This chapter is a tribute to my late Grandfather who just passed away last Friday. Originally this chapter was supposed to go live that weekend but this loss took quite a toll on me, so I apologize for taking a short break.
I'm not really one to give advises about life but here I go: Even if you might not want to do it sometimes go and talk to your family, be respectful and nice to them, you never know if you'll ever see them again.

With all that being said I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Shoutouts:

Fanboy2112: Thank you for enjoying my writing so much, and apologies for having to cut it there but I couldn't help but spice up the drama a bit more.

Story begins here:

As soon as Taiga disappeared behind the corner she dropped her facade, those feelings simply wouldn't go away no matter what. She knew that she didn't possess the strength to keep them in any longer, so to save at least the image of her being fine on the surface she had to disappear from the public's eye.
So she ran, ran as fast as her legs carried her, hoping that maybe she could out run those unpleasant feelings that stabbed away at her heart. Truth be told she didn't have any sense of where to go, she knew it was too early for any of the classes to be empty, so she just kept on running, hoping to find some place else to shelter her vulnerabilities.
Her reckless running in the halls caught the attention of a lot of students, one of them being none other than the Council President. Kitamura was on his way to the Student Council classroom with a handful of organization papers in hand which needed to be sorted out in said classroom, but as Taiga was passing by she accidentally tripped him which made said papers fall on the floor, making a giant mess in the hall.
Of course, she had no idea and didn't realize that, or rather she was so focused on getting away from everyone that she simply couldn't realize what she just did at the time.
Everyone turned their gaze from Taiga to the Kitamura who was on one of his knees, slowly getting up his feet.
"Hey President, are you okay?" One of the students that was near him asked, He nodded his head in response as he got up." Yes, I'm fine. No worries" He replied, adjusting his glasses. He knew it was Taiga because he saw her contorted expression in a split-second right before he hit the ground. Kitamura knew that something had to went bad between her and Ryuuji. Of course, he couldn't ask Ryuuji since he didn't know exactly where he was and Taiga was still running wild, so he was out of luck when it came to figuring out what happened to her.
"Are you just going to let her run in the halls like that President?" The same student who asked him if he was okay brought him back down to the reality. Kitamura thought hard about it, maybe finally he had the power to do some good for the couple, and to do his duties as a President at the same time. Excited, he turned to the student that suggested that to him. "No I can't, I'll catch up to her and tell her to stop" he replied as he looked to the direction where he seen her run off, of course he had no idea where she was going so his best bet was to just start running in the general area where she went, hoping he'd bump into her or into someone who knew where she was headed. So with that in mind, he took off.
The student who suggested he should chase after her looked down at the papers, wondering who was gonna clean up that mess.

Kitamura sprinted through the halls, making sure to not bump into any students like Aisaka bumped into him earlier. As he was running he noticed some students picking up their belongings from the floor, it looked like he wasn't the only one who got swept up by her dash. Alongside that there also some small details that indicated that she ran through there like a small tornado, most noticible were the tipped over trash cans and papers from the board lying on the floor.
He continued to follow Taiga's trail of destruction for a bit until the trail stopped right next to the staircase to the rooftop. Kitamura knew she had to be in there, so he climbed those stairs and walked to the entrance to the rooftop to investigate it, right before he entered it however he could hear a faint sobbing. He knew it was Aisaka.
As soon as he entered the rooftop he was greeted by the beautiful spring skies covered in fluffy white clouds that graciously flew across the warm air, it was a breathtaking sight to behold.
However, Kitamura wasn't there to look at the skies, he was a man on a mission, and he was about to get it done.
Kitamura followed the weeping that emanated from behind the elevator shaft which lied around the corner of the rooftop entrance. He slowly approached the said corner of the shaft, to not make any noise He carefully peeked behind the corner to get a look at what Aisaka was doing.
She was curled up in a ball, back pressed against the outside walls of the elevator shaft.

