A/N: Oh. My Goodness. OMG. OMFG, WTF, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?
AN UPDATE? O_Olll
(Hey guys, it's me again. Don't shoot.)
LONG chapter!The treat's on me, okay? XD I have been away for a long time, so, meh.
The title of this fanfic was sort of inspired by SHINee's "Hello." Each time I am reminded of this fanfic, I remember that song, and vice versa.
Listening to it as I type. :D
6. The Annual Sports Day Part II
Ishida Takeru was aware of the people (mainly high school girls) staring at him and his brother on that morning, but he did his best to ignore them. For some odd reason, he was rather famous with the aunties here. The thought almost made him grin – he was ready to bet that not one single aunty would approach him five years ago, back when he was this unsmiling, troubled teen. Touching his toes one last time, he stretched his hands into the air before jogging on the spot. The warm-up session was over, but it just felt right to do his pre-basketball match ritual warm-up.
"Someone's psyched," Yamato said, placing a hand on Takeru's shoulder.
"Yeah – and someone's being all friendly out of the sudden," Takeru commented, nodding at Yagami Taichi who was standing a few feet away from them. Yamato had just gone over to the young man with that gravity-defying hairstyle to have a chat – from the looks of it, the two of them had formed a kind of friendship. He found it rather odd for Yagami Taichi for not punching Yamato on the face for what had happened to Hikari. "What d'you talk about?"
"Eh, the usual stuff," Yamato replied nonchalantly.
"Like what?"
His brother gave him a weird look and said, "Look, just because you won't talk to his sister, doesn't mean I can't talk to Taichi, okay?"
Takeru quickly ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't say anything like that," he mumbled.
"Calm down, lover boy," said Yamato, grinning at Takeru's pink face, "I just asked him about this Sports Day and how it usually works. Well – the Matsudas are the all-time champions: any family that has the Matsudas on their team will definitely win – they've been getting the first place for almost six years in a row! But this year, Taichi said other families might have a chance, since the eldest Matsuda son has moved away to attend college..."
Takeru let Yamato blabber on about the Sports Day and the odds of winning the event while he slowly shifted his gaze over to Hikari, who was standing at the other side of the field with her friends. Willis was handing her a small towel to wipe off the sweat on her forehead...
With that American guy around, Takeru knew that he would have a difficult time observing Hikari – just before the warm-up session began, for instance: he was silently observing how beautiful Hikari looked in the morning when he had accidentally caught Willis' eyes. His glare seemed to be saying, "Back off, Ishida – one wrong move and I'll snap you backbone into two!"
She was now joking with her purple-haired friend, and Takeru couldn't help but smile a small smile when he saw her laughing. Her shoulder-length hair was tied up neatly, and she still liked to wear hairclips, just like back then. She was wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of dark blue pants – and, to be honest, Takeru thought she looked absolutely lovely...her legs looked especially amazing...
Oh, you did NOT just go there, Takeru.
Rubbing his nose violently, Takeru turned away, kicked a pebble on the grass, and, without saying a word to his (still blabbering) brother, he started to march away towards his parents.
"...and then at night, at the bar, there's gonna be this annual – Teeks? Hey, you listenin' man?"
It would definitely be difficult for Takeru to pay attention to the games if Hikari kept visiting his mind like this!
—X—
"Ladies aaaaaaaaaaaaand gentlemen! The Annual Tug-of-War is about to begin! Yes! What better way to warm things up than this little test of strength? Thaaat's right! Let me hear your battle cries now, folks, because the game is about – to – BEGIN!"
The morning sky echoed with different kinds of battle cries as the six teams got ready for the first game: tug-of war. The twenty-four-or-so families in Kurokuro had been randomly (yet equally) divided into six groups that would be going against each other throughout the Sports Day. Takeru had pretty much held his breath when Mr. Yamada began to announce the teams – "Fujitaka! Ishida! Seimaru! Inoue! Teeeaaam THREE!" – and he only managed to breathe normally when it was announced that the Yagamis would be in Team Five. Willis had joined the Hokamas, and was in Team Six.
The teams were divided into three pairs, and each pair would go against each other. The final two teams would proceed to the Ultimate Showdown, and whichever team won would score the first ten points of the day.
