AN: Hello there everyone! Seems like I can finally update this story. I'm back with the 2nd chapter. I hope you all had a wonderful day, if not well I hope tomorrow is better for you! Hope you enjoy the 2nd chapter!
Summer break went by in a flash for the girls. They would all get together throughout the break, but it just wasn't the same anymore. They missed Eli, Nico, and Nozomi. Slowly they all accepted the fact that the third years won't have much free time anymore, but that didn't mean that they didn't keep in contact with them
It was now the first day of a brand new school year. The sun is out, no clouds in the sky. Honoka, Umi, and Kotori are now 3rd years, while Maki, Rin, and Hanayo were now second years. The week before school, they decided to gather in front of the school, deciding to go in and start the new and final year together.
Honoka, surprisingly, was the first to arrive. Though that was because her sister, Yukiho, decided to wake her up early and wouldn't stop bothering her until she got up and ready. She was very excited to start the new, but final, year with her friends. She looks around to see if she can spot anyone else but so far she doesn't see anyone she knows. Some girls wave to her, one even comes up to her and asks for an autograph.
Of course, she waves back and gives the girl her autograph. She runs off to her group of friends, and enters the school. Honoka takes another look around and still doesn't see any of the girls in sight. Honoka yawns and pulls out her phone and checks the time, 45 minutes until they have to find their classes.
While Honoka was waiting, her mind went back to that time she was alone with Maki. She still doesn't understand why she felt the way she did around her, the warmth in her chest when she's around her is still a mystery. She ended up not asking anyone about this feeling, she told herself that this is something that she has to solve herself.
About 10 minutes later, someone calls out Honoka's name.
"Honoka-chaaan!" Said the person with energy.
Honoka looks over and notices Kotori running towards her with a smile on her face, waving at the same time.
"Kotori-chaan!" she also waves back with a smile on her face. As soon as they got near each other they shared a hug for a few seconds.
"Honoka-chan it's so good to see you! I'm sorry that I couldn't make it to our last get together, but thank you for telling me about the plan to meet up in front of the school." Kotori hadn't changed much from the last time Honoka saw her, the only difference is the green bow tie instead of red on her uniform.
"It's no problem at all Kotori-chan, we didn't really do much other than go eat and hang out. So you didn't miss much hehe." Honoka said while scratching the back of her head. Kotori looks around for a bit and has a confused look on her face.
"Hey, where's everyone else?" She asks confusingly
"Huh? Well... I'm the only one here so far hehe, I came here pretty early. Though that was all because Yukiho wanted to get here early and wait for Alisa. Look, she's right over there." Honoka points to the other side of the main gate.
Kotori looks over and sees Yukiho, talking to other girls. She assumes that those are her friends she's talking to. The longer she looks the more people seemed to gather around her.
"Well it's a good thing to know that she'll have plenty of friends here. Though I guess her being your sister must also be part of why so many girls are going up to her."
Honoka just stares as more girls huddle around her sister. On one hand she's genuinely happy that her sister will be in good hands once she graduates, on the other hand she's laughing at her sister, thinking that she deserves this as a sort of karma for waking her up super early.
"Yea... you're right about that." She says with a smile on her face.
Eventually Alisa comes, giving her greetings while passing by, and finds Yukiho pretty quickly. Though being Eli's sister also made the little crowd gather around her. The crowd dispersed a little after, letting both Yukiho and Alisa go into the school. They wave to Honoka and Kotori. They wave back.
Honoka and Kotori stay there and chat for a bit, as more and more people gather Honoka is blown away from how many new first years there are coming to this school. Some of the first years came up to them and either asked for a picture or autograph. of course they both gave them what they asked for.
Umi is the next person to arrive, unsurprisingly, she's a bit put off by the amount of students who came up to her and asked for autographs and pictures. She acclimated rather quickly and found herself enjoying the attention.
When the little Photo & Autograph session came to a end she made her way and stood next to Honoka and Kotori.
"How can you both stand that, I'm exhausted from all of that." Says Umi while catching her breath. "I know that we saved the school and all, but part of me kinda wishes that we didn't if we're gonna go through this everytime"
Honoka and Kotori burst out in laughter, Umi glares at them but shares a chuckle with them a couple of seconds later.
"So, how long have you both been standing here?" Asks Umi after catching her breath.
"Umm, we haven't been here for long." Says Kotori "Honoka was the first one to arrive actually."
Umi looks a bit surprised, understandably, as she has never heard of Honoka getting somewhere early instead of late for once.
"Really now? That's a bit of a surprise knowing Honoka." Umi looks towards Honoka, wanting a explanation on how she got here early.
"Ehehe... Well actually it was Yukiho who woke me up and made me come to school early. Saying that since I'm a third year now I have to make more effort in getting up and making it to school on time." Honoka embarrassingly admits.
