Chapter 8: Is Noah in danger of striking out completely?
Classes ended several hours later.
Noah walked out of the main building alongside the rest of the students, but his head was occupied by a single topic, the goddess.
Everything she had said and proposed, especially that bet.
’She hates yuri.’
He still had trouble believing it.
Out of all the possible reasons, that one still struck him as the most absurd.
’What kind of goddess hates yuri?’
He walked through the station, still lost in thought.
He didn’t know whether any of it had actually been a dream, but it had felt far too real.
Besides, it explained too many things, especially what had happened with Yume.
Noah boarded the train and kept thinking for the entire ride.
When he finally reached his station, he started walking home.
He hadn’t gotten very far when he heard a familiar voice.
"Brother."
Noah turned his head and saw that Ava was there.
"Oh."
She walked over.
"How was your first day?"
"Not bad."
They started walking together, and for a few seconds neither of them spoke, but then Noah remembered something he’d forgotten to ask.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Why did you take so long in the bathroom today?"
Ava froze, and Noah immediately noticed the shift.
The girl’s ears began to turn red, then her cheeks, and she looked away.
"Don’t ask."
Noah blinked.
"Huh?"
"I said don’t ask."
"But..."
"Don’t ask!"
There was a silence of a couple of seconds before Noah responded.
"Now I’m even more curious."
Ava turned her head and her expression was strangely serious.
"I’m not telling you."
"Why not?"
"Because I’m not."
Noah watched her for a few more seconds, then shrugged.
"Fine."
Ava seemed to relax, and the subject died there, though Noah remained curious.
They arrived home shortly after.
Emma was finishing up dinner, and Sarah was already seated at the table.
"Welcome back."
Emma said.
"Noah, go wash your hands."
"Sure."
A few minutes later, the whole family was gathered and dinner began as normal.
Noah, however, was barely paying attention, he kept thinking about the goddess, the bet, Yume and Luna.
He needed to fix things.
While he was distracted, Emma spoke.
"How was your first day?"
Noah looked up.
"Huh?"
"Classes."
Emma smiled.
"Did you enjoy them?"
Noah took a few seconds to answer.
"They were... interesting..."
Emma seemed satisfied.
"Glad to hear it."
Sarah took a sip of water, then looked at him.
"The important thing is something else."
Noah had a bad feeling about this.
"What thing?"
"Girls."
There it was.
"They didn’t bother you, did they?"
Sarah asked.
"No."
Noah answered immediately.
Both mothers let out a sigh of relief.
"Excellent."
Emma said.
"We were a little worried."
"There was no reason to be."
Noah lied, because he had run into trouble, he just wasn’t going to tell them about it.
Sarah nodded.
"As long as you avoid certain things, you’ll be fine."
"What things?"
Emma answered.
"Physical contact."
Sarah continued.
"And being too friendly."
Noah went still.
’Oh.’
Emma kept talking.
"A lot of new guys make that mistake."
Sarah nodded.
"The girls get confused and think the guy is flirting with them."
Noah thought of Yume, of Iris, of Luna.
It was then that he felt he had just made exactly both mistakes.
’Great.’
Emma smiled.
"But you’ve always been careful."
Noah let out a nervous laugh.
"Yeah."
’Sure.’
Dinner continued.
After that, Noah retreated to his room, dropped onto his bed, stared at the ceiling, and made a decision.
’I need to fix this.’
If the goddess wanted to separate Yume and Luna, then he would do the exact opposite.
He would bring them together starting tomorrow, and with that thought, he finally fell asleep.
The next morning, Noah arrived at school full of determination.
During the commute, he had even drawn up a simple list.
Seat them together, get them to work as a team, and arrange for them to take part in activities side by side.
Nothing complicated or extreme, just small nudges.
’It’s going to work.’
There was no way it could fail, and so his first plan kicked off during a group activity in which the teacher asked everyone to form teams.
Noah saw an opportunity.
Yume was nearby. So was Luna.
’Perfect.’
Everything was set. He just needed to step in a little.
Before he could do anything, though, another student called out to Yume.
"Do you want to be in my group?"
"Sure."
Yume answered.
Plan number one destroyed in under five seconds.
’Okay, there are still other options.’
Noah didn’t give up, and at lunch he tried another strategy.
He checked where they were sitting, if he could get them to end up at the same table, they could talk.
It was a simple idea, and that was exactly why it should work.
When he managed to get close to the table, though, Luna got a phone call, stood up, and disappeared.
Plan number two dead.
’Are you kidding me!?’
Noah was starting to get frustrated.
He tried a third option, school clubs.
If both of them joined the same club, they’d spend time together.
It was perfect, logical, and reasonable.
He quickly discovered, however, that Yume was interested in one club and Luna in a completely different one.
Plan number three eliminated.
Noah looked up at the sky.
’Is the goddess sabotaging me?’
It was a possibility, and he didn’t like it, but there was something unsettling that Noah didn’t pick up on until several hours later.
It had all started during recess.
’Huh?’
While walking through the courtyard, he spotted Yume in the distance. She was standing with some other students, chatting calmly.
Noah spun on his heel.
"Nope."
He took a different route.
’Problem avoided.’
Ten minutes later, he entered one of the buildings on his way to his next class, and saw her again.
Yume was coming down the hallway, and Noah froze.
’Why is she here!?’
Before she could look up, he turned at the first available corner and disappeared.
’Seriously, why do we keep running into each other!?’
He tried to brush it off until he saw her again, this time near the vending machines.
Yume was scanning her surroundings as she walked slowly, as if she were looking for something...
Or someone.
Noah backed away immediately.
’No.’
He turned around and took an alternate route.
Then another hallway. Then another. Then one more after that.
The school was enormous, and yet...
’What the...?’
There she was again, right in front of the main building.
Yume was standing still, watching the students passing by, her eyes moving from side to side.
Noah ducked behind a pillar.
’...’
He waited and watched.
The longer he watched, the stranger it seemed, because Yume moved like someone looking for something specific.
Noah swallowed, and then it happened.
Yume turned her head, her eyes found his, and she smiled, a small, soft smile, but one aimed directly at him.
Noah felt a chill run down his spine.
Yume began walking toward him, unhurried, steady, and straight in his direction.
"I-I’ll see you around!"
Noah slipped behind the pillar and walked away at full speed in the opposite direction.
’No, no, no, no, no.’
He took a staircase, crossed another hallway, and stepped into an empty classroom pretending he’d forgotten something.
He waited a few minutes and left.
He looked both ways and breathed a sigh of relief, until he spotted a familiar head of hair at the end of the corridor.
’Why does she keep showing up everywhere!?’
It made no sense. The school was enormous, and yet he kept running into her, or more precisely...
She kept running into him.
Noah felt another chill.
’No... that can’t be right.’
He decided to ignore it and kept going with his plans, but they all failed, one after another, without exception.
By the end of the day he was sitting alone on a bench, tired, frustrated, and completely confused.
He had tried to bring Yume and Luna closer together, but he’d gotten nowhere, and in the meantime, Yume seemed more and more interested in finding him.
Noah leaned his head against the wall.
He thought of the goddess’s smile, her words, the bet, and for the first time since that conversation, he felt a small doubt creep in.
Very small. But it was there.
’It’s not true.’
He shook his head. He wasn’t going to give up, because it was still too soon.
They could still fall in love and end up together.
But as he replayed every moment Yume had appeared that day...
He couldn’t help but think something he didn’t want to admit.
’Maybe...’
His expression grew serious.
’Maybe the goddess wasn’t as wrong as I thought.’