the way, Satsuki-san once said there wasn’t much difference between dating two versus three girls. Which kinda sounded like she was asking to join. But I think she meant it seriously and not, like, in a flirtatious way.
“Like if you dated Saa-chan, for instance,” Kaho-chan said.