Chapter 17
The incident between Arimi and Ginta the other day was momentarily forgotten as Yuu finished packing his luggage. Today was the day Yuu and Miki would depart from the airport for a school trip to Hokkaido.
This was his first trip with Miki and the thought of it sent a shiver of excitement through Yuu's body. In all the years of school trips that Yuu went, this was the only one that he honestly looked forward to.
Yuu grinned to himself and grabbed his luggage. When he reached the kitchen downstairs, he saw Miki, sitting among their parents having breakfast. As usual, she finished her toast as if it were her last meal. The sight of her eating, made Yuu smile.
"Are we ready to go yet?" Yuu announced his presence.
"Wait...," Miki reached out for a cup of milk, which she then proceeded to drink rather hurriedly. For a moment there, Yuu feared she was going to choke but Miki swallowed finally and gasped out loud.
"How nice. A trip to Hokkaido!" Yuu's father sighed out loud.
"I heard that the food is great there,"Miki's father commented.
"Oh! Be sure to buy some soft shell crab while you're there!" Miki's mom joined in. "And oh, buy something from that famous store, Rokkatei, will you?"
"And ramen! Don't forget ramen!" his mother squealed.
Looking decidedly bored, Yuu decided to move on ahead before anymore demands were thrust upon him, "Miki, I'm going now."
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Miki hastily wiped her mouth of any stray crumbs and grabbed her own luggage to join Yuu.
Soon, they were at the airport with the rest of their classmates. Miki found Meiko and they began chatting excitedly about their plans for Hokkaido.
Yuu was leaning against the pillar not far away and was trying his best to have a conversation with one of his classmates. He was having trouble concentrating because Miki's excitement constantly drew him away to stare at her.
A few minutes ago, they were divided into groups and unfortunately, Miki was in another group. Worst of all, Ginta was in his group for the entire trip. But at least, Ginta was not together with Miki and that's a small consolation.
"Group B, Second Year! We're boarding now!" Namura sensei called out.
And with that, they were off to Hokkaido. On the plane, everybody was so excited they couldn't sit still. Miki especially, couldn't stop gazing out the window with Meiko. It must be her first flight or it could be just Miki's usual excitement for everything. Yuu smiled and wished they would reach Hokkaido soon.
Time moved on, the plane landed, and soon they've reached the hotel. Not a moment was wasted. As soon as they put their luggages in their rooms, everybody rushed to start their trip around Hokkaido.
Yuu wondered where Miki was. Outside the hotel, he saw groups of kids discussing about the places they would like to go. Miki's group was nowhere to be seen. Looks like they've gone on with their first destination. Yuu sighed.
"Hey, Yuu! We're about to go!" someone from Yuu's group waved at him.
"Alright, I'm coming!" Yuu jogged over. "Where are we heading to first?" Yuu asked, at the same time adjusting his back pack.
"Well, we heard some of the groups are heading to the Hijikata Toshizan tower in Goryoukaku. So, we figured we should go there too. What do you think?" Ginta asked.
"Sounds good," Yuu nodded. Maybe, Miki's group went there too.
After half an hour bus ride, Yuu's group finally reached the tower. Sure enough, some of the groups from their school were here. The landscape around the tower was magnificent. Looking at the tower before him, Yuu couldn't help but admire the architecture of the building. One day, when he's an architect, he would be able to build buildings such as this.
A girl walked across in front of him, looking rather distressed. Yuu blinked, not believing his eyes. It was Miki! She wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings as she walked. She had her face stuck in the map she was holding, thus she didn't see him standing there watching her. With a grin, Yuu decided to follow her. His group wasn't far off. They had planned to meet up after a while, so he was free to follow her for now.
After a while, Miki stopped walking and a panic sound came out from her. Curious to find out what was the matter, Yuu walked up behind Miki and tapped her on the shoulder.
Miki jumped, and turned around quickly. A look of relief flashed across her face when she realized who it was. "Oh, Yuu! Have you seen my group anywhere? We were at the tower just now and now I seemed to have lost them!"
"No."
"That's strange...," Miki began to mutter to herself.
"Are you lost?" Yuu asked. "Why don't you join my group? Since you can't find your group, you might as well join us. If you want to wander around on your own, it can get pretty boring," Yuu tried to hide the hope from his voice. Until now, Yuu had been bored and now that he had found Miki, he was hoping for her company.
Miki was about to agree when she saw someone making his way over to them. Yuu turned to look and saw Ginta. Ginta looked surprised to see Miki but Miki looked as if she wanted to runaway and hide.
"Er...I think I'll go find the others instead," Miki replied, looking rather uncomfortable.
Ginta protested, but before he could utter anything suddenly a girl came out of nowhere and clung to Ginta's arm, "Suou-kun!"
All three of them turned to stare at the girl that just appeared. "Arimi! What are you doing here?" Ginta asked, looking shocked.
Yuu wondered about the same thing.
"Isn't it wonderful? My school is on a trip too! And to have met in Hokkaido like this? It must be fate!" Arimi clutched Ginta's arm even tighter.
Ginta was beginning to look flustered, Yuu could tell. Yuu glanced at Miki and sure enough, Miki was looking rather annoyed by Arimi's intimacy. Suddenly, a look of determination appeared on her face.
"Yuu, we're probably in the way, let's go somewhere else," and with that Miki grabbed Yuu's hand and pulled him away from them.
Yuu understood what Miki was going through and probably should object to being used this way, but it was fine with him. As long as he got to spend some time with her.
"Wait! I'm coming with you," Ginta called out but Arimi pulled him back. She started a fresh series of cooing on him.
Miki looked decidedly furious, "Arimi, why don't you like Ginta alone!"
But Arimi merely smirked back at her.
"I see you still have a thing for Ginta, Miki," Arimi remarked.
Yuu sighed inwardly. Miki was playing right into Arimi's plans. Things could get ugly. But wait! A sudden thought occured to Yuu. If Arimi was here, then somebody else wasn't too far away...
"Let go of Arimi, Ginta!"
Speak of the devil...Yuu groaned. Yuu turned and nearly choked with laughter at the sight of Rokutanda with the nearly bald hairstyle.
"Way to go, Rokutanda!" Yuu couldn't contain it any longer and promptly burst into laughter.
He wasn't the only one laughing though. Ginta soon joined in,"The hairstyle really suits you, cousin!"
"Well, the girls really like me this way," Roku pats down his hair. "But don't think this is over yet! We're going to have a rematch!"
Yuu laughs nervously at the thought of a repeat and the stakes involved,"I don't think so, Roku."
While they weren't looking, Arimi pulled Ginta away with her. Minutes passed before Roku noticed their absence. Soon, he was running off to search of them.
Yuu looked down at Miki. She had a sad look on her face as she looked into the distance where Arimi and Ginta have gone to. Yuu wanted to touch her face to wipe the look from her. To see her smile again. But before he could give into his temptation, somebody called out to her.
"Miki!"
Not far away, Yuu and Miki could see Meiko and the rest of her group running towards them.
"Where have you been, Miki? We've been waiting for you at the tower for ages! When you never came down, we were so worried and went to look for you," a concerned Meiko asked Miki when she reached her side.
The moment had passed. Yuu worked up a smile. "Looks like you have found your group, Miki. I won't stick around. I'd best get back to my group as well. See you!" and with that Yuu ran off, not wanting to see whether Miki was looking at him or at the direction where Ginta went.