After he found the strength to confront her he finally appeared from behind the corner. Kitamura waited for her to notice him, but she was in her own world entranced to what was going on in the real world. "Aisaka?" Yusaku asked, breaking the silence and bringing Taiga back to reality.
"H-Huh? Kitamura?!" She froze, Her tone changing mid sentence as she realized what was happening. She was mortified about the thought of showing her vulnerable self to the others, let alone of her friends. "Hey Aisaka, I saw you frantically running through the halls, so I came by to check up on you." He replied in a semi monotone voice. He approached that situation as he did with any other in the last year, slowly and methodically. He learned a lot from Sumire over the course of him acting as her Vice President, one of those things being that approaching things level-headed and with a neutral demeanor was the best course of action as acting with emotions only leads to you making irrational decisions, and he couldn't afford to make things worse than they already were.
"Leave me alone Kitamura" She begged as she pushed her head further down her legs, as to hide her weeping face from further embarrassment. However Kitamura was adamant about staying, so he didn't respond and just simply sat next to her.
"We both know I can't do that, so tell me what's bothering you?" He asked calmly, friendly even, hoping to finally get to the bottom of it all, but she had others plans.
"I said leave me alone!" Aisaka yelled as she lunged at him with her fists, emotions clouding her judgement. By the time Kitamura realized what was happening it was too late to dodge, so he braced for the impact as he put his hands in front of his face to soften the blow. He closed his eyes and just waited for her to deal the finishing blow, and it did come but not in the way he thought it would.
Kitamura opened his eyes only to see that the fist that was aiming for his face was stuck on one of his palms, as he looked further he realized what was going on. Through the adrenaline rush he didn't realize that Aisaka was crying heavily through all of this, even harder that she did before.
He wondered if she stopped her fist because she just realized what she was about to do or because she didn't have enough strength, but that didn't matter what so ever in the end. What mattered was that she did the right thing.
"Please just leave me alone" Taiga once again begged with tears free-falling from her eyes, this time with more desperation in her voice. Her fists dropped as so did her head.
There was a long silence between the two, she was simply so mentally drained that she just wanted all of this to be over with, and he on the other hand didn't know what to say. Kitamura knew very well that he needed to think about his next words, he reckoned that he had the best way of both comforting her and getting the information out of her was to be honest with her.
"Tell me, what good would it do if I left you alone like this? Me, Kushieda and especially Takasu are all worried about you" Kitamura asked, hoping to catch her attention in the right way. Taiga raised her head again in shock as her tears no longer appeared from her eyes. "What do you mean?" Aisaka stood there shocked, she didn't believe her ears.
"Takasu told me, he tried to find out what was going on with you but never could. Desperate, he came to me and Kushieda to help him figure it out" Kitamura got right to the point as he explained further.
Taiga once again stood there completely frozen from the sudden realization, she put her hands on her face as she shook her head. "I'm so dumb" she whispered as the tears resumed falling from her eyes.
"Hey, it's okay just calm down." He reassured her by putting his hands on her small shoulder. He knew that he earned her trust by her not hiding her cries in front of him like she did before.
