Chapter 294: Maturity

"You always see him in your classroom. Has he stopped trying to talk to you?" I asked Kana while we started eating the bread she brought. It's been a while since we bonded during lunch. These days I could only see her at the club and even then our time was too limited.

"Un. Momo will always come and block him." After taking a cute bite on her bread, she answered while meekly nodding her head. "She told me you asked her to do that."

Ah. I'm glad Momoiro-senpai kept to her word of helping Kana. Good thing I ran into her when I went to see Ishida-senpai.

"Un. I did. Don't be mad at her, alright? If you want to, be mad at me."

"You're always like this… I don't want to involve anyone with my troubles…"

And she's always like this. She always wanted to solve everything on her own. I respect that but there are some things that I feel the need to intervene and I'm prepared for her to reprimand me for doing that.

"I understand where you're getting from. However, I am here now. It's fine if I don't know about it. But upon hearing that he kept on bothering you, what am I if I don't move to help you?" I slightly turned my head towards her wherein she did the same. "Kana, what am I to you?"

"You're my… Ruki."

"Right? And you're my Kana. Your troubles are now my troubles as well. I will not meddle in things you wanted to do by yourself but that thing with him, I believe I need to step up and help you."

"You're already busy enough. I don't want to take more of your time."

"This girl… Look at me, do you think I'm forcing myself to see and help you?"

She's the older one between us. However, there were instances where she would be mature enough to give me a piece of advice and other instances where she's not acting on that maturity.

She could see things clearly when it comes to me but when it comes to her circumstances, she's becoming stubborn enough that it's making me want to hold her and forcefully put myself next to her to solve everything for her.

"…No."

"Then you understand, right?"

Not knowing what to answer, Kana's eyelashes fluttered before looking down and placing her forehead on my shoulder "… Stubborn Ruki."

"I know. I'm your stubborn Ruki. By the way, I introduced myself as your boyfriend to Momoiro-senpai."

"Ah! That too! Now, everyone wanted to meet you. It will be bad if our relationship spreads, right?"

"Yes, it will. I'm also known as a boyfriend to Nami among her group of friends. And someone from the class saw me with Aya when we went to the bookstore. However, it's fine for them to know as long as they will keep it to themselves. We'll be discreet."

It might sound careless of me but if these girls of mine wished for some of their closest friends to know about us, I will gladly give it to them.

But of course, I have to prepare something as a precaution.

Nami's friends are holding onto the information about our 'pretend' relationship but once I finally cut off Ogawa from her, that guy and his buddy will surely raise a ruckus. If that happened, I'm guessing everyone will know about my relationship with Nami. It will spread and because the rumor about us hasn't died down yet, it will be strengthened by that.

That's why… That Tadano and Ogawa, I need to take care of them so that they will not do that.

"It's risky but somehow, I want to show you off to them… To let them see that this time, I didn't enter a relationship forced onto me. I chose you myself." Kana whispered.

I see. So that thing still bothered her. She was just pushed by that Kenji's perseverance. Of course, she also tried to truly like that guy.

In a sense, I also somehow forced her into this relationship with me but in the end, I gave her a choice unlike before and she chose to stay with me.

"Then once we're done with the current problem, I will go with you and meet them. Feel free to show off your guy."

"Uhm… Why do I feel worried?"

Ah. Perhaps it's because of that, huh?

"This girl, don't worry, I will not steal any of them… Uhm. Unless there's a reason for me to do that. Besides, you will be the first to know if I become interested in someone else. For now, I don't think I will be."

The future is truly uncertain. At first, I don't think of anything about Shizu or Arisa-senpai but now, I'm all in at making the former mine and I want to know everything about the latter.

I can't just give a promise that there's a possibility for me to break. Although there's that saying that promises are meant to be broken, I want to keep all the promises I made with my girls to be fulfilled.

"You and your womanizing tendency."

"I'm sorry."

"I told you I don't want to hear you say sorry. Let me punish you."

"How will you punish me?"

"Like this." Kana lifted her head and reached in for a kiss. At first, it was soft and fluffy that I thought it would end up with it being a passionate one but a few seconds later, I felt her teeth sinking into the lower lip as she bit at it. Although it stung, she let it go before it sank enough for it to bleed.

Kana smiled and stuck her tongue out before pulling my head down to her chest, aside from the softness of it, I could hear her rhythmic heartbeat and the warmth of her embrace. "I love you enough that I don't want to be jealous and be competitive to another girl, Ruki. Everything you showed me after telling me everything was genuine… You never mask your thoughts and when you're troubled, you also don't hesitate to come to me to hear what I think. I love all of that. It's making me feel that I'm special to you."

"Of course, you're special. You're my Kana." I answered before circling my arm to her back.

It's comfortable. Being in her arms like this is giving me too much comfort that I somehow don't want to let go of her.

-

-

After all that, we finally moved on to talk about the upcoming face-to-face with that Kenji. To end his delusion that Kana will come back, Kana has to show it to him herself. And of course, I will be there by her side.

Ishida-senpai will be mediating for us and now the date for that has been decided.

Because she's still working on editing her novel to be sent this week for that competition, she wanted that to happen next week.

"Alright, we'll let Ishida-senpai know about it. For now, I will continue walking you home when I can and rely on Momoiro-senpai to block that guy from approaching you."

"Un, I will also actively ignore him. Just thinking about you will give me strength." With a smile, Kana kissed me once again and this time, it finally ended up to what I was expecting. A passionate kiss was shared between us.

"Let's finish eating this. You seem to still have a lot to do. I can feel you're worried about something."

"You always have that keen eye when it comes to me. Yes, I'm worrying about Nao."

And I told her what's going to happen. To Nao, to Shio and everything else. Because of her shy nature, although she's getting along with Rae and Aya, she couldn't do it yet with the other girls in that group.

"I see. It's complicated but all of us became this strong because of you. You can become the worrywart that you are and deciding to believe in us is very good. You're growing up. I'm glad to see every change that happened to you."

"Am I really growing up? If my Kana says so then I will believe it."

"You're usually confident in yourself, why are you like this now?"

"Perhaps it's because I can't stop this desire of mine. But thank you, Kana. If not with you girls, I might be the same idiot."

Everything that happened to me is owed to these girls. That's why I want to reciprocate it and make sure that nothing will happen to them.

After a while, the phone call that I'm waiting for finally arrived. When Kana noticed that, she nodded at me and distanced herself for a bit, she would be eavesdropping but for Nao to see only me on the screen, she knew that it would provide the most effect.

I reached for her hand to squeeze it and mouthed a thank you to her before accepting the call.

As soon as Nao's face appeared on the screen, there's a wide grin pasted on her lips.

"Ruki… It's a success!" Nao exclaimed and showed a peace sign with her fingers.

Success, huh? But to what degree of success? Well then, let's hear about it from this girl.