Bonus Short Stories
Ruth
During the years Harumi suffered from a weak constitution, she’d developed an aversion to large crowds and events involving too many people. That persisted even now.
“You want to celebrate Halloween...?” she asked dubiously.
Harumi had never done much for the holiday—a family photo shoot with witch hats or carved pumpkins. But this was bigger. A faction within room 106 was pushing to celebrate Halloween for real, and they wanted Harumi in on the fun.
“Yeah!” shouted Sanae. “It’s an excuse to keep messing with people until they give you candy!”
“Aren’t you not supposed to trick them if they give you candy?” Harumi asked, still dubious.
“Wait, really?”
“I do believe so, yes.”
Sanae was in charge of recruiting Harumi for the Halloween effort, but there was a fatal flaw in this plan, for Sanae only had a loose grasp on the holiday herself.
“C’mon! Whenever I see Koutarou, I always jump on his back, squeeze his cheeks, and tickle his sides before we even say anything,” Sanae insisted.
“You’re the only one who does that, Higashihongan-san! Everyone else starts with talking!” Harumi protested.
“What? But Theia and Koutarou get straight to wrestling.”
“Theiamillis-san is the only one who does that!”
“So why don’t you greet him with a trick of your own, Harumi?”
“Y-You want me to play a trick on him?! Without warning?!” Harumi went wide-eyed. She couldn’t stand the thought of doing anything rude or uncalled for, and she couldn’t imagine being mischievous for her own pleasure.
“You can do it,” Sanae said. “Just hassle Koutarou as soon as you see him!”
“I could never...”
“Nuh-uh! I’ve seen you sic Snoozy on him.”
“I can only do that because Snoozy is the one doing the hassling! Doing it myself would be too much...”
“Hmm...” Sanae folded her arms, looking pensive. Then, after a few seconds, she pointed emphatically at Harumi. “You’re gonna be in real trouble later with that attitude!”
“I’ll be in trouble? How?”
“You wanna date Koutarou too, right?”
“Er, well... Yes, I do.” Overwhelmed by Sanae’s straightforward question, Harumi turned red. That was indeed the future she was hoping for, but discussing it was delicate.
“So how are you gonna kiss him like that?” Sanae asked next.
“What? I...” Harumi turned an even deeper shade of red. The mere thought of kissing the boy she loved flustered her thoroughly.
“Are you planning on just emitting that ‘kiss me’ aura and leaving it up to Koutarou? Are you gonna make him do all the work?”
“Ah...” Harumi finally realized what Sanae was getting at. She was trying to say that it wasn’t fair to be passive in a two-way relationship, and Harumi couldn’t argue with that. “I suppose that wouldn’t be good, would it?”
“Right. So you should try being playful with him for Halloween.”
“P-Playful, huh?” Harumi took Sanae’s words to heart. She understood that any further development in her relationship with Koutarou would require action on her part. So, after thinking for a moment, she hesitantly replied, “Okay, I’ll give it a try.”
“Attagirl!”
And so, Harumi decided to team up with Sanae and the others for some Halloween trickery.
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