Soul for a Girlfriend?

Chapter 48 - Thorn In My Path

I slid the door of the classroom open and noticed Kizhashi standing in front of me. Judging from the position of her hand, I could tell that she was about to open the door. Looking at me, she frowned her eyebrows as if my appearance had ruined her day. Her eyes shifted over to Gaisen, who was standing beside me. A smile appeared on her face as she greeted him.

"Good Morning, Gai-kun" she said in a sweet voice. What a change of demeanor.

"Yo, Koi," He greeted back. Her eyes again shifted towards me.

"You two coming to school together is a rare sight." She smiled, but I could tell that it was a fake one. She didn't even try to hide the fact that she didn't like my presence.

"We just met on the way." He said while patting my shoulder lightly.

"I see," She nodded. Noticing that the small greeting session was coming to an end, I walked past her and headed over to my desk.

There was no point in talking with her. As long as she minds her own business and doesn't interfere with mine, it's good. Putting my bag on the desk, I looked towards Yasurouka's desk and she was there. Writing something in her notebook.

Kizhashi and Gaisen were busy with each other, so this was a rather wonderful opportunity for me to talk with her. Ts?men was busy talking with some other boys, who were probably new in his clubs.

I slowly approached her. I could see her soft hair moving every time she moved her head along with the paper. Her head was resting on her left palm. I called out her name in a soft tone, "Yasurouka-san".

She turned around to face me. There weren't any hints of anger on her face, rather I was expecting her to curse me and flip me off again, like yesterday.

"Ah, Good Morning, Sakamaki-kun" she greeted me normally. Judging from the reaction, I decided to wait and go along with the flow of this conversation without picking up the topic of her being angry at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, pointing at the open notebook in front of her.

"Ah, this?" She picked up the notebook and flipped through it's pages. As she was doing so, I caught a glimpse of what she was referring to.

It was her chemistry notebook, but the last page was filled with several designs and doodles that she probably made when she was bored in the class. I was no expert in art but they were looking quite good to me.

"Wow, these are actually… good."

"Hooo, a compliment… coming from you?" She raised her eyebrows and looked at me with a smile.

"Well, it's my honest opinion on your doodles." I shrugged.

"Thanks" She said while trying to flip the pen in between her fingers but unfortunately it flew from her hand and fell beside her desk.

"Tsk" She clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Looking at the pen lying in front of me, I bent down and reached my right arm towards it. I was suddenly hit by the sweet fragrance of something. The smell reminded me of a hair conditioner.

I glanced at my left side and noticed her face was close to mine. The sweet smell was coming from her hair which was hanging close to me. I could see her pale cheeks turning red slowly and her lips twitching, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

I shifted my gaze into her blue eyes, which were staring right into mine at that moment. Realizing what was happening, she quickly averted her gaze from me and raised her head quickly.

I picked up the pen and stood up. I kept the pen on her desk all this while she was looking at me still embarrassed. It was quite an embarrassing situation for me too, but with me the thing was that I could never really express what I was genuinely feeling, so it always appeared as me having a blank face.

Lilith complained a lot about this too. She said my thoughts and the expression on my face never really matched and she sometimes had trouble believing if her mind reading spell was working correctly or not.

"Thank you… for nothing… I was going to pick it up anyway." She said in a flustered tone.

"Umm… you're welcome… I guess." I said in a tone to make it sound like I wasn't sure about what to say.

"Whatever... Idiot!" She said the last part in a low tone and pouted.

"Eh? What did I do?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"Nothing…"

"Why did you call me an idiot, then?"

"Are you trying to piss me off? On purpose?" She sighed and stared at me.

"I don't know… what do you think?" I shrugged.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you love getting on my nerves." She said while tapping the index finger of her left hand on the table.

"I would love to get on you too." Is what I thought I would've said if she was in a situation where she had already developed feelings for me, or I was the protagonist of a hentai. But as of now, my reality was different so I decided to keep quiet and not say anything.

I noticed Kizhashi walking towards us with a smile on her face as her desk was right next to Yasurouka's.

"Hey Rei… why are you so red?" Kizhashi squinted her eyes to get a better look at her cheeks which were red from blushing.

"Re...Red?" She asked in a nervous tone.

"Yeah..." Kizhashi's eyes shifted towards me and she looked at me with a suspicious gaze. "Hmm… you two have been quite close lately… is something going on between you two?" She asked in a serious tone.

"Wh… what? How did you arrive at that conclusion?" Yasurouka said in averse to her comment.

"You talk with him a lot, I have seen you texting him too and then you're really interested when he gets that…"

"Oh Shut up…. Shut up… Shut up… I understand, you don't have to say anymore."

So she told Kizhashi about that incident too. This girl can't keep a single thing in herself. Well, considering how close she is with Kizhashi, it was pretty predictable that she would share that with Kizhashi.

"But it's not like that… you know me." She smiled awkwardly.

"I don't know… just my intuition." Kizhashi shrugged.

"Nah, it's not like that." I said in a blatant tone to support her. As of now, only Gaisen knew about my secret that I liked Reina. But it looks like Ts?men and Kizhashi were also suspicious of us.

"Oh-" She looked at me and continued, "You speak too?"

"Why? Do humans don't speak generally?"

"I… didn't… are you dumb?" She frowned.

"Says you after asking that dumb question in the first place."

"That's why I don't like talking with you." She said in a regretful tone.

"Yeah, the feeling is mutual."

"Oh, just shut up you two." Yasurouka interrupted us.

I looked at the wall clock over the white board and the homeroom was about to start in a few moments. Without saying a single word, I turned around and headed towards my desk, but I could still feel Kizhashi's gazes on me.

I hope she doesn't become a thorn in my path, or I would've to choose other methods to eradicate that thorn.