[FFML] [orig] Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko Chapter 6: Don't You Understand?

[Abdiel]

There was something that Tomoyuki Yamamoto and resident Class 2B pretty
boy Kanemoto had in common aside from being classmates in second year
and sharing the homophonic "moto" part of their last name.

They were also classmates previously in middle school.

Back then, although Tomoyuki wasn't known as a Cherry Boy yet (because
in middle school, most of the boys were virgins by default), he had a
nasty mouth and he loved winning arguments. He was a beta male by the
dictionary meaning of the term, in that he served as a sycophantic "Yes
Man" and gopher to all his upperclassmen and delinquent classmates in
order to avoid becoming the bottom of the schoolyard food chain.

It was actually Kanemoto who helped mold Yamamoto to turn into the
unassuming nice guy he was nowadays. It happened like this... A gay kid
from the other section had been seen hanging around the (even then)
handsome Kanemoto. Tomoyuki took that opportunity to join in on the
needling of the popular kid who'd picked on him in the past for being a
bastard, mostly as a means to fit in and partly because of revenge.

It was a basic sociological law that schoolchildren observed by
instinct. In order for a kid to not end up as the butt of everyone's
jokes, he should find someone weaker than him to bully so that even
though he wasn't an "apex predator", he wouldn't end up the absolute
bitch of the entire student body.

However, at the time, Yamamoto aimed a bit too high, with him ending
up teasing the absolute top of the food chain in a bid to make himself
look good. That was obviously a mistake, like a rat annoying a tiger.

Tomoyuki saw this as his opportunity to be the guy that put the great,
handsome super athlete Kanemoto in his place and raise up his own stock
so he wouldn't merely be a beta male gopher whom the girls avoided.

The latest Kamen Rider's protagonist had the same name as the gay dude
whom Kanemoto's buddies teased him with, so Yamamoto had the bright
idea of "subtly" singing the theme of the series while sitting beside
the popular kid.

However, his teasing stopped and things went back to normal around the
time Kanemoto gave Yamamoto this speech:

"You're a funny guy, Yamamoto-kun. You have quite the mouth on you too.
Now tell me, do you have any real friends? Are there any girls in our
school who would even dare give you a second glance? I've heard one of
them say you look like a shaved money and no one in their right mind
would ever trust a weasel like you. Meanwhile, I've already had several
girls confess their love to me."

"W-Who cares? You turned them all down, didn't you? Must be because you
like dicks instead. And you're such a pretty boy, you even got a dude
interested in you. I guess that only means you're actually interested in
guys, huh?" retorted Tomoyuki while wiping the snot off of his nose. He
was on the verge of tears thanks to Kanemoto's hurtful words.

"No, you're not listening." Kanemoto's sneering, unfazed smile never
left his face, Yamamoto's insults rolling off his back, as though he
weren't a threat at all... and he wasn't (this was before Kanemoto even
became part of the judo club, at that).

"What have you accomplished in your life aside from being known in this
school as the bitch snitch no one wants to be friends with while all the
jocks used you as their personal gopher of sorts? Think about that for a
minute before trying to take me on."

And with that, Kanemoto defeated Yamamoto without even needing to throw
a single punch. Thanks to Tomoyuki's frustration, he went ahead and
picked a fight with someone weaker than him, shoving the brace-faced kid
around and slapping his noggin hard for overhearing and laughing at the
"ice burn" that the popular kid gave him.

This eventually led to Yamamoto's first (and last) fist fight. However,
the braces-wearing kid recognized that Tomoyuki was an oversensitive
chump and refused to submit to the snitching, bullying beta male coward.

Naturally, when everything was said and done, Tomoyuki ended up with a
bleeding nose for his troubles. Only a single punch of his landed on the
other kid (he even had to psyche himself up to make that punch land). He
then covered his face to keep the other guy from continuing to smash his
nose in. Like a bitch.

So pathetic.

Ever since then, the asthmatic, loudmouthed snitch kept to himself in
embarrassment of his past behavior. He never tried to sycophantically
win anyone's favor or go along with any bullying attempts in light of
the bullying he received from bitching out in his fight against the
braces kid and getting outright humiliated by Kanemoto.

He learned his place in the class hierarchy from then on. He decided
he'd rather be known as the dogged nice guy rather than the tattletale
who was pathetic enough to pick a fight against an unrelated, innocent
person in order to vent his frustration over being humiliated by a jock
he attempted to foolishly "bully".

He had no right to complain about being bullied in light of his past
exploits.


========================================================================


Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko
An Anime-Inspired Original Story from 4chan's /a/ Board
By Abdiel
Original Idea by Hataki
http://www.fictionpress.com/s/3206139/

Who's to say whether or not a person is worthy of someone's love? Can
people be worthy or not be worthy of love, at that?


========================================================================

Chapter 6: Don't You Understand?

========================================================================


Friday afternoon, at the convenience store near their neighboring homes,
Miku Machida (Class Representative of Section 2B) and Tomoyuki Yamamoto
(the so-called Virgin King and Cherry Boy of the same class) ate a light
snack together.

"You want a sandwich?" asked Machida as she opened her lunchbox on the
dining table of the establishment and took a seat.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm good with chips," Yamamoto assured as he took a sip
of his soda.

As expected, Miku began by talking about the "alternate universe" story
that Tomoyuki was supposedly developing as a sort of ice breaker of
sorts. Of course, contrary to her belief, everything was real. He really
did manage to contact a Seiko Okamoto from another universe. From his
cell phone to hers, no less. In fact, this Okamoto was head-over-heels
in love with him.

Or rather, she was head-over-heels in love with Yamamoto's own AU self,
who managed to not only win the affection of AU Seiko, but also AU
Miku! He had no idea how his other-dimensional self ended up being such
a Casanova or Valentino, but he was certainly jealous of him.

'He's probably nothing like me save for the asthma and the fact that he
cross-dressed when he was a kid.'

After he'd updated Miku about his "fictional" story regarding AU
versions of themselves, he went straight to the point regarding why his
bullies were bullying him and what happened afterwards.

