Nagisa was watching Nanami again. He had been doing it almost on a daily basis lately. He started feeling more and more sorry for the girl. She hardly ever saw her parents, in fact Nagisa still had yet to meet her father in person. He had only seen the man on a picture in the living room which appeared to have been taken years ago.
"Is something bothering you, Nagisa-san?" Nanami asked again on Tuesday night.
"No," Nagisa answered. "I'm fine, I'm just thinking," he said.
"Thinking about what?" Nanami asked.
"How Haru-chan made a strawberry cake," Nagisa said in hopes that the girl would take the bait.
"No you're not," Nanami determined. "Did you hear what I say just now?" She sure was attentive. She hadn't taken the bait this time.
"Eh…" Nagisa trailed off. He was caught in the act of lying, and that by a girl who was way younger than him. He didn't even know how to answer other than be honest. He decided not to answer.
"I asked when mom would be back," she said.
Nagisa shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "She said it would be late again. Some case has had to be reopened," he explained further.
Nanami nodded. "What were you thinking about?" she then asked.
"Just a project at school," Nagisa answered. It really was easier to be honest it seemed.
"What's it about?" Nanami asked.
Nagisa hesitated to answer, not sure if he wanted to say it or not. It shouldn't hurt, but he knew it would lead to more questions that he didn't want to answer. He was saved as his phone started ringing and he got it out of his pocket to see who was calling him.
"I'm sorry Nana-chan," he said. "I have to answer this. It's a classmate about that project," he said.
Nanami nodded and went to do something else while Nagisa went down the hallway with the bedrooms. He hit the green bottom and put the phone to his ear.
"Nagisa, I'm done," Gou said as soon as he picked up.
"That's super-fast, Gou-chan," Nagisa exclaimed. "How'd you do it?" he asked.
Gou laughed. "I've just researching skills within my genetics," Nagisa wondered from which side of the family this came from. He had never seen said skills in Rin and Haruka. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.
"When are we leaving?" Nagisa asked.
"Tomorrow morning," Gou said. "I am not telling mom, are you telling Makoto-san?" she asked.
"No, Mako-chan would just worry too much and try to stop me," he said.
"Okay… so it's going to be a secret trip," Gou sounded a bit worried but Nagisa only felt excited when it was put like that. It sounded thrilling.
"What time are we leaving?" Nagisa asked.
"Whenever we catch a train. We leave when it's time for school and pretend to go there, we meet up by the entrance of Tokyo central station," she said.
"Okay," Nagisa said. "See you tomorrow, Gou-chan," he said.
"Yeah, bye Nagisa," Gou said. Then the both of them hung up and Nagisa headed back to Nanami. The rest of the night he did everything he could to keep the conversation far away from himself and talk about Nanami instead, or led it on Haruka. Nanami was so fond of him.
The following morning Nagisa did his best to act like he always did. He smiled and really did pretend everything was good. He had breakfast with Makoto and Kisumi and felt a bit lonely at that. Tonight he won't be here and they didn't know of that.
He grabbed his school bag. He had taken out all his books and hidden them under his bed. Then he had filled it with stuff he would need, a photo of himself as younger taken from one of the photo albums Makoto kept, a fresh change of clothes and extra underwear (Rei would approve of that), his swimsuit (just in case), his lunch and his pay for the last weeks babysitting of Nanami.
He then left the house, pretending that he was going to school and then he headed for the station instead. He spend about 10 minutes in the train and then arrived at the central station and headed for the entrance. He was practically running in case Gou was waiting. She was very strict about keeping a lady waiting. She had told Chigusa that her boyfriend wasn't worth it after he had shown up 5 minutes late for a date and she had been five minutes early.
Thankfully she wasn't there yet and Nagisa stood and waited for about another 7 minutes until she showed up.
"You're fast," she said.
"Nah, you're just slow, Gou-chan," Nagisa argued with a bright smile on his face. "Do you know how much it costs from here to Iwatobi?" he asked.
"It's about 4500 yen from Tokyo to Tottori-shi," Gou said. (Tottori City)
"For one or both of us?" Nagisa asked.
"One of us, we need to pay 9000 to get there both and extra for the smaller train to Iwatobi," she said.
Nagisa nodded and he and Gou went to buy the tickets. Since they didn't have credit cards they had to use cash. It would make it harder for people to track them.
After buying the ticket they had to run for the train. They had noticed it was already there and it won't be long before it left. They ran and pushed past the mass of people walking the other way. They just barely made it. The door closed right after Gou had jumped into the train and it departed from the station.
"We made it," Gou said. She was leaned against the wall, her face was hot from the run and she was out of breath, so was Nagisa. He smiled at her.
"We did," he smiled too. "Let's go sit,"
Gou nodded and Nagisa took the lead to find a couple of seats for them and they sat together. Both were still smiling as their eyes met. They couldn't believe they had just left home for the sake of a school project. They wondered what their parents would say.
"Now no regrets okay?" Gou asked as she opened her bag and picked up two cans of soda. She handed one to Nagisa who accepted.
"No regrets," he said and they opened the cans and hit them together. They then started drinking as excitement spread through their bodies and they felt more and more confident the closer they got to Tottori-shi.
I'm writing a huge assignment at the moment. We have to fill up 6 to 8 pages and that is without the front page, the literature list, the notes or anything else that applies to the layout or information on sources. I tell you, my head is exploding! I've been working on it all day. And I can still only manage to fill up four and half a page. (with the notes).
I just seriously need a break from all this writing!
Well, I hope I'll live through this. If I do, see you next time
Jackie