4 Chapter 4-A New Friend

*Chatter* *Talking*

 Hmm?

 It was getting noisy so I got up from my sleeping position on the desk and looked at the class. The students were packing their bags and were getting ready to leave the class. School was already over

After the whole morning incident classes went on normally. I was reading the novels I bought for the first five periods and then got sleepy during the last and slept with my head on the desk without any disturbances till I heard people talking. Thanks to that nap I wasn't sleepy anymore

 During class, Kisaragi-san was looking out the window without listening or taking down any notes. She seems to really like looking out the window. On the other hand Mrs Blonde Hair was super focused on what was being taken in class and was vigorously taking down notes for everything the teacher said. She was also stealing glances at me ones in a while as usual

 All the new teachers looked intimated when I introduced myself to them and would always look away when I looked at them during class. They went as far as to not asking me any questions during class even though I wasn't listening. I guess it's one of the few perks in having these eyes

During luch break no one approached me or even dared to come near me but I saw a lot of them glancing at me and talking about me. Even students from the other classes stood near the door and just stared at me for some reason

Kisaragi-san left the class immediately when the break started so I didn't have the chance to ask her if she wanted to eat lunch together. I went to the courtyard to eat my lunch and used the extra time after lunch to roam around the school and got to know more about it

 The school building was basically shaped like the alphabet "U". If I had to explain the schools structure in terms of "U" the main entrance would be at the bottom of U and the courtyard which everyone could see from their class windows would be the space inside of the U. The left and right corridors would be the two strokes of U and the stairs and shoe keeping place where at the inner bottom of you. The ground area would be the part above U which was approximately 6 times larger than the school which was surrounded by trees. Like I mentioned before there was a path around the school building and ground which was also surrounded by trees. That was basically the schools rough blue print in terms of "U"

 I got off my desk on which I was lying on and stretched my hands. I looked around and found both seats next to me empty. They must have already gone home or gone to their clubs

 But is Kisaragi-san even in a club? With her personality, I suppose doing group activities with others is the same thing as hell. I didn't get to talk to her much today but there's still tomorrow and they day after that. I can take things at my own pace

 Since I wasn't in any club I decided to go home. I bent down to get my bag and suddenly a small folded paper fell from my head. Someone must've put it on my head while I was sleeping. I picked it up and opened it and what was written on the inside was

 "I'll be waiting for you. Come quicky"

 It was most probably a prank from the boys for me to think that a girl gave it to me since the handwriting was really neat and elegant. I decided to ignore it but put the paper in my pocket

 I took my bag and was about to leave the classroom when four eyes called me

 "Yamamoto! Where are you going!?"

 "Um, schools over so I'm going home"

 "What do you mean going home?! All students in this school are required to attend club activities and your no exception!"

 Seriously? I have to join a club with others. I already know nothing good is going to come out of this

 "You need to pick at least one club you want to join and give the club registration form to the office by tomorrow. Since you don't know where the club rooms and other school facilities are, Nakamura-san will guide you around the school"

 "What!?"

 Cried a girl near the door. I've seen her before, she was a friend of Mrs Panties who was laughing with her when she made fun of me

 "Why should I do it!? Ask someone else!" She protested loudly

"I know you're always bunking club activities so you're free anyway unlike the others who go to club. So just follow what I say and show him around "

"But even others bunk club! Why should I-"

 "No more questions. Just do it"

 Four eyes left the room looking annoyed and the girl looked aggravated. She shouted

"He's making me do it because he heard me talking shit about him earlier, that spiteful Bastard! Why should I take that physcopath around school?! It's not even safe being around him; he might do something to me!"

 Bitch I'd rather go around the school naked, then make a move on your fat ass

 She looked around the class like she was searching for something and grinned when she saw Hina-san, who was packing her bag. She went up to her and told with a fake smile on her face

 "Hina I'm kinda busy right now so can you help me by showing that transfer student around"

 "No, but I have to-"

 "Come on just help me out!"

