Chapter 2: New beginnings

Kotomi and I sat crossed legged on the floor of her living room surrounded by text books, Kotomi had insisted that this was the most efficient way to study, I wasn't so convinced myself but whatever makes her comfortable. To be honest sitting on the floor wasn't issue foremost in my mind right now, rather it was a matter of… proximity. There are few things that really get Kotomi excited, one is studying obviously, no problem there, the second however was more of a problem, that thing being… well… me.

The result of the combining of both of those things was that Kotomi was rather… how should I put it? Enthusiastic? That being the case she was rather close to me. Not something I'd normally complain about, her affection for me frequently lead to the embarrassment of both myself and more often than not, those around us. In this case however it was more an issue of it making it a little difficult to concentrate on studying.

"Umm, Kotomi-chan, do you think you could scoot over a little? You're a little close."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

'Yeah, that's what you said the last five times too.'

Kotomi dutifully shuffled a little further away, unfortunately this never seemed to last too long. The usual pattern we seem to have settled into went something along the lines of: I answer a question correctly, Kotomi gets excited and shuffles a little closer, bit by bit she ends up squished up right next to me, I ask her to give me a little more room, she moves away, repeat.

A month of hard study had passed since my conversation with in the teachers office, the old man had been able to secure permission for me to resit my previous exams. What was most surprising was that apparently the deciding factor was in fact a remarkably enthusiastic report on my recent class room conduct from my home room teacher. He had greeted me the following morning with a warm smile and a "Good for you." The rest of the class was almost as surprised as I was.

Sunohara's response was the most troubling, not surprising but still, he had walked in on Kotomi and I studying in the library, he was already a bit annoyed that I wasn't spending much time with him since Kotomi and I had started dating, but seeing me trying to better myself was the last straw. He hadn't so much as spoken to me in the last two weeks. I guess he suddenly found himself in the position of being the only delinquent in the school and just felt isolated. Dealing with him would have to wait until after my exams, I had been doing little other than, study, eat and sleep lately so I couldn't spare the time to deal with him right now.

My first round of exams was upon me in what felt like no time at all. Saturday afternoon came around and I was standing outside the class room where I was due to take my exam, nervously chewing on my thumb nail, I would have been pacing back and forth but Kotomi had attached herself to my arm and wasn't showing any sign of letting go any time soon. Koumura-sensei shuffled out of the room.

"Very well Tomoya-san, we are ready for you. I'm afraid you'll have to leave Kotomi-san here though." He had rather mischievous glint in his eye as he added the last comment. For a moment I didn't think she was going to let go of me, her grip did release eventually only for her to wrap her arm around me and assume her usual position snuggled into my chest. Sensei could barely contain his mirth at this development, his shoulders trembling slightly as he tried to surpass his laughter.

"Kotomi-chan, I need to go in now." All I got for my trouble was a squeeze. "Kotomi-chan?" Kotomi finally released her grip, and looked up at me with a weak smile

"I believe in you Tomoya-kun." For a second there I was expecting her to grab hold of me again, but she did step back in the end.

"Well, there's no doubt about how she feels about you, is there?" Koumura said with a chuckle as he ushered me in to the room.

"Ah, umm, yeah…" Now that was seriously embarrassing. I was glad we had decided not to tell the rest of the Theatre club when I was resitting my exams, or I suspect I would have ended up with an entire cheer squad waiting with me.

As it turns out I had retained more of the first years classes than I had expected and study for them had gone well enough for us to move the exam date forward a little, we took a chance on doing this as it would give me more time to study for the second year exams, and I was far from confident that I would have it so easy with those exams.

I sat myself down at the desk as a large stack of paperwork was flopped down in front of me.

'Well… this is going to take a while.' Koumura checked the clock and nodded, giving me the signal to begin. What followed was several hours of gruelling study. More than once when I looked over at my teacher is had to wonder if he was still awake.

