Chapter 40

                                    

                                          
Chapter 40: "He Who Takes" 
"I'm not Jealous." Sitting crisscross down in the floor, Nishikata repeats these words to himself. Trying to not feel violated about Juni stealing his girl. 
"I'm NOT, Jealous!!" Rather, his frenemy. 
"Argh!!! I can't stop thinking about this new Juni guy. He's such an annoyance." He would rant about Junichiro as a scumbag who would get girls with barely any hustle and an idiot who doesn't look at his surroundings. 
"Nishikata!!! Dinner's ready." His mom called him as she finishes preparing their tonight's dish. 
"Yeah Yeah. I'm coming." He immediately stands up and heads downstairs just as his mom told him too. 
There were mood changes surrounding Nishikata behaviour left and right. A sense of frustration and confusion that Takagi-san, one of the only persons who would always get the opportunity to walk with him, suddenly declines because of some brunette already taking that position as some priority for the day. 
"Why now?" He asked himself while stepping down in each staircase. 
"Honey, we're having tempura." 
"Oh... That's great." Nishikata responds to his mother as he grabs a bowl filled with rice. 
"What's with the long face?" Nishikata's Mother saw his face, expressed with concern and disappointment. 
"Oh, I'm just hungry." He lies while grabbing some tempura to put on top of his rice. 
"That doesn't look like a hungry face to me. If there's something wrong you can always tell me. I'm your mom after all." She implied. Always open-minded to help his son in any way possible. 
"I don't think its worth saying." He said embarrassingly. 
"Nishikata...." Knowing that her son has a problem, she demanded him to speak. 
"Sigh.....well, I thought I would walk with Takagi-san for today but no." He said shyly. 
"Oh. Maybe she had to run some Errands I suppose." His mother said as she bites a piece of tempura. 
"She didn't tell me the reason why either." That's what's concerning Nishikata in the first place. However, he can't figure out why since Takagi-san is the master teaser. 
"I see, then why are you....upset?" She asked him. 
"This new kid who shoved Takagi-san and became our classmates for the rest of the school year already took the opportunity to walk with her."
"That's strange, I thought she always wanted to walk with you." She knew about them waking together. Thinking it was cute. 
"That's the point I've been trying to ask myself. Why though?" 
"You might be thinking too much about this, who's the new kid again?" 
"Goes by the name of Juni." 
"Right right. This Juni person might wanna be friends with Takagi-san. So she maybe wanted to walk with her for a chance I suppose." She assumed as that's what making new friends are for. 
"Juni's a he mom." 
"Oh, so you are thinking too much about this Juni person. Possibly because of......jealousy?" She implied with a hint of jealousy. Something she didn't want to say but had too for her sake. 
"W-what!!?? No no no it isn't like that. Besides, maybe you're right. Juni might wanna befriend Takagi-san after all haha." Nishikata's didn't want to talk about his feelings again. Especially when it came to the J-word.