Chapter 174 - A Possible Threat To My Plan?

I was walking back home with my friends and the fact that I was walking back in a group instead of how I used to walk alone with my earphones plugged in a year ago was intriguing. I was surprised by how much my life had changed over the course of a year and mainly in the past few months.

We were walking towards the station, so the road was always crowded with students and normal people, too. It was one of those busy streets during that time.

We were walking rather slowly, as none of us were in a hurry and our destination wasn't actually the station but the intersection that comes before it. Tsūmen and Kizhashi lived somewhere in the same neighbourhood as me, maybe a little farther.

As the sun was already setting, it illuminated the sky in bright orange colour and the noise of people chattering around me was there with the frequent chirping of birds and cars honking on the road.

As we were talking about how boring that day was at school and how all the science teachers decided to give us assignments all together with the due date of Friday. I was already in the mood to write everything up and finish it by pulling an all-nighter.

Suddenly Tsūmen tapped on my shoulder, and as I turned towards him, he pointed his index finger in a direction and asked, "Hey isn't that Naoto senpai?"

"Huh?" I was confused, so I followed the direction he was pointing towards and there indeed stood Naoto on the other side of the street.

Soon everyone's attention was towards her, as Gaisen looked at me with a dubious look and then asked, "Yeah… What is she doing with that dude?"

"Which dude? Where?" Listening to Gaisen, Tsūmen instantly turned his head in that direction, as his eyes searched for the dude she was talking with.

"There…" Gaisen walked a bit closer to Tsūmen and grabbed his neck and turned it towards the boy she was talking with. As there was quite some distance between us, I couldn't tell his features, but I could tell that he was a good looking guy.

"Who is that guy? Doesn't seem to be wearing any uniform." Tsūmen finally noticed the guy, and asked as his gazes shifted towards me to which I replied in a bland tone, "I can see that…"

"Is that her boyfriend?" Kana suddenly asked, looking at me as that question seemed to pique both Gaisen and Tsūmen's interest. I glanced at her without saying a single word as my eyes again shifted towards Naoto.

Of course, none of them knew I was actually dating her. But they were aware of the fact that I had grown closer to her over the past month. Reina subtly looked at her and said suspiciously, "Yeah look… she is laughing a lot too…"

Tsūmen squinted his jade coloured eyes as he slightly leaned in that direction and said, "Wait a minute, did he just pat her head?"

I was still staring at her and I did see that guy patting her head as she chuckled. There were many questions running through my mind.

Who was that guy?

What was his relationship with Naoto?

The way he touched her head, and she was acting really comfortable around him, so that meant that they both already knew each other and were on good talking terms.

Was she double timing? Of course she won't. Maybe that's her friend. 

My eyes shifted away from her for a moment and I noticed Kana looking at me with a smug smile as she asked, "Are you feeling jealous?"

"Wait here…" I told them in a vague way as we were standing near the crosswalk. I started walking to the other side as Kana said with a serious face, "Oh I was kidding… Oi!"

"Saishi!" I could hear her voice calling me from behind, but I already crossed the road and went to the other side. They were looking at me curiously, because I wasn't really a guy to act on impulse.

My only concern was to check whether that guy posed any threat to me and my plan of capturing her. I walked towards her and softly called out her name, "Hello, Naoto-Senpai."

She looked over her shoulder and smiled as her eyes met mine. The guy standing behind her looked at me, but his expression didn't change much. Naoto waved at me and greeted me, "Eh… oh Sakamaki-kun, I wasn't expecting you here."

"Yeah… I usually take this road while going back home…" I answered her with a slight nod, as her smile slowly faded away and a dubious look formed on her face. In a hesitant voice she replied, "Me too… oh…"

Catching onto my vibes, she probably understood that I was curious about who the guy was. She pointed towards him and said, "By the way… meet him, he is my cousin."

As those words left her mouth, a subtle rush of relief washed over me. I looked at her surprised and repeated after her in disbelief, "Cousin?" 

Naoto nodded her head as she pointed at the building next to them and said, "Yeah… he works part time at a café here."

The dude was wearing a dark blue shirt with black pants. His jet black hair was similar to Naoto's as dark-coloured eyes gazed upon me and smiled at me. He introduced himself with a nod of acknowledgement, "I'm Tsubakihara Daisuke, are you her classmate?"

I smiled back at him awkwardly because I had a completely wrong idea about him until that moment. With a nod, I said in a nervous tone, "Nice to meet you too, I'm Sakamaki Saishi. And I'm not her underclassman."

He looked at me with a surprised face and asked, "Oh, you're her junior? Which grade?"

"Second year.." I replied, and Naoto looked at me with a subtle smile, almost as if she was smiling through her eyes and added, "He is… also my boyfriend."