"Tomoya-san, put your pen down, please." Sensei collected the exam paper from me and glanced at the answer sheet, nodding in satisfaction.

"When will I know how I did?" I couldn't possible have done worse than the last time I took these exams, but I was still really nervous, especially after we had moved the exam up.

"I should have the result to you by the end of next week."

"Next week!? How come?"

"I am old." I waited for him to continue but apparently that was as far as the explanation went.

"Thank you, sensei." He simply smiled and nodded, at least I think he smiled, it was hard to tell with that moustache. The instant I set foot in the door way, I found a Kotomi clamped around me, much to Koumura-sensei's amusement.

"Um, Kotomi-chan, do you think I could get out of the room first?" She didn't let go be she did allow me to move at least.

"I got nervous… how was the exam?"

"Thank you, Angel, I appreciate that. The exam wasn't too bad. I got a little stuck a couple of times, but I managed to answer all the questions. We'll just have to wait and see how I did."

"I believe in you Tomoya-kun." That was starting to turn into a catchphrase for her at this point. "When will you know?"

"Next week. Would you like to go for a walk in the park? Maybe stop by the book store after? It would be nice to get out for a while before getting back to studying." Kotomi looked up at me smiling enthusiastically.

"That would be wonderful, Tomoya-kun."

"You haven't been to the book store much, lately have you?"

"No we have been busy with important things." Kotomi adjusted her grip on me so she was now wrapped around my arm, and we set off for our first date since starting to study for my exams. Going to a book store may not seem like a particularly romantic date spot but, it makes her happy so, who cares. As we wandered around the book store Kotomi kept taking sidelong glances toward a section to the far side of the store.

"Did you want to look over there Kotomi-chan?" Kotomi just blushed and moved away to a different shelf.

'That's odd. What's down there that would cause that reaction?' I took a closer look at the shelf she had been glancing at, and my eyes darn near popped out of my head. 'Wedding planning!? She couldn't seriously… could she? No, no she wouldn't… would she?' Once again, I caught Kotomi looking at the same shelf, she blushed bright red when she realised that I had seen her looking. 'sigh… yep she would.' I was at a loss for what to say or think. I mean I'd considered it. I had been thinking of a future together with Kotomi so it seemed obvious that we would marry, eventually. Maybe her time line was shorter than I had thought. 'Oh well, here goes.'

"Kotomi-chan, did you want to go and look at… those… books, over there?" I was blushing almost as much as she was now. Kotomi's eye flitted between me and the bookshelf in question.

"C-c-c-can I?"

"W-well, umm, y-yeah if you want to." Apparently, a stutter can be contagious, who knew? Kotomi took a couple of tentative steps toward the shelf, looking at me more than the shelf, seemingly looking for confirmation, so I took her hand and lead her over to the shelf. She browsed through a bunch of different books, smiling broadly, she was as red as a tomato, but smiling.

'I may need to move up my plans a bit.'

Kotomi was glancing at me as she reached for one of the magazines, it was a little cute that she seemed to be asking permission to buy a magazine but guess I can understand where she's coming from. So, I just smiled at her and nodded. Permission given Kotomi took the magazine from the shelf and clutched it tightly to her chest, was she trying to hide it from everyone else in the shop? Or was it just that precious to her? Could be a bit of both really.

'Sigh, Yep I'm definitely going to have to speed up my plans.' Kotomi selected another book about wedding planning and moved on to her more usual physics books. After selecting a few other books, we headed for the till to pay. As the lady at the checkout scanned Kotomi's selections she spotted the wedding book and magazine.

"Well, Kotomi-chan, someone's a lucky girl." She grinned at me as she commented on the books.

'Hello, and welcome to tomatoes are us, I'm the proprietor and Kotomi here is my lovely assistant.' I felt like my face was about to catch fire, Kotomi's face was much the same colour as I expect my own to be. The cashier just chuckled to herself ass she passed the bag to Kotomi. I was beginning to wonder if embarrassment could genuinely be fatal, or did it just feel like it? If this carries on, we'll soon find out for sure.

