@Miniju: It was too sad for me to write.
Maybe I will write more YuukaNen in the future, but they do show up in this fic.
@Minami-chan: It's sad, but at least we can be rest assured that Akanen still loves Yuuka. Thank you for the comment.
@Shinoki: That actually would have been an impressive plot twist at the end, but I didn't think of it.
A/N: Hello everyone! This week I present to you all a new RisaNeru multi parter I started writing.
This one actually took me quite a while to write, so I don't know how often I will update it. This piece also happens to be the longest individual piece I have ever written.
The current plan is for this to be 5 parts, but I may split it up further if I get too lazy to write long parts.
I will probably release an OS next week though.
As always, thank you for any comments. Enjoy!
I Thought We Were Friends - Part 1 [RisaNeru]
*beep* *beep* *beep*
The sound of an alarm clock woke the girl that was sleeping in her bed. She was still sleepy as she had gone to sleep late last night. The warmth of her bed did not help her situation at all. She groaned as the alarm continued to blare in her room.
*beep* *beep* *beep*
“Five more minutes,” the girl groaned as she turned her body away from the alarm clock.
*beep* *beep* *beep*
“Hai, hai, hai, I get it,” the girl snoozed her alarm as she turned towards it and looked at the time on her cell phone, “It’s 7:45 AM. I still have time.”
The girl placed her cell phone back down on her bedside table and covered her whole body and head with her blanket. The warmth coming from her blanket soothed the girl’s body. Just as she was about to fall asleep again, it finally donned on her what time it was.
The girl’s eyes opened wide in shock under the blanket. The girl sat up violently in her bed, pulling her blanket away from her upper body, “7:45 AM?! I’m going to be late for school!”
The girl jumped out of her bed and ran straight to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and finished her morning routine as quickly as possible. She then ran back to her room. There was a stray sock lying in the middle of the floor, which the girl happened to step on and slipped. Her room was sent into a frenzy as objects flew from drawers, shelves, and tables. The girl unfortunately landed on her back.
“Ugh… Where am I?” the girl was dazed by her fall.
The girl’s cell phone happened to fly up into the air during the commotion and landed in the girl’s hand after the girl fell on her back. The girl looked at the time on the cell phone before her eyes widened in surprise, “7:59 AM?! Yabai! Yabai! Yabai!”
The girl jumped up onto her feet and ran over to her closet. She grabbed her uniform out of her closet and then dressed herself. She made sure to fix her long hair and grabbed her school bag before running down the stairs. She made one final pitstop in the kitchen.
“Ittekimasu!” she yelled to her mother as she grabbed a piece of toast from the dining table and placed it in her mouth.
“Itterassh--- Wait! You forgot your lunch!” the girl’s mom yelled after the girl, but her daughter had already run out of the door.
The girl began to run down the street. The path from the girl’s house to the school involved many twists and turns in the road. Naturally, the girl would normally wake up earlier, so she could leisurely walk to school. Today was an exception for the girl.
“Mou! I’m already late! I will have to take a shortcut!” the girl yelled aloud as she deviated from her normal path to school.
On another road not too far from the girl, another girl was also running to school. This girl had short hair and was wearing the same uniform as the long hair girl. Her appearance looked disheveled as she also woke up late like the other girl. Coincidentally, this girl also had a piece of toast in her mouth.
“Ahhh! Why didn’t my alarm clock go off this morning?!” the short hair girl yelled as she continued to run down the street.
The two girls were running down different roads, but their paths met at an intersection. They were oblivious to the presence of the other as there were houses blocking their view. All that mattered to them at that moment was getting to school. In a matter of moments, the two of them crossed paths.
“I am late!” both girls yelled at the same time.
*bang*
The two girls ran straight into each other. Their bags that they were holding and the pieces of toasts in their mouths flew up into the air. The long hair girl fell on her behind, while the short hair girl stumbled backwards. Their bags landed on either side of the road.
“Mata?!” the long hair girl exclaimed as the two pieces of toasts landed on her eyes, “Oi! When did it become night time?!”
