Chapter 15

The night of the festival continued. Aya and Tsuyoshi kissed deeply and passionately for hours. Eventually, the two fell asleep in each others' arms. Sana and Akito shared their first kiss under the stars for what seemed like forever. Later, Sana would repeatedly ask herself why she did it. Why she would suddenly kiss Akito,when they had barely spoken to each other that night,or when they had only met a few days ago.

For now,however,she thought about nothing. She stood with him,holding him close. When the kiss broke,no one said anything. Sana and Akito didn't need to say anything. They continued to dance for the rest of the night.

/

Akito opened his eyes. He was staring up at the ceiling. Through the window,he could see the cloudy sky. 'Was it a dream?' he asked himself. He sat himself up and leaned against the bed post. 'No,not a dream.' He told himself,as memories from the night before came back.

After their dance,well past 1:00 am,Akito walked Sana back to her house. As she walked inside,he was tempted to walk inside himself,and not come out until morning. But he resisted,bid her good night and walked himself back to the hotel.

Staring out the window,Akito thought to himself. 'What now?' He didn't know. He knew he should go see her. He didn't want to,but he felt like they needed to...talk.

The clock tower read 11:58. Not surprising that he slept late,when he came back at a quarter after 1. Akito got himself dressed,and went outside. The gray,cloudy sky from yesterday had gotten worse. It was going to rain,if not that day,then the next.

Akito walked down the street. After eating some breakfast,he walked to the town clinic to visit Tsuyoshi. As he walked in,he saw a doctor. Akito approached the doctor and asked him how much longer Tsuyoshi would have to stay. The doctor assured him that he could leave tomorrow. Thanking the doctor,Akito walked toward Tsuyoshi's room.

When he went to knock,the door opened and Aya was standing there. "Oh. Hello,Akito." she said.

"Hello." Akito greeted her. "How's Tsuyoshi?"

"He's fine. Come inside." Aya stepped aside to let Akito in the room. It looked the same as it always did. Tsuyoshi was sitting in bed,a smile on his face when he saw Akito.

"Hey,Akito." Tsuyoshi said. "It's been a while."

"Yeah." Akito said. "Sorry about that."

"No worries. I'm sure you've been busy. Aya told me about how you helped set up the festival."

"Yeah." Akito said. "Listen. I talked with a doctor. He said you'll be able to leave tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!" Aya and Tsuyoshi said. "That great." Aya said herself that time.

"Yeah." Tusyoshi said. "I've been needing to stretch out these legs."

"By the way," Akito said. "How did you to do last night? Being stuck here all night must have been a real pain."

"It w-wasn't that bad,Akito." Tsuyoshi said. "We managed to fine somethings to do."

"Yeah." Aya said. "Oh,Tsuyoshi. I'll be going now. I'll be back."

"Alright." Tsuyoshi said. "Take all the time you need."

"Thanks." Aya said. As she closed the door,Aya blew Tsuyoshi a kiss when Akito wasn't looking.

"Where is she going?" Aktio asked.

"Well,she's going to get some lunch. The nurses bring food to me. But Aya has to go get her food,y'know?"

"I see." Akito said.

"So how was the festival for you?" Tsuyoshi asked.

The memory of him and Sana flashed into Akito's mind for a brief second. Then he said "I didn't hate it."

"Well that's good. What did you do?" Tsuyoshi asked.

"Not much." Akito said. "Just walked around. Watched people enjoy themselves. The festival reminded me of when we first met."

"Really?" Tsuyoshi asked. "Yeah,I can see that. I was such a dork back then,huh?"

"Was?" Akito asked.

"Hey!" Tsuyoshi said. "That's not funny." Despite it not being funny,Tsuyoshi laughed.

As the two young men talked in the clinic, Aya was making her way down the street. She went into a restaurant,where after looking around,found a place to sit. As Aya waited,she noticed Sana walk in. Aya waved her over.

"Hey,Sana."

"Hey Aya." Sana said sitting down at Aya's table. "How are you today?"

"I'm fine."

"How's Tsuyoshi?"

"He's great." Aya said. "The doctor says Tsuyoshi can leave the clinic tomorrow."

"That's wonderful!" Sana said. "The doctor told you that?"

"No." Aya said. "The doctor told Akito."

"A-Akito?" Sana said.

"Yeah. He came by to visit Tsuyoshi. That was when the doctor told him. He should still be there."

"Oh. That was nice of him." Sana said.