Kotomi was unusually quiet on our way back to her house.

"You Okay, Kotomi-chan? You're very quiet today." It's not like she's the most talkative person I the world but we're not usually short of things to talk about.

"Tomoya-kun, let's get married!" She immediately clamped her hand over her mouth as if she hadn't intended to say it. I froze on the spot, not sure what to say. I had sort of seen it coming, and it's not like I don't want to, but this was a bit sudden.

"K-Kotomi-chan, isn't it a little soon for that? We've only been going out or a little while, and we're still in school." She shook her head slightly, making her red hair ornaments wobble about.

"I have loved you since… since… for a long time." She was looking down at her feet, but I could still see that her eyes were getting a little teary. "D-do you n-not want to…"

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my chest squeezing her tight.

"I'm so sorry Kotomi-chan, I didn't mean for you to think that. I guess you have been waiting for quite a long time, haven't you?" I felt her head move up and down as she kept it pressed into my chest. "Are you sure?" Another nod. "Okay, let's get married." Kotomi's head popped up faster than seemed comfortable.

"Really? You mean it? We can?" Kotomi's red rimmed eyes looked up at me alight with hope and excitement.

"Yeah, It's a little earlier than I'd expected, but I'd love to marry you." Kotomi squeezed me tightly, trembling slightly as tears of joy flowed down her face. "Sorry I made you wait so long." We got more than a few dubious looks as we stood in the middle of the high street hugging each other. "We'll have to wait until after we graduate mind you, is that okay?" She nodded emphatically.

"Yes, I can wait a little longer."

'Sigh, Kyou is going to have a field day with this.'

That evening as I sat in my customary position in Kotomi's front room, I found I hard to focus on my studies, I just couldn't keep the grin off my face. Kotomi was sitting next to me going through her wedding books, she would occasionally gasp and rapidly write something down in her note book, I tried to read what she was writing down but was all in some sort of short hand I didn't have a hope of understanding. She would also keep looking over at me smiling with a slight blush, looking away immediately when she spotted that I'd caught her looking. Study was not going to come easy tonight.

Sunday passed in much the same way, Kotomi had calmed down a bit but she was still pouring over her books and surfing the internet for ideas. I suspect it is going to feel like a long, long road to graduation. I just hope things can settle back down a bit so I can get some decent study in, my next exams weren't for two months, but I still had to learn most of last years syllabus in that time. All the while trying to keep up with this year too.

Monday morning rolled around and Kotomi and I were walking to school together, this had become a habit of ours, I would head to Kotomi's house in the morning in we would head to school together. It meant I had to get up a little earlier, but it's worth it to be able to spend a little more time with my Kotomi. Thinking about it, just a few months ago, I couldn't even get my head off the pillow early enough to get to school on time, never mind early enough to walk a girl to school and meet up with my friends in the club room.

Every time I think about the changes in my life, the more grateful I am that I happened to wonder into the library that day.

'When did I end up so sentimental?'

"Kotomi-chan, Okazaki-kun!" It's the twins, fujibayashi and Kotomi have become pretty close lately. It's hard to believe that one of them would hide behind me if someone so much as coughed loudly, and the other would go bright red if I so much as smile in her direction.

"Good morning, Ryou-chan, Good morning Kyou-chan."

"Good morning, Kotomi-chan, Okazaki-kun."

"Morning Fujibayashi, Kyou."

"Why am I the afterthought?" Kyou huffed.

"Your sister was the one how actually greeted me, so it seemed only fair." Kyou just gave me a slightly odd look. As Furukawa joined our little group.

"What's with you two this morning? Kotomi's even more clingy than usual." She's not wrong, normally Kotomi would be doing the rounds hugging people by now.

"I don't know what you mean, Good morning Furukawa."