The short hair girl, who had regained her balanced already, giggled, “It’s still early morning you know.”
The long hair girl was surprised by the new voice, “Huh? Who's there?” the two pieces of toasts covering her eyes began to slide off her face.
The long hair girl was welcomed by the view of the short hair girl standing close to her. Her heart skipped a beat as she took in the beauty of the girl in front of her. She became lost in admiration for the girl. A wide grin appeared on her face.
The short hair girl did not seem to have noticed the grin that appeared on the long hair girl’s face. She began to walk over to the other girl. Her heart rate increased momentarily when she got a clear view of the girl. The expression on her face remained calm as she kept her composure.
“Kirei…” the long hair girl subconscious whispered under her voice.
“Sorry?” the short hair girl could not hear what the long hair girl had said.
“Ah! It’s nothing,”
“Hmm… Okay. Here, grab my hand,” the short hair girl extended her hand out to the long hair girl.
“Thanks,” the long hair girl accepted the gesture and pulled herself to a standing position, “What is your name?”
“Watanabe Risa, you?” Risa replied and asked with a smile on her face.
“Nagahama Neru,” Neru responded with a normal smile.
“That’s a nice name. Nice meeting you.”
“Likewise.”
Neru and Risa collected their bags from the side of the road. Both of them dusted off their bags and clothes before pulling out their cell phones. They checked the time before looking at each other. A shocked expression appeared on both of their faces.
“WE ARE LATE!!!” they both shouted before beginning to run to school, together.
---***---
Neru let out a yawn. She was walking to school on Monday morning. The memories of when she and Risa first met ran through her head. That was the middle of first year of middle school. It was now the middle of the second year of high school. The past four years have been a joyous time for the two of them as they progressed through their school careers together.
Neru made sure to wake up on time this morning. She staggered along as she swayed from left to right as she walked down the street. Ever since Neru started high school, she has been in a state of perpetual fatigue. At some point, she thought that she had some sort of chronic disease, but she quickly dismissed her condition as a part of life.
Neru’s constant state of fatigue made it hard for her to wake up in the morning. To be perfectly honest, it was hard for Neru to wake up at any time of the day once she fell asleep. She had to make sure that she set up multiple alarms in the morning just to wake up, but a majority of the alarms went in one ear and out the other, failing to wake her. If not for her mother, Neru would be constantly late for school.
The need to wake up earlier stemmed from the path that Neru took to get to school. It was a long path that required Neru to make a turn every other corner, but it was calm and tranquil. The shortcut that Neru used on the morning that she met Risa was treacherous. It was too dangerous for the fatigue filled body of Neru in the morning.
Neru was perfectly fine with this arrangement as she let her body autopilot as she dozed off. She of course was still in control of her body and was fully aware of her surroundings, but she stayed in a suspended mode to conserve energy. The only time that she expended extra energy was when someone she was acquainted with appeared beside her.
As Neru approached an intersection, she began to pull out her cell phone to check the time, but she stopped her movement when she suddenly heard a loud sound coming to her side. She turned her head towards the source of the sound and her body suddenly kicked itself into high gear. Risa was running down the street towards Neru with a bag in one of her hands and a piece of toast in her mouth. A panicked expression was on her face.
“Why are you running?” Neru yelled towards Risa.
Risa did not respond until she got closer to Neru, “Start running!” she then ran past Neru.
Neru tilted her head to the side with a confused expression on her face, “Why?” she was forced to shout to the fleeing Risa.
“It’s 7:50 AM! We are going to be late!” Risa’s voice became smaller as she ran into the distance.
Neru’s confused expression instantly turned into a shocked expression upon hearing Risa’s reply, “What?!”
Neru began running in the same direction as Risa. They ran for a small distance, but it seemed like the distance between the both of them increased by a quarter of a kilometre. Risa was a faster runner than Neru, so it was natural that the distance between them would progressively widen as they continued to run. Neru became frustrated as it seemed like Risa was slowly moving out of her reach.
“Risa! Wait for me!” Neru desperately yelled behind Risa.
