Chapter 12 – When It Rains

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Hiro left the café quite early. He planned of writing on his journal. However, reminiscent of what took place three years ago, he ended wasting a whole page. He got no motivation to ink down something yet. Downstairs, Aunt Cass gave him a pair of chicken sandwiches that would as well work as a peace offering. It might as well be a turning point later on, he thought.

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A quarter before 7 in the morning, Hiro reached the Institute, and headed to the lab. Wasabi was the only one there and was busy on his "lasers".

"hey! Good morning, Hiro!", the neat freak greeted upon sight of him, "You're quite in a good mood today."

"Well, a bit… Where's the others?"

"Honey's on the way, Fred's on a mascot gig, GoGo's already on the classroom, while the rest were still not here because of the storm."

"A storm?"

"Yeah. The weather news network said that a violent downpour may fall later."

"I should have brought an umbrella.", Hiro sighed.

"Good thing for you, I have brought reserves for the entire team.", Wasabi pointed to the corner where color-coded umbrellas were.

"So your maxim wasn't dead yet. I've always thought it was."

"Like any other time, there's a place for everything, and everything in its place."

"I guess I'll borrow one later at dismissal. Gotta go!"

"You mean, you gotta GoGo?"

"Come on! Not with the word-plays again."

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Wasabi was right, GoGo was already in the classroom earlier than he ever thought. With a beat and a skip, he walked and sat beside her. She glanced at him, popped her bubblegum, and looked back to her smartphone where she read a PDF file of a history book. Urges to speak up sprung forth within him but he couldn't. Getting a good start was one of the hardest things nowadays. Still, he's onto it.

"GoGo, I…", he started. Good heavens! She didn't ignore him!

Just then, the professor entered. Perfectly. Bad. Timing.

Worse, he got the most terrible form of surprise: a surprise quiz. How could History teachers be so freaking annoying? That's gonna be it.

With widened eyes, Hiro and GoGo stared on each other. Because of fighting the last days, they basically reviewed nothing. As for seconds ago, GoGo wasn't really studying. It's just an excuse to ward him off. They're pretty dead, unless…

"GoGo, what's the plan?", Hiro whispered.

"I should be the one asking you, nerd.", GoGo finally spoke to him. What a relief.

"It might be disgraceful but I think it's the only way."

"I'm in."

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Like any other History quizzes, it rained date questions concerning different things, much to their despair. But, they knew how they could get their way out. Everytime the professor went out of the room for some air, a brainstorming ensued. Differences and quarrels were set aside for the sake of survival. They might be cheating by the moment, but would be studying it later unlike other cheater, they reasoned out. College life was really full of things.

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Nothing was resolved yet as of this point, except the surprise quiz, of course. As for Hiro, getting her back to work with him as a pair was something great. She's still snug, but it couldn't be helped. All he needed was some private time, with no surprise quizzes, and he'd be fine. As for GoGo, she's relieved that she didn't manage to call or to text him last night. By her face, she wanted to see something, and she couldn't just fix things up. Girls…

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The class ended the quiz after some 10 minutes of extension. This proves severely disadvantageous to Hiro, for GoGo swiftly went out to her next subject. Thus, the next chance of meeting her was either on lunch or on dismissal at the Nerd Lab. At its worst, he might as well miss everything altogether. Both excited and nervous, he continued his day in higher-than-average hopes.


How could this happen? How could I ever miss everything? The chicken sandwich didn't even work.


Hiro wrote in sadness after hearing from Wasabi that GoGo went home in haste. It's either because of the storm or of evading him, but that's not the point. He just missed the chance three consecutive times! If those were three-pointers in the clutch time of a basketball game, he'd better be cursed by his ball-club for missing all those game winners.

"Hiro, GoGo left just 10 minutes ago. I think you can still catch up with her.", Honey Lemon advised. With that, Hiro snapped back to reality. Why was he even comparing to a basketball game?

Fundamentally, Honey knew of their plight, and she surely wouldn't say that if it's uncertain. He felt he better bite his break…

"I-I gotta go!", he rushed to the door. The chemist replied with a meaningful smile and a thumbs up, while Wasabi went to get him an umbrella.

