Sulking Izumi

Izumi sat on the chair, crossing her arms, pouting, and staring forward, seemingly ignoring someone.

Aoi, who sat near the window, saw that the distance between his chair and Izumi was a bit too far, even seeing Izumi's chair sticking to the other empty chair belonging to one of her friends.

Aoi felt helpless, not knowing how to comfort Izumi's fury.

Nevertheless, he must initiate an interaction first.

He moved his chair a bit closer to Izumi, and the latter did not react, causing Aoi to feel slightly relaxed.

However, he still had to be on guard, or lest he would escalate Izumi's exasperation. 

When he felt the distance was enough, not so close but not too far, he slightly leaned his body forward to her and whispered in her ear.

"I'm really sorry."

Aoi went quiet afterward. However, he leaned back in his chair but still continued to stare at Izumi until he saw some slight reaction from her.

Naturally, her cheeks reddened, being stared at intensely by Aoi, the love of her life at that, but knowing how to distract her palpitating heart and the awkwardness, she snorted.

"You have not replied to me since last night."

Aoi scratched his cheeks, seriously embarrassed by his seemingly cold actions towards her. 

He coughed awkwardly and asked, "Have you not seen my message just now? I explained everything. I will try so I won't let it happen again."

Izumi was stunned and faced the back of her head to Aoi. She could not let him see her crimson face, knowing she actually muted her notification in case Aoi replied just so she could have her revenge.

Of course, she had checked her phone earlier – just that she didn't have the chance since she came across one of her friends, chatted with her, even ranting with her about Aoi's lack of replies, until they had to part ways since her friend was on the other side of the classroom.

Now that Aoi raised it up, she could just not check it after he said it, right? Hence, she was itching to pull her phone out of her pocket but held herself back due to the embarrassment.

She was only waiting for Aoi to convince her to check her phone. By then, she had now an excuse to check her phone.

She did not want him to indirectly know she did not bother checking his message, even though she only did not have the chance to do so…

Perhaps if she did not turn off her notification, she might have been notified and read it.

"Go on." 

As if sensing her thoughts, Aoi persuaded her to check her phone.

Hence, without hesitation, she "reluctantly" pulled out her phone and read all the messages. 

Aoi sighed in relief, letting her read the messages, estimating it would take her fifteen minutes at most to completely absorb the content.

Lost for what to do, he turned to the window and admired the view of the blue sky and the field.

Staring at the green field, seeing the goalpost from far away, he could not help but itching to play a game.

Unknowingly, as his mind was drifting to the dimension where he was playing the game yesterday, he was totally immersed in his own thoughts until fifteen minutes passed.

Izumi suddenly asked out of the blue, "So, you are ignoring me now? Thinking I have already forgiven you?"

Aoi was startled, hastily facing Izumi, giving away a slight of his reaction on his face, and said, "Of course not. I just want to let you know."

Izumi pouted and looked away. 

"Okay," she said.

Aoi was so helpless that he was lost for words.

As he was contemplating how to proceed with the conversation with an aim to comfort Izumi's anger, the latter suddenly asked, giving him a bombastic side eye, "And what do you mean by trying? Why not promise me?"

Aoi was stunned, recalling he was telling her he would try to prevent performing the mistakes again, not a promise.

Suddenly, he realized why it was the case, so he did not hesitate to reply, "I hate how promises are fragile and could easily be broken. I promised a thousand times before, and I have always broken it. Eventually, I hate making promises.

But you know, I have always tried to keep it… It's just that unforeseen circumstances always forced me to do so.

I just want to let you know that I will try my best, and doing so assures me that I will not disappoint you… and myself."

Such profound words awestruck Izumi. She could not help but look at her boyfriend in a different light.

'I mean, he is always intelligent… Just that, I'm surprised about his wisdom. It feels like… he really had experienced it.'

Her heart aches, speculating how many times has Aoi broken a promise he committed, understanding it was not his fault as it hurt him, too.

She understood what he was trying to say, as she experienced making promises, too, until she had to break them for a reason… even though she did not want to, either.

Empathizing with Aoi, she suddenly had the urge to hug him, but then…

She realized she was still angry at him. She was stubborn in displaying her discontent due to what she thought was mistreatment – she wanted Aoi to realize that.

Hopefully, Aoi sincerely understood her, and such a thing would not happen again.

"Alright. I believe in you," said Izumi as she continued to stare forward.

Aoi smiled genuinely and replied in a sincere tone, "Thank you."

At the same time, they realized, due to their conflict, they neglected their surroundings, that their classmate had finally arrived.

Izumi had to reposition her chair, and Aoi did the same.

Usually, there was distance between their chairs, but now that they were a couple…

Starting yesterday, even their chairs were now clinging to each other.

It naturally pulled the attention of their classmates, including the teacher, who had just arrived at the door, and what the first thing she saw...