Chapter 95 – Mito Takahashi is hiding in the closet.

……

The next day, the sky was still drizzling with light snow, the streets had been pretty much cleared, and all the schools had reopened.

The elementary school that Rina was attending had a daily school bus, so Natsuki Arai dropped her off at the entrance to the neighborhood and watched her get on the bus before heading to the school as well.

On the street a hundred meters before the entrance to the school, as far as he could see were students who braved the snow, a spectacular scene, because the snowy road is slippery, almost no one saw people riding bicycles, all on foot to school.

Aoi Natsuki entered the school gates as usual and went inside the school building she was in.

Quite a few students were taking advantage of some of the early pre-study time to be having snowball fights underneath, which was apparently more fun than being cooped up in their own homes.

Sakurajima Apricot sent him a message last night, saying that the third period this afternoon was a club activity as usual, and that Sakurajima was the minister, so naturally it was her call.

Arai walked into the back door of the classroom, then hung his bag on the backrest of his own chair, and just as he sat down, a small, delicate snowman was placed on the edge of his desk.

Yusuke Oki, who was at the front table, also turned around with a smile on his face, “How was it? It’s doing pretty well, isn’t it.”

Aoi Natsuki took a closer look at the little snowman, and it was quite detailed, “You’re quite handy.”

“Yes.” Yusuke opened his right hand and smiled.

Aoi Natsuki reached over and compared his hand, surprisingly it was two to three centimeters longer than each of his fingers, “What a big hand, not bad for a basketball player.”

Daiki Yusuke obviously more complacent after hearing this, but suddenly thought of something, the expression also converged a bit, took out his cell phone from his pocket, searched a bit, and then his whole body came over, “Look, recently there are really a lot of things about you in the school forum ah, quite a lot of people photographed you having dinner and chatting with two big beauties, and the posts scolding you have already turned from the original 24 posts a week to 30+ a day now. 30+ a day now, it seems that everyone has very strong opinions about you.”

“Well, it could have been expected.” Aoi Natsuki wasn’t surprised, after all, ever since Sakurajima stopped hiding his appearance, the naysayers around him began to grow more and more, and at the same time, being in a club with two S-ranked girls, Sakurajima Apricot and Takahashi Mito, I believe that this also made a lot of the gang of girls who were already disgusted with him begin to hate him more and more intensely.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was in the way of Takahashi Mito’s previous prowess last time, I’m sure he would have been blocked by a group of people at the door by now.

“And what steps are you going to take?”

“Measures? Do you believe that if I appear in the school forum right now, then within an hour, this thread must have 200 replies +, so inaction is the best way.”

“Well …… I do understand what you’re saying, it’s just that I’m worried that things are going to get worse and worse and end up with some bad results.” Yusuke sighed.

Yusuke was genuinely concerned about him as a friend, and Aoi Natsuki nodded somberly as he listened to that, even though it smacked of a bit of FLAG.

……

The second class of the afternoon had just ended.

Takahashi Mito then prepares to call Hayakawa to head to the club classroom, but Hayakawa replies that he needs to go to the office first and tells Mito to go ahead.

It wasn’t a big deal, but by the time Mito Takahashi arrived at the activity classroom, she realized she was the first to arrive.

The cold temperature made her unconsciously turn on the air conditioner in her classroom and adjust it to hot air, then stood at the window and looked out at the snow.

Just then, a voice suddenly rang in her left ear, “Takahashi ……”

This caused Midu Takahashi to instantly scream, cover her left ear, and move two steps to the right.

Turning her head, she realized that it was Sakurajima Apricot who had a bewildered smile on her face.

She had a buzz cut today, and student cuts at her sideburns on the left and right sides, and the teardrop mole under her right eyelid was still noticeable, accompanied by a slight shift in the position of the slender corner of her eye that extended when she smiled.

“Sakurajima! Please don’t be so goddamned weird! You don’t even make a sound when you enter!”

“Entering the door? I’ve been sitting on that one rattan chair in the corner waiting for you guys, I’ve been watching you since you entered, you’re the one who didn’t greet me oh.” Sakurajima Apricot said slowly, her slender right index finger pointing to an old rattan chair in the corner.

That shadowy corner gave Takahashi Mito the creeps and goosebumps on his arms just looking at it.

“Okay, then, let’s sit down first.” Takahashi Mito moved a little bit and finally found a stool to sit down, but she still felt that there were Sakurajima Apricot’s straight eyes behind her always staring at her.

A few seconds passed before she turned her head with an awkward smile and asked, “Sakurajima, are you staring at me all the time?”

Being asked that question, Sakurajima Apricot finally responded in some way, walking up slowly and saying, “Because it seems to me that you have something on your mind, Takahashi, and it’s not a small one at that.”

“So, so, you want to have a friend to friend talk with me?” Takahashi Mito’s tone was starting to stumble.

Sakurajima Apricot looked like she was thinking, then smiled slightly, “Well, that’s it.”

Takahashi Midu was relieved to hear that such a simple topic had been brought into such an eerie atmosphere, and then she also sighed in relief, “I don’t have anything on my mind, you’re overthinking it.”

“Oh? Is that so, Takahashi haven’t you been thinking about Aoi all this time?” Sakurajima Apricot’s sentence directly opened up the scope of the original communication between the two, and Takahashi Mito’s eyes widened even more.

“You ……”

“But don’t say I’m talking nonsense, you’ve been in the wrong state since the day of your birthday party, and didn’t you even come to consult my thoughts? Then you did become friends, but what about now? Why do you still feel like you’re moping around, my initial guess is that either this has something to do with your family, or it has something to do with Aoi, last night, I purposely called to ask Ayano, and she told me that there hasn’t been any special changes in your house in the past two days, so it seems like it’s just Aoi.

Let’s see, it’s because Ryuusakura is making you fidget, isn’t it? You sensed that Aoi was the only boy you didn’t hate, and you wanted to get close to him, but he was surrounded by girls even better than you, so you received a bruise to your ego, didn’t you?”

Sakurajima Apricot pressed her entire body over as she spoke, and the eyes that longed to explore everything left Takahashi Mito half speechless.

She tried to deny it out of her mouth, but every bit of the other woman’s words poked at her perfectly, which prevented her from organizing the words to retort in the first place.

“Admit it Takahashi, you just care a lot about Aoi, if Hayakawa can do it why can’t you, why don’t you dare to be brave enough to try it once?”

Sakurajima Apricot said slowly, one word at a time.

Suddenly, there was a noise at the door.

The two men’s eyes cast over in unison as well.

Just when she thought this topic was going to end here, Sakurajima Apricot gently tapped Takahashi’s shoulder and said, “Want to know what Aoi has in mind? You hide in the side cabinet now, and you’ll find out in a little while.”

“……”

“Of course it’s your decision, and if you don’t really want to know then I do ……” Sakurajima Apricot turned around and spoke casually, and behind her at that moment the sound of a locker door being opened rang out.

The smile on her face grew more pronounced.

……

Aoi Natsuki came to the activity classroom as promised, pulled open the door to the classroom, and found that Sakurajima Apricot was the only one inside, and, still had that gorgeous smile on her face.