Chapter Six: Contemplating

Izumi walked home. It was a cool autumn night as the leaves fell past her and lay on the ground. She was relieved that Kouji would be just fine and that everyone could go back to their normal lives. But she knew her mother would be at the door, just waiting to yell at her. She had spent her week's allowance and just trudged home, her wallet completely dry and no spare change lying in her backpack. "Kouji…" she thought through the sidewalk. She reached her house, and before she could even put her keys in the keyhole, her mother opened the door. She didn't look very happy. Izumi walked in quietly and walked to the table to eat dinner. Her mother remained quiet while they ate in silence. Izumi ate quickly and walked upstairs to her room to do her homework.

"Izumi…" her mother started as she opened her door and stood at the doorframe.

"Yes?" she said meekly, as she knew she was about to receive a lecture that was probably going to be about her too young and to have interest in any certain guy.

"Izumi, I see you're growing older. And I can't stop you from maturing. I've noticed your actions and that you are responsible enough for this person since you always tend to him. You have my consent. Just don't hang up on me when I call you, okay?" her mother said with a smile.

Izumi finally had the courage to look up. She was a little surprised since her mother had never said anything like that to her. She smiled and said, "Okay, mom," and turned around to do her work. As her mother was about to leave her room, Izumi asked, "Uh mom, I'm kind of short on money."

"Why is that?" her mother asked.

"Uhh… because I sort of spent it on subway fare."

"But the subway fare money I give you is good enough to last for a week."

"Please?"

"No," she said and closed the door.

"Dang it!" Izumi said, and pulled a shoe box from under her bed. She pulled out some money and put it into her wallet. "This is my savings, but I really want to see Kouji by daybreak," she thought.

At the hospital, Kouji's resting bed was empty. He was standing in front of the window, where the moon shone brightly through. There was something in his hand. It was the card Izumi gave him! But how did he manage to hide it? The answer was simple. Before he was to be sent to his operation, he had to admit to himself that he was a bit scared, since he had never been in an operation before, and his shoulder hurt terribly. What if they just messed it up more or mutated it? Kouji looked at the side and thought how ridiculously paranoid he was being. Then he looked to the side, and read the card from Izumi for the millionth time again. After that, he didn't feel fearful of what was about to happen, and he felt fine. He just stuffed the card in the back pocket of his hospital clothes, folding it into a wadded piece of paper. And before he went into the operating room, he talked to Izumi only, instead of his parents. Kouji stood there at the window, gazing at the card. How could a tiny little insignificant five cents worth of paper possibly make him dissipate all his fear? The piece of paper felt it had a special significance to him. As he stood there, all his feelings pointed to one thing. Orimoto Izumi. All this time he was denying it, and in the earlier years he'd just blush and not say anything, or sometimes put her down. The girl became more and more precious to him and felt things he had not felt before. He didn't know what to do, but had a yearning to see her face again. He read it again.

'Hello, Kouji. I hope you're well. I came by earlier this morning. I hope you get well soon! -Izumi.'

Those simple words meant a lot to him. But he never wanted to admit his feelings. He didn't think Izumi felt the same way because many guys liked her, especially Junpei. Kouji wasn't the type to let girls cling to him, plus he didn't like it when girls followed him around. But Izumi, he felt different when Izumi would come around and visit him and just sit and chat with him. Did she really like him? Or was she just a really nice person? There were some awkward times when she had been nice and he didn't accept because he was scared of showing his feelings. Although he did cry when his brother almost died, this was different. This girl felt like everything to him. He stared into the window and shook off his feelings. He felt awkward just thinking about her alone, but in a way, he wanted to be with her, by his side. He went back to bed and set the crumpled card next to his nightstand, and went to sleep. "Where is my bandanna?" he thought as he drifted to slumber.

