Origami Girl

4- Dolls and Cobwebs

"When someone who's starved of love is shown something that looks like sincere affection, is it any wonder that she jumps at it and clings to it?"

― Masuda Sayo, Autobiography of a Geisha

"Gosh, that test was just- ugh" Ka-chan lamented, stopping halfway before looking down towards the ground and sighing.

"Well, at least you have Literature to back you up, I'm hopeless at it," Sayaka-chan replied, in an attempt to comfort the other girl, "So, how did you find the Math  paper just now, Ayano-chan?" She asked me.

"It was okay, I guess," I said in reply, not really knowing what to say.

"You're always like that!" Ka-chan teased sarcastically, and slapped my shoulder in jest.

"Ayano-chan's really smart isn't she? She can handle all the schoolwork by herself," Sayaka-chan remarked.

"Yeah, you don't seem to have a problem with academics at all," Ka-chan said, following suit.

"No, it's not like that!" I exclaimed, blushing.

"Well, you don't need to be so humble with us," Ka-chan responded, giggling, "You should be more proud of your achievements you know. . ." she sighed.

"I didn't achieve anything, so you don't have to praise me," I replied curtly, turning away.

"Well, come on, you've been near the higher end of the spectrum for the past few class tests! It has to say something right?" Sayaka-chan said.

I fell silent, not intending to continue this conversation any further. Indeed, I felt uncomfortable whenever the two of them decide to talk about academics. I will somehow be implicated into the mess. With that, the remainder of the journey to the Chemistry lab we walked in silence.

It wasn't long until the three of us reached the Chemistry labs. We were rather early, so there were only about three or four students in the lab. The three of us went towards our separate lab desks, according to our index numbers.

I placed my pencil case on my empty lab desk. The desk was more of a long counter, with a countertop and a pull-out drawer underneath, where some equipment were kept, also functioning as a temporary storage space for our worksheets, notebooks and whatever we brought to the lab, so that they wouldn't get wet, especially when we wash up after our experiments, which could get rather messy. In the middle of the desk, between the second and third seat, was the sink, a rather deep metal cavern, albeit with markings on the rims, evidence of its usage over the years.

My seat was at the very end of the bench, beside the grilled window. I guess I just have a thing for sitting beside windows.

The teacher, Kobayashi-sensei, was a petite woman, dressed in a scarlet floral print dress. She was preparing an experimental set-up on the long teacher's lab desk at the front of the class, and was too busy to bother about the majority of the class being late. Her long hair tied in a neat ponytail behind her back, Kobayashi-sensei took out some bottles of different-coloured liquids and poured them into many smaller containers. Chemicals, I presumed. Of course, this was chemistry after all.

When the remainder of the class finally filled up the lab , bringing noise and chatter along with them, Kobayashi-sensei had also finished the preparation of the chemicals. She looked up at the class, and  almost simultaneously the chatter and commotion declined.

"Class, greet." said Kashiwagi-san, as per custom.

The entire class bowed and greeted Kobayashi-sensei, and the petite teacher did the same. Not long after being ordered to sit down, the class drifted off into conversation again,  and not only after having Kobayashi-sensei knock her knuckles on the whiteboard loudly did the class went silent and paid attention.

"Today we will perform the experiment we discussed last week," Kobayashi-sensei said, "So class, please take out take out your worksheet from last week. I'll give you a new worksheet later, with specific instructions for the experiment. I modified it slightly from last week, so please read the instructions carefully later."

In unison we all took out our worksheets, and I flipped through the pages, reading line after line, while Kobayashi-sensei went through them again. It was a rather simple experiment, theoretically, but the steps and procedures were troublesome and tedious. There were many steps to remember, and I wasn't sure if I could get the experiment right on the first try. After going through the entire list of steps and procedures, she suddenly said to the class:

"Just for today, I'll pair you up randomly for the second experiment."

This came with a mixed reaction from the class. At first I was slightly excited, since I thought I could be grouped with Ka-chan or Sayaka-chan, but then it hit me that it was also a possibility that I wouldn't be paired with either of them, and my excitement subsided, and changed to apathy. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded my lab partner, Fukuda-san. She was alright with me, even though we didn't talk much. Well, she was one of the few acquaintances I had at class, one that could actually talk to me, at a casual level. But she also had her own group of friends, and so do I, so we don't spend much time together, and naturally, we weren't that close. She was nice, approachable and quiet, just like I was, and we could get along fine. However, she was absent on that day, so the seat beside me was empty.

Kobayashi-sensei looked through the register list, and began writing names of pairs on the board. She wrote in faded red ink, from an old marker, so it was rather hard to see, especially with all the glare reflected from the whiteboard.

It took me a while to register what she wrote on the board, but then I slowly managed to see the columns of names that she wrote. Sayaka-chan got paired with Fuji-san, a bespectacled girl with pigtails. I looked down the list, Hayate-kun got paired with some other guy, to which I breathed a sigh of relief. Ka-chan got paired with Kashiwagi-san.

As for me, my partner was . . .

Yamamoto-san.

I slowly turned my head around towards the other end of the laboratory where Yamamoto-san was sitting, and stared at him with shock and disbelief. He also looked at me too, for a brief moment, until the both of us found it rather awkward and we both looked away.

The class then began to start moving about the entire laboratory, since we had to work in pairs, and of course, we had to physically be beside each other, or of course, it wouldn't work out. Well, since I had an empty seat beside me, it would only make sense if Yamamoto-san would come over here. Since I thought he would do so automatically, I kind of left him alone and organised my items on the table and placing them in the drawer. However, seeing that it has already been about a minute and he was still not anywhere near the seat, I stood up and turned backwards, towards where his seat was. He was there alright, standing there, seemingly hesitant to approach my seat. His file was clutched underneath his left armpit, while he was holding his pencil case in his right hand. As our gaze met, he awkwardly shuffled to the seat beside me, placing his things inside the drawer, saying nothing. Absolutely nothing. The only sounds coming from him were the opening and shutting of the drawer.

To be honest I couldn't care less. I didn't care whether he wanted to talk to me or not. I didn't care if he even came all the way down here to sit with me. Well, I just turned in his direction out of curiousity, nothing more than that.

I already read all the instructions, and was setting up the equipment. Without a word, somehow, the both of us synchronised. As I fixed the pipette to the stand, Yamamoto-san went to wash all the other equipment, the conical flasks, the biuret and the funnel at the sink. According to the procedure, the apparatus had to be first washed with water, then rinsed slightly with distilled water, then followed by the specific chemical for each of the biuret and pipette. I was glad that at least I had Yamamoto-san to help me prepare, it would have taken me forever if I were to do it myself. Then again, the last time I tried doing it, I nearly punctured the main artery of my right wrist with the sharp protruding glass tube.

