-o0o-

22

Like any other ridiculous things that happen in a school festival, Sasayan finds a girl wearing a bear head mascot in the storage room. He would've helped her out, but the brown hair jutting out of the hole made him speak first.

"What are you doing, Natsume-san?"

Sasayan…kun.

She remembers the last time they were alone. It would've been fine. But now, after his confession, all those times seemed a bit weird. Now she can't look at him without replaying the words that came out of his mouth.

Sasayan came to the storage to get some flour, instead he found her. He moves towards the shelves, where she was standing, and she flinches when he's suddenly on her side. It's like a terrorist had suddenly arrived, and that she forgot to move. She didn't dare turn her head. He notices this, of course.

"Natsume-san, don't avoid me so obviously." He says as if he's too sure of himself, which doesn't need approval. "I told you, I'm fine with being just friends." He emphasizes, or rather reminds her that she doesn't need to act as if she's mute whenever he's around. He looks at her, notices the trickle of sweat on her face.

"I wonder about that." She finally speaks. "I can't trust you. Actually, the moment you said you liked me felt like a small betrayal."

Betrayal? Sasayan wonders how she conjured up with betrayal. He recalls the first time they talked to each other. He just agreed to her about him not falling for her or anything out of the usual. Well, that may have been a wrong answer, huh. But then again, things would've worked out differently if he'd answered otherwise.

"Betrayal." Sasayan exclaims. "If you're talking about that, feeling something in your heart but hiding it would be betrayal."

"Anyway." It's like she doesn't listen and rambles on. "To think you were even THAT sort of person." She scoffs and looks away from him.

Well, Sasayan wonders that if he continues to argue, she still wouldn't end up supporting him… ever. Even if what he's been saying is true. And even so, he knows the girl quite well.

"Natsume-san." He says when her eyes finally met his. "It's because I know you… that I started liking you." He looks at her hopefully with his big eyes and… and that smile and that… She couldn't stand him sometimes.

And just like that she was left staring at him, confused if she'd throw the bear head on his face or scold him. The first option is fun, but she decided to do the other.

"As I was saying! STOP DOING THAT!"

And he'd just laugh. "Thought so." He says as an extra.

And he leaves her as he goes out, the sound of his laughter minimizing until she can no longer hear it. She wonders how he manages to stay out of her sight but still give the feeling that his presence was still there. Somewhere.

She ignores it.

She can't.

She goes out of the storage room and manages to catch up to him. He was holding a box full of flour, after all. He hears her footsteps and looks behind his shoulders. He didn't know if he should laugh or prepare to run.

She passes by him without looking at him.

And how in the world did she end up with him in the ghost house? Iyo's class had put on a little scare for the festival. She had given Natsume two tickets, inviting her to come with someone she prefers. Natsume asked Mitty to come with her, even if she knew that the study bug wouldn't agree.

Shizuku was flipping patties. A food stall, that's what they came up. Well, there's no use asking Haru for now. Natsume doesn't even know where he went anyway. Shizuku says he disappeared, stealing cabbages from their stall.

So she stood there outside, torn between her fear of walking in alone as she imagines the worst case scenarios the moment she steps through the door, or the queasy feeling she gets if she manages to not go on, therefore unaccepting the precious little gift her newfound friend specially gave to her. Well, Iyo was the one who approached her first, after all. That never happens when it came to girls. Besides, the ticket was expensive, she couldn't just throw it away. And to make it worst, the freshman had given her two. What did she expect, Natsume had a boyfriend?

A boy from their class notices Natsume and he walks over to her. "Asako-san?" He speaks. Natsume almost jumps out of her skin, she wondered if they were putting up ghosts outside the horror house too.

She realized it was just… just… She doesn't remember his name, but she recognizes his face. He was the first from their class who told her he likes her, and at the first day of school, too. He made quite a scene. Or more accurately, she made quite a scene. After that, Natsume was certain he'd never have the courage to speak to her again. Guess she was wrong.

"Oh.. hi." She tries to speak normally.

"Are you… waiting for someone?" Natsume was certain that was the same tone he was using the first time he spoke to her.

"No- no one in particular."

