Hardly Platonic

Chapter 3

After Yukirin dropped Hanae off at her apartment, she already planned to watch the late-night show that will be aired that night on her laptop after taking a bath as per usual. As she got out of the bathroom and wore her oversized shirt and a pair of shorts, she was about to reach her laptop when she suddenly got a notification from her phone. It took her quite some time to react since she never thought that the day when Kiyoshi Yahiro texted her would come, but since she already opened the message, it would be rude to leave him on read. She lifted her head and furrowed her forehead as she was contemplating on what to reply to him, though she was not mad at Natsuki for giving Yahiro her number. After a while, she finally texted him back.

"It's not a big deal." She quickly touched the send button after she deleted the later part to ask him the reason he texted him, but truth to be told, she would like to know why.

"You didn't tell me you're leaving. Did you arrive safely? I actually wanted to give you a ride home." She blinked in surprise when Yahiro sent her multiple texts in response to her simple reply, but the last part caught her off guard.

Since they were not on a close term before, Hanae found his words to be weird and suspicious. 'What does he want from me?'

"Yes, thank you for your concern." She intentionally ignored his last remark.

"Are you going to attend this Monday's official talk?" Once in a while, the university will invite speakers to give a talk on random topics like career awareness, mental illness, etc. for the students, though it is not mandatory for them to attend.

Hanae had already planned to skip the talk and replied no to him.

"Why? Do you have anything on that day?"

Hanae sent a reply without thinking much about it. "Not really."

"That's great. I was going to ask you to show me around the campus next week if that's okay with you..? It's just that since I'm still new here, it would be better to be with someone I'm close to."

She bit her thumb after realizing that her answers to his questions left her with no choice but to agree. Though she did not dislike him, she did not find him pleasant as well as his presence made her feel quite uncomfortable. "You sure? I'm not from the same faculty as you though.."

"Don't worry, I only want to walk around the campus with you."

Her eyes went round as she read the message. 'I didn't mean that. Why does he make it seem like I'm the one who wants to show him around?'

"Oh, sorry, since it's already late, let's continue this later. Good night.' Yahiro left the chatroom after sending the text message, leaving Hanae dumbfounded as her brows knitted and her mouth twitched. She just sat on her bed staring at her phone screen, trying to process the whole thing.

'What.. is wrong with him..? He was the one who texted me first..' Feeling somewhat annoyed, she canceled her watching-TV-show plan, turned off the light, and pulled over her blanket to retire early for the night.

.....

As a crowd of students walked out of the lecture hall after two and a half hours of the lesson was over, two girls were still talking in the hall as they calmly put away their books.

Pap! "Hanae! Can I please copy your notes later?" Amane Makoto, the girl with the messy ponytail, clasped her hands together as she bowed her head to Hanae. "I'll buy you lunch!" As the morning lecture was quite heavy and long, Makoto dozed off in the first half of the class and did not manage to jot down her notes completely. It was her fault though, as last night she read comics online until 3 in the morning.

Hanae looked at her friend and sighed. "Here you go. I want the fruit sandwich and rice ball from the cafeteria," she smiled. Since entering college, Makoto has been her closest friend and they usually did things together, so Hanae had quite a soft spot for her.

Makoto's whole face lit up as she sincerely thanked Hanae. "You're a lifesaver! You've planned to skip today's talk right? Come on, I'll buy you lunch."

Hanae checked the time on her watch and remembered the promise she made with Yahiro. "Maybe tomorrow? I have something going on later-"

Ping!

'Oh, speak of the devil, he just texted me.'

"I'm at the big fountain, wearing a grey pullover."

After reading the message, she reluctantly postponed her friend's lunch offer and went to the fountain in the middle of the university campus. Once she arrived, she looked around for Yahiro and saw him sitting on the bench near the fountain while reading a book on his hand. His good looks attracted the eyes of people around him making it hard for her to approach him. Before she could change her mind, Yahiro's face brightened up when he noticed her and swiftly walked towards her direction.

"There you are, did you just finish your class?"

She subconsciously avoided eye contact with him as she began to feel awkward with the way he gazed at her like no one ever did. "Yeah, just did. What about you?"

"My class was canceled actually."

"Did you wait long?" Hanae looked back at him.

"It was 9.30 when I started to read."

'What? He waited for more than an hour?'

"Why did you do that? You can just come here later." Her expression hardened. She honestly felt bad about it. How could she not? This guy was not her close friend and he waited for her for so long. "You don't have to wait for me-"

"I didn't wait for you."

"Huh?" Her face blanked as she blinked at him.

"I was planning to read here. The chair is comfortable, and the wind soothes me."

She awkwardly looked down and was lost of words as she was embarrassed for mistaking his intention. "...Is that so...I see.."

'So embarrassing. Was I this conceited before?'

Yahiro let out a chuckle when he noticed her red ears that were visible as she lowered her head. "Shall we go now? I haven't had lunch yet, so can you start showing me the cafeteria first?"

Hanae usually did not eat with the people she was not familiar with. But after making things awkward, she was too embarrassed to reject him and simply adhered to his request.

She dropped her shoulder and sighed, not realizing that the guy beside her was smiling happily since his plan actually worked.