After eating her fill, and throwing a few pieces of bacon to Honey, Sakura was quite content. And maybe slightly less grouchy. 

Perhaps Tamaki wasn’t that bad or creepy. He had mentioned something about writing so maybe he really did just get too caught up in his own world. That was still weird, of course, but not necessarily bad. 

Not that this meant she wanted to spend any further time with him. 

Looking down at her phone, she frowned at the time. She was down to two hours and forty-five minutes, and Tamaki was still not back with her replacement notecards. 

“Well Honey, it looks like you live with me now. Yamada-san has abandoned you and you’ll have to be my study buddy for the day. Think you can handle it?”

Honey let out a yawn before barking softly, her tail wagging. Sakura smiled and reached down, scratching behind her ear. 

“What a sweet little girl, yes you are.”

She leaned her head into Sakura’s hand as she kept scratching her. It was so cute. Then, she suddenly stood up on all fours and barked, her tail wagging even more furiously. Sakura looked up and saw Tamaki hurrying towards them, carrying far more bags than was necessary for a set of notecards. 

“Please forgive my tardiness, Tsurugi-san!” 

“That’s…quite a lot of bags for a pack of cards, Yamada-san.”

He sat down across from her, setting the bags on the table.

“Yes, well, I still felt very guilty and since you mentioned having a test, I gathered a few items I thought you could use.” 

Sakura was very thrown off by this. This was far more than ‘a few items’. But can’t say she wasn’t curious to see what he assumed she would need.

“So, I did of course buy you notecards. But then I saw these pink ones and I thought you might like the more colorful options so I bought a few of those!”

He set a stack of notecard bundles, at least six, in front of her. She immediately grabbed the stack and shoved it into her satchel. She could absolutely make use of all of these. 

Saku was going to get a set of gorgeous recipe cards for their birthday. 

“Then, I saw some test booklets and thought you could use some spares in case of any unfortunate accidents.”

“Like a stranger sending their dog after me so they could hit on me.”

Tamaki looked positively scandalized at that thought. He even gasped. 

“I assure you Tsurugi-san that is not at all what happened! I would never have such ill-intentions towards a lady.” 

His accent, which Sakura was pretty sure was French, seemed to come out a bit more at that.

It was kind of…endearing? 

Definitely not cute. 

This guy was far from cute. He was a weirdo. An absolute freak. 

“Mmhmm. Anyway, my midterm is for Computer Science. Everything is done on computers.” 

“O-Oh…well, that’s quite alright. I can use these for my literature tests! Now then, I also purchased a few energy bars, in case you need a snack before your test! I…wasn’t completely sure of your favorite flavors or any potential allergies, so I just grabbed one of each. I did take a few extra strawberry ones though, since you ordered the strawberry crepes.”

He moved one of the bags to the center of the table. It was nearly full of all sorts of snack bars plus a few strawberry-flavored candies. Some that just so happened to be Sakura’s favorites. She blushed a bit but picked through the options. 

She didn’t take everything, that would probably make her come off as desperate and needy, which she absolutely was not, but she made sure to grab some that her brother may be willing to tolerate. At least on the nights he worked so late and barely ate. 

“And then—”

“Seriously, Yamada-san, this is unnecessary. I er, appreciate your attempt to smooth things over, but I’m not a girl that is so easily bought into forgiving someone.” 

After all, that was Saku’s thing. Letting men shower him with gifts and money was pretty much his entire thing.

Or well, it had been. Now he was with Suzu and…so different. Obviously for the better but it was still bizarre. 

She shook her head; why was she focusing on him? It’s not like this situation was going to be anything like Saku’s. There would never be a scenario where she even considered this weirdo for a friend!