"Would the team leaders please proceed to the Box of Destiny?" Mr. Yamada's eldest son (who was pretty much the official announcer of the day) said in a grave voice, holding an ordinary box in his hands. "Now – this box contains the team numbers. You will be choosing your opponents now!"
"Woohoo, go dad!" Miyako Inoue, Hikari's purple-haired friend, cheered as Mr. Inoue placed his hand into the Box of Destiny. "I hope he picks a good team for us to go against!" she then said to Takeru.
"Yeah," he simply agreed.
"So, what d'you think of Kurokuro so far, Takeru-kun?" Miyako asked, smiling.
"Well, it's okay," he said, "and it's a lot closer to my college, so..."
"Oh! What's the name of your college?"
Takeru spent the next few minutes talking to Miyako about his college and what he was hoping to be in the future. The bespectacled girl was really easy to befriend (and she was a tad bit too energetic at times), and she had a lot to gossip about. Not long after that, Miyako brought up the name of Yamato's band.
"So, uh, is it true that you brother's the Matt from The Teenage Wolves?"
Takeru simply nodded. "But he'd appreciate it if people here don't make a fuss out of it."
"Oh! Right!" said Miyako, saluting and winking at him. Just then, Yamato passed by with Hiroki-kun, and she simply sighed in a dreamy way. But after a while, she changed the subject: "So, uh, that's Hiroki-kun, eh?"
"Yeah, that's him," Takeru said, smiling. "I guess the whole village knows what he did to Aoi-chan, huh?"
"Well, it's a small village," Miyako said. "But don't worry! Aoi-chan's a great kid – she's very friendly, like her sister, Hikari-chan. You've met her, right? At the kindergarten?"
"Uh...yeah, yeah I have—"
"There she is! Oh, she's on Team Five, eh?" Miyako then started to wave, and this caught Hikari's attention almost at once, and she waved back. After a while, she noticed Takeru standing next to her friend, and he smile sort of stiffen a little, but she politely bowed in his direction, so he bowed back. "See? They've forgiven Hiroki-kun, so you have nothing to worry about!" said Miyako.
"Yeah, I'm grateful for that," Takeru managed to say.
"Look, we're going against Team One!" Mr. Inoue announced, waving a piece of paper with number one on it.
"Oh, good job, dad," Miyako moaned, "the Matsudas are in that team!"
"Nah, don't worry," said Mr. Fujitaka, "we have the Ishidas in our team! These boys look tough – who knows, we might just win!"
While the rest of the team began to listen as Takeru's mother began to talk about him being in the college's basketball team, the blonde silently watched as Hikari's father pulled out a piece of paper with number four on it. He watched as Hikari cheered with her little sister, Aoi-chan, and began to feel himself going red. Just as he was going to look away, he caught Hikari's eyes. The smile on her face quickly faded – and that was enough to remind Takeru that it would be years before they could talk to each other like acquaintances.
All he could do now was to stare at her silently from across the field...
"Takeru-kun?"
He turned around upon feeling a small hand on his shoulder – and was quite surprised to see a young girl (probably around fourteen or fifteen years of age) standing next to him.
"Uh. Uh, yeah?"
The girl giggled. "C'mon, they're discussing strategies for the tug-of-war game."
"What strategies are there anyway? Just tug on the rope..." Takeru mumbled, and the girl giggled again, which pretty much made him frown a little.
"Oh, I'm sorry – I'm Fujitaka Chiharu. Nice to meet you!"
"Right, right...I'm, well, Ishida Takeru. Nice to meet you too."
When they turned around to join the rest of the team, Takeru noticed several other schoolgirls looking at him and giggling whenever he accidentally caught their eyes.
"Oh great," thought Takeru.
—X—
"One – two – tug!"
Takeru joined his team members as they chanted, "Tug!"
It had been one heck of a game, but they had defeated Team One, and had moved on to fight against Team Two since they had finished the battle against Team Six first. It took a while, but Team Four managed to defeat Team Five just as Team Three began to go against Team Two.
The rope was slowly, but surely, moving to the left – in Team Three's direction – and that just increased the determination of the team members. Miyako had been chanting her own military-like cheer for the past three minutes ("Team Three's gonna win this game, sing it if you feel the same!"), and then the rest of the team just joined in.
