Stealing Spree

“Let’s see... Aside from asking you to continue loving me, I can’t think of anything else.”

No matter how I think about it, putting aside the need to hide our relationship, there’s truly nothing.

Although some of my girls have some kind of issues on their end, most of them have a normal day-to-day life.

If dividing my time to spend with them is a problem then there’s no solution for that. Our hands are tied.

We’re not in an anime or manga that after a conflict gets resolved and a few moments of peaceful time soon follow, a new conflict would then arise in the next episode or chapter.

Except for our abnormal relationship, we’re living in a normal society. It’s totally normal and it’s up to us how to add a little spice to that kind of normalcy.

In our case, this kind of relationship was probably considered a spice. Nonetheless,

“As I thought. Then that’s what I’m gonna do, Ruki. Please bear with me if sometimes, I trick you into being with me like this. My scheming nature will also show once in a while.”

Hina leaned in for another kiss once more before surrendering herself inside my embrace.

“What kind of scheme will that be, I wonder?”

“The kind where I create a situation like this for us.”

“If that’s the case, I will welcome that.”

“I’m expecting you to do so.”

Hina’s blushing face relaxed as a smile bloomed on her lips. Following that, the girl found it hard to restrain herself anymore as she lifted her butt from her chair and settled on my lap.

In the next few minutes before the bell rang, Hina and I remained in the clubroom, just being a little intimate with each other.

She only brought up Nami or Saki once. That’s probably because she wanted our time to only be about us. If Saki had the inferiority complex when it comes to them, Hina suffered from how she compared herself to Nami when it comes to Ogawa’s eyes. Now that issue was resolved when they both jumped ship to mine, she got a new page to fill and this time, she most likely decided to prevent herself from doing the same.

My confession of my love for her surely influenced it. This time, she’s not simply labeled as a ‘childhood friend’. She’s my girlfriend, no matter how complicated it is.

Surprisingly, even though we returned together in the classroom, no one raised an eyebrow. If I had to give a guess, it’s probably because there’s no definite link between Hina and me. Furthermore, her former affection towards her childhood friend wasn’t a secret. They still think that she’s into Ogawa.

That’s also the case for Nami. However, with the frequency of Nami being seen near me, suspicion had begun to take root in their minds.

Well, I’m not pertaining to all of our classmates, only those who love gossip. Like any other class, there were those who couldn’t care less about the happenings inside.

And riding on that kind of information, I thought of a rather convenient possibility – as long as I can be seen with different girls, they’d eventually end up crossing out the chance that we’re in a relationship. In exchange for that, I will be branded as a guy with many ‘girl’ friends.

Or rather, I will be branded as the type of guy who’s easier to befriend.

Am I easier to befriend? Definitely not.

In actuality, that was somewhat proven immediately when some other girls began approaching me during the brief break in between classes. However, with my replies somewhat dry given that I’m not really invested in the kind of topic they brought up, most of them also lost interest quickly. Still, their impression of me changed slightly from an aloof guy to an easily approachable guy.

The bottom line is... the hope of returning to being Classmate A has been buried further. If there’s a befitting title to my budding status, it’s probably ‘Friendly Guy A’.

About what Kanzaki blurted out during lunch, it became water under the bridge once I left the room as they immediately changed to another topic – that’s according to what I heard from Aya who filled me in on what I missed.

Nonetheless, because of what happened, Kanzaki couldn’t look at me straight anymore, even when she told me that I’m on ‘Cleaning Duty’ for today – something I skipped before so, she’s reminding me not to forget it and to compensate the previous ones, I will be in Cleaning Duty for three straight days.

As the Class President, it's her duty to remind her classmates about it because more often than not, cases like how I skipped it unknowingly can happen.

In any case, that talk was kinda awkward which made Satsuki comment something along the lines of, ‘Why don’t you look him in his eyes, prez. Are you guilty?’

Instead of answering that, she retreated and that resulted in Satsuki’s expression turning sour.

Seeing the tsundere become annoyed for my sake brought a smile to my lips and that desire to pamper the girl. However, when she noticed me looking at her, she raised her eyebrows and cursed at me, albeit lightly.

By the time the7th period ended, I sent my girls off with my gaze as I waited inside the classroom along with those at the same cleaning duty. And while doing that, I messaged Kana and Ishida-senpai about that talk with Goto Kenji and that I would be late for a bit.

After confirming where it would happen, I focused on my task.

“Onoda-kun, it’s your first time doing the cleaning duty. How many times have you skipped?” One of the girls, someone I only vaguely remembered the name to be Shimura, asked me while handing me a broom.

There are six of us here, three boys and three girls. Unsurprisingly, one of them was Kanzaki who’s already at the board, wiping it clean with the eraser.

The duties were split to who would sweep the floor, wipe the blackboard clean, wipe the desks and throw the accumulated trash outside.

Naturally, with the broom handed to me, I was one of the two who was tasked to sweep the floor.

I scratched my cheeks and acted embarrassed as I honestly answered, “Three times, I think?”

“Huh? How can you skip that much? That’s unfair!” One of the boys exclaimed, his eyes switching to the silent Kanzaki whose back was turned to us.

She flinched slightly upon hearing that. She was about to turn around to answer but I beat her to it.

“It’s not unfair if you think so, do you want to be on duty for three days straight?”

Well, better not to put the blame on her. Those times I skipped were when I was walking my girls to their clubrooms. Furthermore, instead of unknowingly skipping, I probably ignored it because my focus was elsewhere.

“I-is that so?”

“Mhm. It’s my fault for skipping, not hers.”

Being on Cleaning Duty in three straight days isn’t something most students will like. I mean, they have their clubs or if not that, they want to go home early.

With that answer from me, the guy who raised his voice shut his mouth after saying, ‘You’re right’. On the other hand, Shimura broke the ice by pushing my back and saying ‘Stop standing and do your duty, Onoda-kun’ before picking the other broom for herself.

Around 10 minutes later, we’re done with the cleaning. The other four left as soon as they finished their task but Kanzaki and I stayed for a bit when she called out to me.

Even though she hadn’t said anything yet, I could guess what she’s about to say so before it turned even more awkward for the both of us, I beat her to it once more. “I accept your apology.”

“Eh? I haven’t said anything yet!”

“But isn’t that what you’re going to say? Don’t worry about it. I admit I thought of dealing with you about it but after hearing that it didn’t become that big of a deal, I already lost the motivation. Just that... Can you continue keeping what you saw that day a secret?”

“... I don’t understand. Why are you hiding it? Is it because that senior is still with her boyfriend?”

“No. She’s mine now. But, I can ask the same to you, president. Why are you hiding that you’re in a relationship with someone?”

“Eh? I’m not... There’s nothing to hide anymore.”

“Hmm? Care to elaborate?”

“We broke up.” Kanzaki released a sigh and bitterly smiled before gloomily lowering her head.

“Wait, how? You seem to be head over heels to the guy.”

“He got fed up with me.”

Fed up, huh? Isn’t that guy the one being a big coward? He can’t even kiss her and that led to this girl asking someone else for advice.

That was kind of a desperate move on her part. She wanted to satisfy her boyfriend after all. I gave her my advice but in the end, they still couldn’t go through with it, and now… they broke up and the guy was the one who got fed up, huh? What a waste.

Anyway, the mystery of who that guy is will now remain unsolved.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No... Forget I said anything! And I’m sorry for earlier.” Perhaps embarrassed that she had to tell me about the state of her relationship, Kanzaki quickly ran out of the classroom.

Hmm? There’s no point for me running after her and I also don’t have any motivation to do so. That girl can move on, she’s a diligent student, after all.