A Reason to Live

Being Late

"Hoh? Late on the first day of school for MY class? Let's hear the reason for your tardiness, Argenti."

Chifuyu cracked her knuckles with a dark expression.

My body froze, and the bag in my hand fell on the floor, making an awkward thud.

'So that's why Houki ran like her life was depended on it.'

I looked at the clock, and saw that I was 25 minutes late.

"Ah-noh, O-Orimura-sensei, there is a perfectly sound rea-"

"Enlighten me." She commanded.

It was now or never. Give her an answer she doesn't like, she'll kill me. Give her an answer that she wants to hear, she'll assume it's an excuse, so she'll kill me.

'I have no choice but to do this...'

Chifuyu raised an eyebrow when she saw me straighten up. I made eye contact with her and,

"Sensei... To tell you the truth, I got caught up looking for a beautiful flower that matches your beauty..."

There was a painfully long silence. But soon enough, there was an uproar among the class girls.

"EHHHHHH?!"

"N-No way, he just confessed to Chifuyu-sama!"

"Noooo, Argenti-kun!"

"My Chifuyu-sama!"

The crowd was going crazy. But this was a little sacrifice that I needed to make to save my life. I closed my eyes with a victorious smirk.

'Hmph. How do you like that, damn Chifuyu? I bet you're goin- Ah-reh?'

My smirk fell into a frown of despair upon seeing the bulging temple and the murderous expression on her face.

Surprisingly, even though her expression was terrifying, her tone was the same,

"Is that so? That's interesting because Shinonono here says that you were talking to a girl."

I instantly looked at Houki who was sitting in her seat, perfectly fine. I cursed her mentally,

'Houki, teme! You betrayed me!'

But she outright looked away from me with a small "Hmph".

I felt a vein pop in my temple and I clenched my fist in anger,

'That little... I'll get you back for that!'

There were some murmurs again from the rest of the classmates.

"Phew... I thought he was being serious for a second."

"Thank goodness."

"I thought Chifuyu-sama was going to be a rival."

Crackle, Crackle, Crack.