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Memories Through The Years

Chapter 5: Homework

Chihiro hopped cheerfully towards their classroom the next day. The bright rays of the morning sun dazzled her chestnut hair as she greeted her friends Miroku and Tomoe in the far right side of the room.

She sat beside Gem her best friend just in time to hear the bell for the start of class.

"Mathematics." she heard her friend muttered. As far as she knew, Gem always had a difficult time solving equations and math problems.

"That's alright Gem." she said assuring.

"Easy for you to say." Gem mumbled. "You're always top in this subject."

Chihiro stifled a giggle. "Not really. Hey, maybe this time we'll just deal with additions. You never know when a teacher has an amnesia. He might forget we're not in preschool anymore!"

Gem broke into fits of laughter.

"AHEM!" a loud voice echoed across the neat, well polished room.

Chihiro and Gem suddenly froze in their seats as they realized Mr. Hasaki was already at the front.

"Now that's better. I will not tolerate that kind of act in this classroom. It's just the second day of school and all of you are like parrots." he said sternly brushing his long black sleeve with his hand. His dark azure eyes and raven hair made him more frightening.

Gem sighed. "I thought he meant only us."

Chihiro nodded beside her. She gazed around the room and was not surprised to see most of her classmates hiding a shudder. Suddenly, her hazel eyes fell on the boy five seats to her left with green steely eyes.

"Kohaku doesn't seem to be afraid of this Mr. Hasaki. Or, was it just because he's drowned in thoughts?" Chihiro shook her head. "Why am I thinking of that? I don't know him better than a classmate." She focused her attention on their teacher who was now writing lectures about Rationalization.

She took out her notebook and started copying. It was not after twenty minutes when he announced a hard work for all of them.

"As your first homework, I would like to ask you all to pair up." He said. "Then take a sheet of paper here. There are instructions, questions and problems for you to solve. I will not give you any guide because you have to search this topic by yourselves and figure out a solution. This will be passed after three days, no exemption."

"What?" Gem gasped. "In three days? Is he cr-" her words were cut off by their math teacher who looked like he was losing patience.

"What are you all waiting for?" he said as calm as possible. "Pair up!" He pointed at Gem. "Come here and be with Yukishiro." He gestured his hand towards the brown haired girl who was seated at the front. Gem quickly stood up leaving Chihiro behind.

The whole class no sooner was roaming around looking for partners and she herself was gazing all around.

A moment passed and someone tapped her in the shoulder.

Chihiro looked around and saw Kohaku.

"Can I be your partner?" he asked kindly.

Chihiro smiled at him. "Why yes. I thought I'll be left alone here." she stood up and they took the instruction paper from Mr. Hasaki's desk.

Kohaku analyzed it. "It doesn't seem to be so hard. Just extraction of cube roots and rationalization."

Chihiro peeked from behind and nodded in agreement. "I know a library that has books for this topic." They took a seat at her desk and Kohaku looked up from the paper.

"What do you say we go there this afternoon? The sooner we finish this homework, the better."

She giggled beside him. "I couldn't agree more."

Kohaku smiled at her. Her chestnut hair dropped at her side and he noticed the sparkle of the maroon ponytail her friends had given to her in the spirited world. "She'll remember everything one day. Time will come and the memories we shared with each other will come back through the years."

"Is something wrong Kohaku?" The soft voice of Chihiro startled him.

Kohaku shook his head. "Nothing."

~ Venus Library ~

"I found it!" Chihiro whispered noisily while walking towards the table where Kohaku sat. The library was huge full of all sorts of books. The shelves were lined horizontally and they all reached the ceiling. The whole was at least eight floors high each containing a certain subject. She pulled the chair and sat beside him grinning. "Here's the book that made me suffer by searching the entire shelves of Algebra."

Kohaku laughed beside her. "Then let's call the executioner to finish this stuff."

She giggled and took out her fountain pen. "Have you figured out the first question?"

He nodded. "I'm now on the next one."

"Great! Leave the third for me."

Scribbling onto the papers was heard throughout the whole hour as Kohaku and Chihiro continued their almost finished homework. A question darted from both of them every minute because of some misunderstood stuff. But all the way, the two of them gets closer and closer to each other. Laughter, fun, happiness and friendship made up their bonding that became stronger as they discover for themselves the beauty hidden in each other's hearts.

"I don't know why but I like being with him."

"She always make me smile just like the time when I first saw her."

"He's sweet and kind and he's a really good friend."

"She's the reason for my existence."

"He's like the friend I once had. Five years ago… although I really do not know."

"How can I make her remember?"

"Why is it that I feel like I've seen him before?"

"I won't lose hope. Somehow, I'll make her remember…"

The huge clock dangling from the wall stroke three o'clock and startled both of them from their thoughts.

"We'd better get home soon." Chihiro said standing up. Kohaku followed her suit and picked up the books they took from the shelves.

"I'll return this one Kohaku." she said and hurried to the second floor.

Kohaku watched her leave and placed the books to the nearby shelves. Then, a shudder came to him and his eyes widened as he sensed a great adversity.

"Chihiro!" he gasped running after her up the stairs but she was nowhere to be found. He looked at the row of shelves to his right where it was labeled with 'mathematics' and walked hurriedly towards it. To his horror, all the books was laid fallen to the ground and they all covered a stunned Chihiro.

"Help…" he heard her mutter.

Kohaku dashed to the stack of fallen books and quickly removed everything. "Are you alright?" was the words that first came from his mouth.

Chihiro sat upright and placed a hand on her head. "That hurts. Aww…"

He held her hand. "Don't worry." he said helping her stand and glancing at the fallen books. "How did all of these books fell to you?"

Chihiro took a quick look at them and shook her head. " I don't know h-how. I was just going to place the math book here -" she pointed at the lower row. "Then all the books up there fell on me."

Kohaku placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe the structure of this shelf isn't good enough to support all of these books. Let's go. I'll talk to the librarian."

And they went downstairs Kohaku never leaving his suspicion that something wasn't right there.

The shelf was perfectly proportioned and those books couldn't have fallen if it weren't for someone…

End of Chapter five!! Hope you like it. Chihiro is getting close to Kohaku and maybe close enough to make her remember. Stay tuned for more chapters up ahead!