"Okay" She whispered between her sobs, trying her best to calm down just like he said.
"So, would you now be able to answer my questions?" He asked again boldly. However this time he was certain he would find the answer.
She reluctantly nodded. Bingo.
He nodded back as he sat against the wall just like she did earlier, minus being curled up in a ball part of course. He patted at the ground beside him, signaling for her to come sit down as well. Kitamura hoped that it would make this whole experience less awkward and less intimidating by both of them being on the same level.
She sat down beside him and fixated her eyes on the ground because she felt too embarrassed to look him in the eye after what just transpired.
"Okay, so let's get the obvious out of the way. Tell me. what's this all about?" Kitamura shot right off the bat, the million dollar question everyone was wondering about. He was determined he could get to the bottom of it then and there.
"..." Taiga remained silent, on a second thought she decided she didn't want to answer his questions anymore.
"C'mon Aisaka, please?" He verbally begged her to tell her, but again she remained silent. Taiga put her face closer to her knees since she was getting more embarrassed by every passing second. Then out of nowhere she pushed herself over the line to finally spill the beans.
"I-I guess I'm not happy with myself? I always feel so bad when I'm around Ryuuji because he just does everything for me, whilst I'm just a burden to him. I don't deserve him, I always just get in the way, I'm annoying, clingy, jealous... " Her self-hating ramble filled her mind yet again, however this time they were disrupted by Kitamura who put his hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, Stop that." He heard enough. "Do you really think that Takasu feels like that about you? He always talks about how wonderful you are when we're at school" He said calmly yet sternly. Taiga raised her head up and looked at him shocked. "Really?" She thought that Ryuuji had enough of her, that she was nothing but a burden that he wanted to get rid of, but the reality was quite the opposite.
"Yeah, never once did I hear a bad word about you. He clearly cares a lot about you, plus from how I know him I would say he doesn't mind taking care of the house on his own one bit, I wouldn't say you're a burden to him at all." Kitamura tried to help Aisaka get her mind out of the gutter. "You're right, how could have I been so stupid?" She again put her head towards her knees as she begun to weep uncontrollably. Kitamura feeling bad put his arm around her shoulder again, this time to comfort her, it seemed like she only needed someone to push her in the right direction and tell her that It's all fine. Taiga let her tears fall down her face as her mind was cursing itself for doubting her boyfriend and how he feels about her. After a few silent seconds between the two her weeping came to an end, Kitamura didn't dare to speak during that time for he found it inappropriate. As soon as she did think she got up her feet and wiped those tears with a handkerchief Takasu gave to her that day.
"Thanks, for making me feel better, I really needed that" Taiga turned to him and smiled. It was really contagious since he smiled back as soon as he saw it. Finally! He was able to help out the couple by fixing their relationship, he felt really proud about it.
"Well It's my duty as a friend and as the president to hear you out and help you out, anyway I can." He explained humbly. Taiga nodded as she came closer, she really wanted to get across how much he helped her, so she hugged him, not thinking much of it.
At first, he stood there in shock, at first not hugging back. But soon enough he just went with the flow and hugged her back.

