I had a foreboding feeling that this Sunday wasn't going to like the others I have spent at the club room, when it came to meeting usually my clothes would be clean and organized, but today I had slept in and was in a rush to replace my clothing with anything other than the pajamas I was wearing, which happened to be dirty ones which I was too lazy to put away in the wash.
This of course wasn't the worst look for me, but the stains on my shirt were very noticeable even if you were far away, I was standing in the school bathroom desperately trying to wipe them off, to no avail.
I looked down at my phone that was set down next to the sink and noticed a new notification popped up, it was surprisingly not Hana, but Matayoshi who had somehow gotten my number.
Matayoshi Masaki : [Hey Sato, we are waiting for you in the club room, today we have something planned, but we can't start without you.]
Sato Masaichi : [How did you get my number, also what's going on?]
Matayoshi Masaki : [I asked for it and your "not" girlfriend gave it to me.]
Sato Masaichi : [I told you, we aren't dating.]
Matayoshi Masaki : [Sure, anyways meet us soon.]
Sato Masaichi : [Got it, one second.]
I put my phone into my pocket and gave up on trying to scrub off the stains on my shirt, it was no use, guess I was going to have to suffer the embarrassment of looking somewhat unclean.
*****
"Geez Masaichi were you in a rush?"
"Huh, what is that, pomegranate juice?"
"I mean it could be worse, couldn't it?"
Those were some of the comments I had received from everyone as soon as I opened the door, Hana included, this of course was not the least of my concerns, Everyone was sitting at a large table made up of 6 smaller desks that had most likely been liberated from a classroom next door, I saw someone new in the room this time, Kido a club member wearing hearing aids who I barely knew, was sitting next to a blonde haired guy who was deeply engrossed with the screen of his phone, there were 6 chairs splayed out on both sides the makeshift table in rows of 3 and all but one were taken, and that seat so happened to be to at the edge of the row leaving me sitting right next to Haga.
"I assume I'm sitting there?"
Matayoshi nodded his head and turned his gaze towards Haga.
As I sat down, The blonde guy perked up from his phone, and put it down on the table.
"Havent met that guy before or that girl, who are they?"
Haga slowly turned her head towards him and pointed at me.
"That's Sato Masaichi, he's a first year."
She moved her finger then to Hana.
"That's Yamada Hana, she is a friend of mine, also a first year."
"Cool."
Awkward silence filled the room, the blond fellow pulled back out his phone again and stared at his screen for 10 seconds before looking up at me.
"The name's Sasaki Uchi, if you're wondering why I'm here, it's because I decided to switch from coming here on Wednesdays, to coming here on Sundays."
Hana looked restless, she was fiddling with a pencil in her hands, and her eyes darted around the room before her eyes locked on mine, her fidgety behavior then suddenly stopped, she then turned her head towards the president.
"Matayoshi, when are we going to present our photo's?"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that."
Matayoshi brought up a hand and scratched his head, before fiddling around in his pocket and producing a polaroid of an urban area barely lit during early morning, completely empty with the sun half hidden behind the horizon.
Everyone at the table passed his photo along to each other, what shocked me though was that everyone except Me and Hana found the photo mediocre.
"I don't really dig the whole atmosphere of the picture, I can barely see anything beyond the middle of the photo, I almost want to say it was taken this morning."
Hana snapped her head towards Kido, the person who had just offered some harsh criticism to Matayoshi, and looked absolutely appalled.
"I thought it was nice, that was a little harsh don't you think?"
Everyone stopped looking at the photo and instead were now dead staring at Hana, absolutely dumbfounded.
"Yamada, once you really get into photography you will notice the smallest of details, you need to capture the true essence of a moment, this was sloppy."
"Just to add on to Kido's statement, I did take it this morning, it wasn't the best, but then again how people view your pictures is subjective, its not like everyone is going to have the same opinion"
"Oh, I see."
Hana turned towards the window, before digging through her satchel and producing the photo she had taken with Me yesterday.
"I assume this is ok by your standards then?"
*****
Our photo apparently paled in comparison to the others. According to Sasaki the photo couldn't have been taken better at any moment, the angle of the sun and the height we were at was also pitch perfect, in short we had definitely produced a photo that was good enough.
Or I should say that Hana had, I was just along for the ride.
Matayoshi who had just finished grading everyone photo's, moved his gaze towards Haga
"Well, we have one more thing to do."
"What would that be, Matayoshi?"
"Well, we know almost nothing about Sato and Hana, and they know almost nothing about us, I think we should play a game of sorts to try and get to know them a little better."
Kido, who was across the room sorting what looked to be older photos into different binders, spoke up.
"And what 'game' would you have us do?"
"Why don't I just pull up an app that spins a wheel, and randomly picks a person's name, then that person can go and ask someone a question."
"Good idea Sasaki."
What followed was me sitting through almost all the questions being directed towards Hana,
The person who was up next was Matayoshi.
"Yamada, what is your favorite color?"
"Isnt that kind of bland?"
"Well sorry, everything I can come up with is bland."
Hana brought her hand up into her hair and turned her gaze to me, her expressionless face then quickly turned into a slight grin, before she confidently turned back to Matayoshi.
"Purple."
I thought back to yesterday, back to the purple flower she had put in her hair, it surprisingly stayed attached even whilst we were on the roof, where she had decided to rest on me. That moment had brought out feelings for her I hadn't experienced towards anyone before in my life, it was confusing and I had no idea if she felt that particular way too.
Next up was Haga.
"Yamada, when did you meet Sato?"
"Huh?"
Hana raised her eyebrow and pointed her thumb towards me.
"I have known him since the start of the school year, why are you asking?"
She was lying obviously, but It's not like we had to tell them we knew each other before high school, it would just overcomplicate things.
"Just curious."
Sasaki looked up from his phone, and pointed at himself.
"Aight, I'm next."
Sasaki paused and pointed at me.
"You got someone you have a crush on?"
"Wh-"
I stopped myself from speaking, I needed to be careful how I answered this question without looking like I did.
"No, considering I have been here for about a month and a half it would be unlikely that I did."
"Alright."
Sasaki looked down back at his phone once again, at the same time Hana looked at me and stared straight into the fabric of my soul, trying to read my mind, then her eyes quickly darted away from me as soon as I noticed.
She looked disappointed and maybe even a little angry, and I was left to figure out why by my lonesome.