Chapter 19: Arc 1, Ch.19: Group work, yay!

‘Do you have a team for the charity event already?’

Every year, the third-years would do charity events right after the midterm exams in spring. We were expected to form teams of 5-10 students and think up our own strategies for earning money that would go to nearby orphanages and hospitals or help in any other way.

While the official planning and projects would only start after the exams, everyone of course knew they were coming and tried to form the teams in advance to be with their friends.

‘Everyone’s darlings’ like Prez, Mizuki, our year’s beauties and other popular students, were asked by nearly everyone.

Unexpectedly, I was asked for once.

I answered him honestly.
‘I was going to form one with my friends, but we’re just four people.’

Maybe it's because it was a break that Mizuki answered almost instantly despite having written the initial message over an hour ago.

‘I’ll be with the president. Are you interested in gathering our group together?’

...The three guys around me gasped in shock, poking me from everywhere. “Say yes! Say yes! Holy shit!”
“Shut up for a second!”, I hissed back, fidgeting.

Me? Officially in a group with Prez and Mizuki? What a mismatch… Though, to tell the truth, I wanted the chance to spend a lot of time with Mizuki, just that Prez was making me nervous.

Under the sparkling eyes of my friends, I caved in.

‘Sure. My friends agree as well.’

‘Okay. Prez will hand in our group sheet immediately, that way no one else can try to force themselves in.’
Ergh. So Prez was reading his messages just as my friends were reading mine? For some reason, I found that irritating. ( >д<)

“Why are you frowning?”, Kaoru mumbled, poking the crease on my forehead. I felt my face flush, leaning back.
“It’s nothing”, I grumbled defensively.

Why couldn’t the system show my people’s affections towards someone other than me?
Eh, I guess that doesn’t happen in dating sims, either.

Kaoru and Tarou tilted their heads in suspicion, Yuji’s face lit up like realization dawned upon him.

Yoo, stop being so good at reading me! This is awkward, okay? I don’t need you to be aware I’m jealous of the president for being close to Mizuki!

I just started the app to play the game and the others followed hastily, wasting away the rest of our break. We only stopped a few minutes before the teacher would come in, returning to out places and taking out our notes and books for the lesson. I waited until the teacher came in and everyone’s attention was to the front before I quickly wrote Yuji a message. We always had our phones on mute during school.

‘I can tell that you know, but don’t tell Kaoru or Tarou, alright?’
Yuji gave a small twitch moments after the message had been sent, reaching under his table. I could watch his movements, since I was sitting rows behind him. He froze for a moment, then typed an answer that promptly appeared on my own screen.

‘Wont’ and then, a few seconds later, ‘But theyre your friends they wont mind’.

Easy for you to say. You’re the one who follows the norm of being straight, not I.

It’s not that I didn’t trust my friends - I expected that they’d tease me a lot, but not more. That trust, despite everything, was sadly unable to shut up the fearful voice in my head. If it could, I would have told my own family about it years ago and not let Haru do it for me, right?

On that note, my overly supportive family is rather amusing.
The fujoshis are super happy to have a gay brother, my brother keeps on reading forums in hopes of understanding how I might see things differently - that had me laugh more than anything.
Mum is probably the most normal of them all.
Dad suddenly stopped nagging all of us about bringing home future sons and daughters in-law, awkwardly avoiding any topic that he thinks might offend me.

I’m not a rare animal, I don’t need special treatment - but watching the male half of the family flounder around is actually hilarious. They mean well.

My phone vibrated once more. My eyebrows jumped up a bit when I saw Mizuki’s chat flashing.

‘Is everything alright?’

‘Yeah, why?’

A pause of a minute.

‘It felt like you were mad at me’

Ah? How did he come to that conclusion? I scrolled through our chat. I never used overly many smileys with him, my tone didn’t change…

…

Huh? Could it be…
It was always me who ended the conversation. Whether that was just a single smiley or an affirmation or whatever, I always had the last word. I always wrote in a way that left it up to him whether he still wanted to continue the conversation, I never ended it. Except for just now, where the thought of Prez reading the messages had irked me enough to not do that. Had he noticed that?

