Chapter 16: Chapter 16

After the cultural festival, the festive mood lingered for a few days before it gradually dissipated. There were still traces of the decorations left around the school that seemed too good to be disposed of.

Their class won the best decoration award but unfortunately, those needed to be taken down or else the classroom wouldn't be able to be used. The Theater Club and Movie Club asked if the props could be given to them though, so they didn't go to waste.

Aoi thought things would be uneventful until Christmas but he was wrong.

"Kashiwagi-kun, are you…still in a relationship with your girlfriend?"

"…"

Aoi looked up at Keiko and then at the rest of the class who fell silent to eavesdrop. He had some suspicions that Keiko was the type to face everything head-on, but he didn't expect her to be so straightforward.

"Yes. Is something wrong?" Aoi honestly answered.

Well, Yanagi wasn't a girl though.

"Eh? Ah…No, um…" Keiko awkwardly laughed. "I was thinking of asking for advice from her. Hahaha…"

Aoi thought for a split second and decided to be a bit harsh. He frowned and looked at Keiko strangely, "Advice?"

"Y-you see…the person I like right now is somewhat like you. I can't really figure out what he's thinking, so I wanted to ask someone with experience," Keiko started spewing out nonsense from nervousness.

"Class Rep…is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"It's a compliment, a compliment," Hikawa, one of his classmates, came to his table as well. "Do you have a picture of her? I want to see it!"

"No," Aoi put his phone into his pocket. "I'm keeping my lover to myself."

"Ooh!" Hikawa became more excited and clung to Aoi's neck. "I didn't expect you to be the possessive type, Kashiwagi!"

Aoi inexplicably chuckled, "I'm no match to my lover though."

"Uwah…You guys are so lovey-do–"

The weight on Aoi's neck suddenly disappeared and a clatter ensued with Hikawa hitting the table next to Aoi's.

Aoi turned around to find Yanagi with a dark face behind him. Before things became awkward, he stood up and patted Yanagi's shoulder.

"I told you to be more careful with your steps, didn't I? Where's your apology?" he looked at Yanagi meaningfully.

"…" Yanagi clenched his fists and lowered his head to Hikawa, "…It was careless of me. I'm sorry."

Hikawa rubbed his throbbing arm doubtfully. Still, he didn't want to make trouble over nothing, so he waved it off with a laugh.

"It's fine, it's fine. I also often trip on air," he joked.

"Idiot, you can't even walk straight," his friend chimed in.

"Huh!? It's you who always bump into things and people when we walk outside!" Hikawa went to smack his friend.

The class quickly returned to normal and the others went back to chat with their friends. Keiko also ran away to her group who silently cheered her up.

Aoi cocked his head to the door, signalling Yanagi to talk outside.

"I'm sorry…" Yanagi apologized again once they were in the hallway. This time to Aoi.

Aoi crossed his arms, "I'm not mad at you. I did that for your sake."

"Eh…?" Yanagi looked at Aoi in askance.

"You're starting to do well with your class. If you got caught up in another rumour, it would be bad for you," Aoi stated the obvious. "Restrain yourself a bit. I can differentiate people's attention towards me and you should learn that as well."

"I…understand," Yanagi hung his head.

"Don't make that face," Aoi petted Yanagi's head. "Thank you for apologizing. Should we watch a movie after school? That superhero movie series you've been waiting for has just released yesterday."

Yanagi blinked a few times and raised his face, "Really?"

"Mn. So, don't sulk anymore," Aoi nodded. He lowered his hand, "And? Why did you come to my class?"

"My class is currently self-study. I came to peek," Yanagi scratched his neck.

"Pft! Aren't you honest?" Aoi laughed. "We haven't got a substitute teacher for the English class as well, so we're also in self-study period."

"I can teach you!" Yanagi eagerly said.

Aoi smiled playfully and whispered in Yanagi's ear, "I prefer my room to be Yanagi-sensei's exclusive classroom."

Yanagi flushed red and took several steps back in a fluster.

Aoi laughed again and walked back to his classroom, "Go back to your class, Yanagi-sensei. And book the tickets for us."