Risa turned her head toward Neru with a conflicted expression on her face, “Agh! Neru you need to run faster! I can’t slow down! Otherwise one of us won’t be able to make it in time to explain to Sensei!”
“It’s fine if Sensei gets mad! Just slow down a bit!” Neru yelled back as she started to run out of air.
Risa turned her head back in front of her, “Neru, I’m sorry!”
Not too far in front of Risa and Neru, Sugai Yuuka and Moriya Akane were walking to school together. They were childhood friends from as far back as they could remember, so it was natural for them to be walking together. The two of them belonged to the student council. In reality, Akane was the president of the student council while Yuuka was her vice president. Their current conversation naturally gravitated towards student council related businesses.
Yuuka brought up an important topic of student council work that had to be completed today, “The kendo club is requesting for new shoji to be installed in their training dojo, and they also made a request for a new set of shinai.”
Akane gave Yuuka a confused look, “What did they do THIS time?” she made sure to stress the second last word of her question.
Yuuka lightly giggled to which Akane did not notice, “According to the kendo club’s report, Momoko-chan broke a few of their shinai during practice, and the broken pieces of shinai flew into and teared the shoji.”
Showing an expression of frustration, Akane let out a sigh as she began to rub her temples with her hands, “Not that girl again. Takayama-senpai really needs to keep that girl on a leash. Maybe we can get Shiraishi-senpai to help. She could probably do something about her ‘child’.”
Yuuka let out another giggle which Akane noticed this time, “What's the matter with you?”
“Nothing, I just think this is a little funny. That is all,” Yuuka tried to maintain her composure, but a smile was showing on her face.
“You think this is funny?!” Akane exclaimed as she thought her vice president was laughing at the situation, “This is the 8th time this month. Last month it was 6 times. The month before that was 5 times. And don’t get me started on the month before that one.”
Yuuka could not contain herself and she began to laugh, which only furthered to anger Akane, “Yuuka! Take this seriously!”
“I apologize, but,” Yuuka wiped the tear that formed in one of her eyes from laughing, “I am not laughing at the kendo club situation that we are having. I am laughing at you.”
Akane was taken aback by Yuuka’s words, “What do you mean by that?”
“What I mean is that I was laughing at your reaction about the kendo club’s request. You become cute when you are stressed,” Yuuka replied with a wide grin on her face.
Akane’s cheeks became crimson red from Yuuka’s words, “Wh-wh-what did you say?”
Yuuka broke out into more laughter, “Your reaction to my teasing is also cute,” she winked at Akane.
Akane turned her head away from Yuuka upon hearing the girl’s reply, “Sh-sh-shut up, Yuuka.”
“Awww. You do not have to be embarrassed. Your serious hard-working personality is what I love about you...” Yuuka’s voice trailed off at the end of her sentence.
Akane’s eyes widened in surprise when she heard Yuuka’s words. Her heart skipped a beat as her mind could not believe what it had just heard. There was a loud pounding sound that came from Akane’s chest as her heart rate suddenly accelerated. The denial set in as Akane tried to dismiss Yuuka’s words as simple teasing.
Akane was scared to look at Yuuka’s face, but the courage that built up in her at that moment forced her to turn her head. When Akane turned her head to look at Yuuka, she was greeted with the brightest and sincerest smile that she had ever seen in her whole entire life. The world around Akane almost became dark as her heart almost stopped because of the smile on the girl in front of her, but she suddenly saw a figure running towards them from the side road that they were walking past.
Akane grabbed Yuuka’s hand to pull her to a stop, “Isn’t that Risa?” she pointed towards the running Risa.
Yuuka turned her head to look at where Akane was pointing at, “Hmmm? You are right. That looks like Risa. Why is she running?”
“I don’t know, but she looks panicked,” Akane replied to Yuuka as Risa passed by them.
“Risa! Wait for me!” Neru suddenly came into listening distance for Yuuka and Akane to hear her yell after the fleeing figure.
“And that’s Neru,” Akane commented with a confused look on her face.
