Chapter four. The status of not being alone and persistent inquiries

Anpan-kun hasn't been sick often lately, so he's almost forgotten how it feels. Half the night after his and Ame-san's peculiar date, he couldn't sleep, so when he finally got up the following day, he felt all boiled but did not attach any particular importance to it. His face seemed a little reddish in the mirror, but he chalked it up to a bad dream and pillow marks.

"Brother Hideki, you're finally up!" Well, go ahead, breakfast is ready," his younger sister greeted him.

—This morning,— Anpan-kun croaked, sitting on a chair, and at that moment, he realized something was wrong. At that exact moment, his sister realized it, too.

— Brother Hideki, how and when did you manage to get sick? Eat breakfast, then take off your uniform and lie down.

"I'm fine," Anpan—kun tried to say, and tried to take the food, but the chopsticks were shaking so much in his hand that he couldn't bring them to his mouth, but just took the food with them.

"Brother Hideki, you better get into bed." Like we still had jelly, I'll put it beside your bed. And I'll put the water on. We don't have any ice, though, so I'll give you an antipyretic now; it'll be enough for a while, and then I'll come home from school.

It was not the first time Hideki had caught a cold, and he remained in his sister's care. However, it was just the opposite more often; his sister often caught a cold, especially in spring and autumn. He wrote to Ame-san that he was ill, received a response like "Understood," and lay in bed almost all day, interrupting sleep only to drink, take more antipyretics, and something made by his sister for dinner. What exactly he didn't even make out was some porridge that he didn't taste.

This tactic has borne fruit. And on the second day, he was without fever. And yet he decided to go to school, even though his sister tried to persuade him not to do so. His heart sank a little when he saw the short girl in his school uniform, but it let go with relief and a slight disappointment when he realized, "Not her!". Thus, he entered the classroom with slight concern; according to his calculations, Ame-san should have arrived and would be sitting in her seat or a group of girlfriends. Anpan-kun, almost always unconsciously or involuntarily, looked at the figure sitting closer to the board so he had a good idea about her habits.

Anpan-kun entered his classroom with slight concern, expecting ridicule, challenging questions, and a possible adverse reaction from Ame-san, but emptiness greeted him at the first moment.

The class, as usual, has already split into groups. The leading group, with its center, Gila Terikoto, and her best friends, Rifu Manomoto and Funi Tongari, crowded around Gila's seat in the center row, closer to the board. Several other girls surrounded Gila from time to time; it was there, on the right, closer to her desk in the right row, that Ame-san often stood. Except she wasn't there today.

Maybe she just has yet to come, Anpan-kun thought.

But before he had even taken a couple of steps to his desk, he was noticed stopped on the spot by a question:

— Oh, Anpan-kun! Good morning to you! Didn't you get sick with Ame-san or something? Anpan turned around sharply, trying to figure out who had asked him the question. And he grimaced to himself.

He was asked a question by Kaise Motoyama, a guy from a group close to Gila Terrikoto, hanging around Haire Lin, a rich, handsome man and seemingly some distant relative of their director. And if he didn't really dislike Haire, but at least he didn't touch him personally, then Motoyama rarely could refrain from caustic and unpleasant words for Anpan-kun.

Anpan-kun mentally scolded himself for not paying attention. It was necessary to talk more with Ame-san. Otherwise, he wrote that he was slightly cold and received the answer, "I understand." And that was all. He didn't even think that she was ill herself—she didn't say a word to him about it. But maybe she didn't want to, or she still doesn't trust him enough. Behind all these thoughts, he did not immediately realize that he had been silent for several seconds in response to Motoyama's question, but the atmosphere in the classroom was still not bad. I haven't been there yet.

The attitude towards him in the class has changed a little. If you are constantly on the verge of bullying, it helps to feel the atmosphere; sometimes it makes sense to defuse it and get a few small jabs rather than let the tension drag on and grab it in full.

— Good morning. No, separately. Anpan-kun spoke as calmly as possible, hiding his nervousness. And he exhaled to himself. There was no ridicule.

So, their attitude towards him at school changed; instead of contemptuous arrogance, his classmates mainly showed a little curiosity, slight envy, and restrained interest. Not all of them, as Anpan-kun had assumed, were aware that they and Ame were not dating entirely of their own volition (well, at least not of Ame's own volition). If Ame were in the classroom, answering classmates' questions would be more challenging and embarrassing. But she has not been there since she confessed to him (only those who started her punishment knew about the confession) and since they left school together (as most of their classmates knew). So Anpan-kun had to answer for himself.