"Good morning Okazaki-kun, good morning Kotomi-chan."

"Good morning, Negisa-chan." Kotomi smiled as she greeted her friend, but otherwise remained attached to my arm. Kyou gave me another suspicious glance but didn't say anything else. I was definitely going to get it the instant she got me alone.

We continued on towards school, and into the Theatre club room.

"So, what did you two get up to this weekend?" Kyou was on the scent of some juicy gossip.

"Oh, nothing special, we went for a walk in the park, and then to the book store."

"Then why did Kotomi blush when you mentioned the book store? And why is she glued to your arm?" Kotomi squeaked and hid behind me blushing bright red. The strength of Kotomi's reaction surprised all three girls.

"Book store isn't code for something is it?!" Kyou asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

"NO, IT ISN'T! We wouldn't do anything like that until…"

'Crap! There's no way she'll let that one pass.'

"Until what?" She'd smelled blood now, there's no getting her off the subject anymore.

'Can I play for time until we need to go to class? Half an hour, crap… that's not going to work.' I looked back to my fiancée for confirmation, a slight nod. 'Fiancée huh. I like the sound of that.'

"What? What are you grinning about?"

"Sigh… We got engaged. We're getting married after we graduate."

"Married!" All three shout at once, causing Kotomi to hide behind me a little more. I had expected them to be surprised, but what I hadn't expected was the brief flash of sadness in the eyes of all three girls.

"C-Congratulations." Furukawa was the first to break the silence. It seemed to snap the twins back to the room.

"Y-yes c-c-congratulations you two." Fujibayashi displayed further evidence of how contagious stuttering can be.

"Yeah… Congratulations." Kyou seemed to be in a bit of a daze. Kotomi was apparently oblivious to how strange the reaction was. She had emerged from behind me and headed over to hug Furukawa and Fujibayashi, Kyou was still staring at me in a daze.

"Kyou? You okay there?" Kyou blinked a few times, as if she had just realised where she was.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah… congratulations." She still didn't quite sound right, but I didn't think there was a good idea to press the issue. She blinked a couple more times and headed over to join the other three as the hugged and chatted excitedly.

'Well it's one hell of a way to start a day. Sunohara is going to freak when he hears this.' I didn't have to deal with that today though thankfully, he hadn't turned up by the time I headed off to the club room for lunch, and he was already asleep on his desk by the time I returned. At lunch the girls had apparently recovered from the shock and were excitedly talking about dresses and stuff. Apart from Kyou, who was grilling me for details of the proposal, why didn't she have a ring yet? Etc. I kept my answers as vague as I could, some things are best kept private. Although it did remind me that I need to do something about a ring.

When I did get around to talking to Sunohara, he had already heard about it on the grape vine. I'll never understand how gossip can spread so fast. He wasn't pleased, honestly his reaction reminded me of the girls when we told them. I decided that it was probably best left alone for now, and I just added it to the ever-growing list of stuff to deal with after I had got through my next round of resits.

The following Saturday afternoon Koumura-sensei met me outside my class room as I was heading to meet Kotomi.

"Ah, young Tomoya-san," a long pause… was he finished? Or has he fallen asleep?

"Yes Sensei?"

"I expect you would like to hear your exam results."

"Honestly I'm not sure I do at this point." Koumura smiled warmly at me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You should have more confidence in yourself, you have been doing very well in your classes lately." We were beginning to get a great many curious stares as what felt like the entire school filed past us on the way to clubs or home.

"Umm, well… err, Kotomi has been a big help with that kind of thing."

"Hmmm… So, I hear, you two have become the subject of a great deal of discussion in the office this last week."

'Ah, does that mean it's made it as far as him already?'

"Ah, yes, that, well umm, I… err, we are, yes, very happy together." Wow this is embarrassing.

"Indeed… you seem to have been a very positive influence on each other."