At daybreak, Izumi woke up bright and early just to see if Kouji was all right. She got ready and ran for the subway and paid her faire, like always. Her mother heard her from her own room. "That girl must be going to the hospital again…" she thought. Izumi sat on the subway and looked around. Other adults were going to work, carrying their suitcases, and other kids like her, going to school. She walked to the hospital, asked the front desk if she was allowed to visit Minamoto Kouji, and was led there by another nurse. Izumi reluctantly followed the nurse although she'd rather much just go there by herself. The nurse opened the door in a soundless manner and checked to see if Kouji was awake. "He's not awake yet, miss," the nurse said.

"May I go in though? I won't make any noise and I'll be quick," Izumi said pleadingly.

The nurse eyed her strangely, but said, "You have two minutes. Hurry up."

"Thank you!" Izumi said quietly, but cheerfully, and opened the door, and shut it. She saw Kouji, sleeping peacefully, like an angel. He looked like he was fine and in no pain Izumi smiled and sat next to him. She looked to the side and hesitantly put her hand on his cheek and moved his hair out of his face. "Kouji…" she said softly. Then she turned her head to the left and saw the card she gave him a couple of days ago, crumpled. She gazed in shocked. Did Kouji really dislike her that much? Was she bothering him? Izumi slowly slid her hand off Kouji's cheek. She looked down. Kouji never appeared to look like he ever liked her. Izumi would not cry over a guy. She wouldn't let herself, and it would make her look inarticulate. Maybe it was a misunderstanding? Maybe Kouji accidentally sat on it? She hoped so that it was. "I shouldn't worry over dumb things like that," she thought to herself. She grabbed a towel and wet it with warm water and gently put it on Kouji's forehead. The sun was rising up, and the sunlight shone through the window, shining on the back of Izumi's golden hair. Izumi grabbed her backpack and walked out the door. "Bye Kouji, " Izumi thought, as she looked back at Kouji, who was still sleeping soundly, and walked hurriedly out of the hospital. She boarded the subway again, and stood up to give her seat to an old lady.

She walked to school, meeting her friends at the campus gate. Izumi said, "Morning everyone!" to the gang. Takuya waved, not even looking while bouncing a soccer ball. Tomoki was too busy playing with his video games, but waved similarly like Takuya. Junpei was eating out of a plastic container eating breakfast and coughed out, "Hello, Izumi!" Kouichi was also standing with them, frantically doing his homework because he forgot to do it. Izumi smiled while looking at the ground. They went to hang out in their usual spot, which was a tree in the middle of the campus. Takuya, Junpei, and Tomoki typically played soccer all together where Takuya commonly always beat the two of them. Izumi sat on a low tree branch and just sat there, and sighed, swinging a tree leaf. Kouichi was about to join in with Takuya and all the others, when he noticed Izumi.

"Izumi, is something wrong?" he asked.

Izumi stared into space and replied five seconds later. "Hmm… did you say something, Kouichi?"

"No," Kouichi said and ran with the others to play soccer. Izumi stared at the four of them, having fun. She wished Kouji was here to also have fun, but no. He was in the hospital because Izumi wasn't fast enough to yell to get out of the way. Izumi rolled her eyes, and thought, "It was inevitable, there wasn't anything I could do…" she got off the tree branch, wiped her skirt off excess tree dirt, grabbed her bag and walked off. Junpei saw her walk away, and stood quietly while everyone else was running around. "Hey, Junpei, heads up!" Takuya yelled, after he kicked the ball. "Huh?" Junpei said, and turned around, as the soccer ball fell on him, straight on the face. "Oww! You moron!" Junpei said and threw the ball back at Takuya's head. Tomoki said then, "Hey, where did Izumi go?" Everyone, except Junpei just noticed that now.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Kouji was just waking up as the morning sunlight shone on his eyelids. As he opened his eyes, he immediately thought, "Eww! What is this wet blob on my head!" and immediately grabbed it and threw it across the room with his right hand. He saw it was just a regular blue washcloth and started laughing at himself and went to go pick it up off the floor. "I'm so stupid," he thought in his head. "Wait a minute. I didn't have that on my head before. Who put it on? I would have remembered if someone had done that. And this chair wasn't here before. Someone was here." He looked out the window and thought, "Was it Orimoto?" and smiled, staring out the window.

End Chapter Six: Contemplating

Onto Chapter Seven.