If everything were real, it would be difficult for Anpan-kun to answer a barrage of questions. But those who were going to mock him with embarrassing questions miscalculated. It was worth asking the first question, asked with mockery:

"Anpan-—kun, I saw you and Kyoko-chan walking home together. Are you guys dating?"

Gila Terikoto, practically the class star, asked this question, and Anpan-kun was ready to bet a brand-new Jaguar against a rusty adjustable wrench, so who knows who? She was fully aware of what and how. Therefore, not sure whether his voice would tremble, he indicated agreement with a movement of his head.

— Come on, " Rifu Manomoto looked doubtful, standing to Gila's left. As Anpan-kun suspected, it was fake, but she played well; her voice sounded natural.

Anpan-kun shivered, but it was useless to deny everything, and a confrontation with Gila's girlfriends would have given him little, so he just confirmed it.

— Yes, it is. We're dating.

— And which of you confessed? Gyaru Fini Tongari, standing to Gila's right, did not lag, wanting to make an extra noise out of nothing. — I wonder who had the guts?

Considering that Anpan-kun strongly suspected that all three were more than aware and perhaps even present at the confession scene, the question was asked here not to get information but to create the right atmosphere and to unbalance him, and in what other way to have fun. Then, you can also publicly interview Ame-san. And compare the results. Also publicly. Another reason to have fun.

Anpan-kun had options for exactly how to answer. Anpan-kun could calmly say that Ame confessed and accepted the confession — this put him in a reasonably favorable light but put Ame in a slightly uncomfortable position. He could lie that he confessed himself, which again showed him in a pretty good light. Ame Kyoko confessed his love even in their class, and the fact that he received a positive response would raise him in the eyes of others, but Anpan-kun considered this wrong. The correct answer, in his opinion, was another one.

— This is our business with Ame-san. He stated calmly but firmly. It wasn't lovely, and I could still return to him, but he did not want to prolong the conversation or be overly polite. Such an answer should, on the one hand, tease the geese but, on the other hand, not give them a new weapon for bullying. Despite her ugly game, some feelings for Ama still lingered in his heart, and he did not want to put her even in a slightly humiliating position.

Gila frowned. Like her comical counterparts, her friends also got a little more challenging. This option should have been included in her answers. But in general, her plan went wrong, starting with Anpan-kun's initial response. However, she can withdraw for now. She doesn't seem to have anything to do with it anyway.

"Well, if that's what you think, then fine," she drawled threateningly.

The lioness and her friends did their job; it was time for the jackals, who quickly appeared. A flock of Gila's hangers-on, some from other classes, talking as if to each other, giggling, began discussing the latest events.

— Well, of course, hee-hee…

— Well, Anpan-kun, hee-hee…

"Is he so... manly?" Well, at least a big one, hee-hee.

— What are you saying? Have you seen it? And who saw it? Hee-hee.

— Wow! Hee-hee.

This giggling hit your nerves like a hammer hitting your kneecap: you seem to know that you don't need to react, that it's not even a fact that they're laughing at you, and in general, it has something to do with you, but you can't suppress the tremor from every "hee-hee" that sounded in the air. Despite this, Kazumi Hideki was holding on, albeit with the last of his strength.

However, Anpan-kun knew from his experience that if he tried to answer several times, the intensity would decrease, even at the cost of what he would grab. But the fact that he stopped succumbing to provocations helps him more than such a noticeable reaction. The giggling will become quieter as if it's not about him. Even if justified, a sharp reaction is not what he needs in this situation.

At the end of elementary school, his intemperance cost him visits to the principal and long lectures from his father; the evidence that he was provoked disappeared like foam on the water. All evidence of bullying was dissolved, and the same ones that remained were brushed off, arguing that he "reacts too sharply to harmless jokes," "you can't be like that," and "you need to learn how to find an approach to classmates."

Anpan-kun quickly concluded that the proverb "Silence is a flower" was not lying. And I learned to keep my face and not react, no matter how mean and offensive the actions of others may be. Only his little sister and Mato-san believed him. More precisely, his sister never stopped believing in him, and Mato-san was the first adult she met who did not brush off and say that "he worries too much and it's all nonsense."

At that time of the first systematic ridicule and occasional bullying, he concluded that he needed sympathy and participation like a cat needs money. Bullying is weakened if they are not reacted to but systematically photographed, and, after a while, threatened to forward all these testimonies to teachers. The ridicule does not stop, but you can endure it.