"Come on, oniichan! Pull! Pull!" Hiroki-kun cheered with the rest of the kids who were too short to join in.
"Team Three is really giving their all right now!" said the announcer. "If they win, they will go against Team Four, which consists of the Okawas, the Itos, my family, the Yamadas, and the Watanabes!"
"Team Three's gonna win this game!" chanted Mr. Inoue.
"Sing it if you feel the same!" the rest of the team joined in.
"Team Three!" Mr. Ishida chanted.
"Team Three!"
"LET'S WIN THIS THING!" Miyako exploded from the very back of the line, tugging at the rope.
"WIIIINN!"
It was as if the rest of the team had given their all: the tug was a mighty one, and caught Team Two off guard. Mr. Kobayashi, the leader of Team Two, began to stumble forwards and the rest of Team Two seemed to simply lose their grip on the rope. This, of course, affected Team Three as well: the team members began to stumble backwards, collapsing into each other, while the spectators cheered for their victory.
"Oh – whoa, steady there!" Takeru said as Fujitaka Chiharu, who was in front of him throughout the game, stumbled backwards into his arms. The schoolgirl giggled and turned red before apologising. She quickly joined her friends afterwards.
"That's one very bold girl, all right," said Miyako, standing next to Takeru with her hands on her hips. "Everyone's just over-excited about seeing two very cool guys moving in. The last time girls were this excited was back when Willis moved in."
"And when was that?" Takeru asked casually. This was the chance to learn about his...rival.
"About three and-a-half years ago," said Miyako. "But Willis was different from you, I guess. He flirted with the girls and basically just went with the flow."
"...What's he doing in Japan, anyway?"
"Oh, he's a student. He's originally from Colorado, U.S.A. Sometimes he went back there during summer, but lately he just spends his summer here."
Takeru wondered a little about this – was it because Willis wanted to be closer to Hikari? He only needed to scan the field once to find them: Willis and Hikari had been sitting next to each other all this while, watching Team Three go against Team Two. Takeru had noticed that whenever Hikari was with Willis, she seemed to be able to forget the fact that he, Takeru, was right there on the field and that she could calm down a tiny bit. While it was a relief to watch her be her natural self, it was a torture for him to know that Willis was the one who could do that to her.
"Oh, would you look at that!" Miyako said angrily, bringing Takeru back to reality. "Those schoolgirls are all over Matt now!"
—X—
"Team Two has scored five points, while Team Four has scored TEN points so far!" said the announcer. "Things aren't looking too good for Teams One, Six and Five – they haven't scored any points yet. And the leading team for today has the new family, the Ishidas, with them – Team Three is in the lead with FIFTEEN points, ladies and gentlemen!"
There was a mixture of "yeah!"s and "boo!"s as this was announced.
"Don't worry guys; it's time to even it out! Up next is the Balloon Wars – that's right! A balloon will be tied to your foot, and you must not let anyone else stomp on it! Now, this game requires focus and energy – you need to observe which opponents are letting their guards down, and you need energy to jump about to prevent anyone from stomping on your balloon – and also energy to stomp on someone else's balloons! Each team must send out five representatives to participate...choose wisely! You have ten minutes!"
"Okay, okay, gather round, everyone!" said Mr. Inoue, and Team Three began to crouch around him, arms on each other's shoulders. "It's obvious that we need young people to do this – I mean, you need to basically jump about and avoid getting your foot stumped on – so parents, no hard feelings, but we're not participating in this, okay?"
"I'm fine with that!" said Mrs. Inoue.
"Yeah, my back kind of hurts after that tug-of war game," Mr. Ishida admitted.
"Very well," said Mr. Inoue, "now – any of you remember what the Matsudas did last year?"
"Yeah, they sent only teens and kids," said Fujitaka Chiharu.
"Exactly," said Mr. Inoue, "so we're gonna steal that strategy: only teens and kids! Okay – we need five people. Any volunteers?"
"Ooh, me!" said Miyako immediately. "I love this game, ha!"
"Can I go?" Hiroki-kun asked slowly.
"Sure you can!" said Mr. Inoue. "Anyone else? C'mon!"
"I'll go too, then," Takeru said, raising his hand into the air.
