False Reality

Rumour Has It

There's a gentle poke of your shoulder as you fold over your table, having a crisis about the laws written down in front of you.
You had completely forgotten about this homework, and we're trying to do it in a hurry before it was due, tucking yourself away in the canteen so you wouldn't get distracted.

"Hakuchō?" A voice asks from behind you.

You straighten up with a sigh, turning your head to look at the owner of the voice.
Mina looks at you with a small smile on her full lips, a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"Hi." She drawls, sitting next to you.

You give her a wary look.
You weren't exactly close with Mina, not close enough for her to come and sit with you, especially alone, at lunch time.
She leans her face in her hand, still smiling at you.

"I heard a rumor about you." She says, her voice too happy for what she's saying.

You continue staring at her, waiting for her to spit it out.

"Apparently you were kissing a third year after class the other night." She giggles, leaning her face to the side a little more and looking you up and down. "That's not true though, right?"

You scan her face in return. How did she even find out about that?
Tentatively, you open a blank page on your writing tablet, asking who told her that.

"Kaminari." She says with a small shrug. "Shinsou said he saw it happen. Apparently he's real cut up about it."

She clicks her tongue slightly, looking over at her usual gang of friends who are all messing around on a table a little ways away from you.

"So it's true, then?" She asks, rolling her eyes back to you.

You swallow uncomfortably. You can't really lie and say no, because then that would be accusing Shinsou of being a liar, and you didn't want to do anything that would make him look bad.
You also didn't want to add to the upset he was feeling if Mina immediately went back and relayed your words back to him.

"Wow." She giggles, your silence apparently an answer enough for her. "Who'd have thought Hakuchō had game."

You frown at her, but she pays no mind to it, her antennae twitching as she leans forward.

"Maybe next time think about Shinsou's feelings?" She asks, giving you a sweet smile before standing and leaving you alone with your homework once again.

Your eyes follow her as she almost skips back to her seat and appears to just go back to normal with the others. You stare for a few moments, but return back to looking back down at your worksheets, her words bouncing around your head.
Obviously if you knew Shinsou could somehow have seen what happened, you wouldn't have allowed it to happen, you didn't want to upset him.

He hadn't mentioned anything about it when you had seen him, either, so he can't have been that hurt about it.
You sigh once more, leaning your face into your hand with your lips tugging down. You would just have to bring it up with him later on the way to training, or maybe after.
Great.

You find it hard to focus, your guilt nibbling away at you while you try to keep your brain trained on the task at hand, but it's useless. And you end up texting Rumi to try and get some advice, giving up on Ama after she betrayed your trust last time you wanted to ask her about something.

You: Hi, are you busy?

You stare at your phone, waiting for a reply and tapping your pen against the desk impatiently.
You hold your breath when you see the text bubble pop up and indicate that she was replying.
Your hope is squashed again though when you read her reply.