Side: Harumi
One particular morning, Koutarou noticed something was amiss on his way to school with Harumi. She was strangely looking to the right, but all Koutarou could see in that direction was a stationary garbage truck. Confused as to why that had caught her attention, Koutarou decided to ask her about it.
“Sakuraba-senpai, is something up with that garbage truck?”
“Huh? What garbage truck? Oh, that one... No, there doesn’t appear to be anything unusual about it.”
“Yeah? Weren’t you just staring at it?”
“A-Actually, I kind of slept in an awkward position last night and I seem to have sprained my neck... ahahaha...”
Apparently Harumi had pulled her neck in her sleep, so she was looking to the right because it was the only position that was comfortable for her. It had nothing to do with the garbage truck. The misunderstanding had her red with embarrassment.
“That sounds awful. How is it feeling now?”
“It’s not as bad as when I first woke up, but it still hurts a little.”
Curious, Koutarou looked over and observed the cloth bandage wrapped around Harumi’s slender, porcelain neck. Realizing he was staring at her neck, Harumi began blushing for a different reason. Fortunately, Koutarou didn’t seem to notice.
“You’ve got a poultice under the bandages, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then it should probably be fine. Make sure not to move your neck too much until the pain subsides though, Sakuraba-senpai.”
“Satomi-kun, you sound like you know a lot about this kind of thing.”
“You pretty much treat all sprains the same. Oh, and you gotta watch out for the inflammation.”
“I guess you had a lot of sprains on the baseball team, huh?”
“You could say that.”
Koutarou and Harumi continued walking towards the school together. Harumi had already graduated, but Harukaze High was having a special event today and the Sun Rangers had asked for help guarding some Forthorthian officials. Chances of an attack were low based on their intelligence, but they wanted a magic user on hand as something of an insurance policy.
“Hey, Kou!”
Eventually, Kenji rolled up on the two of them. Since he was on his bike, it didn’t take him long to catch up.
“Hey, Mackenzie.”
“Good morning, Matsudaira-san.”
“Good morning― Wait, did you have a fight with Sakuraba-senpai, Kou?”
Kenji looked between Koutarou and Harumi with a perplexed expression on his face.
“Why?”
“You two always have this chummy aura about you, but today she’s not even looking at you.”
Koutarou and Harumi were normally so friendly with each other that it was easy to mistake them for a couple, but today Harumi appeared to be looking away from him on purpose. Seeing that, Kenji naturally assumed that Koutarou had done something to upset her.
“Yeah, she’s still upset that I stole her fried chicken. I tell you, man, girls and their grudges over food...”
“Satomi-kun, please stop making weird jokes!”
“See? Scary, right?”
“Oh, you! He’s joking, Matsudaira-san. I just slept in an awkward position last night.”
“So it’s a lover’s spat either way, huh?”
“Not you too, Matsudaira-san! My goodness!”
“Ahahaha!”
“Wahaha!”
Despite her anger, Harumi wasn’t even looking at the boys. The humorous sight tickled them just the right way, and their laughter only made her angrier. Her puffed up cheeks told them she was really mad now.
“Now, now, Sakuraba-senpai... You can just change where you’re standing.”
Realizing Harumi was actually mad, Kenji immediately moved to smooth things over. His ability to read women and act accordingly was one of his trademark qualities.
“People will get the wrong idea if you’re looking away, so we can clear this all up if you just stand here.”
“I see...”
Harumi moved over to where Kenji suggested. She was just left of Koutarou, so he was standing right where she was looking now.
“Wahahahaha!”
But seeing her cheeks still slightly puffed out, Koutarou couldn’t help bursting into laughter when he saw her adorable face up close.
“Oh, Satomi-kun! I’m really going to get angry!”
“I-I’m sorry, Sakuraba-senpai... You’re just too cute.”
“You won’t fool me like that!”
“Pfft! Ahaha!”
“Satomi-kun!”
In the end, Koutarou really did do something to upset Harumi. You see, it would be some time yet before he stopped laughing.
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