It fades back to the ramen shop. Shiori is poking at her bowl as the others look pleased with the story. Shiori sees them staring and blushes, embarrassed. 

“See? I told you it wasn’t a big deal..”

“So that explains it. I was just under the assumption that you were obsessed with each other.” Chizuru says innocently.

“Chizuru!”

Shiori yells at her, blushing. Chizuru giggles and shrugs, smiling nervously.

“Can you blame me? When has something like this ever happened before? It could’ve been an excuse.”

She says, defending her thoughts. Shiori huffs, still blushing a bit.

“Well it’s not. I can’t stand Hikigaya anymore than I can stand any other moron.”

She crosses her arms, pouting a bit. 

“Aw, and here I was thinking you were falling for me.”

Hikigaya says sarcastically, leaning on his hand. She flicks a tofu cube that fell from his bowl at his forehead. His head jolts back from the impact. He then quickly tries to clean the soup residue from his forehead with a napkin.

“Delinquent students huh? We knew Hikigaya had a hard time staying out of trouble but you, Shiori?”

Ryuji says with a soft smile on his face. She blushes a bit.

“Believe me. When Chizu and I first met her, she was hard as a rock. The first thing she did was insult her!”

Lucy says, leaning past Shiori and looking at Ryuji. Shiori looks shocked.

“Lucy! Please don’t tell him that! I already apologized!”

She holds Lucy’s shoulder looking desperate. Lucy laughs.

“Hey, don’t sweat it! You think we all got along with no fights over the years?”

Lucy laughs as Haru speaks up.

“Oh yeah, believe me. Hiki and I once had a big blow up and didn’t talk to each other for a week.”

“Really? You guys did that, Haru?”

Sugawara asks with a surprised look. He’s surprised that even Haru can be so mad.

“Haha yeah! And over a stupid manga!”

“Hey, you’re the one who destroyed it.” Hikigaya adds with a smirk.

“It fell into the river by accident!”

They laugh about it as Shiori looks around, surprised that her friends can laugh about things that once made them upset. She looks down with a conflicted look before finishing her bowl. Lucy’s dad comes out from behind the curtains of the kitchen.

“Okay you kids. All finished?”

They nod happily as Sugawara finishes up last.

“Good. Now get out. I gotta start closing up shop here.”

They clean up a bit and get their things to head to the door. As they do that, Sugawara reaches into his bag and pulls out a wallet. He begins to pull out payment for the meal when Kenji notices.

“Hey, young man. What are you doing?”

Sugawara looks surprised.

“I’m going to pay for the food..?”

Kenji waves his hand in front of him.

“No, no. Go on and head home. Kids your age shouldn’t be worrying about things like that.”

He smiles warmly at Sugawara who is shocked. Lucy pats him on the shoulder.

“I told you, you don’t have to pay.”

She smiles at him and turns towards the door. He lightens up with a warm smile and then bows sharply to Kenji.

“Thank you very much for the food sir!”

Kenji nods as they head out.

“Oh and Lucy,” She turns. “See you at home sweetpea. Love you.”

“Daaad!”

She groans with an embarrassed look, rushing out of the door as he waves them off. The group then all heads their separate ways after some warm goodbyes.

Later that night, Sugawara sits on his belly in his bed in pajamas, writing in a diary.

‘Today was a fun day. I actually got to go after school and eat ramen with my friends! I never imagined it’d be so fun! I even learned a bit more about Haru. And Lucy. Even Shiori and Hikigaya. Lucy’s dad was really nice and let us eat for free. I really like my new friends. It’s hard sometimes trying to speak up but they make me feel so welcome anyway. I can’t wait to spend more time with them.’

He smiles happily while writing. He puts down the book and rolls onto his back. 

‘How was I so lucky to find them?’

He thinks about his friends for a moment before his focus turns to one person specifically. Haru’s face becomes all he thinks about, watching his big bright smile shine in his thoughts. He blushes and rolls onto his side.

‘That’s right… Haru…’

He grabs his pillow and hugs it tightly, blushing, with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. He then quickly sits up and shakes his head.

