Haruki then proceeded to embark on her journey of sightseeing around campus while handing out the extra beverages she'd collected from the vending machine to passing students—no one would question or turn down a gorgeous senpai's kindness, after all.

After finishing her little expedition, she went to sit at one of the benches underneath the budding cherry blossom trees bordering the field, opting to sit at a bench further away and keep her distance from the cliques of students who were out for a walk after lunch to observe their interactions. Once she was content with her daily dose of people watching, she pulled out her smartphone and aimlessly scrolled through the device until a particular notification caught her attention.

The content was only a petty little reminder: Things won't go smoothly if you refuse to cooperate.

She wasted no time in deleting the message and blocking the number.

Haruki had been receiving a lot of odd and out-of-context messages like these lately, all coming from private numbers, and it was starting to annoy her to the extent that she even contemplated on changing numbers. The messages weren't malicious per se, just a little invasive and foreshadow-y at times.

Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. After a count of five, she released the breath in a quiet sigh.

Just a moment after opening her eyes, her gaze unintentionally collided with a familiar pair of blue eyes for the second time that day. Only this time, she quickly glanced elsewhere and stuffed the dangling earbud back into her ear, pretending that she had not just seen him staring at her from a few feet away.

"Hey, don't just look away and ignore someone you're acquainted with. You're just a newcomer yet you're already acting this high and mighty? Don't kid yourself. Know your place, would you~? Sooo~ annoying!"

"What happened to 'Stay out of my way and we'll be on good terms'?" She took one of her earphones off and blinked up at him innocently. Noticing that he had also taken one side of his own pair of earphones off, it made her wonder if he planned on doing more than just greet her or if he just did that out of mutual respect.

Whatever his intentions were, it didn't change the fact that they were still somewhat awkward with each other with the absence of Chiaki and Kaoru. At least the music from their own respective earphones had the ability to take their minds off the awkwardness.

"Everywhere else is taken," Izumi answered before he went ahead and invited himself to sit down on the opposite end of the bench.

Haruki leaned back and glanced over to the other benches nearby. As he had claimed, they were all indeed occupied. She swore there were many vacant benches just a minute ago, but she wasn't too surprised—something similar usually happens whenever she enters a empty-looking shops, too, especially when it comes to restaurants and cafés. It was as if everyone's subconscious just suddenly decided, 'Yup, this is the place.'

"Fair enough." She shrugged her shoulders. "Weren't you supposed to be with Morisawa and Hakaze?"

"I don't think you understand this since you're a newbie, but the three of us aren't friends or anything. We barely even spoke with each other before today, so don't misunderstand," Izumi retorted. "Those two were just stupidly hyped up over the fact that a girl is transferring into our class. Silly, right? Why would they get so excited over a nobody?"

"Mm, got it."

"'Mm, got it'...? That's all you have to say in return?"

Haruki bit back whatever sarcastic comeback she had hanging at the tip of her tongue and came up with a more rational response. It was probably wise to avoid starting any unnecessary strife with her classmates if she didn't plan on making her entire third year of high school a living hell.

"It's not my place to question your choices, is it? Just because some people were nice to you doesn't mean you're obligated to consider them as friends. If unrequited love exists, why not unrequited friendship? It's completely understandable," the girl said matter-of-factly while blankly gazing at the light-pink and white cherry blossom florets scattered beyond them.

Izumi was dumbstruck.

After so many years of dwelling in his controversial outlook on friendships, some random girl he had met just a couple of hours ago managed to define his cluttered friendship crisis with just a simple phrase: unrequited friendship. An analogy revamped from another common relationship catastrophe, yet very fitting. Why hadn't he thought of that before?

"Sena," he suddenly heard her call out to him, still looking at the developing cherry blossoms above their heads. "Looks like we're not alone."

"What are you saying? Of course we're not alo—" Izumi brought his sentence to an abrupt halt when he directed his gaze upwards to where Haruki was pointing to.

It was a cat.

A calico cat, to be precise. No wonder Izumi kept feeling flower buds falling onto his head.

"It's too scared to come down," he muttered and the girl nodded in agreement.

After a while of quietly staring at the restless cat, Haruki eventually stood up, took her lace-up boots off and climbed onto the bench. While the branch the cat was prancing on didn't seem to be so high up, her height was still not enough to reach it, even after standing on the very tips of her toes.

Poor Izumi, on the other hand, was mentally and physically facepalming at her complete ignorance, his cheeks dusted with faint hues of pink. Did she seriously forget she's wearing a damn miniskirt or is she just shameless? he grumbled inwardly.

"I can't believe I thought you had common sense for a second..." he mumbled under his breath before standing up himself. "Get down from there. Let me try."

"But you're not even that much taller than me... Oh wait, boys have longer arms, so maybe you can actually reach it."

Izumi gave the female a nasty death glare before he repeated her same actions. No one, and he means no one, questions his height. Ever.

While he was able to reach the branch just right, a much major problem unexpectedly arose: the feline absolutely detested him.

Flecks of amusement reflected in Haruki's bright green eyes as she witnessed the once restless cat transform into a hissing and howling beast in a mere blink of an eye.

"...Yeah, I don't think she likes you."

"Do you think I can't see that? What a rude fucking cat. Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners or gratitude when you were a kitten? Learn a thing or two from Little John, will you?" the male cussed at the little ball of tricoloured fur, causing Haruki to emit a light snicker.

"You know what? I think you should step away from the cat. You're an idol, aren't you? It'll be a huge problem if she left a scratch on your face," she warned. "Besides, the branch isn't that high anyway. The cat will survive just fine."

"I took my shoes off all for nothing." Izumi huffed bitterly as he descended from the bench and sat on it instead, untying the laces of his brown oxfords before slipping them back on and retying the laces again.

While the male was occupied with his footwear, Haruki suddenly remembered something very, very important and climbed back onto the bench while dipping her hand inside her pocket in search for a specific item which could solve this problem once and for all.

Once she found what she was searching for, she tore the thin pink sachet open, held it up to the cat's face and waved it around, letting the aroma of pureed salmon waft into its nostrils. A mischievous smirk was apparent on her face as she witnessed the cat significantly relaxing with its pink little snout twitching nonstop.

"Cats literally only want one thing and it's fucking disgusting," she spoke in playful mockery before placing a foot onto the bench's armrest and another on the backrest, making sure to distribute her weight evenly to retain stability.

With this, she could easily reach for the cat even without Izumi's assistance. After successfully grabbing it by the scruff of its neck, she then cradled the fur-baby in her arms and brought it down to safety.

Until the bench decided to tip over.

Thankfully, Izumi managed to catch her just in time before both she and the cat could touch the ground, letting himself become a human landing mat.

Just from that single click of his tongue, Haruki could already tell that she was in deep shit.