Chapter 76 - Burying Your Pain In Your Heart

"Is she okay?" Looking at the situation, Tsumen asked. Then he looked at me and added, "Is she mad at you?"

"Probably not, because she rejected the plan even before she knew I was coming."

"Valid point." My answer was logical enough. Also, I know that happened to her, but I obviously can't say that to anyone.

"Then?" Tsūmen asked curiously, looking towards Gaisen.

"Don't look at me… I have no idea." Gaisen raised his hands in defeat.

"Bruh… you're like her close friend… you should know." Tsūmen narrowed his eyes in disappointment.

"I know, I noticed something odd with her but then I thought that I'm probably imagining things." Gaisen said in his defence, but I could tell that he was indeed concerned about Reina.

"Bruh" Tsūmen sighed.

"Don't blame me, she sometimes acts like this for no reason whatsoever." Gaisen said, and I also remember back when she suddenly stopped texting me and I thought that something was wrong with her, but apparently she was fine.

"The tone she rejected this plan in wasn't her normal tone." I pointed out.

"I'm a bit worried now." Gaisen said with a nervous voice. He was that kind of dude who didn't enjoy seeing anyone around him sad or it would ruin his mood too.

"You seem to have noticed a lot about her." Tsūmen gave a side glance with a smug.

"No… I just picked up some of her habits." I knew he would say that. He would never leave a chance to tease me.

"Creepy." Tsūmen said jokingly and nudged me on my arm.

"Don't worry though, she sometimes acts like this. I think she is stressed about the exam." Gaisen again said, and it seemed that this was the conclusion he arrived at after thinking about it a bit.

"Isn't she always stressed before exams? But you guys still did the group study, right?" Tsūmen asked, and it was indeed a valid question.

"Now if you put it like that…'' The smile on Gaisen's face again turned into an expression of downcast and looked at me.

"I haven't been talking with her recently, so I have no idea why she is like this." I also raised my hands in defeat.

"Since there's nothing I can do about this, I'm going to hit the cafeteria." Tsūmen was really carefree about it and if I wasn't bound by circumstances, I wouldn't have cared about this too.

"Gai-kun" We heard Kizhashi's voice call out Gaisen's name. Reina also sat back in her seat and looked towards them.

"Huh?" He looked at her and she continued.

"Let's go to the cafeteria."

"Let's go..." He said but paused mid-sentence as he noticed Reina taking her seat instead of going with them.

"Wait, you aren't going to come?" He asked her.

"Don't worry about me." She said with a nervous smile, but Gaisen narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. Looking at his expression, she added, "You ask her if you don't believe me." Pointing towards Kizhashi.

"Did you bring lunch with you?" He looked over at Kizhashi and asked this to Reina.

"Yes, I do. See." She said, pulling out the lunch from her back. The bento box was wrapped in a blue wrapping cloth with sakura designs on it.

"Oh...kay… then do you want something to drink?" Gaisen again asked. I could tell that he was trying to be nice, but he was just annoying her at this point.

"I'm alright man, come on." Reina sighed in annoyance.

"My bad, my bad." Gaisen laughed awkwardly.

"She is really okay, don't worry. She is just a bit stressed about something." Kizhashi backed up Reina's claim as she noticed Gaisen's concern too. 

"Something?" Gaisen caught on to the keyword.

Kizhashi stared at him for a few moments and then glanced at Reina, who was giving her an awkward smile too. She again shifted her gaze towards him and said, "Girl's talk."

"Oh…" Gaisen was a bit surprised but didn't say anything after that.

"I was worrying for no reason." He sighed and walked towards the door.

"Knock yourself out, you two." Reina waved them with a chuckle. I like how hard she is trying to act normal in front of them.

"Will do." Gaisen showed her the thumbs up symbol and playfully punched Kizhashi's left shoulder.

"Literally." Reina added and laughed while covering her lips with her right arm. I looked at Tsumen as he walked towards the door, following Gaisen and Kizhashi.

Before leaving the class, he turned towards me and asked, "Saishi, you want to join?"

"I'll pass." I said, raising my left arm and gesturing to him to go without me.

"Sure man." He nodded and left. There was a sudden silence between us. I looked at Reina and she put the bento box back in her bag.

"You aren't hungry?" I asked, looking at her.

"Not at the moment." She replied without looking at me.

"You know this is lunchtime, right?" I walked a bit closer to her desk and kept my right hand on it. Leaning a bit to get a better look at her face. Her dark coloured short hair was swaying in front of eyes.

"Yeah" she said, turning around and our eyes met. Her face instantly became tinted in a shade of red. She moved her head a bit backwards and averted her gazes from me.

"What did you say to Kizhashi-san?" I tilted my head and asked in a soft voice rather than my usual plain and cold tone.

"W...Why should I tell you?" She answered nervously.

"Because that was a lie. You thought I wouldn't notice?" I chuckled as if she said something funny.

"What do you mean?" She asked me. She decided to play dumb with me, but sadly, it's going to work with me.

"See, if you want to talk about it, I'm here." Rather than taking a direct approach, I also started to play with my words a bit, sugar coating them. At the exact moment, I knew the words she wanted to hear from someone. I knew the exact emotion she was feeling.

"About what?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

"Listen, burying the pain in your heart won't work. It does to some extent, but at some point or another, it tries to break out of it." I said, but she looked at me with tensed eyebrows and I could tell that she was trying her best to not go off at me.

She took a deep breath and said, "Listen. I don't know why you're so adamant about this… but I'm really fine. As usual. Look at me." She pointed towards her face and moved it from left to right.