‘No! Don’t be stupid! He’s just being nice…’

He looks a little sad before looking at his phone on the nightstand next to his bed. He grabs it and pulls up Haru’s contact. He pauses for a moment before finding a spark of determination and hitting the call button. He puts the phone to his ear as Haru answers pretty quickly.

“Hello?”

“H-hi, I was wondering if I could come over?..” He asks timidly, playing with his hair a bit.

“Uh sure. But you come over almost every night, you sure your parents are okay with it?”

Haru asks, trying to be considerate. Sugawara looks at his door for a moment, a lonely look on his face.

“Yeah they’re… they’re okay.”

“Well then I’ll be over in a sec.”

“No, it’s okay. I got it.”

He hangs up the phone and slides it in his pajamas pocket before getting up and heading towards the only window to his room. He opens it, letting the cool night air blow against his face for a moment as he smiles. He takes a deep breath in before lifting himself up against the frame.

“Alright class, listen up! I hope you all came prepared for the field trip today like I told you.”

Ms. Samuel says with a smile and a finger point to the sky, dressed in a corny teacher adventure attire. It is now early October in the early morning, a good bit before classes would normally start. Everyone is gathered around the school bus drop off and pick up zone behind the large cafeteria. Shiori yawns and rubs her eyes a bit. Hikigaya steps next to her.

“What’s wrong Shiori? Not a morning person?”

“Not this early for a dumb field trip.” She grumbles while looking away with a conflicted look. ‘I can’t let him know how excited I am! Field trips are awesome but that would be way too embarrassing!..’ She thinks before turning back to him a frustrated look. “She won’t even tell us which one it is.”

“I know, right? The mystery trip. She’s talking it up but I feel that it’s going to be underwhelming.”

“At least it's like an hour and a half drive there, wherever there might be, so I get to sleep on the bus.”

She stretches a bit as Hikigaya nods happily. Ms. Samuel then speaks out, getting the class’s attention.

“Before we get going, I’ve got to get some rules and guidelines for this trip. First of all, on this trip you will be required to have a buddy all day. So start pairing up now.”

Everyone begins moving around getting their buddies. Shiori and Hikigaya were about to step apart before they stop and remember their rules then shrug and stay put. Ryuji and Lucy pair up as well as Haru and Chizuru. As a few minutes pass, Sugawara is left alone. He sees Haru and Chizuru laugh a bit and lowers his head. One of the other staff joining on the trip points this out to Ms. Samuel.

“Offff course we have an odd number in this class. How did I forget?” She says under her breath before calling out to him. “Sugawara.”

He turns to her.

“Go ahead and join whatever pair you want. You’ll be a triple.”

She says, putting three fingers up.

“Sugawara, get over here!”

Sugawara raises his head and smiles as he sees Haru put his hand out for him. He comes over and Haru wraps his arm around his neck and starts rubbing his head happily. Sugawara blushes and laughs.

“Okay, that’s all good. Now, what’s next?..”

She goes into her waistbag and pulls out a sheet of paper, going over her list of things to do before heading out with the class. She tells them to get on the bus and so they do. As they are getting on, when Hikigaya and Shiori step up, she talks for a moment.

“Good to see you two finally accepting this. I didn’t even have to stop you this time.”

They roll their eyes as she laughs a bit. Everyone gets on and sits in their pairs per seat. Everyone except Sugawara, Chizuru and Haru. Chizuru sits towards the window, Haru towards the aisle and Sugawara between them. Sugawara being so small then gets squished between Haru’s chest and Chizuru’s chest causing him to blush frantically. Shiori notices and giggles a bit to herself as they are sitting just across from them with Lucy and Ryuji right behind her and Hikigaya.

The class begins their long drive out to their destination. Most of the drive is smooth with little urban sights. Most of what the class saw on the way there was mountain sides and forest once they got out of the city. As the drive progresses, Shiori does just as she said she would and begins nodding off to sleep. At first she slept sitting straight up, leaning from side to side slightly. Hikigaya was sitting happily listening to music with earphones when the bus bumped a bit causing Shiori to lean and start sleeping against his shoulder. At first Hikigaya was surprised and was gonna wake her to get her to sit up again but once he saw her face so peaceful he just stared and smiled. He closes his eyes and lays his head against the seat.