Stealing Spree

Back when I encountered her at the same station around two weeks ago, Hifumi told me that she had already moved on. Or that’s how her words came across to me. I was glad to see her doing okay on her own. But what’s this? The usually talkative girl asked me to follow her without explaining why…

Sure enough, I followed her. Apart from my curiosity over what she’s going to say, I guess a part of me also wanted to confirm if she truly moved on or not.

Fortunately, I would still be on time even if I spent a few minutes talking to her. As long as it didn’t take more than ten minutes, of course.

A few minutes later, as soon as we reached a fairly obscured place, Hifumi turned around to face me. Her lips curved into a smirk. “Heh. You’ve changed yet certainly not in every aspect. Look here, you’re still too stubborn to take a step back…”

“Ah… This? I guess this is something that is already a habit. You’re the same though. Didn’t I tell you? You’ll stunt your growth if you keep carrying these thick books. Moreover, that bag’s about to burst. How many have you brought?”

Yep. I grabbed the books she was carrying. If not for her refusing to give me her bag, I’d also carry it for her.

I bet her locker was also filled with more books. That’s how she was back then. She hadn’t changed that habit.

When I pointed that out, Hifumi caught her words in her throat, she rolled her eyes and bit her lips. The glasses she’s wearing also fogged up from how heated her face became.

And that’s another trait of her, she’s quick to heat up. Not in an erotic sense, of course. It’s also not shyness. Whenever I would shoot down her argument or just whenever I would be able to counter her words, she’d heat up like that.

“E-enough about my books. It’s not why I brought you here.”

“Sure. I’ll pretend you’re not the one who brought it up.” I shrugged and sat down next to her.

However, as soon as I did that, menacing air oozed out from her side as the girl’s chilling voice crept to my ears

“Ruki.”

It’s just my name but she made it feel like it came from the depths of hell.

Another one, huh? She’s still this quick to fall onto trying to intimidate me when she couldn’t come up with a counter-argument. Her fuse was always this short.

… Admittedly, I found this side of her extremely adorable this time.

I wonder if I also thought this way back then. And now, I’m also wondering why did I steal her back then.

True I found out that she’s close with another honor student type of guy. However, whether they’re in a relationship or not, I couldn’t remember. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Hell, I probably mistook him as her boyfriend.

I mean we’re all still too young at the time. And my desire had just manifested.

Maybe it’s all puppy love or crush, whatever that was.

Going by this line of thought, the same could be said to the other two; Chii and that other one, the one I deemed more beautiful than my Akane.

True, I found Chii confessing to that ‘Class Hunk’, wait, he’s probably not a hunk but someone with a wide-body build. In any case, as I made a move as soon as my desire was ignited for her, their true label was never cleared up.

Ah. At least, I could remember that they were being teased by everyone in the class.

Anyway, I probably ignored that point back then. Only when I got Nao did I become a little meticulous. I would often tell her to go back to her boyfriend or spend time with him so that he wouldn’t suspect anything.

“Mhm… You’re aware that what you’re doing isn’t effective on me, right? Have I ever been frightened by you?”

This time I returned a smirk to the girl which made that menacing aura of hers vanished into thin air.

While still biting her lips, Hifumi took off her glasses, pulled out a piece of cloth and wiped the fog out of it.

Her eyes were always bad so… she did all that while squinting.

Once she put her glasses back on, Hifumi inched away from me. But with the bench we were sitting on wasn't wide to begin with, she quickly reached the edge.

When she noticed that, the girl straightened her back and put down her bag in between us before inhaling deeply, to gather back her dwindling courage.

“You win, you smug idiot.”

“Huh? Are we playing something?” I maintained my smirk, obviously acting oblivious.

Hifumi’s confident stance deflated once more. She clicked her tongue and finally hit me on my shoulder, using her tiny fist.

“Get serious, will you? You’re losing time, don’t you know that? I can run to my school. But you? You’ll surely arrive late.”

… She’s right. I said I only have a few minutes but by teasing her and cornering her like this, I already lost some.

Well, it’s been a while and she started it.

This girl knew how to put the blame on me, huh?

I better get serious and hear her out.

“Mhm. You’re right. Then please start. I’m dying to hear what you want to say to me…”

“Have you heard about the other two? Do you know where they are?”

Is she asking me about Chii and that other girl?

“Wait… did you three know about each other?”

I blurted out what flashed in my mind. Chii never told me about them after all. For this girl to ask about them… there’s certainly a connection that happened between them.

And I was unaware of it.

Talk about being confident enough to steal girls like them…

“Of course… But I’m not the one who found out about it. It’s her. Hana. Right after you cut us all off.”

Hana… Shinohara Hana. That’s the name of the most beautiful girl in our grade school.

Well, that title might be subjective to our perception back then. Akane at that time was kind of gloomy because of my sudden change. And Hana was the most popular because of how easy she was to befriend.

She’s always had a kind smile on her lips… Even when I told her I was going to steal her and after doing so, she still looked at me kindly, accepting what I was doing with her.

Uh… My memories about her were coming back.

“She approached me with Chizuru behind her. Both of us were crying at that time but Hana, her kind smile comforted us. After that, the three of us spent half of the spring vacation together. We separated because Chizuru was moving out while I decided to attend the middle school in our hometown. Hana stayed in this city.” Hifumi continued. She also filled in what happened during that time. Like how she and Chii confessed that they hated me for just cutting them off like that.

I listened to all of that. And judging from this girl’s expression, everything she just told me was the truth.

And the reason why she’s asking me about the other two is because she wants to reconnect with them… She considers them as her close friends.

Obviously, I failed to respond immediately. My mind was trying to comprehend everything she just said. This kind of revelation… Chii not telling me about them was probably because I didn’t ask. And I know that they didn’t know about each other. Furthermore, if she’s looking for Hana. That means she’s also not at their school.