Outsider Syndrome | ✓

Chapter 5 - "Hot and Cold Keiko"

Although Igarashi's compliance caused an unintentional smile to surface on my face, it didn't last. In fact, the moment I dug my chopsticks into my meal, Igarashi seized my wrist.

Utter terror enveloped his countenance. He ducked his head at once. "She's coming this way!"

My heart collapsed. "She—she is?"

Before I could even have the opportunity to glance behind me to confirm, Igarashi had already dipped under the table. My jaw plummeted.

"Wait!" I half-shouted. Oxygen was scarce, especially when I had no clue how close she really was. "You're hiding?"

"It'll only complicate things if she sees me," he said as if it was obvious. "Handle this."

"No!"

"Why not? You said you got my back, remember?"

Darn it. I did say that, albeit inadvertently.

My eyes skimmed the table.

I hissed the first thing that came to mind, "But you can't just leave your food here! If she comes by she's gonna think I'm a fatass!"

"Have you seen what you ordered? It's been thought!"

I smacked him upside the head. The impact rang to every inch of the store. Fortunately for me, we were in an isolated area so nobody nearby turned to address us. Regardless, frustration surging through me like a volcano, a heavy blush coating my cheeks, I leaned over the table and scooped up a handful of fries. Without even giving him the chance to recover from my blow, I shoved them down his throat. How dare he!

"Stuff your chubby cheeks and choke, bastard! Make all this food disappear!"

He pushed my arms away much to no avail. "What're you— You're insane!"

"I don't want to hear that from a lousy, incorrigible jerk—"

"Toru?"

My heart collapsed in my chest. In only an instant, Igarashi was gone. Koshiba rounded into view from my right. My neck to whipped to address her but my lungs weren't working. I couldn't breathe. The silence was unbearable as she fluttered her long eyelashes and surveyed the table.

The bewilderment that enveloped her features was blatant as day.

"K-Koshiba?" Reclining in my seat, I plastered on my biggest smile. "What a surprise!"

Koshiba didn't share the sentiment. Disappointment obvious, she returned her focus to me. "Is it just you here?"

"Yup. Why?"

"I could've sworn I heard Toru."

My high-pitched bark of laughter filled the air. "Wh-what? Who would ever want to hang out with that insignificant, microbe-sized dwarf after school? Not me, that's who."

I was knocked in the shin. Hard. Withholding the urge to kick Igarashi senseless in rebuttal, I smiled wider.

Koshiba stiffened. There was no doubt she was put-off by my exaggerated enthusiasm. However, instead of pressing into it, she intertwined her hands and lay them flat against her dress beneath her coat.

"That's true," she tittered. "Toru's way too wonderful to keep a worthless beanpole like you company."

Resisting a murderous glare, my lips stretched higher. "You're hilarious."

"Actually," she replied. "What's hilarious is that fact that you have two full-sized meals in front of you. Now that you've grown tons vertically, you're thinking it's time to finally expand horizontally, huh."