Author's note: Sorry for those typos I made in the previous chapter! Like I said, it was really confusing editing and transferring stuff to the site since I'm new here. I guess that's not an excuse, right? Oh, and thank you to my readers who are reminding me if I made any mistakes, such as the part when Kahoko first saw Tsukimori smile. I haven't seen this anime in a while, and I may have forgotten some of the small details. But anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
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"Thank you, Tsukimori-kun" Kahoko smiled. "It was really nice of you to care for me."
"C-Care?" he asked with wide eyes. "Oh...well...y-you're welcome."
"Oi, Kaho-chan!" Hihara yelled, knocking from the other side of Tsukimori's door. "Stop hiding, I know you're in there!" Hihara managed to open the door with a clip, and charged through to find Kahoko and Tsukimori sitting closely together on the floor.
"What are you two-"
"Ah, no, we're not dating!" Kahoko said quickly, waving her arms around in circles and shaking her head. She was able to glance to the right of her and saw Tsukimori looking away with his hand covering his face.
"I wasn't going to ask you that" Hihara chuckled. "I was just going to ask why you two are sitting on the floor around spilled coffee."
"Excuse me" Tsukimori said, getting up and leaving the room. His face was flushed, and his cheeks felt hot. He didn't know why he felt this way, but realized how strange he acted around Kahoko.
"Tsukimori-kun! I'll clean up in here, okay?" Kahoko said, picking up the towel that Tsukimori had used to treat Kahoko's wounds.
"No. You two have to leave my room. I'm going to clean everything later, so just leave it" he replied sternly. The room was filled with tension and awkwardness once Tsukimori was out of sight. Both Hihara and Kahoko remained quiet for a while, staring into different directions without a sound coming out of them.
"Awkward..." Hihara sang. Kahoko giggled and hit his arm.
"You're so weird" she laughed. "But you're right. There's something wrong with Tsukimori these days. I mean, he's always walking out on me, just when I think he might be starting to—oh, never mind. He's just acting strange lately I guess."
"Isn't he always like that?" he joked. Kahoko laughed with him as they continued making jokes about Tsukimori.
"I can still hear you two!" Tsukimori called from the hallway.
"SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!" Hihara and Kahoko said, running out of Tsukimori's room.
"It was Kahoko who made fun of you, not me!" Hihara added.
"EH?!" Kahoko whined. "I would never say anything bad about him! Isn't that right, Tsukimori-kun?"
"I guess so" Tsukimori shrugged. Kahoko stopped running and just stared at Tsukimori, who continued walking away.
'Tsukimori-kun...how come you keep changing your emotions like this?' Kahoko thought. While standing and watching him walk away, Hihara didn't notice Kahoko had stopped running and bumped into her, causing them to fall flat on the floor. Kahoko quickly looked away and closed her eyes.
"Kaho-chan..." Hihara mumbled. "I-I'm really sorry. I...I did it again."
"Oi, must I always get in the middle of this situation?" Tsuchiura sighed, picking Hihara off of Kahoko. "This is the second time, Hihara. Do I need to put security cameras just to make sure you're not getting too close to Hino? Can you handle even a few seconds without falling on top of her?"
"Ah...hehe...sorry" Hihara said with his face flushed in embarrassment.
"When did you guys get back?" Kahoko asked, standing up.
"A few minutes ago" Fuyuumi replied.
"I'm guessing we came just in time to save your butt from Hihara and his monster of a stomach" Tsuchiura joked.
"Come on, is my stomach that big?" Hihara complained, raising his shirt up. Fuyuumi and Kahoko looked away and blushed.
"Eh, look, you're hurting the girls' eyes!" Tsuchiura said. Hihara pouted and put his shirt back down.
"Where is Tsukimori?" Yunoki asked. "And what happened to your hand, Hino? There are bandages everywhere."
"Umm...well the second part sort of lead to the first part" she replied. "You see, I was playing around with Hihara, and then I was hiding in Tsukimori's room. I bumped into him and—well, long story short—Tsukimori helped me treat my wounds, and left just before all of you came."
"Tsukimori did that? I didn't know he was that nice" Tsuchiura said, scratching his head in confusion.
"Actually, Tsukimori is very kind and helpful when he wants to" Yunoki corrected.
