A Supporting Character’s Love Story - Chapter 63

POV Makoto Shinji

With the Kaname-Kanade situation resolved the classroom situation returned to normal in jut a couple of days. The friends Kaname had started hanging out with her again, although there was a little bit of strain between them. Even if Kaname herself didn’t blame them for not helping her the feelings of guilt would still remain. This is something they have to figure out between themselves over time.

“Makoto kun are you listening?”

My thoughts were broken by the words of the person sitting across me.

“Yeah, yeah. You were complaining about Kaname.”

One thing I gained out of this drama was a new friend. Some days I had lunch with Arakawa in the empty clubroom instead with the others in class. It was a nice change of pace and I also got to hear about his situation with Kanade.

“That’s right. You have to help me Makoto kun.”

Normally, I would have refused and made him solve the problem by himself.  But the problem this time was caused by my actions, so I did feel a little responsible for it.

“I… will try.” I finally responded after some time. “But if you can’t handle all the work why don’t you just quit the job? She can’t do anything to you then.”

“I don’t want to anger her further. Especially after seeing what happened to Kaname san.”

Fear was apparent in his eyes. What did you do to him Kanade?

Although I agreed to help him out of obligation I don’t really know how should I help him. Unlike the others Kanade has a very strong mental state. And she even has a hypnosis type trait on top of that. Trying to make her change her mind is nothing short of impossible.

Haa… If she had feelings for him it would be done in a second.

.

.

.

“I managed to pass. Ha. Now I am free for summer.” Akari was jumping in joy with the exam paper in her hand.

“You just passed maths Akari. A couple more marks lost and you would be done for.” I interrupted her excitement.

“Boo boo. You’re such a killjoy Shinji.” Akari replied as she stuck out her tongue at me, “What did you get anyways.

Ah. It’s happening again. This same awkward situation that I have faced before.

When you get a good score how do you tell another person who got less marks that without hurting their feelings? You can’t not tell them because it sounds pretentious when they get to know about it from others, and if you tell them straight it feels like you are being arrogant.

The first time I faced this situation I had chosen option A. Obviously I didn’t tell anybody else about my marks either to prevent the backlash that would arise, but I realized after that time that it was not worth to go through the effort of hiding my marks just so that the other person can feel better about it. Since then on I just told my marks to them straight and I could see them being hurt in the inside, although they didn’t show it explicitly. I did feel a little bad but the fact is that they were the one who didn’t put in enough effort and that is why they couldn’t get the same marks as me.

But here the situation was a little different, I knew how much effort Akari had put in. I was there watching her do it in front of me. And I didn’t want to disregard her efforts.

In such a situation–

Before I could even react Akari snatched my paper from my hands and flipped to the front page.

At that point I was ready to see her feel sad or at least frustrated but her reaction was nothing like that. Without even a change in her tone she continued to speak.

“Damn, Makoto. You studied about as much as me and still got this much. If it’s like this then you have to teach me everytime, okay?”

I couldn’t even react to her question. I was just taken aback.

“You are not disappointed that even with all your effort you didn’t score a lot?”

“Scoring this much is already good for me. What would I need more marks for?”

“You don’t want to have a good cgpa?”

“What good is that for?”

“For going to college?…” I answered unsure of what she was saying.

“Well then let those that need to go to a college care about it.”

“Wait. You’re not going to go to university?” I asked her surprised.

“No.”

Now that I think about it we had never talked about our dream goals or anything. So I had just assumed she was like the standard student.

“What do you want to become when you grow up then?” I asked after my realization.

“Have I never told you? I want to become a baker.”

Retail, huh? I have never really thought about my dream job. To be honest anything that pays well and leaves time for my hobbies is good enough for me. This was the first time I got to know somebody with a dream like this.

“So if it’s like that why did you even join this high school? Our school had a higher bar of entry and was made more for students that were going to pursue further education.” I asked her confused.

“Well… This is kind of a shallow reason but it was because Shizuo was going to come here that me and Hinata joined with her.

This is really a first for me. I can’t ever imagine joining a different school that would make my future harder even if it is for my friend. Heck I wouldn’t do even if it was for Akari… maybe.

“That is… very courageous.” I said in the end.

“But I am glad I entered here.”

“Hmm? Yeah. I guess being together with your friends is kind of nice.”

“No you idiot, it’s not because of that.”

“Hmm? Then what?”

“It’s because you are here.”

“Ah.”

I should have seen her response coming. My ears turned slightly red at her sudden attack.

But that’s true. If we didn’t go to the same school we would have never met.

Suddenly I felt a lot more lucky that things happened the way they did.

.

.

.

And so the weeks passed until the weather grew warmer and it was finally the time for the Sports Festival.

“WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE 21ST SPORTS FESTIVAL OF KOKO HIGHSCHCOOL” A loud voice blasted into my ears from the speakers, followed by confetti explosions all over everybody’s heads. All of this was accompanied by the excited cheering and shouting of students.

“I don’t want to be here.” I said to nobody in particular. Although nobody would have been able to hear me over this much noise.

It felt that my energy was being sucked out just by staying in the middle of this. And I hated that feeling. While the principal was giving the standard 5-minute good behaviour, fair play speech I snuck out of the assembly with the excuse of a sunstroke and quickly went and sat down under one of the tents that had been erected on the school grounds.

“Haah. Finally, out of that sun.” I said as I took a big gulp of cold water from the dispenser.

Although it wasn’t full summer with cicadas blasting their tunes it was still pretty hot under the morning sun. Or maybe it was just me since no one else came sneaking out from what I could see.

I went over the events I had to participate today and cursed at myself in my head.

Tug of War. Cavalry battle. Treasure hunt. These were the best choices for me present on the list.

Why is participating compulsory? Why do we have to choose three? I mean if making us participate is the goal then just one is enough, no?

After whining about it for a while I sighed.

“I should have not come to school at all today.”

And I wouldn’t have, if it wasn’t for Akari who made me do so.

This morning I was still unsure of whether I should come or not. Because I wanted to be there to watch other people, especially people I knew. But the thought of participating was a big deterrent. Well, my opinion wouldn’t have mattered either way because Akari was there sitting on the couch in my house sipping tea, while I was forced as a host to oblige to her demands of refreshments.

“So you’re going to come. Right?”

I could still remember the serious look she had in her eyes when she said it to me. She was even using her trait powers to pressure me even when she knew I could recognize it being used. It was clear that there was no room for refusal or compromise.

So I did the only thing that made sense… Follow her orders.

And now here I was already trying to cheese my way out even of the smallest exertions.

**          **          **