Chapter 2:

Another day of our class has ended. It's time for my Go Home Club.

I stretched out my arms to relax my stiffening body from the whole day, nose-bleeding pure Japanese subjects. I was not yet really used to formal Japanese. I can only converse just enough to survive. It was only during my English class that I can relax my brain cells.

As I stretch out my arms further, my fist suddenly bumped into something so hard.

"Ouch! What the hell is tha—" I said and looked up straight. It was Dorothy, ah, sorry, Taiga, I mean.

"Shouldn't I be the one saying 'ouch' here?", he said.

"Awww… gomen ne, Dorothy-san."

He just glared at me and went out of the room.

"Bleh!", I told him against his back.

Kuroko suddenly spoke to me, who was only sitting at my back. "You sure are brave enough to tease him."

"Huh? For someone who had experienced being glared at by Akashi-san, Taiga's glares are simply nothing."

"Ah, I couldn't disagree. His glares can even pierce through your soul."

I laughed at him and said, "Deshou…? He's really scary! The first time I saw him was when—"

I suddenly stopped and saw Kuroko staring at me. As if he was eagerly waiting for something.

"Ah! I forgot to do something." I suddenly said and stood up to bid him goodbye. "Mata ashita, Kuro-chan!" As I was about to leave, I made a follow-up question to Kuroko. "By the way, you, guys, have practice tomorrow, right?"

"Hai."

"I'll drop by, okay?" I finally left and gave him a big smile.

I dropped by at a convenient store to buy myself some ice cream. I bought five watermelon-flavored ice cream bars. It was my favorite flavor since it was sweet and refreshingly cold. As I went to the cashier, I saw someone familiar again.

"Ara… We meet again, Taiga. Would you mind if I speak English with you when it's just the two of us? My brain's gonna wreck right now if I still continue speaking Japanese.", I told the guy in front of the cashier.

"Whatever. I don't mind.", he replied.

"So what did you buy?" I asked him and saw three bags, almost overflowing, of assorted foods with him, so I unconsciously muttered the word, "Sugoi….."

"I thought you wanted to speak in English?"

"Ah, the word "sugoi" has been my expression already, even when I was still in my home country. Hehe"

Well, he just stared for a while and began to walk outside the store.

"Oi, chotto matte-yo!"

I gave my ice cream to the cashier and immediately paid the bill. The cashier guy seemed to be at awe with me. "Ah, doushitta?"

"Ah, I thought you were foreigners.", he said,

"Yup, I'm a foreigner but the guy before me was not. He may not look like it but he is pure Japanese. Anyway, see you around."

I gave the cashier guy a smile and immediately left to go after Taiga.

Now, where in the world is that guy? Ah, found ya! :p

I found Taiga who was about to cross street so I had to ran towards him in order to reach the green light for walking pedestrians. Taiga suddenly noticed me and walked faster.

"Oi, Taiga!"

Without looking back, Taiga walked faster.

This guy… he's doing it in purpose! Because of Taiga's long legs, his strides are almost double than mine so I had to run if I want to catch up with his brisk walking.

"Oi, cho—"

Then I heard a sound of ripping plastic bag and different items rolling everywhere. It turned out that two of his grocery bags just ripped.

"Gaaaah!" It was Taiga.

He didn't know what to do. He looked back and forth to me and to the things on the ground. He looked really in panic.

"Pfft.." I tried to stop my giggling but it all bursted out.

"Oi! Don't just laugh there. Help me with these things!", Taiga ordered me.

I still couldn't stop laughing but I said, "Hai, hai~"

We picked up each of his stuffs lying on the ground. Some people also helped us pick few things which rolled a little far from our area.

As we thought that we were able to pick up all the items, we rested in a corner covered by a tree. Taiga's stuffs are placed on the floor.

"So, how will you bring them home with you?", I asked.

"I'll just put them in my bag"

As he opened his bag, I looked inside. It was a sports bag. While it was true that it was big, the problem was, there was no enough space anymore. it was already full of his clothes for basketball practice and rubber shoes. Take note, his rubber shoes were as big as Titanic. It occupied half of his bag. We tried to remove his rubber shoes and placed some of the grocery items inside but only half of the items was able to fit.

We just stared at it and scratched our heads.

"Taiga, why did you buy this lots of stuffs?", I said.

"I can't help it!"

"Glutton."

"Tch!", Taiga just clicked his tongue because he couldn't disagree with me.

"Fine. Where do you live?"

Taiga gave me a blank stare and placed his two hands across his chest, as if covering his breast.

I stared back at him, expressionlessly, and said, "No, I won't rape you. Happy now?".

He put down his hands and said, "Okay".

Taiga and I walked together. I placed a few of his items inside my school bag and carried the others with my hand, while the small plastic bag of my ice cream bars are hanged around my right wrist. On the other hand, Taiga was carrying his sports bag on his right shoulder, his rubber shoes were tied on his bag's handle, and he was embracing an overflowing plastic bag. I told him to him hold it like to make sure that the last bag doesn't snap like the others because that will be too troublesome to the max.

Finally, we reached his home. One thing I can describe about his place, it was so comfy. He had a very spacious living room and the kitchen and dining was separate.

"Wow… your place is good. Do you live alone here?"

"Yep. My Dad and Mom are out of the country right now due to their works."

"Awesome. Anyway, everything's okay now?"

"Yup. Thanks."

"So what's your lesson today?"

"Haaa?"

"You can run, but you can never hide. HAHAHAHAHAHA", I told Taiga.

"Because you were like stalking me, you know?!"

"Nani?! I just happened to be in that convenience store but I didn't know you were there too!"

"But you kept following me afterwards!"

I stopped and calmed down my mood. "Hmm… well, that's right. But still, I am not a stalker. Bleh!"

"Tch!"

"Anyway, I better go now", I told Taiga.

"Okay."

"Jya. Mata ashita~" I waved at him and walked towards the exit.

Kagami saw a small plastic bag on his table and checked what was inside it. He found out that it was my watermelon ice cream bars.

"Great. She forgot these. Now I have to bring this to her." And he sighed.