章 188: Reverse Harem 1
There were so many people in Arata's life now, that it was admittedly hard to keep track of it all. However, there were also some that he never needed to worry about keeping track of at all. Some of them happened to be right next to him at the moment in the classroom.
"So, do we have any plans for the weekend?" Asked Yogi as his two long time childhood friends chatted with him.
"You know Yogi, I don't think you usually come up with anything for us to do." Said Akaki. Arata wasn't taking a part of this conversation as he sat at his own desk, reading a book to study. So all he was doing was listening in on what they were saying. Not that he was doing so on purpose.
"That's because you two are always coming up with things for us to do." The boy laughed. It was funny that he still didn't get it at this point. Arata couldn't understand how one could be so dense. Sure, he saw that all the time when reading manga, which was usually done to try and prolong the story as much as possible for sales. However, seeing a person like that in real life was breath-taking.
"My mom has a tour we could all take on Friday." Akiba was the one to come up with an idea. "Arata, you should come with us too." Surprising pretty much all of them, she also extended an offer to him.
"Really?" He was in disbelief that she would want to do that. This seemed to be a good opportunity to get some alone time with the boy she had been crushing on for years now. Why would she want to drag him along for the ride? "I'd probably be intruding."
"Say, how many of us can come?" Asked Yogi.
"Well, I'd say that each of us can bring one extra guest. So if Arata says yes, he'll be mine." Hearing her say that felt kind of strange to him. Out of all the boys in her life, he seemed to be the lowest on that list. Then again, both Yogi and Akaki were coming anyway so maybe it was just since he was the only one left.
...Wait a second, what was he thinking? Of course she's not inviting him because he's a boy. She already liked Yogi, and he had done some work trying to help out Akaki get her attention as well. That was an odd thing to pop up in his mind, to act as if she actually wanted him with her like that.
"It's not that I'm against going." Arata responded. "But, you haven't actually said where we're going or what this tour is supposed to be about."
"As I've said before, my mom knows some people in the manga industry." She answered gingerly. "So, I figured maybe it would be fun to check out all the workings that go into it?" It seemed she got a bit shy saying it out loud to the others. That was a bit confusing to him, as there was no way an otaku like himself would judge her for wanting to go to a place like that. Also, it made a lot more sense why she would extend an invitation to him so casually. Obviously this would be a trip he'd love to join them for.
"Why didn't you say so before? Of course I'll go." And that sealed his spot for the group tour.
"Then, I'll take Yuki as my guest." Said Yogi. Of course, she didn't need to answer as they already knew she would want to go. For the obvious reason and that her cousin was going to be there as well. Though judging from the tone of his voice, it seemed there was someone else in his mind that he wished could've go. "So who do you plan on inviting, Akaki?"
"I hadn't thought of anyone yet." He replied, only adding more onto the stress for the boy.
"Could you maybe bring… Misao?" Arata knew immediately why Yogi wanted to bring her along as well. However, there was no way he could openly admit to wanting her be his guest. First because that would be unfair to Yuki, who clearly would want to go more badly. But also because this boy was still shy about being open about his crush. Something a bit funny considering her had a harem at the start of this school year. One that didn't include Misao.
"I didn't have any better ideas, so sure." Of course Akaki was none-the-wiser about his hidden intentions on that matter. Though that girl certainly would be happy since he was going to be the one technically inviting her.
Now that Arata was thinking about it. This romantic drama, that had yet to boil over in this particular group was friends was weird. It was like that of a love square that traveled like a circle. If the boy were a manga artist, he might consider using this circumstance as a story concept.
So that seemed to be their plans set for the weekend as the rest of the school day went by uneventfully. It wasn't until he got home that anything else interesting relating to it happened. This being a message sent to him by Akiba.
"Looking forward to our tour this weekend." It said, followed by a smiling emoticon. "I'm super excited."
"Me too." He replied through the message. During which, the real him chuckled to see her happy to be able to enjoy her hobby a bit more fully. It was kind of weird to describe her when it came to reading manga. She wasn't an otaku like him or Yuki, where those two had tons of things collected over time because of their love for the medium. This was more like, a deep enjoyment in terms of experiencing the stories told, but with a lot less of the buying merchandise.
Even so… I'm nervous." She gave him another message that was ended with a sweating face. "I hope you aren't upset I invited you out of the blue."
"Don't know why I would be." He responded to her concern. She should have nothing to worry about when it came to his personal feelings since he was fine with throwing out his plans for the sake of a rare opportunity. "You know I love the idea."
"It's just that I only did it because if I was only with those two, then maybe things would get awkward." The real reason she invited him to come was for something she considered selfish. This being she wanted to at least have a person she knew well enough to share proper conversations about the things going on. So in a sense, Akiba felt guilty for using him in this manner.
On the other side of the phone, where she was at. The girl was laying in bed, mulling over her conversation with Arata. She was nervously twirling her hair as she impatiently waited for his response. "I don't know, I don't know…" She kept repeating to herself.
In her mind, she was debating one major thing that had been stuck in there for age now. That being her feelings for all the boys coming along. Of course she had a crush on Yogi growing up, but this year had brought about many changes in her otherwise static life.
There were a lot of things she kept bottled up inside for the sake of her relationships. Even if it made her angry to see Yogi hanging out with a girl who was clearly into him. These were feelings she didn't even want to show Akaki, who had been nothing but supportive of her. However, that changed with the arrival of Arata, who pushed her over the edge and made her act in a way she regretted soon after.
Why did he stick around? Why did this boy not take advantage of his continued support of Erina and expose her to Yogi and the rest of their friends as the fraud she truly was. Instead, he chose to help her and be the one she could be honest to with no worried about repercussions. It was because of their private messaging, that most of the others were unaware about, that drew them closer and closer.
Akiba dug her face into her bed as she tried to hide her blushing face from no one. Even with that conversation with the other girls, it still was confusing for her to have all these boys in her life where she seemed to feel some romantic feelings for. There were no way she was in love with all of them, so surely some of these feelings were false. Infatuations of a young girl trying to grow up.
"It's no big deal to me." He finally responded, even if it had only been a couple of minutes. "I like talking about this kind of stuff, and it's fun doing it with you." To him, he benefited from this arrangement just as much as her. His statement caused the girl's heart to skip a beat. For a moment, she needed to calm herself to try and not overthink his message. It was just words in her phone, there was no tone or voice to give any indication as to his meaning when sending it to her.
"I'm relieved to hear that." She gave him one last message before turning in for the night. The girl laid in bed, turning her head towards the mirror, getting a reflection of herself. Akiba stared as she got lost in thought about what was to come.
This was going to be a special tour for her, as she was going to take the opportunity to finally figure out her feelings once and for all.
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