Date Her Instead Vol. 1

Chapter One: It's Time To Confess!

Two girls woke up one morning with the same thought in mind:

"Okay, today's the day..."

"Today I'm going to confess!"

First there was Haruna Endo. After hitting snooze for about the fifth time, she finally rose up out of bed like a zombie and prepared to step onto the floor. However, what she wasn't expecting was a sharp object greeting the sole of her foot.

"Ow! Damn it, what the hell was that?" Haruna complained groggily. Looking down, she saw the source of her pain had been an old broken phone strap. Part of the plastic had snapped off, creating quite the dangerous edge. "Geez, I didn't even know this thing was still in here. I should probably get rid of that piece of junk." As Haruna bent over to pick it up, she took a look at the state of her room.

If there was only one way to describe the condition Haruna's room was in, it would be that a tornado came through it, threw all of the stuff around, and then looters came through to grab what they wanted, leaving a mess of random clothes, papers and other worthless knick-knacks scattered about. "I hope mom didn't hear me earlier. If she did, she'll probably lecture me again about cleaning all of this up," Haruna sighed to herself.

With all the hazards moved out of the way, Haruna finally stood up from her bed, stretched, threw on a pair of blue short-shorts and a thin, white tank-top, and proceeded to head downstairs where her mother was making breakfast.

"Morning mom," Haruna said as she rubbed her eyes. "Well good morning. It's about time you got up. I heard that alarm of yours go off so much I was about to wade through that mess you call a bedroom and drag you out of bed," her mom scolded her. "Even without bringing it up I still get yelled at..." Haruna thought, annoyed.

"You better start getting ready for school now while I finish cooking because you won't have time after you eat," Haruna's mom said. "Yeah, yeah," Haruna responded, turning around to lazily carry herself back upstairs. With each step, Haruna began to feel more and more awake, until finally, a resolution she had made to herself came to settle into the forefront of her mind.

"Oh, right, I said I was going to confess today..." Haruna said softly as she stopped walking at her doorway. "Ah God, what the hell was I thinking proclaiming something like that?! There's no way I can do this! Confess?! Me?! What kinda sick joke am I trying to pull on myself?!" Haruna said all of this as she put on her school's uniform and shoved her textbooks into her bag.

Stopping in front of the mirror near her bed, she stared at herself. There Haruna stood, wearing the uniform of Iwanai Municipal High School. The uniform itself was pretty simple. Everyone was required to wear a white t-shirt for the summer uniform with the attached blue sailor-style collar. Guys had to wear grey pants while girls wore navy blue, flannel-patterned skirts that rested just above their knees. The most glitzy thing about the uniform were the bows.

Each year had its own color. A yellow bow indicated a first year, a lavender-colored one showed someone was a third year, and the one Haruna currently wore was a deep green color that closely resembled the color in her eyes. Those bows were for the second years. Guys followed the same system, but with ties instead, although they weren't required to wear them.

Picking up a comb, Haruna tried to tame her very floofy and unruly long black hair, but to no avail. "I appreciate that I'm not bald or anything, but why can't it just cooperate?" Haruna thought as she angrily combed one part that resisted her efforts and kept popping back up. "Today of all days too..."

Once Haruna had given up on the war on her hair, she looked to her right at her desk where the final piece of Haruna's plan sat. It was the letter she intended on putting into Akio Miyashita's locker, asking him to meet her behind the school when classes were over. She had actually had this letter for several weeks, but it was only until the start of her second year that Haruna had suddenly gotten a burst of confidence, hence her proclamation that she would confess. With a mix of both excitement and worry, Haruna grabbed the letter and stuffed it into her bag.