A/N: I might failed on the part when they both together (the haunted house and scenario run), but I wish it will be ok to the readers. I'm trying to show Hyuuga's scaerdy-cat personality and Riko's hyper personality, sorry if I failed in here..
[CHAPTER 5]
[~~Flashback~~]
"So, we have to do the plan tomorrow?" said the tall center who hiding behind the large stage with the kouhais and other senpais, excludes Hyuuga and Riko. "Yes, senpai~" The blue haired 1st year student answered, shortly. Furihata lent out a small scenario sheet, "We have to be busy with stalls in any reason, and please don't be suspicious toward captain or coach. Tsuchida-senpai, since you're keeping the mini basketball stall with coach, can you do a favor?" The always smiling 2nd year upperclassmen looking at the paper then too Furihata, "What is it?" "Can you try to find a way to make coach out from the keeping task? Because coach and captain should not be busy on the festival for this plan." Tsuchida nodded and he came up with a fast idea, "Leave it to me, I have to ask her to enjoy the festival, since she always busy with festival's duty, I bet she have to get a little fun." Suggest Tsuchida to the 1st year student in front of him. "What should the others do? Like me and others?" The pun-maker senpai asked, holding the scenario plan and pointing some parts of it. "Senpai-tachi can stay at the stalls and just tell them that we all 'busy', so coach and captain can stay alone so the plan goes on. We, kouhais might passing by but surely stay away from them. Just don't tell them we're avoiding them or whatever, juuuussttt say we're busy~" The tall player with red and black streaked hair gave a further plans for the senpais side and kouhais side. "Well, let's do our best to make this plan successful~!" Fukuda lent out his hand and the others do the same, they all pushed down and flailing it up to the air and shouted, "ooh!" Then they all dismissed.
~ SCHOOL FESTIVAL DAYS : DAY 2 ~
Second day of Seirin's school festival, all stalls still crowded than ever. The last days always have a tradition to close the day with a mini concert, the festival committee have been busy calling the YOUNG COLEX[7]'s manager to make sure the band will perform on the mini concert right on schedule. Each classes' event also getting crowded, the most visited classes are class 3-C with haunted house and 3-A with cosplay cafe. Inside the crowd, Kagami and Kuroko just out from the cafe, they both been there just snacking around before getting into the 'plan' they're planning today. "Kagami-kun, I didn't know they had vanila shake in their menu. It's delicious." The vanila shake lover implied, while looking to the male who walked beside him. "Yeah that's because you like vanila shake in the first place," Kagami sighed to Kuroko's plainness, "anyway, the beef burgers kinda rich, I wonder what they put in the meat.." He wondered, leaving Kuroko blinking twice, "Maybe that's because you like beef burgers in the first plave, Kagami-kun." By Kuroko's familiar comeback, the boy with red and black streaked hair gritted his teeth, "O-Oi!, don't reuse my line, will ya?" He hit Kuroko's shoulder with his big elbow, "O-Oww.." the blue haired boy rubbed his shoulder from the impact. They both continued and looking for the popular or the most visited class events, "Kagami-kun, should we try that?" He pointed at a large sign with a creepy font, at some point Kagami knew it's his secondary fear. The taller male shaken his head rapidly, "N-Nah, I don't want to.. " He began to act slightly awkward, a small sweat droplet indicating that Kagami indeed afraid of those things in Kuroko's little eyes. "Don't tell me, you cannot stand ghosts, Kagami-kun?" The word hit straight to Kagami, "H-Heck no! N-No way I would scared by those things, ehehehe.." He stuttered and an awkward laughter heard. "Kagami-kun, you're stuttering-" Before the blue haired male finished with his statement, the taller male covered his mouth, "Gah—Just shut up!" yell Kagami, irritated.
On the outdoor stalls, Furihata, Fukuda and Kawahara hanging out at the crepe stall, like Kagami and Kuroko, these freshmens snacking around before meeting with the light and the shadow soon. "I'm done, want to check out some stalls?" The baldy male asked, while throwing away the crepe's wrapping to a trash bin. "Where should we visit next?" Furihata asked, his mouth full of crepes bits. "Bubble drink stands? I'm thirsty..." Fukuda suggested, he ate two crepes and haven't drink anything yet. Furihata agreed and he took a whole bite of the crepe, "Me too, let's go then." Still, he's talking with a muffled voice by the crepes inside his mouth. Those two other freshmens of the trio just shaking their heads, and they all headed to the bubble drink stand around the corner.
