Shadow Assistance

Most people when it comes to crushes usually have their own unique reasons or experiences on why they have them.

Some crush on others due to their looks, personality or even because of some backstories that would fit a romance anime.

Maybe it's because they feel lonely or yearn for a partner to have a family is.

Whatever the case is, love is love. An inevitable feeling all humans have and share.

So knowing why this beautiful and precious girl known asYoshikawa Manami, turn out to like his best friend, must be due to a big reason she noticed for him.

"Eh? Why I like him?" Yoshikawa stuttered with a profuse blush on her face from such a sudden question.

She plays with her fingers and looks down, not knowing how to respond.

"Yeah!"

The seemingly interested boy nodded with a small, calm smile.

"If you need my help, it'd be most effective to know your reason why and how we can take that into having Usui falling for you." Mayeda responds and tilts his head, a smile that seemed helpful on the outside but a small different motive on the inside.

Her white hair would turn towards the window, her face turning towards his.

"Huh? How will learning why I like him help me get closer to him?" She curiously asks, unable to understand where he was going with this.

A smirk plays on his slightly pale face and he inched closer to her face.

"We'll be able to take those things you feel about him and turn those into something he can realize about you too in the near future. Just trust me." He calmly spoke and hovers his face over hers quite closely with a hand behind his back.

In order for her to spill things out more, she'll need a bit of peer pressure that doesn't seem to be on purpose under the premise of a helpful person. If she falls for it, then learning about her more will be…

He kept staring into her eyes.

W-why is he so close? What's with that look in his eyes? He's not planning to do anything to me, right?

Yoshikawa gulps.

"S-sorry, you're a bit too close, I'm not too comfortable with being so close to other guys yet…" She shyly said and turns her head to the side yet couldn't find it in herself to lean far back from him on her chair.

Perfect.

He puts on a small smile, feigning sheepishness of one who was unsure of himself.

"Ah, sorry, I was just so excited at the fact that I was let in on such a secret by a beautiful and kind woman. Knowing that I was needed by someone made my heart skip a beat." He responds with a sad smile.

Mayeda bows a little in his seat.

"Please forgive me for being so excited." The black haired boy pleads to her.

Silver eyes widened in surprise, a flustered expression remained undying on her cheeks from his seeming sincere apology.

He's really this sorry? From what he's saying, he didn't have much friends other than Mr. Sato from what I remembered.

A realization comes onto that adorable face.

Could it be he wants to be friends? Maybe he was so excited to have the opportunity to help me out and make more friends.

Yoshikawa smiles.

Honestly, it's quite cute. He just wants to help a girl out… It's also partly my fault for pushing him back when he was showing such a rare vulnerable state.

She diligently shook her head with a soft smile.

"No need for all that nonsense. I understand that it's my fault for being insensitive about your feelings, it makes me really glad you're being very kind and honest about this right now."

The white haired girl responds, shifting forward towards him in her seat as if she was purposefully showing off her sincerity.

"It makes me happier knowing I have such a supportive guy I can talk my feelings more freely with."

Smack!

He grabs one of her hands in both of his, raising it to his chest.

"Thank you so much for this, it means a lot to me from talking to an extremely cute girl for the first time." The thankful boy said with a gentle yet firm grip.

!!?

Yoshikawa immediately slipped her hand away from his with a red beet blush.

"I-it's nothing really! No need to thank a girl for being so nice! It's how things are supposed to be with everyone…" She shyly spoke and rubs the hand that Mayeda held just moments ago.

"Ah, you're right. I'm sorry." Mayeda displayed a soft chuckle before sitting up straight.

"So back on topic, why do you like him?" The boy asks once again.

The white haired beauty takes a breath before answering, her gaze on the desk.

"Well it's because…"

While she tells me, this should give me time to organize everything now.

He gulps his water down in thought.

So she's clearly a kind and thoughtful woman at heart and not for show. Kind enough to let my closeness play go overlooked in just a short notice of time.

The water bottle gets placed back down onto the smooth desk before folding his hands next on the desk.

With us just alone, she's not the type to be two sided with others and people in private. She's clearly just an innocent maiden who's in love…

Quiet sigh.

No doubt about it, she's also clearly interested and serious about her feelings than some dumb crush from what I know. Based on her reaction, she actually doesn't have any experience and wasn't lying about earlier, so she's not much of a prideful or manipulative type. But this is all purely speculation…

Head tilts of the focused boy while he listens to her reasoning.

Based on this talk so far, she's quite the perfect type for Usui. A kind and beautiful girl with a sheepish side to her, call it a match made in heaven. But that said, I have to somehow talk to Usui about this without giving him any suspicious feelings of something stirring.

I did leave him alone for several minutes, he must clearly think something happened

He stares back at her, looking into her eyes as Yoshikawa stared at him back with a friendly smile.

She doesn't seem to suspect anything as of now, it's sad to see such an amazing girl being so oblivious and easy to take advantage of. I'll have to look more into her life to set up future arrangements in mind in case they get conflicted with her daily activities.

He gave a small, relaxed smile back at her to keep things in check.

The possibilities of someone also knowing and telling Usui or Yoshikawa about their feelings is also a thing I must think about. Is all this efffort really going to be worth it at the end? Who am I to interfere with love…?

A small thought of the cute girl he was remembering before came into mind.

Miyasaki…

That thought alone brought out a genuine small smile, though he was hiding it away from the girl right next to him.

