A Different Turn

Chapter 5

'Hrrgh'

I somehow managed to wake up after my nap, god knows how long I was asleep, but then, couldn't all this just have been a dream, trying to get up, I winced as I felt pain flair up in my abdominal area, I was still in my school uniform, all this indicated one thing-'Everything that was happening was very much real.'

Shit.

Getting up, I went to the bathroom and removed my shirt as I looked into the mirror, I was a mess, I looked like a drunkard who had slept in an alley after being knocked out in a bar fight that had gone overboard. Throwing my shirt into the laundry basket, I examined my injuries, nothing big could be seen, a few bruises here and there, a little blood, and my stomach area appeared to be tender from the punches it had taken, in other words, I certainly didn't need a doctor.

As memories of today began to replay in my head, I decided to just take a shower to ease my thoughts, I looked terrible as it is, having Komachi or mom see me like this would only aggravate the situation. Closing the shower curtain, I turned the knob for hot water and let the heat soothe my aching body, my mind became lighter as the replay of the memories stopped and I entered a temporary state of bliss.

My parents were always a bit fussy about wasting water, hence they never installed bathtubs and chided me and Komachi about showering for too long, I hence generally took very less time showering, but today would have to be an exception. After a rather long time, I turned the knob again and shut off the water as I got out and dried myself, the pain from my injuries was disappearing slowly, and I felt a bit at peace with my own thoughts now, wrapping a towel around my torso, I got out and put on shorts and a simple T-shirt and lay on my bed again, but this time, I was not exhausted, rather, I felt more energetic than before as thoughts about today's events replayed in my mind, and rather than pain, agony and self-pity, I felt anger pulsate through my body.

Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself of the confrontation with Yukinoshita Haruno this afternoon, anger without direction was going to be useless, she had played me, and would continue to do so unless I bent according to her wishes, which was again not something I could do. Man god must be really loving his dead-eyed creation now, wait, did I just insult myself?

I found a small smile grace my lips, well two could play the game, as it was, I had recovered from the debacle this afternoon faster than I had anticipated, Yukinoshita Haruno was certainly difficult, but not impossible to counter, and I would only do that if I remained calm as I was now, acting under raging emotions never achieved results, it would just be down the line of my old methods of self-sacrifice, a path I had chosen to forego for the ones who cared about me. My own ability to be calm under these circumstances surprised me, 'Maybe I did change after all..."

Remembering the afternoon debacle, I remembered that Haruno had again sent me another text, just this time, I was going to play along, after all, a person is like a computer, if you want the output to change, then you must change the input. I walked over to my table and picked up my phone, unlocking it, I opened the notification screen and clicked on the notification that bore the dreaded name of Yukinoshita Haruno.

Opening it, I found a total of 16 unread messages, 15 from last night, and one from this afternoon. I clicked on the tab again to display the messages, the first message, sent at 12: 34 AM last night contained a name of an establishment, and an address of the same signifying that the place was located in the uptown area of Chiba, wherein fancy restaurants and Cafes served overpriced drinks and food to people who considered themselves too important to dine with the normal folk in the market district, 13 messages thereafter were simply '.'- a simple dot, one sent as a message 13 times, before the final message last night which read 'I'm waiting Hikigaya-kun.'