𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 | 𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙖

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟯: 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆

[白布 賢二郎] Kenjirō Shirabu

Chiya and I hung out for the entire time, and after school, we went to a coffee place to talk more.

"Are you interested in any of the clubs?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"Aw, that sucks."

I raised my eyebrows while she just smiled. Smiled? Where was that big grin or smirk? Where?

"I guess you're asking about why I said that...well, there's a club, the photography one, and my friend that's dating him is the leader. We don't have enough people and..."

Yikes.

"I could join," and I don't know why I said that. I don't even know why I agreed to come here in the first place.

Her eyes widened, but she just sighed. "I don't want to force you. It was looking pretty bad from the outset, anyways."

"It's okay. I...don't mind taking photos."

"You did before?"

"Yeah..."

"Any right now?"

I shook my head and stood up from my chair to throw out a tissue paper.

When I returned, she had a translucent case out. I could make out the colours of what was inside. It was blue, black, pink, orange, and some complementary grey.

"What's that?"

"Photo case. Some of the photos I took."

She pushed the case to me, and I opened it. I gasped. This is...

"Amazing."

She laughed, but it was sort of sad, and my heart sank at the thought of what would be said to follow the non-joyful laugh.

"I guess."

I suddenly had a feeling. Chiya wasn't telling me everything. "What's wrong?"

Chiya pursed her lips. "Well, some people in the club already know it, so I suppose you can know."

At that time, the waiter came up and took the bill.

"My friend, Yui, the girl dating Taku..." She breathed in and squinted her eyes before continuing. "It's ending because of Taku."

What?

"The relationship Yui has with Taku, well, it seems healthy. To Yui, and a bunch of other people who don't know about Taku that much. Um, anyways, Taku was talking with Yui. He said that she should kick some people out because they had tried to spread rumours. Yui completely fell for that. I...I watched her talk to some of our closest friends. My closest friends. And they left with confusion on their face and hurt.

I nodded.

"The reason? Taku and a friend of mine got into a verbal fight because he was rude to my other friend. Taku said that he'd have his way, and my friend said he wouldn't because he has nothing against her. Well, Taku went up and pinpointed some. The friend of mine he talked with, and the one he was rude to."

I was sipping my coffee with blank thoughts. "Well, you told Yui that Taku was wrong, right?"

Chiya's face immediately clouded with disgust. "Yeah. She said that Taku was always truthful."

"You had a fight?"

"Yeah. In front of the whole club. I quit because some of the people sided with Yui because it was 'her boyfriend' and 'lovers don't lie.'"

My face burned with anger. I wonder if I'd be able to keep my cool during that situation.

"Yeah. So that happened."

"When did this happen? Because you seemed like you were on pretty good terms when we talked earlier in the cafeteria about her relationship with Taku."

"Recently. Maybe a few days. I might've accidentally made it look like we were on good terms."

She kept on talking, and I listened.

"The girls talking trash on Yui's side made me mad because they were dating someone and were never heartbroken or shit. They didn't understand the concept of lies in a relationship."

"Only girls?"

"Boys quit ages ago. We had a few fights."

I nodded. "Were you heartbroken?"

She didn't seem surprised or offended at the sudden question. She cracked a smile. "I would hardly call it that."

I mumbled an "okay."

"I'm asexual now."

So it was that bad?

Chiya seemed to read my thoughts. "It was pretty sad to most, I think. People saw it happen. Taku and I, we...had a relationship. He confessed to me, and even though I had no feelings beforehand, I accepted because maybe love at first sight? Dunno. Three minutes later, I caught him kissing Yui."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Yui wasn't aware of my relationship yet, because it was only three minutes. I didn't cry or anything. I was maybe a tad bit surprised, probably mad. But it didn't hurt me."

"Yui," I began, "isn't aware of this?"

"No."

I frowned. "Why not?"

She sighed and leaned forward, her arms stretching to the other side of the table with her chin on it as well. "Because she gets defensive when we talk about Taku. I saw her. Me showing her that my friend was perfectly innocent, her lashing out in front of the whole damn club."

I nodded and stood up. "We should get going."

"Yeah. Okay."

When we were walking back, she was about to say something, went like "S-"

But I was about to say something too. "Don't be sorry for 'rambling' or something. I needed an overview of some people."

I couldn't see her, but I could sense her smiling and leaning her head back.