“They are rather rowdy for a Monday morning. Are they not?” Yuuka commented as she giggled at the two of their classmates whose figures were becoming smaller in the distance.
“Yeah, but it’s not like this isn’t normal for them,” Akane chuckled.
“You are right about that one,” Yuuka replied as she turned her head back towards Akane.
Yuuka suddenly became quiet as she looked down towards the ground. A red blush appeared on her face, which Akane noticed. Akane traced Yuuka’s eyeline as she tried to figure out what the other girl was looking at. At the end of Yuuka’s eyeline, Akane found her own hand entangled with Yuuka’s hand.
Akane quickly separated her hand from Yuuka’s hand, “Ah! Sorry about that.”
“Do not worry about it,” Yuuka replied with a shy voice.
A moment of awkward silence transpired between the two of them before Yuuka’s normal expression returned.
“Returning to our original discussion, what are we going to do about the kendo club?” Yuuka asked with a cheerful tone of voice.
Akane let out a loud sigh, “We can figure that out later. But I swear. The kendo club will be the end of me at this rate.”
Yuuka and Akane’s conversation became inaudible once Risa and Neru turned the corner. Risa was still further ahead than Neru. The distance between them increased to half a kilometre. Neru desperately followed behind Risa as the air inside of her was almost depleted.
“Risa no baka,” Neru muttered under her breath as a single tear fell from her eyes.
After a few more minutes of running, Risa and Neru finally arrived at school. The students that they ran past in the entrance way gave the pair a confused look. Risa arrived at the classroom first and violently pulled the door open.
“Sensei! Gomenasai for being la---” Risa paused her apology when she looks around the classroom.
Neru arrived outside of the classroom and bumped into Risa because she could not feel her legs, “Oi, Risa! Why are you standing in the doorway for?”
“There’s no one here,” Risa replied in her normal calm voice.
“What do you mean?” Neru began to look into the classroom from behind Risa, “How can there be no---”
Risa and Neru were looking at an empty classroom. Neru pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and looked at the time. The clock on Neru’s cell phone showed “7:15 AM”. A burst of anger ran through Neru once she realized what time it was.
“Risa!” Neru yelled loudly behind Risa which caused the other girl to turn around in surprise, “It’s only 7:15 AM! We aren’t late at all!”
“What?!” Risa pulled out her cell phone to check the time and was surprised by what she saw, “How is that possible?! Earlier, my phone said it was 7:45 AM!”
Neru let out a sigh, “Risa how did you manage this? Agh, I can’t even feel my feet anymore. I’m going back to sleep. Wake me up once Sensei comes to start class,” she walked past Risa and walked to her desk. She placed her bag down, sat down, and closed her eyes.
Risa remained in the doorway of the classroom as she watched Neru stumble as the girl walked over to her desk. She let out a sigh before walking over to her own desk that was beside Neru’s desk. She placed her bag down, sat down, and looked over at the sleeping figure of Neru. A feeling of guilt formed in Risa’s chest as she watched the peaceful face of the sleeping Neru.
“I am such an idiot.”
---***---
Just as Neru had requested, Risa woke her up once the teacher walked in. Neru groggily stood up as the class representative, Yonetani Minami, proceeded through the regular pre-class routine. The whole class stood up and bowed to the teacher before sitting back down.
“Good morning class, we will be learning about politics today. Turn to page 394 of your book,” Tsuchida Teruyuki, the homeroom teacher, began his morning class lecture.
Only one minute passed before Neru’s head began to sway to her left and then to her right. Neru’s seat was beside the classroom window. Today happened to be a cool spring day with a gentle breeze. The classroom windows happened to be open which allowed for the breeze to enter the classroom. Neru was completely enjoying the breeze as she felt the energy drain from her body.
Neru shifted in her chair slightly to get into a better position to take a nap. Her head slouched forward slightly before quickly bouncing upright. This bobbing pattern repeated several times before Neru’s head finally stayed down. The girl tried to stay awake, but she fell under the spell of the sleep realm.
