Date Her Instead Vol. 7 (Final Volume)

Chapter Eighteen: Come With Me

The following Monday at school, the atmosphere between a certain group of friends had become rather... strange, to say the least. Hinami, sitting in the middle of the classroom, looked around before the first bell rang. She stared at each grouping she knew personally, and wondered just what had happened.

The first two were of course the two standing right in front of her. Haruna and Kanako were talking about something, but Hinami wasn't really paying much attention to the conversation. Rather, she was observing the mood between them and the seemingly changed aura around each of them. It was something she had noticed a few days ago, but now it seemed even more prevalent when put next to the other happenings in the room.

To put it simply, Hinami felt like Haruna and Kanako felt much more mature than they had been before. The way they spoke to each other seemed more fluid and calm, similar to a long-term couple. Perhaps that made sense, considering they had known each other for quite some time before dating, but in terms of being an actual couple, not much time had passed. It left Hinami wondering what had happened to cause such a change.

The next were Chiyo and Michi. The gal was sitting on top of Michi's desk, talking happily with her. As for Michi, she had a look of annoyance on her face, though Hinami felt like she didn't actually seem all that bothered. She already knew the two of them were close, but she began to guess at just what was the nature of their relationship now.

Then there was the most vague of them all. Jasmine and Itsuki were gathered around Mayu's desk, and the two standing appeared to be saying something to Mayu. With Mayu being Mayu, she didn't express much that would give away the nature of the conversation, but it did seem like she kept getting caught off-guard when Jasmine would say certain things to her. When it came to those three girls, Hinami wasn't really sure what to think.

Lastly, there was one girl who was alone. She was the social pariah of the class, and without any prior knowledge, one might feel bad for her when seeing her sit all by her lonesome. However, this was not a girl to be pitied. This was a girl who continuously wreaked havoc in pursuit of what she desired, and she cared little for others who had nothing to do with that pursuit. Honestly, the girl scared Hinami.

That girl was Katsumi, a girl who, surprisingly, had been relatively quiet all morning. In fact, that seemed to be happening more often recently. Instead of going to bother Kanako and causing a scene, she simply waited silently at her desk, only approaching Kanako now and then. Hinami hoped this meant that she was going to eventually drop her pursuit of a taken girl, but when she recalled her slip-up, she shivered in fear for the consequences.

Hinami had made the crucial mistake of informing Katsumi of Haruna's injury. While Hinami wasn't sure if Katsumi would go so far as to physically hurt someone, just knowing that Katsumi had that information was enough to make her worry. And worse yet, there was something coming up that would really show just how desperate Katsumi had become.

*****

At lunch, a group of seven girls gathered around, sitting in a circle on the roof. It was a rare sight to see all seven of them together like this, but it was necessary, as Jasmine and Itsuki had a rather important announcement to make.

"So, uh," Jasmine began. "I kinda... moved." "Huh? Moved?" Chiyo said. Jasmine nodded. "Yeah. I'm uh... gonna like, be living at Itsuki-chan's place for a bit." Hearing that, the four of the five girls remaining went wide-eyed.

"Y-You're... living with Itsuki-chan?" Kanako asked. "That's right!" Itsuki said enthusiastically. "I got a nee-chan!" "Don't call me that," Jasmine said sternly, roughly poking Itsuki in the cheek with her chopsticks. "Why're you living with her?" Haruna asked, voicing the most obvious question.