-
THE CAMP
-
Chapter 7 – Open Your Eyes and You'll See
Another day had passed since the start of their game. All groups had found the first of the items assigned on them respectively and were now on for the next item(s).
That whole day, every pair had gone ducking from low-hanging branches, sneaking past dangerous forest animals, climbing up trees, and jumping off from shallow cliffs. But that day also proved to be the unluckiest—to three pairs, that was. Because a certain pair had been able to find their next and last task without so much as breaking a sweat.
Shimizu Keiichi and Fuyuumi Shouko—the promising victors.
-
Silence was the only thing that seemed to be existing between the youngest pair. They hadn't opened their mouths to talk, to share convenience, and to ask whether the other one was alright or not.
The only moments they would be talking would be when it was involving their task.
Fuyuumi clutched the new note they had found together with the second and, apparently, last item they needed to find.
They had done it. All they needed to do was to come within the reach of the finish line. But something was oddly wrong. Anxious, she heeded her partner who was sitting on the ground, leaning on a tree, elbows atop his bended knees, head angled to the ground.
She bit her lower lip and stared at the Polaroid camera in her hands. Gaining some confidence, she advanced to Shimizu and sat down beside him.
"I—I'm sorry for all the trouble, Shimizu-kun," she said quietly, fumbling with the camera.
The blonde sleepily turned to her and smiled. "We're . . . finished, ne? All we just have to do . . . is go to the finish line . . . and the game's ended for us," he said, the smile still on his features.
Fuyuumi nodded. "Hai . . ."
"If you're . . . going to think deeply . . . what's the prize of this all?"
The sea green-haired sixteen year-old lass turned to glance at her partner. "Anou . . . m—money?"
Shimizu chuckled and it was the first time Fuyuumi ever heard him do so. His laugh was angelic but you could still sense the sleepiness in him. She stared at him for a long while, waiting for him to speak.
"There's no prize."
Fuyuumi's mouth hung. "W—What?"
"There's no . . . prize . . . at all," replied Shimizu, somehow producing a long stick from somewhere. He broke it into two and played with it. "Hihara-senpai no onii-san, Kanayan, and Ousaki-senpai . . . didn't say anything about . . . prizes . . . did they? As far as I can remember . . . this is just to make up . . . for our troublesome . . . vacation, ne?"
"But then . . ."
"Why are we trying to do this?" continued Shimizu. "Well . . . isn't that the irony . . . of all? Well . . . isn't that the mystery . . . in this? Pride . . . ?"
Fuyuumi wondered, too and averted her gaze from Shimizu. Now that he tackled that topic, she was brought to wonder as well. And then—
"—And isn't it inexplicable that . . . I'm now confused?"
Fuyuumi raised an eyebrow. Confused about what?
"About what, Shi—Shimizu-kun?" she asked quietly. She waited for him to reply for some few seconds.
"I'm confused . . . whether I really did like Kaho-senpai or I was just . . ." He stopped and looked down, a thoughtful smile on his lips. "Or I was just . . . seeking reasons enough to . . ."
"R—Reasons enough to . . . ?"
Shimizu turned to look at her.
-
Hihara cleared his throat and looked around, trying to calm the jumpy feeling in his gut. They had finished reading the diary entries and he found out some seemingly important things.
Firstly, Hino Kahoko knew that someone had seen her bathe in the river they had been when they were in the isle. Second, he found out that Yunoki was harboring some sort of "feelings" for the redhead lass. Third, he found out that liking Hino Kahoko was the hardest thing of all especially since it was not only him who fancied her. And lastly, he knew that both he and Yunoki lost.
To Tsukimori Len.
"She likes him, huh?" he stuttered, biting his lower lip and twitching a small nervous smile.
"More like she loves him," replied Yunoki as he shrugged. "It's very apparent, isn't it? How worried she was when you walked out the chopper alone and without a single sign of Tsukimori."
Hihara let out a huff and said, "Well, isn't he a worthy opponent?"
