Date Her Instead Vol. 3

Chapter Twenty-One: It's Not Fair

As Kanako ran through the halls, she stopped by the usual meet-up points in search of Haruna. In front of the cooking club room, near the front doors, even in Haruna's classroom, but the girl was nowhere to be found. "Where could she be?" Kanako wondered. "Did she have practice today?" Kanako wanted to find her as quick as possible. After all, there was a boy waiting for her answer to a confession.

Deciding to check the track, Kanako went out to the athletics area of the school's campus. Arriving back outside, she shivered from the cold air. "Is she out here?" Kanako thought as she looked around. Then, seeing a blue wave flutter in the breeze, Kanako's eyes went to it, revealing Izumi and Haruna. Currently, Izumi was shouting orders at Haruna as she ran. "That looks rough..." Kanako thought. However, her sympathy felt small compared to her impatience. "I just need to talk to her for a few minutes, but I'd feel bad interrupting her practice." Going back and forth over the decision, Kanako ultimately decided to wait. Shivering again from the cold air, she went back inside.

Finding a nearby bench, all Kanako could do was entertain herself with her own thoughts (not that it was very entertaining anyways). At the moment, there was a question on her mind. Why had Akio insisted that she talk to Haruna? Sure, he had given his reasons and ultimately Kanako had agreed, but something about it just didn't add up. She couldn't get past the facts that she had laid out in front of her.

One, Haruna had clearly stated that she was no longer in love with Akio. Kanako knew Akio could be right. Haruna could be lying, but it hadn't felt that way when she had said it.

Two, if Haruna really had feelings for someone else, then there was no reason to tell her about Akio's confession. In a way, it almost felt like Kanako was asking for permission to date Akio, and thinking of it that way bothered her.

Three, the confession. Kanako was over the moon that Akio had asked her to go out with him, but it was also a little hard to understand. Kanako hadn't done anything different, so why had Akio suddenly gone from seemingly having no interest in her to saying he was in love with her?

"I don't get it," Kanako thought. She wanted to believe Akio, but she couldn't get rid of her doubts. Something lying within the facts in her mind was trying to tell her something, but whatever it was, it continued to remain a mystery.

Glancing at the clock on her phone, Kanako let out a small sigh. It had only been roughly 10 minutes or so since school had let out. If Haruna was doing an official practice, Kanako would be waiting for another 45 minutes at least. She briefly considered going to her own club to kill time. After all, they were meeting right now. But after thinking about it, Kanako decided to stay put. She hadn't told anyone she wasn't going because she hadn't felt like answering questions. If she showed up now, a couple members were bound to ask where she had been. "I'll just explain it to them tomorrow," she thought. "After all, one look at Akio-kun and I together should be enough for them to understand." The image of she and Akio holding hands and calling him her boyfriend made Kanako giddy. "I can't wait!" she squealed inside.

The day had finally come. After so much imagining, so much daydreaming, it had actually happened. Not only had there been a confession between them, but it had come from Akio no less. It had just been the two of them. Just Kanako and Akio as feelings had been put into words. Replaying Akio's words in her head, Kanako giggled. "He really said he loves me..." she thought. Remembering that was enough to overwrite her doubts. Being in love with Akio for so long, her feelings had only grown stronger as time had gone on. Unfortunately, they had also given Kanako tunnel vision, and with each successive move Akio made, that tunnel got narrower and narrower. Surely her heart was now set on the boy more than it ever had been before. He had said he loved her, and she certainly loved him. Nothing else mattered.