Date Her Instead Vol. 1

Chapter Five: A Painful Past Seeps Into The Present

When Haruna awoke that morning, the first thing that came to mind was remembering that this would be the second day in a row that she'd have to spend with Kanako. "I can't believe I'm doing this..." she thought with a bit of disgust. The more Haruna thought about the whole situation, the angrier she became about it. "It's all the idiot's fault. If she hadn't shown up that day, none of this would've happened!"

Continuously getting madder as she aggressively put on her uniform and ate her breakfast, her mom gave her a look of concern. "Haruna, are you alright? It seems like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed." The response given was a sigh, followed by: "It's nothing. Just school stuff." Haruna's mother wasn't really convinced, but she let it go.

"Oh, I heard recently from a woman I work with who has a kid at your school that she saw you walking home together with a girl with a ponytail. Was it Kana-chan?" Haruna nearly choked on her orange juice. "It's nice you're friends again," her mom said happily. "We are NOT friends," Haruna said coldly. "Hm? Then why are you walking home together?" her mom asked, confused. "Ugh, whatever. I'm leaving," Haruna said, opting to not explain the situation.

As Haruna marched along the sidewalk, she found herself to be more irritated than ever. "God, this sucks..." she sighed. "Hey girl!" Chiyo called as she approached. "Whoa, you look terrible. It's like bad vibes are oozing out of you." "They probably are," Haruna said flatly. "Are you in a mood because of the whole dating Kana-chan thing?" Chiyo asked. "We're not- oh whatever. Yes, it's about that," Haruna said, deciding against taking the time to correct Chiyo. "It can't be that bad, can it? I mean, I've heard Kana-chan's pretty easy to get along with," Chiyo commented. "Yeah right! Who'd want to hang around her anyways?!" Haruna shouted.

When the two of them reached the school and got inside, Haruna saw Akio finishing up putting his stuff in his locker. "I bet he's going to say something snarky to me again," Haruna thought, but to her surprise, Akio just walked away. "Huh?"

The day continued on until it was finally time to switch classrooms. As Haruna exited hers, Kanako came out as well. They both saw Akio doing the same and he appeared to have noticed them too. Kanako began to panic.

"What should I do?" she thought. "If he doesn't see me and Haruna together, there's no way we'll convince him we're dating!" Kanako kept thinking, trying to come up with an approach. However, no matter what she came up with, there was still one massive hurdle standing in her way.

"There's no way I can just walk up to Haruna and casually start a conversation..." Kanako concluded. She stared at Haruna's back. "I wish... it could be like how it used to be..." she thought, nearly reaching out her hand as if to touch Haruna. "When did something so simple become this difficult?" Even without Akio's deal, Kanako wanted to be able to at least talk to Haruna again without fighting. "Then again, she kinda gets on my nerves now too, so maybe it is impossible," Kanako thought dejectedly.

While Kanako was lost in her own head, she happened to notice something. As Akio walked by Haruna, it looked like he said something to her. Whatever it was, it was enough to make Haruna stop dead in her tracks, causing Chiyo to slam into the back of her. "What's that about?" Kanako wondered.

Unfortunately for Kanako and Haruna, fortune did not smile upon them when classes were assigned, because as luck would have it, the two girls were both in a cooking elective together. "Why does she have to be in this class?" Kanako pouted. "She doesn't even like cooking!" It was certainly true that Kanako didn't really know Haruna as well as she used to, but she was pretty sure Haruna had never had any interest in the culinary arts.

The reason for Haruna taking a cooking elective was pretty simple, so much so that it bordered on the line of cliché. She just wanted to be able to cook for Akio. However, unlike Kanako, having no previous desire to improve her domestic skills really showed in the classroom. While the members of the Cooking Club naturally exceeded expectations in a class like this, Haruna fell into the group of constant culinary failure.