Misadventures in Babysitting

Why was this his reality? It was supposed to be a day without any issues. Just relaxing at the park, keeping an eye on mostly well-behaved children, and raking in some cash as well. Now here he is, stuck with girls that want some other boy, and some club where one of them seems to have taken an interest in him for some unknown reason.

"Why me?" He asked himself, looking on at the rest of the people with him. It felt like he had heard those words many times in many different light novels and manga he had read. Now he understood those character's feelings.

Arata wasn't even sure what he should be doing. It's his day off, so he shouldn't have to help Erina, but she probably wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste. That Matsu girl was starting to be annoying, he was curious about what she was all about. Of course, maybe he should be thinking about any of this, seeing as actual children were under his watch right now.

"Arata?" Yogi noticed that he was deep in thought. "What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing important." He replied, knowing that it telling him of all people would make things worse. "Hey guys, look. You're free to stay here, it is a public place after all. But you're going to have to get your own food. I only made enough for myself and the kids." He directed this to his main group. As the gardening club already had their picnic set up.

"That's fine, as long as Yogi's here. I can go hungry." Erina responded with another hug with Yogi."

"Ah ha, well that's good I guess." Yogi replied to her in a nervous tone.

"Misao and myself will be fine as well." Sadly for her, her stomach betrayed her. The sounds of a starving belly made its way to their ears. "I-I wonder what that was?" She pretended it wasn't her, clearly embarrassed about it.

"You know, I think there's a food stand nearby. You could grab something from there." Arata offered.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any money with us. I'm sure we can tough it out though." Misao explained to him. He thought that really was too bad. And from the sounds of Misei stomach, something she was quite depressed about as well.

This was humiliating for her, she felt like a child in this state. Not only that, but this was in front of Yogi of all people. She internal strife was cut in when she felt something pushed close to her face.

"Here, you can have some of my food." It was Matsu, offering her bento box to her. "You look hungry, so go ahead."

"Oh, but I couldn't possible."

"Actually we have a lot of food with us. Yoko always cooks to much for us all to eat." Said Hanaka.

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm too good at cooking." Karino followed up. He was pretty sure skill had nothing to do with too much portions, but he wasn't about to argue. "But yes, you're all free to have some of my wonderful cooking." She offered it to the other girls. He was happy that no one was going hungry today. Speaking of that, it reminded him.

"Well I guess if you're all going to start eating." He checked his phone for the time, it was about when he was planning on doing it anyway. "Hey, kids!" He shouted out to the playground. "It's time for lunch!" They stopped what they were doing, rushing over to him.

"Who are these people?" One of the children asked as they got to him. "Are they you're friends?"

"S-sure." He answered. He wasn't even sure how he should explain it. But he wasn't going to try with kids. "All right, let's get eating then, I should have enough for everyone."

He reached into his basket, filled with sandwiches and rice balls for himself and the kids. He handed it out, one at a time. When he was nearing the end, he realized something.

"Huh? There's only two left?" He was holding the sandwiches while looking at the last two kids left.

"What's wrong, there's two of them left, isn't that enough?" Asked Misao.

"No, I know I made enough for everyone and myself. I counted it to be sure… Wait." That's when it hit him. He only made enough for what he thought was going to be the kids he was watching. He didn't know that Yuriko's younger sister was going to be with them as well.

"It's okay." Yurisa, one of the last two children, said. She also knew why he was coming up short. "I don't need to take food from you." She felt bad that she would be taking away from his food. Not that he took issue with it.

"No. You have to eat. You're still small after all." He handed one sandwich to the other boy, then his own to her. "It's my own fault for not paying attention anyway."

"Are you sure?" She asked, not wanting to be a bother to him.

"Of course, I'm the babysitter here. Besides, I'm not that hungry anyway." He said. Things were quiet for a moment. "What?" He noticed the others looking at him. They were expecting his stomach to growl at that moment, but he really wasn't hungry. He gave up his food to the girl and told her to go eat with the others.

"That's Arata all right." Said Matsu, stating this as if she saw him do this many times.

"What are you talking about? Last time I checked, we don't know each other." He said, not sure why she'd act like this.