Yamamoto-san was nearly done with washing everything, so I started to add the chemical instructed into the pipette. I filled it up to the brim of the pipette, to the marking where the amount of liquid would be exactly 25 cm cube, and left tit there, suspended on the stand. Next, I did the same to the burette, filling it up to the 50 cm cube mark with another chemical. It was a clear red, in contrast to the previous chemical's watery violet. I poured the chemicals slowly, and step by step I followed the worksheet, being extra careful since it was mentioned there that the two chemicals were rather acidic and can corrode skin when it came into contact with it.

Yamamoto-san passed me the cleaned flask silently, and I placed it under the pipette. Only then I realised, when I saw the neighbouring pair's set-up, that I had mistakenly put the chemicals into the wrong measuring apparatus, and hence the colour of the chemicals in the apparatuses were swapped. Everyone else's biuret contained the watery violet solution, and their pipettes contained the clear red solution. My gaze wandered from pair to pair, and all of their set-ups seem to support the fact that my set-up was obviously wrong. I re-read my worksheet again.

Apparently, I had misread the instructions, and swapped the names of the chemicals, and assigned them to the wrong apparatus. I looked around, eyeing to see if anyone had caught sight of my blunder, but apparently, everyone was too busy with their own experiment to actually care. Yamamoto-san probably noticed. He should have, since he was taking down the measurements just now. I don't know whether he was colour blind, or was too scared to correct me or simply could not be bothered. I didn't care, it didn't matter. Not like it was a concern to me anyway.

Nevermind, I can salvage this, my small beating heart whispered, and I got back to work straight away.

I figured out that I could just alter the experiment, since if I got the proportions right, I would achieve the correct result anyway. Kobayashi-sensei mentioned that the correct resultant would be an azure liquid, and it should be clear.

Making sure no one could see me, I quickly poured out all the wrong chemical from the pipette into the conical flask. Nothing a few adjustments can't fix, I told myself. Since the formula for the solution requires much more of the violet chemical than the red one, I added only a small amount of the red chemical, drop by drop, but eventually I finished up the entire biuret. However, I didn't see any reaction, and found it rather weird. Being impatient, I took the small container where the chemical was originally poured for us by Kobayashi-sensei, and held the rim of it to that of the flask, and poured glugs of chemical into the glass, I could hear the liquid inside sizzle and pop, and I felt mildly satisfied. I was still pouring some more of the chemical, when suddenly I heard a loud crash, and the sound of shattering glass.

"Ah, I'm really sorry!"

I turned behind, and saw Ka-chan leaving her seat, retrieving a dustpan from the teacher's desk. Kashiwagi-san and her sat at the last row, so I couldn't really communicate to her, since my voice was too soft and it was too awkward for me to speak with around twenty people eavesdropping. Also, I couldn't leave my seat, because I was still performing my experiment, so I was just forced to observe from afar. Well, from what it seemed, she must have dropped something and broken it. I wondered if she was okay.

"Hey, let me do that," Kashiwagi-san offered, taking the dustpan from Ka-chan, split seconds after she returned from the teacher's desk.

"N-no, let me do it myself, I don't want to trouble you-" Ka-chan replied.

"It's fine, it's no trouble at all," Kashiwagi-san said to her, "Yeah, be more careful next time, alright?" he continued.

"Yeah . . . Thanks." Ka-chan said awkwardly.

She then continued on with the experiment, and I was about to do the same, when suddenly Kashiwagi-san exclaimed aloud.

"Murakami-san!" he exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

His expression displayed shock and panic. His eyes widened, and he cringed his eyebrows.

"No, no it's fine. I'm alright, really," Ka-chan replied politely, somehow slightly flustered at seeing Kashiwagi-san's reaction.

"You can't be serious right?" Kashiwagi-san said, "I'm bringing you to the infirmary to get that bandaged."

"I'm okay, you don't need to!" Ka-chan answered.

But it was somehow too late, Kashiwagi-san had already went up to Kobayashi-sensei, who was reviewing some papers. Apparently, he told her about Ka-chan, and she seemed to agree with his idea of bringing her to the infirmary. Kobayashi-sensei got off her seat, and walked over to Ka-chan, and examined her hand. From her facial expression, she didn't seem that shocked or serious, but nonetheless she agreed to Kashiwagi-san's suggestion to head over to the infirmary. I watched as Kashiwagi-san walked down the centre aisle, with Ka-chan trailing behind him, when suddenly I felt something warm in my hand.

I looked down, and noticed the froth bubbling from the mouth of the conical flask I was holding. However, before I could react, the reddish-purple acid in the flask just overflowed , spilling all over my left palm. In a split second, I felt the burn of the acid. It felt like my skin was pressed against a steaming iron, and that the skin was getting eaten away. In fear and in pain, I screamed, and in an attempt pull my hand back, I accidentally dropped both the flasks in my left and right hand. They both fell towards the ground, before smashing into smithereens on impact of the concrete floor, red and purple acid puddling at my feet.

"Are you alright?" Ka-chan  exclaimed, worried.

She was about to run towards me, from the doorway where she was about to exit from a few seconds ago, but Kashiwagi-san tried to stopped her.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, "It's dangerous, there's glass on the floor, and your hand-"

"It's just a bloody cut!" Ka-chan hit back, annoyance apparent in her voice.

She shot a glare at Kashiwagi-san who seemed to be taken aback slightly. Then turning away, she hurriedly went up to me.

"Are you alright?" she asked, worried.

I only nodded, trying to withstand the burning pain on my hand and not cry out. It was getting worse. Kind of. I guessed.

Ka-chan's eyes widened and she was starting to panic. In my apparent pain, I used my right palm to support my left hand, holding it at around the centre of my forearm so as not to burn my right palm as well.

But then again, thinking back, I guess I was overeacting. It didn't hurt that much, since it was dilute anyway, but still, I feared the worst, so I guessed that was what might have caused such extreme behaviour and reaction.

"Quick, put her hand under running water!" Yamamoto-san said all of a sudden.

Ka-chan quickly grabbed my left arm, literally yanking it out of my right hand's grasp. Yamamoto-san opened the tap, and cool water flowed down, soothing my burn. We held it there for quite a while, with Kobayashi-sensei also examining my hand as it lay underneath the cool tap, before retrieving a broom from the store room to clean up the mess I had made. She didn't look that worried come to think of it, but I guess after seeing my genuine panic, she probably didn't want to embarrass me any further by pointing out how minute the matter actually was.

"I'm sorry Kobayashi-sensei," I apologised to her.

"Don't worry, it was an accident. For now, we have to get you to the infirmary to clean that burn," she replied, with a sweet smile.

