"How long have you been waiting there?"
I eased the door shut behind me, releasing only a quiet mechanical click into the still morning. Kotonoha stood at the edge of the small patio, amethyst eyes edging around my gaze and her hands clutching at her bulky messenger bag. Her wispy eyebrows wobbled with unease. From what I could tell, she had been in the midst of deciding whether or not to knock. When I had opened the door, I could just barely make out the scurrying of her retreat over the creak of the hinges.
"I-I only just got here," she reassured, leaving me unconvinced. "Oh my, your eyes are so dark. Have you been sleeping well?"
I suddenly became self-conscious of my appearance and dragged a vain hand across my tired eyes. My morning routines usually involved avoiding mirrors like they would stab my sternum with large cooking instruments. I still had a hard time not astonishing myself with the stranger who stared back.
"Really? I guess I've just been a bit restless these last couple of days, it's no big deal. But, uh, you're not being harassed again, are you?" I asked with a quick scan of the street. How many times could I fake calling the police before the moment required more physical means? My combat skills probably sat somewhere between a flimsy scarecrow and an overcooked carrot. Even worse with the lack of rest lately.
"N-no, no," she dismissed, waving her hands about. "Nothing like that. It occurred to me that since we live so close to each other it would seem natural to walk to school together... If that's alright I mean."
Did there exist any other option that wouldn't tax mercilessly on my conscience?
"Yeah, I guess that would make sense," I shrugged. "I just hope you're prepared for the horrific onslaught of my boring presence."
Her closed eyes smiled up at me and sent unrestrainable sparks of contagious cheer through the core of my being. I began to wonder just how long it would take before she began to detest me. For the sake of my safety, maybe I shouldn't hang around to find out.
And so the first of what I believed to be many accompanied walks began. Kotonoha had the uncanny ability to keep a conversation going while also keeping my full attention, a rare feat. She continued from where we left off yesterday, poking me with a surplus of questions, but she also attempted at levering out more personal information that almost had me worried. I ended up giving out my phone number, my favorite food (spinach calzone), the kind of music I listen to, hobbies, old friends, preference of color (violet), favorite movies, whether or not I've taken martial arts (Ha ha), and relationship status (N/A). That last question would have shot off a few distress flares had our arrival at the train station not distracted me.
We greeted Makoto with casual words and soon after, sauntered aboard the rickety train once more. The two love birds perched themselves upon one of the burgundy cushioned benches while I insisted on standing. Unfortunately, the ride failed to provide an adequate opportunity to talk to the boy about Sekai. Not with Kotonoha here. In fact, with my full-to-bursting schedule, a practical moment of peace with the kid at any point in the day was beyond any fizzle of power in my grasp.
I would go on and provide every crucial detail of my classes before lunch, but I slept through nearly every minute of every hour. The teachers even ignored my lack of attention, unwilling to deal with the awkward situation.
I slept a few minutes into lunch before the clucking and guffaws of the students slapped me awake. It took me a minute to realize my only chance at talking to Makoto today had just sailed off in a golden yacht, zipping right by my desert island. I trudged out through the classroom door and spied out the first student I recognized from my class.
"Excuse me, you're Sawanaga, are you not?"
A towering scarecrow of a guy with a mess of tree bark hair stuck out from the busy hallway outside the classroom. He spun around with more energy than necessary and emoted a comical face of confusion at my presence. When he looked at my face, he burst in silent shock.
"Yes, that's me," he mumbled with a strange, uneasy look. "Oh, you're that Hudson kid from my class. Man, you look exhausted, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied with a fake beam that strained my lips. "I heard you were friends with Makoto, so I was just wondering if you knew where he went."
Taisuke Sawanaga. I didn't have to overhear the murmuring group of girls with mildly annoyed masks to remember this kid. He's the character that sat on the receiving end of more than a few humorous scenarios. It took only two words to summarize this guy's role in the story: comic relief. But my gut informed me that wasn't all there was to him.
"Ah, I think I saw him run off to have lunch with Katsura."
An unforeseen flame of anger began to fester in the pit of my stomach when he mentioned Kotonoha. Indecent images flashed red-tinged through my vision and I had to lock the features of my face in place to keep them from twisting and disclosing my inner turmoil. This guy did something to her, the details are fuzzy, but it wasn't good. Behind his cheery facade and silly passes at women hid just another lecherous degenerate. This school had a knack for them.
"Is that so?" I coughed with a dry chuckle. "I'll just have to talk to him some time after school then. Thanks anyway."
Before the confused teen could spit out another "Eh", I turned and sped off down the nearest hall, dragging my heavy limbs at a clumsy pace. The moment I rounded a corner I withheld my steps to a slower gait, conscious of the many amused and unsure stares I had earned from the hustling crowds of students. I twisted my head around in case the kid had decided to follow me. Another second of unwanted conversation with that guy and I'd be letting forth a flood of colorful, insulting thoughts that had no right to exist in this world yet. Or at least glare at him and make him uncomfortable.
