Reviews would be appreciated~
Sun And Sunflower
Yukimura x OC, Tokugawa x OC, Tanegashima x OC
Chapter Seven
"Ka...zuya..."
The light shining through the window from the rising sun, coupled with Haruko's annoying alarm clock, woke Koharu from her dreams. As she opened her eyes with a frown, Haruko was coming down from the upper bunk and stretched herself before looking to Koharu. "Oh, you're awake too," she muttered. Koharu sat up on her bed, letting out a groan as she did. Her muscles were aching from the run last night. She was so tired that she fell asleep straight after, having no recollection of how she got back to their room. "What did you and Haruka do last night? You guys were completely knocked out when I got back."
"We had to run laps..."
"Run laps?" Haruko asked, letting out a snicker. "What, you? Kobayashi Koharu running laps?"
"Shut up..."
Haruko chuckled and went over to the other bunk bed, waking up the youngest Kobayashi who fell back to sleep after the alarm clock was silenced. Koharu glared a little, using her fingers to brush out the kinks in her hair. She arched her back, stretching her arms at the same time, sitting on the edge of the bed. Now that she was slowly waking up, the dream she had last night was coming back to her. Koharu sighed, closing her eyes. It had been a while since she had that dream.
Both Koharu and Haruka were eventually dragged out of bed by Haruko, forced right into work. While Haruka tended to the middle school students, Koharu was put on duty as errand girl for the high school students. She envied Haruka, not because she was always given the easy task in the camp but because she was able to work around the guy she liked without feeling like someone was stabbing her in the heart over and over again every time she looked at him.
"Good morning, Koharu-chan."
A soft voice whispered into Koharu's ear, startling her. She dropped the crate of empty water bottles she was carrying and Koharu groaned as she watched the bottles rolling away in different directions. She glared as she whipped around though she instantly straightened herself, bowing politely when she saw that it was Irie. The older boy chuckled softly before moving to pick up the bottles.
Koharu's body responded as well, running after the ones that rolled far away. When all the bottles were returned to the crate, Irie insisted on carrying it for her. As an apology, was what he said. Then, they walked on silently...and awkwardly.
Irie was not a friend of Koharu's. The upperclassman had always been Haruka's friend. Koharu knew that they would meet at night occasionally, sharing cookies and having some deep meaningful conversations. Koharu, on the other hand, never said more than a 'hi' and a 'bye'. To say it was awkward between them right now was an understatement. Even if she wanted to start a conversation out of politeness, Koharu had no idea what to talk about.
"How are your legs?" Irie suddenly asked. "Twenty-five laps are not easy."
"My entire body feels dead," Koharu sighed. "I don't get it, how did Saito know? Everyone sneaks out all the time and no one has ever been caught."
"Well, there's a reason why," Irie smiled.
"Do you know the reason why, Irie-senpai?"
"Let's just say that a little birdie told Coach Saito."
Koharu stopped, narrowing her eyes on Irie. "Does that mean you know who the 'birdie' is?" Irie did not answer her but instead, kept walking. He arrived at a court, turning in and placed the crate on the ground before picking up two bottles; one for himself and the other for the player currently on the court. "Irie-senpai, this isn't where the bottles are suppo-"
At the sound of someone entering the court, Tokugawa looked up. Irie threw him a water bottle which he caught with his free hand though his attention was on the person entering after Irie. It was obvious that Koharu had no idea Tokugawa was on the court. She stopped short, looking perplexed before avoiding his eyes. She stormed over to the crate of water bottles, picking it up with one rough movement only to knock it over and empty the crate.
It was just her luck for this to happen.
"Come on now, birdie. Let's help the lady out."
"Birdie?"
Tokugawa was confused over Irie's choice of word. 'Kid', 'boy', or even 'brat' were what he was used to. 'Birdie' was definitely something new. But Koharu froze midway reaching out for a bottle the moment she heard Irie. She stood up and threw the bottle she had in one hand down in frustration. She stormed right up to Tokugawa and grabbed him by the jersey though he barely budged. And she was not tall enough to make herself look any more intimidating. It only confused Tokugawa further to see her act in such a way.
