Days Thereafter

School Days A collection of drabbles, coupled with short stories. Makoto X Kotonoha and Makoto X Sekai. Romance/Humor.

Written by Tribunal.

Disclaimers: School Days belong to Overflow.

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1. Train / Katsura Residence (1)

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When he came to school by train, he saw her.

When he returned home by train, he saw her.

He knew that she liked to read books, the memories of it now displayed as his hand phone background.

He knew that she gave him a kiss yesterday, the memories of it now forever tingling on his lips.

As he dozed off on the train, the memories flowed back to him, gradually, like dawn, never-ending, like clockwork. The black void was filled with pictures of those two scenes he enjoyed so very much.

"Ah… Makoto-kun, are you still with us?"

"Makoto! Wake up, you sleepyhead!"

He opened his eyes.

"Makoto-kun, we are nearly at the station."

"Makoto! If you had slept on for much longer, we would not have been able to have fun at Katsura-san's house."

He smiled.

"Kotonoha, Sekai, let's go."

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The roads were lit by the moon and the lights from the streetlamps and the nearby houses. It was already 7 when we arrived at Kotonoha's house.

"Onii-chan!"

A young girl, roughly at the age of 10, leapt towards Makoto like a cricket- that is, it seemed remotely impossible for anyone to jump that long distance.

"Kokoro-chan, don't be rude!" Kotohona chided.

Makoto was knocked back, lost his balance... and fell directly on top of me.

Ouch. That was one hard fall.

While both Makoto and I suffered some bruises from the fall, it seemed that Kotohona's younger sister was uninjured. She simply got up, and patted the dirt off her skirt. Makoto and I were not so lucky. His hand landed on somewhere rather high where he shouldn't have touched.

I just managed to restrain slapping him or biting his head off with harsh words. With his face red like a tomato, he got on his legs, while helping me up.

"Saijoni-san, I am sorry for what had happened just now," he mouthed rather timidly. Geez, it was not like I would bite off his head... wait, I was going to, but I restrained.

However, Kokoro pointed an accusing finger at me. "Who are you, big sister? Ah! Onii-chan, don't tell me you are two-timing!" It slowly turned into an expression of shock.

I reckoned that I would lose control of my emotions soon. But...

"Kokoro! Please behave yourself! They are friends of mine, and guests of the house!" Kotohona must be fuming right now. She was chasing her sister around Makoto, her face slowly turning into a beetroot red.

In the sounds of glee, Kokoro continued to tease us even more. "Aiee... Onii-chan, save me from my terrible sister!"

It was no surprise that Kotonoha instantly caught her by the ear and fuzzed her head.

"Now, Kokoro, please apologise to our guests before I lower your daily pocket money."

Kotonoha like this was frightening. I have noticed how, at times, when her eyes became this lifeless, although it was because of her frail emotional state. Back then, when we were competing for the love of Makoto-kun, I had seen her like this for a lot of times. But ever since that incident happened, we resolved to become friends instead. But this, however, was a different polarity of the emotional state she was in. She was lifeless and emotional, however, it was due to the extremely strong emotional state she was in now.

It seemed that either her older sister's extremely brutal emotional state or the threat of her pocket money decreased had taken a toll on her, and she immediately bowed down low and apologised.

We went into Kotohona's room. As Makoto had mentioned a few weeks earlier, it was simple, and not very interesting to the naked eye, but to those who were observant, it was a welcoming room, one which would allow visitors feel right at home immediately.

It was simple, yet simply one of the wonders of our world. It left me rooted to my spot and unaware of my surroundings for a few moments.

Makoto and I soon got settled in Katsura-san's room.

"Saijoni-san, do you know how to play 'King'?" Katsura-san asked.

"Oh. You mean the one where the King orders the unlucky subordinate to do whatever he likes? Yeah, I do," I replied.

Vivid memories of playing the game flooded into my mind. Setsuna, Makoto and a small bunch of people from our classes a few years back played it with me. Somehow, I received the authority of a King more often than the rest and it was usually Makoto who received the "unlucky subordinate" status.

I suspect that I had started to fall for him during Middle School, as I somehow remembered ordering him to confess to me in various ways. Of course, back then, it was just innocent fun between us. But now, it would be just the four of us.

Slowly, we proceeded to sit in a circle. Katsura-san shuffled the cards. In the order of Makoto, Katsura-san, Kokoro-chan and lastly, me, we took the cards.

To say the least, I was disappointed. While I did not receive the divine role of the "King", I was not cast into the fate of the lowly "unlucky subordinate" either. In such rounds, although it would be amusing to watch the unlucky subordinate doing things under the King's orders, but then, I suppose I am one of those types who won't really agree with sitting around for a whole round.

Ah. It seemed that Kokoro-chan had been crowned King, while Makoto has been dubbed with the role of the subordinate. In glee, Kokoro-chan exclaimed, "I want you to piggyback me around the whole room."

And piggyback Kokoro-chan Makoto did. In fact, he managed to do it within thirty seconds. But Kokoro-chan should not be heavy at all.

The cards were returned and Katsura-san shuffled them again. This time, I was given the role of the subordinate. Guess what? The tables have turned since a few years back and now Makoto is the King.

When I announced to His Royal Majesty that I was to be his Royal Subject, he went deep in thought for a moment, before a very perverse grin appeared on his face.

"Sekai, I want you to kiss Kotonoha three times on the lips, like lovers."

Hmm… that might not be bad at… WAIT! Did he want me to kiss Katsura-san three times, like lovers?! Both of us flushed red with embarrassment for quite a moment. As much as we wanted to avoid introducing the term that starts with 'L' into our lives, we had to do it due to the nature of the game.

And so, while my heart thumped, I prepared myself to initiate the first kiss.

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