He even told her about the call that Seiko... this universe's one, not
the AU one... gave him, although he skipped the part about the Amazon
Queen crying about Sugata hooking up with Machida.

"Oh... so Seiko-chan did what she did because you reminded her of her
middle school days as the Bully Hunter, huh?" said Miku while twirling
the straw inside her cup. "Boy, you two sure have gotten closer in the
last few weeks. Did AU Seiko help you out in regards to that?"

Yamamoto almost choked on his own drink after hearing that. After
Machida gave him heaps of tissue paper to clear his nasal passages, he
said, "Well, don't get your hopes up. I'm still in the Friend Zone."

"Oh... So she's still in love with Sugata-kun, isn't she?" came another
one of the closet fujoshi's questions. Good thing Tomoyuki didn't take a
second sip from his can, or else he would've choked again. "Don't look
so surprised, jeez. Everyone in the class except maybe Sugata-kun
himself knows that Seiko-chan is in love with him."

"Hmm... Yeah..." murmured Tomoyuki while he blew on his soda until
bubbles and fizz started to come out on top of the can's lid.

"Stop that. You look like a petulant child," giggled Machida before she
waxed pensive herself. "Y-You know...!"

"What?"

"T-There's nothing going on with me and Sugata-kun! We're just friends!
He only wanted to apologize for seeing me cosplay back in the roof of
the school building, that's all!"

Yamamoto blinked. "But you were holding hands..."

"Ah, I knew people would misunderstand! I had trouble keeping up with
him when we heard there was a commotion involving you and those three
bullies again, so he held my hand to help keep up with my own running
pace..." said Machida while twiddling her thumbs. "You believe me, don't
you?"

Suddenly, the labels of the nearby stack of instant noodle bowls seemed
suddenly interesting to the red-faced Yamamoto. "I-It's not as if it's
any of my business or anything. I mean, you did friendzone me and
whatnot."

"Oh, can't you give it a rest? That's not even a verb! You keep
bringing that up during our conversations," pouted Miku while lightly
kicking one of Tomoyuki's legs underneath the table. The two then both
laughed.

"It's been a while since we both talked like this," said Yamamoto while
wiping a tear from his eye.

"Mmm," the Class Rep nodded and did a closed-mouth smile. "I missed
this."

"Why did you friendzone me?" asked Tomoyuki.

"U-Uh... w-well... I-I... d-do I really have to answer?" Miku
stuttered while shaking a bit.

"Oh, don't misunderstand, I'm not hitting on you or anything." Yamamoto
raised his hands up in surrender until he saw Miku visibly relax. "I
mean, I still remember that speech you gave me about Nice Guys until
now. You're absolutely right. Being nice and having nothing else to
bring to the table doesn't attract girls, it's all about self-
confidence."

Miku adjusted her glasses, the glint from the nearby light fixture
hiding her bright, wide eyes. "You still remember what I said back then,
huh?"

"It's one of the best 'Let's just be friends' speeches I've ever heard.
I was really moved," admitted Tomoyuki. "Anyway, did I creep you out?
I've had to have creeped you out, right?"

Miku let out a sigh and a glance of what Yamamoto recognized as pity.
"Well..."

"I knew it!"

"It's not your fault! You had an... aggressive way of approaching women,
I guess. You were always staring at me. It took me a while to figure out
you were harmless. I also didn't know you much back then, so maybe I
kind of, sort of thought of you as a..."

Yamamoto's shoulders sagged as he rested his head on the table. "...A
stalker, right?" came his muffled voice.

"...Yeah. Sorry, Yamamoto-kun."

"It's quite all right. I need to learn the truth early on."

He was also dying to ask Miku, "If I changed my approach and I didn't
come off as a stalker, would you have said yes and gone out with me?"
but she looked panicked enough already when he first brought up the
subject. She looked uncomfortable enough as it was when he brought up
the subject of romance between the two. No need to stir up old,
painful memories.

It was already a small miracle that she ended up _really_ becoming his
friend after she friendzoned him, as opposed to all the ladies he
wooed who "friendzoned" him so that he would leave them alone and
never talk to them again.

While covering her face, Machida asked, "So if Seiko-chan is still in
love with Sugata-kun, then you're...?"

"...Yeah. I'm still in her Friend Zone. No surprises there," Yamamoto
said as casually as he could, but his quibbling lower lip ruined the
effect he was going for.

"However, she _did_ save you from being humiliated by Matsuda and
company yet again, so..."

"No. She did it because she wanted to be nice to me in return after I
listened to her problems with Sugata the day before on the phone,"
insisted Yamamoto.

"Okay, okay!" reassured the Section 2B Class Representative. "Pardon me.
I misunderstood."

"Ugh. I'm sorry I snapped at you, it's just... Aaargh," gurgled Tomoyuki
as he grabbed whole tufts of his hair. "It's so frustrating."

"What's so frustrating?"

"Me! I was enjoying the attention of people misunderstanding Okamoto's
actions, deluding myself into thinking that she became my girlfriend.
I'm lower that dirt. I wasn't exactly in any rush to correct their
assumptions. It serves me right if Okamoto hates me right now. She
should've slapped me instead of Sugata."

Miku pushed her glasses to the tip of her nose and squirmed in her
seat. "You can't be sure that she's angry with you."

"She should be. I acted like a jackass."

"Look, it's okay for you to feel a little giddy about people thinking
that Seiko-chan and you are going out. You couldn't stop talking about
her ever since she became part of our class."

"But it's wrong. I want to fix things back to the way they were, but I
don't know how. I don't want her to hate me for not telling the truth.
But..."

"But...?"

"But I don't want to hear her say that she still loves Sugata. I don't
know what I'll do if she told me that, but I don't want her to hate me
either."

"...."

"Like I said, I'm lower than dirt. I'd rather let the lie spread because
I'm too cowardly to face facts about Okamoto."

Miku finished up the remnants of her soft drink and stared at Yamamoto.
"You're not a bad person. I know how you feel. Seiko-chan has been
giving me the cold shoulder lately too because she misunderstood what's
going on between me and Sugata-kun."

