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Scanner: Shmook
Chapter 9
"My important friend... and I... like the same person."
We continue were we left off, with Futaba and Kou waiting for the next train. Kou's gone to buy a bottle of water, because he thinks Futaba is feeling sick. She, of course, isn't actually feeling sick, and as she thinks of how she's pretty much lost her chance to fess up on how completely not-sick she is, Kou demands a sip of water. Futaba goes, "HUH?!", Kou goes, "I paid for it, IT'S MIEN." ...Basically.
Futaba freaks out over the impending indirect kiss this sharing of bottle will lead to, but then Kou notices her staring, and figures she has some sort of OCD thing going on with things like these, so he courteously opts for pouring water all over his face instead. See, that's just wasteful. I suppose some of it went into your mouth, though. Futaba immediately offers to lend him a towel, but changes her mind when she sees the inside of her bag. She zips it back up in horror, recalling the role she's playing; the uncute, messy girl. Suddenly embarrassed by this, she leaves Kou to wipe off his face on his sweater, which he does SO ADORABLY. WHAT, ARE YOU A PUPPY.
Futaba remembers something Yuuri said once, about there being nothing wrong with wanting to look cute in front of a boy. "I understand what she meant now REALLY well.........No, gah! Wait! Am I some kind of innocent maiden?! Gross, I'm so gross!"
(Sorry for this completely unrelated side note, but HAH. She's reminding me of Kyouko from Skip Beat right now.)
Kou looks at her (pulling her hair in front of her face in some sort of Pose of Despair), asking her what's up and if she's still feeling sick. She denies, shielding her face from view with her hands. He moves her hands aside, asking if she's sure, and a slight breeze ruffles their hair and everything is sparkly and cute and pretty for a moment.
Kou wonders if Futaba wears perfume, finding it a bit surprising. Hah. So it's your time to be sniffing people, is it. You two are obviously made for each other.
Futaba denies wearing any sort of perfume though, so Kou concludes it must be the smell of her shampoo. "It's kinda hot, actually."
Confused by the following silence, Kou glances over at Futaba, starting when he sees her wide-eyed and blushing. He quickly looks away, saying this is when she's supposed to retort with a similar joke, or he'll just look like a pervert. No worries, Kou. She's not much better.
Futaba tells him to make it more obvious when he's joking next time, cause she had no idea how to respond. She thinks of how the shampoo she's using is the cheapest she could find, and that whether he was joking or not, she wishes she had used something more refined. "Being a maiden in love will leave me in poverty..."
Then she remembers that she was actually supposed to buy a new bottle of shampoo on her way home today, so she has to pop by a store before taking the train. So she finally gets Kou to leave ahead of her, that thing she kept failing at last chapter. Even though she'd actually like to go home together, she feels like she's being unfair towards Yuuri, spending too much time with him before she comes clean. She decides to tell Yuuri the next day, definitely (yeah, right), though she's scared of what she'll say. If she'll come to resent her...
At the store, she first finds the cheapest shampoo of the day, but then she catches sight of a more feminine, expensive looking bottle, and finding that she likes the smell of it, buys it despite the higher price.
On her way back to the station, she runs into someone I knew would show up again! Since she was given a name and everything, in the prologue. Yumi-chan, Futaba's friend from middle school. There's a pretty predictable explanation as to why they stopped being friends, but Sakisaka Io tells predictable stories is sweet ways, so it's ok, I guess. Basically, Yumi was the friend who stayed by Futaba the longest, but when she caught wind of some rumours saying Futaba also like Naitou, the boy Yumi liked back then (as you might remember), she felt betrayed, and started ignoring Futaba along with the other girls (after seeing Futaba staring after Naitou, and taking that as confirmation of her feelings). Futaba however, had only been paying attention to Naitou because he'd been pretty close with Kou, and she'd hoped to overhear news through him somehow.
But all she says to Yumi is that she never liked Naitou. Yumi really does seem to feel bad about it all, and apologizes. Futaba doesn't care about it anymore though. The reason she feels bad now is because, though the both-friends-liking-Naitou thing had been a misunderstanding, both-friends-liking-Kou is for real. She mulls it all over for a while more, but still concludes that she'd better tell Yuuri the truth.
...Several days later, she's sitting at school, still despairing. Hah, see, I knew it'd be like this. It's understandable, though.
She witnesses Kou handing Yuuri a CD, saying it's the CD she asked to borrow in her text. And Futaba is all, "They send each other texts now?" And then she stews in some jealousy, haha, resenting Yuuri for her cutesy ways and all that, before realizing she's acting like Asumi and co. "I understand Asumi better now... but I also understand Yuuri, wanting to look cute... Seriously, what is this feeeliiiiing..."
Yuuri comes over, showing off the CD happily. Futaba doesn't quite manage to sound sincere when she congratulates, so Yuuri starts noticing that something's off.
Later, Futaba sits outside, beneath a window, wondering if she can't manage to like Kou quietly without ever saying anything to anyone. It's not like he sees her as a girl, anyway, so she doesn't stand a chance, right?
Then Kou comes jumping out the window, and they both yell in surprise when they see each other. Kou quickly puts his hand over her mouth, telling her to be quiet, and Futaba freaks out over their proximity. Kou's running from Tanaka-sensei as usual, who wants to eat dinner with him again. Kou holds Futaba's head down when Tanaka-sensei passes by the window. Yeah. This is Aoharaido. So much touching.
Futaba asks why Kou won't even have dinner with Tanaka-sensei. That's much should be fine, right? But Kou just gives a small smile, his hand sliding off her head. Futaba is smart enough to realize this is the "please stop asking" kind of silence, so she really does stop asking. Then Kou catches the smell of her hair again, asking if she changed her shampoo. She says yeah, "because I want you to think I'm hot." And Kou is like, "Ah... I see what you mean. If you don't say stuff like that so it's obvious you're joking, it's a bit hard to respond." Pssh, no one's joking! Stop fooling yourselves, both of ya.
Anyway, then Kou climbs back in the window, and Futaba has that realization that took Ninako in SE quuuuite a lot longer to have; when you like someone, you won't want to stay quietly looking at them from afar forever. You'll want to make an effort to be liked in return.
Kou says over his shoulder that Yuuri was looking for her, and that she seemed to be a bit worried about her. Futaba thinks of how she knows Yuuri is a sweet person. A really good friend, someone important she doesn't want to lose. But that's exactly why she needs to be honest with her. Then it'll be up to Yuuri whether they'll continue to be friends or not.
So when Yuuri asks her to stop by a coffee shop with her on the way home, she says yes with a sad little smile, thinking: "I might lose a good friend today."
.
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...Continues in a month!
Bikku's notes: Futaba thought a lot this chapter, haha. Actually, she always thinks a lot, doesn't she. But yeah. I expect she really will tell Yuuri next chapter. So I look forward to that. Might make things interesting. I really don't want to see Futaba even trying to give up for Yuuri's sake, because that would be typical and boring, and I might cry. But at least Yuuri really is sweet, and not that annoying type of random-girl-in-love-with-the-male-lead who sneaks around plotting evil. Anyway, other than that, Kou and Futaba are cute together, as usual! Cute and touchy-feely! XD
Minchi's notes: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG, why so awesome, damn you, Kou >_<. Hope Futaba can deal with Yuuri. Please Sakisaka Io, surprise me (in a good way, of course xD).