A sound of a ball hitting a ring heard. RING RING! Tsuchida ringing a hand bell, indicating that the player has won severals points on 3 minutes. "Congratulation! You've earn 100 points! Here's the prize." Riko passed a 3 weeks worth cafetaria coupon to Tsuchida, and then he gave it to the player. "Come back and play soon~" Said the always smiling male when the player walking away from the stall. He took all the four small basketballs to the deck, "Tsuchida-kun, how many prizes we had left?" The short brown haired girl asked to the busy male over the deck. "You can try to check at the container box and count it. Tell me if you're done checking, I could ask Rei-sensei to check on the storage for the remaining prizes." Tsuchida walking near Riko, who was checking on the stock of prizes. "Around 20 left, still a lot! No need to worry then, right?" She smiled, while sliding the container box's cover. After a few while walking around the stall space, the taller male remembered something, "Ah, Riko.." He called the female across him. "What is it?" "Maybe you should enjoy the festival more, since you take a lot of work through planning and stuffs, and you must be stressed out." Riko raised her eyebrows, "Haa? Why? If I leave, you will take this stall all alone!" Tsuchida only shaking his head and laughing a little, "Relax, Riko! I could keep this small stall all by myself! J-Just enjoy the festival a bit okay?" He insisted, and Riko couldn't help but agree to do it. "O-Okay then, thank you for today~ " Riko opened up the small stall door and went out, waving to Tsuchida and be waved back. "Have fun, Riko!" said Tsuchida with a bright smile. Riko did felt something weird, yet wondering if Tsuchida hiding something by a small stutter back then. What is that? Is he hiding something from me? Those thoughts haunted Riko's mind, "No no no! I cannot jump into a negativity like this. It's just a small stutter after all." She's making a divertion in her mind, and continued her walk into the small crowds.
It's been 15 minutes Riko ventured the large spaces of festival, it would be faster if the crowds aren't grouping too much. "I can't even believe the festival going well and crowded, I felt successful with a part of my plan." Her heart felt a bit light and happy, she walked more and saw a familiar figure that she might know. A small 'Huh' out near silent from her mouth, she took few steps toward the figure, "Ah! Hyuuga-kun—" She called from afar and the figure noticed, since her voice a little loud, Riko cannot help but blush a bit. "Ah, Riko!" Hyuuga walked near to the female who called him, and he smiled. "Are you alone? Aren't you working on the mini basketball stall?" He asked. The caramel-eyed female shaking lightly, "Not anymore, Tsuchida insisted me to have fun, since I took a lot of planning and been stressed out." Hyuuga nodded, crossing his arms. "How about you? Alone too?" She asked back. "Well, Kiyoshi been missing to the crowd. That idiot, tch—!" The male fixed his glasses while clicking his tongue, "I somehow had nothing to do right now. So uhm... Want to walk.. together?" A small slowing on speech tempo made a faint red tint appeared on his cheeks, Riko didn't notice it somehow but she agreed with a smile, "Sure!" They both walked side by side and ventured the festival once more, but this time they both venturing it together.
A lot of class events and stalls interested those two quite much, but something catching to the brown haired girl but somehow not to the black haired male. "Hyuuga-kun, let's try that one for a start!" She pointed at the 3-C's Haunted house, and suddenly Hyuuga felt his goosebumps. "N-Na~a, Riko.." The girl looking toward the tall boy beside her, "What is it, Hyuuga-kun?" She asked while questioning the sweatdrops on Hyuuga's cheeks. "—Why don't we try the others first?" Hyuuga seems twitchy, but he's trying hard to make sure he could hide his fear unnoticed by Riko. "Aww Come on, I really like this type of event for a long time! Or maybe... You're too scared to do it?" She smirked, teased the taller male who felt jittery at the moment. Hyuuga blushing by her question, "H-Heck no! Why would I be scared at fake ghosts, r-really!" He lied and stuttered, Hyuuga didn't want Riko to know that he's terrified of it. "Ah— So, you're afraid of real ghosts, eh?" "I-I'm not! I'm not scared of any ghosts or whatever!" He pounded his chest with his left first, ensuring Riko that he's brave enough, even through he's not. "Trust me!" Riko only facepalming by seeing Hyuuga's prideful act when his legs still shaking like crazy. "Okay then, prove it inside the haunted house then!" She challenged the boy in glasses. "Okay!" He accepted it. They both visited the entrance and instructed by the class owner, "Please be careful not to trip on stuffs inside and be safe!" A tall girl in witch costume opened the gothic like drapes and let those two in. Inside the haunted house, the light shine dimmer than the outside and creepy ghastly music played along the way. Riko walked in normally while checking the arrows toward along the way, "Hmm, right or left..." She stopped and thinking for a while, the boy in glasses looked to the both paths while his body shivering in fear. "Na~a Riko, which way should we pick?" His tone somewhat revealing his fear a little bit to Riko, but the girl won't say a thing since she's busy picking a right path. "Not sure, let's go to the right~ No way this class had booby traps on it anyways~!" With confident, the shorter girl marched to the right path, while the taller male tailing her from the back and fasten his steps. "R-Right.." Hyuuga wondered what will he and Riko face later on, and could he even stay until the end or not. The pair ended up in a victorian styled set, but only half way until they saw a large bushy forest-like set. "Woah, it seems realistic!" Riko's eyes glimmering, amazed by every detail of the set. The male kinda glad nothing scary. But suddenly, a smoke appeared on the floor, spreading like a short mist. "Ah?" Hyuuga quickly turned his head when the mist reached his shoes, "Nice effect~ Hyuuga-kun, let's venture the forest!" Her energetic voice made Hyuuga a bit nervous, but he's nodding in agreement and going with her to the forest, together anyway.