"I don't know how much I have influenced her but…. Yeah, she's opened my eyes to a lot of mistakes I've made over the last two and a half years. B-but a-anyway you said you had my results?"

"Hmmm…" Wow this guy talks slowly. "Yes, indeed I do. You have done very well for yourself…" Yes and. "You have managed a B+ average." I stood there stunned, at a loss for words. "And your recent results in this year's exams put you in the top 100 students in the school."

"What? Huh… Really?!" No way, he's got to be winding me up.

"Tomoya-kun? Is everything okay?" Kotomi had appeared while I was stood catatonic trying to assimilate the information Koumura-sensei had just dropped on me.

"Hmm… Kotomi-chan? What are you doing here?"

"You were late, so I got worried and came to find you."

"I am sorry young lady, I'm afraid I had detained Tomoya-san, so I could discuss his exam results."

"Oh! Yes of course, I am sorry for intruding." Kotomi had apparently not realised that Koumura-sensei was even there until he spoke to her directly.

"Not at all young Kotomi-san…" Yet another long pause, Kotomi looked over to me unsure of how to react. "I believe congratulations are in order."

'Yep he's heard, does the whole school know?'

"Oh! Yes, thank you sensei." Kotomi was doing an excellent tomato impression at this point.

"You are most welcome my dear. I will leave it to your fiancé to share the good news then." It looked like most of Kotomi's blood had now collected in her face, as Koumura-sensei bowed and shuffled off. It was the first time I had been referred to as Kotomi's fiancé, and I was left feeling like a couple of dozen butterflies were having a party in my stomach.

Kotomi took a few deep breaths, and her face started to return to normal, more or less anyway.

"H-How did you do in your exams, Tomoya-kun?"

"He said I got a B+ average." I was still in a bit of a daze. But Kotomi clapped excitedly and threw her arms around me, assuming her default position, snuggled into my chest. "I am very proud of you, see I told you that you could do it."

"You knew he could do what?" at some point the other three girls had come looking for us. I hadn't told anyone that I had been trying to improve my exam scores, so it's no surprise that they were a little confused.

"Sigh… I re-sat my first-year exams last weekend."

"Oh, really? What brought that on?" Kyou was as surprised as the other two but had managed to recover the use of her mouth.

"Do you really need to ask?" I glanced down at Kotomi who had yet to move from her position against my chest.

"I guess not." There was a brief flash of sadness in her eye just like when we announced our engagement, but she recovered quickly. "How did it go?"

"I got a B+ average." Stunned silence. "Koumura said I was in the top 100 for this year's exams too."

Kotomi's head popped up at this new piece of information.

"That is excellent news Tomoya-kun." She beamed up at me, still pressed into my chest but looking up with her chin against my sternum, she looked so cute I wished I could take a picture.

"Hey! We're still here you know! Anyway, congratulations Tomoya, I'm actually impressed." Kyou couldn't resist heckling us whenever we got a little too lovey-dovey.

"Yes, Congratulations Okazaki-kun." Fujibayashi smiled and then looked at Kotomi. "You're a very luck girl."

'Wait… what? Why is she lucky?'

"Yes, thank you, I know I am very, very lucky." Kotomi blushed and squeezed a little tighter. I was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with all this praise. The twins and Furukawa had seemed a little off since our little announcement, Fujibayashi and Furukawa we mostly back to normal, just occasionally giving me strange looks when they didn't think I was looking and turning away as soon as I looked back at them. But Kyou… she seemed distant almost sad a lot of the time. I was seriously hoping it didn't mean what I think it did, time will tell. But I'll have to talk to Kyou if she doesn't pick up soon, and I really don't want to hurt her.

The two months I had to study for my second year resits flew past, thankfully Fujibayashi and Furukawa have seemed to return to their old selves, Kyou however, she was a different story, she wasn't as quiet as she had been, but there was still a deep melancholy in her eyes at times, I had resolved to talk to her about it after my exams but I wasn't looking forward to it one bit, I was pretty sure what the problem was by now, and frankly I'd rather pretend that nothing was wrong, but I needed to try and give her some closure.

