Chapter Nine
"Red paper or blue paper?" I'm awoken early by a voice in my ear.
"Yellow, please." I say hoarsely, my voice thick with sleep, as I roll over and push my head under my pillow. Hanako's giggle is what wakes me up properly, though.
"You don't want anyone to pee on you today, Korin-nee-chan. You've got your orienteering trip." she says, and I sit bolt upright. My pillow falls into my lap. Hanako bursts out laughing.
"What?" I ask indignantly. Hanako points at my face.
"Your eyes have shrunk and your hair's everywhere!" she says, and I poke my tongue out at her.
"Am I teasing you about the chicken?" That shuts her up. She frowns and sits down.
"You need to get ready, Korin-nee-chan." she says, and I nod, throwing my pillow at her and standing up. I go into my bathroom and have a quick shower, placing a plastic shopping bag over my hair to keep it dry. Once I'm out of the shower, I dry myself and throw on the first clothes I find. Hanako grins at me.
"Cool top, Korin-nee-chan. Great for a school trip." she says, and I glance down to see what I'm wearing. I swear loudly. I immediately decide to change, because I highly doubt my father would appreciate the teachers' reactions to me showing up in a tentacle hentai t-shirt. I choose more carefully, this time, and select a top with Keep Calm and Catch 'Em All written across it. I grab my Ash hat and put it on, before grinning at Hanako and making my way over to the door.
"See you tomorrow, Hanako-chan!" I say, and she tilts her head to the side.
"Can I use your 3DS while you're gone?" she asks, and I shake my head.
"Not a chance. I've given it to Satoshi-kun and told him I'm worried Xander will use it or Jase will break it. He's going to give it back to me tomorrow." Hanako pouts. "Bye." I walk out of the room and close the door.
I run down the corridor to the dining room, where the smell of bacon hits my nose and makes me salivate excessively. I open the door and Ezra turns to look at me.
"I made enough for both of us." he says, gesturing to the massive pile of bacon and hash browns that sits in the middle of the table, right in front of him.
I grin at him, "Thanks, Ez." I say, sitting down across from him and stuffing some bacon into my mouth. Ezra wrinkles his nose in disgust.
"That's vile. You'll make yourself sick if you eat that much so fast." he says, and I shrug.
"I haven't died from eating too fast yet, so I'll probably be fine." I say, and he shakes his head, reaching out and grabbing a hash brown, which he cuts into small pieces, all the same size (seriously, who has time for that?), and spears them one by one with his fork, sliding them off the end with his teeth. We eat in silence until the door slides open again.
Dad walks in, wearing typical 'meeting a teacher' clothes… Tan chinos and a blue and black checked shirt. Ezra chokes on his bacon, and with good reason. The only times we've ever seen Dad dress up smart is when he's had to go into school to talk to a teacher about my behaviour or Jase's. He even dresses casually for parents' evening, normally.
"What are you wearing?" I ask, and Dad frowns and twirls around.
"Don't you like it?" he asks. Ezra and I share a glance, then shake our heads at the same time. "I'll change, but you two owe me. Next time I don't like what you're wearing, you have to change." he says with a sigh, and leaves the room. Ezra and I make eye contact and start laughing.
"I should have taken a photo to send to Mum," Ezra says wistfully, "She would've found it hilarious!" I grin.
"Yeah, she would probably phone and ask what had happened and why Dad was acting so weird." I say. The two of us laugh at the thought of our mother's reaction as we continue to eat our breakfast.
"What supplies are you taking on the trip?" I ask Ezra, and he shakes his head.
"Didn't you know? Dad's given Mr Akiyama some money and he's buying for the four of us. I'm taking water and chocolate, because Megumi said that there's no way her parents would let her take chocolate." he says, and I nod.
"Takeshi's trying to be a gentleman by not letting me bring anything, because he thinks I'm weak and doesn't want me to strain myself by carrying too much." I say, a frown finding its way onto my face. The fact that Takeshi has so little faith in my abilities really annoys me. He thinks I'm incapable of pretty much anything but playing video games and watching anime.
When Dad comes back in, he's in much more normal clothes: a striped t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a worn leather jacket that smells of the cigars our grandfather used to smoke, years ago. I smile.
"That's so much better than before." I say, and Dad nods.
"Thank you, Korin." he says, leaning against the door. "Are you two ready? I need to get you to the meeting point in the next ten minutes, if possible. I've got a client in half an hour."
I nod, "Just let me grab my bag," I say, and then, with a grumble, add, "Although it's not there's anything in it, so I don't really see the point." I run to my bedroom.
Fifteen minutes later, we're at the meeting point. Megumi and Takeshi are both already there, and their parents are chatting to the teachers. They all look concerned, and Takeshi keeps shooting them nervous glances. He's chewing his lip hard enough that it's bleeding, and nervously fiddling with a small container of some sort, flicking the cap open and reclosing it every couple of seconds. Ezra hugs Dad and the two of us make our way over to Takeshi and Megumi, the latter of which is grinning at us and waving.
"Hey, Megumi-chan!" I say, smiling brightly. "Hi, Takeshi-san." Takeshi glances towards me and smiles slightly, so briefly I'm not sure if I imagined it.