She took a deep breath. "I'm not in the position to tell you what to do
because I'm not even brave enough to confront Seiko-chan about Sugata-
kun, but... please don't change. Please remain exactly the way you are."

"What? What do you mean?" Yamamoto scratched his head. "You just called
me creepy a while ago. I'm so pathetic that I ended up being friendzoned
by every last attractive female in this school, including you. I'm so
desperate to gain a girlfriend, that I allowed a rumor about Okamoto and
I dating to spread without bothering to correct anyone. What's so great
about me?"

"...I've always envied you. You live life the way you want to live it.
Even though you've been rejected by countless women, you keep trying.
Everyone knows how earnest and honest you are."

Despite how rude it sounded, Tomoyuki couldn't help but snort at Miku's
claim about his honesty. "Is that sarcasm I hear?"

Machida clarified, "_Even though_ you say you were being dishonest by
allowing people to think that Seiko-chan and you were dating, _at least_
you were brave enough to let your romantic intentions to Seiko-chan be
clear from the start. Even if you weren't being honest with others, at
least you were being honest with yourself. I wish I could live my life
the same way you do."

Yamamoto wasn't completely clear where the conversation was going, but
he figured it had something to do with Miku's closeted otaku (actually,
fujoshi) tendencies. Even with AU Seiko's help, he remained clueless
in regards to what women wanted.

"There's nothing about my life you could be envious of. I'm not as brave
as you think I am. I'm a coward and I've hurt Okamoto badly because of
my cowardice. I'm sorry, but I believe you're wrong about me, Machida."

"No, I'm not. Trust me. I know you better than most the people in our
class do. I'm even closer to you than some of my family, friends, and
relatives. You don't have to ask me what you need to do. I know you're
going to do the right thing anyway."

"M-Machida...?"

"Thanks for the drinks. I'll see you in school next week."

She then left without another word as Yamamoto stared, mouth agape at
her svelte, retreating form. She even ended up bumping onto several bags
of chips that fell on the floor as she made her hasty exit, apologizing
to the store manager as she put them back to their shelves.

'What just happened?' asked Yamamoto to himself.


===


Tomoyuki expected AU Seiko to call him and scream his ear off by the
time he gathered the guts to call her one late Saturday morning, but
instead, she did the total opposite of what he was expecting.

"I couldn't contact you the whole day after we were cut off! When I
called, the line said that your phone is turned off and it may be out of
coverage area! What happened? I was so worried I've lost your number
forever...!"

It took a few minutes of reassurance before AU Seiko went back to her
old sarcastic, unfazed self, but Tomoyuki couldn't help but indulge a
bit in seeing Okamoto so worried about him instead of Sugata for once
(even though this was a different Seiko).

"So what happened yesterday? Why were we cut off?"

"My battery died. I'll mail you next time that happens, okay? I'm so
sorry I made you worry."

He decided to not tell AU Seiko about what had happened. As usual, his
best friend Machida was correct. He knew what he wanted to do to make
things right. It wasn't going to be pretty, and he wasn't certain if it
was going to work (or if Okamoto was going to hate him even more
afterwards), but he definitely had something he had to get out of his
chest, humiliation be damned.

For now, he didn't want to think about it. "You know what? You've been
getting the short end of the stick in our conversations. Tell me what
you've been up to."

"Eh? Me? Well... Same old, same old. I'm still firmly stuck in the
Friend Zone with your other self, who's head-over-heels in love with
Miku-chin," she revealed.

"Oh, _come on_! Don't tell me my cross-dressing story didn't let you
progress any further with my other, Casanova self!" he said, realizing
later that what he stated sounded unintentionally sarcastic.

"Unless you call 'fidgets uncomfortably whenever I bring the cross-
dressing up' as  'progress', then no, there hasn't been any progress!"
she answered.

"Hey, does AU Tomoyuki have... asthma attacks and the like?" he asked.

She responded, "Come to think of it, yeah. He does get excused from PE
quite a lot."

"Huh. And does he suck at sports like I do?"

"He sucks as much as a Kabukicho Night Club hostess during Happy Hour."

"Sounds about right. They only let me play for comic relief back here in
my universe." The Cherry Boy then probed, "But really? He sucks at
sports too? I would've thought that the Don Juan version of myself
would've somehow gotten over his asthma attacks."

"You're not suggesting I rescue him in the middle of an asthma attack or
something in order to get his attention, right?" she queried.

"I'm not sure that's going to work in a romantic sense, but if you save
his life, he'll certainly be eternally grateful to you," he replied.

"So what do I do? Make him run laps then send him to the clinic?" she
asked further.

"What? No! I was kidding! Don't make him run laps, he'd know you're the
one who triggered his asthma! You might even traumatize him for life!"

"So there's no way for me to take advantage of his disease?"

"Listen to yourself for a minute. _That_ right there is the reason why
you can't get a date with the other me."

"...Uh, I was kidding too."

"Suuure. That sounds legit."

"I asked for advice, not witty banter!"

"I wouldn't call it witty."

"Come on, Cherry Boy!"

"Fine, fine. What have you two been talking about?"

"As I said earlier... Miku-chin."

Yamamoto laughed. "You're still on that topic? You have _no_ right to
call me a doormat any longer. You're no better than me."

"Well, at least _you_ have been a better wingman helping you smoothen
things out with my other self."

"Ha! All you did is help me get stuck in the same predicament as you
have. At least you're dealing with a new and improved version of myself
back in your world."

"All right. I get the hint. What gave you the impression that you're a
Casanova back in my world?" asked Seiko.

"He isn't? I mean, he got both you and Machida fall for him," said
Tomoyuki.

"Stop talking as if Yamamoto-kun... my Yamamoto-kun... is some sort of
Gigolo version of you. He's not. If anything, you both possess the same
amount of cluelessness and denseness. Case in point."

"Your argument is moot. He's not called the Virgin King or Cherry Boy
back there in your dimension, plus he managed to snag Machida and you to
boot. He _is_ a Gigolo version of me."

