Loss 2: Himemiya Karen, the Fashionably Late

Loss 2: Himemiya Karen, the Fashionably Late

Loss 2:

Himemiya Karen, the Fashionably Late

A FTER A WEEK OF UNCERTAINTY, KONUKI-SENSEI actually proved to be a pretty attentive supervisor. She was always available if we needed help with something and always willing to look into anything she didn’t know offhand. It turned out to be not so bad.

If you ignored her constant attempts to get me alone with one of the girls in her office and her obsession with stamens and pistils.

It was Monday after school. The final week leading up to the festival this weekend.

On my way to the classroom from the nurse’s office, I passed a bunch of people wearing pumpkins on their heads, but all I could think about was Konuki-sensei’s “fun fact.” Did you know pumpkins have separate flowers for male and female reproductive parts? I did. For some reason. Apparently, it was to prevent self-pollination.

I still couldn’t figure out how me talking about Kaju had brought that on.

“Coming through, coming through!”

I stepped aside, and a coven of witches carrying enormous brooms barreled past. Tsuwabuki was certainly feeling the Halloween spirit this year. Pretty much everyone was dressing up for the occasion.

Campus was more chaotic than ever, what with the festival just on the horizon. It was like one big Halloween party. After school was normally my own personal witching hour, but enough people were sticking around now to almost fool me into thinking it was still afternoon.

I was keeping occupied myself. I had a meeting about my class’s project soon, and then after that I had to head straight to the club room. Busy, busy.

As I passed the stairs, a floral-scented wave hit my nose. I stopped. Whatever it was, it seemed to be coming from above, so I glanced up. A girl carrying way too much at once was descending the stairs on wobbly legs. I happened to catch her at just the right moment.

“Move, move, move!” she shouted.

Ah, I knew this. I’d seen it before in my light novels.

I was promptly flattened.

I awoke on my back, in a daze. Everything was dark. How long had I been out?

I searched my memory, recalled walking through the hall. There were stairs. A girl carrying things down it. She’d stumbled, fell, and suddenly I was pinned to the ground. By something very heavy yet very soft.

The softness yelped and shot up. I could see again, and the first thing I saw was a ribbon. Four, actually. I traced them up to a face I recognized. “Himemiya-san?”

It was Himemiya Karen, girlfriend of Yanami’s childhood friend, Hakamada Sousuke.

I didn’t say anything else. I couldn’t. Not in the state we were in.

Himemiya-san was straddling me, blushing, hands over her chest. The soft, heavy something came to mind.

My eyes fell back down to her ribbons.

Himemiya-san blushed harder and reeled her hand back.

***

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!”

Himemiya-san clapped her hands together and flung her head down low.

I rubbed my aching cheek and bowed in tandem. “I-it’s okay, really. Very okay.”

I did not know what “very okay” was supposed to mean.

My brain was still processing. An accident in a hallway. A slap to the face. What was this, some kind of rom-com?

“Are you sore anywhere? Any bumps where there shouldn’t be bumps?”

“I’m, uh, bump-free, I think.”

“Thank goodness! You went limp for a while, so I got scared.” Himemiya-san beamed. Literally. Like, I swore I could see lights floating around her. And was that her own personal character theme blaring in the background? She rolled her head back in frustration. “Agh, jeez. Why am I like this?”

She bent down and started hurriedly gathering all the fabric strewn around the floor. Casualties of the encounter, I figured.

“Let me help you,” I said. “I’m half the blame here, anyway.”

I crouched down beside her. They looked like blackout curtains or something. By the time we were done, we had a pretty hefty load. Too much for one person, that was for sure.

“Thanks so much! Here, you take half.” Himemiya-san hoisted a mountain of the stuff on me, still smiling. Still glowing.

“Uh…”

“You said you were half the blame, didn’t you? So you take half. To the classroom, pretty please.” She winked.

The lights were getting blinding now. I had to squint or risk perishing from exposure.

Wait, we were heading to the same place. So we’d be walking together. Yeah, no. I mumbled out a “sure,” then started on my way.

“Hey, now, Nukumizu-kun! What’s the rush?”

“Er, what?”

“Wait up for me, speed racer. Let’s walk and talk. I’ve been wanting to get to know you better.”

For what purpose? She could have only known me through Yanami, so what was there to talk about? Unless Yanami had fed her something ridiculous, which seemed likely.

I jumped when she sidled up to me. She made puppy dog eyes. “Do you not want me to talk to you?”

“I, uh… No. No, you’re good.”

I was just freaking out a little, truth be told. Here was a real woman . A lady with all the ladylike qualities Yanami distinctly lacked. It was like, sure 4K’s pretty impressive, but then you see an OLED 8K and it’s like, wow. Different leagues.