Risa watched Neru’s whole ordeal from her seat. She giggled as she watched Neru try to stay awake. After the other girl fell asleep, Risa watched the peaceful side expression of Neru’s sleeping face. It was a similar look to the expression that Neru had on her face when she was sleeping earlier.
“
Neru is really cute when she is sleeping,” Risa thought to herself.
Risa felt a pang in her heart when the thought about Neru went through her head. She looked down as she moved one of her hands over her heart. The vibration of Risa’s heart pumping rapidly transferred to her hand that was on her chest. This was the first time that Risa had ever felt this kind of emotion. It was a foreign feeling for the girl who always appeared to be emotionless to others.
“
What is this feeling?” Risa asked herself.
Risa was alerted by Neru’s sudden movement before she had a chance to think about what she had just felt. Neru grumbled as she once again shifted in her chair to get into a better position for napping. This time the girl was already asleep, so her movements were rather clumsy compared to earlier. Risa could not contain herself and let out a chuckle as she watched Neru shifting her body around in her chair.
“
I better wake Neru up,” Risa thought to herself as she prodded the sleeping Neru.
Neru groaned quietly while deflecting Risa’s hand that was prodding her, which only prompted the other girl to continue prodding her. After Risa prodded Neru several times, Neru finally yielded and opened her eyes to see who was disturbing her beloved napping time. Once she realized that it was Risa who was bothering her, Neru returned back to her sleeping position. This only served to annoy Risa who was trying to wake up Neru.
“Oi! Neru! Wake up,” Risa whispered to Neru while kicking the other girl’s leg.
Neru let out a loud yelp before her body rebooted itself. Her consciousness resurfaced and processed what had just happened. The classroom became silent as Tsuchida stopped his lecture and turned around to look at Neru. The class followed suit and turned to look at their classmate that disrupted the lecture.
“Nagahama-san, is something the matter?” Tsuchida asked with a look of annoyance from being interrupted during his lecture.
“Sorry?” Neru asked with a fake confused look on her face.
“You made a sound just now,” Tsuchida explained.
Neru tilted her head to the side, “I did?”
Tsuchida let out a sigh as he continued his lecture, “Just keep the noise to a minimum during class.”
Neru let out a sigh before glaring at Risa. A bead of sweat fell from Risa’s forehead as she received the glare from Neru. Risa sensed the strength of a tiger behind Neru’s eyes as the fear in Risa grew. The feeling of fear only dissipated once the tiger aura disappeared from Neru’s eyes; it was replaced by a feeling of caution due to the tanuki aura that formed in Neru’s eyes, signaling something even worse.
Neru was a smart girl. Her intelligence far exceeded beyond that of everyone in the class except for Yonetani. Neru and Yonetani formed the top two of the class in terms of grades. Their rivalry stemmed all the way back to the first year of middle school.
Yonetani was comfortable being the top of the class throughout elementary school. After the first test of middle school, she was devastated by the results; Neru had beaten Yonetani by one point. It was ever since that time that Yonetani vowed to defeat Neru, and it was also at that time that their rivalry blossomed.
By some stroke of fortune, the two girls were always in the same class. Their rivalry still continues to this day, but the whole drama was one sided. Neru never had any interest in competing with Yonetani, but the latter was convinced that the former was trying to defeat her. Yonetani became obsessed with dethroning Neru from the top of the class.
Yonetani was always furious when she saw Neru sleeping during classes. Neru showed little interest in studying, but she was always at the top of the class. Yonetani constantly questioned how Neru was able to beat her when she has to study all day just to maintain her position. To put it in more simple terms: Yonetani was jealous of Neru.
Neru’s strengths did not only lie in her intelligence; it also lied in her ability to be cunning when she wishes to be. What surprised other people was that Neru was completely unaware of her cunning nature. The precursor to Neru’s cunning nature surfacing is the tanuki-esque smile that appears on her face and the tanuki-esque aura that appears behind her eyes. Risa was well acquainted with Neru’s cunning nature.
“Ne, ne, Risa,” Neru whispered and motioned Risa to lean in closer towards her for them to speak.