I managed to steal a glance on the floor for a brief moment, to take a glance at my masterpiece. Shards of glass lay around my work area, which piece belonging to which flask, I couldn't tell. The tubular neck of one of the flasks still lay intact, in a puddle of azure. Hey, on the bright side, we did get the expected results, but maybe I poured too much of the chemical since I wasn't really paying attention while doing so, resulting in a rather adverse reaction.

"Kashiwagi-kun, please take the both of them to the infirmary,"  Kobayashi-sensei addressed Kashiwagi-san, to which he just nodded.

"Let's go A-chan," Ka-chan said to me, then she turned around to face Yamamoto-san.

"Thank you so much, I'm really sorry to cause you trouble," she uttered to him softly.

"Erm, uh . . . N-no problem," he stuttered, blushing.

"See you," Ka-chan  said as she walked past him, smiling sweetly, in a melancholic kind of way.

I followed suit, trailing Ka-chan towards the door. I managed to steal a glance at Yamamoto-san, who was still blushing, and he turned away immediately the moment we made eye contact. I exited the laboratory with Ka-chan, and the two of us encountered Kashiwagi-san who was waiting for us in the corridor.

The three of us started to walk down the corridor, towards the infirmary. We were walking in a row, but Kashiwagi-san did not try to make conversation or whatsoever. Perhaps he was all self-conscious after getting shouted at by Ka-chan just now, or maybe even because Ka-chan didn't even allow him a chance to talk to her. Most of the time when we were walking, Ka-chan was talking to me.

The first instance, the very moment she stepped out of the lab, when she noticed Kashiwagi-san approaching us, she started a conversation with me.

"Ah, A-chan, have you checked out the blog yet?" she said, rather loudly.

Seeing the point in her action, I quickly played along. Of course she was pissed at Kashiwagi-san , even I was rather annoyed. Well, I could stand him overreacting and all but to be honest, what he said just now was rather rude. Of course, it stung a little. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it just seemed like he didn't want Kameko to attend to me, as if I didn't have the right to be attended by my best friend, or for her to attend to me. It seemed like he didn't spare a thought about me, but then again, I was in no position to say this, since I didn't spare a thought for Kashiwagi-san. Although I have to say, what he said was a bit too much.

"Oh yes, it just updated this morning," I replied, getting the ball rolling, "Did you see the new heels they posted, the purple ones?" I continued.

"Oh yes, they were so cute!" Ka-chan exclaimed, "I wonder how much they sold them for."

"I guess it was rather expensive, but I don't know," I replied, "But all the new trends go to stores in Harajuku first," I continued.

"I know! It's so unfair," Ka-chan sighed in reply.

By this time Kashiwagi-san seemed to get our message, and he walked like about a metre in front of us, alone, while the two of us engaged in small talk. He just kept walking forward, leading the way to the infirmary, both his hands tucked in his pockets.

The atmosphere was getting tense, with Ka-chan deliberately ignoring Kashiwagi-san.  The tension kept looming dauntingly over us, like a cover of dark clouds, that the small talk between Ka-chan and I grew to be more awkward and unnatural, until eventually ceasing altogether, letting the curtain of silence fall down.

We reached the infirmary without incident, Kashiwagi-san opening the door for us, while the two of us entered.

"Thank you," Ka-chan said, in a formal tone, as cold as marble, the type of gratitude which you only show due to obligation or forced compulsion, lacking sincerity altogether.

He didn't reply and looked away, but Ka-chan and I just stepped into the room anyway.

The infirmary seemed like a very formal place. The atmosphere was neither heavy nor light. The smell of medicine and distilled water filled the air. Two beds were placed parallel to each other, the headrest against the wall, lined up as if the infirmary was a ward in a hospital. The blinders on the window fixed on the wall between the two beds were closed, limiting the amount of sunlight entering the room. Nevertheless, the room was rather well-lit with the LED light on the ceiling, making everything bright, but not glaring, thankfully. On the right side of the room, were some white cabinets, and also the nurse's work desk. Everything was either white or beige, save for the bed sheets on the two beds, which were pastel blue.

The nurse wasn't in at the moment, so Kameko and I sat down on the bed, beside each other, while Kashiwagi-san sat on a chair on the wall adjacent to the door. That was when I first noticed the gash on Ka-chan's palm. It wasn't that big, or serious, confirming my suspicions that Kashiwagi-san was just overreacting. But still, I guess we still had to take precautions to clean the cut, just in case the glassware she broke was contaminated or anything.

"It's okay, it's nothing, really," Ka-chan said, when she noticed me looking at her cut.

"But how did you break the glass?" I asked her, curious.

She just giggled shyly and refused to give me a proper answer. The conversation kind of ended there, and my attention again returned to my surroundings, my gaze hovering from object to object. Then suddenly Kashiwagi-san spoke.

"Hey uhh. . . Murakami-san," he began softly, his voice light, with a small tinge of melancholy.

Ka-chan turned her head around, looking at him, willing to hear him out.

"About just now . . . I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to," he said, "I didn't mean to force you, I was just um . . . concerned about you, like, there was broken glass and acid over there and I didn't want you to get hurt again," he continued, blushing, his arms outstretched, pressed against the seat of his chair in between his legs.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Ka-chan replied, smiling at him.

"Ah," Kashiwagi-san said again, "Fukurawa-san –"

"Furukawa." I interjected, apparently making him more nervous.

He took a deep breath.

"Furukawa-san, I'm sorry for-"

"Yeah, yeah. Save it," I replied, in a rather apathetic tone.

Ka-chan looked a bit shocked, and Kashiwagi-san just continued to look to the floor, not even looking at me once. No one spoke a word until the nurse arrived.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————-

"Are you sure we could take part in PE?" I asked Ka-chan.

"Yeah, it's just one of our hands, we still can play games can't we?" she replied.

"I guess you have a point, but still . . ." I sighed.

"I'm waiting for the day that you will finally stop complaining about PE," Sayaka-chan said, to which both her and Ka-chan giggled.

"Anyway, on a more serious note . . . I'm going to talk to the both of them later during lunch, are you okay with that?" Sayaka-chan replied.

"Who?" I asked, not catching what she just said.

"You know, Hayate-kun and Yamamoto-san. Well, after what they said in front of you last week, that was rather insensitive, so I'm going to well . . . scold them a little bit," Sayaka-chan said.

I just nodded in approval.

"Ah, and is Kashiwagi-san going to follow you to scold them? Well he's always with you. And he can just yell at the class to shut up, and they just do, because he can just be that fierce." I asked.

"I know, Ayano-chan, I've known him for eleven years. But he's busy, you know . . ." Sayaka-chan replied, trailing off near the end.

"Oh, and what club is Kashiwagi-san in? I don't remember him mentioning anything about it," Ka-chan said, out of the blue.

"Well, he's in the badminton team. He's the captain, in fact," Sayaka-chan answered.