"Really? From listening to her, I thought that you two knew each other better." Said Hanaka. "In fact, she's told us a lot about you as well."

"Really, like what?"

"Well for starters, she said that you're someone that fights bullies. Oh, and that you help the elderly and even saved a cat from a tree."

"What? She's really spoken highly of me. It's not like I'm shining knight or anything." He was flabbergasted. She talked like he was some hero, when he was farthest thing from it.

"But don't you help that old lady with her garden?" Erina asked.

"Well sure, but that's for a job." He tried explaining, but hearing the words garden got Matsu's attention.

"You like gardening too? That's so cool, I love taking care of plants and everything..." She went on a tangent, all he could think of was that this girl really like gardening. He only did it for the money, and it was hard work indeed.

"We didn't realize that you did gardening too." He could barely hear Yumeho talk to him over Matsu. "Actually, we wanted to invite to help us here."

"Yeah, but when Ku tried asking you yesterday, you just ignored her. She wasn't sure why you didn't say anything, but when Yogi asked, she got nervous and ended up asking him." That was odd, he felt like he wouldn't just ignore someone asking him for help. What was he doing yesterday that took his attention?

"Oh right, that was because I was listening to music. I must've not heard you over my headphones." He answered, getting a disapproving look from Misei. "Even if I heard you though, I'd still decline. You know why." The only thing that he didn't know was why they wanted him of all people to help. Was he slipping at keeping to himself these days?

He didn't get any answers, when more uninvited guests showed up. It was none other than Akiba and Akaki. He would've asked them what they'd be doing here, except he already knew why.

"Oh there you are Yogi." Said Akaki. "We were wondering where you were, I thought you said you'd be done with helping the club by now."

"Oh right, sorry. I forgot. I guess I got a little caught up with everyone here." It turned out that he had promised he'd meet them at a nearby cafe to enjoy some lunch. Seeing Arata and the others showing up at the park made him forget.

"Right, I guess that's partially my fault. You wouldn't have forgotten if I wasn't here." Arata apologized, He was feeling like he was turning soft after he started hanging out with these people. "So Shinshiro, how have you been today?" He asked the girl, yet to say anything. She continued to be that girl, not responding to him. Did she not hear him? "Say, Shinshiro…" He stopped his second attempt, a sound caught his ear.

"What's up?" Erina noticed his ear twitching to whatever he heard.

"Everyone, quiet." He shushed everyone with his hand. Concentrating on what he was hearing. A bell, he'd heard it before. It would only mean one thing. "Ice cream!"

"Ice. Cream?" They all replied to him in confused union.

"That bell, don't you guys here it. The local ice cream guy is here." He said this as if they had any idea what he meant. "What you've never heard of him? He's a super prestigious ice cream maker that stops by random places to sell his premium ice cream."

"Oh, you mean the ice store that's near the school, right? They sometimes do surprise popup stores to promote their ice cream." Matsu apparently knew what he was talking about. "I love them, I want to go too."

"Don't care if you want to tag along." He checked his money. Great, he had some cash on hand. "Okay, kids. Go play. You guys, keep an idea on them."

"You can't just leave us with your responsibilities… and they're gone." Misao tried to protest, but he was gone in a flash. The cart wasn't far, he got there before anyone else had the chance to get in line. Matsu followed close behind him.

"Give me the works." He spoke frankly. If there was any attempt to contain his energy, it was a bad one.

"Ah, it's you. I haven't seen you in a while." The person running the shop recognized him. It was hard to forget someone this excited for ice cream. "I got you, a rainbow sundae with chocolate fudge."

"And I'll have, uh oh."

"I've never heard of an uh oh ice cream. Is that even better than what I'm getting?"

"No, she's saying that she doesn't have any money."

"Eheh, yeah I guess I didn't bring any." She chuckled nervously. Sad that she wasn't going to enjoy a cool tasty treat.

"Well, just add a vanilla cone to my order then." He sighed, it wasn't right if he was the only one eating ice cream.

"Yay!" She jumped and gave him a hug in joy. They grabbed their orders and sat down to enjoy their ice cream on a bench. Personally, he wanted to return to the others. But she insisted that they eat it without them, so they wouldn't feel jealous.

