Chapter 14:

I stared excitedly at the back of my guardian's seat. Today was the start of summer, and I knew there's no way I'd rather spend it.

No offense was intended towards my friend Kanna, of course. I still planned to visit her sometimes during the break. But while she was my best friend at school, it meant a lot the first thing I'd wanted to do was plan something to do with Tomoya before he returned.

Part of me would've rather gone to the book store or a library rather than the mall, but I liked frozen yogurt. Besides, I doubted Tomoya would appreciate the gesture; books usually seemed to remind him of school.

Naturally, my housekeeper was aghast. She was no stranger to the fact I'd recently turned eleven, and immediately assumed this get-together was a date; a fact she argued my guardian was blissfully unaware of. However, my guardian told her there was no harm in bringing us to such a pace, and that he would supervise us every step of the way.

That bothered me a little. But it was better than being denied access because of Hasegawa-san's paranoia.

I glanced at Tomoya. His eyes looked lonely as he watched clouds drift by. Knowing him, he was probably thinking about his dad again. There were only a couple times I could recall him ever mentioning him; I felt out-of-place encouraging him when I knew next to nothing about the situation.

Still, what I noticed more than his somberness were the memories that flashed through my mind as I thought of him. How he'd brought me from the brink after my parents' death, how he'd been there every step of the way during my recovery period, and how he'd never been afraid to voice his opinion on something. During the past few weeks, he had been a better friend than I could ever hope for.

My eyes shifted their focus lower down his face, honing in on his lips. Hasegawa-san was worrying about me too much, but I would be lying if I said I hadn't started to notice how cute Tomoya was. His face was round yet sharp, and he had a smile that filled me with joy the moment I saw it.

I was a bit too forward back at the house, though. I thought I might be able to get away with it because I'd hugged him before, but Tomoya found my show of affection a bit uncomfortable. I made a mental note to keep away from such forwardness in the future.

"What's up?"

He asked, his gaze meeting mine. Inklings of red crossed my face as seconds passed. Realizing this, Tomoya turned away from me.

Dang it, stop doing that; he's obviously not as comfortable about the prospect as you are. Don't be so obvious.

"So, how were final exams?"

I said, drawing his attention. The anxiety from earlier loosened up as his vision centered on my forehead. "I didn't do too well, but I'm pretty sure I passed. We won't know exactly how we did for a couple days, but I think I pulled it off." He laughed. "I don't think I need to ask how you did,"

I giggled, watching the back of my guardian's head thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure I aced it. Nothing less would be tolerated from an Ichionse, after all,"

"No kidding," he slumped in his seat. "I just wonder sometimes why we even started to become friends."

"If I remember correctly, our first meeting was a chance encounter." I cradled my chin with my right hand. "I think we bonded because both of us are kind people at heart," I stop for a moment. "Not to brag,"

"No, I get what you're saying." He nodded. "I was just pointing out the . . . 'irony' in our becoming best friends?"

I confirmed his usage of the word was correct. "I remember thinking like that at first, but I haven't in a long time. Honestly, it'd be hard to imagine life without you." Shoot, you sound schmaltzy right now.

He chuckled nervously but said sincerely, "I couldn't agree more."

A few minutes later, my guardian pulled into Hikarizaki's only shopping mall. The building was huge so that it could fit any potential accommodations, but not a lot of business had decided to open shop there. Privately-owned businesses possessed most people's interest in town.

Nevertheless, we saw large amounts of shoppers pouring into different stores. Anticipation for summer was even higher than I thought it'd be.

"It shouldn't be too difficult to find the frozen yogurt shop," he scanned the area as he led us towards a billboard adorned with two tubs of yogurt. "The difficult part will be waiting in line. I might take as long as fifteen minutes for us to get our order."

Tomoya shrugged. "That's alright; I'm not that hungry anyways."

I looked at the faces in front of us in line. Most of them I'd only seen in passing with only a couple faces I recognized from school. One four spots down, however, stuck out more than the others.

I wasn't quite extroverted enough to call out to her, but Kanna more than made up for my reluctance.

"Hey Kotomi-chan!" She yelled, waving with both her arms. Sighing, I threw her a small wave back.

"Is she that friend with the reddish hair you keep talking about?" Tomoya whispered to me.

"Yeah; she's pretty outgoing."

"Pretty loud, too; I heard her clear as day over every other voice in this room."

I beamed. "That's Kanna-san for you,"

The line shrunk it size and in eight minutes, we were ready to take our order. I asked for a peach-flavored dish while Tomoya requested "Tiger's Blood", a tart watermelon-strawberry mixed flavor, coated with M&Ms, sprinkles, and Sour Patch Kids.

