WE ARE FRIENDS AFTER ALL

Hitori was waiting for Umaku after school again. Umaku came tonear Hitori, as Umaku put his hand on Hitori's shoulder, Hitori backed away immediately:

"Oh, Hitori, I have good news. Listen."

Hitori was intrigued. He started to listen carefully:

"Okay so, shall we meet at my house today?"

Hitori got excited, he nodded fastly."

"Good, a friend is coming too, I thought we'd play League of Kusa together..."

Hitori's smile disappeared in an instant, he took his notebook and began to write:

"Actually, today, I have some work-"

As Hitori was writing in the notebook, Umaku jokingly tapped Hitori's arm.

"Stop the cap, Hitori!"

When laughing, Umaku continued:

"Don't worry though, you get along well with my friend Nito. He doesn't talk much to people, and he's a bit of an Otaku..."

Hearing this, Hitori felt a little relieved. Umaku chuckled.

"See? I knew you'd be interested."

Hitori picked up his notebook again:

"You got it wrong, it makes no difference to me if he's an otaku-"

"Stop the cap, Hi-to-ri! As a person who can't talk, i know you carry the soul of an otaku inside-"

Hitoki was embarrassed, there was silence for a few seconds… Umaku tried to fix the situation:

"It was a joke Hitori, I'm sorry if i said something wrong."

Hitori wrote:

"It's ok."

"Alright then, let's get going."

While walking on the road, Umaku and Hitori met the girl they had seen in the park yesterday. The girl was hiding behind a tree at the turn of the street corner.

"It's K-kowai! That girl, what is she doing here?"

When they turned the street corner, Hitori and Umaku saw Kowai spying on Hashiro on her way home.

Kowai was blushing and heavily breathing as she watching Hashiro from afar.

Meanwhile, Umaku got mad:

"Wasn't this girl angry that you were talking to Hashiro? Now, is she watching her behind the tree? Like, what the actual hell is going on here?"

As Hitori tried to understand what is happening, Umaku began to shout while pointing Kowai:

"Hashiro! That girl behind the tree is watching you!"

Hashiro turned around, confused. She looked behind the tree, Kowai was looking at Hashiro in fear:

"H-hashiro I-"

Hashiro shouted:

"How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?"

"Y-you misunderstood Hashiro-"

"I didn't! You prevented me from talking to my friends before, you messed with people, why? Just why? I really wanted to be friends with you, Kowai, but if you are going to act like a-"

Kowai's voice began to tremble:

"Hashiro you don't get what i fee-"

Hashiro, pointed to Hitori:

"From what I heard from someone i know, you messed with Hitori as well. I really didn't think you were a person like this, Kowai!"

Kowai looked angrily at Umaku:

"Did you tell Hashiro that I did this?"

Umaku laughed silently, trying to not make an eye contact with her.

Hashiro looked coldly at Kowai:

"Sorry Kowai, but I don't think we should talk from now on."

Kowai tearfully said:

"B-but I... I didn't w-want to- W-why… I'm s-sorry?"

As Hashiro turned and walked away, Kowai knelt on the ground and began to sob heavily. Umaku then just stared at her without feeling symapthy. Hitori turned to Umaku to at least do something:

"U-umaku..."

"Forget it Hitori, let's move on."

As Hitori continues to walk. He looked back at this helpless girl... He was wondering why Umaku didn't do anything.

On the way, just as Hitori was about to pull out his notebook to ask, Umaku said:

"Let me explain, Hitori. Listen, this Kowai girl has some sort of feelings for Hashiro. I don't know if it's exactly love or something, but Kowai somehow adores and admires this girl. And she always wants to be with her, alone, whie keeping Hashiro to herself. Did you understand?"

Umaku took a deep breath.

"Aaand, that's why she treated everyone harshly, including you, this is the personality type i hate the most, so I left her there alone... Believe me, Hitori, you should get away from people like that who only treat well to who they admire. At elementary school, i-"

Memories flashed through Umaku's mind, recalling his childhood:

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Umaku was talking to a girl:

"I don't understand, why don't you love me? What have I done to you, huh? We used to talk before, why don't you talk to me now? Did I do something to you?"

The girl laughed.

"I-I even had feelings for you-"

The girl began to laugh even more loudly:

"Don't you understand, Umaku? I just used you as a tool to be with the person sitting next to you in class. I didn't remember his name right now, but he looked really handsome lol"

"D-you just used me to talk to Saidoro?"

"Yeah. If it wasn't for that, why would I even want to talk to you? We don't even have the same interests, you're the most boring person I've ever met in my life. Thats why nobody talks to you. You are really boring and have nothing to make yourself more interesting"

Meanwhile, Umaku raised his hand in the air:

"Shut up."

"We were already making fun of you in class, we had a lot of gossip, haha. Anyway, I should go no-"

"SHUT! UP!"

Umaku slapped her. Tears were flowing from his eyes, he was feeling dizzy, helpless and angry.

The girl looked at Umaku in shock:

"How dare you to hit, me, a girl?"

Umaku and the girl started screaming and fighting, people gathered around them and began to watch and shout:

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

Umaku can hear people's laughs. It was distracting him and echoing through hşs mind which only makes him more dizzy. Kowai punched Umaku and Umaku fell to the ground.

At that moment the teacher came and separated the two, Umaku noticed that people were looking at him and whispering, and began to cry:

"It wasn't my fault! She started it, you hear me, she did it!"

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As these voices echoed inside Umaku's head, Umaku tried to smile.

"Hitori, I'll tell you this when we're closer, okay? We're about to come to my house anyway. So uhm, forget it."

Hitori nodded, but was curious. Why did Umaku always hesitate when talking abouthis past? Was something bothering him? He wanted to know that. So he wrote in his notebook:

"Okay, but tell me later okay? We're friends after all, and if you have a problem we can talk. I mean i can write."

Umaku tried to smile again:

"O-ok Hitori. Thank you."

Umaku patted Hitori's head:

"You are a really good person, Hitori. Unlike the many others-"

Hitori was smiling and a bit embarrassed.