"Ah . . . I see. Badminton conducts trainings in the hall, and it's at the opposite end of the school, so that's why I didn't get to catch his club I guess," Ka-chan replied.

Well, so it seems that Kashiwagi-san is after all, the captain of the badminton team. Well, I guess that explains how he was rather fit and could run so well. Then again, in comparison to Yamamoto-san, he was probably slightly less athletic, probably slightly slower in sprinting, a bit faster Hayate-kun, perhaps. But then again, when you're so far behind running laps, everybody in front of you seemed to be running at highly impossible speeds.

The conversation between the both of them ensued, as we made our way to the basketball court, but my mind was somewhere else, detached from the two of them. The conversation between Yamamoto-san and Hayate-kun last week still played in my mind. My mind reprimanded my heart silently, once the feelings of hurt and longing began to arise.

It was my fault, I didn't consider his feelings back then, he has all the right not to consider mine.

"A-chan , are you alright?" Ka-chan asked, "You seemed out of tangent just now."

"Sayaka-chan," I said.

The girl, her hair put in place with a salmon hairband, turned around and looked at me.

"Well, you don't have to trouble yourself. I'm fine," I said, "I'm okay."

Sayaka-chan snapped me a look of dissaproval.

"And what am I supposed to do?" she questioned, "Just stand there, doing nothing, after I saw you cry like that?"

I only kept silent, my gaze fixated to the ground. Only the sound of our footsteps could be heard, echoing against the walls of the corridor.

"Look, I understand how you feel. I know you felt guilty and all, but after seeing him hurt you so much, I just have to give them a piece of my mind," she said.

I just nodded my head, not knowing what to say with her reply, although still deep in my heart, I still disagree to what she intended to do, regardless.

Soon, we arrived at the basketball court. The heat of summer was approaching its zenith, thank god school was closing by the end of the week for summer break, the heat was scorching. There sky was clear and cloudless, the rays of sunshine baking the earth. But I suppose it wasn't that bad, Ka-chan told me once that the weather in Dubai was much hotter. To me, the girl who has never left Hakodate, the heat of our summer was already enough for me. Apparently, since it was the end of the term, our teacher gave us a choice on what to play. Half the class, exclusively boys, chose soccer, while the other half, mostly girls, opted for frisbee. I looked around to the other half of the class, most of them already walking towards the field. Kashiwagi-san was somehow already at the field, setting up the goalpost. He was alone, pushing the goal post to its place on the field.  No one helped him, he did it all by himself. At the end of it, he wiped his sweaty brow with his forearm. He saw me looking in his direction, but quickly looked away, and jogged back to the main group of guys who were hanging around Yamamoto-san.

Noticing the tan boy over there, I looked around, scanning the crowd of boys for Hayate-kun. I couldn't see him anywhere, which probably meant . . .

"Hey, guys, are you ready yet?" I heard him say, in a rather annoyed tone.

I looked behind, and saw him standing, in the middle of the field, facing where his opponent's team were. He held a lime green frisbee in his right hand.

"A-chan!" Ka-chan called out to me, "Over here!"

I looked around for her on the other side but none of the girls on the other team resembled her. With a heavy heart, I turned to look at the team on the other half of the field, Hayate-kun's team. Lo and behold, Sayaka-chan and Ka-chan were there, standing together at the back of the field. I quickly run up to them and joined them.

The game began the moment the other team deemed itself to be ready. Hayate-kun then threw the disc as far as he could, and it landed nearly three quarters of the field away, which was rather great news, since we wouldn't ned to start scoring from far, and we were nearer to the other team's ending line.

Hayate-kun sprinted to the frisbee as soon as it landed, picking it up and was ready to throw it again. However, seeing that we were still lacking behind and running slowly, it kind of ticked him off.

"Can you guys like, hurry up" he snapped, obviously irritated. 

The game went on like this, with Hayate-kun always losing his cool at the team. Somehow, and for obvious reasons, he simply refused to pass the frisbee to me. He played well though, having snatched the frisbee in between the opponent's passes while still in mid-air a couple of times, and he was always the one scoring. Well, what could you say, indeed, he was the only boy among us, so of course, he would ace the game. I guess he chose frisbee because he had never liked soccer, I remembered him telling me, a long time ago.

"Woah, Hayate," Yamamoto-san remarked as he walked past us, retrieving the ball which had just been kicked out of the playing field, "All the ladies." he continued, teasing him.

"Shut up," Hayate-kun replied.

The game ended with our team winning, having a score of 5-1, all the scores scored by Hayate-kun. Of course, we won, but we were all a bit ticked at Hayate-kun's over competitiveness. It was after all, just a game.

I walked over to a bench near the cafeteria, and sat down. I was tired, and was perspiring from head to toe. I only put in the effort because of Ka-chan, who actually seemed to be the least affected by Hayate-kun's whining, probably because she had a rather good hand at frisbee. Well, in a sense, she was kind of athletic. Hayate-kun didn't even bother about me, but oh well. It hurt a little, but I guess the pain is slowly going away.

"You played well A-chan,"

I looked up and saw Ka-chan, standing in front of me. She smiled at me, and handed me a can.

"Here, I got it for you just now," she said sweetly, "It's grape juice."

I smiled at her in return, and thanked her. Grape juice, my favourite. She knew me too well. I took the can with both palms. It was cold, and wet. I opened the can, and placed the rim to my lips. The icy, sour grape juice poured into my mouth, palpating my taste buds. Ka-chan sat beside me, herself drinking a bottle of isotonic drink. After draining the can of all its content, I placed it beside me, and fiddled out my wallet, intending on paying Ka-chan the hundred yen or so, for the drink. She kind of appeared shocked and slightly surprised when she saw me opening my wallet, and asked me what I was doing.

"Well, to pay you of course," I answered, "For the drink," I added, cupping the coins in my palm and was about to hand them over to her.

"No, you don't have to, it's fine," she replied, pushing my closed palm gently away from her.

"But-"

"It's fine."

I fell silent, only managing to mutter a soft word of thanks a few seconds later. I stood up, walking a few metres down the corridor to the dustbin, which was near a stairwell, to dispose my can there. Suddenly, I heard voices coming from the stairwell. I thought nothing about it at first, but upon closer inspection, I realised it was the voices of Hayate-kun and Yamamoto-san, engaged in a conversation. My heart was leaping into my throat, and I decided to leave quickly. I turned around the corner, to get back to the bench, but something stopped me. Sayaka-chan's voice.

"Hey, the both of you," she began, "Are you free now?"

"Yeah, sure," I heard Yamamoto-san say, "What is it?" he continued.

"It's just that . . ." Sayaka-chan began in a serious tone,"We need to talk."

There was some silence after that, but then, Sayaka-chan spoke again.

"About last week, do you remember what happened?"

"No . . . What?" Yamamoto-san said, in a bewildered tone, "Do you remember, Hayate?"