The forest seemed to be darker than the town-ish victorian buildings set, the voices of the forest's ambience heard from a sound system hidden somewhere in the set. "W-Whoa.. Too dark and too big..." Hyuuga felt scared but somehow a bit surprised by a semi-realistic atmosphere. "R-Riko, we usually get lost in a forest this dark right?" He's picking up some petty question, again to hide away his nervousness. "Nonsense, it would be easy since it's fake. We did it on a real deal forest[8] before, Hyuuga-kun~" Riko stood and facing to the scaerdy-cat captain, confused. "A-Ah... yeah.. right..." The male felt awkward yet again, like why the heck he picked a question like that? He looked away, ashamed. "Let's continue further then..." He tried to lead the way, and Riko followed him from the back. Not far from their current path, a sound of howling heard from the distance. Riko noticed it right away, gulped a bit, "W-Whoa... A wolf?" stated her, trying to find something near the current path, still walking along Hyuuga. The male gulping harder, his feet began to shiver more. "Crap, what's next?!" He panicked, but he hit his own head with his fist, "Calm down me, calm down... Don't show her your stupid fear.." He tried to support himself by his mind. Hyuuga walked a bit faster because Riko already ahead of him a few steps. Suddenly, a large figure appeared from the bushes in between tall trees, facing both of them and a hoarse yet creepy growl heard from the figure in front of him. "WHOA!" The pair screamed in unison, Hyuuga in a deep shock while Riko jolted to the back, while her left eye twitching a couple times. "W-Werewolf?" She looked at the large wolf-like creature standing and by its stance, similiar to every werewolves' signal to attack. A howl let out from the wolf creature, made Hyuuga startled and he hide behind Riko. By his cowardly action, Riko scratched her head confused. "Hyuuga-kun.. Did you just... hide because you're scared of werewolf?" She raised her right eyebrow, curious by the act. "N-No... I'm not scared at all~" He walked to the front of the short haired girl and faced the werewolf, "I'm not scared of this creature anyway—" The werewolf stomped to the front and raising its large claws and roared, "GRAAOOOUU!" Hyuuga sweating hard and grabbed Riko's hand suddenly, "—L-Let's get out from here!" He ran away to the random paths while pulling the girl's hand, "H-Hyuuga-kun, slow down please!" She's catching up to the running Hyuuga, hardly by her pulled hand. She somehow want to laugh at Hyuuga's retreating actions back then and running away like this, "I knew it.. He's scared after all, silly Hyuuga-kun~ Hihihi" She laughed inside her heart, and she smiled a little bit. But because Hyuuga's hand holding hers, Riko's face getting red and her heart racing a bit. The pair slowly reaching the exit, instead getting out like a normal horror adventurer, Hyuuga's action made these two exited the area like marathon runners. "Congratulations! You two made it! Thank you for visiting!" The lady in witch attire from the entrance bowed, and smiled by greeting the exhausted pair. "Haah- You run faster than in the game, Hyuuga-kun.. You're indeed scared after all.." Riko giggled shortly when catching up her breath. Hyuuga blushing as red as a tomato, " I am not—gah—!" The captain embarrassed, crossing his arms and quickly looking away from Riko's gaze. The caramel-eyed female shaking her head, giggling by the taller male's Tsundere-like action. "Ahaha, Hyuuga-kun.. No wonder you're talking too much and acting silly like that, you're scared after all.. Hiding it all and faking your bravery, I supposed you did a cute way on hiding it. Silly scaerdy-cat captain, hihi." Thought Riko deep in her heart while blushing faintly, smiling softly at the embarassed 'scaerdy-cat captain'.