"If he really were a player, I wouldn't be after him. Besides, Miku-
chin herself told me that when they first met, his attitude petrified
her. He kept staring at her but never talked to her, like some sort of
stalker."

After a few minutes of dead silence from Tomoyuki, Seiko cursed and
asked, "Dammit, Yamamoto-kun! Did you cut me off again?"

"No, no, no! I'm still here. What you said just got me thinking. What
the heck did you see in me... I mean, my other self... anyway?" Yamamoto
asked.

"What do you mean?" she inquired in kind.

"If he's as asthmatic, clueless about love, and un-athletic as I am,
then why would you want to bother dating him anyway? And please don't
tell me it's because he's a nice guy."

"Hmmm. Fishing for compliments, aren't we?" Okamoto giggled.

"It's either that, or we could talk about AU Machida instead and how she
fell in love with AU Me," threatened Tomoyuki.

She groaned. "Okay, fine. I've had enough talks about Machida for one
day... and yes, you may call me a doormat too, if you must. Birds of a
feather and all that."

He chortled. "So what did you like so much about me?" he asked while the
words that Machida said floated in his mind, particularly her claims
that she was envious of him for some reason.

"You're as loyal a friend as those I've had back home in Hiroshima.
Everyone else was frightened by me and my tallness. Other girls wouldn't
even befriend me when I first came here. The two of you, Miku-chin and
yourself, made me feel welcome in Tokyo. Like I found another Megu-chin
and Sugata-kun, my friends back home. I thought I'd lost my two best
friends forever when they hooked up and I ended up being the third
wheel of their romance. I'm not much better now, but I'm glad I have
people I could count on here in Tokyo too."

"So I was... loyal? That's what attracted you to me? I mean, my other
self?" asked the Cherry Boy, unable to hide the incredulity in his
voice. What was so great about being loyal?

"You were always there for me. You did your best to make me fit right at
home even though I may have thought you were a stalker of some sort the
first time I met you."

"Seriously? Again?"

"...Again?"

"Never mind. Why did you think I'm a stalker?"

"It's your eyes, dude. They can stare right into people's souls. That,
and you don't speak much except around close friends... but when you're
comfortable enough to talk, you're the wittiest person around."

"A classic introvert, huh? I don't believe it. Even my other self is,
like, everything that Sugata isn't..."

"Maybe that's exactly what I needed."

"But I'm weak and asthmatic and you're... Wonder Woman or something."

"Wonder Woman? Please. You called me a transvestite when we had our
first fight over the phone."

"I was only remembering one of the names that Sugata used to tease you!
I mean, the other you. Besides, I barely knew either of you two Okamotos
until I started talking to you in particular. You're still Wonder Woman
to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

She cleared her throat.

"Well, to answer your question, if you think I'm incapable of loving
someone like you, then you don't know me at all. I fell for you... your
other self... because I felt like you wouldn't betray me."

"Amazon Queen..."

"Oh, pardon me. I meant I thought your other self wouldn't betray me.
Would you do the same as your other self?"

"Of course. Betraying you is the last thing I'd want to do."

He could hear her exhale a long, deep breath. "So whatever happened to
my advice? I thought you had some sort of trick up your sleeve to make
Yamamoto-kun fall head over heels in love with me."

"Have you tried not talking about Machida?"

"I wish I could, but I could barely talk to him about anything else. I
don't know what's wrong, really, since I could talk to you about
anything quite easily."

"Talk to him about classic movies."

"...You like classic movies? Why haven't you told me that? _We_ could've
talked about that!"

"I guess we already have too much to talk about in regards to our love
lives."

"You got a point. What sort of movies do you like?"

"It's a bit cliche, but I love jidai geki films. Like those made by
Kurosawa. I can't get enough of those."

"But I don't know anything about those films!"

"Well, you should try getting Blu-Rays of them. They're in black and
white, but they're also real masterpieces. Japanese treasures, if you
will."

"Wow. I've gotten actual advice from you. I'm impressed. I almost feel
guilty about not sharing any advice to you in return."

"Think nothing of it. Maybe we can talk about your advice later."

"No, no. I'm in your debt. I know a surefire way to win over my other
self."

That made Tomoyuki perk up. "I'm all ears," he said.

"The secret to Okamoto Seiko's heart is through her..."

"...Stomach?"

"Of course not, you virginal moron! It's...!"


===


Monday, around the time homeroom started...

Seiko Okamoto... the non-AU version of her that resided in the same
plane of existence as the non-AU Tomoyuki Yamamoto... stood mouth agape
as she opened the door to the classroom and watched Yamamoto deliver his
speech to the class.

She went in late to school that day, which almost made Tomoyuki not go
through with his confession at the front of the class because he thought
she was going to be absent that day.

Almost.

Earlier before she arrived, he considered talking to Sugata about the
matter regarding Seiko's rescue of him in private, but the rumors
wouldn't go away unless he clarified his position and talked to everyone
in the class.

Fortunately, the homeroom teacher... Miss Kitamura, a plump 24 year old
with horn-rimmed glasses, buck teeth, and a huge posterior that many a
male member of the class stared at, hypnotized while it bounced as she
wrote on the chalkboard... allowed Yamamoto to call the attention of
his raucous classmates. He wouldn't have been able to do so on his own.

Unfortunately, out of all the classes they usually skipped, the trio of
Matsuda, Ishiguro, and Kanemoto chose homeroom to come to class.
Naturally, they gave Yamamot a hard time.

"Wohoo! Strip! Strip!" Matsuda chanted while clapping his hands in the
air. Soon, the rest of the class started chanting along with him, while
Yamamoto could only grin and bear it. Even though it was accidental, the
Cherry Boy was glad his punch landed on Matsuda's balls. He only wished
he could've punched his testicles harder.

The chubby homeroom teacher... a nice instructor through and through
(although there were rumors of her being a rocker chick interested in
underground music from both local and foreign musicians)... shushed the
rest of the class so that Tomoyuki could speak.

To say that Yamamoto wasn't good with speeches was an understatement. He
always somehow ended up embarrassing himself in front of the class one
way or another, either by his own actions or the actions of the people
that bullied him; case in point, Matsuda again.