Thump!
A small body bashed into my chest with a force that aggressively expunged the air from my lungs like a battering ram into a hot air balloon. I stumbled a few paces in reverse with my eyes squashed in pain and a hand clutching at my chest. Never a dull moment around here.
With a deep intake of air I muttered an apology and peered down at my victim. Way down.
"Ow," the short girl groaned with a blank stare as she pressed a hand to her face. Her stature forced me to look ground-ward at a near ninety-degree angle for a proper view. Irises made from bottomless garnet peered right back up from beneath a crop of hair fashioned from bruised evergreens, held together by a flowing crimson bow.
"Sorry, sorry," I continued to stammer with a deflated energy. "I wasn't paying attention."
"Hey, you're that new exchange student in my class," she droned with a mysterious lack of emotion. Her deadpan voice reminded me of a robot.
"Uh, yeah. Do I know..? Oh wait," It had taken my sluggish thought processing to put face to memory, but I managed. "You're a friend of Sekai's."
My poker-faced assailant gave a slow nod in response and lowered her hand. My ability to dig up a name escaped me, but I did recall that this girl was Sekai's closest friend. At least I'm pretty sure. She was smart, ambitious, and I think part of the student council or something of the sort. For the time being, that's about the limit of my knowledge. Now I just needed to remember what other characters I've forgotten...
"Yes, you can call me Kiyoura." Ah, there we go. "You're on your way to see her now, aren't you?"
"Why yes I am," I responded with a defensive grimace. "She's been taking a liking to having lunch on the roof. She hasn't been neglecting her friends now, has she?"
"No," she said blankly. "She actually... never mind."
My legs swayed awkwardly and I rubbed at a sudden itch pestering the rear of my scalp. I tried not to look into the piercing gaze that reflected my sight back into my soul. If this girl felt as uncomfortable as I did, she made an outstanding effort to keep it under wraps.
"Take care of her," her voice whispered against my ear. I jerked my face up to find myself facing an empty space. Without my notice, Kiyoura had stealthed by, leaving only a faint brush of wind in her wake. I resisted the urge to turn around and inquire about the ominous message, but I had already wasted too much of the lunch period. Hopefully a decent meal would bless my mind's slow crawl with a much needed jump start.
"Ugh, your phone is so boring."
I nearly knocked the lunch on the bench between us onto the graveled roof when I noticed Sekai's face peeking over my shoulder. That bold strand that stuck out from the top of her head nearly gouged my eye given how close she was. I snapped the phone shut and clacked it on the bench by my side; having it bulge in my pocket felt uncomfortable while sitting. The message that had me so distracted had been from Yuuki, and he agreed that a meeting over the weekend would be most beneficial. Let's just hope fate thinks so too.
"Um, private space please," I intoned as I shot back from her giggling eyes. "And what do you mean? It looks like anyone else's phone. Doesn't it?"
"I mean its background," she jabbed with a finger. "Yours could do with a more personal flair. Haven't you heard of the charm going around?"
Yes. "No, and I don't really believe in any of that superstitious stuff all the kids go crazy over. By the way, this lunch? Five stars."
I managed to distract her for a moment with my surprise compliment, tinting her cheeks the color of rubies. She scrunched in a grin and waved the comment away with a "Thanks" before returning to the topic I would rather avoid.
"But that charm, maybe it'll help with you actually finding someone to hold dear," she snickered as she wrapped her arms around her torso and wriggled while making embarrassing smooch noises. I could only look on in horror. "If you put the picture of the one you love as your phone's wallpaper, and no one finds out for a while, then your feelings will be returned."
"Yes, well that's all fine and everything, but we should be focusing on your love life, rather," I sighed and engulfed another rice ball with the grace of a hippo after dental surgery. My cheeks bounced as I gnashed away at the girl's delicious lunch when a sideways glance at Sekai froze my jowls. Worried trenches dug into her knitted brow while her seamed mouth danced like a twitchy caterpillar. I vacated my mouth with a painful swallow and decided we had grown close enough for me to express my friendly concern.
"Something troubling you, Sekai?" I poked with her first name. Earlier I had forgotten her demand to be called as such, resulting in a rather physical headlock that left me flustered and overheated.
"Ah- well, it's just," she stuttered harder than a waterlogged car battery. "About yesterday, with Makoto..."
She trailed off and continued to instate the ground as the most captivating piece of scenery in the area. I prodded up and down at her slumped figure with my darting eye. What could have happened yesterday to put her in such a mood so suddenly? Sure, apparently Makoto was trying to bury any obvious urges he had that may disclose his feelings to Sekai, but that's to be expected since he already has a girlfriend. I mean, the only objection I had against Sekai ripping the boy away and into her grasp was that I knew Kotonoha to be too mentally fragile to take such a harsh rejection. Regrettably, I couldn't tell anyone, forcing me to place more faith than I was capable of in these kids.