Also, not like I’m making a size metaphor or anything, but one was a hundred-inch screen and the other was not. Just saying.

“I guess this is the first time we’ve actually had, y’know, a moment to ourselves, huh?” she commented.

“I guess it is.”

Himemiya Karen slid in closer, dodging oncoming traffic. “You’re friends with Sousuke and Anna, yeah? They’re, like, always talking about you, so I already sorta feel like we know each other.”

“Hakamada and I just, er, chat sometimes. I dunno if I’d say we’re friends, per se.”

“No? Then you should be my friend, and then you’ll get two for one!” She lit up again. “Package deal!”

I was understanding this friend thing less and less by the day. Were girlfriends allowed to just do that?

“M-maybe.”

“Am I being annoying?”

“No, I just—”

“Cool, then it’s settled. Nice to meetcha, friend.”

“Okay…”

My Yanami-handling skills evidently did not transfer to this one. This was like the yin versus yang of extroversion.

Himemiya-san glanced around, then leaned in, and her long, silky hair brushed against me. I caught a whiff of what I could only assume was some kind of perfume. “Say, friendo. Anna. She’s been weird lately, right?”

“Yanami? Has she?”

She was always weird, as far as I was concerned.

Himemiya-san bobbed her head. “Usually, she gets fifteen takoyaki at the station, but lately, she’s only been getting twelve.” Still too many, but I kept that opinion to myself. She frowned anxiously. “And just the other day, when we went to get lunch together, she said no to upgrading to a large. A large! And for free too! That’s not normal. That’s just not like her at all.”

She was probably just reaping the rewards of her ridiculous dieting strategy from last summer and scrambling to right past wrongs. Although, she certainly didn’t seem to be counting calories based on the way I’d seen her eat lately.

Himemiya-san hung her head. “It’s none of my business. I know.”

“Well…” She said it, not me. But Yanami’s diet wasn’t what caught my interest about all this. “So you guys hang out a lot?”

“Yeah. We’ve gotten back to doing that more this semester. You should join us.”

“I’m good.”

She widened her eyes at that. “I thought you guys were close. You’re in the same club and all.”

Whether we were “close” was up for debate. Regardless, I didn’t see the point of mingling friend groups as a rule. All the more so if there was potential yuri at stake, and I would not be implicated in coming between that. Personal policy.

“I just think it’d be awkward if I butted in,” I said.

“Oh, you don’t gotta worry about that.” She gave the kind of grin that almost made me believe her. “If anything, I’m worried I’m the one making things awkward between us. She might even appreciate you being there.”

She’d appreciate a meat roll over me any day of the week.

“See, I think Yanami-san can take care of herself. I would just keep things normal. Don’t make it weird.” I glanced at her. “She’s figuring things out.”

Man, she was pretty. Taller than Yanami, but smaller everywhere it counts. Bigger too. In other places. More than any of that, though, the girl had star energy. Or was bright enough to be one, at least.

She stared back at me.

“Wh-what?” I stuttered.

“She tell you all that herself?”

“Not, er, entirely.”

Himemiya-san giggled. “Anna was right about you. You’re a pretty decent guy.”

Finally, we made it to the classroom. Thank god. That must have been the longest hallway I’d ever walked down.

I started to go in, but a girl was standing just past the doorway, blocking our path. “Oh, 4K—”

Yanami. Yanami was her name. Right.

She turned and raised an eyebrow at me. “Four-what now?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh. Karen-chan.” Yanami grabbed the cloth from me. “Weird seeing you two together.”

“We bumped into each other,” Himemiya-san said, then winked at me. “He was just lending me a hand. Weren’t you?”

Yanami sensed something was afoot and clearly didn’t like it. “Uh-huh. Anyway, Nonomura-san was looking for you, Nukumizu-kun. Don’t you have a meeting or something?”

Nonomura-san? Right. She was on prop duty with me.

I scanned the room and found her standing further in. She hissed at me, “It’s starting!”

“Er, right,” I replied. “Sorry.”

She whipped around in the middle of my apology. She was the tallest girl in class, and yet somehow always the last one to be remembered. We were kindred spirits in that respect.

“Thanks for the help, Nukumizu-kun!” Himemiya-san said.

“Later,” said Yanami.

The 12K Duo took their leave, so I slinked away to the corner with Nonomura-san for our meeting. There were four people doing props in total, including me. The remaining two were guys and equally as forgettable. What a team we were.

Nonomura-san held her gaze low and neutral as she began. “So, getting started, there are a few things we still need for Flash Halloween. We need to paste some illustrations onto cardboard, and then they’ll have to be carved out with a box cutter. You’ll find more details on what needs making on the list here, and the materials are there. Have it all done by Friday morning, please.”