Megumi begins squealing, and her parents look round at us and roll their eyes, "I'm so excited!" Megumi bubbles, "Are you excited, Ezra-kun?" Ezra nods, though he doesn't seem to be paying attention. He's staring at Takeshi, frowning. Probably trying to figure out what's wrong.
I sit down in the seat beside Takeshi and try to make eye contact with him. His brow creases as he looks at me.
"Are you okay?" I ask him. He nods.
"Fine." he says. I raise my eyebrows to show that I don't believe him. He gives me a small, reassuring smile, and for a moment I see someone else behind his normal self- someone sweet and kind, who isn't a total moron.
About thirty minutes later, we have begun walking. The entire year group- all seventy-four of us- reach the forest and split off into our pairs, following the map to where the first marker we have to reach is. Everyone has to reach the same markers, but every pair has either different routes or a different order.
Takeshi and I walk briskly, with Takeshi carrying everything and reading the map, and me just following him and trying to peer over his shoulder to see what it is we're trying to find. Every hundred metres or so, Takeshi pauses to get his water bottle out of the side pouch of his rucksack, drinks a few sips, and puts it back. We've only been walking for about ten minutes, but his skin is pale and sweaty and he's panting.
"Takeshi-san," I say, placing my hand on his shoulder and ceasing to walk. He turns and glares at me, "Are you feeling alright? Do you need me to take some of the stuff?"
Takeshi sighs, "I can see I'm not going to be able to convince you that I'm fine no matter what I do," he says softly, "I'd really appreciate you taking some." He begins to slide his rucksack off.
"We can just swap bags. You've been carrying it all since we left school." I say, taking off my rucksack and handing it to him. He hesitates, but I hold my hand out expectantly and raise my eyebrows at him. He places the strap over my hand and my hand drops about twenty centimetres. I swear as I swing the bag onto my back.
"I-I can take it, if it's too heavy for you…" Takeshi says, but I shake my head and start walking again. Takeshi trudges along beside me, frowning at the map as he directs me.
We stop to rest much less often, and it doesn't take long for us to reach the first checkpoint on our list. Takeshi sits down, breathing heavily, while I scribble our names on the marker. We're the first people here, which is good considering that this is the most common first checkpoint. How the teachers managed to find seventeen routes, all the same length, to this point starting in the same place, I will never know. I walk back over to Takeshi. He's alternating between panting out pained breaths and sipping his water. I sit down beside him and place my hand on his shoulder.
"We'll stop here for a while, if you need to," I say, and Takeshi smiles gratefully. I slip my hand into my pocket and take out my inhaler. "Do you want to borrow this? Your breathing doesn't sound great." He nods. I hand him my inhaler and he holds it to his mouth, pressing down on the canister and breathing in deeply. He gives the inhaler back to me and I slip it back in my pocket. I slide closer to him and reach my hand up behind his rucksack. I begin to rub small circles on his back. He leans his head against me.
"Thank you, Korin-san."
I smile, "You're welcome."
We stay there for a couple of minutes, the silence only broken when Takeshi coughs hard for thirty seconds or so, after which he apologises (what for?) and insists that he's fine (which he's clearly not). The sounds of footsteps as two of our classmates approach resounds through the area.
"Are you ready to move on?" I ask, and Takeshi nods. I stand up, and he does the same, though he trembles slightly and sways on his feet. I reach out my hand and take hold of his shoulder to steady him. He swats my hand away.
"I'm fine." I roll my eyes and ignore the lie. I hold my hand out, and Takeshi seems to realise what I'm getting at. He places the map in my hand, a worried look firmly planted on his face.
"Relax, Takeshi-san. I can read maps. I used to go camping with my mum all the time." I say, and he nods.
"Okay. If we get lost, it's your fault. If we get killed, it's your fault." Takeshi says, and I laugh.
"Typical Takeshi-san, always the pessimist." I say, and Takeshi scowls at me.
"I'm not a pessimist, Korin-san, I'm a realist."
I snort, "That's exactly the same thing my mum says." I inform him, and he shakes his head at me.
"I don't care, Korin-san. Can we please pick up the speed a bit? I want to get as much done today as possible." I nod and let Takeshi take control of how fast we go.
Takeshi and I sit inside our tent, bundled up in our sleeping bags, eating instant ramen with makeshift chopsticks made from fallen twigs, because Takeshi forgot to bring proper chopsticks. After spending at least thirty minutes sitting scarily close to the fire in our trangia, Takeshi's face has finally begun to regain some colour. Takeshi tilts up his pot of artificial chicken flavoured instant ramen and drains the soup in roughly ten seconds. He removes the empty pot from his mouth, putting it down, and sighs. He glances at his watch and lies down on his roll mat, snuggling himself tighter into his sleeping bag.
"I think I'm going to go to sleep now, Korin-san. It's half past ten." he says, and I nod, swallowing a mouthful of noodles.
"I'll go to sleep once I've finished eating," I say, "Sleep well."
"Yeah, you too." Takeshi coughs twice and shuts his eyes. I switch off the torch, finish the last of my ramen, and lay down beside him.
