Outsider Syndrome: Everlasting (Bonus Content)

Chapter 3 - "I'll Give It My Best Shot"

Tsumugi Tsukahara's POV:

In the middle of class, while Miss Akagi talked on about mathematic formulas, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Aoyama's message lit up my screen.

Want to hang out after school?

I paused, swimming in awe, to glance across the room.

Aoyama's gentle eyes and smile were waiting to greet me.

My cheeks bloomed rose-red. Wordlessly, I blushed, all the while he tilted his head at an angle, resting his chin on his folded arms.

Was he asking me out? As in, as in. . .

I tore my gaze to my lap, where I gripped my phone for dear life.

I couldn't get ahead of myself. This was platonic. It had to be. Aoyama and I had spoken only in the mornings. Not at school. And most definitely not afterwards. Was this his plan to change that? Him reaching out to establish a tangible friendship between us? Or was it something more?

Yes.

I willed my galloping heartbeat to silence itself. Did my response sound too desperate? Could he tell I was in love with him? I should've sent a "sure" or something more casual!

On cue, Aoyama surfaced his device. He stared at his screen with maximum concentration. His thumbs danced above his screen for an extended period. Eventually, my phone lit up a second time.

Okay! Let's meet by our lockers! :)

He sent an cute sticker alongside it, indicating his excitement.

When I glanced in his direction, it was the least of my expectation to find him clutching his head.

Was he second-guessing his message? Why? It was totally normal!

Straightaway, he buried his reddened face into his arms, as if begging to not be perceived. Aoyama was a wallflower, so I guess it made sense for him to get embarrassed about matters like this.

Unable to contain it, I laughed under my breath.

Either way, he was too cute.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

I explicitly advised myself not to get my hopes up.

Precisely for this reason.

"Masaki, where're you headed? Weren't we getting ramen on the way home?"

It happened without warning. I'd been waiting for Aoyama to finish up with his classroom duties. As soon as he did and he arrived at our lockers, we stood in a comfortable silence, sharing shy smiles. Then, they appeared. Uchiya and Yaotome—Aoyama's best friends. They impeded without remorse. Acknowledged me with boisterous grins. Although Aoyama had insisted we'd already made plans to hang out, they falsely assumed it was to get ramen. Getting a sense of where the conversation was headed, I timidly excused myself, but, oblivious as they were, they insisted I join them. The more, the merrier, as they proclaimed.

Which brought me to the current situation.

"Welcome!"

Salarymen on their commute home. Construction workers. High school boys being high school boys.