How We Met Again

Chapter 17: The Eye of the Storm

When I returned to my classroom, the whole room went dead silent as I entered. All of the various cliques were staring at me from the various parts of the room, each with their own varying intents. It felt vaguely like how I imagined a zoo animal must feel. I raised an eyebrow at them, attempting to give my best impression of an extremely unimpressed teacher, and after a few moments the quintessential hubbub of a classroom prior to class resumed in full force. I could definitely hear my name frequently muttered as I made my way to my desk, a fact which irritated me to no small degree.

As I sat down in my chair, I happened to catch out of the corner of my eye that Itsuki was staring at me. I turned to look at her, and she mouthed, 'explain?' to me. I mouthed back 'later', and she pouted in return. Our silent conversation was interrupted by the entrance of the teacher, and the resumption of lessons.

In the second half of the day, we had physical education, and so we all went to get changed. On the way to the gymnasium, however, Itsuki caught hold of me (metaphorically), and a walking interrogation began.

"So," she said, trotting beside me to keep up with my quick pace. "What happened?"

"I simply got into a bit of a verbal spat with an ill-mannered whelp," I said, attempting to suppress the memory. Now that I had calmed down, I was a little embarrassed by it, though I still stood by everything I had said.

"Uesugi-kun, what the heck does that even mean?"

I sighed, pulling up short. Itsuki kept walking for a moment, and then cut back to stand next to me. "Your tutor is not a very nice person."

"I know that already. I meant the details as to what you were arguing about."

"...Oh. So you already knew that I was arguing with Second Place-san."

"Uesugi-kun, at this point, probably fifty percent of the school is aware of it," Itsuki said. "By tomorrow, it will certainly be ninety percent. The thing that is unclear to me is the details, and also why."

"I... see."

"What happened?"

"Well," I began, "I was just having lunch on my own, minding my own business and studying, when your tutor decided to come sit at my table. He then proceeded to be somewhat of an ass, and very obviously try to pick a fight. I wasn't having any of it, but eventually he succeeded in his goal of pissing me off... and things escalated from there."

I resumed walking, and a moment later Itsuki accelerated to keep at my side.

She sighed. "I don't know what he was thinking."

"Bold of you," I said, a slight smirk on my face, "to assume that he was doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Thinking."

Itsuki laughed. Then, as we approached the changing rooms, she slowed down, presumably to diverge from my path and go to the girls' locker room.

"By the way, Uesugi-kun," she said as she began to depart, "You should probably be aware -- you know how our classmates have this dumb idea that we are going out?"

"Indeed -- unfortunately I've been frequently acquainted with their stupidity, much to my chagrin."

"Anyways," Itsuki said, "they have decided amongst themselves that the reason for your fight was a quarrel between love rivals, and that you were fighting over me. I thought you ought to be aware in case some of them ask asinine questions."

"Don't worry, all of their questions are asinine. I'm used to it," I said.

"Good."

"Also, have no fear -- we weren't fighting over you," I said.