Chapter 23: Arc 1, Ch.23: All normal, all normal~

“Alright, that’s an answer, too. I know what you mean. It’s a hard question, isn’t it?”
“It sure is”, I sighed just as Risa made her way down the stairs.

She was wearing a medium length summer dress that she liked a lot but which was very suitable to wear at home (so it wasn’t unnatural) while, at the same time, making her look all cute and docile.

Her tutor smiled and turned to her, causing her to shyly lower her eyes.

“Hey. Ready for one last round before things get serious?”, he teased her and she twirled a lock of hair around her finger.
“Hm.” She flushed a bit, just enough to look like she was a generally shy girl rather than being embarrassed.

“I-I’m sure I’ll do well, since you’re a really good teacher”, she whispered, walking over.

To tell the truth, seeing her like that was hilarious each and every time. 
She wasn’t acting, she was just really nervous around him, but knowing the gap between that and her usual behaviour…

I admit I was rather gleeful because she always made fun of me for being an awkward person. Now she was the one who acted just the same.

“Shall we go to your room, then?”, her tutor suggested and she nodded hurriedly, following him like a little chick.

Hmmm, if I think about it, I do think he’s interested in her. She’s still just 16, though - I think he has an attitude of waiting for another while.
I remember that a lot of the girls in my class kept on ‘falling’ for guys at that age. Every some weeks, that person changed and it would be a new topic of discussion.

I don’t think they were just acting like they were in love, and I don’t deny that there were likely some who had truly fallen for someone.
I’m just saying a lot of them might be overestimating their feelings a bit, with raging hormones and all that stuff.

Not love, just a crush.

It felt like he was waiting to see whether her interest in him would persevere, not just a short-term crush but an actual feeling of love.

On that note, I don’t think my own feelings are so fickle. If they were, I wouldn’t be suffering for… quite some time already.

…
Good luck, little sister.

Sighing, I went up into my room to mindlessly grind away in one of my games. A stupid task, but incredibly relaxing, if you ask me. Especially if I had a lot on my mind.

I should be studying, but with my thoughts going in circles I just couldn’t muster the energy to fetch my stuff and concentrate.

...I knew Haru got along well with Mizuki. He had even talked with her on the street before (I hadn’t asked her about that. I didn’t want to amuse her with my wish to know everything).

Risa also liked him and was one of the tamer people following the gossip that went around at school.

Daichi appeared to be satisfied that he was a good person, as was my mother.

My father was troubled - but that wasn’t because of Mizuki but rather because he was still a bit unflexible about suddenly accepting his son being gay. It was just because he had been raised in an environment where homosexuality was absolutely nothing to talk about.

Mizuki himself always greeted my family when he saw them and looked considerably amicable compared to how he was with others. 

Generally, you could say that there was already a much smaller amount of problems than there could be with our weird, ambiguous relationship - just imagine my family couldn’t accept I was gay or didn’t like him.

The basic situation was good, so I hoped that we could keep things at a good level.
Even if we didn’t get together, I just didn’t want to lose him as a friend.

…

I stopped my quest, rubbed my face, put the console away and then went to get my stuff.
I didn’t want to disappoint my two tutors.

So, these last days were spent with more studying than I had ever done before exams, until it was finally that dreaded period...  

Exam time was over several days and put us all on edge. We hardly did anything other than sitting quietly in our classrooms, waiting for the teachers and revising our notes one last time. Conversations were scarce. The closer we got to our final high school exams, the more nervous were we about getting good grades.

My preparation with both Daichi and Mizuki had helped a lot. My fingers were nervously shaking as I got the first test but I calmed down the moment I read through the questions. I could do those. I wasn’t fully certain about getting them right, but I roughly knew how I needed to approach them, which would give me points no matter what. I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

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The teacher told us to start.

People always say time passes fast when you’re having fun, but if you ask me, I never had days go by as fast as when we had exams. Before I knew it, I was slipping down my chair, wheezing, the last paper gone from my table.

Yuji wobbled over, leaning against the windowsill and kneading his forehead.

“How was it?”
I groaned in response.
“Same.”

Kaoru and Tarou joined us.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve passed, let’s just see how well”, Tarou sighed.

“Let’s go out to eat together. I need meat”, Kaoru grumbled and we all groaned in agreement. My parents had given me extra money in accurate foresight, so I was willing to throw it out of the window for some good food.

The sight of a few hundred students leaving the building at the same time, lifelessly dragging their bodies out with only a few exceptions, must have been rather amusing for the people passing by our school. 

My phone vibrated.

‘Are you going out with your friends?’

I felt a smile twitch at my lips and stopped my friends by grabbing for Kaoru’s collar.
“Mizuki just wrote. Would you mind if I invited him along?”

Dumb stares.
“...Taizou.”
“Oooh! Yeah, sure, he can come along.” “He’s your friend, too, right? It’s fine.”

My friends were exceptionally supportive, probably because they were curious about him. Besides, it didn’t make too much difference, since Mizuki wasn’t exactly talkative and wouldn’t disrupt our usual group. I typed an answer.

‘Yeah, we’re going out to eat. Do you want to come along?’

A few seconds passed before his message came in with a short vibration.
‘If you don’t mind’

I quickly told him that my friends agreed and wrote him the name of the casual restaurant. We went first, since he still needed to get rid of a horde of other students, already searching for a nice place to sit.

Under usual circumstances, we’d all fight for the sofa places, but Yuji intervened for once.
“Let’s leave them for Riku and Taizou”, he said. “Makes most sense.”

To explain the ‘sense’ he’s talking about: He wanted to give Taizou one sofa seat since they’re not too acquainted yet and doesn’t want to be rude. Since the sofa isn’t too huge, the other person sitting on it is rather close.

If it’s just us, we wouldn’t care, but with Taizou and his discomfort towards people, he reasoned that me sitting there was the best course of action.

...That was his official reason anyway, I had a feeling he just wanted that seating arrangement cause he wanted me to be happy sitting next to Taizou.

So, this one time, I got a sofa seat without several rounds of rock-paper-scissors. We already ordered drinks and I, after a short moment of hesitation, decided to order for Mizuki along already. The same soda I had, the ‘reward soda’ that he had liked.

Mizuki came in a few minutes afterwards, looking through the store and then walking over once he had seen my wave. Tarou quietly clicked his tongue.
“Really does look good.”

“Hi”, Mizuki greeted to no one in particular, then tilting his head. I patted the space next to me and he came over, sitting down and then looking around the room.

“First time here?”, Kaoru asked in a friendly tone. Mizuki nodded. “They’ve got great meat dishes.”

There was some small-talk until the waiter brought our drinks, Mizuki blinking in surprise at seeing a soda in front of him. I smiled awkwardly. “I ordered for you already, do you mind?”

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