"Eh, why are we always talking about Tsukimori?" Hihara asked. "Besides, I'm hungry!"
"I thought you said you wanted to stay fit?" Tsuchiura smirked. "You could have gone with us, but I guess you wanted to stay with Hino."
"EH, THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Hihara protested, stomping his feet. "You were gone for a long time, and I got hungry!"
"We were only gone for about twenty minutes" Shimizu said in a tired tone. Hihara sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Alright everyone, settle down" Kanazawa interrupted. "Maybe you should all be practising about now, hmm?"
"Yes, sensei" everyone bowed, heading off in different directions. Kahoko brought her violin with her and walked out to the garden, hoping she could practice in peace. To her dumb luck, Kahoko saw Tsukimori sitting cross-legged on the grass with his head buried in his hands. Slowly and carefully, Kahoko walked behind Tsukimori and lightly tapped his shoulder.
"Umm..." Kahoko mumbled. Tsukimori jumped in his spot and turned himself around to face Kahoko.
"Hino...what are you doing here?" he asked. Kahoko didn't answer, but held up her violin and sheet music. She formed a small smile, guessing that he would understand what she was trying to tell him.
"What are you doing?" Tsukimori asked, raising his eyebrow.
"What? Ah...nothing!" she replied, putting the violin and sheet music down. "I just wanted to practice here. I thought no one would be playing in the garden, since I heard no music."
"Is that all you come here to do?" he asked, in somewhat of a cold tone.
"N-No...why?" Kahoko asked nervously. Tsukimori looked around the garden, then up at the sky.
"Don't you want to come here to smell the flowers circling around you? Don't you love gazing up at the sky, trying not to think of anything, and clear your mind even for s few seconds?" he replied. "Just because we're here to practice and train, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself, Hino."
"I...I never thought of it like that. I know you can have fun here, but the way you said it...it's like...I don't know" Kahoko said.
"Yeah, well-"
"It's beautiful"
"What?" Tsukimori asked in confusion.
"Everything you just said..." she replied. "I never thought you could open up like that."
"I have before, haven't I?" he asked.
"I know, but...not like that" Kahoko smiled. "And speaking of opening up, there's something I have to tell you."
"Is it about the magic violin?" Tsukimori sighed. Kahoko's eyes widened, and her lips parted slightly. When did Tsukimori find out about all of this? Did the others know? Millions of questions ran through Kahoko's mind all at once.
"I...well..." Kahoko stuttered.
"I know about everything, Hino. I'm not sure if everyone else knows though" he said.
"I-I...I'm sorry" Kahoko sobbed. "But...ever since those strings broke, the magic was gone, and I swear, I've been truthful to you ever since. But I guess that's no excuse, right? I'll go tell everyone, and I'm sure everything will go back to normal." Kahoko tried standing up again, but something managed to hold her down. She looked around and noticed Tsukimori's arms wrapping tightly around her.
"You think that just because you used some magic violin, that everyone would hate you?" he muttered. "You've created a relationship with everyone, and thinking that you'll ruin it because of lying about using a real violin for some time – I have to admit, Hino, that's pretty stupid. You obviously don't know how much all of these people care about you."
"But, I just thought that since everyone here has practiced and played music all their lives, lying to them and sort of cheating would seem unfair" Kahoko replied, wiping her tears. "But for now, please...please don't tell anyone about this."
"Don't worry, I won't" Tsukimori said. Kahoko replied with a smile, letting the both of them hear nothing but the birds and wind brushing past them. Tsukimori let go of his tight grip, and Kahoko fell next to him.
'Tsukimori-kun...thank you for everything...I may have thanked you dozens of times, but this is something my heart has thanked you for greatly...' Kahoko thought. She closed her eyes and rested her head on Tsukimori's shoulder.
"W-What are you doing?' he stuttered.
"I'm clearing my mind..." Kahoko whispered, smiling to herself.
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is so short. And also, I will be going to the Philippines on Sunday, and will stay there for about one month. That means that I won't be updating ( but for now, I'll still try updating as much as I can - that is if I even have readers. I'll probably delete it if I notice that I don't have many readers, but don't worry, because I'm not thinking about it yet. XD