I guessed that Hayate-kun must have replied in a gesture, since I didn't hear his voice at all. Either that, or he could have had kept silent. I would never know.

"Well, you see . . . Ayano-chan was in tears after she heard it. It was kind of insensitive, you know. The gravure model issue." Sayaka-chan said.

"Ah well, I'm really sorry for that, I guess that was kind of rude . . . but I still don't really get what does it have to do with Furukawa-san," Yamamoto-san replied, confusion evident in his tone.

"Ah, Kenji," I heard Hayate-kun say, speaking for the first time, "You'll just go ahead to the cafeteria first, I'll meet up with you there later, the both of us have something private to talk about."

"Yeah sure." Yamamoto-san said, and a few moments later I heard his footsteps fading in the distance.

After a few moments of silence, Sayaka-chan spoke to Hayate-kun.

"You know how she feels about you right?" she said.

"Yeah," Hayate-kun replied in a soft tone.

"Do you know how hurt Ayano-chan feels? She's literally tearing herself apart because of you! She already felt so miserable after you left her and now you're doing this? How could you even dare look for another girl when you know how Ayano-chan feels about you, and what more, right in front of her? Do you know how she cried for three hours after reading your message? You don't know, do you?" Sayaka-chan confronted him, "She still likes you Ishiwaki-san. She wants to get back together. Although she has never said this, I know in her heart, she still longs for you. You should do something about it, don't you think?"

Hayate-kun merely sighed.

"So even after all this while it's still my fault? Fine," Hayate-kun retorted, "Well, I'm telling you, do you know how it feels like, trying to help someone, yet they keep pushing you away, like they're not willing to receive any help you have to offer, like you meant nothing to them? That's how I felt. She pushed me away, like I didn't mean anything to her, as if I were trash. Of course it hurt, it hurt a lot."

"I understand where you're coming from, but then, why were you texting that girl anyway?"

"To distract myself." he replied, "Besides, there's nothing going on between us two. We were just talking in a chatroom and I just got to know that she's from the neighbouring school. Kenji just decided to screw things up."

Sayaka-chan chuckled.

"Forgive me," she said, "So what are you going to do about it? There's still Ayano-chan."

"I don't know," Hayate-kun responded, "I honestly don't know."

There was an awkward silence between the two of them. My heart pitter-pattered in my chest, thumping blaringly as I eavesdropped on the two of them.

"You still have feelings for her don't you, Ishiwaki-san?" Sayaka-chan inquired.

Hayate-kun was silent, he didn't reply. Not a sound came from him for the next ten or so seconds.

"Look, I have to go, Kenji is waiting for me at the cafeteria, I have to go now." Hayate-kun said, excusing himself.

"Yeah, I'll see you in class later then." Sayaka-chan responded, bidding him farewell.

The both of them parted ways after that. A few seconds later, I heard their footsteps gradually disappear, and I emerged from behind the wall. Hayate-kun obviously and deliberately avoided that question, as if he knew I was eavesdropping on the conversation. With that, he left me with a rather scary cliff hanger.

But what does it matter now doesn't it? If he didn't love me anymore, he had perfect reason to do so. My phone suddenly buzzed, and I took it out and unlocked it. I received a message from Ka-chan.

"Sorry, I'm going to the staffroom to settle some things with Kuronuma-sensei, so you go eat by yourself. Really sorry!"

I sighed, and placed my phone back into my pocket. I know it sounds clingy of me, but it would be great if I could have lunch with Ka-chan all the time. But well, it isn't possible, and I don't want to be really creepy and bug her to come, so I walked to the cafeteria by myself. My mother was too busy to pack my brother and I our lunchboxes that morning, so we had to resort to buying our own food at school.

The cafeteria was packed, and the queue to the food stall was lengthy, so I sauntered over to the row of vending machines to get myself a sandwich. Just a quick bite, I thought, and then I'd get back to class, since I needed to change, and all that. I inserted a few coins into the slot, and selected the sandwich which I wanted. I had to wait for a minute for the sandwich to finish heating up, the seconds ticking down on the small digital screen above the slot for coins. I fidgeted, my fingers interlocking each other, waiting for the time to pass. Once the timer went off, marked with a small 'ding', I bent down and retrieved my purchase from the bottom of the vending machine. It was hot, but it was wrapped in paper so it at the least made it bearable to touch.

"Erm . . . Hi, Furukawa-chan."

I turned, around standing up, piping hot sandwich in my hand. Nakayama-kun was standing behind me, with that shy wiry smile on his lips.

"Ah, hello," I greeted him in reply, "I'm alone today, so would you like to eat with me?"

I had no idea why that just blurted out of my mouth, but at that point, I didn't feel any fear. I wasn't scared near Nakayama-kun. He was just so sweet.

"Yeah, sure," he replied shyly.

"Well then . . . I'm going to take a seat first, alright?" I said, taking my leave from the vending machines.

Fortunately, I didn't have to look so far for an empty bench, and quickly sat down. I unwrapped my sandwich from the wrapper, letting a waft of steam escape. I could smell the aroma of the toasted bread. Since it was still hot, I left it for a while, letting it cool down first. I didn't want to burn my tongue.

"Here," Nakayama-kun said, as he walked up to me, "You forgot to take your change," he added, as he placed a few coins on the table in front of me.

"Ah, thanks. Silly me must have forgotten," I said, trailing off with an awkward giggle.

"No problem," he replied, before removing the wrapper of his sandwich, and taking a bite.

As soon as he bit, he probably felt the heat scalding his tongue, and he quickly chewed and swallowed, his Adam's apple moving up slightly as he gulped. His lips parted and he blew out some hot air, the steam rising up, escaping from his mouth.

I giggled, I guessed I found his reaction rather cute.

"Be careful, it's hot," I told him.

"Y-yeah . . ." he stammered nervously.

He blushed heavily, and averted my gaze. I sank my teeth into my sandwich. It was still hot, but the temperature was bearable for my palate. I could feel the juices of the meat ooze onto my tongue, together with the crisp, toasted bread crunching between my teeth.

"Y-you bought chicken?" he asked awkwardly, breaking the silence.

"Y-yeah," I said, my mouth still full.

Only after that did I realise that I was literally still chewing, and I grew rather self-conscious. I turned beetroot out of shame.

"I'm sorry," I apologised after swallowing, my cheeks still red, "I meant, yeah, I bought a chicken sandwich, how about you?"

"Salmon," he said, chuckling.

"Ah, you don't want to get fat I suppose?" I teased, giggling.

"Sure thing," he replied, smiling.

We continued eating our sandwiches in awkward silence, we made those stray snippets of eye contact from time to time, and we would just grin at each other awkwardly. I would say I was rather nervous, but not because he was scary, and I could tell that he felt the same.

