Date Her Instead Vol. 6

Chapter Nine: Endo Parents

Next door at the Endo house, Haruna was pacing up a storm. She had gone back and forth so many times in her room that she was bound to wear a hole through the carpet soon enough. "I'm so nervous," she thought. "Is it going okay? Are they arguing? Is Kanako crying?" Due to her own nerves, Haruna's thoughts began to spiral a bit before she stopped and took a breath.

"No, I'm sure it's fine," Haruna thought. "If it had gone poorly, I'm sure I would've already heard from Kanako." At this point, it had been about an hour since the two girls had arrived at their homes. If a whole hour had passed with a word, Haruna felt like it was safe to assume Kanako's talk was going well enough. "Besides, it's hard to picture her parents actually yelling at her. I haven't seen them do that since we were kids."

Of course, despite whatever logic she could come up with, Haruna still worried. A part of her was irritated with herself for that. "I don't remember ever being this much of a worrywart before," she thought. "But, then again, before I reconnected with Kanako, I was mostly just angry all the time." Angry at Kanako, angry at her new friends... angry at herself. Through all that time, Haruna had spent most of it just being mad. Now that she could look back at those four years of anger, she wished she could go back in time and hit herself for being so stupid.

"All I can do now is love her as much as I tried to hate her," Haruna concluded. And, as she came to that conclusion, she heard her phone vibrate. In a flash, her hand reached out to grab it and answer. "Kanako?!" she said with entirely too much panic. "W-Whoa!" the voice on the other end exclaimed. "C-Calm down Haruna. Geez, you scared me." "Sorry..." Haruna said, regaining her composure. "So, how did it go?" "U-Um, well..." Kanako said hesitantly. "My mom wants you to come over for dinner." "Sure, that sounds fine. What day?" Haruna said. "T-Tonight?" Kanako squeaked.

Haruna was quiet for a moment. She looked at the time, seeing it was already getting close to dinnertime as it was. "...Tonight?!" she finally replied. "That's so last-minute!" "I know, I know!" Kanako pleaded. "B-But she keeps insisting!" Haruna sighed. "Well, I guess I can ask my parents. Let me go downstairs."

So, doing just that, Haruna headed down and went into the living room area. A bit to her surprise, no one was there. "Huh? Where are they?" she wondered. Switching from a call to her texts, Haruna looked at her phone and saw a message from her mother. All it said was that both she and Haruna's father would be late tonight and that she could warm something up from the fridge. Checking inside said fridge revealed no options at all.

"Uh, so, my parents aren't home, and there's no food here," Haruna stated. "Then I guess you're able to come after all," Kanako said, almost sounding smug. Truthfully, any other time Haruna would've loved to have dinner with her girlfriend and even her parents. However, with their relationship so recently revealed, Haruna would've preferred to keep her distance for a bit. "But I guess that's not an option now..." she thought. Although, she also figured it probably wouldn't be that bad. If Kanako's parents were upset with Haruna, it wouldn't really make sense for them to invite her over.

"Alright, I'll be over in a few minutes," Haruna said. After saying their (what would would prove to be short-lived) goodbyes, Haruna hung up and went back to her room. Staring into her closet, she wondered what she should wear. "I really don't wanna wear my school uniform," she said out loud as she glanced down at her current attire. "But I don't wanna accidentally overdo it... ugh, I have no clue." Once again, Haruna's lack of fashion sense was coming back to haunt her. "I wonder if Jasmine-chan can help," she thought.

At first, she was going to text her, but then decided to go with a call. "If I text and she's asleep, who knows how long it'll take to get a reply?" Haruna thought. After more than a few rings, Jasmine finally answered. "...What's up Haru-chi?" she said, obviously having just woken up. "What should I wear to Kanako's house after they just found out we're dating and they invited me over for dinner?" Haruna fired off. "...Um, I dunno, funeral clothes?" Jasmine said. "Come on Jasmine-chan, I need a real answer!" Haruna huffed. "Alright, alright," Jasmine groaned. "Let's see... you like jeans, right?" "I don't know if I'd say I like them," Haruna said. "Okay, but you wear them a lot, right?" Jasmine said. "Sure, I guess so," Haruna agreed. "Then do that and a simple shirt," Jasmine decided.