Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go. It belongs to Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi.
Crusty's Alert: Lines between " " are spoken dialogues,
Lines between ' ' are thoughts,
Lines between ' ' in italics are Hikaru's thoughts.
Invitation
"Hi Hikaru, do you want anything to drink while you're waiting for Akira?" Ichikawa greeted Hikaru as she saw the boy.
"He's not here yet?"
"No. So, can I get you anything?" Ichikawa smiled.
"Umm, orange juice will be fine," Hikaru scratched his head and went to the usual table.
Usually Akira would be the one who arrived early. Hikaru leaned back on his chair.
"Here you go, my treat," Ichikawa put a huge glass of orange juice in front of Hikaru.
"Thanks! Anyway, did Touya say that he's gonna be late?"
"He did call earlier and said that he's going some place first."
"Really? Where to?"
"Umm… he didn't mention any place, but he said he was with Ogata-san."
"What?"
"It seemed that Ogata-san picked him up after school," Ichikawa said again didn't notice Hikaru's surprised tone. "Well, I'll just leave you with this drink, do you want anything to read?"
"Uh, no thanks."
Hikaru sighed after Ichikawa left. 'That guy is very unpredictable!' Hikaru couldn't believe that he actually picked up Akira from school and drove Akira somewhere else as if he wanted to have Akira for himself.
It's not that he cares, but Hikaru wasn't expecting to spend any boring time of waiting someone.
Finally, Hikaru took the stone bowls and decided to play alone while he's waiting for Akira.
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"I'm sorry I'm late," Akira walked rather in a hurry approaching Hikaru.
"Where were you?" Hikaru's voice sounded like 'How dare you made me wait?"
"The traffic was busy," Ogata replied him.
'I wasn't asking you…' Hikaru muttered inside. "Well, we'd better started before I got uninterested in playing any game," Hikaru pulled his chair closer to the table while Akira took the stone bowl.
"Actually I wish to stay to watch this magnificent game to be between you two, but sadly I have other things to do. See you later, boys. Akira-kun, sorry I made you late, and Shindou, sorry I made you wait." Ogata waved to both of them before he left.
"I can't believe that guy," Hikaru muttered under his breath.
"Sorry…"
"What?" Hikaru stared at Akira.
"Sorry I'm late."
"You've said that before…"
"I mean, well, it's like breaking a promise because I was going to meet you first, but instead I went somewhere else before coming here."
Hikaru couldn't put any upset face to that statement-and that slightly sorry look on Akira's face. "Why did Ogata pick you up, anyway?"
"Umm, something got to do with my dad."
Hikaru thought that might be the reason Akira decided to go with Ogata first.
"Is your dad okay? He's in China right now, right?"
"Yes, he's doing just fine. He'll be coming home tomorrow," Akira smiled.
"Oh, okay." Hikaru was convinced to see Akira's calm smile.
Hikaru noticed that Akira didn't smile very often to him. And when he was, it wasn't a smile straightly directed to Hikaru. It usually a smile related to someone else.
Like when Akira was talking about his father, or about his successful matches, or about… Ogata.
But Akira has known Ogata for quite sometimes, that shouldn't be surprising that he smiled when he was talking about that guy, or… talking to him.
Hikaru did sometimes notice Akira chuckled softly when he was talking with Ogata-whatever they were talking about that made Akira chuckled.
The thing that Waya said before about he and Akira were getting more closer and familiar didn't seem to fit the reality.
'What do I care, anyway?' Hikaru decided to fully concentrating to the game. He forgot his plan before to ask Akira whether Akira thinks that they're becoming closer each other.
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Hikaru leaned his chin on his palm. Today he won another match, but at that time he wasn't thinking about it.
That morning, there were only few people at the social room at the institute. Waya was sitting beside him reading the Go journal.
"Dan-10 Ogata is attempting to gain as much title as he could, isn't he?" Waya stared at the pages of the journal, "He keeps on challenging titled pros here and there. I think he's as ambitious as his tutor, Touya Kouyo."
"You talk like you know," Hikaru replied carelessly. He was a bit annoyed to hear that Ogata was mentioned even though he didn't understand why.
"Can't I!?" Waya blushed embarrassed. "You yourself usually talks about things you don't understand."
"Yea-right…"
Waya raised his brows to see the unlikely response from Hikaru. "What's with you? I thought you'd snapped out to hear that."
"Shindou," suddenly Akira appeared from nowhere in front of them.
'Speaking about thing I don't understand…' Hikaru raised his face, "What is it?"
"You must've known there's a Go convention at Kanagawa tomorrow. Ogata-san has an extra invitation, maybe you'd wanna come with him? You don't have any matches for the coming three days, right?"
"Uh…" 'With Ogata? Let me think… No.'
"The convention will be held for two days, so we have to spend a night at Kanagawa, if that's okay with you."
'Did you say we?' "You're coming too?"
"Yes, I received an invitation too."
'If that so…' "Okay, I'm in."
Without Hikaru's knowledge, Waya sighed beside him, 'And you said that's not weird, Shindou…'
tbc