I finished my sandwich, and was about to stand up to throw it away, when he stopped me.

"Thanks for eating with me . . .yeah," he said awkwardly, his cheeks glowing red.

"Well, it's no problem, we could do it again sometimes . . . I guess," I replied.

"Yeah . . ." he responded.

Then out of the blue, he remarked.

"It's especially hard when you have no one to talk to, it gets lonely."

I was slightly shocked by what he just said, expressed in such a sudden manner like that, but I just kept silent and waited if he had any more to say. He noticed my silence and he seemed to snap out of his train of thought.

"Ah! I'm really sorry, I just said things without thinking!" he said, scratching the back of his head with his right hand.

"No it's all right," I said, "I guess I can understand how you feel," I continued.

He immediately dropped the subject, and finished up his sandwich. Once he was done, we both stood up, headed over to the bin and threw our wrappers away. Without a word, we walked back down the corridor towards the classroom, besides, recess was about to end and I had to change out of my PE attire. It was just the two of us, our footsteps being the only sound. Somehow we decided to take the long way back to the classroom block, along the perimeter of the courtyard, and along the sheltered corridor of the administrative block, instead of just cutting across the courtyard. But it was sweltering that day, so I supposed our choice did make sense.

"It's hard being lonely," I said, realising too late that I had just opened a can of worms.

He looked at me, surprised, but then an infinitesimal trace of a sorrowful smile grew on his lips.

"Yeah, it is . . ." he began, in a soft, lamenting tone, "It's really difficult when you see the same people every single day, and yet no matter how you face it, you know it's not possible to reach out to them, and neither can they reach you."

I understood that feeling of desolation all too well. My heart quivered, having being able to relate to the sorrow of his words. The hurt of knowing you would never be able to talk to a certain someone ever again.

"So you just watch, watch how they all mature, leading their own lives," he said, "Without you."

I nodded silently.

"You're just reduced to a fragment of memory for them, and sometimes, a memory which they want forgotten," he muttered, "Like a doll in an abandoned cupboard, wrapped in cobwebs, you peek out through the cracks, knowing all too well that they don't bother about you anymore, not being able to showcase any emotion, for they would not relay them," he said, trailing off with a sigh.

"I know, I know." I muttered in reply softly, not knowing what else to say, his words left me speechless.

He apologised for all the words he had just said. He dismissed them as gibberish, but to me, they essentially captured what I was going through. We continued onwards to class silently, passing by other students like silhouettes.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————-

As soon as I reached the front of our class, Nakayama-kun and I were about to part, but Nakayama-kun interrupted me as I was about to open the front door of my class.

"Ah, Furukawa-chan . . ." he began, "Is it alright if we exchanged e-mail addresses?"

"Ah . . ." I replied, shocked at the suddenness of his statement.

"Erm, well! If you don't want to, it's alright, I'm really sorry for asking!" he exclaimed, flustered.

"Ah n-no, I'll give it to you!" I stuttered, smiling as sweetly as I could to try to calm him down, which probably failed due to my nervousness, becoming a crooked grin.

"Y-yeah I was about to ask you the other day, on the tram . . . but the door shut on me," he said.

"Ah, so that's what that was all about," I replied, giggling to hide my nervousness.

I keyed in his number onto my phone and saved it, and he did the same to mine. We were about to part when the door suddenly opened.

Ka-chan stood in the doorway, her folded uniform in her arms. Her eyes widened when she saw Nakayama-kun, but then fixed her expression and turned to face me.

"I'll go change first, see you!" she said to me, with a very unnatural, forced smile on her face, before walking off.

I was slightly confused at Ka-chan's peculiar reaction, but then I turned back to Nakayama-kun. His hands were in his pockets, his gaze on the floor. The atmosphere was rather tense and heavy.

"Ah, Nakayama-kun, I'd better get going now, class starts in ten minutes," I said, bidding farewell to him.

"Yeah," he said, looking up.

Our gazes met for a brief moment, but I quickly turned around and enter my classroom, to hide my reddening face from him. I slipped into class, quietly went over to my bag, and took out my folded uniform. Clutching it to my chest, I walked across the classroom and slipped back out into the corridor, the dozen or so classmates inside too preoccupied to notice my existence.

Once back on the corridor, I headed off to the girl's bathroom at the end of the corridor. Halfway there, I was rather surprised to meet Ka-chan, walking towards me. She was still in her PE attire, her folded uniform still in her arms. I looked at her curiously, but she addressed my concerns as soon as she saw me.

"Ah, the girl's bathroom over there is closed for cleaning, so I'm going to the one downstairs," she said.

"Well, have you checked the handicap toilet? It's just beside it," I replied.

"Are you sure we can use it?" she asked.

"Don't think we're supposed to, but what for we leave it there unused?" I said in response, smirking.

"That's true," she replied, "Smart girl."

"I use it all the time," I answered.

Ka-chan turned around, and we walked down the corridor, side by side. We finally reached the end, where the bathrooms were located. There were three doors, and the handicapped stall, a stand-alone bathroom on its own, was sandwiched between the male and female bathrooms. The girl's bathroom was closed alright, there was a sign in front of it, informing students that it was down for cleaning.

"You first," I said, taking a step aside.

"Sure, thanks," she replied, smiling.

With her left hand holding her clothes, Ka-chan reached for the handle of the bathroom with her right, and slowly pulled it open. I wasn't really paying attention, and was looking around, but when I notice Ka-chan not going in immediately, I got rather curious, and looked inside. Ka-chan stood frozen to the spot, and her cheeks were flushed.

It was rather peculiar that the lights were not off, and were glowing rather brightly, but then what really got me was the sound of something tinkling, the sound of liquid against liquid. Then I saw him.

Even though we were both standing behind him, I could recognise that it was Kashiwagi-san. He had already changed, and was wearing the school uniform. He stood there, his legs slightly apart, in front of the toilet bowl.

Ka-chan yelped and he that made him notice the presence of us two girls behind him.

"Ah-" he said, as he turned his upper torso behind, but before anything could happen, I quickly slammed the door.

Ka-chan and I looked at each other for a while, before bursting into laughter. Before we knew it, we had to cover our mouths with our palms to control ourselves.

Then, the door opened slightly with a creak, and Kashiwagi-san slipped out. He saw the both of us, and probably heard our laughter, causing him to lower his gaze in embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry . . . about that," he stuttered, his cheeks flushed.

"Ah, it's not a problem," Ka-chan replied, smiling awkwardly.

"Yeah, I should've locked the door," Kashiwagi-san said, nervousness apparent in his tone of voice.

"True," Ka-chan replied.

They both fell silent after that, frozen. They were just standing there, looking at each other. The atmosphere grew increasingly awkward, and I broke out into a slight giggle. That seemed to snap them both out of whatever state they were in, and brought them back to reality.

