Chapter 12
Akira pulled the small locker near the entrance open and yanked her shoes out of the hole. It was the end of the day, and there were a number of people getting ready to go home. Akira was just bending down to tie her laces when a girl with long, red hair approached her with a smile.
"Akira-senpai! Are you going home?" Gou asked her lightly.
Akira looked up and forced a smile at Gou. "Hai. I have a lot of work to do. You must have swim practice today, right? Prefecturals are coming up soon. I hope you guys are training hard for them."
Gou nodded. "We are. I mean…" she bit her lip and looked down at Akira worriedly. "Akira-senpai, are you and Nagisa-kun still not talking? Rei told me that you'd had a fight and Nagisa just isn't acting the same. He seems so upset all the time. It's affecting his swimming too. At this rate, I'm starting to worry about him a lot."
Akira took a deep breath. Just the thought of Nagisa was making tears come to her eyes. She tried to keep a straight face in front of Gou, but it was difficult to hide how painful it was to think about him. "I understand, Gou-chan, but there's nothing I can do. Nagisa won't talk to me."
"Have you tried?" Gou asked.
Akira glared at her slightly. "You think I haven't tried? I waited outside swim practice for three days consecutively and he completely ignored me. Do you want to see how many missed calls and messages I've given him in the past week? I even went to his house once and he shut the door in my face. I hate that he's ignoring me, but I have some self-respect too! This isn't entirely my fault, I don't see why I'm the one begging him to speak to me when he goes on with life as if nothing happened!"
Gou looked shocked. "Akira-senpai…"
Akira's hands were trembling as she reached down to pick up her bag. Her eyes were hard. She looked up at Gou slowly. "Look, Gou-chan, I know you're worried about Nagisa. But please don't come to me about it. I've done everything I can. At this point, I have no choice but to accept that we've broken up."
"Akira-senpai… don't say that!" Gou insisted, upset. "We can get Nagisa to see sense, we will, we just-"
Akira shook her head. "Gomen. I'm done trying. Bye, Gou-chan." She turned around and left the school building quietly, as the red-head stared after her in shock.
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"Why did you tell Gou-chan we were broken up?"
Akira whirled around at the sound of the voice she hadn't heard in the past week. Nagisa was standing at the entrance to her bedroom. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were red. He looked terrible. Akira stared at him calmly for a moment. She had been expecting him to come.
"Because I knew it would make you talk to me," Akira replied quietly. She walked past Nagisa to close the door of her bedroom so that none of her family members would hear their conversation. Then she turned to face him. "When you storm out after a fight and then don't talk for a week, a break up is what comes to mind."
Nagisa shook his head. "You can't just decide that! I never said I wanted to break up!"
"Exactly. You never said anything!" Akira snapped. She hated how he was standing there and staring at her with those accusatory magenta eyes as if it was her fault, as if she'd been the one who'd blown a completely normal thing out of proportion and overreacted. "I tried talking to you! I can't believe you would completely ignore me! Do you have any idea how horrible that made me feel? I've been crying over you for days, you stupid brat!"
"I just wanted to see what it would be like," Nagisa mumbled. His gaze shifted to the ground as his blonde hair flopped in front of his eyes. "T-to not have you around. I wanted to see if I would be able to handle it after you left."
"This was an experiment?" Akira demanded angrily. She couldn't believe that he'd been ignoring her for the past few days to see if he could manage without her. She took a deep, calming breath. It wasn't Nagisa's fault. He probably didn't even know that he was hurting her feelings and that she'd assumed he was dumping her. Akira moved over to the bed and sat down on it quietly. Now that he was here, she wasn't going to get mad and scream like last time. She had to cool her temper so that they could talk this out. "Nagisa, the next time you want to try something like that, you should let me know first."
Nagisa stared at his feet. "Gomen."
Akira ran a hand down over her face and sighed. She glanced up at him. "Well, then. What's the verdict?"
Nagisa flinched. "What?"
"You said that you were trying to see if you could handle it. Well, could you?"
Nagisa finally looked up at her. Tears were swimming in his magenta eyes and he looked at Akira pleadingly. A choked sob came from his throat and his shoulders were shaking. "P-please don't go, Akira-chan! Please! I can't handle it, I can't!" he cried.
Akira felt her heart drop into her stomach. "Nagisa…"
"Please!" Nagisa sobbed again. He rushed forward and threw his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Akira's eyes widened as he clutched at her desperately, as though she was about to walk out of the door that very moment. She felt tears welling up in her own eyes and she hugged him back. She could barely breathe and her body was hurting under Nagisa's strong grip, but Akira didn't care. Her throat closed up as tears streamed down her own face. "I don't want you to go! Please stay here, I'll do anything! I'll study, I won't become a scuba diver or an explorer, I'll do whatever you want! Just please don't go!"
Akira sniffed and shook her head. "N-nagisa, baka, don't-don't ask me that-"
"Please, Akira-chan!"
Akira gently pulled away from him and placed her hands on her cheeks. Nagisa's innocent face was tear-stained and distraught. She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek, before forcing him to look down at her. "Nagisa, I love you, you idiot. But you can't ask me not to go to college. I have to go. And it's going to be difficult and painful and I'll miss you so much, but I have to."
"Then I'll come to Tokyo with you!" Nagisa blurted out. "If you won't stay here, I'll transfer to some high school in Tokyo!"
"You idiot. What would your swim club do without you, huh?" Akira asked with a soft smile. "Are you really going to leave Rei-kun alone like that? You were so excited about taking on new recruits and becoming the oldest members of the swim club. Are you ready to give all that up?"
Nagisa's eyes widened. He glanced down at the floor and shook his head. "I-I don't know."
"You can come to Tokyo," Akira told him gently. She used a thumb to wipe away a stray tear on his face as his magenta eyes looked at her miserably. "But not now. You study hard in your third year and then you apply to the same college as me, okay?"
Nagisa nodded mutely. "O-okay." He looked up at Akira, his eyes shining. "I will! I'll study hard and get admission in a college in Tokyo! Then we can be together there! We can- we can explore everything and go to Disneyland and-and…"
Akira giggled. Of course that would be the first thing that Nagisa would want to do in Tokyo. She laughed and hugged him, pressing her face against Nagisa's chest. "Hai," she whispered. "We'll go to Disneyland."
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