"You're the birdie?" she asked.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're the one who told Saito on us!"
A glare was sent Irie's way from Tokugawa. If not for the upperclassman, Koharu would never have known it was him. But Tokugawa was no coward. He was not afraid to admit it. "Yes, I was," Tokugawa said. "No one is allowed out of the camp. Not even the volunteers. Sneaking out was breaking the rules and rules breaker should be punished. You were only sneaking out for a date, weren't you?"
Irie let out a sigh from the sideline, shaking his head. He only created this chance for Tokugawa to tell Koharu how he really felt. To tell her that the only reason why he got them into trouble was because he did not like the idea of her going on a date with someone else. Then again, he could not say this was unexpected. This was Tokugawa, after all. A man of few words, a man of even fewer emotions. He was physically incapable of expressing his own feelings and it only made matters worse. Perhaps Irie should have trained him first before letting them meet?
"Why do you care?" Koharu hissed. "Who are you to care? It's not like you're my boyfriend!"
"But he is your ex-boyfriend."
In her anger, Koharu forgot temporarily that Irie was an upperclassman and glared his way. "Stay out of this," she warned. "And you," she frowned, pointing at Tokugawa. "It doesn't matter that you're my ex-boyfriend, you have no right to poke your nose into my business. No right! That's what the 'ex' means. It means you're past tense, you are no longer in my life and you no longer matter so stay out!"
Tokugawa was shocked, not because Koharu was yelling at him; it would not be the first time she did so. He was shocked because as she was yelling, tears kept falling down her cheeks. He reached up with his hand, wanting to wipe away her tears for her. Although Tokugawa was not really sure why, his heart hurt from seeing her cry and he wanted to make it stop. But as she saw his hand coming closer, Koharu slapped his hand away roughly.
She wiped her own tears with the back of her hand and with a deep breath, Koharu turned to leave and abandoned the crate of fallen water bottles. Irie sighed softly, shaking his head and started picking up the water bottles, putting them back into the crate nicely. "You're really an idiot, Kazuya," he sighed once more, straightening himself before looking up at the underclassman. "Why couldn't you just tell Koharu-chan how you really feel?"
"There's no need for that," Tokugawa stated. "I have practice to get back to."
"Koharu-nee!"
"Kobayashi Koharu!"
Since her encounter with Tokugawa in the morning, Koharu went missing. Haruko had been covering for her all morning but when it came to dinner time and Koharu was still missing, the eldest Kobayashi finally told the youngest and they went on a quest looking for the middle child. They checked their dorm room but Koharu was not underneath her covers and bawling her eyes out like she normally would be. The camp was too big, however, for them to know exactly where Koharu hid herself. She was always such a bright and cheerful girl, she was not really the type to have a hideaway.
Coming out from dinner, Irie just so happened to come across the two sisters shouting for Koharu. He did not approach them, however, simply going the other way with a smirk on his face. He went to pick up his saxophone and headed for the roof of the main building as he usually did but his routine was disrupted by an uninvited guest.
There, sitting on the ledge of the roof was the girl Haruko and Haruka were looking for. Irie approached her slowly, putting down his saxophone case as he sat down next to Koharu. Sensing someone coming up next to her, Koharu quickly wiped away the tears that kept coming back. Irie reached into his pocket and handed a packet of tissues to her with a soft smile. "Do you know how worried your sisters are?" he asked. "They've been looking for you all day long."
"Haruko-nee is probably looking for me so she could beat me up for making her cover my work," Koharu mumbled. "Haruka probably got dragged into it."
"You don't think they're actually worried about you?"
"I'd believe if Haruka was but not Haruko."
Irie pulled his phone out, giving Haruka a text to let her know that Koharu was with him and that she did not need to worry before looking back to the second Kobayashi sister.
"Do you want to hear a story?" Irie suddenly asked. It was obvious that Koharu was not interested in his story but out of respect and politeness, she nodded. "I've worked different part time jobs before," Irie started. "There's so many of them that I don't really remember where I've worked before exactly. But there's one place I will always remember. Because of a girl. To me, she was the most beautiful girl. She had the brightest smile. She would come into work, always in a good mood, and help others without a single complaint.
