A Friend's Time 4

The bell rang. Most of the students from my classroom started dispatching the same time I woke up. It seems that lunch break's already here. I didn't realize I took a pretty long nap.

"Sure took your time, huh?" someone asked behind me with a surprise hug.

"Yumi… Were you waiting for me to wake up?"

"Uh-huh. Looking at your adorable sleeping face after so long made me feel recharged! We should do this more often.

"I'd rather not," I said with a chuckle.

Yumi was currently hanging both of her hands on my shoulders and letting them droop in front of me. She came here surprisingly quick considering the bell had just rung. Seems like this is one of those days where she doesn't need to go to her club for a day and just spend her full time with me.

When I looked beside me in my neighboring seat, I didn't see Morimoto-san anywhere. Actually, besides a handful of students, almost everyone left the classroom, which is kind of a rare case if I'm being totally honest. There's five students here including Yumi and I.

"Where's everyone?"

"Huh? You didn't hear the news? Apparently, there's some sort of fight going on between Mari-chan and that good-looking guy we saw yesterday at their classroom. Y'know, the one with blue hair and a pierced ear?"

She must be talking about that one stalker guy, Hifumi Nakai. Although it was my one-sided decision, Mari and I were supposed to talk later on how to prevent that stalker guy from disturbing her. I'm not sure who approached who, but I could tell that things were about to go downhill if they were left alone.

Of course, seeing as I had no more connections with Mari, I'm not needed there. But because of the agreement I stubbornly pushed into her yesterday, I needed to take action as I was now responsible with her. Especially with what happened the day before yesterday.

"…Wanna watch?" I asked Yumi, somewhat hesitantly.

"Eh? Are you sure? Are you even okay with seeing her now?"

"Come on, Yumi. What do you even think of me? Besides, it'll be fine. It's been six months after all. We're just watching after all, so I don't think it'll leave that much of a pain inside me."

Yumi must've thought that I was still not over the fact that we both broke up. I'm still trying to move on, so what she said was partially right. However, I had the responsibility of seeing her because of yesterday.

"…Well, if you say so," Yumi said. "Last time I heard, they were in the canteen. It hasn't been long, so I don't think any teachers came by to check on them yet."

That was pretty concerning, to say the least.

"Wait, what about lunch?" Yumi asked as soon as I stood up from my seat.

"Right, lunch."

Tomo-nee did pack me lunch, so it'd be a waste to not eat it. And besides, it's been so long since I last ate her homemade lunchbox, so not eating it would be equivalent to doing a crime.

I grabbed the lunchbox wrapped in cloth out of my bag. After that, Yumi and I both headed outside and walked towards the canteen.

"You got Tomo-neechan to pack you lunch? That's kind of rare. Mind telling me what sort of trickery you used?" Yumi asked.

"I wouldn't really call it 'trickery' but… I guess it's pretty complicated to talk about. A lot of things happened earlier this morning that I can't even explain them all in one go. Maybe later?"

"I'll be sure to indulge in that, then! Make sure it's something interesting!"

"If forming contracts for something unnecessary interesting to you, then I might just be able get your attention."

We kept walking through the hallway. I could see a handful of students that passed by while we were headed for the canteen, but all of them were just heading the same way as we were. Even Class 2-A, the class Mari was in, had barely any students inside. The emptiness kind of reminded me of something, like the dream I had earlier.

Back in my first-year of junior high, Mari and I decided to skip class because we were kind of bored. We went to the park just to have a picnic all by ourselves, when Mari suddenly revealed that she had a secret base.

It was made by her and her old friends back when they were in grade school, between their fifth- and sixth-year. They would hang out there most of the time when classes ended, but when junior high was starting to near, most of them stopped visiting. In the end, the only one left who ever used the base was Mari.

I can't remember the name because it was a dream. The details are kind of foggy now, so it was hard to image or even think about it

After a few minutes of walking, we soon reached the canteen. Well, at least the entrance of it. I thought it was going to be crowded, but I didn't expect it to be crowded by a large margin that we couldn't even enter the canteen without squeezing through the crowd. With this amount of students, you could say the entire school has come to watch this moment. Well, excluding teachers and all the faculty staff.

"Uwah, it's crowded in here!" Yumi said, her voice barely audible from all the voices of the students watching.

"If you couldn't already tell," I said sarcastically.

I couldn't exactly see where the crowd began. There were so many students circled up that even if I stand at my toes, I still couldn't see the end of it. The students who just stayed at their position appeared as if it was still rapidly increasing in number, making it look harder and harder to see the center of the crowd.

"…So, what do we do now?" Yumi asked. "You wanted to go here, but it's too crowded. I don't think you could squeeze through it, and I don't think even I can too. Why don't we just go back to your classroom to eat our lunch?"

"And by 'our lunch' you mean my lunch?"

"Come on, I'm not rude enough to eat the lunch that you so well-deserved to have! I already had mine prepared, but I left it at my classroom."

