Chapter Three: The Walk

The next day turned out to be a blur until the afternoon meeting of the SOS Brigade. Throughout the school day, Haruhi and I sat through bitter silence, neither of us knowing what to say. It wasn't until the end that Haruhi pulled me by my tie to the clubroom where she informed everyone that-

"We are going to start filming today!"

"Filming what?"

"Have you already forgotten Mikuru?!? Filming the best video ever to put on our website!"

I really doubt that it is going to be the best video ever.

"So, I will be the director. Kyon, you're the camera man. Itsuki, you're the guy. Yuki, you're the teacher. Mikuru, you're the girl and just to make things interesting, you get to wear the bunny suit again!"

Mikuru started to whimper.

"Really, does she have to wear the bunny suit? I mean, she's already worn it so-"

"Kyon, do you want more visitors to our website or not?"

Honestly, I couldn't care less. But it was important to Haruhi, so I decided to play along.

"Fine."

"Good. Now before we start filming, I need to go downtown for some props."

For some reason, I had a sudden urge to accompany her, as though if she left alone through those doors at that very second, my chances of…well… us… would be destroyed.

"Wait Haruhi"

She stopped and turned towards me.

"Maybe I should come with you."

I wasn't expecting everyone to stare at me in shock, as if asking to accompany someone was like asking to marry the person.

"You know, to, uh, help you carry stuff…"

It had to be the weakest excuse ever, but it seemed as though she either bought my sincerity or wanted an excuse to have me accompany her anyways.

"Let's go then Kyon!"

And with that, she grabbed my tie and pulled me out the door.

We walked in silence most of the way. And as we walked down that steep hill, that song came into my head. The song that Haruhi so anxiously picked out to base a video on. The song that even made me realize my true feelings for Miss Suzumiya. And now it was the song that Haruhi was humming. I began to stare at her through confusion. Had she read my mind or was it a serendipitous moment encountered by fate? She caught me staring at her and stopped.

"Why did you stop humming?"

"Because you were staring at me."

"So?"

"So I thought that I was bothering you."

"No."

"Then why were you staring at me?"

"Because I was thinking of that song too."

She just looked at me, blushed, and then continued to walk ahead. I stopped for a moment, and then proceeded walking myself. The song continued to blast through my head.

Walk with me, Suzy Lee,
Through the park and by the tree…

I got so involved with staring at Haruhi and listening to the music in my head that I didn't realize that there was a hole in the road. And unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that my foot was about to step into the hole and cause me to trip.

It would be embarrassing enough to fall flat on my face. In fact, I think I would have rather fallen on my face. Instead, I fell right on top of Haruhi Suzumiya, which caused both of us to roll down the hill and land in the grass.

For a second, time stopped as we laid there. It was just Haruhi and me; no one else in the world seemed to matter. I gazed below into her deep brown eyes. There we lay, centimeters from each other. Our lips so close that if I leaned just a little…

But instead I got up and helped Haruhi up, ending the pause in time. Part of me regretted not leaning in, tasting the bliss that only existed in my head. Yet the rational part didn't know what her reaction would be to my sudden spontaneity and thus won. And as I argued internally with myself, a piece of me wondered whether Haruhi herself wished I had leaned in just enough to close the gap.

Safely walk to school without a sound.
Safely walk to school without a sound

We walked in awkward silence to the store where Haruhi bought our needed props and continued to walk in awkward silence back to school, to the clubroom, to film what would probably be the most ridiculous excuse for a movie. And yet the silly boy kept walking forward for any excuse to be walking with Haruhi, in silence or not, was good enough for him.