Rivals Are My Friends (YanSim Male Rivals)

Red Corn Syrup (1/2)

"Whatcha doing?" Hanako curiously pries as he watches the occult cult leader scraping the old dried wax off the floor. "Oh~! Are you going to do some type of wax ritual?"

"N-no." Oko answers, continuing to scrap the floor. "U-unless you count melting and casting wax as candles a ritual, then yes."

"You're recasting candles?" Hanako blinks and thinks over the 'ritual'. "Why don't you just buy new candles and cut down on time?"

"B-Because...saving money." Oko found out at the last club budget meeting, hosted by the Student Council, that the Occult club spends too much money on candles, (They also spend an excessive amount of money on another item that makes the candle spending look like pocket change, but that doesn't matter) so Oko found a simple fix to the problem. He took up candle making, or at least the bare minimum basics of candle making. Hopefully the candle cost will be significantly smaller by the next meeting. He puts the last of the scrapped wax in the small bag, "O-Okay, I'm done."

"Great~! Now, let's go. There's still more parts of the school that need cleaning." Hanako grabs Oko's hand and drags him out of the clubroom and up the staircase."Almost everyone is on the ground floor and I remember you said you didn't like crowds, so I decided 'hey, why don't we work in the more secluded parts of the school?' and chose the third floor."

"T-That's...very thoughtful of you Hanako." Oko didn't think Hanako would remember that fact when he told him. Not because the boy didn't care, but because things slipped his mind very often and Osano said Hanako's memory was selective--he can't remember to do his math homework to save his life, but he can recite all the Sailor Moon scouts' names and powers without being prompted (if you let Hanako keep talking, he'll get into the villains and the monsters of the week).

"No problem~! I was thinking we work near the bathrooms then--" Hanako is brought to a sudden halt but not by his own will. He catches himself on the stair, grabbing the railing to stop

from being pulled back down from the tug on his arm. Hanako glances at Oko to see him petrified. "What's wrong Oko?"

"W-We can't go near the bathrooms, e-especially the girls' bathroom."

"Huh? Why not?" Hanako curiously pries, "Ohhh, are you worried about girls being in there? I mean, it is the girls' bathroom, but I understand. We obviously won't go inside, but we can still check and make sure no one--"

"N-no, that's not the reason." Oko looks around to make sure no one was listening before leaning, whispering. "I-It's haunted."

Hanako blinks once, then twice. "The girls' bathroom is haunted?" This shouldn't have been a shock to anyone. This wasn't the first--nor the last--time Oko claimed a place was haunted or had paranormal activity. Rumors of the girls' bathroom being haunted wasn't new to Hanako either. He was told a dozen stories in primary school about the girls' bathroom being haunted...and the boys bathroom being haunted, and how the janitor was a ghoul that ate stray cats and slept in the basement...oh and girls had cooties. (In short, rumors of the third floor girls' bathroom was both new and old news to Hanako). "Are all the bathrooms haunted?"

"N-no, just the girls' bathroom on the third floor. W-which I'm not going anywhere near...a-atleast without proper protection." Oko shakes his head and walks back down to the ground floor.

Hanako walks up the rest of the flight that leads to the third floor, he peaks around the corner and stares down the corridor that leads to the bathroom. It was odd--Hanako walked passed the girls' bathroom multiple times and he never felt the place was haunted, but then two things; One, Hanako thought all the bathrooms were haunted and if all the bathrooms were haunted, then that's normal and he's none the wiser. Two, Oko had an eye and a feeling about these type of things and his predictions were never too far off (even though Osano, Amao, Kizano, the entire school minus the Occult club, and a tiny part of Hanako himself, would beg to differ) so he had to be right about this, right?