"Atta boy!"
"Yamato? Won't you give it a shot?" Mrs. Ishida asked, nudging her eldest son on the shoulder.
"Oh? And what? Get a sore foot afterwards?" Yamato mumbled. "No thanks."
"What's that? Are you scared?" Takeru mocked, grinning.
"Shut up, Teeks."
"Oh, you are scared."
Yamato reached out an arm and smacked Takeru on the head. The latter collapsed onto the grass, laughing silently.
"Fine, I'll do it!"
"And me!" said Chiharu quickly, raising her hand into the air ("Urgh, that girl! She never misses an opportunity, does she?" Miyako hissed).
"Right, awesome!" said Mr. Inoue, standing up. "Team Three's ready, then!"
The five of them – Takeru, Miyako, Hiroki-kun, Yamato and Chiharu – gathered under one of the tents where the representatives of other teams were waiting. It turned out that almost all the teams had sent teens and kids for the Balloon War. They had to wait for Team One and Team Four to send their representatives, so every girl was basically interviewing Yamato (and Miyako was first in line, of course). Takeru preferred to just fade into the background, so he sat quietly in one shady corner near a tree.
"Oranges, young man?" a voice suddenly said: the mysterious woodcutter was offering him an orange that he had peeled.
"Uh...yes, please. Thank you."
Just as randomly as he had appeared, he was gone the next moment. Takeru looked around for the man, but could not find him, so he proceeded to eating the orange in his hand while watching Yamato being surrounded by schoolgirls (and Miyako). Somewhere beyond the tent, he could see Willis' yellow hair (he was talking to Mr. Hokama animatedly), but Takeru could not spot Hikari. Before he had the chance to look for her, her voice filled the air.
"There you are! I told you to wait for me – you said we're gonna share Mr. Sawamoto's oranges!"
The next thing he knew, Hikari was handing him a bottle of plain water, chatting with him as if they were friends.
"I'm good at this game, you know that," she said cheerfully after taking a gulp out of her own water bottle, "and we're gonna take your team down, Willis, mark my words!"
Takeru couldn't help but smile at her energetic behaviour. "Sorry, I think you've got the wrong person."
Then, for the first time since she sat down, she turned to look at his face. Her chocolate eyes widened as she saw his blue ones, her smile disappeared, and she literally froze on the spot for several moments. Takeru laughed a little before throwing his gaze across the field.
"He's over there," he said, pointing carefully at Willis.
"Oh." She opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it back. Her face slowly turned pink.
Hugging his knees, he looked at her calmly. "You thought I was Willis. I get it, don't worry."
Silence visited them as Hikari avoided his eyes, her face turning red by the minute. Takeru didn't really mind being in this awkward situation: he could look at her up-close...he had missed her face for five long years now. It was amazing how five years could change someone from a pretty teenage girl to this beautiful young lady sitting next to him...
"I...I'm so sorry," she managed to blurt out after a while. "Y-you had an orange in your hand – earlier, Willis took one, too – I – I thought...I thought you were—"
"I told you it's okay," he cut across her. She turned even redder on the face, and said nothing. Takeru raised the water bottle and asked, "Can I still have this, though?"
Hikari stole a glance to see what he was holding up, and quickly looked away. She nodded slowly. "...Yeah... Go ahead."
"Thanks."
Takeru unscrewed the cap of the bottle and drank out of it. Time seemed to have slowed down somehow – every minute felt like hours as they sat there in awkward silence. They just sat there, watching the others laughing and the kids running around while waiting for the next event to start. It was then that Takeru managed to find something to talk about: he saw Aoi-chan initiating a conversation with Hiroki-kun. Both kids looked shy, but things seemed to be going well.
"I see Aoi-chan is very much like you," he said, breaking the silence. There was a moment where Hikari just stared at the two kids before turning redder. "Back then, you wouldn't stop bothering me even when I'd made it clear that I didn't want to be disturbed."
He paused, watching Hiroki-kun struggle with Aoi-chan's friendliness as the girl offered him some oranges. He was also waiting for Hikari to say something, but she remained quiet – so he moved on. Taking out a small, carefully wrapped box from his pocket, he placed it on the grass between them.
