A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover Chapter 96: Slight Disturbance

"Hey,"

"Hey," Kaori greeted, waving her hand in a coquettish manner as she greeted gumi.

It had been at least half an hour before gumi rejoined Kaori and Shizuka in Ayoko— where they were supposed to go after spending their leisurely ti in Ueno Park.

Without saying another word, gumi sat in front of the two, fully aware that they were about to bombard her with questions and tease her to no end. Heaving a sigh, she pulled the nu from the side of the table and quickly scrolled through to the end, then called one of the roaming waiters and gave her her order.

Conveying that she didn’t want to talk, gumi slowly turned her head towards the window of the cafe, looking out towards the passersby who were going about their day. It was the perfect cover for avoiding conversations— at least it would’ve been if there were five or more people in the group.

"gumi... you do know that that won’t work, right?" Kaori gave her a suspicious gaze.

In response, gumi turned her head more, to the point where she was looking straight at the door to the cafe which was located behind her. She started whistling but no sound ca out— a weird gesture that was even more useless compared to blatantly turning her head away from the two.

"So, how was your date with Haji?" Shizuka casually asked without a change in her tone or her expression before she sipped on her coffee.

Kaori breathed hard right through her nose, gumi could’ve sworn that she saw smoke coming out of it like an old chimney. She was wearing a face of pure interest, and her eyes sparkled. It was obvious that she had been looking forward to the topic.

"What are you talking about? You saw what happened. How could that even be considered a date?" gumi fud, explicitly rembering the indirect kiss she shared with Haji then realizing that he didn’t think too much about it at all.

’In fact, did he even notice that it was an indirect kiss? Should I have told him that it was? No way, how could I tell him that? What will he think of if I told him? Argh~! This is so frustrating!’ gumi thought to herself while her cheeks reddened to a nice shade of beet red. Just like Shizuka, she hid her embarrassnt by sipping on her cup of coffee which was just served a couple of seconds ago. Fortunately, it was a frappe so she didn’t have to worry if it would be too hot for comfort.

She did get a brain freeze as a side effect though so she vowed to never drink too much frappe in one go.

"That’s a nice reaction," Kaori then twirled her thumbs before chuckling. "Look, you don’t have to tell us how your date went. But you know how it’d be if you didn’t tell us, right?"

Shizuka then started rambling on. "gumi and Haji, dating? What is gumi and Haji’s relationship? An unexpected developnt during the school trip— you’d see those titles on the school newspaper." Shizuka pointed out.

It wasn’t ntioned before but Shizuka and Kaori were actually mbers of the newspaper club. And even though they were just saying that to ss with gumi, they didn’t really an a single word they said. Furthermore, gumi actually had more than enough experience as a class representative to know that those types of stories would appear more on tabloids than in the school newspaper. Also, the student council had a say when it cos to the news circulated in school so there’s no way such an absurd story would pass.

Still, gumi realized that there was no point in hiding anything when nothing happened in the first place. That’s why she gave up on keeping it all to herself and told the two. At this point, they’ve already spent more than enough ti with each other that such simple stories wouldn’t be a big deal in the long run.

"You all saw what happened, right? I had to step in and calm him down. He was having a panic attack." gumi simply shrugged off the question. ’Why would she need to be concerned about their question when she was just doing her duty as the class representative?

"Yes, we all saw what happened... but what about the ’what happened’ that we didn’t see?" Kaori said, this ti she was twirling her index finger in the air as if she just said a valid point.

"What do you an?" gumi questioned, thinking that Kaori was really ssing with her. When she turned to Shizuka though, Shizuka didn’t even bat an eye. Her expression remained unchanged as if she didn’t want any part of the matter.

After a few seconds though, Shizuka exhaled before she spoke. As it turned out, Kaori didn’t want to disclose anything, gesturing at Shizuka to tell gumi everything. "Sigh~ she was talking about the rumor that you and Haji were dating. So of our classmates saw you go to school together."

In response, gumi froze before slurping the rest of her frappe and reverting to her usual ’look-out-the-window’ facade. She didn’t have to deny it, and even if she did, nothing good will co out of it since there were a lot of faces who were there when that transpired.

"I happened to see him on my way to school," gumi mumbled before her face turned a nice hue of red. She rembered what happened at Ueno Park once again.

"Ah, what a maiden. We got a maiden right over here," Kaori teased.

Slam!

The door to the cafe suddenly slamd open.

"Hold out your hands, I don’t want to see anyone moving!" A masked guy entered the establishnt and then scread, holding a semi-automatic M16 rifle and pointing it at everyone. There were two other masked n behind him, holding the sa gun model.

"A robbery in the middle of Ayoko? That’s ridiculous." Shizuka calmly assessed the situation even though they were being held at gunpoint.

As for everyone else, they reacted appropriately, putting up their hands in order to appease the criminals that ca out of nowhere.