"Good work with bringing him this far," one of their teacher says, giving the Nakano girls and Y/N a side glance as he carried Fuutarou into the student lodgings. "We'll have him rest in this room while monitoring his condition. And if his condition gets worse, I'll take him to the nearest hospital, so don't worry. Bring this kid's luggage too."

"Yes..." Yotsuba quickly responded, albeit dejectedly.

What had happened was when Itsuki and Y/N returned to the group, Fuutarou had collapsed onto the snow. It turned out that he had a fever, and he had been forcing himself to go onto this trip the whole time so he could enjoy it with everyone, though he probably wouldn't want to admit it. Everyone was quite worried, except for Nino, was currently too busy giving her youngest sister a noogie for all the worrying she had caused everyone. 

Ichika covered her mouth and began to leave, "Sorry, this is all my fault."

"Ichika!" Miku called out. But it was too late, the eldest Nakano sibling had left.

The teacher continued helping Fuutarou into the room. "Go get changed and gather at the square. It's time for the bonfire."

"Ah, I'm going to stay too," Itsuki quickly protested, Y/N nodding his head in agreement.

"It's not like you two can do anything here," Fuutarou says, giving them all a small glance. "Just leave me alone..."

A tick mark appeared on Nino's head. "What's with your attitude!? They're both worried about you, you know!?"

"You heard him, just go!" The teacher quickly responded, shutting down their protests.

"But...!"

"I told you he needs to rest!" He moved Fuutarou inside, giving them all one last glare, "From this point on, this room is a no entry area! And there will be punishment if I find you inside, you hear me!?"

A gloomy atmosphere surrounds them all, except for Nino, who only put her hands on her hips and was giving the teacher a pout and a sneer. While there was silence, Miku was the first to break it, her eyes locked onto the yellow-eyed teen.

"Fuutarou... We all know that you were really looking forward to this field trip... Is it really alright... For the field trip you wanted so much to have a lonely end like this...?"

The question of hers made him ponder, staring at her slightly before he looked to Nino. He gestured her for her to stand off to the side so they could talk, leaving the rest of them to leave. 

--: Chapter 15| Campfire Dance :--

The bonfire had been lit up and many of the students had gathered around. The large fire surrounded by a box of stacked logs, giving off an orange and yellow hue around the area. It was the main event, almost like it was the pinnacle of the world.

And as he was instructed, Y/N had gone to the bonfire. However, he stood off to the side, alone. There were some people around him, but again, no one wouldn't want to talk to him. He gave off the aura of someone that was hard to approach and gave off an emo and dark vibe as most people have said about him. Some sort of downcast look rested on his face, his eyes a bit dull as he stared at the epicenter of the fire, the bright orange hue illuminating his eyes as he aimlessly stared.

Y/N could hear some of the snickers and felt the stares from some of his peers. Some of them had even unintentionally, openly let out the remarks they were saying about him. But he ignored them. He ignored such things as he felt quite normal to them, seeing as he went through this situation before. It stemmed all the way since elementary school. But the reason for his downcast expression was that no one he knew was really there with him. He couldn't necessarily blame Fuutarou as he's sick with a fever, currently. Ichika had run off to somewhere, with Miku presumably chasing after her, Yotsuba had gone off to fetch Fuutarou's things and take it back to the room he's staying in for the moment, and Nino had went off to hang out with her friends. His mind then wandered off to the girl with star pins. He had no idea where she had run off.

No clue as to where she went. But for someone reason... He felt some sort of longing, some sort of feeling that wished she was standing here with him. Why is that?

Y/N perked up as he heard footsteps walking towards him, seeing it was the familiar delinquent he had made friends with on the first day. Maeda.

"Oh, Maeda-kun..."

"Y-Yo..." He felt a bit awkward, scratching the back of his head. "You doin' alright?"

"Of course. Though things like these are something I'm never used to," Y/N admitted, flashing Maeda a rather forced smile. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"

 Maeda had narrowed his eyes, "Well... I kinda figured that Nakano-san's sister would be with you, you know? What was her name again? Itsuki?"

"Yeah... Nakano-san..." He grew quiet for a moment. "It's okay. She can make her own decisions and she doesn't always have to be with someone like me. Again, it's completely fine."

Again, Y/N flashes the brown-haired teen a rather forced smile. It only caused Maeda to frown.

"You sure, man? I can keep you company if ya like."