"I know it's not the same as her earlier set of crayons, but that's all Hiroki-kun's pocket money could afford," Takeru said. Hikari didn't move, but she shifted her gaze to the box of crayons next to her. She hesitated.
"...Thank you, that's very thoughtful of you," she finally said, taking the box of crayons before quickly looking away once more. It looked as if she was about to say something, when suddenly the group of girls surrounding Yamato began to squeal and clap their hands. Takeru turned just in time to see Yamato signing the hem of a girl's T-shirt with a marker pen. Miyako's shirt was already signed.
"Your friend is really fond of my brother's band," Takeru said. "How long have you two known each other?"
Here, Hikari looked uncertain – should she answer, or should she just shut up? He could almost hear her brain trying to decide what to do next. Silently, Takeru sighed.
"It's going to be really difficult to keep pretending like we don't know each other, you know."
This seemed to have flicked a switch in her brain. "Well, what're you suggesting?" she replied in a flat voice, still not meeting his eyes. "Pretend like the past didn't happen and just play along?"
"I didn't say anything about forgetting the past," Takeru said, finally understanding what this was all about. She was hurt, still hurt, and he understood that... "Acknowledge the past – and that's it. We don't need to get caught up in it..."
Silence.
"That coming from me is really difficult to listen to, I know," he said after a while, "but I really don't think I can go on like this. I dunno about you, but it's...well...it's difficult. For me. I'd explode anytime soon if this keeps up."
Hikari refused to look at him as he said this.
"Takeru-kun, look! Look!"
The next moment, Miyako was in front of them jumping up and down and squealing, her face red.
"Your brother signed my T-shirt! Matt signed my T-shirt! Hikari-chan, look!"
Deciding to give Hikari more time to ponder on what he had said, Takeru stood up to leave. "I'm gonna have to leave my cell with my dad – don't want it jumping out of my pocket or anything. Miyako-san, call me when the game's about to start, okay?"
"Okay!" said Miyako, saluting him before she turned to Hikari and went on talking about Matt.
—X—
"Kurokuro!" said Mr. Yamada after ten minutes. "Are we ready to do this?"
"YEAH!" the crowd yelled back.
"All right – I have right here with me...a cap with six pieces of paper!" said Mr. Yamada, walking towards the contestants, stretching out the hand that held the cap. "Now...pick your destiny!"
Takeru saw Willis grinning at Mr. Yamada as the cap was pointed towards him.
"Obviously we cannot have all of you jumping and stomping at the same time," said Mr. Yamada, "so we'll have two teams going against each other at one time. Now, Willis my boy – pick a number!"
Everyone watched closely as Willis pulled out a piece of paper and unrolled it. He raised it into the air: the paper had a large "2" on it.
"There you have it – team six is going against team 2!" Mr. Yamada then moved down to Team 5 – Hikari's team. Takeru watched closely as the eldest Ichirou daughter pulled out a piece of paper. Squealing with her two sisters, she then put up her hand. The number written on it was "3."
Right there and then, Takeru and Hikari were looking into each other's eyes again ("Oh," said Miyako, "now those Ichirou girls are getting excited about Matt! Do I have a chance at all? EVERYONE seems to want him!")
"This means," said Mr. Yamada, "by default, Team 1 is going against Team 4! All right – we have our contestants, we have our balloons – game starts in five minutes! Everyone get readyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
Here, he blew his whistle, and Takeru looked away from Hikari as his team moved towards one section of the field to get their balloons tied to their feet. While he was tying the balloon on a string, he quietly snuck a glance at Willis' team: the American dude did not look as playful as he did earlier when Mr. Yamada was pointing the cap at him. Instead, Willis kept looking at Team 5 – Hikari's team – again and again, as if to make sure she was okay. Takeru stopped observing Willis soon afterwards, knowing that Willis would probably send a death glare his way if he caught his eyes.
—X—
It was inevitable.
Trying to settle down thirty young people was difficult. After much delay (balloons bursting unexpectedly, sulking children, and non-cooperative strings), everyone was finally ready. The field was large enough for them to have three Balloon Wars simultaneously. All around them, family and team members were already cheering for them.