If I were to tell Usui her feelings right now and they ended up confessing, I can see them hitting it off though their relationship might cause up stirs from all kinds of students who had crushes on one of them.

He lets out a deep sigh.

Fuck, all this thinking is more work than that introductory speech I gave earlier.

He slammed his head onto the desk.

!!?

This in fact, scared the shit out of the poor girl who thought things were going peaceful as of now.

"U-um, are you ok? Was my reason that bad?" The beauty softly asked.

Regardless, we all have to do things we've never done before if we want to achieve things we've never had before.

He leans back up and looks at her with a newfound confident look along with that calm expression.

"Not at all! I'll definitely make Usui yours!" He would suddenly declare to her.

…

"Huh? Did you think of something?" Yoshikawa asks, wondering where this confidence was surging from.

I've already thought of the future events in mind now, if I just make them follow it without realizing it. It would be like a truly perfect love story with no harms in it… that's what a good friend would do, right? Wanting the best for their friend?

"I know Usui better than anyone, this should be a piece of cake for me. Trust me, Yoshikawa." Mayeda gives a look of a firm resolve, though it wasn't the one she was thinking of.

So from what I've gathered from this conversation is that Yoshikawa seemingly isn't some fake actor or girl who gets around like some other popular girls. She's the real deal. Her kindness and emotional connection parted with that intellect is higher than most too.

He looks up at the ceiling.

Must be due to some thing she's picked up on. Clearly she's an amateur who doesn't know much about love, so I'll have to use Usui who's also an amateur to have both of them learn what that concept is in the best way possible. Like a good friend would do…

"Say Yoshikawa." Mayeda cleared his throat.

She tilts her head with curiosity from his sudden call.

He crossed a leg over the other and leaned his head on his hand.

"What would you do if someone handsome and popular like Kawamura confessed their love to you? How would you respond?" Mayed questions her with a lighthearted gaze that seemed to suggest a careless answer.

If she were serious about her feelings for Usui, she should have no problems about turning someone like Kawamura down. But choosing a person who's quite similar to Usui in terms of everything would be questionable.

This was a question he had thought of for awhile. Could someone who's nearly identical to the ideal be enough to satisfy someone like her? Or is she the type of person to go complete something she wanted from the beginning?

If she couldn't settle with the real thing, would her desires settle her with someone less of what she actually wanted?

What kind of person is he really talking to besides this kind and beautiful person really?

"Um…" Yoshikawa hums in thought, seeming to be in thought.

DING-DONG!

The school bell has rung again, signaling that the afternoon lunch period has officially ended.

Mayeda sighs and stands up.

"Well as much as I'd love to keep talking, we best be going now to class." He nodded and threw his food away in the classroom's garbge.

Not like they're gonna know who's food it was in here, so no trouble for me later.

Yoshikawa herself was taken aback by the sudden ring before regaining her composure and decided to just hold onto her tray for the cafeteria.

Kind as ever, huh?

Mayeda noticed this and takes her tray.

"I'll do this for you, start going to class now, alright?" The boy simply nodded before walking.

Yoshikawa was a bit surprised by the kind gesture.

"Huh? But you really don't need to-"

"Come on, this type of work is nothing for a man. So just continue on for today and we'll talk tomorrow. Unless you need me to escort you to clas, princess." He shrugs back in his casual manner before adding a teasing comment with such a calm tone.

Yoshikawa blushed again.

Does she always blush this easily? Honestly, just how much of an inexperienced girl is she?

"Well if you insist on doing so, thank you very much…" She bows a little before taking off into the hallway in front of him, leaving him alone.

Her footsteps went on until she paused and turned back around with a sincere smile.

"Thank you." She said.

Huh?

"Thanking me? For what?" Mayeda tilts his head in curiosity behind of the classroom entrance, looking at her from the inside.

"For being the safe space I needed. You really are a good man, Mayeda." She bows a little again before taking off, not giving him a chance to respond.

…

Truly, what a charming girl indeed.

He takes the time to finish the last of his water before throwing the empty bottle into the trash can.

Alone now as the boy usually would be, he walks into the hallway with small bits of people starting to walk through after the school bell had rung.

Her words were still in his mind. The smile she had on her face.

You really are a good man, Mayeda.

He wanted to believe in her words too.

The thoughts of his earlier encounter with the girl he rejected earlier, his cold rejection still left a sting in his heart. A feeling that was still wrong with him, how he could've just said things better.

Even some years ago, what he had done to a group of boys after what he had learned that day.

How they had-

No.

He shook his head.

I shouldn't think so hard about the past. It's in the past now…

He looks down as he puts the trays back on the countertop once he entered the cafeteria.

I'm not a good guy, I can't be…

Memories of the last days in middle school reappeared.

A brutal sight, a tearful sight.

Miyasaki.

He closed his eyes.

I'm truly not a good guy…

"Yo, Mayeda? Where were you?" A shorter boy calls out to him.

Mayeda turns around.

Ah, there he was. His best friend.

Perfect timing.

"Before I answer, I just need a small favor to ask of you." Mayeda requests with a little gentleness.

"Huh? First you ditched me at lunch, and now you want something? Like what?" Usu rolled his eyes, not really entirely over the fact his best friend kinda just left him alone earlier.

Mayeda closed his eyes for a moment before looking back at the brown haired boy in front of him as he makes a request.

This is all for the act of love after all. Nothing more…

"Wanna skip class with me this period? We need to talk."