CHAPTER 8 - Notorious November (2)

[SCHOOL FESTIVAL APOLOGIES]

Normally, the laborious task of gathering ingredients and the tedious preparations for the menu, cooking, advertising, and customer service would drive the students to both physical and mental exhaustion. Still, doing all of those together with all their quirkiness and jokes made every single task enjoyable for them.

On the first day, twelve students that were divided into two groups were tasked to collect raw ingredients within the mountain. One of which was Hayami's group posted by the river to hunt fish and to gather herbs that could be found there.

"Hayami, I can see your underwear from here!" Okajima blurted excitedly as blood gushed out from his nose.

Kataoka hit him before riddling him with a lecture on how to respect a girl.

Brushing the semi-bald pervert off, Hayami aimed the crossbow at a swimming fish with one knee on a boulder. She released a long breath just as she pulled the trigger.

"Hit!" she exclaimed, prompting Okajima to jump in the running water.

He grabbed the kill and hoicked it up to examine it. "Wow! What a clean shot!"

While lowering her weapon, she said, "At that distance, that was nothing." Then she raised it again upon seeing another moving prey.

Itona Horibe and Taisei Yoshida had worked together in making the two crossbows. The other one was being used by Chiba, who was assigned with the group in charge of harvesting fruits and spices and hunting meat in the forest.

After Hayami's fourth kill, Okajima came in again to put the fish into the bucket when its tail started fluttering rapidly. Because of that, his grip loosened, which caused the fish to slip back into the water.

"The fish!" he yelled as he pushed his knees against the current. "Hey, come back here!"

It turned out Hayami had missed its vital spot considering she did the shot beyond her range. But that's not all. It was also due to the apology that Fujiwara has made two weeks ago, distracting her mind especially during times when she needed to focus such as this one.

/start of flashback/

Afterward, they went to the nearby park and found a bench. Hayami sat down at a distance from him. "What do you want to talk about?" she, then, asked coldly.

With eyes glued to the ground, he said, "I want to apologize to you. After seeing your class win battles against Class A when you're not supposed to, it made me realize my wrongdoings. I hurt you and even ruined our friendship. It's my fault why you failed back then." He gritted his teeth as he clenched his fists. "That's why I want to make amends." He glanced up at her and, then, continued, "Will you forgive me, Hayami?"

The troubled expression that crossed her face was one that she had worn when she received her failing grades. Seeing it was a slap on his face that after all this time he still liked her and even wanted to be with her again just like before.

But that was all pointless now. Amid the darkness, she was not alone in her class this time. She has found friends and teachers that she could trust and share her burden with.

/end of flashback/

To catch up with the fleeing fish, she hopped off the boulder when a branch scraped her lower arm. She winced just as her feet landed on a rock. Biting through the pain, she set her sights on her target before releasing the arrow.

/start of flashback/

"Will you forgive me, Hayami?"

She needed more time to think. Since this was sudden, her mind and emotions were in haywire. That's why, without looking at him, all she could do was stand up and utter "I need more time" before walking away.

/end of flashback/

Later before lunch, they were able to catch fifteen fishes and two baskets of herbs. With this, their group returned to the top and found that the other group was already there.

Hayami hid her right arm behind her back before making her way towards Chiba, who was stretching his shoulders from the tiring shooting.

"How did it go in your end?" she asked him.

"We gathered a lot. I think it's going to last us the whole day," he said. "How about you?"

"Same here. Korosensei was right. This mountain has a lot of resources that we can use," she replied while they were heading back inside the building.

"I was told that the people from the nursery came as well as the delinquents who kidnapped Kanzaki and Kayano on the school trip." Then his gaze drifted towards her back when he saw a blotch of red on her sleeve.

He swerved behind her to take a closer look. "You're hurt!" he exclaimed.

In turn, she faced him as her left hand gripped her wounded arm. To think that it would still bleed after having it wrapped with her handkerchief and covering it with her sleeves.

"It's just a scratch from a branch earlier. It's no big deal," she explained flatly.

"That's because you didn't wear your super gym clothes," he scolded, grabbing her left arm. "We should treat that first."

The super gym clothes that Karasuma had given to them as their reward could protect them from many types of injury including getting a small wound. But because her mind was preoccupied with Fujiwara, it had slipped her mind to change into them. She had only managed to put on her combat shoes right before going into the mountain.

As she was being pulled back inside, she said, "I can treat it myself", since she knew that he has other things to do.

He clenched his jaw. "No."

She could give in to his persistence to quickly end their 'bicker', but there was something about him that has been bugging her.

Lately, she would catch him looking at her several times more than the normal and pursing his lips as if he wanted to say something. Not only that, he would try to help her even in the tiniest stuff like bringing ammo from the shed and submitting everyone's assignments to the faculty lounge.

Although, in the past, he never did those since he perfectly knew that she could handle them by herself.

There was also this one time when he had to plead to carry her school bag for her when they were going down to the school gate. When she had refused, he offered to walk her to the bus stop instead, which left her no choice but to accept his first appeal. It had ended up with Karma teasing them for being a 'sweet typical couple' when they were seen on the way.

"Why are you so worked up about this?" she asked calmly, the prickling pain on her left arm forgotten.