"Hiro, don't forget your umbrella!" There's a storm outside!, Wasabi exclaimed as he threw the item on him. The umbrella hit nothing but the closed door.

As the two looked on the window, they could see, and feel, the gusts of wind as it swayed San Fransokyo.

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Despite not being a runner, the nerd got no choice but to sprint his way downtown. Time was against him and there's a storm. He could feel the icy wind and the disturbing humidity on his face. What else could he ask for? To his fear and disappointment, the rain overtook him. The violent downpour and the harassing gale was so creepy. The storm seemed to wail on him.

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Hiro later found a waiting shed and spent time there. Soaked wet, he sat down on the bench and observed the eerie surroundings. The city was like a ghost town. There's no people outside, and all that would accompany you was the winds and the torrents. With a tick, he noticed that he's beside somebody. Sweet mother of monkey milk, it was GoGo! Soaked and feeling cold as he was, she went awfully close to him. Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics, perhaps.

"Brr… It's cold.", Hiro tried to start a talk. However, they're hesitant to do so, and silence ruled between them. But, not for long.

Then, they noticed themselves calling the other one's name about at the same time.

"I-I have something to tell you.", they said in unison, "… I think you have to go first."

The couple went to argue who would speak first, but it was not a big deal. Just their usual nerd-to-awesome antics.

"GoGo, I'm sorry."

"I should be the one to say that."

"What? Why?"

"For yelling at you. I should learn to control myself during my period."

"I should be sorry, too. I should have known that you're on your red days. I'm such a jerk."

"Well, you called me stupid. I guess we're just fine. Jerk and Stupid would tag along perfectly."

"What? No. Y-you're not like that. You're awesome, cool, pretty, cute…", and he went to sweet-talk her.

"Quit sweet-talking me, you nerd!"

"I'm not sweet-talking you. I'm telling the truth. The 'stupid' thingy wasn't actually you."

"Fine. Whatever."

"Would you like me to finish?"

"Yeah, right. Go on."

"… sexy, fast, and such a beauty. You're also a monster. A beautiful monster."

"Geez! Thanks for calling me a monster, you freak!", she chuckled. Finally, they're back on track. After a couple of laughs, the genius took a deep breath.

"GoGo, please believe me. I'm not flirting with Nelly. Never. I would never do that to you…"

"So, you're not two-timing?"

"Me, two-timing? Never. It's only you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I swear!"

"Well, since you kept on saying that you're not with Nelly. I might as well believe you… Sorry for slighting…"

"Am I forgiven? Are we together again?"

"Most likely."

The next thing she knew, her face was not buried in his chest in a tight hug. Hiro pulled her to do so. He badly missed her, and it couldn't be helped.

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A hearty embrace within the intensity of the storm was such an incredible thing. For that 10 seconds, they felt warm and satisfied. After exchanging smiles in close range, Hiro got a hard pinch in the hips that made him scream.

"What's that for?!"

"It's not part of the contract that you can just pull me into an intimate hug, you nerd!", she joked.

"Oh come on. Let's just put it on place.", he defended.

"You really don't know when to give up… Oh, by the way, your house was near this shed, am I right or am I right?"

"Yeah. What's with my house?"

"I'm thinking of spending the night there. The storm seems to grow stronger, and I'm a bit far of. Surely, you won't let me walk my way home in this rain."

"O-okay. Sure. You may spend the night in my room, as usual. Man, the rain won't stop…"

"It probably won't until tomorrow, so let's go.", and she pulled him and ran in the falling rain. Not even a storm could stop two hearts who wanted to enjoy the rain. Enjoying themselves as they ran home, Hiro reflected on things as he held her hand. As they managed to fix things up, he remembered a thing he learned from someone dear.

"I'm not giving up on you..."


Notes:

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Major ShoutOut to what happened last 2014. A heavy rain just went against our "Graveyard Gig". Come on rain, y u do dis?

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Just so you know, Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics - states that if two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then all three are in thermal equilibrium with each other. :))

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