Yunoki shrugged again with a faux smile. "Yes, he is," he seconded, staring off to space.
And they were wrapped by a pleasant silence.
"What's up with our next item? We have to move on now before any other group could finish before we do, ne?" stated Yunoki. A composed smile enlightened his beautiful features, making him look almost angelic—hiding some rather hideous alter ego within him.
"Hm, now that you've mentioned it, let's see . . ." Hihara reached out to his pants' back pockets, struggled a bit to get a certain piece of paper, and finally fished out a crumpled piece of note.
Silently, they read together, committing to their minds the black Japanese characters imprinted on the white sheet of paper. Yunoki almost rolled his eyes upon the ostensible dullness of the item they had to find.
"Okiii!" exclaimed Hihara, a wide, toothy grin suddenly adorning his tan face. "Shimizu-kun's most prized pillow then!"
"A pillow," mumbled Yunoki as he mentally shook his head. As expected of Shimizu Keiichi. But couldn't it be someone else's item? Like Tsukimori Len's. His item could be something promising as would be expected of him.
"By the way, Yunoki," the green-head said out of the blue, his voice strangely soft as a whisper.
Eyebrows raised, Yunoki mumbled, "Hm?"
"What does Kaho-chan mean by, let me quote, 'or like before . . . was he playing games with me'? She was referring to you . . ."
Yunoki chuckled dourly although the sourness had gone unnoticed by the hyperactive Hihara Kazuki.
"And what does Hino-san mean by, let me quote as well, 'someone actually saw me nude'?" the lilac-haired mocked. "Quite obviously as your nose on your face, she was talking about you."
Hihara gulped audibly and laughed nervously, slipping off the topic.
-
'He didn't answer me,' Kahoko thought as she halted when Tsukimori, himself, stopped from walking.
She asked him if he liked her but all he did was dismiss the question like she didn't ask him at all and immediately went to sleep. All she wanted was answers—answers that, obviously, were deprived to her. Confused, she looked up to him.
"What's the matter, Tsukimori-kun?"
"Are they trying to get us out of track?" grunted Tsukimori as he sighed. He ran a hand along his blue tresses and grumbled. "We're lost, Hino."
"What?"
Tsukimori spun around and glared. "I said we're lost; they did some sort of confusion like making some placards saying that we are lucky enough to find it—pointing us to the wrong direction instead of the correct one."
Kahoko fell silent. "And you're saying we fell for the . . . trap?"
Her partner didn't reply and she mentally prayed that God, save them. How were they going to win if they were poles apart from their second and last item?
"Um, I have a compass here," she said. She placed her backpack on the ground and delved on it, finding the needed object. When she looked up, she found Tsukimori glaring down at her. "Y—Yes? Uh, is there a problem, Tsukimori-kun?"
Tsukimori's frown heightened and he glared further.
"Uh, Tsukimori-kun?"
"We shouldn't have gone lost if you just said you have that earlier as possible," he grunted. He sighed his annoyance at the lass's evident idiocy.
"Oh, sorry," mumbled Kahoko, blushing. "I was just wondering if . . . really, I'm sorry."
Tsukimori sighed and tilted his head to the side. "Fine . . . we wouldn't need it anyway," he said. "We'd just retract our way to the site where we stayed overnight last night."
"H—Hai."
Problem was, when Kahoko stood up from her crouching position and stepped forward to Tsukimori, she fell.
Literally.
"Ah!"
On the space where her foot had stepped on when she moved forward was a stack of dried leaves—stack of dried leaves that didn't show any difference with the other forest ground as the ground was covered fully by leaves—that covered an almost dangerous and deep cavity that was obviously dug by people.
People who, unfortunately, screamed the names "Kanazawa Hiroto," "Ousaki Shinobu," and "Hihara Haruki." People who, unfortunately, screamed the traits "lazy ass," "damn composed intern," and "wacky and annoying B-ball player."