"That reminds me." Aya said. "How was the festival last night?"

"Ikizzedakido!" Sana said super fast.

"W-what?' Aya asked. "I didn't understand that. Say it again."

Sana took a deep breath. "Akito picked me up and the two of us walked to the festival. The fireworks started and I danced in the crowd while Akito just walked around. After a while I was able to convince Akito to dance and so we started dancing. But the band started playing a slow song so Akito and I danced to the slow song. As we danced I asked him some questions just to get to know him better. And then,and then and then,"

"And then what,Sana?" Aya asked. "Slow down."

Sana took another deep breath. "I kissed Akito."

Aya's chin dropped at Sana's last three words. That was the last thing she expected to hear. "You kissed him?" Aya asked,shocked beyond belief. Sana nodded. "You kissed him?" Sana nodded again.

"You kissed him!"

"Aya stop saying that!" Sana said. Sana laid her down on the table.

"Sorry." Aya said.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"What happened after?" Aya asked.

"Nothing. We danced some more and then he walked me home."

"That's it?" Aya asked.

"That's it!" Sana said. "Now,I don't know what to do. What do I say when I see him again?"

"Maybe you two should talk about it." Aya suggested.

"Yeah,maybe." Sana agreed.

"You should go find Akito and talk to him." Aya said.

"Yeah. I'll do that. Thanks Aya." Sana said.

"No problem. Anytime."

As Sana got up to leave,Aya said "You kissed him!"

"AYA!"

/

After Akito and Tsuyoshi had finished talking,Akito left. Walking down the street,Akito looked up at the clock tower. 1:24. Lunch time. Akito chose a restaurant. When he finished eating,Akito decided to go see Sana. He needed to talk with her. As he walked,he thought about what he wanted to say. Then he decided to show Sana what he had found.

Akito reached Sana's house. Approaching the door,Akito knocked. When he got no answer,he knocked again. No answer. Akito knocked a third time. Deciding that she must not be home,Akito began to walk away,when he ran into Sana.

"A-Akito." Sana said.

No one said anything else. The tension began to build,and it started feeling awkward. The crow of a nearby bird broke the ice.

"What,um,what are you doing here?" Sana asked.

"I was looking for you." Akito answered.

"For me?" Sana repeated.

"Yeah. I wanted to show you something." Akito said.

"Show me something?"

"Yeah. Come with me,if you want." Akito said.

"A-alright." Sana agreed. She and Akito walked,with Akito leading the way. He led her outside of town. Sana had never been out his way before. Her curiosity began to perk up.

"Nearly there." Akito said. Sana heard running water,then she saw what they had come to see. A wide river,with clear,fast moving water. Green grass grew all around on both banks. Sana noticed incredibly tiny fish were swimming around.

"Wow." Sana whispered. "This is beautiful." Sana walked up to the river bank and knelt down. She put her hand in the rushing water. "It's cold."

Sana looked up at Akito. "I didn't know this was hear. When did you find it?"

"A couple days ago. I thought you'd like to see it. So,do you?"

"Yeah. I do. This is amazing."

"Glad you like it." Akito said, walking over to Sana. He sat down next to her. "So."

Sana looked at Akito. "So,what?"

"About what happened last night." Akito managed to say.

"Oh. That." Sana said.

"What?" Akito said. "You don't sound right."

"What do you mean?" Sana asked

"I mean,you sound like you don't want to talk about it." Akito said.

"Oh. Well,you know, I wanted to talk to you about it."

"Then go ahead." Akito offered.

"A-alright." Sana said. Thirty seconds of silence followed.

"You know you have to use your words. I can't hear your thoughts." Akito said.

"Uh,sorry." Sana said. "It's just,hard."

"How so?" Akito asked.

"I've never had to talk about this stuff before." Sana said. "I don't really know what to say. I've never felt like this before!"

"Felt like what?" Akito asked.

Sana was silent for a moment. "You know. You should be a therapist or something." Sana said. "You're getting me to say everything,while you're barely saying anything at all."

"You seemed to be doing alright to me." Akito said. "You know,what you're saying,sounds like the way romance authors describe 'love'."

"L-love?" Sana said.

"Yeah. Love."

"What are you trying to say?" Sana asked. "That I'm supposed to be 'in love'?"

"Maybe." Akito said. "But you know, I think I might be-"

The rest of Akito's sentence was cut off by a bright flash of light and a deafening boom. Then,the rain that had threatened the town yesterday, came crashing down on the couple,hard.