"I think he's going to cry..." one of the girls in front murmured. She
was a raven-haired, pretty young thing that outright rejected him when
he asked her out instead of even giving him the "Let's just be friends,"
speech. She found him disgusting, if memory served him correctly.

His trauma came flooding back at an inopportune moment.

Back in elementary, he was supposed to recite a poem for a contest. He
couldn't remember much about it except it involved holding up a one
thousand yen note. It was about a boy who found this bill and how he was
going to spend it. However, because he was so besought with stage
fright, he ended up crying on stage, wailing and gnashing his teeth
while snot flew out of his nose.

'Dammit, why did I have to remember _that_ memory now of all times?' he
thought. For somebody who tried so hard to not stand out, he sure had a
nasty habit of getting into these attention-getting situations.
Nevertheless, he was able to blurt out, "N-Now I'm sure you're all
wondering why I came forward today..."

The sudden, deafening silence as he began speaking always fascinated and
horrified him to no end. People were gathered, having fun, and then he'd
open his mouth, and like the vacuum of space, silence always followed.

Perhaps he was one of those "Kuuki Yomenai" type of people who
consistently failed to read the mood, so to speak, but his ability to
shut people up in rapt, perhaps morbid, fascination really did amuse and
dismay him.

He then choked on his own words as social anxiety took hold of his
heart. What was he supposed to say? That the Amazon Queen wasn't in love
with him? No shit, she wasn't! The class didn't need to know something
they'd already figured out. He was already being jeered behind his back
as the creepy poser who took advantage of Seiko's niceness in order to
free himself of his infamous "Cherry Boy" reputation.

Also, wasn't he troubling Seiko by coming in front of the class and
airing dirty laundry? It was none of their business whether or not she
was seeing anyone. She was the only one who had the right to reveal to
Sugata her feelings for him, and yet here he was, on the verge of
exposing her feelings to his classmates without a second thought! He
really did need to learn how to read the mood.

"Duuurr..." was the sound effect Matsuda made as Yamamoto just stood
there, slack-jawed and unable to speak. The whole classroom burst into
laughter, although in fairness some of Tomoyuki's classmates had the
decency to withhold their mirth behind books, notebooks, and hands.

Damn, he hated that Matsuda bastard. He was about to leave the classroom
altogether to get away from his bully's heckling when the sliding doors
burst open and out stood the "late" (as in she didn't arrive to class on
time) Seiko Okamoto.

"Ooh! The plot thickens!" one of his girl classmates said with a squeal.

Yamamoto swallowed the lump in his throat, his eyes meeting Okamoto's as
she gave him a perplexed look while mouthing his name. He remembered
what Miku said to him about his strong points, particularly regarding
his ability to "Do the right thing", whatever that meant.

His eyes met Machida as she sat at the second row, her hands clasped
together and her eyes squeezed shut in either prayer for his success or
inward cringing at how he was humiliating himself. His eyes then avoided
Matsuda and went straight to Kanemoto, his "bully" all the way back in
middle school. The handsome heartthrob and judo captain was absolutely
right about him not achieving much, then and now.

He was nothing compared to the likes of Kanemoto or Sugata, for sure.
But he also recalled how hurt Seiko looked when several people presumed
that she was now in love with him instead of the delinquent,
particularly when Kazuhito himself congratulated him for a job well
done.

Even if he was less than dirt by the standards of those two high school
studs, he wanted to do the right thing. He didn't always succeed, but at
least some people, like the Class Rep, recognized his good intentions,
no matter where they led.

"P-Please don't misunderstand! The Amazon... I mean, Okamoto and I are
just friends. She helped me out last week from getting humiliated again
in front of everyone, and people misunderstood what she did..."

Yamamoto looked Sugata straight in the eyes, although he said nothing
more for fear of stealing Seiko's thunder when it came to her big love
confession.

A growing buzz began to circulate inside the classroom. Even Miss
Kitamura had to cover her mouth in seeming shock of the developments. He
coughed until the frog inside of his esophagus metaphorically jumped
out. His palms were sweaty and his hands hadn't stopped shaking, which
prompted him to hide them inside his pockets.

This was his big plan. He'd been thinking all weekend about it, and this
was the best solution he could come up with, unfortunately. He had to
let go of his romantic aspirations with Okamoto.

AU Seiko wasn't going to like this one bit, which was why he was forced
to lie to her on the phone. If _she_ were to hear about his harebrained
scheme to give up on her other self, she wouldn't have let him hear the
end of it.

Or rather, she might even interpret it as him giving up on _her_. He
also didn't want her to lose hope on bagging his (much better off and
more confident) AU self even though he had, for all intents and
purposes, lost completely to Sugata in terms of winning the "real"
Okamoto's affections.

It couldn't be helped. Ever since he got AU Seiko's number, this was
the closest he'd ever gotten to his world's Seiko, yet she still
couldn't let go of her (probably) lifelong infatuation with Kazuhito.
Perhaps having a version of Okamoto from another universe that was in
love with him was as good as it could ever get.

He only hoped that AU Okamoto had better luck with AU Yamamoto than he
did with Seiko.

Was he being a coward? Or was he merely being realistic? He couldn't
tell. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt Seiko's feelings, even
at the cost of his own feelings. So he continued, ignoring the expected
jeers from his classmates regarding his "presumptions" on certain
rumors that he himself allegedly circulated.

"I don't want to trouble Okamoto any longer, especially since she helped
me out when I was in a tight jam. You're all free to think what you want
to think, but as far as those rumors are concerned, this is the truth,
as many of you have probably figured out by now. T-That's all..."

Tomoyuki bowed his head low, blinked back his tears, and went straight
to his seat, only for him to be stopped by the Amazon Queen, who grabbed
his sleeve, turned him around, gave him a wink, and mouthed, "Thank you,
Yamamoto-kun."

It might have been only a pinprick to his heart, but that proverbial
needle felt as if it had been shoved deep into its center. He smiled,
nodded, and went back to his chair.

