A Supporting Character’s Love Story - Chapter 53

POV Shinji Makoto

The days flew by with nothing major happening, and soon the weather turned warmer. Summer was almost here.

“Nishikawa stop staring.” I said as I sat beside Nishikawa after finishing my turn.

“Wh-what do you mean? I wasn’t staring.” Nishikawa replied in a panicked voice.

Currently we were in swimming class sitting on the side. As you would expect a lot of guys were sneaking glances to the girls’ side, even Nishikawa was no exception.

“Nishikawa you’re next. Line up.”, Just then the PE teacher called Nishikawa’s name making him jump to his feet.

My turn was already over, so I was more or less free for the rest of the class. I just sat on the warm concrete and watched Nishikawa walk till the edge before putting on his goggles and jumping in.

I didn’t particularly care for swimming, but it was definitely better than running around the field under the hot sun.

As I was sitting there my eyes unconsciously started searching for Akari, and after a bit of looking I found her. She was just getting out of the water and my eyes were transfixed at her figure.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how sensitive her senses were. Upon feeling my gaze upon her body she whipped her head into my direction and our eyes made contact. Only when I saw her grin at me with a twinkle in her eyes did I realize that I was staring impolitely.

I quickly averted my eyes and turned back to the boys’ side. But the deed had been done and I was even seen. The absolute worst part however was that I had literally warned Nishikawa not to do this a second ago and now I was doing the same thing.

I suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Did something like this happen to me before?

I didn’t get a lot of time to recall my memories as a wet Nishikawa approached and plopped on the ground beside me.

“What happened Makoto kun? Your face is a little red. Are you alright?”

“Ah, I’m perfectly fine.” I said recollecting my calmness.

.

.

.

“Who were you staring at during swimming class?” Akari asked with an expression that clearly spelt out that she had caught me red handed.

“Nobody in particular.” I replied in the most stoic way possible.

“Is that so?”

The class had ended and me some time was still there before the next one started. Because of that we were slowly walking to the class room together. Most of the people had already gone ahead so this part of the corridor with the changing rooms was very empty.

“How did I look?”

“Good-Ah” I replied without thinking much but only after saying did I realize that it was a trap.

I was played.

“Where did you learn to trap people in coversations like that?”

If it was the Akari at the start of the term she would never be able to outplay me like this in words. This is why I was curious as to from when she started speaking after thinking like this. But I should have known her response.

“From my boyfriend of course.”

I was speechless. Did I really speak like this? Because this flirty way of talking always kept my heart rate faster than normal.

I took a deep breath to put myself back on track and smiled back at her with the exact same expression, “Your boyfriend knows one more thing though.”

“And what is that?” She asked in a slightly curious tone.

I looked around to make sure no one was around us before leaning towards her face as I whispered softly, “He know how your lips feel.”

“You-”

But before she could retort angrily I had already sealed her lips with mine and she didn’t reject it either.

After that when we separated she stopped teasing me like before. Her expression also became very meek which made me feel like kissing her again. Unfortunately, I had to suppress my impulses because of the time. I didn’t want to repeat chapter 49 again.

**          **          **

POV Akari Nakano

Classes had just ended and the teacher was leaving the class when she suddenly turned around and looked at me.

“Nakano san. Please meet come to the staff room.”

I wasn’t exactly the sort of student the teachers called for helping them. Because of that I tensed up thinking of anything for which I could have been in trouble for. The only thing that came to mind was my intimacy with Shinji lately. Could some teacher have seen us? But if that was true why did she call only me and not Shinji? Did she only manage to recognize me because of the angle at which she saw us?

It seemed like Shinji was also thinking of the same thing as when I turned towards him he was already looking at me with worry and puzzlement in his eyes.

I nodded slightly to assure I would be fine and picked up my bad and made my way to the staff room.

The teacher who called me was our English teacher Nishi Ayame. She was younger than the other teachers and because of that was more popular among the students.

I stood in front of the staff room door for a second steeling myself for what was about to come before I pushed it open.

“Ah. Nakano san you came. Please come here.” Nishi sensei called out to me when I entered, calling me to her desk.

I made my way over to the desk and sat on the chair opposite to hers ready for a lecture on morality but instead of that what I heard was the rustling of papers.

“Nakano san do you know that you only just passed the midterms?”

In front of me were my midterm exam papers.

“Oh,that’s all?” I breathed a sigh of relief. But I should have thought about what kind of situation I was in before speaking that sentence.

“What do you mean ‘that’s all’? You were on the edge of failing in these already. I had to give you a couple of marks leniently so that you passed. Do you know that if you fail end term exams you will have to give retests and that too during the summer vacation? On top of that I never see you concentrating in class. Do you think you will be able to pass if you keep up your current attitude towards academics?…” Nishi sensei droned for a full five minutes before she finally stopped moving.

I was relieved in my heart when I heard I wasn’t in any major trouble but the warning about retests during summer break made me feel extremely miserable about the exams. There were only two weeks left and I realized I didn’t know anything about the syllabus.

Seeing my expression made Nishi sensei soften her tone, “Don’t worry. If you start studying heavily from now on you still might have the chance.”

Study? I was living the sweetest time of my life right now. And now she was telling me to stop and go study? I was extremely reluctant to stop mine and Shinji’s mini dates everyday, but spending the summer studying for more tests sounded worse.

“If you have any doubts you can come to me for help as well.” Nishi sensei added to give me more hope.

Help? That’s right. I can ask Shinji for help. He always seems to be paying attention in class right? His grades have to be higher than mine.

“Umm. Nishi sensei how is Sh- I mean Makoto kun’s grades?”

“Makoto?” Nishi sensei looked at me as if realizing something and continued, “He is one of the top students in the grade. If you can get him to help you study that will be for the best.”

What? Top students? He spends just as much time as me playing around and still manages to maintain his grades? I remember the time before the mid-terms. It wasn’t like he suddenly started going home early to study or something. Even now I didn’t see him get care much about the exams at all.

This was one of the few times when I realized how unfair this world truly was.

.

.

.

“Are you alright?”

Shinji was waiting for me at the school gate. But for some reason hearing him speak like that suddenly made feel pissed.

“Alright your mother. Why don’t you tell me how to get without studying instead.”

“huh?”

Seeing his expression made me realize that maybe I was a little unreasonable and calmed myself down.

“What happened?” Shinji asked as he took my hand in his and started to walk.

“So the thing is…

.

.

.

“So please teach me how to get marks with minimal effort.” I asked as I bowed to him.

He looked at me for a moment before he started speaking.

“The reason it takes me lesser effort is because I pay attention class so I only have to revise before exams. But whenever I see you during class you dint seem to be paying attention at all.”

Although his words were true they stung because Nishi sensei had said the same things earlier.

“But don’t worry. I will teach you enough to at least pass. I don’t want to spend the summer vacation single and alone.”

And with that our everyday dates turned into everyday study sessions.