He halted on his tracks before spinning on his heel towards her. His hand, then, slammed on the wooden wall behind her, trapping her under his height. "It's because –" he began to say in a gravelly tone "– you are troubled about something. It makes me frustrated to do nothing but watch."

I understand though. I know that you're going through something that you think you should handle by yourself.

When he had tilted his head closer, she caught a glimpse of his anguished eyes, which made all of her attention fixate on them. His voice softened as he said, "That' why, just for this –" he glanced at her red-stained arm "– let me worry about it."

She was a fool. Of course, he would see through her struggles and become anxious. She would be too if it were him.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I'm okay now."

Because of you, I now know what to do.

With a contented nod, he released his hand from the wall, returning their distance. "I'll get the first aid kit."

She hummed in reply.

After turning his back on her, his face started to heat up as he strode his way inside. He thought, 'Crap. Why the hell did I do that?'

Meanwhile, a sigh escaped her lips right after he went inside. Touching her chest where her heart was pounding rapidly, she thought she was going to faint by then.

***

After finishing up for today's school festival, Hayami went straight to the main building. She remained invisible for the past hour as she stood by the entrance. Entering her field of vision a few minutes later was a spindly figure, with a mop of caramel hair, exiting the premises.

While chatting with his peers, Fujiwara stopped short upon seeing her walking in his direction. He told them to go ahead before meeting her in the middle.

"Hayami, why are you here?" he asked. Had she been waiting for him?

"I want to say thank you, Fujiwara, for your apology and everything else," she began as her mouth quirked up. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have met everyone in Class E. And, I wasn't able to thank you for your feelings for me at that time. I realized now that I had been somewhat cold to you. For that, I'm sorry."

His face softened as he smiled. "It's okay. I'm just happy that you're doing well now."

"No. This time, I want to do it right." Bowing her upper body slightly, she said, "Thank you, Fujiwara. I'm sorry I couldn't return your feelings."

Although it was monotonous, he could sense the sincerity beneath her words unlike before. He embarrassingly looked away as he put his hand on his hips with his other hand rubbing the back of his head. "Uhh... you didn't have to do that. That was already a while ago," he mumbled.

Then he shifted his head back to her as a beam flashed on his face. "Well, thank you for that!"

She managed a small smile. "It was indeed weird to say that after all this time but it still felt good," she said.

Placing both hands on his waist, he proclaimed, "You know, I am planning to join the Light Music Club in high school."

"That's nice. I wish you luck."

"Thanks. I'll be better than your bassist boyfriend."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Bassist?"

"Remember when we watched the Light Music Club at the school festival in our first year? He was the bassist player in the band."

"So that was him." Her mind crawled back to that time when she saw him on the stage, his bangs up while playing the bass guitar. She thought that that person seemed cool although she could not see his face back then because of the colorful lights flashing everywhere and the swirling smoke blocking the band members' silhouettes.

Fujiwara cocked his one eyebrow bemusedly. "How come you didn't recognize that was your boyfriend?"

She crossed her arms across her chest and said, "He is not my boyfriend."

"Huh." A smirk coursed through his mouth. "But do you like him?" he asked in a teasing manner.

Her arms fell to her sides. Knowing what he had meant, firmly and coolly, she replied, "I do."

***

Since the Class 3-E's restaurant became jammed with customers on the second day, Chiba and Hayami were asked to help in serving the tables. Albeit not good at it, they were able to manage through Yada and Isogai's brief pointers.

"Three orders from Table 4 and five from Table 5," said Hayami as she handed the order slip to Yuzuki Fuwa.

Upon picking up a tray of dishes to be served, Chiba passed by her. They greeted each other with a subtle nod before focusing back on their work. Then her face lit up when her eyes had caught sight of Fujiwara, together with a group, ambling towards a recently vacant table.

"Hayami, can you go take their order?" Maehara asked, his thumb pointing at Fujiwara's table.

With a nod, she took out her notepad and made her way there when the caramel-haired boy became ecstatic at her arrival. "Can I have your orders?" she asked as her eyes roamed over his companions, who were looking at her with friendly gazes.

Lately, the perception of the students in the main building on Class 3-E has been changing gradually in a positive way.

After receiving their orders, Hayami wheeled back to the kitchen as Fujiwara's smile slipped. It was certainly nice to see her working hard as she usually did.

"Dude, she looks pretty."

He turned back towards his male companions who began speaking about Hayami.

"Yeah. Although she seemed so serious at first."

"Forget it. She already has someone," Fujiwara chimed in before looking over his shoulder to see the black-haired bassist approaching Hayami, who was carrying two trays for different tables. When her 'boyfriend' had offered to serve one of the trays for her, the corners of her mouth turned up as she enunciated her thanks.

'Huh. So she can smile like that,' Fujiwara thought.

From the sidelines, a certain blonde girl has been watching the caramel-haired guest gape with a yearning expression at the two snipers. When Hayami had gone to serve the orders of Fujiwara and his company, Nakamura grinned before scooting over towards Chiba.

"Shouldn't you be pulling her away from that guy right now?" she whispered, as both of them ogled at Hayami interacting with Hideo while serving the table.

Placing his hands on his hips, Chiba said, "Even so, I have no right to do that."

Nakamura's mouth fell open. Did he just impliedly admit that he is jealous? Before she could react further, Chiba was already on his way to the kitchen.