Y/N smiled lightly, but looked down a bit. "It's okay, Maeda-kun. I'm sure you have someone to dance with, and I wouldn't want to take up your time away from them."

Speaking of said person, Maeda had turned around to see the girl he had asked to dance with waiting by the bonfire for him. She had looked away, acting like she wasn't interested at all, but it did seem like she wanted to dance. To show it, she was tapping her foot onto the dirt ground repeatedly, her arms crossed under her chest as she waited.

He then looked back to him. "But..."

"It's okay, Maeda-kun," Y/N repeated, smiling at the brown-haired teen. "You should go enjoy the bonfire dance. I'll be fine here by myself."

"Okay..." He trailed off, turning around. "But, hey. If you do want to hang, just holler. You're a pretty cool dude. You're not as people seem to make out as."

Maeda flashes him a quick grin before heading off to the girl so he could dance with her. Though the thought of Maeda's offer did brighten up Y/N's spirit. It's like he felt appreciated, his existence felt mattered for a bit. In the past, it felt like that his existence was nothing of importance, seeing as he just felt like a bug. Whenever group projects had come into subject, no one wanted to partner up with him. Very few did want to, and no one wanted to talk to him.

But... There were people that wanted to. The first was his very first friend. But it didn't last long as they had separated after their middle school years and they departed afterwards. But they met up again and reconnected. The second was the second person he made as a friend during his first year of high school, Fuutarou Uesugi. One of the first few people to make the initiative to talk to him during a group project they had, only for him to find out that the rumors that Y/N was associated with weren't what they were made out to be. He was just a normal person, like any other normal person in society. He didn't seem dark or emo or any of the things people had said about him.

However, there was really only one person that Y/N felt that feeling he's always been feeling. The one person that he was able to truly relax around. He enjoyed their talks, their conversations, he liked it whenever she would berate him for the simplest mistakes or any stupid things he had said. He was having fun just spending time with her. And yet... She wasn't there.

Where was she?

---

She walked the halls, albeit slightly aimlessly. The question as to why she disguised herself as her older sister was one of the many things that had plagued her mind. Perhaps it annoyed her from that one morning in that moment, witnessing one of her sisters laying so close next to him. Just having that moment, that memory replay in her head irked her, making her grind her teeth slightly.

Why did it annoy her? That's the question that went through Itsuki Nakano's mind. She didn't want to conclude it was "that" feeling, as he elder sister had implied when they had that talk in her room.

But after everything that's happened, she felt like she was a bit of detriment toward a certain L/N teen. She wasn't sure what to make of it. To take her mind off these things, she thought she'd assist Yotsuba with packing Fuutarou's things and take it to said person's room.

Entering the boy's side of the lodgings, she turned into the room. "Yotsuba, did you finish packing his--"

She paused and let out a small surprised sound. Standing over Fuutarou's bed was Yotsuba, yes, but she was holding something in her hands. It was a booklet.

"Yotsuba...?" Itsuki asked, a bit confused and curious.

Yotsuba was quiet for a moment. "This... This is Uesugi-san's guidebook. You can see it's full of labels and memos... Even though he was really looking forward to it this much... Because I dragged the sick Uesugi-san out... Now I ruined it all..."

Itsuki had walked over and took the guidebook to read it, looking up to see slight sniffles from said girl. Small amount tears began to pour out.

"Because I did unnecessary things..."

Itsuki quickly cuts her off. "In the end, we won't know how Uesugi-kun feels nor how he thinks unless we ask him ourselves. However, I don't believe what we did was pointless."

She skimmed through the pages, reading them before stopping on a page and handed the guidebook back. Gesturing for Yotsuba to look into it, the girl with the green ribbon hesitantly took it to look at it.

Her eyes simply widened, seeing what he had written. Fuutarou had written out detailed descriptions of what he had done during the days, detailing how Yotsuba would teach him, noting that these were stories to tell Raiha, some of the notes even slightly and subtly noting he had fun with them all.

"Is this really true?" Itsuki asked.

"Miku said that this is a lonely end, but... Maybe he already enjoyed himself...?"

"Who knows," Itsuki stated with a smile.

With a resolute grin, Yotsuba heads for the door. "Then I'll go ask Uesugi-kun himself!"

"Eh? At this time!?"

"It's ok as long as I don't get caught!"

"Y-You're so straight forward..." Itsuki says, sighing with a sweat drop expression. She soon sighed again, "I wish I could be like Yotsuba, too..."