"Hino!" cried Tsukimori as he hurried towards the edge of the hollowed-out pit of the forest ground. He looked down at a Hino Kahoko who was sprawled on the ground, clutching her right ankle. "Are you alright?"
Kahoko looked up at Tsukimori and grinned sheepishly. "Y—Yeah, but my ankle . . ."
"Hold on, I'll find a way on how you can get out of there," assured Tsukimori as he went out of sight from the bottom where Kahoko was.
When he was gone, Kahoko sighed and stared at her sprained ankle. She wouldn't be in that pit if she walked closely with Tsukimori who was walking in a quite big distance away from her. If she hadn't asked that stupid question about him liking her, Tsukimori wouldn't move far away from her and instead walk closely with her as they had done in the start (they even walked hand-in-hand from the start!).
-
"R—Reasons enough to . . . ?"
Shimizu turned to look at her.
"Or was I just seeking . . . reasons enough . . . to actually evade the . . . stinging feelings in my guts?" continued Shimizu. "To avoid . . . the occasional somersaults . . . when you're around. To avoid . . . the surge of warmth from my chest . . . when my eyes see you."
Fuyuumi was stunned. Perhaps, much more than stunned. To actually have him say that was like having him indirectly confess to her. Having him say that was like playing her clarinet without stopping yet without consuming tons of energy.
When Shimizu smiled, she, too, smiled.
"Shi—Shimizu-kun, it's okay," she said, staring up at the trees. "You don't ha—have to tell m—me some comforting things just to l—lighten up my mood. W—Waiting goes w—with patience, n—ne, Shimizu-kun?" She blushed and Shimizu started playing with his sticks once again. "There's time to b—be patient."
Shimizu shrugged. "And there's time . . . to open the eyes and see . . . what was right under our nose all this time," he said, grinning. "Fuyuumi-san, that's a Polaroid, ne . . . ? Why not . . . have remembrance of . . . today?"
Fuyuumi blinked and smiled shyly. She did something with the camera, set it to timer, and she and her partner positioned themselves in front of it.
They were shoulders to shoulders, adorable smiles on their lips. When the flash came, Fuyuumi felt something lean on her shoulder that she turned her head to face it. To her surprise, she found her lips kissing Shimizu Keiichi's cheeks.
Somehow, Shimizu made his way at Fuyuumi's back, placed his chin on her shoulders, and have her kiss his cheek when the photo had been taken.
And that would be the best remembrance he had on that day when he finally opened his blinded eyes to see something—or someone—that had always been there all the time.
. . . to be continued
Author's Notes: Okay, so pinch me please! Finally! I got a hundred reviews, woohoo! I've been waiting for it, haha. :D And the person who have been my one hundredth reviewer, Streiter!!! Whoa, thank you Streiter!!! You're one of the really great people who helped me reach my dream! ;DD
Three more chapters to go and this will be officially done! I'm not sure if I'd add up an epilogue . . . Anyway, I'll ask your opinion (those who've read MEMOIR) if it would be okay with you that I rewrite it. I changed something with the plot and I've been planning on remaking it. Would it be fine with you? If you're thinking I'd be deleting it, no, I won't. I'd still use the story- I don't want wasting the 133 reviews, duh- but the plot will considerably change. Fine with it? I'm really sorry for the hassle. If I don't do it, it would not be updated and would be in a hiatus for a very long span of time.
Thanks to the following for reviewing:
(97th) Moonlight Nocturne
(98th) elaine
(99th) soledad20
(100th) -. Streiter . Destiny . Miseki .-
(101st) jiyu22
(102nd) Pathetic Rainbow
(103rd) gizelle-chan
(104th) little miss flutterfly
(105th) aris-chan
(106th) gAm3fr3Akal
Thank you guys so much!!! XDD by the way, I apologize since the sixth chapter wasn't proofread and God, I've seen too many mistakes. I'm sorry. I haven't changed it yet, too.
~sera-chan
