95 In The Last Six Months... I Got Shipped

A fortunate turn of events for Arata, would be the fact that the school was understanding of his situation. The unfortunate side of this, would be the amount of coursework he'd had to do just to catch up with everyone.

Even though he resolved to attempt to regain his memories, the faculty didn't want to take any chances. So now here he was, in the library looking over the stack of papers he recived from his teacher.

However, he could've simply stay at his desk to study. There was a reason for him to choose this location instead. That would be the other girls sitting with him as he was doing it.

"So you really lost your memories, huh?" Ichiri commented. He may not have felt familiar with these girls, but he knew for certain that the past Arata was. That's why he choose to sit with them at the table. This was an attempt to unlock some memories of the past, instead of focusing on his homework.

"It seems that way." He replied. Why he choose sitting with these girls over eating lunch with Yogi and the others, was that he felt bad for the way he treated them. Even before he supposed started hanging with them, Arata was hardly rude. It was just the situation that made him feel this way.

These girls that seemed to know of him. They were apparently known as the library committee, which Arata never knew existed. Though he could've just chalked it to his lack of knowledge of the school, that wasn't what they told him.

What shocked him to hear, was that he was partially responsible for their existence. The girls told him of how he pushed himself so hard to deal with both their problems, while also saving the library.

"Wow, I really did all that?" He commented from hearing it. From the look on his face, it was plain for the girls to see that it didn't stir any memories.

"You pushed yourself hard, too hard if you ask me." Hifumi described it. Her tone gave off a vibe of sorrow for Arata. The way this girl acted, it was as if there was something in their relationship.

As he was thinking over what she said. A new person entered the library, it was Akaki.

"There you are Arata, uh, I mean Kashimura." He said. "You weren't in the classroom, so I've been looking for you."

"I guess Arata's fine." He told him. Even if he didn't feel close to anyone, everyone else felt that way about him.

What aided to making him feel that distance, would have to be the boy that was apparently looking for him. Or more specifically, his reputation. Akaki's one of the most popular boys in the entire school, what would he have to do with him?

Then again, these two also shared contact information. He found that out when he was looking through his contacts. While he had yet to read any of the messages, Arata could see that they must've been close enough for that level of a relationship.

"So what did you need from him?" Yurime asked. "Unless, you got an idea to help him regain some of his memories?"

"Not exactly…" He admitted. "I just wanted to see how much he really didn't remember. Like, he doesn't even have a fragment of the last six months?"

"I see, maybe that might be the key to getting me to remember." Arata thought it was an ingenious thought.

"Unless, there's something that he knew then. Something that you're worried about?" Hifumi was able to see the hidden meaning behind those words.

"I guess you could say that." Akaki replied uneasily.

"Ooh, looks like the two of you had a bit of a secret." Ichiri teased and poked at Arata.

"What?" Arata started sweating bullets when he heard that. Was Akaki aware of his otaku secret? "I told you something private?"

"Well, actually you know one of my secrets." While he breathed a sigh of relief believing that his secret was still safe. It was still concerning to hear that this boy of all people entrusted him with something personal. On the bright side, if he didn't remember what it was, at least it was safe with him. "You're the only one that knows, to be honest."

"That's kind of cute." Yurime joined in on the teasing. They were starting to annoy him a little. "That there's something between just the two of you."

"That's nice and all, but don't let those girls hear you." There was emphasis on the word 'those' from Hifumi. "I swear, ever since the library play, things have gotten a bit... Much from them."

"Huh?" The two both turned their head in bewilderment to her. "Who are these girls you're talking about?"

"I didn't bring it up, because even when you had your memories. You weren't aware of it." She pointed over to the bulletin board. What was on it, would explain it better than how she could put it to words.

The pair of boys went up to it. It took a moment to scan across the whole thing to see what she was referring to. Until a strange word caught Arata's attention.

"The… Araki fan club?" He never knew that fan clubs existed at this school. More importantly, who was this 'Araki�� person that was so popular that they had a fan club? He would have thought he'd heard of them at least once.