An asshole till the end, Matsuda stood up, grinned like an idiot, and
began applauding Yamamoto's speech. He didn't even care when none of the
rest of the Section 2B students followed suit.

"Why don't you give it a rest?" said Seiko from behind Matsuda before
she did a Ko Soto Gari on the pimple-ridden, big-headed, and freakishly
tall teenager, which involved pulling his leg up from the outside and
slamming him back on his seat.

_That_ was when the rest of the class applauded while Miss Kitamura did
her best to quiet them down.

Tomoyuki stared at his shoes the entire time the room went abuzz with
excitement because of the momentous events that happened during
homeroom, his eyes straying only once in time to see Sugata deliver an
apology to his childhood friend back in Hiroshima.

Yamamoto smiled with quivering lips and throbbing eyes as Okamoto beamed
at Kazuhito, as though the weight of the world had been lifted from her
shoulders and some such.

Yes, this was for the best.

"Hey, pal," said Kazuhito from behind Tomoyuki as the former grabbed
hold of the latter's shoulder and squeezed it. "Sorry about the
misunderstanding. It must have been really awkward to have people saying
that you and the Amazon Queen are an item. You're a nice guy. Sei-kun is
lucky to have a friend like you."

"It's no big deal. I'm not the kind of person who'll let such rumors
fly," reassured Yamamoto without bothering to meet Sugata's gaze, his
eyes fighting back tears. The Cherry Boy had yet another Friend Zone
"conquest" in Seiko Okamoto, it'd seem.


===


The first thing that occurred to Tomoyuki as the teacher droned on and
on about Japanese idioms was... what was the point of calling AU Seiko
now? He'd given up. He knew that he could never measure up to his AU
self or whoever it was that could steal the hearts of two ladies at the
same time.

This other Tomoyuki was like a version of himself he couldn't believe
existed. His other self was somehow able to hook up with not one, but
two of the girls he'd been clamoring for, the lucky bastard. He wished
he was as much of a suave, debonair ladies' man as the man whom he
shared the same face and body with.

His eyes met Machida's right after she answered the teacher's question.
She smiled, brushed a stray lock from her face, and winked as she sat
back down. He felt his cheeks grow warm.

Miku Machida. She was the one who helped him confess to the class the
truth about Seiko even though it was such an embarrassing thing to do.
She made him feel like he mattered. Her trust in him was what pulled
him through to survive such an mortifying experience that would've left
him in tears like that one time when he cried on stage while reciting
his lines for a poem.

She was the first girl who friendzoned him that actually ended up
becoming his friend, rather than another stranger who gave him the
"Let's just be friends" speech as lip service. She'd been a true friend
to him through thick and thin. Although they weren't childhood friend
or some other manga cliche, they at least became bosom buddies.

Must have something to do with the fact that she was his neighbor...
literally the girl next door. He thought he'd gotten over his crush on
Miku, but whenever she did things like encourage him, he couldn't help
but fall in love with her all over again. However, he'd be the first one
to shoot those thoughts down as well.

Damn, his heart was beating fast. Was he really this fickle in regards
to love? Did he simply fall in love with any girl that was remotely
nice to him? Probably. Even Miku was no exception to that "rule". Then
again, he wasn't completely clueless. Before this whole debacle with the
Amazon Queen started, he was already used to hearing whispers of a
different kind.

People have been speculating whether or not he and the Class Rep were
dating themselves. Of course, since he was the Virgin King and the
Cherry Boy, they naturally (and correctly) presumed he'd been
"friendzoned esto perpetua" by the Class Rep. But some of them believed
he'd lucked out. Some of them were actually cheering for him to succeed
with Machida. Deep in his heart, he also wished that their suspicions
were correct.

If he were playing a Dating Simulation Game, then the "flags" (events
that indicated whether he was doing good at wooing a virtual girl or
not) for Machida would be through the roof. Could anyone blame him for
thinking that her words of encouragement back in the convenience store
last Friday could be interpreted as her having feelings for him?

Could anyone blame him for thinking that their constant talks, constant
visits to each other's room, constant understanding of each other's
quirks, and so forth could be interpreted as the blossoming of true
love? When Miku told him that there was nothing going on between her
and Sugata, his heart fluttered with excitement.

It made him think, "Why would she tell me that? Why should she care if I
believe that she and Sugata were dating? Maybe she said it because the
person she really cares about is me." He wasn't, after all, as dense as
a typical protagonist of a rom com animated series or comic book title.
Those weren't the type of things that happened without reason.

But real life didn't work that way. He'd learned his lesson from before.
He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. After all, he learned
that quote about Nice Guys feeling entitled to sex just because they
were nice firsthand from Machida herself. He didn't want to lose the
best friend he never had because he kept misunderstanding her good
intentions as romantic gestures.

He wasn't being genuinely nice. A genuinely nice person would never ask
for anything in return, or expect that his niceness would equate to a
girl owing him sexual favors (which, in hindsight, was really scary from
a woman's perspective).

He'd overheard how Miku, while talking to other people who friendzoned
him, was scared to death of him when they first met. She hated how
intense he looked at her, how aggressive his body language was, how he
always used to stare directly into her eyes, how he would send her
incessant messages day in and day out, how he always ended up in the
places where she hung out, how he would hum a love song every time she
was near, how he kept invading her personal space...

Come to think of it, it was a miracle how Miku never called the cops on
him. He must've raised her stress levels to great heights because of all
his unwanted attention. The worst thing about that was he was totally
clueless that he'd been bothering her the whole time. She was too shy to
actually speak up, unlike the other girls who flat-out rejected him or
gave him the lip service of the "Let's just be friends" speech.

'I was nothing more than a creeper to her, wasn't I? A creepy, lowdown
stalker that wouldn't even give her space to breathe.' His reminiscences
of what happened the past year was making him cringe. These memories
were also the reasons why he wasn't so hasty in reading too much into
Machida's niceness. He'd already been rejected. It was over. Time to
move on.

Thing was, he did the same thing to his one-time savior from bullies,
the Amazon Queen (formerly known as the Bully Hunter), didn't he?

