Reverse Harem 4
Arata was nervous now that he had fallen in the only possible conclusion about his own feelings. He had fell in love with Akiba. Why did this have to turn out like this? There were about half a dozen girls he knew liked him. The whole point in delaying his decision was to try and not break so many hearts. Now it seemed he would have to break all of them.
However, that wasn't possible anyway. After all, now he was trapped in the feeling of unrequited love with Akiba. She was already in love with Yogi, plus there was also Akaki who had a crush on her. He couldn't break into that love triangle even if he wanted to try. After all, how could one compete with childhood friends falling for one another? Well, given his manga experience, it couldn't be that hard, but fiction was different from reality.
Basically he was now in an impossible situation where there didn't seem to be a positive outcome regardless of the choices he made. First off, he could simply try and ignore his feelings for her and move on, but that would just be hard to watch someone slip away because of inaction. At the same time, confessing would be bad as well. Either she would painfully reject him, which sucked. Otherwise, the unlikely outcome of her accepting him would mean he practically betrayed Akaki. Arata would never consider hurting someone like that.
So this was basically his circumstances now that the group had reunited at the lunch room. It was a good time to take a short break to grab a bite to eat after their short bit of walking around. Yogi certainly grabbed his fill as the boy filled up his bowl well above it's actual height.
"They've got a great lunch room." Yogi spoke while stuffing his face. "It's good too, since I'm starving." His style of eating was much more messy compared to the rest of his companions. Everyone else sat around the table, taking bites of the rice and teriyaki offered for them as guests. "So, how was the rest of this place?"
"It was fine." Misao answered first. "We got to meet with one of the directors to the anime they produce here."
"Yeah, it was nice to see how he goes about adapting shows for TV." Akaki followed up. It seemed the pair had a pleasant time together. Judging from the slight blush on the boy's face, Arata had to ponder if she did a bit more than friendly gestures with him.
"That sounds cool, we actually met a voice actor." Yuki seemed to be a lot more upbeat than the last time they saw each other. Of course, that was due to the face she was able to meet with someone she always wanted to meet in terms of anime voice actors. This was certainly an opportunity any otaku, no any person, would love to be given. "It's one thing to hear it in action, but watching them do it live is something special." Indeed, it was impressive to watch someone take something from paper and make it a reality for all those to hear when it came on television.
"So what about you two?" Yogi asked the Arata/Akiba pairing. "I heard she had something you would've loved to see."
"Oh, um, well we got to see the editors working on manga drafts." He responded. "It was neat to see the early development before they get printed." Despite it sounding very nice to him, and it indeed was something that the boy enjoyed seeing, Arata didn't sound that excited.
"Is everything fine? You don't sound as energetic as before." Asked Akaki. Having to look at that boy only served to make Arata feel nervous.
"Of course I'm fine." He tried to brush it off as if there was nothing wrong. "It's just been a long day, so I'm just a little tired." That was the best excuse he could come up with to try and avoid the discussion. "Actually, I'm going to drop by the restroom before we continue on." It was all he could do to try and delay the inevitable.
The boy separated from the group and headed away to wash his face at the sink. He had only just begun to feel this way for 10 minutes and already it was torture. Was this really how Akaki and Misao felt the whole time about their own feelings? It was impressive just how strong they were able to keep a happy face if this is was it felt to live life this way.
When he was done, the boy exited the restroom. This was where he was forced to confront his problems as Misao was standing there waiting for him.
"Did something happen between you and Akiba?" She was blunt and straight to the point as the girl asked him the question.
"What?" He was caught off guard by her sudden confrontation. "I don't know what you're talking about. Nothing special happened." Arata attempted to walk past her to brush off the question.
"Somehow I doubt that." However, she stepped in front of him, preventing any movement. "I know what it looks like when someone's holding back their feelings." After all, she was one of the most experience in doing it. "You like her now, don't you?"
"…" He felt trapped. It was impossible to continue on denying his newfound feelings. "It doesn't matter either way. Akaki likes her." As the boy already thought about. A good friend of his already had a crush on the girl, much longer than him too.
"I appreciate you care about his feelings too." She said. "But, it's not something you can hide away so easily. And… He wouldn't want that too."
"It only sounds like you want me to pursue her because you benefit from it." Misao did have a good selfish reason for wanting Akiba off the market. If he no longer had a shot with that girl, then perhaps she would be the one he could run to.
"And you're always trying to keep yourself from being happy, so that other aren't sad." It was an obvious pattern of his behavior now. "And that's why I want you to give it a shot. I bet in your head right now, you're thinking of everyone else who's already confessed to you." Even in her mind, she was supporting Misei in her romantic attempts with the boy. However, despite her personal biases, she did want him to be the one to fall for someone he truly loved.
"Then what about Akiba then?" He kept up trying to find excuse after excuse to try and maintain his status quo. "She already likes Yogi."
"Nobody knows until they try." That was all she had to reply to his question as the girl took him by the hand. She was going to take him somewhere he wasn't looking forward to at all. "Now, we're going to talk to Akaki."
"Huh?" He wasn't ready for this at all. "Hey now, I can't just talk to him about this." What would he even say? Something like, 'hey, I fell in love with your crush too. Now we're rivals', didn't sound like it would have a positive ending. Now to mention that they weren't exactly in the best position to be discussing something so serious. This wasn't at anyone's house, they were at a place of business. "Should we really be doing this now?"
"It's because I'm tired of this." She admitted her problem with their issues. "Our group, we're too worried about hiding away things from each other. How can we say we're friends, if we won't even tell each other about our feelings?" That was what she had been dealing with when they were first year. She assumed things were going to be similar going into their second year, but then Arata joined the group.
Even if he had some secrets of his own, this boy had changed them in ways she never expected. He was the one who pushed them towards accepting who they were, and more importantly, allowing others to see who they were. Opening themselves up to possible pain and risk was what was needed in order to grow as people. "Besides, I already told Akaki to wait for us there."
"You mean…" Already, they were at his dreaded location. Away from the others, Arata was face-to-face to the one person he didn't want to talk to right now.
"So what did you need me for?" Akaki was none-the-wiser about what was about to happen. "It sounded important seeing where we are right now."
"Arata's got something he needs to tell you."
"No I don't." He really didn't want to say it out loud now. This boy would rather be forced to watch the most disgusting hentai then stand here and confess his true feelings. However, he had no choice but to relent. "Okay fine, the truth is… I've fallen in love."
"Huh…" The boy's reaction was a lot more muted than he was expecting. "Well, you already know that I…" He was hesitant since Misao was here. "…Like someone else." As it turned out, Akaki's weak reaction was because he misunderstood this to be a confession to him.
"No, he means he likes Akiba now too." Misao clarified.
"Oh, that makes more sense." He responded, then realized what that meant. "Wait, what?"
"It's true." Arata found it hard to maintain eye contact as they spoke. "But, don't worry. I don't plan on going after her because of you. I don't want to ruin our friendship."
"Arata…" How was Akaki going to respond?