Mustn’t squeal or grin. I’m in class.

‘I didn’t know whether Prez was reading your messages so I was a bit uncomfortable.’

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Gotta be honest, it’s not something weird anyway. Lots of people would stop writing if they knew someone else was reading along. His answer came soon. That’s bad, I’m completely distracted in the middle of the lesson.

‘I wouldn’t let him look at my phone. I just told him.’ Short pause.
‘Are you okay with him being in the group?’

Nope. Not at all.

‘Yeah. I mean, you don’t know my friends, either.’

‘They’re your friends, it’ll be fine.’

Aaaaaw!! Excuse me for using this sweet moment to probe you!!

‘And Prez is yours’

‘Not really’

Gasp. Does that mean he is less or more? I’m voting for less, if my opinion is of any importance.

‘?’

‘More an acquaintance’

I let my head fall onto the table. Fuck yes!

“Watanabe Riku!” The teacher’s voice boomed through the room and I jolted up straight.
“Yes!”

“Falling asleep in the middle of my class?!”
“I-I... I’m sorry?!”

My voice was awkwardly loud and I could tell I was probably flushing red. I hadn’t been sleeping, but should I tell him that I was going crazy over my crush telling me that the person I was worried about was just an acquaintance to him and not even a friend?

I got scolded for minutes, sinking deeper and deeper into my chair. The only message I dared to send after that was a quick ‘Class’ to show I wasn’t ignoring him. My classmates glanced back at me, some amused, some with rolling eyes.

For the rest of the lesson, I was an embarrassed bundle of a person obediently curling up on his chair and listening.

The teacher scolded me once more before leaving, stating that if this should ever happen again he’d call my parents. He was never that hard on the other students but he somehow hated me to death for no real reason.

Tarou leaned his chair back from the place right in front of me, raising his eyebrows. “Yikes. He was really mad.”
“No kidding. I was just resting my head for five fucking seconds…”

Obviously I was the one in the wrong here, but that didn’t stop me from being annoyed at my teacher. My good mood was gone already. I hid my face in my arms on the table, groaning unhappily. Then I pulled out my phone again. Hadn’t seen if Mizuki had written something!

“Were you chatting with someone?”, Tarou asked curiously, his fingers twitching with the desire to snatch my phone. I glared at him, my cheeks puffed up in a pout.

“Yes. But not showing.”

“Oh my!” He purred teasingly, wagging his eyebrows at me until I stuck out the tip of my tongue.

Since I was obviously more focused on my phone than Tarou, he exhaled with a smile and let his chair fall back into place. My eyes scanned the texts Mizuki had sent me, some before my hurried message, some after. Mizuki was considerably more talkative if it didn’t involve… actual talking.

‘Sorry he already brought the sheet away, otherwise I’d have asked if you’d prefer not having him in the group.’
‘Actually, will being in a group with him make those rumours worse?’
‘Are there any new ones?’
‘Alright, let’s talk later’

Mizuki had been a bit awkward about those rumours ever since he had realized they existed at all, not unsurprisingly. Being shipped is probably fun for everyone except the pair involved, it’s actually incredibly awkward. I could imagine him not wanting others to force their imagination on him.

Starting with that day when his points had locked down, I had a feeling they bothered him a lot more. Especially just now, I couldn’t help but feel he was trying to avoid me from misunderstanding.

Hm. I’ll just go with that explanation.

Cause that’s the one I like the most, tehe~

I started another short conversation with him, asking to meet up later to already have a quick talk and introduce each other. Mizuki agreed and so did my friends.

The day thankfully didn’t drag with otherwise somewhat interesting lessons and soon the bell rang to signify the end our school day. I glanced across the room to my darling group of idiots and waited for them to pack up as well. We all wanted to meet up in a small cafe with several, private partitions where we could talk while drinking something and Kaoru, who had already heard of it, led the way.

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