デカセクト

Chapter 2

"Haruno Shouko, please explain why you suddenly disrupted my class."

Shouko kept her head down as she tried to keep herself from smiling. She wanted to tell the professor that he wasn't really teaching at that time but she was already in a lot of trouble so she decided not to.

"I'm really sorry, Professor. It won't happen again, I promise." She looked up and bowed, hoping that he would let this go.

The professor sighed and dismissed her. Shouko instantly ran out of the office, only to bump into Haru who was waiting for her outside.

"Glad to see you still alive." Haru chuckled, finding the situation amusing.

The professor was known as a terror teacher so it was rare that he dismissed a student that quickly. As they walked out of the school grounds, Haru casually swung an arm around her shoulders as he usually does.

"Why are you still waiting for me? You should have left." Shouko told him but Haru just shrugged.

"There's something fishy about him. My suspicion still stands, I think that professor likes you or something. Else, why would he let you off that quickly?" He tilted his head at her.

Shouko laughed and slapped his arm off. It was ridiculous to even come up with such a thing.

"I'm eighteen and he's like 30 or something." Shouko reasoned out.

"He's 29. But you've got to admit he still looks about 24, right?" Haru said. "Isn't that guy you have a crush on also 29? Ah, I can never understand girls."

Shouko thought for a minute and realized it as well. She was crushing on a 29-year-old singer who was also an actor and a model yet she finds her professor of the same age as that person a bit too old for her.

It was strange so she quickly cleared her thoughts and changed the subject. They continued talking until they got to Shouko's place, her grandmother waiting for her outside the door.

"Haru! Wow, you've gotten taller!" Her grandmother exclaimed as she stared at Haru.

"Maybe it's just me or what but you definitely look younger than the last time I saw you, grandma." Haru mused, earning a hearty laugh from Shouko and her grandmother.

"You're such a flatterer! I made dinner, it would be nice if you join us." Grandmother offered but Haru politely declined.

"My mother's waiting for me back home, though next time I'll definitely join you guys." Haru smiled.

"Oh, then bring some side dishes to your mother! Goodness, I haven't seen her in a while." Grandmother hurriedly got back inside to get the food.

"Want to come inside while you wait? I have to change my clothes but I don't want to leave you here outside." Shouko chuckled.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go in." Haru replied.

The two went inside and Shouko immediately went to her room upstairs. Haru has been here a lot before so he already knew where the kitchen was as all the other things. When Shouko finally changed into some comfortable clothes, she went back down and saw Haru watching television in the living room. To him, this was his second home so he was just as comfortable as the ones living there.

"All done dear! Make sure to tell your mother I said hi!" Grandmother happily said as she handed over a bunch of side dishes to Haru who gratefully accepted them with a bow.

"Thank you again, grandma." Haru smiled and walked to the door. "I'll be off now! Don't forget to lock the doors!"

Shouko nodded and locked the doors when he left. Afte that was a long dinner with just the two of them. Her grandmother kept asking her about school and such. Then they ended up talking about when her grandmother had to leave. Of course, she knew she wouldn't stay long but still she didn't expect her to leave so soon.

"When school ends you can visit us, okay?" Grandmother said lovingly.

That night, Shouko barely slept a wink. She was devastated that her grandmother actually planned to leave the day after school started. Though she wanted to see her off, her grandmother forbade her. In their family, education was important and if it wasn't an emergency then they shouldn't skip school.

As soon as she got to school, she could feel a lot of eyes on her. It wasn't that strange since people would usually stare at her from time to time but she could feel there was something different that day.

Seeing Haru made her feel relieved that she finally had someone to talk to. Though he had a lot of friends, specially since he was the captain of the basketball team, he would usually just hung out with Shouko. Unlike him, Shouko didn't even have anyone apart from him. It actually made him feel a bit special.

"Is there something weird on my face? Or maybe my hair is too messy? Is my skirt too short or something? They're all staring at me again! What's their probl-"

"Relax, you look perfect." Haru rolled his eyes and gave her a smile, making her stop fussing over herself.

"Then, why are they looking at me like I'm a pile of garbage in the middle of the road?" She replied, her eyes slightly narrowing as she tried to think of a reason why she was being treated as such.

Haru shrugged, not really knowing what to tell her. He was just as confused as she was. Shouko sighed and just motioned for him to walk with her to class. Still, one or two people would glance at her as they passed buy and whisper to the other ones that weren't looking.

Since there was still a lot of time left until the class starts, Shouko decided to open her Instagram to check if Dori made another post or something. She was shocked to see a lot of notifications waiting to be opened.

Haru was curious why she suddenly froze in her seat so he leaned forward to take a look at her phone. Even though he wasn't an avid fan of dramas and such, he does watch live action adaptations from time to time thanks to Shouko so he had an idea of Dori as well as Nijiro.

"Wow, I don't know if you're just really pretty or lucky." He mused as he stared at her screen.

Shouko blinked twice and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Everything felt surreal. Without thinking, she decided to pinch herself and winced when it actually did hurt her.

"What? Aren't you going to reply?" Haru asked, wondering what was taking her so long to move her fingers.

Shouko shook her head to clear her thoughts and went back to the story that she posted. It was a screenshot of her victory on PUBG. Sure enough, she hadn't mentioned anyone in her story. Then, she went back to her dms and thought about why he saw it when she didn't even mention him and why he was asking her for her ID.