Bite the hand that feeds one || Ayato Aishi/Male Rivals

Chapter 5

———Ayato Aishi

||**I have no idea what the Hair dresser's name is so I gave her a basic Japanese last name, apologies**||

"1... 2... 3..." all the way until 10. Then we switched places. I sat on the grass and reached for the tips of my shoes, Rito pressed his hands against my back, encouraging my bones to stretch past their limits.
"8... 9... 10!" I felt like I could barely feel my legs for a second. I questioned how in the hell he saw me as muscular. Nonetheless, he grabbed my upper arm and helped me up, with one swoop he went from helping me up to bolting on the track. I watched him for a little bit and eventually started my own way, I was jogging much slower though.
  I was half-way through the track when Rito caught up to me, on his second lap, "When we finish this lap let's do some push ups and maybe sit ups!" He put a hand on my shoulder and pushed forward, basically leaving me in the dust. It took me a good minute to catch up to him, by the time I was there, he was here by the track markers. He was stretching his arm, "Ready?" I nodded.
  Rito sat on the grass and laid back. I sat on my knees and pushed down on his shoes, "I'm going for 20!" He told me and I nodded, ready to start.
  "1!"
I watched him rise up and fall, rise up and fall, all the way until 20. Then he stopped and huffed. I laid on my own back, with my hands behind my head and waited for pressure on my shoes. I rose up and fell, rose up and fell, all the way until 20.
We kept at it until 6:30, getting to know each other more and exercising even more. Eventually, it was time to go as night time would soon arrive. Rito helped me up and walked with me to the showers.
  "Anyway, I think the theme for your bake sale is pretty cool! It's been a while since anyone brought that up" Rito entered the boy's washroom with me. "Yeah, there was like 100 ideas in there or something.. I can't remember" We took our shirts off and began to tidy up a bit. I reapplied the deodorant knowing full well I was showering that night and took my shorts off, putting on my school shirt and my school pants. I switched from my tennis shoes to my loafers.

  Rito was busy doing his own thing, so I said my goodbye's and left the school grounds.

  I decided to take a detour home, I hardly go into the little town area by my house. I clenched the straps to my bag and went window shopping. Honestly, I didn't find anything interesting. Maybe a couple mangas.
  However, when I entered the barber shop, I was met with this older woman with a hair dryer in her hand. She went to welcome me, but stopped. She stared for a moment, and squinted.
"Ayato Aishi?" And she gave me a smile, "It's so wonderful to finally meet you! Y'know, only your mother and sister come in here!" The hairdresser walked up to me and grabbed a small bit of my hair. She was a tall woman with black hair (her bangs dyed white) and she had a couple of wrinkles.
"Oh um- Hello", I fiddled with my bag straps. "Oh don't be shy! My name is Mrs. Yumi!" She went behind me and gently pushed me onto a seat, grabbing scissors, "So what tips do you need?" She muttered in my ear.
I tensed, "Tips?" And turned to face her suddenly sinister face, "Yep! Didn't your mother tell you? I used to help her a lot when it came to her Senpai"
I cringed, "Oh... I don't have a... crush..." She caught on to my sugar coating, "Oh? Maybe it's different for men in your family.. Ryoba didn't necessarily specify the details regarding you last time she came here."
"Mom also didn't specify her.. business.. here" Mrs. Yumi playfully laughed at my comment. "When your mother was in high school and she found her Senpai, I sought her out for who she really was" She spoke in a low tone, putting a cape on me. "I told her that I would swap tips with her in exchange for money. Tips like..." She dragged her sentence off, "Match making rivals, black mailing them, befriending them, Seducing them."
She began to wet my hair with a spray bottle and brush it. The cold water made the hairs on my neck stand, "Gosh these are a lot of tangles.. What did you do today?", My heart skipped a beat before answering, "Uhm.. I was with a friend"
"Honey, you can say rival, I've been in your situation many times..", And she began parting my hair. "Mrs. Yumi..?"
"Yes Dear?"
"I don't necessarily think of them as my rivals.."
"Well, they have the same Senpai as you right?"
"Like I said, I don't have a.. Senpai. My sister does though. I'm trying to help her out with her crush."
"Ah, so you don't think the way your mom does.."
"What's that mean?"
"Your mom... Was a... Well. Remember that case she was involved with?"
"Case? You mean where she was accused of murder?"
And she stopped, I looked at her through the mirror, she was giving me that sinister look again.
"I think you'd look good with curtain bangs.. Maybe a shag.. What do you think? Yes or no."
She didn't... Did she? My heart raced, I only knew very little about her case as I wasn't interested, however Ayano on the other hand enjoyed listening to our mother's stories of her highschool... rivals.
"Y-.. Yes ma'am." And she got her scissors and went to work.
"This is on the house by the way.." She spoke slowly as if she was trying not to startle me, "Honestly, Ayato. You should have seen the signs. You ever noticed your father's behavior versus other fathers' behaviors? Although I'm sure you wouldn't pay attention to that stuff."

I went quiet and looked at her through the mirror again, her smile only widened, "Here's what I'll do for you. In exchange for money, I'll write all the tips I can think of for your 'non-genocide ending'. This'll prevent your sister from making the same mistake as your mom, guaranteed."
She snipped and snipped, my black hair falling onto the clean white tiles, "I get you care about your sister. However, be careful, when messing with someone like herself.. it can lead to disastrous things. Things such as jail time, being shunned from society or even death. When I write these tips down, I want you to really be careful."
"Now. You have money with you right?" She worked quick, Mrs. Yumi took off the cape in one motion, I watched my hair flutter down, it was only small portions of my hair anyway. I stood up from the chair and nodded, bowed and thanked her for the haircut. "Good. Now.. give me your maths notebook." I slowly reached into my bag and handed it to her. Mrs. Yumi walked to the back of her register counter and leaned on it. Grabbing a pen and writing down some basic tips, I watched her, "What specifically do you wanna do?"

I've thought about it multiple times, even while Rito was talking to me while working out. "I want to make them forget about.. Ayano's crush."
"So, seduction." And she began writing down at the speed of a rocket. "Seduction? What's that gonna do?"
"Make them forget about Yano's crush." I blinked at the nickname for Ayano. "Oh.."
"So, tell me about her rivals" She put the pencil down in between the pages of my notebook. "She has.." I counted, "Two as of right now. There may be more."

"First step, find out all of her rivals immediately. Continue"
"The first guy that likes her is her childhood friend. He really likes this American band called Destroy Boys and they are touring Japan in a month or two.."
"Get him tickets, be his best friend in this ungodly mistaken world." She put her hand on her hip and leaned on the counter using her elbow. "I also wrote down some befriending tips in there, tell me about the second boy"

"He's the cooking club member. I joined the club not too long ago. Poor guy was really stressed with everything, he tells me that I'm the only one who cares about the cooking club."
"You could always go for manipulation. Manipulate him into thinking he needs you and can't survive without you" That put a gut-wrenching hole in my stomach. "I gave him some of that stress off, told him to start relying on his club members or let them quit."
"Seems this dude is just a push-over. He'll be an easy rival." She laughed softly and returned my notebook.
"This new look might give you a head start in the seduction. Make sure you wear a bit of red, a red bracelet or necklace.." she trailed off, "Studies show that wearing red makes someone sexier. Good luck out there, Yato"
"Thanks for the haircut and the tips." I payed her in tips and we said our goodbyes.

Status: edited

  This chapter was in bad shape. Might go back and edit it again.. 💀