Ch 27

"Nom nom nom"

I was happily stuffing popcorn in my mouth as I was enjoying the movie. Although, to be honest, the movie was nothing special. Just the standard, place with bad past gets new residents and lots of creepy stuff happens. You get the idea. After watching a couple of movies like this you have basically seen all of them. What I was more interested was Nishikawa\'s and Shimabukuro\'s reactions. It seems Shimabukuro san really likes this sort of stuff. Is it a trend that scary girls like horror? On the other hand, Nishikawa seemed to be leaping out of his seat at every jump scare. Shimabukuro san was so absorbed in the movie that she didn\'t notice how scared Nishikawa was. Their reactions reminded me of the time I visited the haunted house with Nakano during the Golden Week.

While I was keeping a look on the target duo and munching the buttered, salty popcorn, I heard a grumble from my side. I turned my head only to see a blushing Haruno.

"What happened imouto chan? Hungry? Could it be you skipped breakfast to stalk your onii chan?" I teased her.

"I w-wasn\'t stalking." She said with slight anger.

She is still in the initial stage of denial huh? I guess it will take a lot for someone to fix her mentality.

"You want some?" I said finally, passing her the bucket of popcorn.

She shyly took it and ate some slowly. It felt as if looking at your pet rabbit nibbling a carrot. It would be good if she acted like a normal kid all the time, instead of her creepy yandere personality.

.

.

.

After the movie finished and the credits were rolling, we left the hall, again at a good distance from our target duo. To my surprise they went to the food court together. I was kind of expecting them to just go home after this. Since it was almost lunchtime me and imouto chan also took a seat and bought some food.

Aaah… Food really hits different when you are exhausted. Although I did eat popcorn during the movie, more than half of it was eaten by Haruno. I guess growing kids really do get hungrier.

Honestly, even though I was exhausted, I was kind of glad that I came today. I don\'t know what would have happened if I left imouto chan on her own.

Just when I took a bite of my burger, I saw Nishikawa doing something unforgivable. He fed by Shimabukuro san right in front of my eyes, with his own two hands.

What the hell are you doing Nishikawa? Didn\'t you say you liked Hiwari san? How can do this to another girl and still say you love somebody else?

"What happened?", Haruno asked, seeing me drop my food suddenly..

Shit. Shimabukuro feeding is not even the biggest problem, if Haruno turns around right now she will probably assault Shimabukuro right here. Thankfully, we were seated in such a way that she was not able to see what was happening. Just when she was about to turn her head, I reflexively stood up to stop her, however, while getting up my legs hit the table and the Starbucks drink tipped over and the contents spilled on the table.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh. Ah. Sorry" Thank god she got distracted by the spillage. I quickly used a bunch of tissues to wipe the spilled coffee. I don\'t know if t was my luck or Nishikawa\'s that saved the situation.

After this lunch fiasco we continued trailing Nishikawa and Shimabukuro. It seems they are going shopping for gifts again. Nishikawa still hasn\'t chosen his gift? This outing is becoming longer than expected. But seriously, how hard is it to choose gifts? And wasn\'t Shimabukuro actually here to help him pick a gift?

"Let\'s go. They went into that shop." Haruno\'s voice came from beside me.

A clothing store? Again? Didn\'t they already visit one in the morning?

We entered the shop and moved a few sections away from where Nishikawa and Shimabukuro were. After a few minutes of looking at clothes Shimabukuro picked a few and entered the trial rooms. It seemed she wanted to try the clothes on. Could it be that Shimabukuro has managed to completely turn this trip into a date? She came out of the trial room after a few minutes wearing a short skirt with a cute top.

Upon seeing her outfit, Haruno instantly flared up.

"How dare that slut try to seduce my brother… mmf mmph"

Just like morning, I clamped her mouth and pulled her back.

"Imouto chan. Look carefully. Do you see any signs of lewdness in Nishikawa\'s gaze? Do you think that he can be seduced so easily?"

After hearing my words, she slightly calmed down.