"This looks good," he said as we sat down at one of the few empty tables left. "I could probably eat this all in one bite."

"That's an awful lot of sugar,"

"What I can say?" He took a huge spoonful. "Go big or go home,"

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Kanna ask her parents something to which they agreed. Grinning, she skipped over to our table and addressed my guardian.

"Excuse me, Ojii-san, is it alright if I take this empty seat? My name is Mariko Kanna, I'm a friend of Kotomi-chan's."

"As long as it's alright with your parents, I don't have a problem with it," It was so easy to forget my guardian was even there. He was so quiet that he all but disappeared at certain points in the conversation.

Kanna's appearance startled Tomoya a bit. I almost thought I saw him roll his eyes as she plopped down.

"Hi, Kotomi-chan," she pats me on the shoulder. "'Glad to see you've had no trouble being forward with this guy,"

Tomoya face-palmed beside me as I tried to calm Kanna down. "Please save that for another time,"

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," she eyed Tomoya. "So, this is the famous Okazaki Tomoya, huh? He's not that much of a looker."

"Hey!" He flew up from his seat. "I don't look that bad,"

"Settle down, good sir, it's not like I'm saying this in front of a girl you have to impress." She winked. "Kotomi-chan already knows how cute you are,"

"Ka-nna," I leveled as I pulled her shoulders in my direction. "It's like you're taking the role of an embarrassing parent from my guardian."

"I'm just trying to instill a casual atmosphere," she exchanged glances between Tomoya and me. "You guys looked pretty nervous."

"We're doing alright," I reassured her. "At the very least, you could be less overt,"

"'Sorry, I'll keep that in mind," she kept quiet for about a minute, giving us chance to choose a conversation topic.

"So, how long have you two been friends?" Tomoya asked.

"A few months now," Kanna leaned back in her chair. "She was pretty awkward back then, and I realized she needed a friend. Books can only be so nice to you after all,"

"Yeah," my face turned red. "I was pretty odd the first you talked to me."

"Literally your first question was 'Who are you and why would you be talking to me'? Haha, the cute part is, it sounded so earnest, I didn't event take offense."

"Wow," Tomoya said. "You were really that shy?"

"A little," I wiped sweat off my forehead. "I was really close to my parents back then, so I didn't think I needed to get to know anyone else."

A moment of silence passed over the table. Of all my people, my guardian was the one who finally broke it.

"So, Mariko-san, does your family have any plans for the summer?"

"Hm," She scrunches her cheeks in thought. "We'll probably go to the beach a couple times. I don't think they've told me of any plans in particular just yet."

"Understandable," he remarked. His eyes darted to the side, informing Tomoya and I to continue the conversation.

"How did you do on your exams, Kanna-san?"

"I don't think I did too well," she sighed. "Sometimes, I wish I lived in a country that wasn't so strict about education."

"Ditto," Tomoya smirked, taking another bite of his frozen yogurt.

"You probably did fine," I said. "I remember you studying pretty hard in between exams.

"Yeah, but most of it doesn't come naturally to me. Like math for instance," she shrugged. "Sometimes, you just gotta ignore how hard the subject is and try your best anyways."

"It's all you can do," I added, taking a small bite of the peach-flavored yogurt. "But even so, I'm sure you did well."

"Hm," She glanced at both of us. "Hey, do you guys have any special plans?"

"No," Tomoya deadpanned. "I'll just be hanging out with my friends; that's what pretty much all my summers have been like."

"Downer," Kanna looked at me. "What about you?"

"I might take a trip to the research laboratory my parents started." My guardian nodded slowly. "It'll be interesting to see how much their team has progressed on their inter-dimensional research."

"From what little I could understand from a science article I read, they've been moving at a surprisingly steady rate considering what happened," Kanna said. "And I saw that about a week ago. I'm sure they must have done even more by now."

At this point, my guardian stopped listening to the conversation. I pondered whether he was hiding something behind his solemn eyes, but I paid the thought no mind.

"Yes," I smiled. "I'm looking forward to seeing what breakthroughs they've made,"

"That's great and all," Tomoya said taking in the last bite of his Tiger's Blood. "But you're taking forever to eat, Kotomi-chan," he pointed to my mostly uneaten yogurt. "Do rich people always take this long to eat?"

"Kotomi-chan?" Kanna whispered in my ear.

"We've been calling each other with suffixes like that for a while now," I took another bite of my yogurt. "Like I said, Kanna-san; please be more subtle."