 "I-"

 The girl grabbed Hina-san's hand and said

"You'll help me out right?"

 Hina-san looked hesitant but finally said

 "Sure"

 "Thanks a lot…Hey wait for me guys! I'm also coming to karaoke with you!"

 She dashed off the second she dumped her responsibility on Hina-san. It's just like what happened in the morning with the Mrs Pantys. Why isn't she saying anything back?

 Hina-san glanced at me but quicky turned away when we made eye contact. I went over to her seat and said

 "Sorry for the disturbance"

 While looking down, instead of me she said

  "N-No, it's no problem"

We went out of the class and made our way to the first floor without uttering a single word. I decided to break the silence and asked

 "Why is everyone needed to be in a club?"

She was surprised I asked the question and asked

 "Huh!…Sorry, what did you ask?"

 She must be really nervous that she's with me to act like this

 "I was asking why everyone needs to join a club"

 "Oh that! T-This school has traditionally been giving great importance to club activities since it had first started. They wanted the students to improve their social and communication skills by joining a club and strive towards a common goal with the other members to get a sense of teamwork and responsibility. They're taking club activities so seriously that the whole of the first floor was dedicated to club rooms and a new building is being built specially for new clubs"

 "Are there that many clubs that they're building a building just for new clubs?"

 "S-Since the school wants to boast that they have a lot of diverse clubs, they accept almost all the requests for new clubs if the required numbers of members are present or atleast that's what I've heard "

 "Oh I see"

 So this is why the school has so many achievements for sports and cultural events

 We started walking around the first floor and Hina-san showed me all the different clubs while explaining each club patiently and was answering all the questions I asked without even a single look of irritation

 As she said, there were a lot of clubs different clubs like the railway club or the cheese appreciation club and even a people watching club. Although they sounded ridiculous, the club members inside were actually doing serious club work like doing actual tests and taking down notes with graphs and pie charts and all that research stuff

 Back in first year middle school, I tried joining a bunch of clubs but always left them since I was constantly being isolated by the rest of the club members and the mood of the club would go down whenever I was present. So I don't have fond memories of club activities either

Not joining any club was okay back then but now I have to join one. I have no idea how it's going to go. I'll most probably join in name only and hardly ever go to club so that I don't disturb the other members

 Although I saw a lot of clubs nothing really caught my interest and then a thought went through my head. If the school accepted all the club requests, there's bound to be a anime or manga research club right? There has to be a bunch of otakus who decided to make a club like that

 After seeing every club in the school building and showing where the basic school facilities like the cafeteria and library were, we started walking to the school grounds to see the sports clubs

I checked every single club in the school but didn't see anything related to anime or manga at all. The only thing remotely close to it was the vocaloid club

 How is it possible that no one has created a club to appreciate our country's greatest pride? The main reason foreigners are so interested and travel to Japan is because of the Otaku culture. A big part of the country's GDP from tourism is due to anime. Basically the roads we're walking on and government facilities we use are built from the money anime has earned us. To think that not even a single person shows a bit of appreciation and respect to their benefactor, anime. It's like their throwing shit at our country's honour

 I went a little off track there but to think there was actually no club for anime in this school which is brimming with other weird clubs. It's just strange. I decided to do one final check

"Is there any list of all the club's in the school?"

"Ah-"

 She was surprised and looked away once again. She was doing the same thing whenever I called her. She also never looked at me directly and was always keeping her distance

 But I can't blame her since she's walking around alone, with a scary guy like me. I'm actually impressed she's been with me the whole time. Other people would've immediately left me saying that they have something else to do. She replied saying

 "Umm..I don't know anything about a list but all the club fliers for the first years are hanging on the notice board around that corner"

I think she's done enough already. She's patiently showed me around the school even though she's scared of me and probably had better things to do. She even answered all my questions without thinking of it as a pain and was trying to hide her fear so that I wouldn't notice. She truly is a good girl. I didn't want to force her anymore so I said