"That\'s true. If it was so easy to seduce my brother, he would have fallen for the panty trap I set for him." She mumbled softly.

Unfortunately, I was able to hear her cursed words. The stuff she does is straight-up content for some yandere stories. Like could you not do the stereotypical things that every standard yandere does for 5 seconds?

As, I was trying to unhear her words, I didn\'t notice a person walk behind me.

"Makoto?" Someone tapped my shoulder.

I turned around in confusion to see the person who called me. I was going to greet them normally with a smile, but the words stopped in my throat when I saw who it was.

"Na-Nakano?" I stuttered out.

Please bear in mind that I had a girl in my arms, in a mall, on a holiday, and there was only the two of us. I hurriedly untangled myself Haruno and took two steps away from her. Sadly, it did little to heal the situation.

"You never told me you had a girlfriend." She said with her voice quivering a little.

"N-no, she isn\'t my girlfriend."

"Then it is even worse. Are you a playboy who goes around hugging people?" She shouted angrily at me.

Nakano was looking at me as if some filth by the side of the road. And unlike a few others, I didn\'t enjoy it.

"Hear me out first Nakano. I-" Before I could say anything she walked off.

Did I piss her off that bad?

"Damn, Makoto kun you really messed up this time." Tsukumo san came walking out from behind an aisle, "Although, I believe that it is some sort of misunderstanding, it is going to be difficult to explain the display of public affection."

After saying her line she also left.

I just stood there for a while in shock at what just happened. "How do I solve this?", I mumbled to myself, as my eyes fell on Haruno.

"Sorry imouto chan, I will be going now. Please don\'t do anything bad to Shimabukuro san. Okay?"

After saying so I also left. While walking towards the station, I took out my phone and sent a number of messages to Nakano. However, she didn\'t read any of those messages even after 30 minutes.

Is her phone off or is she just ignoring my messages? I messaged Tsukumo as my last resort

Are you with Nakano right now?

No, we split up like five minutes ago. I think she went

home

Can you tell me where you split up? And also her

address?

Are you going to go to her house? Really?

What should I do then?

I don\'t know. Maybe wait for a chance at school

on Monday? By the way who was that girl?

She was Nishikawa\'s sister. I just met her today

by coincidence.

For real? Then the whole thing was actually

a misunderstanding? lolololol

that\'s what I was saying, but she stormed off

before I could explain.

But why were you both at the same mall at the

same time? And the biggest problem is you were

hugging her.

Actually, the thing is…

After explaining her the whole situation of following Nishikawa\'s date with Shimabukuro, she more or less believed my story. Of course, I didn\'t explain why I was so worried about the date, or Haruno\'s creepy side. Somethings are better left unspoken. Anyways, she gave me the address to Nakano\'s house which means only one question remains. Do I go to the \'Demon Queen\'s\' castle, or not?.

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POV Haruto Nishikawa

"Thank you for your purchase. Please come again." I was thanked by the cashier as I left the convenience store.

After the movies, and lunch me and Kei chan just went around visiting different stores. Kei chan definitely had fun while shopping clothes. But even after looking at her choices and listening to her rambling about dressing sense and combinations and whatnot, I still don\'t understand fashion. Why are some designs lame and others fashionable? Both look cool to me. Maybe I will never understand it.

While having these thoughts my eyes landed on the bag in my hand. I didn\'t have clothes in it of course. It was the gift I was going to give to Hiwari san. I hope she likes it. Actually, I had gotten two gifts for her. One was a picture frame. She obviously loves photography, and it goes perfectly with her hobbies, I am pretty confident about this one. However, the other one, I am not so sure. To be honest, that is something that I just felt like buying for Hiwari san as soon as my eyes landed on it. It isn\'t really related to her hobbies and I don\'t even know if she likes that kind of stuff. It was just something I thought was very cute. That is why I am not even sure if I should give it to her. Maybe I should just ask Makoto kun on what to do. He always seems to give spot on advice.

When I finally reached home I gave the notebooks to Haruno and went back to my room as fast as possible. I didn\'t know why, but she seemed to be extra scary today.