My Friend the Harem Protagonist

Chapter 27: Detention

Juri walked in at 3:37, 17 minutes late. Sometimes there were a few other people at detention, but today had been slow so it would just be me and her for the next hour.

"Hey," Juri said. She slumped into a second row desk and put her feet up on the chair in front of her.

"Hello Juri." I didn't even bother to try correcting her posture. That ship had sailed a long time ago.

"How's your face?" Juri asked. She seemed angrier than usual.

"My face is fine. Why the attitude?"

"Did you already forget how you and your lackey nearly put my boyfriend in the hospital last weekend?"

"All he had to do was get out of the way. He chose to fight. And Karin isn't my lackey."

"Sorry, your girlfriend."

"Wha-, no definitely not!"

"You two would make a good couple now that I think about it. Together you could make tall annoying children."

Halfway through her speech I'd gotten up out of my chair and had begun throttling her by the collar. "Stop saying stuff like this! Why can't we have a normal detention for once?"

Juri continued, completely immune to my shaking. "What, you've never thought about it? About big strong arms picking you up after a rough day of disciplining?"

"I do, but they're always Shin's arms!" It was an embarrassing thing to admit, but I was upset at the time.

"Alright jeez, you like guys. Stop shaking me."

I sighed and let go. Juri was always trying to rile me up during detention. Somehow I ended up feeling like the one getting punished.

Juri pulled out her phone and began typing. "I'll ask Haru about it."

"Don't ask Haru!"

Her phone buzzed. "He says you two would be a nice couple. See, he gets it."

I closed my eyes and began taking deep breaths. This was the third breathing regiment I'd tried, and I wasn't sure it was working. Wim Hof never had to deal with anyone like Juri.

"Do you know why you're here today?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure it was sleeping in class."

"No, you brought this to school with you." It was a paperback manga volume with two boys touching each other on the cover. There was a time when something like this would turn me into a blushing mess, but I'd seen dozens of these that Juri brought in. Now I looked at it the way most people look at tax forms.

"That's a pretty good volume. Do you want to borrow it?"

I shouldn't have engaged her, but I did. "What would I even do with this?"

"Share it with Karin. Open up a dialogue about bedroom activities."

"I do not have a crush on Karin! I like boys!"

"But you hate Haru."

"Most girls hate Haru." I bit my tongue at the last moment. Even for someone as annoying as Juri, insulting her boyfriend was a bit of a line to cross.

To my surprise Juri just shrugged. She wasn't going to defend him? Maybe she liked being the only girl who liked him. She had him all to herself. Wack job.

She locked her phone and slouched lower in her chair. "When are you going to give up on Shin?"

I closed the book. "I don't want to talk about that with you."