"But...she rejected me. I remember thinking, how could she? I stopped talking to her. But I was starting to see that it hurt her too. Just because she didn't return my feelings does not mean that we cannot be friends. That was what I was to her, a good friend. And I was being so childish and selfish that I was hurting her, I was the reason why she lost a friend. I got over it eventually and we stayed as friends. She's actually quite a good friend of mine."
"How can you still stay friends with her? Doesn't it hurt, knowing that she rejected you?"
"Think of it this way, I like her for her. Just because she doesn't like me romantically, doesn't mean that she's any less of a kind person. She's still the bright and cheerful girl I fell for. I'm not telling you to be friends with Kazuya again. Everyone deals with heartbreak differently, and every heartbreak is different from the other. But what I'm telling is, don't torture yourself. You may not be friends with him, but you could move on so you could live on without the pain."
"Is this what you do with Haruka?"
Irie chuckled before nodding. "Haruka-chan was the one who talked me through when the girl rejected me. She heard me playing the saxophone and came looking for me. Since then, we've been helping each other, giving advice here and there. You're more than welcomed to join us. We usually have cookies as well but I didn't know that I would have company tonight so I didn't bring any."
Koharu smiled softly, her tears finally stopped. She was starting to understand why Haruka was good friends with him. "It's alright. I don't think Haruka would like me intruding anyway," Koharu said. "Irie-senpai...are you still in love with that girl? Would you...confess to her again?"
"I don't want to do anything that would make things uncomfortable for her," Irie smiled. "I like our friendship now and I don't mind if we just remain friends. As long as she's happy, I'm happy."
"I wish I could be like you, Irie-senpai..."
"We're all our own person." Irie pulled his saxophone case over, unzipping the case and took the instrument out, getting up on his feet as he was fitting the mouthpiece on. "Since you're here, why don't you be my audience for the night?"
This time, Koharu nodded not out of respect or politeness but rather, from the bottom of her heart. Irie gave her a smile before holding up his saxophone and started playing. Koharu looked out at the scenery instead, listening to Irie play while thinking to herself. Irie was right. Why must she be torturing herself? Suffering everyday? She could not be like Irie, having his heart broken but still staying friends with the breaker herself. But Koharu could move on, let it go and let herself go.
Just like that, they spent a good hour in each other's company, mostly with Koharu listening to Irie play although they did talk about other things too. As it was getting later into the night, Irie packed up his saxophone and offered to walk Koharu back to her dorm. It was almost like a scene from a drama, when Irie and Koharu came out from the building on the ground floor only to run into Tokugawa.
The second year frowned at the pair, finding it odd that they were together. Despite not being the best boyfriend, Tokugawa still knew that Koharu was never friends with Irie. The upperclassman, however, took this as a chance. He placed a hand on Koharu's waist and tugged her closer to him. "Let's go, Koharu-chan," he smiled, leading the way as he glanced over his shoulder at Tokugawa, who (as expected) watched them leave until he could not see them anymore. "Here we are," Irie said, walking Koharu up to the entrance to her dorm.
"Kobayashi Koharu!"
"Looks like you're in trouble," Irie whispered. "I can't help you here, unfortunately. Kobayashi-san is too scary for me."
"Where the hell have ya been?!" Haruko grabbed Koharu by the collar, pulling her close before locking her head in her arm, using her knuckle to drill into her temple. Koharu screamed, struggling against her older sister but Haruko was not going easy on her at all. "Ya bastard! Do ya know how much work I have to do because of ya?! I'm goin' to beat ya up!"
"Haruko-nee!"
Irie watched the three sisters with a small chuckle, turning to leave, not wanting to be involved in their little drama. It was another five minutes after Irie left did Haruko finally let the younger girl go. "I'm just glad that you didn't do anything stupid," Haruko stated, straightening out her own clothes. "But you're gonna pay for this by covering my work tomorrow. I'm going to sleep in."
"What?! Hell no!"
"You want another beating?"