"She isn't wrong you know, we can't mess up our last year of school, Honoka." Umi says in a serious tone.
"I know I know... I won't mess up our last year, I promise Umi-chan, Kotori-chan." she finishes with a confident tone.
Both of them smile at Honoka's attitude and words. All the doubts they had, which were few, were now erased & replaced with confidence.
They talked for a few minutes, waiting for everyone else. One by one everyone arrived, though Rin and Hanayo came walking together. They all gathered at the front gate, Honoka notices someone missing.
"Hey, where's Maki-chan?" Honoka asks
"Maki said to go on without her, that she would catch up with us." Replied Rin.
Honoka looks the direction they came from. Maki was nowhere in sight. She takes out her phone and looks at the time, only 10 minutes until school starts.
"I'm gonna go take a quick look around for Maki-chan. I'll be back quickly! You all stay here!" Honoka says as she runs off around the corner of the street.
Honoka runs around for a couple of minutes, trying to find Maki and bring her to school. As soon as she turns another corner she bumps into someone.
Honoka rubs her hear, trying to soothe the pain. "I wasn't watching where I was going I'm so-" as soon as she opened her eyes to see who she bumped into, she sees Maki holding her head as well.
Putting the pieces together, it wasn't hard for Honoka to figure out that it was Maki she bumped into.
"Maki-chan!" Honoka scrambles to Maki and quickly helps her up.
Before Honoka could get to Maki, she froze. She doesn't know why, but the warmth in her stomach returned at this moment. She takes in Maki's looks, the one thing that sticks out to her is Maki's Crimson colored hair which frames her face perfectly.
After Maki is done nursing her head, she looks up and was about to say something, only to make eye contact with the most beautiful blue eyes that she has ever seen. The warmth in her stomach also returns and gets hotter every second that she stares at those eyes.
The warmth inside Honoka gets stronger and she feels her cheeks heat up a little. She shakes her head, pushing this warmth aside and offers Maki a hand.
"Maki-chan, are you okay?" Asks Honoka worriedly.
Maki snaps out of her thoughts and notices the hand offered to her. She lifts her hand and grabs it. As soon as she grabbed Honoka's hand, both of them have a warmth spread throughout their bodies. Maki immediately looks down at the floor, thinking about this warmth that suddenly came back, while Honoka keeps looking and admiring Maki.
She snaps out of her thoughts as she pulls Maki up, snapping her out of her thoughts for the 2nd time today.
"Y-yea, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."
They both dust off their skirts and pick up their school bags. Honoka takes out her phone and notices that they only have 5 minutes to make it to school.
"Oh no! We only have 5 minutes to make it to school!" Honoka grabs Maki's hand, ignoring the warmth that spread through her. The same can't be said for Maki though, as this warmth catches her off guard.
"WE have to hurry or else we won't be able to do what we planned, come on Maki-chan!" Honoka starts running, dragging Maki along.
"W-Wait Honoka! D-don't pull so hard!" Maki finds her footing and starts running behind Honoka. Albeit still being kind of dragged along.
Meanwhile, the rest of the girls are getting slightly worried. Umi takes a look at her phone & sees that they only have 2 minutes left until they have to enter the school.
"Where could those 2 possibly be? It's almost time to go in and they're still not here." says Umi worriedly while walking back and forth.
As soon as those words leave her mouth, Honoka turns the corner and calls out to them.
"Heeeey everyone! I found Maki-chan!"
Everyone looks towards the source of the voice, seeing Honoka running towards them with Maki right behind her.
Honoka and Maki regroup with everyone, hands on their knees and catching their breath from running for 3 minutes straight. Though with the conditioning they went through as school idols it didn't take long for them to regain their breath.
Maki looks at her hand and remembers the warmth she felt when she grabbed Honoka's hand. Why is it that she only felt this way around Honoka?
Honoka takes a glace at Maki, also asking herself the same question. Why does she only feel this warmth around Maki?
While this was occurring, Hanayo checks the time and notices that they only have 1 minute left to get inside the school.
"We only have a minute left! We need to get inside the school now!" she says out loud while turning around, grabbing the hand of whoever is closest to her and running.
Not a second later "K-Kayo-chin Waaait!" is heard.
The rest of the girls start running as well, side by side with each other.
Hanayo and Rin were the first to enter the school, followed by Umi and Kotori. Honoka and Maki were the last ones to enter the school.
'This school year is going to be a great one, I just know it' Honoka thinks to herself while heading into the building.
Maki, who's right behind her, looks at Honoka and still wonders why she feels this way only around her.
'Honoka...what is this warmth I feel every time I'm alone with you?' Maki thinks to herself while entering the school.
AN: That's a wrap for the 2nd chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it! To be honest I had a lot of fun writng this chapter because of how many scenarios that I thought about. Leave any comments you want and criticism is always welcomed! Just don't be rude about it.
Until next time. Bye!