"So, are you enjoying it?" He asked, not really sure what he should be talking about with her.

"Oh of course. I can't believe you knew that my favorite was vanilla." She answered happily. He didn't' get that because he thought it was her favorite, he only picked it because it was the cheapest option.

Not that it was relevant anyway. He didn't care to question her, not when this bowl of ice cream was sitting in front of him. He took a bite, and it was just amazing. With this growing heat, the coolness entering his mouth made him feel a lot better about the day.

This moment was perfect, or it was supposed to be. For whatever reason, he felt something was off. Like he was being watched by someone. No, it didn't feel like eyes were on him, but on the person sitting next to him.

"Is something wrong?" Asked matsu, she had just finished her small cone.

"Hang on, it just feels like…" He spied where he knew his issue was coming from. "Someone's…" He pulled aside the bush that was next to them. "Watching us!"

"Oh my gosh, There's a girl in that bush."

"Huh? Yuriko, what are you doing here?" Last time he say her, she mentioned having plans. Just didn't think that those plans involved stalking someone.

"It's none of your business." She replied. Seeing as he was one of the people being watched, he was sure that this was his business. Why would she be spying on Matsu, did they know each other, he wondered.

"Oh, hello." Matsu said to her. Ignoring that this girl was watching them in secret just moments ago. She introduced herself as joyful as ever. "I'm Matsu Kusano. You're Yuriko…"

"It's Yuriko Kikugawa." She formally introduced herself. "And maybe you can tell me why you're hanging out with Arata and everyone else over there." It was like she was accusing her of something. That was when he realized that why she was here in the first place. She must've gotten suspicious of this random girl that asked Yogi of all people for help with gardening.

"Oh, if you're wondering about Yogi, that was all a misunderstanding. She didn't mean to get his help, it just kind of went that way." he explained to her.

"And wh-why would I care about what Yogi does?" She tried to deflect. Deep down, she was happy to hear that. Another love rival would mean having no time for the boy herself. "And more importantly, don't you have some brats to be watching?"

"Oh, well I brought them to the park. It is nice weather after all. They should just be playing on the playground near the others." He knew that she should know. Yuriko was probably watching everyone for a while now. "Speaking of the kids, I really should get them back home soon." He checked his phone, realizing he had lost track of time. He hadn't planned on keeping them out for so long.

"Well I guess I can pick my sister up here." Yuriko relented. Taking this chance to go to the others without it looking suspicious.

"Isn't it nice that everything worked out for everyone." Matsu said. Oblivious to the oddity of this whole conversation. He ignored it for now, whatever this girl did was not of any importance to him.

He still had some in his bowl, so he took it with him back to the others. At least it would be finished by the time he got home, he figured. Hopefully the kids wouldn't get upset at him for not sharing any with them.

"Hey, look who we ran into." He said, pretending for her sake that he and Matsu just ran into Yuriko instead of the real reason. She found herself greeted by the new faces here. Things seemed to calm down a bit for Arata, something that he'd be farthest to complaining about at all.

Sitting here with everyone, something stirred inside him. There was something about this moment that both felt wrong, yet also right to him. The only reason he could even consider himself a part of this group was because of the blackmail. At the same time, he wasn't even mad about that fact. Was he just getting used to it?

"Well, I should call in the kids now." He told them, a sign that it was about time to say goodbye. "Hey, children! It's time to go home now." He yelled out to the playground. He was glad that the kids he was taking care of were behaved enough to listen to him, as their running sounds grew louder as they neared the picnic.

As usual, he doubled check the numbers. Making sure to account for an extra one, unlike with lunch. Two, four, five? Wait, one, two, three, four, five… Something was wrong. He dropped his bowl, shouting once more.

"Hello! I said it's time to go home now!" He yelled again, the others looked on at him. Hearing the fear in his voice. He looked over at the kids that were there with him now. Who was missing? "Yurisa? Yurisa, it's time to go home. Yurisa, where are you?!" He scanned the playground again, no sign of her.

This was unbelievable to him. Ever since he started this babysitting job, he never dreamed of this happening. No, this wasn't a dream, more like a nightmare. A child has gone missing under his watch.