"Uhh . . . I should get going now, see you, Murakami-san," he said before turning away quickly and walking off, in a seemingly hurried manner.

Ka-chan turned towards the door, her right palm on her mouth, fingers delicately touching her thin lips. Her cheeks had a soft red glow, but before I could even bat an eye, she rushed into the handicap bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

So I was left there, all alone in the empty corridor, having nothing to do but to wait for Ka-chan to finish changing so that I could do the same. At the end of the corridor, my eyes spotted Kashiwagi-san, still walking to class. He shook off the awkward, hurried movement, and swapped it for the more confident stride that he normally wore. He paused for a moment before entering the classroom, as if he was hesitating, but a few seconds later he opened the classroom door and disappeared.

If only I had heard the hushed sobbing from the direction of the handicapped bathroom . . . then things would be different, wouldn't it?

——————————————————————————————————————————————————-

School ended pretty early that day, just roughly after lunch time. I supposed it was because they had a staff lunch after school to commemorate the hard work of the teachers and staff of the school for the long first semester.  

The three of us took a seat at the tram station in front of our school, since it would be around five minutes until the next tram would arrive. The sky was clear, not a single cloud in sight to block the summer sunshine. The salty smell of the sea wafted through the air, mixed with smell of exhaust and asphalt. The temperature was hot, sweltering hot, and I was sweating rather profusely.

"It's hot isn't it," Sayaka-chan complained.

"Sure is," Ka-chan said as she took a folded paper fan out of her bag.

"But it's summer, of course it would be hot," I said, matter-of-factly.

"It's nearly thirty degrees, what's with the weather nowadays?" Sayaka-chan commented.

"Well, I heard it's 31 degrees in Tokyo, 34 in Nagoya and almost 36 in both Nagano and Saitama," I replied, citing the weather forecast I saw on the NHK evening news yesterday.

"That's really hot," Sayaka-chan said.

"Well since Nagano and Saitama are inland there are no bodies of water to cool down the place, so the land keeps absorbing and absorbing heat. In coastal areas, water vapour from water bodies help cool down the atmosphere. Tokyo and Nagoya on the other hand, are gigantic blobs of endless roads and buildings and all the concrete just absorbs all the heat. So in summer, of course these places are exceptionally hot," I explained.

"Woah, so you actually did pay attention in geography class," Sayaka-chan said sarcastically.

"Well, talking about summer," Ka-chan mentioned, unfolding the fan with a curt motion of her wrist, "Would you guys like to come to my house, I'd like to show you guys something," she continued, cooling herself with the violet fan, imprinted with cherry blossom motifs.

"When? You mean now?"  Sayaka-chan asked.

Ka-chan nodded her head.

"Sure, why not? I have nothing better to do at home anyway," Sayaka-chan said, "How about you A-chan?"

"Might as well," I replied.

At that moment, Kashiwagi-san walked into the tram stop, his haversack slung on one shoulder, the usual way he carried his bag. He almost nearly stopped in his tracks when he saw Ka-chan, but she didn't seem to notice him, or maybe she was just deliberately ignoring him. Either one was probable.

"Ah, Sayaka-chan, you're going home now?" he said to Sayaka-chan as he stood in front of her.

"Sorry Kashiwagi-kun, I'm going to Kameko-chan's place today, so you go on ahead yeah?" she replied.

"Oh- um . . . Yeah, okay," he replied.

He left the three of us girls there and went over to the far end of the tram stop. He leaned against a pole, his blue haversack slumped at his feet. In his hand was his phone, and he plugged in his headphones and wore them on his head.

Sayaka-chan and I had a small conversation, in which I didn't really remember the content. What I remembered was throughout the wait for the tram, Ka-chan was silent, still fanning herself. She gazed at her surroundings, the tall office buildings around the station, the advertisements on the platform opposite us, Mount Hakodate on the far left, but she never turned towards Kashiwagi-san's direction.

The tram pulled up to the station not long after, and the dozen or so students at the tram stop boarded, populating the somewhat empty tram. The three of us sat at the long bench near the front, the one lining the length of the tram. We placed our haversacks on top of our laps in a uniformed fashion, covering our skirts. Neither of us said a word, having nothing to say to each other. Besides, the serene silence of the tram would have put even the most interesting of conversations to an abrupt end. Ka-chan was on her phone, Sayaka-chan had her earphones on, while I decided to finish up the novel I borrowed from the library a few days ago. It was a comedy, regarding the life of a sassy young woman in Paris. Her life was revolved around the escapades of her and her multitude of rich lovers, wine, and good food. It was more of a read for me to pass my time, since I didn't really agree with the main character's principles in life.

After a few stops, I noticed Kashiwagi-san standing in front of the exit door. His haversack slung on his right shoulder as per usual. Sometimes I wondered why he wouldn't just carry the haversack with two shoulders, like how it was made to. The tram then pulled over to the station and he got off, by the fact that it was surrounded by sprawling upper middle-class condominiums and how it was after a canal, I could tell that it was Showabashi station. The tram door closed as the last passenger alighted, and for a moment I saw him turn to face our direction. I looked at him as the tram began to accelerate. We made eye contact, and awkwardly he turned away and walked off.

We reached the simple platform of Kashiwagicho station not long after that, and the three of us alighted. We walked down the narrow but clean streets, making our way to Ka-chan's house. We walked past a small restaurant, a grocery store and a two-storey post office before we finally made it to the Murakamis.

Ka-chan's house was a simple two-storey, like most of the other houses in the district. Ka-chan took her keys from her bag, and unlocked the gate to her house. She let us in, and opened her main door, ushering us into her living room. Her living room was rather typical, a not-so-cluttered Japanese living room, with a hint of a modern touch. It was a rather well-lit room, the wall facing the backyard had large windows spanning the height of the ceiling to the floor, allowing natural light to enter. A large flat-screened television adorned the far wall, with a low glass table directly in front of it.

"You guys have a seat first, I'm going to do something first," Ka-chan said.

There were no sofas in her living room, so the two of us sat on the floor, around her low coffee table.  A few magazines were strewn around  the floor, some having their pages open. With Sayaka-chan distracted by her phone and Ka-chan nowhere to be found, I extended my arm and quickly grabbed one of the magazines and brought it near me, placing it right beside me on the floor, so Sayaka-chan couldn't see what I was doing.

I flipped through the pages, my fingers delicately picking up page by page so as to not make any sound. The glossy pages were full of models, donning different types of clothes. It was an autumn themed magazine, so the colours of the clothes were mostly dark but warm. From fur jackets to leather boots, page after page were full of a multitude of different styles, all branching out from the autumn theme. What I noticed was that there were sticky notes, bookmarking certain pages. Some were just simple tags at the side of the page, but one large sticky-pad size piece of paper caught my eye. I flipped to the page, which has a picture of a model in an elegant brown knee-length chiffon dress, adorned with a white lace jacket. In her hand was a red leather purse, while her other hand held an oil-and-paper parasol. My attention returning to the sticky note, I was certain there was some writing on it, but before I could make out what they were, Ka-chan came out of the kitchen.