When she faced to her back, she saw a flock of students approaching her, ready to pin us down in the middle. The crowd was just getting larger.

"Aah, I gotta go before I get squeezed!"

"Can you get this lunch back there as well?" I asked as I handed my lunch box to her.

"Okay! Just meet me back in your classroom! I'll get my lunch real quick!"

Yumi left those parting words, ran off before she could get squeezed in, and left the canteen in a hurry. She didn't even ask why I didn't go with her.

There was now one problem, though. When she left, I didn't try to go out of the crowd, so now I'm stuck. For some reason, by body didn't cooperate and just kept standing still. I couldn't move a single inch from my position.

I sighed. I knew that getting out of the crowd would be a lot easier, but something was telling me that I shouldn't do that. Instead, I pushed myself through the body of students and kept going through the swarm, making my way through.

My body felt really crushed. The other students next to me probably felt the same way. Everyone kept adjusting places left and right, stopping and starting. Almost everyone wanted to see what was happening with Mari and that guy. At this point, the same could probably be said to me.

After a few minutes of bumping from one student to another, a loud sound suddenly rang in my ears. It sounded like a voice. What's more, the voice belonged to Mari. It's either I was getting closer, or Mari raised her voice so loud I could hear it. Either way, just from her tone, it felt as if it was suggesting that she was in trouble. Of course, since this is the stalker classmate we're talking about, it's pretty much already a given that he's the one who's causing the trouble.

Little by little, I nudged myself all the way until I could see what was happening. I thought I heard some complaints from the people I passed, but I just disregarded them as I continued. There, I saw both Mari and the guy.

"Please, just listen to me for a bit!" the guy pleaded as he grabbed Mari.

"I said let go!" Mari shouted.

Seeing this scene, it was pretty much understandable as to why everyone started going to the canteen. If word goes around that one of the most beautiful girl in school was having a fight with a hot guy, then everyone would get curious and start going to wherever this place was.

Even though I knew that that guy was stalking Mari, I didn't know what they were fighting about. Mari said it herself that she never actually talked to the guy and just ignored him. The only ever time I saw them talked was when I passed by their classroom the other day.

"I said let go of me!"

When Mari shouted, another sound was heard. It was a slapping sound, probably from trying to get the arm away from her. When I looked, I was right.

Whispers could be heard from just about anywhere. Some we're taking photos, some we're shooting videos. Every single one of them just had their phones on them as they watched curiously. In one way or another, that made me pissed off.

"Please, why won't you just listen to me?" that guy asked rather desperately.

"I've already told you to leave me alone multiple times already! What do you not get about that?! I don't want to see you anywhere, so please just leave me be!"

Mari sounded desperate as well. Probably even more desperate than that guy.

Now the guy just had a rather betrayed face plastered all over him. It's like he got rejected by the one he loves, which isn't exactly off the point.

"…You really won't listen to me, huh…"

"That's right! So scram! I don't want to see your face ever again!"

The guy started balling his fist up. I could tell that the way things were going, it would end up rather badly. I started squirming all the way until I reached the very middle, and then headed towards them. And just when the guy was about release his anger, I got in between them.

"Sorry, but could you leave this girl alone?" I asked. "If you couldn't already tell, she's getting really uncomfortable. It's better if you left before any of the teachers see you."

"…Who the hell do you think you are?!"

The guy, as if finally having enough of this situation, pulled his fist all the way back and punched me in the face as hard as he could. I got knocked over the ground, my mind flashing white a little.

"Takuma-kun!!" Mari shouted as she checked in on me. "Are you alright?!"

She sounded really worried. I haven't heard her like that since forever. Actually, I can't even remember when she sounded like that. All I knew was that I needed to put a stop to all this "stalker" nonsense.

I ignored her words and stood up, albeit a little wobbly.

"Listen…," I said to the guy. "If you don't leave right now, things will get bad not just for you, but your social life as well."

"Like hell you could! I'm in Class 2-A, which is much more higher than yours, so don't think you can say those things just easily!"

His words pissed me off more and more. The only thing I hated more than school was getting compared to someone that's not in any way related to me. I was in Class 2-C, which makes me far more inferior than him.

More and more, the random feelings that I had earlier started to well up. If this goes on any further, then I might not know what will happen next.

"It's better if you keep your words to yourself and left. If you keep your act any more longer, you are really not going to like what's going to happen next," I said as I glared at hin intensely.

I'm not just saying this. If this guy doesn't leave right now and decides to pursue whatever he thinks he's doing, even I'm not going to like my actions very much.

"H-Hah! Go ahead, then! See if I care!" he said. He stuttered for a bit.

"…You asked for it, then."

As if having his permission, I started breathing in slowly. Whatever my actions causes, it's not going to be my fault. I've already asked him. There's no point in listening to him again if he ever wanted to say something.

Just as I was about to ball up my fist, someone grabbed my shoulder.

"They'll take it from here."

And if we're talking honestly here, I am truly grateful that she stopped me.