Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan - Without Thinking

Chapter 2 - Hook, Line and Sinker

He may have taken the bait.

As expected, it had been a ploy. If there had been any sweets, then Mera had finished them all off before Saiki got there. The only sweet thing left seemed to be the punch. Which had obviously been spiked, judging from the burn in his throat. He had some anyway.

Yumehara's party was in full swing. There were people everywhere. It felt like one of those game shows where they try to fit as many people as possible in a tiny space. Yumehara's house wasn't even small. Saiki didn't recognize most of these people. Was the entire school here?

The dumbasses that had encouraged him to come, were nowhere to be found. He wasn't sure whether to feel relieved about that or not. Usually he would be. Still, he found himself shuffling through the masses looking for a familiar face. Ideally without anyone spilling drinks on him, but that had been too much to ask.

He had just grabbed some random clothes from his wardrobe: a thin, long-sleeved indigo V-neck sweater over a white shirt and some simple black trousers. Nice and plain, just as he liked it, and most of all: dark. The stains on his jeans were barely noticeable.

He heard some commotion coming from the next room.

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!"

"Oh? Who's Chuck? Oh?"

Saiki recognized that voice all too well, so he hung back, staying out of sight. Nendou and Kuboyasu were sitting across from each other at a table, with each a line of filled beer glasses in front of them. Kuboyasu had started downing them while Nendou was being his idiot self, looking for Chuck. People around them were cheering them on.

"Don't give up! Give it everything you've got!" Of course, there was no motivator like Hairo. He was darting around the table like a lunatic.

Isn't it way past his bedtime anyway?

"NENDOU-KUN! Where's your willpower? Drink!" Hairo was sweating buckets.

"Oh? Oh! Cheers!" Nendou raised a glass, like he was doing a toast, and then put it to his mouth.

The audience went wild when Nendou started chugging down the beers in mere seconds, quickly catching up with Kuboyasu. The ex-delinquent only had one glass to go, but was obviously struggling to keep everything down.

Saiki figured it was probably best to get going before they noticed him and started puking all over him. Nendou was just about to gulp down his last glass as Hairo was flipping out over Kuboyasu's lack of determination.

"Oh? Partner?" Nendou corkscrewed his neck to look behind him, in Saiki's direction. Saiki managed to duck behind some people just in time.

Yikes.

The crowd cried in protest as Kuboyasu finished his last beer while Nendou was still scanning the area.

"Oh? Congrats man, you're so much better at drinking than me."

Saiki silently slid out of the kitchen. Nendou's partner radar was truly a force to be reckoned with. Maybe he was a psychic.

Saiki continued on his rather purposeless journey. This was so not his scene. Too much noise, flickering lights, drunk people. It was stuffy and hot. He felt light-headed. Maybe he should just leave.

In hind-sight, he should have left.

He eventually made it to the living room, which had what appeared to be a dance floor in the center. On the far end of the room, he spotted another one of the usual suspects: Kaidou. He was leaning against the wall, engaged in a seemingly enthralling conversation with Yumehara.