 "Thanks that'll do. I can manage on my own now, so you can go back"

 She'll probably tell me that she'll also go with me out of goodwill, so I started running before she could say anything

 "Ah wait!-"

 She must be relieved that I left. Forcing her for my sake doesn't go well with my principles, so this is for the best

I dashed to the place where the board was and found a bunch of fliers hanging. There were so many of them that they were overlapping each other and some were even stuck on the wall because there was no space on the board. I quickly looked through each fliers but couldn't find anything related to anime

 There's actually no club for anime, that's disappointing. Maybe I'll just join the cooking club or-…..Hmm?

 I noticed a certain poster that instantly caught my attention. It was at the right corner of the board and was somewhat distinguishable from the others

I took the poster of the board and looked at it. The poster was very simple with only two things written on it in black font

The first thing written on the centre of the page was "Japanese Entertainment Club". The only reason I checked this poster specifically was because I didn't see a club with that name when I was checking with Hina-san earlier and thought it was some mysterious phantom club

But then I saw the second thing written on it and became interested in the club and decided to check it out

 But where was this club in the first place? I didn't see it in the school, so maybe it's in a different building? Wait does this club even exist? What if it's an actual ghost club or something? What should I do now-

 "Please wait up!"

 Hina-san's voice?!

 I turned towards the direction of that small voice and saw Hina-san running towards as fast as she can but was actually quite slow due to her small body. I shouted

 "Hina-san slow down! You don't need to run! I'm not going anywhere!"

 But she didn't stop until she was in front of me. She was holding her knees and trying to catch her breath in exhaustion

Why did she run all the way over here? If it's something she forgot to say she could have told me tomorrow

 "I'll-"

 *Panting *

 "I-"

 She was trying to speak while gasping for her breath

 "Calm down. Talk to me after relaxing a bit"

 She stopped talking and took some deep breaths. Finally when she caught her breath, she straightened her posture and cleared her throat and said

 "Yamamoto-kun you really run fast. I thought I wouldn't be able to catch up to you"

 The nervousness she had before was gone and she was taking to me normally. I asked

"Why did you run all the way here? Do you need to tell me something?"

"No it's not that. I haven't finished guiding you around the school yet so I can't leave you alone"

 "But I told you that I can manage on my own"

She was looking at me with a resolute look unlike before and told

 "If you went alone, it would take you a long time to find each club since you're a new student and in the end you wouldn't have enough time to observe each club. If I went with you it would get over much faster and you could go home earlier. So let me guide you"

 What is up with this girl? Just how kind can she be? Instead of worrying about herself she's worrying if I would reach my home on time and trying to make my life easier. She's too much of an Angel. I can't let an angel like her suffer by being with me

 "It's okay I can do it on my own you can just go back"

 "No it's my duty to guide you around the school"

 "It's fine you don't need to come with me"

 "No I insist"

 She raised her voice quite a bit and was fighting back while looking at me instead of the ground which was a surprise as she never looked at me directly before and was speaking in a more friendly manner

I guess that just shows how determined she is to help me. But if this goes on she'll win the argument and come with me. So there's no other way but to be direct with her. So I said

 "Hina-san you don't need to force yourself anymore. I know you're actually really scared of me and are forcing yourself to accompany me. So it's okay, you can go back"

 She looked at me with a blank face. I guess she didn't know how to react when I found out she was forcing herself. Well she was trying to hide it all along. And then with a clueless expression she said

 "Why would I be scared of you? Did you do anything wrong?"

 Eh?

 "Wait aren't you scared of me?"

 "Nope"

 "Not even a little bit?"

 "Not even the slightest"

 What?! A girl that isn't scared of me?! That's impossible! She's gotta be lying to me since she was avoiding me the whole time. I asked

 "Then why were you always nervous around me and keep your distance?"

 "That's because-…."

 "Because?"