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"Y-yes!" Yanagi readily took out his phone as he returned to his own classroom as well.

Aoi had just sat back at his desk when Matsunaga, his deskmate on his right turned to him.

"That's Suda Yanagi from 1-A, right? You're really close to him, aren't you?" Matsunaga's eyes glinted in interest.

"You can say that," Aoi glanced at Matsunaga. "You know him?"

"Since the school festival, he becomes pretty popular among the girls. Particularly in our year," Matsunaga shifted his seat closer.

"Is that so?" Aoi leaned in his chair. "I don't remember him doing anything special."

"To be accurate, he helped out many people during the school festival preparation. He's pretty tall, right? Probably the tallest in our year. That's why many classes borrowed his height for their decorations."

Aoi thought for a while and indeed recalled seeing Yanagi outside other classes from time to time.

"He's from class A, so he's definitely smart. Moreover, he's not bad-looking," Matsunaga continued.

"…I wouldn't say he's handsome though," Aoi commented.

Matsunaga snapped his fingers, "Exactly because he's not overwhelmingly handsome he became more approachable."

Aoi, "…"

Once school was over, Aoi picked up his bag and left his classroom. He passed Yanagi's classroom on his way to the locker hall and glanced inside through the window.

His steps halted.

In the classroom, a group of girls surrounded Yanagi's desk, seemingly talking to him about something. One of them was the girl who wronged Yanagi before, Natsumi.

Yanagi had a troubled look on his face but unsurprisingly, he couldn't push them away.

Aoi went to the door to hear the conversation.

"Since you helped a lot at the school festival, we want you to come. It's a class celebration after all."

"Un. We also want to make it up to you for what we did to you before."

"Are you still busy today? The karaoke place is just around 10 minutes from the station."

Yanagi wanted to reject the invitation, but he didn't know what he should say. He had been rejecting their invitations for the past week, but they really wouldn't relent.

"I–" he grabbed his bag to leave only to freeze when he saw Aoi leaning on the door frame. He immediately panicked, "A-A-Aoi, this–"

"It's fine, isn't it?" Aoi straightened up and turned on his heels. "Have fun."

Yanagi paled seeing him leave. He wanted to chase after him when his arm was caught by Natsumi.

"Suda-kun, you're coming, ri–"

"Don't touch me!" Yanagi threw Natsumi's hand away and rushed out. "Aoi!"

Not seeing Aoi's figure anywhere, he hurried to the locker hall. He found Aoi exiting the school building, so he quickly changed his shoes and caught up to him.

"Aoi, I never intended to go with them," Yanagi held Aoi's hand. "Something like that, I will never choose something so insignificant over our promise."

Aoi turned to face Yanagi and pulled his hand away.

"I know," he put his hands into his pockets. "But I'm serious. Go with them. You've rejected them before this, right?"

"Aoi…?" Yanagi stilled in place.

"If you don't go today, they'll just invite you out again the next day," Aoi sighed helplessly and looked away. "I have a feeling that you did something rude to them just now to chase after me, so don't forget to apologize."

He waited for Yanagi to obediently reply and return to his classmates, but there was no reply even after a minute passed. When he shifted his eyes back to him, he was dumbfounded to see tears and snot trickling down Yanagi's face.

"H-hey, why are you crying??" Aoi couldn't hide his surprise.

He looked around to see the other students looking at them curiously and promptly dragged Yanagi away to the corner of the school building.

Aoi was about to ask again when Yanagi suddenly pounced on him.

"I don't want to go with them. Don't make me go with them. It's suffocating when I'm with them," Yanagi buried his head in Aoi's shoulder. "You promised we'll go to the movies today. Don't take it back!"

Aoi didn't think that Yanagi hated the idea of spending his time with his classmates so much. He hesitated for a brief moment before he returned Yanagi's hold.

"Okay, I won't. I'm sorry," Aoi rubbed Yanagi's back apologetically. "Why…is it suffocating to be with them?"

"It feels like I'm surrounded by nightmares dressed as a human," Yanagi sniffled. "It's like everything that comes out of their mouths are lies. I can't help but imagine that they scripted the whole thing behind my back. It's scary."

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