"Why are you standing here alone?" He asks. Then he notices the two tickets she's holding in her hands. "Are you going in?" The boy continues to speak when she doesn't reply. "With whom?"

Natsume looks at him, for the first time she looked at a boy without feeling like she was about to turn them down. "No- no one, I said, didn't you hear?" She was trying to sound angry but…

"Well, you know. If you don't have anyone to go with… I- I can, i-if you want to." He was trying to sound convincing, and brave. She was trying to be deaf.

Natsume thinks about going inside a haunted house with a boy she doesn't really know anything about, much like his name. She imagines that would be pretty scary, and wrong, and-and. And she sees him holding out another box filled with who knows what? Sasayan passes by Natsume and the guy as if he didn't see them. Well, to Natsume, at least.

Natsume learns the name of the boy standing in front of her because Sasayan asks him what's up. "Ryougo, what's up?" is what he said. Before Sasayan could completely pass by them though, she grabs his elbows and starts to speak. Sasayan was so surprised that he dropped the box he was holding. Thankfully it was empty.

"Sa-sa" She looks at him before speaking his name clearly. "Sasayan-kun." She squeals, almost too uncertain. "This other ticket already belongs to Sasayan-kun. Sorry." She addresses the guy, though she looks more like she'd escaped a collapsing building than sorry.

The guy looked at Natsume, then to Sasayan, then to Natsume again before leaving. When he was out of her sight, she sighed.

"What was that about?" Sasayan asks her.

And she realizes she was still holding his elbows. She immediately lets go.

"No-none of your business." She says dumbly.

She's the one who got him into the situation in the first place. How can she say it's not his business? Sasayan wants to point this out but he'd rather not make her angry again.

"Owkay." He purses his lips before picking up the box on the ground and turns around to leave. She grabs ahold of him again, on the sleeves, this time. Her eyes were focused on the ground, and she can't seem to look up. Sasayan thinks she's trembling as her fingers gripped tightly on his shirt. She doesn't say a word, but judging from the pieces she was holding on her other hand, he can pretty much figure out what's happening.

"Fine." He says. "But you help me carry those boxes back inside the storage."

She still doesn't say a word. But she nods.

And now Sasayan felt her grip tighter than ever. He never thought Natsume was this kind of a scaredy-cat. She jumps at even the tiniest rumbles on her side, screams when she sees floating lights ahead, and apparently at one time, she asked him to carry her, because she feels like her legs couldn't carry her body anymore.

One moment she doesn't want him to say complimentary things about her, the next she asks him to carry her. Was this a good moment to blush or not? Of course! She couldn't see it anyway.

"Your just being paranoid, Natsume-san."

"But someone's been tickling my back." She stares at him and her eyes were wide. "I'm not even sure if it's a someone." She wailed. The corridor was pretty dark. Iyo's class is definitely good at decorating. The place looked like it was about to collapse, though thankfully it didn't. Cobwebs lined the ceiling and there was a weird, sticky substance on parts of the walls where the wallpapers were ripped off. There was also a musky smell in the air, something like chemicals that make you feel sick. Sasayan can't really blame Natsume for being so scared. He does feel a bit tingly as well.

Of course, he doesn't show it. She was gripping his arms, after all.

"Come on, the exit must be near." Sasayan reassures her. "Besides, I can't possibly carry you. I'm too short."

Natsume didn't answer. She was too busy flailing her head at every direction where she claims to have heard or seen something.

Sasayan can only laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" Natsume asked. "This isn't a place to laugh!"

"What is wrong with you anyway? Why'd you accept the ticket if you can't even take five seconds inside here?"

"I didn't know it was a haunted house!" She reasons. She heard a noise just a few feet from where she was sitting. A scratching noise. Something Sasayan heard as well.

"Sasayan Sasayan Sasayan" She was repeating his name in a loop. Sasayan would've walked on, but he wasn't sure which way to go. They faced a blank wall, and he wasn't sure whether to go left or right. The scratching noise came from behind them, and somehow, it's gotten louder. Natsume was still saying his name over and over again. He can tell on the left path that the corridor would we darker. And there was another sound he heard, water dripping. Each drip creating an eerie effect. Natsume was looking at the right, where it was dark as well, but not as dark as it is on the left.