The coach and the captain done with their spooky adventures, looks like Hyuuga had enough of it for a day. "Na~a Riko... Let's do something else, shall we?" By his offer, the shorter girl tilted her head and smiling to the boy, "Okay-But what?" They both walking across some small stalls and from the distance, they heard something announced, "Attention students and visitors! Scenario Run venue is open! Please join us and participate to do some unique running! Visit the southern field for participating! Thank you!" announced by a female speaker the small P.A speaker. "Maybe that?" Riko suggested, while looking through Hyuuga's eyes. "Sure.. We could try that one~" He agreed, and Riko seems to be happy with the response. "Okay, let's go!" Her energetic self letting her to hype up and proceed to the southern field where the Scenario Run being held. Along the way, Hyuuga tried to reach the girl's hand beside him but somehow he pulled his hand back, too shy to do it and decided to forget about it and continued his and Riko's way to the site.
They both arrived at the Scenario Run's mini entrance, the tall male who stood near the participating line saw both of them, "Welcome to Scenario Run! Care to join us?" he greeted them as he welcomed them to the venue, with a hospitable attitude. Riko and Hyuuga nodded and went to the average line of participants and waited. In the line, Riko turned her head to the male behind her, "What would this venue will be like?" Her expression and tone somewhat the same as a little kindergarten kid who going to have a field trip and very curious with it. Hyuuga smiled a little, his arm extended and let his hand patting the girl's head. "We'll see it later, Riko~" Answered him, calmly. The line moving an inch and stopped again, but soon these two reached the main entrance with a large 'Scenario Run' banner on two tall poles. The entrance attendant showed the way to the drawing box. "Please take scenario paper inside this box, once you got it, you have to do it! Whether both of you or only one who will run and the other will do a secret thing!" The attendant stood beside the big blue box with scenario papers inside it. Riko walked toward the box and put her hand in the small hole to reach a paper, and when she got one, she hurriedly went next to the taller male and opened the little paper. The scenario on the paper had 'Run to the finish line by bridal style carry' written on it, they both froze and looking at each others, blushing red. The attendant opened the big red door to the field or the running track, "If you both win the run, the prize will be given on the finish line. No one knows what the prize is, but enjoy running!" The pair moved slowly to the running track, there's 4 pairs who will compete each other to the finish line. Riko and Hyuuga standing alongside on the 3rd track, "S-Should we do it?" Riko looking to the ground, still blushing and shy by the scenario they've picked. "We should—Hold on-" The taller boy in glasses grabbing Riko's legs and her back, then lifting her up to his chest, like the way a married couple do in the movies. Shocked by the sudden action, Riko's speechless and her heart pounding faster. The referee of the Scenario Run running venue appeared on the corner of the 1st track, raising the gun to the air, "Are you ready—" All the participants getting on their position, Riko circled her arms on Hyuuga's shoulders to make sure she won't fall down later on. POOSH! As the gun blasted off, the participant raced each others to the 2 ½ meters long track. Hyuuga ran on the third place, but soon catching up with the second then the first place along the long track. The girl on his arms only blinking twice, staring at him briefly and then back on watching the track. "Riko, keep holding on tight... We're almost there.." His face blushing from the left ear to the right ear, become reddish after telling Riko to holding tight to him. Not only the shy captain, the female coach also felt shy when running in the style like this, she burried her face on the chest of the male, blushing harder. Few steps forward and Hyuuga passed the line with Riko and they both won! "Congratulations! You two won! Please accept the present~" Riko signaling Hyuuga to put her down, and she went to the venue's attendant and recieve two coupons of cosplay cafe's free red velvet tarts. "Thank you for joining, come again next time!" The pair went to the exit gate and they both smiled also laughing happily because they won even in an embarassing method. The people who were watching slowly getting away, in between the crowd, the blue haired boy appeared from the dense path, "Captain and Coach braved to do the run with bridal style carry run, did it add up the plan progression, Furihata-kun?" He asked calmly, after reporting all that he saw back at the mini race. Furihata smiled, "Of course! I can't even believe they both did it! I bet this plan will be juuusstt fine until the end~ Come on, Kuroko! Let's head up to the others!" He walked first to the opposite direction from the pair, "U~n.." Kuroko tailing him from the back.
The embarassing race made the two 2nd year highschooler felt somewhat their hearts racing in the same beat. Either Riko or Hyuuga, they thought about a strange feeling when they were running on the track in that pose. Indecisive of what kind of feeling they had, they asking to themselves, Why this feeling haunting me more and more? What kind of feeling is this? Is there a reason why my heart pounding faster like this? And they both stared at the crimson sunset sky with a doubtful gaze. Is this what liking someone feels like?
[7]It's a lame parody of OLD CODEX, Takao seiyuu's band. I did it for a parody matter, nothing else~
[8]If you remembered the training camp before the winter cup on the mountains with forest, maybe you guys can recognize this better. Also on the 'replace -1-' novel, where Seirin basketball club having a courage test on a haunted house with a deep and dark forest around it.