Social Distancing

"I can tell something is bothering you." Arata was once again doing his usual duty of caring for Hine's garden. With the cold approaching, he wasn't going to be doing this much longer. So she wanted to make the most of their time left. Except from the way he was talking in their conversation, she could tell something was wrong.

"Nothing gets past you." He replied. "I guess that's why you're always trying to give me advice."

"I wouldn't say that I'm always just giving you advice." She told him. "Hopefully, you don't just see me as some old person that you can just run to for help."

"Oh no, I didn't mean to say that I'm using you-"

"Don't worry." She laughed. "I enjoy our little talks."

"Right, I do too." When he first met her, he had no plans of making a friend out of her. Just someone that was paying him for an easy job. But if you spend a lot of time with someone, then forming a relationship is almost unavoidable.

"So, are you going to answer my question?" She asked again. "I assume that there's some trouble going on at school, isn't there?"

"How do I put it? I guess you could say that I've gotten blackmailed again." He explained. "Unlike the other time..." Saying that made him realize how sad that must've sounded. "I don't know who's threatening me, so I just decided to give them what they want."

"And what would that be?"

"To stay away from Yogi." Hine knew from what she saw with that friend group, that would also basically include everyone else.

"I see." She thought about it for a moment. "A bit of a shame that you continue to choose and hide yourself." Funny that she said that, considering he had already heard something like that from someone else.

"I've heard that too many times to count." He responded. "But I think people wouldn't really care for me if they knew I was an otaku."

"Really? I know about you, and I think you're a pretty remarkable young man."

"Ah geez, you don't have to say that…" He got bashful. "It's not like anyone else says that about me."

"That's because you don't allow them to get close. How can anyone truly like you, if they don't know a thing about you?" From the way she was talking, he would've thought she was with them when they were talking with the librarian girl.

"You say that, but I'm still not budging." He had no plans on being honest, "I'll just deal with this my own way. I'm sure things will work out." There was no guarantee to that statement, but he was going to try.

"If that's what you want. I won't force you." While she may be viewed as pushy to him. Hine did understand that he was growing to be his own person, and sometimes the best way to grow, is to fail.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." Arata knew that these conversation weren't going to last. Not when he was about to be done for the winter.

"I actually wanted to ask another thing." She said. "I know that you're about to be done with the garden, but would it be too troublesome to ask if you come over sometimes, and spend time with me?" The truth was, that Arata wanted to ask her this, but was too concerned that he might seem too clingy to her.

"I'd love…" He faked a cough to hide his overreaction. "I mean, sure. If you don't mind me coming over."

"How does every Sunday sound…"

It was now the next day. Arata got up as he always did every morning. The only difference was that he got up a little later than usual. Not really a problem, since he wasn't going to be late for anything. Just that he would be late if he was going to meet up with Yuriko and her sister. The key word being if.

This time, he was going to leave a little later. There would be no point in avoiding Yogi if he just kept hanging out with the rest of them. So spending any time with her, was out of the question.

"Sorry mom, I gotta get going." Walking alone again, it was an odd feeling. Not having Yuriko by his side, it felt a little lonely. So Arata decided that he could at least try and spice things up. Grabbing some jam, he spread it across some bread. It might be a little fun to run to school with some bread in his mouth.

"Have fun." She wished him well, as she returned to her own breakfast.

"Mmhmm." He replied, or at least tried as well as one could with food in their mouth. Getting his shoes on, he opened his door. What greeted him was none other than Yuriko, about to knock on his door.

"Um, what are you doing?" He rushed to grab the bread out of his mouth. Clearly embarrassed to have been caught by her.

"I was, uh, running late. So I couldn't eat breakfast." That was one of his worst excuses yet.

"But we still have a lot of time before school starts." Their walk wasn't a long one, they could even leave 15 minutes later and still be on time.

"Never mind that, why are you here?" Arata was certain that Erina told everyone the truth, including the reason behind it.

"That note only mentioned Yogi, right? So there's nothing wrong with walking with me. At least I hope so." She turned her head away from him, to hide her flustered face. Saying this to him was torture for her.

"…I guess" He accepted it from her. Though he was uncertain why she'd go out of her way to walk with him. Maybe her being a tsundere towards Yogi was just how she acted with most people, rather than having a crush on him?

The two left his house, heading towards school. This time was different than usual, since this was probably going to be the only time they were going to see each other for the day.

"So, you're really going to do what that note says?" She asked him, wanting to make the most of the time they had together. "I mean, are you really going to avoid all of us?"

"I don't have much of a choice. Unless I want to get exposed, then I'll do exactly what they want me to do for now." He answered. Given everyone's reaction to his decision so far, it appeared that this was an unpopular opinion.

"So what are you going to do then? I doubt that Yogi's gonna let you off that easily." As much as she wanted to tell him, that whatever secret he had was no big deal to them. Yuriko knew she'd be a hypocrite if she told him that, while still having her own secret. One that she was certain, he'd hate her forever if he found out.

"Well, I'll just say that I want to focus on my studies. I'm sure he'll be okay if I put my schoolwork first." He answered. "But between you and me, I'm actually going to check out more of that A + Y stuff in my old notebooks." He pointed to his bag.

"You're still on that?" She thought it was a little odd that he'd do that. Especially taking the time to do it at school of all places.

"It's just for fun really. I'm not really expecting much out of it, but it's kind of neat to read what I wrote all those years ago."

"That does sound like fun." She was envious that he could at least look back on his good memories.

"Is something wrong?" He noted the change in her tone. As if she took issue with what he was planning on doing.

"N-nothing, look we're at school now." She picked up her pace, forcing him to try and keep up with her.

"Hey, wait a second!" Now he understood how she felt yesterday when he left her behind for Matsu. "I got more stuff in my bag than usual." He cursed the extra weight, making him lose her in the sea of students going about their day.

Relenting to the failure of catching her, he went about his day as usual. Walking into class, Arata was filled with stress and anxiety. Just like everyday, Yogi was going to greet him as he would normally do. The note said to stay away from him, but how exactly was that going to be easy when that boy sat right next to him.

"Good morning Arata." Yogi spoke with his usual cheerful voice. "Hope that walking to school wasn't too much of a chore."

"H-hello." He replied nervously. "And no, nothing wrong happened on the way to school." His words, they were coming out so unnaturally. He wasn't sure if he should just give him the cold shoulder, or if this was okay from the blackmailer's point of view.

"That's good to hear." Yogi responded to him. With that, class started. Luckily for Arata, it wasn't like you could just talk to anyone just cause during lecture. Even if it was someone sitting right next to you. However, the biggest problem was when it was time for lunch.

"So, uh." Arata struggled to say the words he needed to say. It sounded so much more easier when he explained it to Yuriko. "I can't come to lunch with you."

"Really? Why not?" Yogi looked sad at hearing this.

"I need to catch up on my studies, so I won't be able to join you guys on lunch for a while."

"What?" Yogi couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But, you can just study with us while we're having lunch."

"I should really focus. It'll just be too loud."

"If that's the problem, then how about we just study together after school." He offered. "You know, like what we do during the weekends."

"I can't do that either." Arata was getting skirmish in his seat. Yogi was being too persistent to him. "Actually, I should get going. You know, try and get as much study time as I can." He got up from his seat, moving quickly to exit the classroom.

"But-"

"Yogi, we should just let him study." Yuki stopped him. She knew the truth behind his actions. So she was going to help him out a little. "I'm sure he'll have time to eat with us again soon."

"Okay…" Yogi looked at him. Arata took no time to glance back for even a minute. Doing so would've made him change his mind.