"Let's go here." Natsume insisted, moving along and dragging Sasayan with him. She didn't take more than five steps though when she stepped on something mushy. They heard someone wince which made Natsume believe that she might've stepped on someone. Then a hand grabbed her by the legs, in which she screamed at the top of her lungs. Perhaps that was the loudest scream Sasayan has ever heard. As soon as she felt the cold skin on hers, she wiggled her feet frantically, almost kicking Sasayan. She fell back on her butt, and the fall made him hold Sasayan's hand. But the ghost, or whatever monster it is was still gripping her legs. She wiggled again, harder this time, and successfully stopped the hand from clutching her. Then it emerged, a girl Natsume doesn't wish to ever meet again. Long, wet, cramped hair that covered entirely her face. She completely resembled that ghost girl that goes out of the television from the horror movie she watched when she was a kid. It was crawling towards her, and she was still on her butt. Sasayan also saw the girl of course, and he wanted to run. But Natsume was still holding his hand, and if he ran on his own, he'd be dragging her with all her weight. He hauled her to her feet instead, and a hard time doing so, since Natsume was almost frozen on the floor. She was still unbalanced, but she managed to stand straight when Sasayan started running, and the ghost girl, whoever that is, crawled faster than ever, trying to catch up to them as they ran on who knows where, as long as they can get away from her.

"You're so heavy!" Sasayan commented as they ran.

"What are you saying at these times, Sasayan-kun? I don't eat that much cake, do I?!" Natsume answered, occasionally looking back to see if the girl had followed them. But as they ran faster and faster, she eventually disappeared. She probably got tired of crawling as well. Though Natsume can't help but look back still, she worried the ghost might suddenly appear from the walls or the ceiling. Thankfully, after turning a lot of corners, they eventually found a light.

"Let's hurry out of here." Her voice was weird.

She ran faster that time, determined to leave that haunted place. She didn't care about the wailing ghost they passed by as she ran, she almost even punched the Frankenstein boy. At this point, Sasayan was already laughing.

"Hey hey hey slow down, my arms are gonna rip off." Sasayan yells.

"Not a chance, the exit's almost there." She says without looking back at him.

She was panting as they got out of that sick place. She was about to fall down when Iyo tackled her from behind. She was hugging Natsume, whose head was still probably dizzy with what she's been through, "Iyo-chan… Why?"

"Oh Natsume-senpai. You were amazing out there." Iyo gleefully speaks. "You screamed the loudest!" She looks at Sasayan. He shrugs his shoulders.

"Commemoration photo?" She says as she shows both of them a picture of Natsume clinging super tight on Sasayan, the color on her face faded while the boy looks at her, laughing. That was probably the time when the chest opened up to reveal a masked man holding a knife.

"I'll take that." Sasayan says as he grabs it from Iyo's hands and slips it in his pocket. Natsume was still too weak to argue with him.

"Sasahara-senpai." Iyo looks at him with those eyes again. The same eyes she said Sasayan could not "deceive". "I'll go on now. Please take care of Natsume-senpai." She takes one glance down at Natsume's hands, which were still clamped tightly on Sasayan's before she took off.

"Sasayan-kun." Natsume speaks. "I'm never going back there again."

Sasayan laughs. "Don't worry. I won't either. My arms are sore. You should control your grip."

"I'm sorry." She says, still panting and sitting on the floor. Then she notices how her hands were still holding his, she immediately lets go.

"But… but thanks."She says, touching her hand warily, as if she just got a hold of a virus rather than fingers. It was a little too quiet, but Sasayan can hear it quite well.

"Yeah- yeah." He says. He smiles but he hides it as she looks up. "Can you stand on your own?"

She nodded.

"Well then." He says. "I'm off with my errand." He leaves with a salute. "The boxes are waiting."

She yells at him before he turns to a corner. "Shouldn't I be helping?"

Sasayan stopped. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "Nah. Just forget about it."

And he's gone.

And the truth was he couldn't let her because he felt like he was going to burst if he'd spend another minute beside her again.

-oo0oo-

A/N: Sorry, this took too long. I actually have this sitting on my laptop for some time now. I just got busy... kind of. I do hope this chapter was a great read though. Even if, like the others, it is quite short.