"Riko...I Really... Love you...
CHAPTER 1 / PART 1
Seirin High going to have a big festival coming along. Students been busy with their classes' plan to fill in the rundown for the upcoming festival. The upperclassmens put up all the tents for the stalls, the tall brown haired guy tied the cloth to the poles to form a small tent. "Hyuuga, pass me some other cloths!" He called Hyuuga while finished on the third tent. A second after the call, Black haired senior with glasses lend some cloth to Kiyoshi. Aside the busy male upperclassmens on the field, the basketball club's coach, Aida Riko, sorting datas for the games in the festival's stalls later. The games that will be held on the festival are mini basket, mini soccer and some others, like shooting, guppies catch and much more. Even they will invite a band to perform on the last day. "Hmm.. They all seems to be okay, I'll ask the school's president later." Thought the female coach of Seirin Basketball club while tidying all the schedules on her writing board[1]. She stood up then walked around the school hall to search the school's president. Meanwhile, on the large school field, the tall center player and the captain in glasses still cooperating on the tent's support. "Na~a Hyuuga, did you put the supports in the right depth?" Kiyoshi knocked the tent's support to make sure the tent won't fly off in case something happened on the following days. "I'm sure that I put all the supports on the right depth, no way they going to fly off on their own." Said Hyuuga, saw all of the tent's supports and nodded as an "Ok" to Kiyoshi. As a response, the brown haired upperclassmen gave Hyuuga two thumbs up. Riko appeared to be done with her small task, she went to greet those busy males a bit. "Hyuuga-kun~ Kiyoshi~" She called from the distance, waved at them but lower on the chest, she did not want to draw any attention toward her action here. Hyuuga and Kiyoshi both waved back at her, "Hey~" "Konnichiwa, Riko!" Kiyoshi greeted the short haired female with a bright smile, like usual. "Can you lend us a hand on the cloths while we attach it all?" Hyuuga tied the current cloth, and climbed down the stairs. Riko nodded, "U~n!" She grabbed some cloth from the clothes basket on the corner of the stairs, passing all of them to Kiyoshi, then Hyuuga. They all doing the same pattern, until the 12th tent done.
"Yosh yosh! It's all done!" Kiyoshi rubbed his hand with a "pash pash" sound by each rub. Riko and Hyuuga looked through all the tents, then nodded at each other, "All done!" Riko smiled, wiping sweatdrops with her jacket's sleeve. "It's not all, by the way.. The banner for the school building's entrance still lying on the table over there." Hyuuga ran to the table near the Principal's room, grabbing the long banner with "Welcome To Seirin High Festival!" written on it, then giving it to Riko. "Eh-? Me?" She blinked twice by looking at the large and long banner on her arms. Hyuuga nodded, "Uhuh, give it a try~ We'll do the stairs moving and stuff." Without further words, Riko climbed up the stairs and taped the left side corner of the banner with a strong grey tape[2]. "Yo—tto.. This side finished! Kiyoshi, move it a bit to the right, please~!" Kiyoshi looked up and responded by a small smile, "Hold on to the stairs while I move it, Riko~" After Riko do what Kiyoshi said, the tall brown haired male shifted the stairs slowly, Riko trying to stay balanced by the shifting. "Okay, I'm done shifting the stairs, careful up there!" Shouted Kiyoshi from the bottom. "Okay okay.." Riko continued with the taping, but suddenly.. "Eh-? Ah-!" Her left leg stepped on the wrong edge, her body losing the balance and soon, Riko will fell to the ground from a 2,5 meters stairs! Hyuuga sensed something bad, and his body moved to the place where the stairs is. Horrible, it's horrible! Her body leaned fast to the back, she fell down with a loud scream, but... "Rikoo! Egh-!" Hyuuga sliding to the ground like a baseball player who ran to the home, spreading his arms wide and caught Riko on her arms. Her scream faded, "Uh-?" She looked around, thank God she's safe and sound.
A grunt heard near Riko's fall off position, "Eh? Hyuuga-kun?!" She's shocked and stared at the fallen Hyuuga. "Urgh.. Riko," The boy in glasses looked up to Riko, but only seeing until Riko's hips. The fall and heroic action between Hyuuga and Riko made a commotion, some of the students smiling and cooing at them. Lot of "aww" 's and " cute~" 's out from their mouths. Hyuuga blushing and helped Riko to stand, looks like Riko blushing too. "A-Ah.." The male stuttered, embarrassed by the students gathering around them as a commotion. "L-Let's get out from here!" Hyuuga hurriedly grabbed Riko's left arm and they both ran away to the backyard. Part of the groups were cheering when those two ran away, and inside the groupies of commotion, Furihata saw what's what. "So, the rumour senpai ever told me was correct, but I'm not sure... I had an Idea~" said Furihata in his head, and he left the groupies, went straight to the other site to help Kawahara and Fukuda at the north side of the field.
The preparation took longer than all the highschooler thought would be, it's time to go home. The clock showed 5 PM, the sun almost set. All the student council members already went back home but Riko. She stayed and rechecked all the schedule, also texting to her absent friend, which is the secretary of the student council.
" To : Mikka-chan
I put all the reshuffled and final schedules back to your desk's drawer. Be sure to check it all tomorrow. Ah yeah, get well soon!
From : Riko "
She flipped her clamshell handphone shut, and put it to her bag. "Time to head home." Riko went out from the room, locking it and walked down the stairs. She's heading to the usual bus stop, across the Seirin High gate. Once she was there, Riko sat down to the empty seats while waiting for a certain bus. "Wait.. I'm not alone, am I?" She felt somehow there's another person on the same bus stop. When she looked at her left, there's a black haired male student in glasses, busy texting someone. Riko pretty sure it was Hyuuga, she wanted to call him, but she better not. Too late, Hyuuga looked to the right and their gaze met. "R-Riko?" He's still stuttering a bit, maybe because of that moment. "Hyuuga-kun.." Right that moment, the bus came. The door opened and they both getting in the bus. Riko picked a seat next to the window, and Hyuuga joined to sit beside Riko. They both seemed to be ill at ease at the moment, "Uhm.. Riko.." Hyuuga came up with something to set aside the awkwardness embarrassment inside their thoughts.
The bus arrived at the bus stop near the intersection to Riko's house and Aida's gym. Those two also getting out from the bus along with the other few passengers who had the same destination. Away from the bus stop, Hyuuga walking with Riko to Riko's home first. "We're here~" Hyuuga stopped in front of the house's gate. "Thanks for walking me home, Hyuuga-kun.." Riko tilted her body to the right side and smiled, warmly. Blushing faintly, Hyuuga scratching his left cheek, nervously. "A-Ah.. No problem.. I'm heading home now, let us meet tomorrow, okay?" Hyuuga turned his back and walked to the straight way to his house, raised his palm and taking his leave. Riko pushed the gate, and saw Hyuuga only 9 inch away. She ran to the front and shouted from the front gate, "Hyuuga-kun—" The distance male highschooler turned his head toward Riko's voice which calling him out and stopped him. "-Thank you for saving me... Thank you!" Riko thanked sincerly and let a honest smile and faint blushing around her ears to the cheeks. Hyuuga smiled from afar, parting with her with a small wave by his right hand and continued his way to his home not far from his female classmate's house.
Note!
[1]I don't really know what that board called in English, well.. Some board with clipper on it to clip on papers like that.
[2]Probably Duct Tape, but I'm not sure it can handle banners that big anyway.