“What is it, Neru?” Risa whispered back while gulping out of prior experience with Neru’s tanuki persona.
“Do you want to go eat yakiniku after school? I will pay,” Neru asked with a smirk on her face.
Risa’s eyes lit up like a fire upon the mention of yakiniku. Her neutral expression was instantly filled with excitement with the prospect of being able to eat yakiniku after school. After all, yakiniku was Risa’s favourite food, and any mention of the delectable caused the girl to lose her composure. This fact was something that Neru was well aware of.
“Of course! Where are we going?” Risa asked with pure excitement and a slightly louder voice than before.
“Hmmm… Do you know of a good restaurant?” Neru asked in a quieter voice.
“Oh, I know! There’s this really good restaurant that I heard about in Ikebukuro. We should go there,” Risa was nearly drooling at the images of yakiniku that popped into her head.
“Ahhh, really? Then we should go there,” Neru agreed while nodding her head with her smirk turning into a mischievous smile.
“Then it’s decided,” Risa declared slightly louder than before.
“Watanabe Risa!” Tsuchida suddenly yelled Risa’s name.
“Hai?!” Risa stood up in a panic.
“Can you answer the question I just asked?” Tsuchida asked impatiently.
“Sorry?” Risa was confused by Tsuchida’s question.
“The question. Can-you-answer-it?” Tsuchida enunciated each word of his question.
Risa looked around the classroom to try and figure out what the question was that Tsuchida had asked. She was completely distracted by her conversation with Neru that she did not even hear Tsuchida ask a question. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Risa’s forehead as she knew that her time was running out. Her apparent saviour came in the form of Neru, which her eyes ultimately wandered towards as a final option.
“The answer is ‘42’,” Neru mouthed silently with a neutral expression.
“Sensei! The answer is ‘42’!” Risa answered with utmost confidence.
The classroom broke out into laughter once they heard Risa’s answer. Risa looked around the classroom, confused. She was unaware of the reason that her answer caused an uproar in the classroom. Risa looked towards Tsuchida to receive an answer to her confusion, but Tsuchida was shaking his head in disappointment.
“Watanabe-san, that answer could have worked in a math class, but this is a politics class. If you were paying attention, you might have remembered me mention that at the beginning of class,” Tsuchida said with an expression of pain from having a headache.
Risa played back the beginning of class in her head. Her face became red when she remembered that Tsuchida had mentioned that today was going to be a lecture on politics. The embarrassed Risa sat back down in her seat, while Neru was trying to contain her laughter. Neru could not contain her laughter for long before bursting out in laughter, bringing attention to herself.
“Nagahama-san, as you seem to think this is funny, can you answer the question?” Tsuchida asked Neru. He was expecting Neru to be unable to answer the question as he saw her talking to Risa earlier.
“Yes, Sensei,” Neru stood up before answering Tsuchida’s question, “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the 57th Prime Minister of Japan. He defeated his opponent Shigeru Ishiba, who was the former Minister of Defense, for the LDP presidency on September 26, 2012. President Abe went on to lead the LDP in a landslide victory in the 2012 general election and assumed office on December 26, 2012. His party also won the 2014 general election and, more recently, the 2017 general election.”
“That is correct, Nagahama-san. You may sit,” Tsuchida declared with a look of surprise on his face.
“Thank you,” Neru replied while taking her seat.
The rest of the class was not surprised that Neru was able to answer the question. It was a common occurrence for Neru to answer questions when it seemed like she was not paying attention in class. Risa was not surprised by this outcome, but she was mad at Neru for the fake answer that was provided to her by Neru. Anger filled Risa as she watched Neru sit back down in her seat.
“Neruuu!!!” Risa whispered in an aggressive tone to Neru.
Neru turned towards Risa with an innocent smile on her face, “Yes, Risa?”
“Don’t you ‘yes’ me. You know what you did,” Risa stated.
Neru tilted her head to the side and put a finger on her lip as if she was pondering about the statement, “I don’t know what you are talking, Risa. Can you enlighten me?”