"Who's Araki?" Akaki had the same thought as him.

"Araki's isn't a person." The fact that she put emphasis on the word 'a' didn't fill them with any confidence. "It's actually two names put together. Yours, to be specific." The word came from putting the 'ara' from Arata's name, with the 'ki' from Akaki's.

"But why would anyone want to put our names together?" Akaki wondered aloud, putting his hand under his chin to think it over. However, Arata already knew what that meant. After all he had seen this with people on the internet. This could only mean one thing. Araki was their ship name.

"You should probably move some of those posters aside." Hifumi directed, over at the section where it was clear someone put there to block something. Arata slowly pushed them aside. After being made aware of this club, he was scared for what he was about to witness.

"What is this?!" He yelled out.

"Again, I understand you lost your memories, but I know you didn't forget we're in a library." Hifumi scolded.

However, Arata didn't care about she said. What was more important to him at the moment, was what he was seeing. It was a picture of him passed out being carried by Akaki.

"W-w-why am I… Being carried in your arms?" This was not a shopped image. No, it was the real deal. "When did this happen?"

"Oh that." Akaki blushed at seeing how it might've looked from the crowd. "You see, last week you worked yourself too hard for the library's play. So hard that you passed out." Arata never knew he had it in him to be that type of person. When did he care about the library that badly? "So I carried you to the nurse's office."

"Yeah, and it seems that a few of the girls in the crowd thought it was pretty cute." Hifumi was unamused at seeing the image she worked hard to block out.

"I bet that a lot of girls wished they were in Arata's position." Ichiri laughed. Now that she mentioned it, Akaki was well known for rejecting every confession from girls.

"Hey…" Arata whispered to him, covering over his mouth to keep the girls from listening in. "Is that secret I apparently know, have something to do with your love life?"

"Y-yeah." He responded back just as quietly. For a moment, Arata looked back at the girls. Then hung his arm around the much taller boy and huddled in private.

"So between the two of us. Was our relationship... Close?"

"I mean, I'd like to think so. If only because you've been so helpful with this secret of mine." The truth was that it made Akaki very happy that Arata wanted to work so hard to help him with Akiba. Even if Akaki didn't have the confidence to tell her the truth. Not after learning about her feelings with Yogi.

"So would you call it personal?"

"Personal?" Akaki wasn't sure what he was getting at. "I mean, sure the secret's personal, but it's not like that I don't know some of your more private things." He replied. Hearing that made Arata think he was referring to his otaku business. Which he was, but for different reasons than what Arata was thinking of.

If past Arata had told Akaki of this secret. Then, were they… in a secret relationship? That would explain to Arata why this boy was the only one looking for him. And why only they shared a secret. Though it bugged him, he was not into boys at all.

"I can't believe it." He said. "I didn't realize that we were dating."

"Well… What?" Akaki was confused at that statement. "No we're not." It was clear to him, that Arata had no clue to what this secret between them really was.

"If that's not it, then what do I know about you?" Since that wasn't the case, what was so secretive between them?

"Well…" It was hard to say. Even if the past Arata knew, it was like revealing the truth again. In this state, it wasn't even guaranteed if Arata would keep it a secret like last time. Still though, Akaki decided to take the risk again. "The truth is, that I have a crush on Akiba. Oh, Akiba Shinshiro."

"Akiba?" The name rung a bell, but where was it from? Then he remembered when she would rudely sit on his desk table. "Ooh her... She's your childhood friend, right? That's kind of cute."

"If that's how you want to put it." Akaki was bashful from hearing the compliment.

"Hey you two." Ichiri sneaked up on them, giving the two a scare. While they were busy in their private conversation the other three were working to come up with an idea for Arata's problem.

"Sorry about that. Did you come up with something good?" Arata asked.

"Oh it's good all right." That look on her face was already filling him with dread for what was to come. Why did this girl seem so arrogant to him?