Stepping Beyond the Pixels: Loves Intricate Game

Chapter Fourteen: Playing Match-Maker

Like the day before, your father dropped you off at school early the next morning. And like the day before, you met Akihiko at the entrance of the school.

"Good morning, Fukumoto-kun," you politely say, bowing your head in greeting.

"Good morning to you as well, L/n-san. I see you're here early again, will this be a common occurrence?" Akihiko asked with a slight tilt of his head.

"Yup, I'll be here at this time for the foreseeable future, or until my Mom lets up, so I guess you'll just have to get used to seeing me," you spoke with a humorous tone as the two of you turned to continue walking onto the school grounds.

"Yes, it seems so. Not that it's a problem, you're a more competent company than most of our other classmates," Akihiko said, adjusting his glasses. "Ah, speaking of which, are you not going to walk around like yesterday?" he asked with a noticeable curious gleam in his eyes as he glanced over at you.

"I don't think I have to anymore, and it's all thanks to you, Fukumoto-kun," you said with a coy smile as you looked over at him, gratitude clearly written all over your face.

"M-Me? I don't think I did much..." he exclaimed, taken aback slightly. He clearly wasn't expecting you to thank him for his minor action, a part of him didn't even expect you to know it was him who got the class to leave you alone.

While his humble display was endearing in its own right, you weren't going to let his actions go unappreciated. "Oh, but you did! I heard from Yuki-chan that you were the one to get our classmates to leave me alone, and I'm actually very grateful for that," you said in earnest.

Akihiko didn't reply right away, momentarily surprised by your enthusiastic expression of gratitude, but quickly composed himself saying, "Really, it's no big deal, I was just doing my duty as the class president, a-and besides they were being very disruptive and rude with their shameless display; I couldn't just let it go unreprimanded."

You couldn't help but chuckle at his reaction. "Whatever you say, Fukumoto-kun, just know that I'm very thankful, regardless of your intentions," you beamed at him, clasping your hands behind your back.

You actually looked rather cute, a thought that made Akihiko quickly look away from you and continued on with a slightly brisker pace.

Realizing that you were now being out paced, you made the effort to speed up as well. 'Hm? What's up with him?' you wondered to yourself, taking notice of his red tipped ears. 'Is he embarrassed?'

Before you could dwell on it anymore, the sound of someone shouting your name caught your attention.

"Y/n-chaan!"

'Hm? Is someone calling me?' you think, stopping in your tracks with Akihiko following suit.

"Y/n-chaan!"

Turning around, you spot Yuki running over to the two of you, dragging Akui along with her. "Yuki-chan?" you question as she comes to a stop in front of you, panting to catch her breath. "You're actually up early?"

She was still doubled over with her hands on her knees, but she managed to catch her breath enough to say, "I'm–huff– I'm going to ignore how–huff– surprised you sound, whew," she stood to her full height, "but to answer your question I was too excited about helping your friend that I could hardly sleep a wink and decided I would put in the effort to wake up early–"

"That's a lie, she had me wake her up this morning," Akui interjected.

"Hush, Minato-kun. Anyways, I figured we might as well head to school earlier than usual," she finished proudly.