What It Means To Love

3. Her First Official Date, His First Official Friend

Matsushita's POV:

"You did great! Satou-san!" I heard Karuizawa-san cheer for her friend as she immediately hugged the mentioned girl tightly. Satou, who was smiling from cheek to cheek after seeing her scores, hugged back happily. 

"Thank you, Kei-chaaaan!~" She cheerfully said. With that said, to be honest, I am quite curious if what was happening was quite a coincidence. 

You may be asking, why am I looking at the scoreboard and at the resident loner at the moment, switching gazes between the two? Well if you must know, Satou-san had gotten the highest score average out of our friend group which surprised me to say the least. I know I'm holding back on my academic, but to be topped out by my friend who I was just tutoring at an earlier date, was just unnerving.

As I look at the apathetic boy, I always wondered to myself if he had that much of an effect on her to have her strive so hard. To even take my tutoring seriously...

Im tired Chiaki-chaaaan! Can't I just cram for the midterms?

...

Nah! I can still take it, don't worry about me! We still have an hour to spare!

To be willing to change so fast... But not only that-

"Satou-san... Come to think of it, you look a bit pale there, girl..." Karuizawa-san had gently grabbed upon Satou-san's cheeks and then started to examine her facial features, trying to get a good look at her. The girl in question could only let out a soft yet awkward laugh as she averted her eyes. "W-well, I've been studying way later than I should have, you know!" 

"Eh?! Satou-san? I thought we specifically told you not to cram too much" Finally Shinohara-san was the one who blurted out this fact, equally worried for our friend as we approached her. What shocked the three of us was what Satou-san had said next.

"N-no! I wasn't cramming, I swear! I've actually been studying like this for the past week!"

"Wha?!- Y-you've been preparing for the finals for a week now?!" Karuizawa-san, who also preferred to study at the last minute, was shocked over her friend's sudden change. Everyone in our clique knows, after all, that these two were more in agreement with each other in regards to studying. "Is this why you've been calling off our plans to go shopping?"

"Well" Satou-san then begins playing with her hair, twirling it ever so slightly. "Yes, that's kind of true, Sorry, Kei-chan! I promise to make it up to you, ya hear me?!"

"I-i mean it's not like I don't mind- You could have just told me ya know..." She said, quite more abashed with the sudden confession. All of us in this group know that this was highly unusual for Satou, who loves to go shopping as well- She was, after all, one of the people who had first went down below 10,000 points.

Suddenly Satou-san perked up. She was looking at something... or rather... Someone. I immediately knew who when I saw her cheeks just reddened ever so slightly. "A-ah~ Sorry girls, I have to go for a bit to uh..." She cleared her throat, perhaps to stop herself from stuttering. "...Get some juice! I'll get you girls some!" She croaked out. However, she jumped off her desk and was walking rather briskly towards the rear door, disappearing from sight.

"Uh is it just me, or is Satou-san acting weird lately?" Karuizawa-san started as she frowned, visibly worried. It's no secret that the two were bestfriends. Not only that but, being one of the class leaders who has hold over most of the girls' influence, she has a side where she's more motherly in nature to some of us whenever something concerning happens. She frets over us to the point that she was willing to break her character of being Class D's selfish queen bee just to extend a helping hand to those who need it.