"HEY!" A spine-tingling slap to the back almost threw Tomoyuki out of
his chair. "What're you up to, Cherry Boy? Want to have lunch with me...
and Furyou-kun?"

"A-Ama... S-Sei... I mean, Okamoto!" Yamamoto swallowed his heart back
into his chest before it jumped out of his throat altogether. 'Dammit,
heart, I just said that I'm giving up on Seiko-chan altogether! Didn't
you get the memo?'

"Hey, is it all right for Cherry Boy to hang out with us, Furyou-kun?"
asked Seiko, which rattled Tomoyuki even more. 'Cherry Boy?' he thought.
'S-She's now calling me Cherry Boy?'

"Ah, sorry! I have to take a rain check on that, Amazon Queen! I have...
um... other stuff to do. But I'd love to hang out with you two sometime,
if you'd like!" Sugata said.

"Oh, man! You're a traitor, Furyou-kun! You said you're going to hang
out with me and Cheery Boy!" said Seiko with an adorable pout. For a
tomboy, she could act quite girlish at times.

There it was again. She said that name again. It sent a tingle in
Yamamoto's spine, every time Seiko called him "Cherry Boy". It was a
horrible name that his bullies came up with, but being called the slang
for virgin by his former crush trapped his mind in a whirlwind of
perverted thoughts.

He was being turned on by the idea of a girl calling him a virgin while
laughing at him. Was he a masochist?

'I shouldn't have visited that website about self-published porn comics
that Miku sent to me. It's giving me weird thoughts. Then again, at
least she didn't give me a _gay_ porn comic link...' he thought to
himself before he saw Kazuhito wink at Miku in the corner of his eye.

Was the Class Rep blushing? God dammit, 2B's Delinquent Playboy had
struck again!

"See you around, Cherry Boy. Take care of my idiot childhood friend for
me!" said Kazuhito.

"Yeah. Same to you, Furyou-kun," Yamamoto blurted out without thinking,
and he couldn't believe he said it even long after Kazuhito left because
of "Furyou-kun's" lack of a reaction to it. Tomoyuki smacked his own
head for his stupidity.

"What's the matter, Yamamoto-kun?" asked Okamoto.

"Ah, nothing. I accidentally called Sugata 'Furyou-kun.'" To himself,
he also appended, 'And I called Machida my childhood friend.'

"Oh, is that all? Don't worry about it, everyone calls him that!"

'That's not true at all,' thought Yamamoto glumly. He remembered the
time when some freshman decided to be too "fresh" with Kazuhito and
called him that. The kid ended up with a fat lip. 'Good thing Sugata was
in a good mood, I guess.'

Tomoyuki turned in time to meet Okamoto's gaze. "Well, I guess it's just
you and me for now. Shall we go?" she asked.

Yamamoto froze in his seat, unsure of what to do or how to respond.
Right after he said to the whole class that there was nothing going on
between him and the Amazon Queen, she was now inviting him to lunch?
How was he supposed to process this information?

Seiko tilted her head to the side. "You don't want to...?"

He almost had a heart attack then and there. He wanted so desperately to
go, eating lunch alone with Seiko and talking to her about news on the
UFC, the Karate championships, or whatever it was that he talked about
with her AU self, but he held back.

He should think about things logically. He already made his choice. He
resolved to forget about Seiko and concentrate on making her other self
happy. He was misunderstanding things again. He saw with his own eyes
the flicker of regret in Okamoto's face when her best childhood friend
turned down her invitation for lunch. She was _still_ very much in love
with Sugata. That never changed.

Right now, she was trying to be friendly with him. Nothing more.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll have to take a rain check too."

"What's the matter with you guys?" Seiko raised her armpit and smelled
it. "Do I stink or something? Why don't you want to hang out with me?"
asked Seiko. Before Yamamoto could answer, several boys who've overheard
their conversation vehemently denied her supposition.

"I can smell you from here, and I have to say, your shampoo is hardly
stinky."

"I can hang out with you for lunch if you want, Okamoto!"

"No, I'll hang out with you, Amazon Queen!"

"Hey, I asked her first! I call dibs!"

"What's wrong with you, Cherry Boy? Just because you got rejected, now
you're trying to reject the Amazon Queen for revenge?"

"Ah, no..." Tomoyuki met Seiko's mesmerizing eyes again. It was a good
thing he was sitting down, or else he would've stumbled all over
himself. She was as beautiful as always. However, like with Miku, he
needed to be firm with his decision, or else he'd end up hurting
himself and Okamoto because of the uncontrollable desires of his heart.

He smiled. "I'll definitely take you up on your offer next time. I just
have something to do right now. Thanks for asking, though."

She smiled as well. "Tomorrow, then? It's a promise." She lightly
punched him on the shoulder, which made his cheeks warm. His classmates
might have or have not taunted him for acting so embarrassed, but he
couldn't tell. He was too distracted.

Even though he said that there was nothing between him and Okamoto right
in front of the class... even though she rejected his love confession,
confided to him about her true love over the phone, and had an alternate
universe version of her that was actually in love with him... his
feelings for her remained.

That was why he couldn't have lunch with her right now. His heart was
still confused. He needed to get over her for now. "I'll see you around,
then."

"Yeah. Bye, Cherry Boy. I look forward to tomorrow."

"B-Bye, Amazon... I mean, Okamoto."

The truth was, Yamamoto wasn't sure if he could have lunch with Okamoto
tomorrow either. Hopefully, she'd forget to ask or she'd have Sugata
with her so that it wouldn't be so awkward.

He left the classroom, his head in a daze. 'I should stop trying to wish
for something I can't have. All I'm doing is giving her trouble, just
like with Machida before, when I was trying to woo _her_.'

There was something bothering him at the back of his mind, though.
Something that AU Seiko told him about her other self. What was it
again? Something about winning her through food and AU Seiko calling him
a virginal moron?

'The secret to Okamoto Seiko's heart is through her...' he remembered AU
Okamoto say. Dammit, he forgot what she said!

Oh well. It wasn't as if he could use that advice now.