“You gave me the wrong answer and embarrassed me in front of the whole class,” Risa’s voice was filled with rage.
Neru’s fake pondering expression suddenly turned into a sinister smile, “Of course I did. That’s revenge for making me run for no reason this morning. If you had just waited for me like I had asked you to, I wouldn’t have had the urge to seek revenge.” Neru stuck her tongue out at Risa.
“Wah?!” Risa asked, flabbergasted.
“And now I will go back to sleep. Don’t you dare try to wake me up until lunch. Oyasumi,” Neru threatened Risa before putting her head back on her desk.
Neru fell asleep before Risa had the chance to protest. Risa contemplated waking Neru up again but refrained from doing so. She was well aware of how scary Neru could be when someone disturbs her sleep without the girl’s permission. It was something that Risa did not want to experience again. Risa suddenly remembered something that was of the utmost importance to her at this moment.
“Agh! Neru, you better not have lied about the yakiniku!” Risa declared.
---***---
The end of class quickly approached and transpired. After Risa’s embarrassing incident at the beginning of class, Neru slept like a log for the remainder of the lecture. Fearing the repercussions of waking Neru up for a second time, Risa decided to listen to the remainder of the lecture. She was completely exhausted by the end of the class.
“Uwa! Thank you, President Abe, for making this class even more boring~~~” Risa complained as she sprawled her upper body on her desk.
Risa twisted her head towards the windows of the classroom. She was greeted by the view of Neru’s sleeping face as the girl was lying her head, facing Risa, on her outstretched arm on her desk. Risa’s heart once again skipped a beat from the sight of Neru sleeping. It was the same feeling that Risa had earlier at the beginning of class.
“
I can never get enough of her sleeping face, but,” Risa’s cheek reddens slightly before she shook her head, “
I should probably wake her up for lunch.”
Risa stood up from her seat before walking a few steps to reach Neru’s desk. A feeling of guilt ran through Risa’s body as she contemplated not waking up Neru from the girl’s slumber. As much as she wanted to keep on watching Neru’s sleeping face forever, Risa knew that Neru’s wrath would be scarier if she did not wake the girl up for lunch. Risa finally began the long process of waking Neru up.
“Ne, Neru. Wake up,” Risa said as she nudged the sleeping Neru.
Neru grumbled, “Just give me five more minutes.”
“No, Neru. You have to wake up now. It’s lunch break right now,” Risa sighed as she continued to nudge Neru.
“No… Grab the fish… It’s going to slip back into the water…” Neru whispered as her face distorted slightly.
“Neru, come on. Wake up already,” Risa said as she nudged Neru slightly harder.
“The attic… I turned it into a room for you...” Neru whispered in a happy tone of voice as a smile formed on her face.
“I guess I will have to do that then…” Risa whispered to herself as she leaned in closer to Neru’s ear, “I love you,” she whispered as her cheeks turned a crimson red colour.
Neru’s eyes opened in surprise as she shot up from her seat, “I’m awake!”
Neru looked around the classroom in confusion. A few pairs of confused eyes fell on Neru because of her outburst. Neru finally processed what she had done, and a light red colour formed on her cheeks. Her eyes finally turned to meet Risa whose cheeks were still a crimson red.
Neru tilted her head to the side, “Risa? Why are you blushing?”
“N-n-no reason at all!” Risa waved her hand in front of her face, flustered.
“Hmmm. Sou? Is it lunch time?” Neru asked, oblivious to her classmates who were already eating their lunches.
“Yeah,” Risa replied in her calm voice as her cheeks returned to their normal colour.
Neru sat back down, “Alright, then let’s eat as well,” she reached into her bag to grab her lunch.
Risa suddenly slammed her hands on top of Neru’s desk, “But I have a question first.”
Neru jumped in surprise, “Risa! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” She turned her head towards Risa and was greeted by a serious expression on the other girl’s face.
“Were you lying about going to yakiniku?” Risa asked in a serious tone.
Neru blinked a few times before realizing what Risa was talking about, “No, I may have used that to trick you, but I wasn’t lying.”
