Chapter Thirty-Seven: Confessions

After resting in the nurse's office for a while Ryou and I headed to the main office to 'turn myself in'.

"Okazaki Tomoya?" the secretary said as we entered the office.

"Yes, ma'am. You heard about what happened?"

"No, but the principal did; he wants to talk to you," she replied, sounding annoyed.

"May I come, too?" Ryou asked.

She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the door to the principal's office, so Ryou and I headed that way.

"I'm not surprised to see you in here again," he said as he gestured to the seats across from him. "I am surprised, however, at your reason for being in here, and that you did so of your own volition."

"Yeah, sorry about the trouble," I said. "I saw Sunohara sleeping on his desk and got pissed off."

"Why is that?" he asked. "Your teacher told me what he saw, but I'd like to hear what you have to say."

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "All I can say is that when I saw him sleeping there, I thought about my busted shoulder and how I can't play basketball anymore because of it, and then I thought about how he has all this skill in soccer, but he's letting it go to waste."

"Really?" he said, more a statement than a question. "And when did you start caring about the welfare of others?"

"Sometime this summer, I think." I looked over at Ryou, who simply smiled at me. "I…made a new friend."

"Well, it looks like that new friend has been a good influence on you, but I still can't have you disrupting class," he said in a firm but not unsympathetic tone.

"I understand, sir; I'll be more careful in the future. It took me by surprise this time, but…" I shrugged with what I hoped was a disarming smile.

"All right, get out of here," he said with a chuckle as he got to his feet. "And I appreciate you coming here on your own; to me, it shows maturity."

"Thank you very much," I said. "Have a good day."

We both left the office in a daze. "That went a lot better than I thought it would," Ryou admitted.

"Same here," I said. "I was ready for him to really chew me out, so this was a nice change."

We headed back to class and, other than the occasional glare from Sunohara, the rest of the day was uneventful.

"Could we stop by the library before we head home?" I asked. "I loaned your sister my bible, and I can't afford another right now."

"Sure," she replied as she took my arm.

I cringed as we passed the Reference Room, but soldiered on until we reached the Library. I managed a smile as I slid the door open, stepped inside, and cursed my memory.

Kotomi sat in her usual spot by the window, surrounded by her 'tank trap' of books. I knew that if I called her by her preferred name there could be trouble, so I pressed my finger to my lips in the universal sign for 'shh' as we made our way over to the shelves where the Old Testament should have been.

"Do you have your library card?" Ryou whispered.

I simply smiled as I took the book from the shelf and headed over to the checkout counter. I worked on checking out the book while hoping that Kotomi wouldn't see us; I wasn't sure how she'd react to Ryou's presence, and I didn't want to find out.

I finished checking out the book and quietly shooed Ryou to the exit.

"Tomoya-kun…"

Well, shit. "H-Hello, Kotomi-chan," I said through my teeth, forced into a smile. "I'm sorry; did we disturb you?"

She shook her head, causing her hair ornaments to wobble. "I saw you leaving, and wanted to say 'hi'." She then saw Ryou standing next to me. "Oh, h-hello."

I sighed in resignation as Kotomi trembled; was she afraid of everybody? "Go ahead and introduce yourself," I told her as I gestured to my girl. "She won't bite."

Kotomi took a deep breath with her eyes closed. Then she opened her eyes and pointed to herself. "Kotomi. You spell it with three hiragana: Ko-To-Mi. When you talk to me, please call me 'Kotomi-chan'."

Ryou looked at me with an expression of disbelief, to which I simply shrugged and gestured back to Kotomi. So she gave her usual polite bow. "Nice to meet you. I'm Fujibayashi Ryou. When you talk to me, please call me 'Ryou'."

"N-Nice to meet you too," Kotomi replied as her gaze lowered to the book in my hand. "Oh! Tomoya-kun! You should not take books from the library without checking them out first! That is stealing!"

"I'm not stealing it!" I protested as I tried to keep the book away from her grabbing hands. "I checked it out under my library card!"

Her hands ceased in their recovery mission. "R-Really?"

I pulled out my card to show her. "Yeah. See?"

"Oh." For some reason she looked disappointed. "So you do not need me to check it out for you anymore."

"Nope," I said as I looked down to put my card back in my pocket. "I won't be bothering you about this any-"

"Kotomi-chan, what's wrong?" I heard Ryou ask in a worried tone, so I quickly looked back up to see tears brimming in the library girl's eyes.

"Tomoya-kun…" she whimpered. "Does that mean you do not want to be around me any more?"

Now how was I supposed to answer that with Ryou standing right there? "I-It's nothing like that," I answered honestly. "I mean, I thought you'd be happy to be able to keep reading without me interrupting you."

"I do not mind being interrupted if it's you," she said as she took a step toward me, causing me to back into Ryou.

"Th-Thank you," I stammered; I had a feeling that she was trying to say more than what she was actually saying.

"Tomoya?" Ryou said as she took my arm.

My worries were confirmed as Kotomi's face paled. "O-Oh…A-Are you two…d-dating?"

"Yes, we are," Ryou replied with a gentle smile.

I watched with a heavy heart as Kotomi's mouth opened and closed several times, seemingly on its own, and I gave Ryou a meaningful look before removing my arm from hers to put a hand on Kotomi's shoulder. "Kotomi-chan…I'm sorry."

Apparently that was good enough for her as she stepped forward to wrap her arms around me as she started to cry. I looked over at Ryou with panicked eyes, only to find her with a sympathetic expression as she reached out to hold Kotomi in a tender embrace.

"That was pretty intense," Ryou said as we headed out the main gates. "It wasn't hard to figure out that she liked you, but I had no idea she'd react the way she did."

"She's…unique," I said. "I'm glad we were able to help her calm down; I think I'm the only one she knows outside the library."

Ryou was silent for a long time. "I guess…I don't mind if you want to be friends with her, it's just-"

"How about we both be her friends?" I suggested. "That way you don't have to worry about her and I being alone together…'alone together'…" I snorted. "That sounds funny."

"It does, now that you mention it," she giggled. "She seems really shy, but…" She giggled again. "Listen to me, talking about someone else being shy."

"I know what you mean," I said. "I think she'll take some getting used to, but she does seem…sweet." I wrinkled my nose. "I don't think I've even used the word 'sweet' like that before."

"We're both growing," Ryou observed. "I've noticed myself talking differently, too."

"You're bolder, too," I said. "Ever since Pastor Jeff did that…" I waved my hands, "whatever-he-did, you've seemed a lot more confident."

"I know what you're talking about," she said. "Ever since he did that I've felt…free? Like a weight was taken off my shoulders; I feel like I can be who I'm supposed to be."

"I guess we should thank him, then," I said. "And maybe introduce him to Kotomi? I'd sell tickets to that."

"Tomoya…" she giggled as we walked arm-in-arm the rest of the way to her place.

I ended up floating home again.