Ryuuji looked at the door of his classroom in disbelief, he was still entranced what just transpired and how his attempt to make things right backfired big time, making everything all the worse. So many thoughts raced through his head: If he just asked her what's going on would she give him the answer? Was his actions right? Was he even a good boyfriend to begin with? And most importantly of all: Was that the start of the end for their relationship?
His eyes dropped down onto the ground where they stared into nothingness, his mind retreating into a dark place full of insecurities and pain.
"Hey, are you okay Takasu?" Kushieda shook his shoulders, bringing him back to reality. She was quite worried about him since the expression he gave off was quite scary to her.
"No, I'm just sort of lost right now. I ruined everything again." Ryuuji replied in a sad tone. In his mind he wanted to know so badly what was Taiga so bothered by, but he realized that it had to be he himself, and no one else.
"You didn't ruin anything, if anyone is here to blame It's me. If I didn't talk about it so nonchalantly maybe this all wouldn't happen" Kushieda shot back, she hated seeing Takasu blaming himself like that, so she tried to convince him into believing what she already held as a undisprovable fact: that it was all her fault.
However blaming herself didn't fix anything as he just kept looking down without replying, or even acknowledging her being present, retreating back into the back of his head like he did before.
Kushieda tried to break the ice, to fix everything that just happened. And after thinking about it for a little while she finally figured out a feasible solution! It was so simple yet so effective.
It was the thing Takasu should have done in the first place, find Taiga, ask her what's going on and act on it accordingly. It wasn't a foolproof plan by any means, she could easily just lie and or run away again like she did before but it was their best bet going forward, sometimes the most obvious choices are the right one.
Minorin once again turned to Takasu who was off staring into nothingness once more, she waved her hand in front of his face but to no avail. "Hello? Earth to Takasu?" Minorin asked, trying to get his attention. As soon as Ryuuji heard his name being mentioned he immediately zoned back in.
"Y-Yeah? Sorry, I-I uh lost myself in thought again" He stuttered out an apology to Kushieda as he was caught with his pants down.
"It's fine, just listen to me for a second please?" Kushieda accepted the apology as she begged him for his attention. Ryuuji nodded in response, he was all ears to what she wanted to talk about.
"Alright, I know what you might be going through right now, blaming yourself about everything, but we, and especially you have to put that aside and act!" She rallied him up again, with the same passion that she always carried around her whenever she was fired up about something. But even that didn't have much effect on him from the looks of it.
"But how? We tried everything and failed" He replied, still with a defeated tone already thinking of it as a lost battle. Normally this would warrant Kushieda to be angry, and understandably so, but she knew it was key to keep her cool for the moment.
"Elementary dear Watson. It's one thing we haven't yet tried: Confronting her about it." She briefly explained with a jokey remark to lighten up the mood a little. "But I already tried that" Ryuuji said once again in a defeated tone. Minorin knew she had to turn it around to lift up Takasu's spirit, that without it'd be pointless to try and fix anything with Taiga if he himself wasn't 100%
"That's true, but maybe you were a bit too pushy about it or something, what if you tried it again this time being honest about everything? Like how you feel, how it affects you, and all that If you told her all of that she'll open up to you I guarantee you that!" Minorin exclaimed with a burning passion in her voice, that same passion finally somewhat inspired Ryuuji because of her promise of hope, making him feel better about the whole situation, but he was still a bit skeptical about it.
"You really think so?" He asked, hoping to get a answer of the same attitude to push him over the edge to do the right thing.
"Of course! It's better than sitting here doing nothing, that's for sure. now go!" Kushieda recognized that she was pushing him in the right direction so to get him to the finish line she ordered him to finally make that final leap.
"You're right, I need to go and fix this.." Ryuuji gave in, the promise of hope was simply too good sounding to pass it up. He got up his feet and started walking towards the exit of the classroom, of course he wasn't about to leave without thanking the person who lifted his spirits up in the first place. "Thanks again for helping me, You really helped me out a lot" Kushieda simply gave thumbs up as she smiled at him, he nodded back in respect before exiting the classroom in search of his girlfriend.
Ryuuji entered the halls with a new vigor he got through Kushieda's help.
He was finally ready and willing to go the way and reach out to his girlfriend to see what was wrong, but obviously he needed to find her first, which in it of itself wasn't hard as a path leading right of the classroom was a chaotically disorganized mess.
It reminded Ryuuji of Taiga back when they didn't date yet and how wild she sometimes became, he put the two and two together that she most likely ran through there like a wind during a storm, so he picked up his pace and followed the path of chaos.
After a while Taiga's trail went cold as the path ahead of him were too clean for her to storm through, however right before the path disappeared there was the staircase to the right of him, meaning she most likely went to the rooftop.
Wasting no time he scaled the stairs in hopes of finally putting this all to rest and behind them, that he and Taiga could once again be normal lovers like they used to be before all this happened.
Ryuuji finally made it up to the roof, there he heard two voices having a conversation, one being a female and one being a male. He recognized one of them immediately as being Taiga's, he'd recognize that voice anywhere, but he couldn't tell who was the other person that easily, so he decided to find out for himself.
Ryuuji popped up behind the corner of said elevator shaft, finally hoping that he could talk to his girlfriend in peace to resolve the issues the two of them were facing, however what he seen petrified him.

Taiga and Kitamura were hugging like they were lovers. As Ryuuji's mind recognized what was going on, the time for him froze.
Finally, it all made sense to him, she wasn't feeling under the weather or anything like that she was just fed up with him, so she got together with Kitamura behind his back, that was why he was so eager to help them out. In a matter of milliseconds his world shattered right in front of him, his mind going back to that dark place yet again and this time he knew he'd stay there for a while.

After a few seconds of hugging both Taiga and Kitamura noticed Ryuuji standing there, looking at them like he saw a ghost, before any of them could say anything to him he ran away as fast as his legs carried him. Right there Taiga realized why he ran away. "Ryuuji! Wait!" she quickly separated from Kitamura as she ran towards Ryuuji to explain the misunderstanding, but it was simply too late.

End of Chapter 6 - Right Place, Wrong Time.

To be continued.