4:48

After parting ways with Kanna, we took the short drive to the Furukawa Bakery. Tomoya had said great things about the people who worked there but had been oddly silent about the quality of the bread. Still, I trusted him enough that he wouldn't take us somewhere with low production values.

My guardian opened the door for us, letting it in to a homey restaurant with only a couple tables. Skeptical, I looked up to the counter.

A man with fiery red hair, a baseball bat on his shoulder, and a frog apron grinned at my guardian. "Welcome to Furukawa Bakery, home of the best bread in town. What can I get you good people?"

My guardian shot Tomoya an odd look. I hadn't expected a quaint restaurant like this to have such a grizzled caretaker. He appeared friendly enough, but looks could definitely be deceiving.

"I'll be fine. Kotomi-san, Tomoya-san, what would you like?"

I surveyed the trays of bread, stopping at a sheet of crescent rolls. Before I could point to it, Tomoya grabbed my arm.

"NO," he and the baker said in unison.

"Why not?"

"No offense to my wife, but most of the stuff she bakes is pretty bad." He crossed his arms. "Those landmines look like crescent rolls, but the inside is stuffed with Brussel Sprouts."

Ew . . .

"I'd normally give my wife the grace of knowing her bread sold," he wept sorrowful tears. "But I just can't let a poor kid like you buy her bread."

"What's that, dear?"

The baker's beautiful woman approached from folds separating the bakery from the interior of the house. Contrasting to her husband, her hair was a bright orange with eyes to match.

"Nothing much," he said, tossing one of the 'land mines' into his mouth. "Just enjoying your bread,"

"You can't eat the bread, Akio-san. That's for the customers only."

"I know, but . . . "The corners of his eyes watered. Streams of tears poured down his cheeks. "It's so goooooooooood . . ."

"Alright, I guess I'll leave it be." She gave Tomoya a smile. "'Looks like you brought friends with you today."

"Mmhm," he nodded. "This is my friend, Kotomi, and her guardian."

"Nishimura Yamada," he introduced himself, bowing to the pair. "It's nice to meet you,"

"You too," Akio looked back at us. "So, what would you like to eat?"

"The donuts," we said.

"Man, kids are even more into sugar than I thought," he hollered as he grabbed the last two. "That'll be 320 yen including tax."

My guardian passed the money to Akio and bowed once again. "Thank you for doing business with us,"

"'My pleasure," He waved as we headed to the door. Before we could walk out, I thought I heard a small voice discussing something with the eccentric baker. Sure enough,

"Hey,"

We all turned to face him.

"If you don't mind staying a moment longer, my daughter wanted to say hi."

I glanced up at my guardian. "I don't see the problem. Go ahead,"

We approached the girl. Although her face was happy, sweat on the side of her neck told me she was nervous. She seemed to pay closer attention to Tomoya then me; perhaps they'd met before?

"Good afternoon, Okazaki-san," she bowed respectfully, then turned to me. "My name is Furukawa Nagisa. What is your name?"

"Ichinose Kotomi," I bowed. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm glad you decided to come," she giggled. "Even when my parents are around, summers can get pretty boring sometimes."

"It's no trouble," Tomoya said. "We were just passing through; no need to thank us for dropping by."

"Still, it means a lot to me." She stared closer at me. "So, what kind of things do you like to do?"

"She's a genius,"

"Huh?" Her eyes dart to Tomoya.

"She gets the highest grades in her school and has read hundreds upon hundreds of books. She can already understand senior high school level math."

"Wow," she watched me awestruck. "Maybe I should ask you to help me with some of my classes during the next school year.

"Thank you," I clasped my hands together. "What year are you in?"

"I turn 12 on Christmas, so I'll be on my first year of middle school."

"'Think it will be tough?"

"A little, but I think I'll be fine." She shook her head. "My mom works as a tutor part-time, so she should be able to help me when I'm lost."

"That's great," my guardian inclined his head. "I'd like to talk more, but I guess I better get going. See you later, Furukawa-san,"

"Bye!" She waved as we walked towards the door. "'Hope we can talk again soon!"

A/N: This may seem like an awkward time to end the story, but this is the final chapter of Serendipity. In the very near future, I'll be posting "Serendipity Part II" which takes place several years after, during Tomoya and Kotomi's first year of high school. Expect romantic undertones, a first-person present tense narration, and a resolution to the mystery behind Kotomi's parents' death.

A/N 2: The last thing I'll be posting on this story is a humorous OVA aside that bears no relevance to the plot; instead, it serves to hold my readers over until Serendipity Part II is released.