Special Chapter 1.2: The Story of When Hitomi Rejected Nako (and regretted it afterwards)

Now, before you continue, there are a few things you need to know about one Honda Hitomi.

Hitomi, daughter of a loving family back in the tranquil prefecture of Tochigi, was a studious girl who never said things she didn’t mean. She always took her time to mull over her options before making a decision. Whether it was a result of her upbringing or just her nature, she would grow up to be known for her quiet, calm personality - with the occasional witty savagery that appeared when you’d least expect it.

So when Honda Hitomi, recently blonde university student met an outgoing, friendly girl by the name of Nako, you’d imagine they wouldn’t click at all. Or maybe it made more sense that they did, since introverts made friends by being adopted by extroverts.

Hitomi found Nako, petite in stature but giant in presence, quite an interesting girl. Their time spent together in tutorials involved Hitomi writing down everything and Nako doing nothing except stare at her with a silly grin on her face. And yet, somehow, Nako had done the impossible - impossible to Hitomi, at least - by consistently achieving high marks in weekly quizzes and getting all her assignments done on time despite not paying attention in class at all.

It didn’t really bother Hitomi that much, though. She just needed to work harder, and she’d be able to achieve the same things - that much she was sure of.

But when she fell asleep during a rather crucial lecture, she went into a full-blown panic. Or at least she was five seconds into one before Nako showed off her lectures notes that she took down (for the first time in her university life) just for Hitomi’s sake. So Hitomi was obviously grateful to her, and invited her to her cheerleading practice.

And then Nako confessed. Hitomi was pretty sure it was a confession, but it was so out of the blue and she was just recovering from her performance high, so the words that came out of went something like this: “Haha are you sure I don’t think we should though?”

A week and fourteen hours later, these words still echoed in Hitomi’s mind. She winced, cursing her crassness. The confession may have been quite unexpected, but surely she could have formulated a better reply. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Nako - no, that’s ridiculous, they’re friends after all - but Hitomi just didn’t see Nako… that way. She never realised that Nako fancied her, but thinking back to all the times Nako’s cheeks would turn a very pretty pink when they were together, it should have been expected.

See, that was the other thing. It should have been expected, except Hitomi was too dense to pick it up. So now she was essentially risking her very good friendship with Nako because of her linguistic inelegance. Picking up her phone, she debated texting the petite girl. But what was she to say? 

“Sorry for rejecting you”? No, that sounded too tactless, she didn’t need to remind Nako about that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” That just made Hitomi sound like she was playing with Nako’s feelings, which Lord knows she’d never do.

“LOL so what was that about during practice huh?” Okay, she’d would never send something as stupid as that, please.

She typed words, deleted, and retyped. And as she mulled over what would be an appropriate text to send, Hitomi fell asleep.

Waking up the next morning, Hitomi was aghast. In the end, she never sent a text to Nako to clear everything up. To make it worse, her first and only tutorial of the day was Korean Literature, which she shared with Nako. It was probably too late for her to send any sort of decent message to Nako by now. She’d just have to steel herself and face the consequences of her actions today.

When she arrived at her tutorial ten minutes late, she expected a couple of things. One of them was Nako not being willing to look at her, let alone talk to her; the other was her sitting in the back for the first time in her life. Both would be entirely her fault, and she totally understood that.

And yet neither happened, for the second Hitomi pushed the door open Nako, who was sitting near the front, immediately brightened and waved her over. The petite girl’s hand patted the empty chair next to her, encouraging Hitomi to sit next to her.

Wasn’t it awkward, Hitomi wondered, inviting the person who rejected you to sit together? But who was she to argue? Nodding to the tutor in apology, Hitomi quickly took her place next to Nako to avoid disturbing the rest of the class. Taking out her notebook and a pen, she started to take notes down, as per her usual. Every so often she’d take a quick glance at Nako out of the corner of her eye, trying to find the right time to talk to the girl. But Nako was so focused on the tutor today, writing down things and nodding along, that Hitomi wondered whether she had accidentally entered an alternate universe where the tables had turned.

Nako immediately started to pack up after class ended. She slung her bag over her shoulder, ready to head out. Surging up from her seat, Hitomi grabbed Nako’s arm to stop her from leaving. “Nako, wait-!”

Nako turned around, her eyebrows raised. “Yes, Hitomi?”

Her voice was the same as before, tone and body language still as friendly, yet Hitomi felt that something was different, off. “Um,” Hitomi held Nako’s wrist in a loose grip as she stuffed her things into her bag, “can we talk? About that day?”

“What day?” Nako’s gaze flitted away to watch the other students file out of the room. “And what are we talking about?”

“A-about you, and I, and… the confession…”

“Oh, that.” Nako laughed and shook her head. “It’s just that you were too amazing that day, you know, doing backflips and everything, so I thought ‘wow, Hitomi’s really cool, I’d like to date her’. But you said no, so it’s nothing for you to worry about any more.”

“Nako, I-”

“Hey!” A cheerful voice interrupted Hitomi. She looked up to see none other than her cheerleading captain, Nayoung, standing in the doorframe. “Cutie, you ready to go?”

“Nayoung?” Hitomi frowned. “I don’t remember us scheduling practice for today though?”

Chuckling, Nayoung formed a small ‘X’ with her hands. “Not you, Hii-chan. I’m talking to the cute girl you’re holding on to.”

“Huh?”