===


In the middle of lunch, Yamamoto made a beeline to the roof deck of the
school. The reason for this was because he saw Sugata heading towards
the stairs that led to that place.

It was then that Tomoyuki remembered that Kazuhito saw Miku in cosplay
at the same place, which embarrassed the Class Rep to no end. The
Playboy Delinquent also asked the Virgin King about Machida's phone
number endlessly, until it was she herself who gave it to him.

Earlier, he decided to eat a sandwich instead of opening his bento and
consuming it in his lonesome so that lunch break would be over for him
as soon as possible. As for spare time, he could always hang out in the
library until the bell rang.

He was about to go to the men's room when he got a message from AU
Seiko. Finally, some good news; it was depressing to not be able to
hang out with either Okamoto or Machida because of his past feelings for
them resurfacing at the exact wrong time.

"Hey! Thanks for the advice! Your other self loves Jidai Geki films! I
had a great conversation with him in between classes about Sugata
Sanshiro! I think I even made Machida jealous," was what AU Okamoto sent
him sans the inane smiley faces and whatnot.

His heart sank. Damn, this was the first time he ever felt jealous of
himself.

How dare AU Seiko have a great time with AU Tomoyuki when he himself was
about to give up his love for Seiko in favor of her!

This was unfair. That traitor!

'This day sure sucked.' In hindsight, that Monday wasn't as bad as he
pictured it to be. The day that Okamoto told him she was in love with
another man (Kazuhito, to be exact) after he confessed to her was far
worse, and the embarrassing debacles between him and the bullies weren't
far behind the "worseness" scale. Today shouldn't even make it to his
top ten of worst days.

At any rate, Yamamoto by chance espied Kazuhito taking the stairs
straight to the roof, and now he couldn't decide whether he should
follow him or not.

Tomyuuki gulped as he stood at the foot of the stairs, trying to make up
his mind. Before he knew it, he was already at the other side of the
door to the roof, peering through the closed window. Sure enough, as he
suspected, Miku and Kazuhito were talking on the roof deck of the
building.

Damn his poor impulse control.

But then again... That bastard. How dare he. How could Sugata trample on
Okamoto's feelings like that? This was unforgivable. But wasn't what
Tomoyuki was doing right now even more unforgivable? He shouldn't
eavesdrop on people. It wasn't against the law, but it was definitely a
betrayal of Miku's trust; the very girl who helped him through his
recent bullying debacle.

'I should go,' he thought as he gave his best friend and his crush's
best friend one last, forlorn look. He then turned and ended up nose-
to-nose with the person he was planning to avoid for a whole week until
he got used to the idea of not pining for her.

"Er... Fancy meeting you here?"

Yamamoto backpedaled so hard that he almost hit the door behind him.

"Ah! Are you all right, Cherry Boy?"

"O-Ow... O-Okamoto!" Tomoyuki exclaimed. "What the heck are you doing
here?"

Seiko pressed a finger on her lips and shushed Yamamoto. She then winked
at him as she whispered, "Apparently, I'm here for the same reasons as
you are. I'm here to eavesdrop on those two suspicious individuals
beyond that door."

She grinned like an idiot. It was nothing like the shy, guarded grins
she used to give him. It was a "stupid" grin because it made him stupid
and numb all over.


===


How did things end up like this?

There was about thirty minutes left till the bell rang. The two
eavesdroppers... Tomoyuki and Seiko... couldn't hear much from beyond
the door, so as soon as Kazuhito and Miku moved out of view, the pair
opened the door and hid underneath the tower housing the building's
water supply.

Professional spies they were not.

At the moment, the Cherry Boy's heart was torn. It wasn't Seiko's
fault... at least, not the Seiko of his world. No, it was the other
Seiko he felt glum about, what with her use of excessive smiley faces on
her emails while telling him that she and his other self were getting
along famously.

He gave up his love for Seiko for her, dammit.

Then again, he couldn't get mad at the "real" Seiko for something that
her alternate universe counterpart did. His mind had difficulty keeping
the two apart, though.

Just then, Yamamoto's body started heating up as the tall, Amazonian
beauty behind him pressed herself against his back, her chest's bouncy
softness acting as a cushion that prompted his own... hardness to react.
'Oh shit! Not now! Not now! Jeez!'

"Can you hear them, Cherry Boy?" whispered Seiko into Tomoyuki's ear. A
girl was whispering in his ear and calling him a virgin. He was at his
limit.

"Y-You're too close, Okamoto. Your breath's tickling my ear. I can't
hear a thing." Although his voice broke at the beginning, he held firm.
No more misunderstandings. She was in love with Kazuhito, not with him.
Someone like him didn't even deserve the love of a goddess like her.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." She left his personal space. "How's this?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Thanks."

The two of them were now side by side. Nothing distracting, soft, or
large was pressing behind his back. He could now concentrate on hearing
what Miku and Kazuhito were talking about.

"...So that's the story Yamamoto-kun came up with. It's amazing, isn't
it?" the two heard the 2B Class Rep cheer.

"Oh. That's quite creative." Kazuhito smiled and nodded. "Imagine that.
A boy confesses to a girl over the phone, but the girl he confessed to
is actually an alternate version of the girl he has a crush on. Not
bad."

Miku giggled. "Don't forget, the alternate version of his crush is in
love with his alternate version as well. So basically, the AU girl that
the protagonist confessed to is indirectly in love with him too."

Sugata chuckled along with Machida. "I think we need a chart to
understand who is who and which is which. I'm getting kind of confused.
I never realized Cherry Boy was so imaginative."

'W-W-W-Wait a minute...!' What was Machida thinking? Could it be that
his secret regarding AU Seiko and cellular phones with the ability to
transcend dimensions was about to get exposed?

Everybody kept betraying him! He was starting to get sick of this world,
and even AU Seiko's world!


===


Next: The eavesdroppers.

At the time of this writing, Hataki and a couple of anons at 4chan's
/a/ board are already creating their own version of Keit-Ai. Some of
Hataki's plans are eye-opening, to say the least. All the same, Keit-Ai!
Tomoyuki X Seiko will nevertheless continue.

Farewell,
Abdiel
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