As soon as he was about to warn her, he saw that instead of crashing into the pole she crashed into a tall man with a haughty countenance.
The man held her as soon as both bodies collided, seeing that she sighed in fright without releasing the camcorder from her hand.
Then he went to her with the intention of removing her from the problem, in case the man with whom he crashed was a nuisance; the air almost escaped from his lungs as soon as he realized who the man he met was.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Kotoko crouched down apologizing in a good way, but Naoki pushed them away with his right arm moving Kotoko to his side in protective instinct.
The man, or rather, the boy was the rogue captain, the one who shot Kotoko not once, but twice during the basketball game last year. That individual did not deserve his kindness.
Naoki frowned, watching him dismissively, while the rogue captain raised his eyebrows effusively, stepping back, apparently recognizing him instantly.
"Irie Naoki?" He muttered strangely.
He nodded, sighing from the height of his chest.
"Is that girl Aihara?" He pointed at Kotoko with his index finger, doubtfully.
"Do I know you?" Kotoko questioned, wrinkling the gesture as if she wanted to remember that wretched boy's face, but Naoki didn't want to let him be.
"Then in a sense" said the boy, shaking his head in the direction of the sky in relief. "We know each other, Aihara" He said confidently, putting both hands in his pockets.
Kotoko looked at him confused, tilting her head; Naoki, on the other hand, was impatient and of course, if he was facing someone who hurt Kotoko. It was a fact that he considered unforgivable.
"Where?" She wanted to know.
"From nowhere!" Naoki said denying, he took Kotoko from the forearm ready to get away from that subject, but:
"Hold on!" The boy exclaimed, taking Kotoko from the other arm, unwilling to let her go, so it seemed at a distance that they both fought for her.
"Em ..." She made an awkward grimace, absent from the situation she was forced to live in.
"Aihara, I want to apologize," the alarmed boy muttered, ducking his head as a supposedly noble act. "During the basketball game I really wanted to get the scholarship to enter Tonan, and it bothered me when I didn't get it." He stopped to catch air. "I was blinded, and he was stupid to hurt a woman knowing he was a better athlete than me."
They both remained silent, waiting for the silence to transmute in some way, and seeing that despicable subject, he realized that his expression was sincere so he could not interfere unless Kotoko asked him to do so, although he doubted to let it be that way.
Naoki looked at the thoughtful gesture, somehow analyzing the rogue captain, to what he supposed, perhaps he hurt her for spite, but that did not justify his behavior, so he did not deserve his forgiveness.
As the seconds advanced through the hands of the clock, he became impatient with Kotoko's silence. He was intrigued by what was going on in her head. How much will she think? He wondered frustrated.
"Aihara?" The boy said. Naoki looked up at him looking at him menacingly.
You don't hurt Kotoko again, he conveyed that message from his gaze.
"Don't tell me Aihara, please," Kotoko spoke loudly and clearly, letting go of Naoki's contact, who was alarmed at her action.
"I…" The boy raised his eyebrows, surprised.
"I apologize for what you did that time" She said looking mature, sure of what she said. "But, it took you a long time to come to apologize" She rectified, making a quick eyebrow movement where she raised and lowered them to emphasize her words.
"Yes, it was a bad move on my part" He said, grinding his teeth in shame. "As soon as I realized my mistake, I was ashamed!" He covered his face with open hands.
"There's no need for you to hide your face," Kotoko said, smiling sideways, causing Naoki to turn his heart, without anticipating it as usual. "Don't exaggerate"
That I don't exaggerate? Naoki's skin stopped the effect of Kotoko's words, being so understanding and so kind, but telling that subject not to overdo it drove him crazy.
"Eh yes" He muttered under his breath, lowering his hands from his face. "I know I don't deserve to be your friend or something, but I have to tell you something that will probably interest you," he said persuasively.
"Something that interests me?" She said in a sigh.
"Yes" affirmed good-natured (characteristic that irritated Naoki to the bone)
"What is it?" She demanded to know, taking a small step to the side of Naoki, who froze at the impression of noticing that she approached him even if it was a little. "Tell me"
"Someone you know." He began in a mysterious air. "He asked me to look for you and apologize, but I did the same because I intended to formally apologize to you for what I did." Seeing that she didn't speak, he continued. "To not make you the longest story, is someone you know since high school"
"High school?" She didn't let even half a second after finishing the sentence, so that Kotoko burst into intrigue. "But who?
"That's not my turn to say." He waved his hand behind his shoulder. "But to you" He emphasized, watching her sideways.
"I want you to tell me." She asked to know, but he was leaving the place saying goodbye with his hand as he turned his back indifferently. "Hey! You didn't even tell me your name"
"Nakagawa" He replied ten meters away. "That name you do know"
From there, they saw how he took the bus at its proper stop, thereby disappearing from his views as if it were a figment of his imagination.
"Nakagawa?" Kotoko repeated, forcing herself to remember.
"Don't force yourself, Kotoko," Naoki said in a subtle tone. "He's such a nasty guy, you don't have to listen to him."
"But I do know that name." She mentioned.
He stopped, feeling a pale irritation sitting furtively in the pit of his stomach, adding that his throat dried up.
"Yes?" He sounded unrestrained.
"Oh I know!" She exclaimed in Eureka. "Nakagawa Taketo." She opened her mouth in amazement, accompanied by her large eyes that lit up at her discovery.
Naoki didn't want to speak, rather than frown.
He was no longer in a good mood.
"He was with me on the basketball team" She commented. "But I'm surprised he said he was with me in high school, because he was in Tonan with us but a year later"
"I see." He sounded disconnected, evicted.
"But that's the subject for another time," Kotoko replied, trying to cheer him up in her own way. "Let's continue with what we came to do"
"Rather what you came to do" He remarked, feeling strange in the middle; made curious for someone of its kind. "Not me"
"Well, what I." She put a hand on her chest pointing at herself. "Came to do" She smiled and continued filming the movement of the lights on at night, sometimes singing a song, sometimes about to crash with strangers to what he came to her aid every time he witnessed such a scenario.
The line that separated him from Kotoko was increasing and lengthening instead of bringing them closer.
But, that was what he believed.
What he didn't not expected was that fate had other moves for the future, moves that might give him the happiness he sought and fugitive in the environment.
.
.
.
.
P.S. Another chapter ready to be read by you. Here is the first official mention of Taketo Nakagawa (although he came out in the chapter of "The game" of the first part, but we only mentioned his name, not his full description), who will appear in the next chapters as another heavy rival for Naoki, of which, he will try to face his way so that Kotoko does not fall in love with him, although he does not know that she is falling in love with Naoki.