"All right, children!" said Mr. Yamada, who was in the middle of the field. "Listen carefully! You will have three adults watching the progress of your game, so once you're disqualified, they will know. Quickly leave the battle field once your balloon has been stomped on to avoid being pushed around and stuff. And remember! Each team's balloons are colour coded! Do not stomp on a teammate's balloon, or they will be qualified!"
At the moment, Hikari and Takeru were standing at the opposite sides of each other. He wasn't looking at her – instead, he was kneeling by his cousin, saying something to the little boy, who grinned and laughed in return. Takeru himself was grinning... It was a rather weird sight to Hikari, really. Takeru had never been much of a smiling person – he used to have this cold stare all the time, and she only managed to see him crack a smile when they became a c...
"Onechan!"
She jumped at this, and turned around. Aoi-chan was waving at her.
"Hikari-nechan, Taichi-niichan! Good luck!" said the little girl, who was sitting with their grandmother under a tree. Hikari waved back, smiling.
"You ready, little sister?" Taichi asked, suddenly standing by her side.
"Yeah. I am," she said confidently, when the truth was, she had checked herself just in time. Had she let her train of thoughts wander on...
"Ready!" Mr. Yamada was saying. "Set...!"
The shrill sound of Mr. Yamada's whistle filled the morning air.
"GO!"
Almost at once, everyone started to hop on one foot, lifting the one with the balloon tied up to it. Screams filled the air as people tried to stomp on one another's balloon. Within minutes, the sound of balloons popping (followed by a yell or a scream) quickly began to take over the field. Hikari hopped along, screaming as Miyako stomped her foot, almost popping Hikari's orange balloon.
"Hey, come back here, you!" Miyako giggled as Hikari began to hop away. She stuck out her tongue.
"No way, man!" she laughed, hopping away. It was absolutely, fantastically chaotic: she didn't even know how many teammates were still in the game (A/N: "YOU JUST LOST THE GAME, KEKEKE!"), but that didn't stop her from stomping on her first victim's balloon – Fujitaka Chiharu's. The girl screamed, lost her balance, and fell onto the ground.
"Sorry!" Hikari said, hopping away. "No hard feelings, eh, Chiharu-chan–"
At that moment, Miyako caught up with her, placing one hand on her shoulder. "Gotcha!"
Hikari yelled and tried to hop away, but Miyako had a rather strong grip on her shoulder. The two of them laughed and hopped this way and that, avoiding each other's stomping feet until finally Hikari managed to pull away from Miyako.
She hopped backwards, hit a few people accidentally, lost her balance, and finally began to stumble forth. She screamed and braced herself for the fall, when someone else in front of her accidentally collided with her, and they held on to each other. Hikari had grabbed the person's arms in order to balance herself, and the other was holding on to her arms rather firmly, too.
That person was Takeru.
Both of them were panting and grinning, for the game was indeed fun and made everyone laugh.
"Sorry!" she gasped.
"Oh – no – it was my bad," Takeru quickly said, his blue eyes wide, his face flushed red. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Hikari said, then, acting on impulse, "but you're out of the game!"
With that, she stomped on Takeru's blue balloon, and it popped with a loud sound. Hikari grinned and began to hop away, leaving behind an amused Takeru. She saw him smiling and shaking his head before making his way out of the 'battle field.'
For some reason, that interaction seemed to have lifted a very heavy burden off her shoulders. She felt...oddly relieved. Why was that so? Was it because she had been holding back so much ever since they first met at the kindergarten? Takeru's earlier words quickly came to her mind – "I dunno about you, but it's...well...it's difficult. For me. I'd explode anytime soon if this keeps up." – yes...she had bottled up a lot of emotions, and she, too, would have exploded anytime soon.
But instead, Takeru's balloon had exploded in her place. She had stomped her foot with all her might (she had just realised this), as if she was trying to stomp out every bitter memory from five years ago...
Hikari felt lighter as she hopped on, laughing and screaming and stomping on other people's balloons (including Miyako's).
She felt a lot lighter.
—X—
The day passed on rather smoothly from that point onward for Hikari. Her team had won the Balloon War against Team Three, and went on to challenge Team Two, and later Team Five – and her team became the victor for the Balloon War. All the sore feet were worth it as their team began to gain points.