"You're not that bothered about yesterday, are you?" I sighed. "You have nothing to worry about, he's just a really shy guy with some clearly conflicting feelings. Just keep getting him to really open his eyes to you until he figures out that Kotonoha just isn't-"
"It's not that." she muttered at the ground in a hollow voice.
My back creaked and the folds in my blazer shifted as I righted my posture slightly at her reply. She looked so morale deprived compared to the usual hop-skip energy she had expressed only moments ago. It was as though she had a switch she could flip at will to instantly mold her mood, like a renowned movie actress. I could feel the telltale prongs of anxiety pricking at my heart in my confusion. An absentminded hand brushed up against my face to push my glasses up the bridge of my nose.
"I-if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine," I added finally after brushing at a loose strand irritating my forehead. "But know that I'm totally here to help you with Makoto and that-"
"If I tell you," she interrupted once more, turning her head only the smallest fraction in my direction. "Promise you won't be angry at me."
Angry at her? What could she have possibly done that would make her fear angering me? I myself can't imagine a single scenario that would cause me to feel enmity towards her, she was too likable, even if she did slap me at one point. There's nothing she could have said to the boy that would cause me any sort of discomfort, unless of course she decided to reveal our entire operation. She wouldn't dare, would she? Oh dear, did she already go and kiss him abruptly like in the show? No, she doesn't know something like that would upset me for the sake of Kotonoha. I'm sure she'd believe that to have the opposite effect on me...
"You're kind of scaring me a bit there, but there's no way I could get angry at y-"
"Just promise me," she said with a quiet sternness that jabbed at my resolve.
"Sure. Fine," I assured with hurried nods. "I promise I won't be angry with you. You have my word."
Sekai exhaled a long breath and lurched up to her feet before treading over to the roof fence. I turned and watched the girl look out over the school grounds, a nervous twinge upsetting my senses. Her thin hands reached out and coiled around the fence's rings. The entwined metal rings sagged ever so slightly and her knuckles blossomed white with her tightening grip. Her face hid beneath shadows, silhouetted against the midday sun. She leaned her forehead against the metal.
"I didn't go."
I cogitated in perplexed silence for a few seconds, unaware of her meaning.
"You- you didn't go where?" I inquired.
"Yesterday. I never went shopping with Makoto."
My face began to contort into a look of confusion and disbelief without my knowing. I brought a shaking hand across my brow to wipe away a bead of sweat.
"I don't understand," I said with a synthetic chuckle. "What do you mean you-"
"I mean I lied in that text!" she stomped and spun to confront my face. Her glittering pools of liquid lavender threatened to spill over. I could feel my heart freezing in place, then bursting into wild fluxes. My legs attempted to pick my body off the bench, but such an effort was futile. I could only steady myself by locking my arms at my sides.
"Wh- But, but the text... you had said Makoto was worrying over Kotonoha..." My words came out desperate and without confidence.
"He told me that after school," she uttered with a choked whimper, her eyes dipping to avoid my own. "We split off as soon as we made it to the train station after leaving school."
"But why, Sekai?" I asked with tired shoulders. This unexpected ordeal drained me of my last dregs of reserve energy. "Why did you lie to me?"
"I don't know," came her dispirited reply.
My rigid arms slackened off and I slumped back against the stiff bench with a sigh. I curled my head into my hands. What the hell did she mean she didn't know? Is she playing me for some kind of fool? I can't trust her to let me help her if the smallest thing she says may turn out to be a complete lie. For no apparent reason as well.
"You promised not to be angry."
"I-I know," I breathed. "I just- Don't you want me to help you with Makoto? You want to be with him, right?"
"I don't know," she repeated in a tinier voice.
"What about before, when I'd told you all those things about your feelings for him, you said I was right. You admitted that what I said was the truth," I affirmed with contained frustration. Stressed fingers sifted through my hair as I clenched my eyes. "How can you not know?"
"I don't- I can't tell how I feel anymore," she half cried. "My- I can't stop thinking..."
"What? You can't stop thinking about what?" I jabbed with a sudden fierceness as my frustration leaked out in bursts. Sekai visibly flinched and I slid back in my seat, surprised at the elevation of my own voice. My patience had worn away without my notice, hidden from my weary eyes.
"Sorry," I exhaled quietly. "I didn't mean to yell like that, my lack of sleep is catching up with me. I'm not usually one for random outbursts."
The whites of the girl's eyes gradually shrank as calm concern bled into them. She now stared into my face and took a few steps closer. I gazed up at her subtle frown while I sat there with what I hoped to be an apologetic look. My reflexes sent a gasping bounce through my shoulders when her timid hand hovered close and lifted the glass frames from my face. She held them aside and the world whisked away into an indecipherable smear. I instinctively squinted against the blurry shapes.