 She looked hesitant to say the next part but then suddenly said with all her vigour

 "That's because you were a boy I who wasn't used to seeing!"

 "Huh? What do you mean?"

 "Well I haven't told anyone this yet but the thing is I've always been shy and awkward around boys since I was a child. I become really fidgety and nervous when I'm around them since I'm not used to them. Whenever they approach me, my mind goes blank and I can't even look at them. I tried to improve myself and somehow got used to seeing the boys in my class and could somewhat talk to them normally. But when I saw you, a transfer student who I hadn't seen before my habits came back to me again. I'm really sorry, if you took it the wrong way!"

 Wait, so she isn't sacred of me?

 "Then the reason you were startled when you first saw me was because you were shy and not because you were scared of my face"

 "Why would I be scared of your face?"

She said with a puzzled expression on her face

 "Isn't my face a bit menacing?"

She looked closely at my face and said

 "No, not at all. In fact you look quite handsome in my eyes so I was extra nervous when I was around you-…Ah!"

 She blushed and started nodding her head in denial and said

 "Forget the last part I said, I didn't mean it! No I meant it but didn't want to say it! It's not like I'm thinking of you in a weird way! Please forget it!"

 She looked like a tomato with her bright red cheeks

 Either this girl likes bad boy types or something is wrong with her eyes since there's no way a girl would actually said that. This face which can make a child cry with a single cry was called handsome? That's just not possible…..Or maybe I'm over criticizing myself?

 In the past I've been told by my family that I looked like my father in his younger days. I checked to see if it's true by going through the old family albums and I found my father's picture. He looked just like me but with normal eyes. I showed my sister the photo of my dad who was the only person I could ask for a female's opinion and asked how he looked. She saw the photo and told

"OMG, Who's this guy Onii-chan!? He looks just like you but without the scary eyes. He's so good looking! You should set up a date for me and him or give me his number so I can call him. He's just my type!"

 "You want to go on a date with dad?"

 "Huh? What are you talking about?"

 "The guy in the photo is dad when he was young"

 "Really! That's dad!? I can't believe it, he was so hot back then! No wonder he looks just like you!"

 She then went to our father and asked him about his younger days and that dumb idiot started talking about how he was quite the player when he was young and the different techniques he used to pick up girls, to his daughter who was listening with great interest. My sister was only 9 years old back then and she already had a favourite type and wanted to go on dates. Scary!

 Maybe I'm actually pretty good looking but my eyes ruin the whole thing

"And if you were a scary person, why would you help me carry my books? I believe a person's true value lies in their character and actions rather than how they look. So in my eyes you're not a scary person but actually a nice person who helped me when I was in trouble"

 Said Hina as she gave a angelic smile. I quickly covered my eyes and looked away

 "Eh? Yamamoto-kun what happened? Did something go into your eye?"

 "No it's not that. It's just that your shining so brightly that it's hard to look at you"

 "I'm shining?! Where? I can't see any light on me. Show me where?"

I looked at her adorable self, taking what I said literally and checking her body for light and started laughing

 "Hahaha!"

Hina-san look puzzled and asked  

"Why are you laughing? Is there something on my face?!"

 "Hahaha!"

 "Come one. It's rude to laugh at someone like that" She said while pouting

 "Sorry Sorry! You were just too cute that I couldn't help but laugh"

 "Eh! Me! Cute?!"

 She became a blushing tomato once again with even her ears becoming red in embarrassment

 All that stuff about her being scared of me and forcing herself looked stupid now. I was the only one suspecting her good intentions and I'm ashamed at myself for deciding how she looked at me, without even getting to know her. She's too pure of a girl to even think about that in the first place

"Sorry about all that. I had the wrong image of you. I think we started off a little rocky so I'd like to start over. My name is Yamamoto Yuuto and I'll be in your care from now on"

She suddenly looked like she realised something important and hastily said

 "Oh right! Introductions! I totally forgot! M-My name is Ishikawa Hina and I too will be in your care!"