Soul for a Girlfriend?

Naoto was looking up at me with a curious look in her eyes, as she stopped caressing the cat and her shoulders tensed up. While pointing at her injured leg, I looked into her dark-coloured eyes and said, "After all… your ankle never actually sprained, did it?"

As those words left my mouth, her expression didn\'t change at all, rather, she gave me her usual distant look. A reign of silence befell upon us, with the frequent noise of the wind blowing.

With a soft look in her eyes, she sighed and asked, "Umm? What?"

"Are we playing dumb now?" I asked her, as she tilted her head in confusion and blinked like she was at a loss. I hate it when girls use their cuteness as a cover for these things.

"But what you said didn\'t make any sense." She shrugged, and I hurled a question at her, "How did you come to school today with a sprained ankle?"

Moving her stretched leg a bit and looking at me with narrowed eyes, she said, "Well it was a bit of pain, but I managed somehow."

I knew exactly what she was trying to do with me. But unfortunately, these tricks won\'t work on me anymore because neither do I care about nor about their feelings. She is taking me for a fool.

"You could\'ve rested at home considering you had no prize to receive." I said in my calm tone. There wasn\'t any hint of persuasion in my voice since Naoto was quite perceptive, too.

She continued rustling the cat\'s fur with a small smile as she replied, "Yeah, but I didn\'t want to skip school on the first day of the week only."

"Is that so?" 

"Hummu…" I looked at me again and nodded vaguely.

I understood that she wasn\'t like other girls I\'ve encountered in the past, which led me to resolve to an uncanny method. At that moment I had to improvise things like this can\'t be thought of ahead of time.

She was busy with the cat, who was wiggling its tail as she was scratching its back. It looked really cute in the curled position with its tail moving left to right. 

Yuna was right about one thing that Naoto was a cinnamon roll from inside. I could see that she was quite fond of the cat, as picking up a stray cat and then taking care of it isn\'t something many people would do.

"That cat is really cute…" I said pointing at it, as Naoto looked at me with a surprised look. I know I don\'t look like a person who would like these kinds of things, but I do.

"Yeah, she was a stray cat." She answered while rustling below it\'s chin. It purred and rolled over on her lap.

"Then you took her in?" I asked the obvious, and she answered with an affirmative nod, "Yes, Aoi is her name…"

I looked at the cat and she had big round eyes which were deep azure in colour. With a small chuckle, I said, "Is it because of her eyes?"

"Hummu…" She nodded, as I advanced my hand towards the cat and asked, "Can I pet it?"

With my hand in front of me, I moved it in a manner that caught her attention as she looked at it with curiosity. Naoto looked at with an uncertain look and was saying something but she couldn\'t finish her sentence, "I don\'t think she\'ll like someone else other than m…"

Aoi jumped from her lap and came towards me as she rubbed herself against my leg while meowing. Naoto glanced at the cat and then at me with a shocked look, which was funny at that time.

"She sure is a lazy one." I said while caressing her as she sat down near my leg and crouched into her sleeping position. Her tail was still moving elegantly as I continued cradling her.

I looked at Naoto and asked, "By the way, where are the others?"

Naoto looked down towards her feet and said in a low tone, "They are busy enjoying their victory."

"You didn\'t want to join them?" I asked her, as the cat again ran away from me and jumped on her lap. And dozed off to sleep after yawning widely, exposing her canines.

"Well, after how I got disqualified, I better stay off that celebration." She said, reminiscing about the event that happened during the event.

How can she act so miserable? Was I actually accusing her of something she didn\'t actually do?

"That sucks…" I said while wandering around the lawn and picked up a rock. Seems like I have to get my hands dirty now.

"... btw Senpai?" I turned towards her with a look that surely surprised her as she hesitantly replied with a frown, "Y… yea…"

"Aoi is really cute, you know…" I said, as it was time for me to do something because Naoto won\'t comply so easily.

"I… I know… but what are you doing?" Naoto\'s responses were slowly becoming more stiff as she was probably being creeped out by me.

With a small smile, I shook my hand with which I was holding the pebble, and said, "Oh… don\'t mind me." 

I was looking at the piece of rock from all sides and then shifted my glances at her, as she had this suspicion in her eyes. The pebble wasn\'t huge, but it was huge enough to inflict damage, if thrown at a small creature, like a cat.

With a sharp look in my eyes, my grip tightened on the pebble as, with no warning, I turned towards her and threw the pebble, aiming at Aoi with all my strength.

The next thing I knew was a loud scream from Naoto and a deafening hiss of the cat.

"What the fuck!? Are you Crazy!?" Naoto immediately looked at Aoi, but she was nowhere to be seen. Naoto\'s eyes shifted towards me as they were filled with agony and tears on the verge of falling off the edge of her eyes.

So she can cry too?

No use of shedding tears because I achieved what I was after and this was all the result of her own selfish needs.. Just because of her own desires, an innocent creature got tainted.