"Your eyes," she spoke in hushed shock. "It's so dark around them. I can't believe I hadn't noticed before. Why haven't you been sleeping?"
"It's no big deal, really," I insisted as I reached out in a blind attempt at retrieving my eyesight. "Could you please give those back? I can't see a thing and we should be focusing on you. No pun intended."
"You really can't see?" Sekai piped with a hint of astonishment. I could spy her form inching nearer as if a closer inspection would aid in proving my disability. "How bad is your eyesight?"
"I can see barely over a few inches without aid," I groaned, growing uncomfortable with the realization that her minimizing proximity actually allowed her hazy figure to come into focus by the slightest degree. A faint, feminine aroma of diluted roses and delicate sweetness ensnared and disrupted my senses. My brow sprouted with a bud of sweat. I continued to wave my hand about as if feeling for a light switch in a pitch black room.
"Now come on, what's distracting you from Makoto?"
Sekai stood in still silence. I could hear only the distant chirping of the local pigeons and the nearing steps of the girl before me. My eyes drooped with fatigue as I waited for her to respond in some manner, but my heart still beat the drum of a nervous squirrel. Without my glasses, I was vulnerable to anything. Especially knives.
"Sek-"
My brain failed to keep track of the explosion of lightning fast events. A sharp rustle of clothing caught my ear just before my voice was forcibly cut off. Something strong but dainty tentacled into my outstretched hand and before I could pull it away, a great weight bowled into me and almost pasted my back along the bench. My phone clattered to the ground. I grunted as I tried to wiggle out from the sitting weight pushing down on my waist, but in my current condition it was no use.
"W-what are you doing, Sekai?" I gasped up at the shadow that pinned me down. Clenched in my previously empty hand was yet another hand, soft and warm, pressing my own against the bench.
"I'm going to show you what's been distracting me..."
Her hot perfume intensified and I could feel the moisture from her airy pants condense on my skin. By the time my stretched eyes could see her face, I knew it was too late. I pulled my head back as far as my neck would allow. A final blast of smoldering air dusted my lips before her own pressed down upon them. Gentle at first, then with a grinding that worked to blend our mouths into one. She made oxygen a luxury. Her grasp on my hand tightened while her free hand tangled itself in my scalp, almost painfully. An objecting moan escaped my mouth into hers, sounding more indecent than I intended.
No. No. This is wrong. This can't be happening... Fight it. Fight it!
I mustered every ounce of will power within to repel the clouds that threatened to overtake my thoughts. With a last effort, I lifted my unhindered hand up to push against her, but it just ended up looking like an intimate embrace. She felt hot to the touch and she saw my attempt as an invitation to nuzzle her body closer. My eyelids began to drift down, my traitorous body having decided that this wasn't so bad.
And seconds later, it was over. The kiss broke off with a suction sound when Sekai jerked her head back to look down at me, her forehead leaning against mine. Sweet, life-giving air froze my drizzled lips with each sharp breath. I imagined I looked as disheveled as she did: hair tossed about, chest heaving, cheeks as rosy as boiled lobsters, and uncertain eyes still recovering from a surge of primal passion. My face probably carried a more apparent look of horrified shock. Her hand brushed against my cheek like a nurturing breeze as she replaced my glasses.
"Why...?" I croaked, still paralyzed beneath her. I could spout nothing witty.
"I... I-"
The chiming metronome of the school bell vibrated around the roof, and I suddenly remembered where we were. Sekai shot off of me like my body had burned her, an entirely plausible scenario given how profusely I was sweating. Her lifted weight allowed a refreshing gust to lick my face. With more effort than should be necessary, I cranked into a sitting position, dazed, confused, and terrified.
"C-come on," Sekai said calmly as she picked up her lunch containers. "We're going to be late."
She traipsed off to the door without a backward glance. My mouth continued to hang open after her, gaping until her hand reached for the door knob. Her back looked miles away and when I looked down it felt like I sat atop a looming skyscraper. I lurched my popping knees into a stand and quickly regretted getting up. The edges of my vision blinked and bloomed into circles of night, expanding until they became walls of darkness in my peripheral. The slipping strength in my limbs grew in direct proportion to my darkening vision.
"Rupert? Rupert!"
Sekai's voice reached me before my eyes registered her turning around, as though her voice rippled from the future. I responded to the call by buckling at my knees. The fading echoes of a high-pitched shriek slapped my faltering ears before a screen of graveled flooring tumbled into view and cemented the darkness.
AN: Woo! Hawt make outs! Sorry this isn't as long as the last couple, I felt a good deal of conflict over this chapter. I hope it isn't too graphic, or if that's what you're after, I hope it isn't too cheesy.