“But were you lying about paying?” Risa retorted.
Neru shook her head, “No, I said I would pay, didn’t I?”
A smile suddenly beamed on Risa’s face upon hearing those words from Neru. Risa turned around and grabbed her lunch from her bag. She then pulled her chair from her desk and placed it beside Neru’s desk. She placed her lunch down on the desk before sitting down.
Risa clapped her hands in front of her, “Itadakimasu,” she said before beginning to eat her lunch with a bright smile on her face.
“
Risa is really cute when she smiles. It would be better if she smiled more often. People would stop misunderstanding the cool aura that she gives off. That aura of her’s makes people think she doesn’t care about others. But, Risa can be quite caring when you get to know her,” Neru thought to herself before clapping her hands in front of her, “Itadakimasu.”
Lunch break was when Risa and Neru did various things. The most obvious thing among them being that they ate lunch together. However, Risa took full advantage of this time on countless occasions to ask Neru for help right before a test. Neru obviously obliged to the whims of the cool girl, but it was to no avail as it did not change the outcome of the test for Risa.
Neru dreaded the lunch breaks where Risa was absent. Per the usual, Neru would fall asleep right before lunch break. The only person in the class who could wake Neru up was Risa. The class learned their lesson and gave up on waking Neru up during lunch break. This left Neru to sleep through lunch break and only waking up right as afternoon classes began. Neru was then forced to suffer the consequences of missing lunch break, alone.
Risa and Neru spent most of their lunch breaks chatting away together about various subjects. They often enjoyed sitting at Neru’s desk due to the breeze that would flow in through the window beside Neru’s desk. The classroom was their preferred location for lunch, but sometimes they preferred to be in a more private setting. The pair would occasionally switch their lunch eating location to the school roof where very few students visited.
The structures on the school roof provided perfect shade for Risa and Neru to sit under. They would sit side by side against one of the structures’ walls and ate their lunches. More often than not, they ate in silence and enjoyed the scenery that they could see from the roof together. There were multiple times where Neru would fall asleep against Risa’s shoulder. Risa avoided waking Neru up in those instances, and instead would lean her head against the shorter girl’s head that was resting on her shoulder. Neru was always ignorant of the happenings that occurred around her during those times.
Today, the pair spent their lunch break talking about music. Even though they were complete opposites in terms of personality, they both enjoyed the same kind of music: idol music. Their current favourite group was AKB48. Risa, surprisingly, was actually the person who made Neru interested in the group. They also liked discussing other genres of music and possible alternatives for their favourite group.
“I am just saying. ‘Glass wo Ware!’ would be an interesting song title,” Risa said as she sipped on her juice container.
“I agree with you, but I think ‘Mou Mori e’---” Neru began to say but cut her sentence short when she saw two figures walking towards them from different directions.
Akane and Yuuka were walking separately towards the pair that was discussing music. Akane had her sights on Risa, while Yuuka had her sights on Neru. The both of them arrived to Neru’s desk at roughly the same time. It was at that moment that they finally noticed the presence of the other. They gave a hostile glare at each other before looking away from each other. Neru could sense the hostility that had formed between the pair and had a bad feeling about it.
“Do you guys need anything?” Risa asked, oblivious to the hostility between the two girls standing in front of her.
“Risa, can we talk?”, Akane asked Risa.
“Neru, may I have a moment of your time?”, Yuuka asked Neru simultaneously as Akane spoke to Risa.
Neru shifted her eyes between the student council pair. The hostility between the two increased when they both spoke at the same time. The usually calm Akane was showing an expression anger mixed with regret on her face, while the ojou-sama Yuuka was showing an expression of anger and hostility on her face. Neru could tell that there was a major problem forming between the, believed to be, perfect pair.
“Risa, we may have to postpone our yakiniku outing,” Neru declared to Risa.
Risa turned towards Neru with a horrified expression, “What?!”
Topic: 444's K46 Fics - I Am Not A Stalker I Swear - Finale [OdaPon] (2018-08-11) (Read 41088 times)