"Wow, I really need to get someone to fix this door." Misei commented. Arata rolled his eyes, as he disagreed with that assessment. At the same time though, Misao couldn't have just locked in these two like this. That didn't make any sense.
"Well, at least I can call someone." He was grateful that he had access to his phone this time. Once he had picked up all the papers he accidentally knocked down, he went for his phone.
Something was wrong though. No matter how many times he hit the buttons or tapped on his screen. It wouldn't turn on. That was strange, since he knew for a fact that their was still plenty of battery life left.
"Well?" She asked, getting impatient. "Go ahead and call Yogi or Misao." Misei commanded him. From her tone of voice, Arata felt like she was irritated by something.
"I don't understand, it's not turning on." He answered her.
"Really? But I'm certain that you had plenty of battery left." She saw it, and it was far from red.
"Hmm…" He thought for a moment, then realized what was probably the cause of this. "I guess Yogi must've broke it when he dropped it." It made him sad about how fragile this thing was, along with the fact that he was going to have to replace it.
"You're probably right." She agreed, then noticed the problem with that statement. "Hold on. How do you know that Yogi dropped your phone?"
"Ah, damn it." He muttered, that was a big slip up.
"Wait, were you in this room the entire time?" Her body tensed up from the thought that she wasn't alone with Yogi earlier. "But, how?"
Arata didn't say anything in response to her question. Instead, he slowly pointed over to the locker that he stayed hidden in.
"I never took you for a peeper." She scolded him.
"That wasn't my intention." He defended himself. "I just didn't want to ruin your moment, that's all." She took a while to look at him, then quietly sat down at one of the desks. It appeared that she believed him.
"It doesn't matter either way now." She crossed her arms and legs. "Now that we're both stuck in here. I suppose we can try and pass the time."
"Yeah…" Arata would've loved nothing more than that. Except her shuffling was really distracting him. The way she was moving, was she really uncomfortable with him? Now that he was paying attention to it at a closer angle, he was sure he had seen something like this before. "Say, Misei…" He wasn't sure if this was appropriate, but he had to know. "Do you… Maybe need to use the restroom?"
"What?" His question caught her off guard. She took a moment to clear her throat in an attempt to regain composure. "I suppose you could say I need to use the facilities." She responded to him.
"Okay…" What was up with her formal way of answering?
"Look, you'd need to relive yourself if you were stuck in this room for as long as I have." She got self-conscious about her situation.
"I guess… Well except for the fact that I've been in here longer than you."
"Sh-shut up." His words caused her to lose some composure. He took a moment to choose his next words carefully. Arata regretted saying that, because he didn't intend to make fun of her. It was probably better to change the subject, to take her mind off of it.
"Sorry…" He needed to come up with something. Given this situation, he had something pop up. "Say, how do you think Matsu's doing?" He asked her.
"What? Why are we talking about her?"
"Well, because we need something to talk about." He explained. "But, also because she's not really with this group. Even though I'm friends with her." Arata felt a little bad for her. "So, I was just wondering what she was getting herself up to."
"Hmph, like I care." She responded coldly to his question. This came as a bit of a shock to him.
"Um, what?" He asked for clarification.
"I don't particularly care for that girl." She answered him. "I mean, I don't hate her or anything. After all, I'm the school president and I respect all students here." Arata never realized that she felt that way about Matsu. That girl had been nothing but kind to him, along with everyone else.
"Look, if it's about earlier when we were spying on Yogi the other day-"
"It's not. And please, I'd like it if you'd drop the subject." The way she turned her eyes on him, sent chills down his spine. It was definitely better for him to drop this, else she turn her rage towards him. Though, he was going to keep this in the back of his head. Perhaps Matsu could help him understand the problem?
"Right…" There was another issue he had, this might be his chance since she had no escape. "Maybe we can talk about, why you're the one that gave me back my phone." He confronted her on that odd act of kindness.
"What do you mean?" Her tone betrayed the nervousness she had from the question. "I had it, so I was going to be the one to return."
"Don't lie to me." He knew that wasn't the truth. "I was here the whole time, I know that Yogi had my phone when you left the room the first time." Arata even heard Yogi say that he was going to look for him and return it. So why wasn't it that boy that returned his lost item?
"I… Um…" She was at a lost for words. Never expecting that she'd get caught in this. "...Promise me that you won't tell anyone else."
"Tell anyone else what?" He looked at her confused. "What were you going to do on my phone?"
