COTE Alternative

Vol. 1: Chapter 7.1 - Karuizawa Kei

Our second week came and went, and before I knew it, it was already Saturday. During the past week, Kushida had been trying to befriend Horikita, who always shot ehr down. After the third attempt, I advised Horikita into not rejecting her so coldly.

Since she had some respect/admiration towards me, she heeded my advice. The next time Kushida invited Horikita out went like this:

"Horikita-san! I know you'll just reject me, but will you go to karaoke with us?" Kushida asked for the fourth time, and it was only Tuesday.

Kushida was expecting for Horikita to reject her again. But something interesting happened.

"I'm sorry Kushida-san, but I have something important I need to be doing. I also don't really like karaoke, so if you want to invite me somewhere else then it's. Here's my contact information too. But remember this doesn't make us friends."

Kushida was taken aback by Horikitavs reply. Not only did Horikita not reject her, but she even got her number. Kushida seemed quite satisfied with this and went of merrily with her friends.

After Kushida had left, Horikita turned to me with a sour face.

"That felt disgusting." She uttered.

"Well at least you got through it." I tried to improve her mood to no avail.

"Since you gave me advice, I will give you some as gratitude." Horikita then wears a serious expression and say,

"Try to stay away from Kushida-san." Hoh? Did you just confirm my suspicions, Horikita?

"Hmm? Why?" I feigned ignorance. It would benefit me if Horikita were to share all her knowledge regarding this topic to me.

"She might not be as nice as people thinks she is. Back in my middle school, an incident happened in Kushida's class which left the classroom and its students in chaos. Rumors say that Kushida-san was at the center of it all. Though I didn't get to hear a lot of them since I was studying for this school's entrance examination."

I could guess that Kushida from middle school and the Kushida now were similar. Popular, well-known and well-like through the whole school. Thanks to this information, I now have some understanding on Kushida.

" Are you perhaps worried for me? "I took this as an opportunity to tease her.

She avoided my gaze and said,

"Of course, I am. Without you this worthless class will never reach Class A even with my help."

"Well. Thanks for worrying for me, I guess."

After that Horikita got invited out to lunch the next day, to which she reluctantlt accepted.

I heard my phone buzz and went to see who it was from. I saw that Karuizawa had sent me a text, something that I have been waiting all week for.

The text read:

'Can I come to your room? I need to tell you something.'

Now if I were a normal teenager, then I would have mistaken this as Karuizawa trying to confess to me. But since I'm not, I knew that there was a chance that Karuizawa would open up to me today.

I tidied up my room in preparation for her arrival. I also hid one of these recorders that I bought yesterday, in one of my drawers. While it is highly likely that they won't even be of use to me if everything goes according to plan, it doesn't hurt to be cautious .

I heard a knock on my door and quickly headed over to the entrance. After checking that it was indeed Karuizawa in front of the door, I opened it.

She looked quite nervous, not looking at me in the eye, her gaze was focused on the floor. I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulders. She flinched at my touch.