Anpan-kun finally reached his seat and discreetly looked around the classroom. The same two large groups of Gila and Khaire, with an extensive entourage of female and male jackals around. Somewhere among them, not far and not close to the center of the groups, there was even their headman, Yamagawa, who seemed to have independent authority and not use the reflected light of Gila. The local otaku gamer nerds were hanging out in the back in the row closest to the door. The latter were used as walking encyclopedias and were not particularly touched. In the same row and his row, a row by the window, several more singles were sleeping, who were reading, who even opened some textbooks, pretending to read.

After the initial attack by Gili and her minions and the secondary giggling, it wasn't long before the lesson began, and Anpan-kun breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't bother him much in class, but it started at recess:

— Anpan-kun, tell me, how did you start dating like that?

— What have you already done? Have you started kissing? Or were they holding hands?

— Have you been on a date yet?

You could relax and start considering yourself famous, but Anpan-kun knew all the tendencies to gossip and curiosity, and you have to take this interest at face value. It was not an interest in him but in the news. But anyway, many people were looking at him with interest. Some of these views were neutral, neither positive nor negative. Some of them were even slightly friendly, but there were many others.

Anpan-kun gathered a lot of unfriendly looks from those who liked Ame, which did not surprise him at all. Very few of those who were glaring at him now would even dare to talk to her and admit it — in their class, it was only Haire Rin, albeit a well-off but seemingly arrogant classmate, a shirt guy and the soul of any company, who Anpan-kun himself disliked, perhaps out of envy. Or it is possible that he imagined a falseness in his behavior and a hidden sense of superiority in his eyes. But many people had their eyes on her (like Anpan-kun himself), and they all looked at Anpan-kun somewhat maliciously as someone who decided to confess and who was lucky. The girls, at least Gila's inner circle, were aware of the actual state of things. Haire was also clearly aware of the situation, in whose eyes Anpan-kun seemed to see an apparent mockery when Anpan-kun was asked questions about how it happened.

These somewhat nerve-wracking questions, giggles, and whispers continued almost all day. Still, Anpan-Kun was unable to get a visible reaction, such as nervousness or irritation, in the end. Anpan held on, remembering such necessary and somewhat helpful advice.

"Remember, Kazumi-kun, you can punch guys in the face, and it will solve almost all possible problems. To endure punches and punches and ignore the fact that you are being beaten is not an option at all; it will only get worse. It is necessary to answer. Preferably right away. You may have to grab and talk to the director several times. There is a non—zero chance of getting a reputation as a bully, but this is not the worst option in your case. In a confrontation with guys, violence is quite a way out. Even if you grab it off repeatedly but resist enough, sooner or later, they will leave you alone and decide that the wind is blowing and the mountains are not moving. But with the female sex, this will no longer work; a woman will want to go through a rock. You know very well that words hurt more than punches. They will immediately start hitting it there when they find a sore spot. Here, the only option is to ignore it. Or scoff at the effort to hurt you. But it isn't easy; it requires practice and an extremely high level of ability to conduct a discussion and feel the atmosphere. I'm sorry, Kazumi-kun, but this is not yours. Therefore, ignoring is the only way available to you. Well, or take lessons in clowning or acting. Don't you want to? Well, that's what I mean. Then ignore it."

***

The penultimate was a physical education lesson conducted by Kenta-sensei, who exhausted almost the entire class. However, Anpan-kun himself, as soon as he recovered from his illness, was more lenient. Light sport cleared the blood and cleared the head a little, and Anpan-kun was finally able to think more or less soberly.

When the lessons finally ended, and Anpan-kun hesitated, not knowing whether to go to Ame-san or how to find out her address at all, his doubts were resolved most simply: their homeroom teacher, Mizuri-sensei, asked him to come into the teacher's room.

—Kazumi-san,— she said, "as I understand it, you live near Ame-san.

Anpan-kun nodded:

— Yes, Mizuri-sensei.

— Can you check on her? And I have to take some study materials to her; she's missed almost a whole week already.

— Yes, Mizuri-sensei.

— And you — the tired woman, how old was she? Anpan-kun did not know, but she looked over thirty and less than forty. She finally looked up at him — is everything all right, Kazumi-san?

Anpan-kun just chuckled to himself. When teachers were even interested in what was wrong with him, no, he admitted that teachers on the planet cared about what was happening to their students. It's just that he has not personally met such people. At least some teachers cared enough to step in and try to solve the problem. Therefore, his answer was trivial.

"It's all right, Mizuri-sensei. I'll tell you everything, Mizuri-sensei.

—Whatever you want, Kazumi-san.

The teacher's answer did not disappoint him because he did not expect anything else. At least she's being polite, and thanks for that. That's alright.