No further event had thrown the two of them together afterwards – in some games, Takeru's team would have lost in the first round and thus did not meet Hikari's team on the next levels, and in some other games, Hikari's team got disqualified before they got the chance to challenge Takeru's team.
Her day was, surprisingly, going well. Team Five (Hikari's team) managed to gain so much points that soon, they were the team with the third-highest points. The first was Team One (the one with the Matsudas) and in second place was Team Three, Takeru's team.
The games went on, only to stop to make way for lunchtime. Families and friends began to eat together in groups, spreading their picnic mats and sitting down. Hikari caught sight of Takeru sitting down hesitantly next to his brother, who was being interviewed by a group of four-or-so girls (one of which was Miyako).
"Hey," came Willis' voice, and a minute later, the guy was sitting next to her with his bento box in one hand and a bottle of carbonated drink in another.
"Hey," she replied, smiling and nodding towards Miyako, "look at her, being excited and all."
Willis grinned. "Yeah – well, she is a fan, after all..." He fell silent, so Hikari kept on eating, trying her best to ignore the guy across the field. She knew Willis was watching her closely now, and before long, he started to talk about it. "So, uh, he hasn't said anything to you, has he? Anything hurtful?"
"No, we didn't get the chance to talk properly," Hikari said, deciding to keep the conversation she had with Takeru earlier a secret.
"Well, that's good," Willis mumbled. Miyako came skipping towards the two of them later, singing happily. "Whoa, someone's extremely happy!"
"Yep!" said Miyako. "Matt and I have a lot in common – we both think that Colour My Life should be the title track instead of Kanashimi: Baby You're Gone. I mean, that's such a depressing title! Ooh! And he seemed to prefer to talk to me more than he to the other girls – most probably due to my mature way of speaking my mind...!"
"Riiight," Hikari replied, "and squealing is mature, how?"
Here, Miyako began to squeal as she spied on Yamato from afar.
"Exactly my point," Hikari said, grinning (and Willis was shaking his head).
Lunch time went on in this peaceful manner until it was time for desserts. They were having, among others, apples as their desserts – and the committee had decided to turn dessert time into a game as well!
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Mr. Yamada said, suddenly standing up. "Now – I know we're all having a great time resting our minds and all, but we need a sort of warm-up exercise before we plunge into the next coming games. Exercise your competitiveness! I'd like to announce that no one is getting desserts until they fulfil this game. Everyone! To your teams!"
He blew his whistle, and people began to move, talking and laughing at the same time before settling down.
"Right," Mr. Yamada went on, "now here's the deal – each group will have ten apples provided to them. To win this game, you simply have to peel off the skin of the apple – peel it around the fruit to make a spiral out of the skin, and the spiral must be intact! The team that manages to peel the longest spiral apple skin wins!"
Excited murmur began to fill the air, and soon, they were provided with knives and peelers.
"Oh, this is gonna be easy!" Hikari said. "Even you can do it, right, Aoi-chan?"
Her five-year-old sister was holding a peeler and looked enthusiastic.
"Ready?" Mr. Yamada asked. "Set! ...GO!"
He blew his whistle, and everyone began to peel the apples.
That afternoon, life was good.
—X—
They had a several more games (musical chair for the younger children, throwing water balloons at your blind-folded partner, hoping he'd catch it without the balloon bursting, and then for the fathers, they had the 'put-makeup-on-your-wives' game – in which the Shiho pair won. They also played the 'fill-the-bottle-with-water-using-sponges (meaning they had to squeeze the water carefully into the drinking bottle), The Poisonous Ball (in which the Villain stood in the middle of a circle and threw a 'poisonous' ball at them, and those who got hit were disqualified – the tricky part was for the Villain not to hit his own teammates), and of course, the classic sac-race (except this was more like a sac-relay-race).
The it was time for the final game: the three-legged scavenger hunt.
A/N: Which I will continue later. :D Because I need to think of the riddles for this scavenger hunt... So far, I only have one riddle done. D:
So there you have it. Now you can threaten to shoot me, because knowing me, I'd probably disappear for another year or two before I update. So having a gun pointed at me would surely – in a way – motivate me to continue this fanfic as soon as possible.
Just FYI, other characters such as Koushiro and Ken will soon make their appearences~
:D