Chapter 8

Today's Monday. Two days ago, I went to Hiromi and Ryouta's house so Hiromi-chan could help me prepare for my performance in the culture fest, which is tomorrow. I am SO nervous...

After 5th period ended, I made my way over to 6th period P.E. While I was walking out of the classroom, I saw Hiromi in the hallway. I ran over to her and called her.

"Romi-chan!" I yelled, using my new nickname for her.

"Ayu-chan!" she called back. I walked over to her, and we began walking together.

"What do you have next?" I asked her.

"Science." she answered. Then she looked at me and smiled. "So are you excited for tomorrow?"

"Nope. I'm really nervous."

"I'm excited for you. I know you'll do great! You've been practicing right?"

"Yup. Like you wouldn't believe" I responded. We walked a little further without saying anything, until she asked "Hey, you're leaving for Tokyo on Wednesday, aren't you?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."

"I'm really gonna miss you." she said quietly, almost to herself. Even though we've only known each other for a little more than 3 days, we've become really close friends.

"I'm gonna miss you too."

After a long pause, she turned to me and pointed to a separate hallway to the left. "I have to turn here. See you at lunch!" she smiled and waved, then walked away. I kept walking towards the locker room, with butterflies in my stomach. I'm gonna run into Sakura...

I entered the girls' locker room, trying to stay hidden. My plan failed. Sakura saw me. She was surrounded by a few of her friends, who all rolled their eyes at me. Then Sakura turned to them and whispered something. I tried eavesdropping, but I could only make out the words "...airheaded bitch...stop me from..Ryouta...of her freakin' mind...". She caught me eavesdropping and said "You better not be doing what I think you're doing, moron. I swear, you're gonna get what's coming to you." Then she went outside.

The rest of the day I managed to avoid Sakura. I stayed after school a little bit to get some homework done before going home. By the time I finished, it was already a little past 5:00, and the sun had started to go down. As I was leaving the mostly empty school, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I yelped, only to find out that it was Ryouta.

"Oh. Sorry I scared you" he said with an embarrassed laugh. "Can I walk you home? It's dangerous for a girl to be walking alone at night."


I couldn't help but turn red. I nodded.

We started walking, an awkward silence between us. It was beautiful outside, and it felt a little embarrassing to be walking with the guy I have feelings for in a sort of romantic setting. Then I said something without thinking: "So, how'd it go with Sakura on Saturday?"

He looked at me and said "Why do you wanna know?" I don't know if he thought I was snooping around, but I tensed up.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean it that way." he reassured me. "It went okay. We went to a movie together, I took her home, we had a good time!" he said. My stomach had this strange feeling in it, almost like nausea. I just nodded, hoping that was the end of that story.

As we reached the front driveway of my house, we stopped and I turned to Ryouta to thank him.

"This is my house. Thanks for walking me home." I said, still blushing. Then he put the back of his hand up to my forehead and left it there. I got lightheaded.

"Uh..." I said.

"Nothing. It's just that you're face has been red the entire way here. I thought you had a fever or something." he said. Then he smiled at me. "No problem, by the way. Anytime." he said, referring to him walking me home. Then he waved to me and started walking away.

"See you tomorrow, Kasuga-san! Can't wait to hear you sing!" he said as he walked away.

As I walked up to the front door of my house, in that period of about 10 seconds, I decided that I'm in love with Ryouta.