Surprises Before the Date

A date… Just thinking about it made Arata feel anxious. He had never been on one before, at least not one planned out ahead of time like this. Though on the day of said agreement to go on one, there was still one other thing he needed to take care of.

That would be to visit Hine for some brunch. That was their agreement now that he was no longer tending to her garden. Though it would be handy for him to ask for some advice as well. While he may have preferred to ask his parents for help, his mom was out of town to visit his sister. Meanwhile his dad was away on business.

Reaching her home, he knocked on the door. Arata didn't have to wait long for a response, though the person that greeted him was far from an old lady. In fact, they were his age. More precisely, they weren't a stranger to him.

"Hi-Hifumi?" His jaw dropped to the floor at this sight. Why was the school librarian of all people here?

"What?" She was just as dumbfounded as him. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh I see Arata is here." Hine walked up to the two of them. Acting as if nothing strange was going on. "Come in, come in." She beckoned him. Arata entered, speechless as to what was going on.

"…" He was unsure of how to word his question. Specifically on why was Hifumi was here.

"So anyway, Hifumi this is Arata." Hine explained to her. "He's the nice young man that was taking care of my garden."

"Um, we've already met." She told her.

"Yeah…" Arata agreed.

"Really?" Hine was taken by surprise, though she saw this as a positive. "That's great. I didn't realize that you two knew each other. You've never mentioned one another before." She brought him to where she was sitting before with Hifumi.

It was a nice small table that could fit four people. Definitely more than enough space for all of them. Atop it was filled with nice freshly baked good along with some tea to wash it all down. Handmade by Hine, no doubt.

The indoors of Hine's house was a bit old fashion. Not that he minded of course, it was well designed and certainly fit the old lady he had grown to know. There were many pictures on the walls, a fair bit of them with her and another man. Presumably her late husband.

"If I may ask." Arata spoke up as they sat down. "How do the two of you know each other?"

"Well she's my granddaughter of course."

"Ah I see… Wait what?!" Granddaughter? They didn't have the same family name. Of course that's probably because Hine had a daughter that got married.

"I thought I mentioned having a granddaughter to you before." She might have, but he would've certainly remembered the name if that was the case.

"You probably forgot to mention my name." Hifumi said. "I realize that you neglected saying his name when you told me about the gardener."

"I did?" She shrugged. "Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter either way." Well now he wasn't comfortable with asking her about his dating problems now. Not when there was another person here, especially that girl.

The two of them awkwardly made idle chat with Hine. A little unexpected coming from Hifumi. That girl was usually very intimate with him, despite his protests. And that included when other people were around.

"Is there something wrong Hifumi?" It appears that Arata wasn't the only one who noticed. "You've gotten much more quieter."

"N-nothing's wrong." She slowly took a cookie and ate it, trying to use it as an excuse to not talk.

"So what do the two of you usually talk about?" Arata used his inexperience to try and dig deeper into this. "If it's too personal, you don't have to tell me."

"Recently, Hifumi's been telling me about this boy she likes."

"Grandmother!" She didn't appreciate that information being divulged. Especially since he was well aware of who that boy was. Which was himself of course.

"It's no big deal. I know Arata would never make fun of someone for their feelings. Plus, I think it's a shame to hide something like that anyway." He was certain that wasn't the problem here. Then again, he did note that she never once mentioned his name when talking about him.

"Y-yeah…" He said, trying to make her feel better. Arata nervously sipped on his tea while saying so. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"It's so nice too. She's been working really hard to make him delicious treats, I've taught her everything she knows." Hine bragged about this accomplishment. Much to Hifumi's chagrin.

"I… Guess you could say I got a few pointers." There were other things that Hine had apparently taught her to do as help. Such as those weird intimate things, along with advice on the troubles she saw him go through. Those being the secretary work and when he got blackmailed the second time.

All the while, Hifumi had her arms crossed laid down on the table. As if she was guarding herself. Seeing her like this was a complete contrast to what he saw from her during school. It was oddly cute for him to see her so vulnerable.

And all this hard work she was doing just to get his attention. Arata always assumed that was just how she was. Never once did he consider how far she was stepping from her comfort zone to do all this. Which is precisely why she was so uncomfortable with him learning of all this.

Hearing all this also made it much harder for him to want to bring up his own topic of romantic help. It'd be kind of mean to hold that to this girl's face after seeing what she did for him.

"...But that's enough about the two of us." Hine finished her story. "What about you Arata? I'm sure you've got some things going on in your life that I'd love to hear about."

He was really put on the spot here. He would've like some help, but when Hifumi hears of this. She wasn't going to like this.

"Actually, if we're on the topic of romance. I was wondering if you could give me some advice." He told them that he was confessed to, and thus agreed to go on a date. Though he made it clear that he had yet to accept her confession. Doing this to test the waters, so to speak.

All this time, he couldn't look Hifumi in the eye. Partially because they were obscured by her glasses. Was she sad to hear this? Perhaps it was anger? After all, it couldn't have been easy to hear the guy that rejected you talking about how he basically accepted another girl's confession.

"Actually, there's not much I need to tell you." Hine gave him her little advice. "The only thing that needs to be said, is that you should be both honest and fair for the both of you." She believed that he should already have the tools to understand what he should be doing. After all, she had seen how he was with Erina.

"Right I should consider her feelings, I understand that."

"No, you're misunderstanding me. You need to consider your own feelings. That's how you're going to be fair to her." He didn't exactly really know what she was getting. However he wanted this to end as quickly as possible for Hifumi's sake, so he just nodded his head in agreement.

"If you don't mind me asking." Hifumi broke her silence. The tone of her words becoming much more cold towards him. "But who's the girl that you're going with? Is it someone that I know?"

"You could say that." He danced around the subject. Really it didn't matter either way, this girl was clearly upset at hearing about this.

"It's the president, isn't it?" She asked. All he could do was nod his head in response to the question. Keeping his gaze constantly averted from her.

"The school president? Misei?" Hine had a look of confusion to her. "That's not who I was expecting." Arata assumed that she probably meant Matsu. Actually was she aware of that girl liking him?

"Right, and speaking of her." He checked the time. "I need to go and get ready." Arata got up from his seat, and made his way for the door. Taking one look at Hifumi, he silently vowed to himself that he'd apologize to her for this. It was probably not what she was hoping to hear when she came to visit her grandmother.

"Have fun now." Hine bid her farewell to him, while Hifumi quietly did the same.

"I hope you enjoy yourself." She simply said.

"Hifumi…" Hine waited for a moment, as he left. Once Arata was definitely gone she just had to ask. "He's the boy you like, isn't he?"

The tears that ran down her face, was the only answer Hine needed. She gave a gentle pat on the head to her granddaughter's crying self.

"It's okay…" She said, consoling her. "Just because he's going on a date with her. Doesn't mean that he returns the feelings she has for him."