"Let's sit outside, the weather's great!" Ka-chan said as she stepped out of the kitchen.

In her hand was a tray of drinks. I couldn't see anything since the tall glasses were opaque, but I could tell they were floats, since I saw the scoops of vanilla ice cream floating near the top. Sayaka-chan and I stood up. Sayaka-chan and Ka-chan stepped out of the glass door to the backyard first, and I was about to follow them suit, but realised that the magazine was still lying open there. I kneeled down, and slipped the magazine under the table.

"A-chan, what are you doing?" Ka-chan asked, walking towards me, "Aren't you going to come outside?" she continued.

"Yeah, sure," I said, "I just dropped my phone just now," I continued, adjusting my fringe.

"Ah, okay," she replied.

Then, she walked up to the magazine nearest to her and picked it up.

"Sorry for not tidying up my place, I only remembered to invite you guys just now, so I didn't have time to prepare," Ka-chan said, trailing off with slight giggles.

"Sure, it's alright," I said, as I stood up.

Suddenly, Sayaka-chan rushed back inside.

"Ayano-chan! Come here!" she exclaimed, rushing up to me excitedly and tugging on my hand, like a child.

Before I could react, Sayaka-chan had already dragged me along with her into Ka-chan's veranda.

Outside, the sun was still shining, although the heat seemed to have toned down in intensity. A few fluffy cumulus cloud dotted the azure sky, which sure helped bring the temperature down a bit. My bare soles slapped against the warm wooden planks of the veranda, darting past the white garden table in the middle, on which Ka-chan had placed the drinks. The two of us then descended from the veranda into the lawn. I could feel the soft blades of grass tickling my feet.

And then I saw it.

Towards the further end of the backyard, was a flowerbed full of tulips, all in full bloom. There were a variety of colours in them, but all being different shades of red. There were alizarin, amaranth and burgundy flowers, but they all blended together in harmony, complimenting each other. The soft wind blew gently, causing the stalks of tulips to sway from side to side. It was a remarkable sight.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Ka-chan said as she walked up to us, "They bloomed a few days ago, and I thought I wanted to share the sight with you two."

I could only nod. I stood there, mesmerised by the sight for a moment, before Ka-chan invited the both of us to sit down. The both of us took our seats, and sipped away at our straws. Apparently it was a strawberry-carbonated float, and the gassy drink fizzed on my taste buds, followed by a coating of smooth, slightly melted vanilla ice-cream. Delicious.

"Are you guys excited for the class trip?" Sayaka-chan said, initiating a conversation.

"Sure! Five days in the Keihanshin area sounds fun. We're going to Kyoto too aren't we?" I asked.

"Yeah, for a day trip on the fourth day I think. We're going to stay for four nights in an onsen isn't that great?" Sayaka-chan replied.

"Ah, It's been forever since I went to a hot spring," Ka-chan remarked, "I'm sure it'll be fun!" she exclaimed.

"It's on the second week of next semester right?" I asked, for the sake of confirmation.

"Yeah, we have a week of school before that," Ka-chan replied.

"For last-minute preparations and briefings I guess," Sayaka-chan added, after taking a sip from her straw.

"Ah, I see . . ." I said.

The conversation then took a change in direction, and we started to talk about other things for a while, our choices of universities, the latest fashion trends, food, casual stuff like that.

"Ah, A-chan!" Ka-chan addressed me all of a sudden while we were talking about new recipes, "Did you know on the first Thursday after school closes, the track team is going on an outing?" she continued.

"Um . . . no, nobody told me anything," I said.

"Ah, well it's an informal outing, just for fun," Ka-chan replied, "We're going up Mount Hakodate!"

"In this heat?" I asked.

"We're going in the evening, and besides we're going up on the ropeway. Who's going to walk up the winding road up anyway?" Ka-chan said.

"Ah, I'll go then," I answered.

"Evening huh? That's so romantic," Sayaka-chan teased, "What, is Yamamoto-san going to confess to you in front of the view or something?" she continued, laughing.

Ka-chan blushed, and took a sip from her straw.

"I was just kidding Kameko-chan!" Sayaka-chan added, "But then again, it seems like Yamamoto-san does have a thing for you," she continued.

"Stop it, please," Ka-chan replied.

An awkward silence befell the table, but it wasn't long before Sayaka-chan decided on a new conversation topic. We just kept on talking, laughing, giggling and it wasn't long before a whole hour passed.

"Ah, it's already three," Sayaka-chan said, "I'll have to go now," she continued.

"Sure, I'll walk you over to the tram station," Ka-chan said, standing up from her chair, "A-chan, you look after the house alright?" she added, addressing me.

"Yeah, no problem," I said, and with that, the two of them went back into the building.

I was left alone in the entire house, so I just continued to sit there, sipping away at my carbonated strawberry float. I was the last one to finish my float, since I drank it little by little. I took out my phone, out of boredom, and suddenly had a twitching urge to message Nakayama-kun. I didn't know why, I just had the strong urge to do so. Now that I could talk about the outing, it wouldn't seem awkward at all.

I looked through the contacts of my phone for him, he was near the top so I shouldn't have trouble locating his name, since I added an apostrophe in front of his name, for some reason, but somehow that day, probably due to nervousness I seemed to have skipped his name, and I spent quite a while trying to locate his name. When I finally found it, I found myself staring at the blank draft e-mail. I took a deep breath, and after what seemed like an eternity, I managed to compose something decent and normal-looking.

"Hi Nakayama-kun,

Sorry for my sudden message. I hope I am not disturbing whatever you may be doing.I was just wondering, will you be coming for the track outing next Thursday? The one where we're going to visit Mt. Hakodate.

Furukawa Ayano"

Nervously, I pressed the 'send' button, and quickly placed my phone back into the table. I was just about to turn my head to view the tulips for a while, when my phone vibrated. I checked it, indeed, it was a reply from Nakayama-kun. I was astonished at how quickly he replied.

"Sure I'll go. See you there!

Nakayama"

The formality of the messages were awkward, but I found it rather funny, in a silly kind of way. I was rather curious why he never placed his given name there at the back of his surname like I did, but who was I to enforce such a rule to my liking? I stood up and walked around the lawn barefoot, letting the grass softly tickle the soles of my feet. All of a sudden, I decided to lay down on the soft grass. It felt like a soft, thin futon. Holding my phone above me with my arms, I read Nakayama-kun's message over and over again. A slight giggle escaped from my lips.

I smiled to myself, and I couldn't explain why.