"Are you worrying about your exam?" We were walking down to school on Saturday morning, The Saturday morning, my last resit was this afternoon.

"Hmm? Oh, no I'm not too worried about that, the mock exams we did yesterday went really well so, I'm okay about that." I didn't want to say any more than that, she'd only worry if I told her, and I didn't want to make thinks worse by making her treat Kyou any differently.

Kotomi looked at me intently for a while as we walked, then she took a deep breath.

"Is it about Kyou-chan?"

"Huh!? W-w-what do you mean?"

"You are worried about her, aren't you?"

"You picked up on that did you?" A nod.

"She has been sad since… since we got engaged."

"Yeah, she has. I want to see if I can help her, but I need to get this exam out of the way first." Kotomi nodded again, she was quiet for a while. "Kotomi-chan? Are you okay?"

"I believe she is in love with you." I was stunned, I had thought the same thing, but I was amazed that Kotomi had picked up on it. She had quite good at reading my moods and emotions, but she still wasn't much good with anyone else. "Do you not think so?"

"Erm, yeah I do I'm just a little surprised that you had had the same thought."

"I have seen the way she looks at you when you are not looking, and I read in a book that it probably means she is in love with you." Of course, she read it in a book. "what will you do?"

"The only thing I can do really, let her down as gently as I can, I know there's no way I can do it without hurting her but, I really don't want to hurt anyone any more than absolutely necessary."

Kotomi wrapped herself around my arm and rested her head on my shoulder.

"You are a good man Tomoya-kun. I hope she will be okay; I don't want to lose a friend."

"Thanks Angel. I really hope she can come to terms with it soon, I hate to see her in pain like this."

Disturbingly Sunohara's reaction to our engagement had been quite similar, except for the fact that he would leave as soon as Kotomi arrived. The thought sent a shudder down my spine, earning me a quizzical look from Kotomi.

Basically, the entire school knew about the engagement now, the result was we would hear whispers of how cute a couple we made from the girls, and the occasional death glare from some of the guys. It seems that Kotomi had earn something of a fan club since she left the library and began socializing more, and the members were less than happy to hear she was off the market.

Home room came to an end and I rose to head to my exam, in spite of myself, I was a little nervous, until I arrived at the class room set aside for my exam and I was greeted by the entire theatre club, all holding up good luck signs. Furukawa's was covered in dongos for some reason, the twins were holding one big one between them, with a scattering of horoscope signs and a picture of Botan, whereas Kotomi's was covered in hearts and a big wedding cake. The other three seemed to find my embarrassment highly amusing and going by the smile on his face so did Koumura-sensei.

I thought of if embarrassment could be fatal or not drifted back into my mind, I can't imagine why.

Koumura lead me into the exam room, still chuckling to himself.

"Quite the fan club you have there, young Tomoya-san."

"Err, yeah. So, exam, shall we get started?" Another chuckle.

"Very well, you may begin." The time flew by and I was done in next to no time. It was finally all over. Unfortunately, that left me without an excuse to speak with Kyou.

I stepped out the class room and much like last time Kotomi immediately attached herself to me. Furukawa and Fujibayashi both chuckled.

"Kotomi-chan, can you give me a minute? I need to speak to Kyou." She looked up at me, nodded and released me.

"M-m-me? W-what do you need me for?" Kyou looked to be on the verge of panic, Fujibayashi looked at her sister with concern.

"Yeah, there's something I think we need to discuss." She looked like she was about to make a run for it, but thankfully, she stood her ground.

"We'll go to the Theatre club room and see you guys in a while, okay?" Three nods. "Fujibayashi, would you stay close by? She may need you." I whispered to Fujibayashi as we passed her, she gave me a sad nod, clearly understanding what was going on.