Her mind then trailed off to the conversation with Ichika. The way her elder sister smiled at her said those words.

"Just trust in yourself, Itsuki-chan. You'll figure things out. I know you will."

"You say that..." She whispered to herself. 

She sighed as she put her hands on the window frames, looking out at the bright starry night sky. Her eyes had widened a bit as she sees that there was a singular star that shined brightly than most. When Itsuki followed it's gaze, her eyes had only widened even more, her heart beginning to beat a little bit faster as she sees where her gaze had landed.

A soft smile soon graces her features. "I guess she was right... Perhaps I do like... L/N-kun..."

---

The bonfire event continued as usual, but everything was slowly beginning to die down. But it still seemed like everyone was wanting to dance and enjoying themselves.

Well, save for a certain glasses wearing teen who stood off to the side by himself. As usual, he was ignoring everything around him. But it also seemed that he failed to hear the nearby footsteps coming toward them, the dirt and small rocks below their feet having a sort of crunch sound to it as they walked along the ground. The figure then stopped next to Y/N, putting her hands behind her back and crept up to his ear.

"L/N-kun."

Unexpectedly, Y/N jumped, turning around and backing up a bit. But he soon relaxed, seeing who it was.

"N-Nakano-san? Wh-What are you doing here?"

She tilted her head. "Hmm? We were supposed to come here, right?"

"I guess..." He looked away as he scratched his cheek. "But I thought you went off with your sisters," he said, quietly. Though she heard it, causing her to laugh slightly.

"Hey, L/N-kun..." She crept a bit closer, "Would you like to dance?"

"Eh?"

Itsuki herself wasn't sure what made her ask the question, but it felt like she needed to. She sighed as she pouted a bit, jabbing her finger at Y/N's chest.

"I said, would you like to dance?"

"U-Um..." Y/N looked away again, "I-I don't know how to dance, Nakano-san."

He felt embarrassed just saying that. Hearing that come from his mouth, Itsuki merely laughed, causing Y/N to look at her a bit annoyed, his cheeks with a red hue as, again, embarrassed that he told her. Itsuki soon calmed down, smiling at him as she extended her hand out to him.

(A/N): Something like this, just a bit more softer in a way. This was the best picture I could find.

"That's okay, L/N-kun. I'll help you along the way. So can I ask you again, L/N-kun. Would you like to dance?"

Seeing that smile on her face moved him. Just seeing it was enough for him to smile himself, slowly nodding.

"Th-Then... If you would like to... Nakano-san."

Gently, he moved his arm forward, his hand slipping into hers. Like before in the forest during the Test of Courage, it was like a natural feeling to do so, their hands easily entangling themselves as their fingers wrapped around each other. Slowly and gently, Itsuki led them to the bonfire, Y/N sweating a bit as he felt eyes on them.

Already, he felt like that the decision was a big mistake and something he could regret. But Itsuki soon moved one of his hands to her waist, her other hand previously holding onto his hand holding a bit tighter, but still comfortable. He looked to her, the warm smile she had on her face hadn't left at all.

"Don't look at them, L/N-kun. Just ignore them. For now, just focus on right now. It's okay."

Her words were soothing in a way, Y/N gulping down his saliva and slowly nodding. And soon enough, he listened to her instructions, the two beginning to slow dance. Surprisingly, Itsuki had found Y/N listening to the instructions attentively and had adapted quite well. Her heart only fluttered even faster, her smile only widening as the moment continued longer.

It all seemed natural... Perfect, in a way.

She wasn't sure if she was ready to tell him, but... This moment. This moment was just enough for her. She felt satisfied.

On one side of the camp, Ichika was walking back with Miku, heading to the lodgings so they could enter Fuutarou's room. But as she watched back, she looked to the campfire, a smile soon coming as she sees the sight of Itsuki dancing with the person she liked.

She looked so happy.

Ichika's smile widened even more. 'I told you, Itsuki-chan. Just trust in yourself.'

The night continued on, with the bonfire slowly dying down as the festivities were beginning to end. However. The single star that shined brightly in the night sky only grew even brighter as it pointed down onto the two.

Things were looking up for them. And it was only the beginning.

---

And that's the end of the field trip arc and where season one of the anime ended off, I believe. Did you enjoy it?

Hope you didn't find the end so corny and kind of cringe, haha.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Sorry if it's shorter than usual, but this was the best I could come up with. As always, constructive criticism and feedback is much appreciated. 

Until the next chapter, folks!