"I had no intention of snooping through any of your contacts, or personal information." She said clearly, to make sure he didn't misunderstand. "And I was going to return it to you tomorrow, when I thought we were going to see each other again."
"You planned on holding onto my phone for the rest of the day? Why?"
"...Because, I wanted to hear the music that you listen to." She admitted the truth, then hung her head in shame.
So she was also curious about his tastes? That would explain why she relented so easily to Yogi earlier.
"I never took you for someone that would be interested in my stuff." He responded. Arata felt that was strange, since he was just one of her friends, even if just barely. It's not like he was Yogi or anything.
"You don't really talk about yourself that much." She answered him. "And anything that we've learned about you, were things that you weren't planning on revealing."
"True, I guess." Arata knew that was simply the way he acted. To anyone that might know him, he probably presented quite the mystery. "I hope that you don't take an issue with me being private."
"Yes, I won't pry into your privacy anymore." Misei knew she was the last person that deserved to ask about his secrets. Especially with the ones that she held onto to. After saying that, her face grimaced and contorted from pain.
"Uh… I didn't think that it was such a big deal." He didn't think that she was that interested, but he was misreading the situation.
"It's… Not that." Despite her efforts, she placed a hand over her skirt. "I… might've downplayed my need." The truth of the matter being that she was far closer to her limit than she'd like.
"Oh, um." He could tell this was bad. She seemed worse off compared to when he saw Matsu in a similar situation. "I, uh, got an idea." He rushed over to the bucket that he was using for cleaning earlier. Quickly, he held it up to her.
"You… You can't honestly expect me to use that!" She yelled at him.
"I promise, I'll go to the corner, close my eyes, and cover my ears." He told her.
"It's not that I don't believe you." She knew that he would stay true to his word. Since he did the same for Matsu. "But… I don't think I could do something like this."
"Well, we don't know when someone's going to find us. Plus, I don't think you want to be seen if…" he trailed off, not wanting to say more embarrassing part. "Please, I don't-" He was going to attempt to convince her, until a blessing came upon them.
"Oh, I didn't realize you two were in here." It was Misao, who opened the door for them. Arata could tell she was lying with those words.
"Yes. And I believe that we should get someone to fix that door." Misei slowly got up, trying to play her situation cool. Without saying anything more, she slowly walked past Misao to exit the room.
What Arata didn't see once she left his sight. Was that she jumped right into a sprint for the nearest bathroom. He could certainly hear the footsteps though.
"Hmm, I guess this door really needs to be fixed." Misao played dumb about what had just transpired in front of her.
"Somehow I doubt that." Arata called her out. "I guess you can really blame all that wind we got here." He said sarcastically.
"So you figured me out?"
"Well, with Yogi it was pretty obvious." He replied. "I can even buy that you didn't know I was in that locker. But I hope you weren't the one that did that with me and Misei, right?"
"Oh no, I was the reason for both of those incidents." She didn't even attempt to hide her schemes.
"What? Why?" He had a hint of anger in his voice. "I know she likes Yogi, but I have nothing to do with her."
"I needed to find something out." She gave him a vague answer, that she didn't attempt to clarify for him. "The results were inconclusive, so I guess I've got more studying to do."
"You're weird, you know that." Arata wanted this day to come to an end. He was tired of this.
"From what I've seen, I don't think so." She responded. "Now come on, we should check on Misei."
"Yeah." He followed her. "Speaking of, that was cruel you know." They were heading towards the bathroom, since they knew she'd be there. "Trapping her like that, without a chance for the restroom."
"Oh, she was going to be fine." Misao answered. "I was watching the entire time, so nothing bad was going to happen.
"You were watching…" He rolled his eyes. "Wait a second, that means you did know I was in the locker all along!" She simply gave him a smug smile at that question.
"Misei, I hope everything is okay." They met the school president right outside the bathroom.
"Of course everything's okay." She blushed at being asked that question. It made her feel like an elementary student. "Adults should be able to control themselves after all." She maintained no eye contact with either of them as she said that.
"Right…" Arata really wasn't going to judge her, it wasn't her fault anyway.
"I suppose it's time to go home now." Misao offered. She had already told Yogi to leave the school as an excuse to take care of the other two.
"Right." Misei agreed. Though I feel as though we're forgetting something."
"Forgetting..." Arata racked his brain on what she might've been talking about. "Ahh! We forgot the papers again." He covered his face with his hands. He really didn't want to return to that room again.