We entered the club room having not said a word to each other, I sat down on the far side of the table and motioned to her to sit on the side closest to the door, I didn't want her to have to get past me if she wanted to get out of the room.

"It's all your fault you know," Kyou fiddled with the hem of her top as she slowly walked over to the table. "You had to go and be all 'kind' and 'gentle' and 'reliable' didn't you." Kyou sighed as she flopped down into the chair. She was still looking down at her lap, unable to look me in the eye. "How could we not fall for you?"

'We? Furukawa maybe?'

"We already liked you from last year, you're so tall and handsome and cool, but we had already lost, hadn't we?" Tears began to drip on to the table. I got up and knelt down next to her chair and put my arm around her.

"I'm so sorry… I never wanted to hurt anyone, least of all you guys. You were the only ones who would talk to me for so long… I'd hate to lose you as a friend." I was choking up myself at this point.

"What about Sunohara?"

"Huh? Sunohara?"

"Isn't he your friend?"

"Good God no!" I gave an exaggerated shudder. "Perish the thought." Kyou smiled briefly, then she put her arms around me and wept into my shoulder for a while. I heard the door open a little and Fujibayashi's worry ridden face poked in. I waved her over and she almost ran to her sisters' side.

"Onee-chan?"

"*sniff* I'm okay… I will be anyway."

'I really hope she is.' Fujibayashi and Furukawa led the sniffling Kyou away, for some much-needed ice-cream therapy as Kotomi stepped in to the room. She watched as the trio headed home, clearly worried.

"Tomoya-kun? Are you alright?"

"Good God that was horrible, if I live to be 300 years old it'd be too soon to see her face like that again." I opened my arms and Kotomi took her customary position, I rested my chin on the top of her head and sighed.

"You're a wonderful man, I am sure you did your best for her."

"Thank you, angel, I really hope it was enough." Kotomi squeezed a little harder. "I am so glad I decided to go the library that day."

"So am I."

We didn't see much of Kyou for a few days, it was expected really. Thankfully by Wednesday she had re-joined our little group, she was a little reserved to begin with, but she soon settled in.

We were eating lunch in the club room on Friday when I was called to the teacher's office over the loudspeakers.

"What have you done now?" Kyou smirked as she was presented with a golden opportunity for a dig.

"Nothing… I don't think so anyway."

Thankfully it was Koumura-sensei trying to avoid a repeat performance from my cheer squad.

"Well then, young man, I have your last results." I took a deep breath.

"Okay, how did I do?"

"Straight A's, hmmm…. just imagine what you could have achieved if you'd tried this hard from the beginning." Again, I was lost for words, ironic given I scored so high on my vocabulary. "It seems you have successfully seized your second chance. I most proud of your achievements."

"Err, thank you Sensei, I am extremely grateful for your help, thank you for letting me fix my mistakes."

"You're very welcome Tomoya-san."

I was still in shock when I got back to the club room.

"Well? What was it all about?" Kyou was the first to speak as usual.

"Oh… err it was Koumura-sensei, he wanted to give me my exam result." Kotomi sprang to her feet and was by my side in a flash.

"H-how did you do." She was clinging to the front of my shirt.

"I got straight A's."

"WHAT!" Kyou again "How?"

"I have no idea."

"Oh! Tomoya-kun, I knew you could do it!"

"Than-mmpph" I was suddenly interrupted by a Kotomi attaching itself to my face, much to the embarrassment of everyone else in the room. I pried her off me as gently as I could "Kotomi, you get that we're not alone here, right?" She was pouting at me at this point, but I wasn't quite sure if it was because I stopped her kissing me or because I missed off the -chan, she was oddly attached to that for some reason.

"We should go somewhere to celebrate." Surprisingly it was Furukawa that suggestion.

"How about we all go to the ice-cream shop." It was the first place I thought of frankly not to mention it was cheap.