Yes or No

Chapter 7: Confusion

School was boring all week, mostly because Yuma was sick every day. Even today, Friday, he had texted me and said he'd be home sick again. It quickly became clear to me that I was dependent on his friendship, even if that friendship had only lasted a little over a week so far. He's important to me. Although, it's not like I didn't see him at all. I brought him his homework everyday because he asked me to.

I sat in the back corner of the room with my head on the desk, lonely, waiting for class to start, and nearly falling asleep from boredom. My eyes shot open in surprise when someone suddenly hugged me from behind. Before I could really process what had happened and freak out at some random person hugging me the person whispered, "Surprise!"

It was Yuma. I recognized his voice. When he let go I stood up to look at him. He was smiling brightly and seemed to be amused by my confusion.

"You said you were staying home again. Why are you here?" I asked. He made a pained expression.

"I'm hurt, Rin, it sounds like you don't want me here," he said, but then laughed and switched to a smile again. "I lied when I texted you. I wanted you to think I wouldn't be here so I could surprise you."

"I'm glad you're here. I was bored." He laughed and hugged me again. I could feel my heartbeat speed up.

"Bored or lonely?" He asked. "I missed you."

"You missed me? I saw you everyday to bring your homework."

"It's not the same! It's a much shorter amount of time and besides, now that I'm not sick I don't have to worry about getting you sick too. I can hug you all I want."

As he talked he hugged me tighter. When he had finished talking he pulled back slightly, still holding me, and leaned towards my face. He was so close the tips of our noses touched and he just stared into my eyes for a few seconds like he was lost in something. My heart beat faster and my face heated up; I thought he'd kiss me. A part of me wanted him to and a part of me didn't. I wanted him to because even though I denied it I was starting to like him. I didn't want him to because I was scared. There's so many people in the room which is strange for me. Plus, it'd be my first kiss so I was nervous of that. He could think I'm stupid because I wouldn't know how to kiss back, or I could get excited only to find out he was teasing again and took it too far. Suddenly though, he pulled away. He sat down at the desk next to the one I had been in before he came in, sighing, and acted as if nothing had happened. I was both relieved and disappointed.

I couldn't think straight to really follow his conversation after that. Instead I kept imaging different things that could've happened if he had kissed me. Things like how I would react, if I'd kiss back, if I'd be good or bad at it, how he'd react, or maybe I'd be too nervous and push him away. He didn't seem annoyed at all when I got lost in space every few seconds and only snapped his fingers in my face laughing. This didn't help the blush on my cheeks. The situation got even worse when I noticed Miku and Neru at the front of the room had seen the whole thing and were now glaring at me. Half a minute later Miku got up, dragging Neru behind her and came over to us. She interrupted Yuma mid-sentence.

"Neru needs your help with homework again, Yuma. It's so good you aren't sick anymore; she's failing without you," Miku said.

"She could get help from her friends or her parents instead, but I'm glad I can be useful to you," Yuma said, somewhat sarcastically.

He took the homework from Miku's hand and Neru explained what she didn't understand, which was basically all of it. It was amazing to me that he could explain it so well when he'd been gone all week. I guess he really was doing his homework after I left each day.

Later, Yuma and I went to the table where we normally eat lunch. Len and Gumi usually eat with us, but we're generally first and have to wait a few minutes for them. We'd barely sat down and started eating when Gumi ran up to us. She looked conflicted and angry. Len was close behind her looking worried and very confused.

"Please, Rin, tell your brother to leave me alone. He's been annoying me all day," Gumi said.

"What?" I said, surprised by what she said. "What did he do?"

"He won't stop poking me!"

"I don't understand, Gumi," Len said, "you looked sad this morning and you normally laugh when I tease you. When you got mad I apologized so why are you so upset?"

Len didn't sound angry or annoyed, just concerned. He was trying to calm her, but it wasn't working.

"It doesn't matter, I'm sick of your teasing all the time! You're annoying. I don't like you anymore." Gumi was nearly in tears as she said this, but didn't cry.

"What are you saying?" Len asked. He reached towards he slowly but pulled back not wanting to upset her more and waited for her reply. She was quiet for a minute. Then her response surprised us all.

"I'm saying we should break up. Love isn't real anyway. It's just a joke lonely people came up with. It's stupid."

She looked at the ground as she talked with her fists clenched. When she looked up we could see she had started crying. She wiped her tears, but they didn't stop, and then she ran away. Len was so surprised he could barely react. He just looked hurt.

"What happened?" Yuma asked Len, snapping him out of it.

"N-Nothing I... I don't know she just... Did I do something wrong? I-I must've done something to make her angry, but I can't think of what...."

Len's voice shook as he spoke. He could barely get the words out.