On the Other Side [Len x Oliver Fanfiction]

Chapter 3 - Magic Charm of Rejection

~Oliver's POV~

"Ugh, I can't believe SeeU asked you out and not me...." Uni shook her head slightly, sighing heavily.

"I-I'm sorry, Uni, I don't really know what to do.... It's not like I accepted or anything, so...." I trailed off, biting at my lip. Yesterday, SeeU had asked me out, and I have yet to reply. It's only been a day, but I'm already breaking down over how to reject her.

Of course I like her, but only as a friend! I don't want to hurt her feelings either, or ruin the friendship we already have.... Ugh, this is all so hard! How do people deal with all this?!

Okay, maybe asking Piko for advice would help.... No, he'd probably just give me bad advice or maybe even something worse.... Ugh, why did this have to happen to me...? I'm too stressed!

I clenched my hair in my hands, shaking my head back and forth, trying to clear my thoughts. It didn't help much. If anything, all it did was give me a headache.

"Ugh, I can't take it anymore.... All of this is just causing me to stress out, and I don't like it! I'm going to find Luka and Miku...." I huffed, standing up and walking off to find the two, leaving Uni sitting alone, looking confused.

I walked around the entire school, searching for my two upperclassmen. I had to search for a while before I actually found them in the library. Apparently they were working on a project together.

"Ah, Oliver!" Miku called to me quietly. She didn't want to get in trouble with the librarian.

"Hi!" I called back in a whisper. I walked over to them and sat down. "I have a question.... Could you two spare some times...?" I looked up at them expectantly.

Luka lit up. "Of course!"

"The Wonderful Romance Geniuses always provide!" Miku chimed in, raising a hand. Luckily, there wasn't a librarian nearby to scold her.

I almost felt hurt by how she knew what I was talking about. It would've probably felt like a spear piercing my stomach or something like that. A bit too readable, maybe? Probably....

"How did you...?" I started, but I stopped in the middle of my sentence, hoping they would understand. It seemed that I was right.

Miku grinned. "It's a bit obvious."

Yep. There's the spear.

"Oh...." I looked down, blushing lightly out of embarrassment. "Well, anyway, I wanted to ask you: SeeU asked me out, and I don't like her like that.... How do I say no without ruining our friendship...?"

Luka placed a finger to her cheek. "Try just being the nice Oliver that you are. She'll probably understand. But just in case, you should probably get her some sort of friendship gift to console her anyway."

I nodded slowly, a bit confused, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Oh, and also, definitely give her chocolate! Girls love chocolate!" Miku nodded confidently, but was stopped when Luka gave her a smack upside the head.

Luka smiled, but the aura she gave off was one of irritation. "That's just you, Miku," she said calmly. Then, she turned back to me. "Just do what I said and you'll be fine."

I nodded and quickly got up and left before I would become part of their little quarrel.

I had classes the rest of the day, but when they were finally over, I headed into town to go buy some things for SeeU just in case she was still really hurt after my rejection. Honestly, I felt really bad for her. I'm just not the right guy....

"Welcome!" The employee who was running the store I walked into gave me a cheerful smile as he greeted me. His dark blue eyes gave me a strange nostalgic feeling, along with the familiar blond hair pulled up into a ponytail, but I just ignored it.

"Thank you," I replied just as cheerfully as he did and started to look around. There were a lot of cute small toys and other charms that a girl would like, and I chose a small teddy bear charm that would hook onto her bag since I thought teddy bears suited her.

I walked up to the counter and gave the employee the charm. "May I have this please?" I asked quietly.

He smiled and took it from me to ring up. "I see. This is cute. For you?"

I pouted slightly. "No," I said simply.

The employee tilted his head to the side a bit, seeming as if my vague answer wasn't enough to satisfy his interest. "Sister?"

"No." I shook my head.

"Girlfriend?"

I flinched slightly. "Not...exactly...." I fidgeted around a bit, not wanting to have a strange and awkward conversation like this with a stranger. Even if that person gave me a nostalgic feeling.

"Hmm? What a strange answer...." The employee hummed softly as he handed me back the charm and smiled. "Thank you, come again."

I nodded quickly and hurried out of the shop. I felt like the boy watched my back as I left, but I didn't pay much attention to him after I paid.

I headed toward SeeU's house. I had been there a few times, and her parents were nice people. Her brother was a bit suspicious of me though, even if I didn't like SeeU that way.

I walked up to her doorstep and knocked three times. It was a signature knock I had, and I liked it. After a moment, the door opened.

"Ah." SeeU stood in the doorway, looking a bit surprised.

"Hello." I smiled at her. "May I come in...?" I glanced behind her, giving her the impression that it would be better to let me in.

She didn't seem to notice, but let me in anyway.

"So, um, is this...?" As I walked in, SeeU shut the door behind me and gave me a hopeful look.

"Uh, yeah...." I looked down, still a bit embarrassed about the whole thing. "So, um, here...." I held out the charm for her, and she slowly took it, examining it for a moment.

"Oh, Ollie, it's so cute!" SeeU squealed softly, holding it to her chest. "Is this...?"

"I'm sorry," I said, hanging my head. "I just...don't like you like that. Please, we can still be friends. I'm just not the right guy for you." I gave her an apologetic smile.

I could see the smile vanish from her face as she clenched the bear charm in hand. I saw small tears form in the corners of her eyes as she desperately tried to hold them back.

Weakly, SeeU smiled at me. There was more pain in that expression than I had expected. It hurt me. "No," she said, her voice wavering, "it's fine. Um, I'll...I'll have to ask you to leave...."

I nodded without hesitation and mumbled another "Sorry," before quickly heading home.

I really hope I didn't hurt her too much.... She definitely looked pained....

Ugh, it's all my fault....