Chapter 3 - Part four

“Probably I am not the only one anymore knowing this place” he winked. I smiled. He managed to make me smile again. A little bit of distraction for me.

“How embarrassing” I muttered when I thought about what I did in this garden the last few minutes. Sho laughed. “Embarrassing? No, cute.” Again he winked. “But I definitely like your smile more.” I blushed again. “Hmm... but this red in your face suits you too.” He laughed louder.

“Well, thanks.” I said tensed. “Please don’t tell Yu, but go to the hospital with me.”

“Alright. But not like this!” he took the handkerchief from my hand and started to wipe my face. “Now you look more or less like a human again. Though it’s still horrible, but well, who cares.”

 “What kind of compliment are you giving a girl!” I complained.

He gave back the handkerchief. “It wasn’t meant like that. Or was it?” he laughed. I just wanted to take the handkerchief back when he pulled it away again. He strongly stared at something which looked like a stain.

Before I understood what he found out he explained. “Who or what is Maru?” his voice sounded strained.

“Ah, that”, I stuttered. Until that point I hadn’t even noticed that I pulled out that hanky, which I got from that boy. The way he asked me about it made me stutter. “I don’t really know either. It’s not mine.”

Something made his eyes shine, if good or bad I couldn’t see because the shining disappeared the moment I noticed, and he started to grin.

“Was this a present? A little bit too early for a birthday present. Maybe that person wanted to go out with you and gave you this, without waiting for your answer he ran away?”

“Nope, that’s not it.” I stuck out my tongue.

“Tell me” he demanded.

“No” I shook my head.

“Then I’ll tickle you until you do.” I ran away and he ran after me. “Wait!” he shouted.

“No!” I replied and laughed. We were behaving like little kids. I remembered how I loved to play stubborn with him just to make him play catch with me. That we did this again after such a long time was a sign that our friendship didn’t die.

“I’ll get you!” we still were running around in a circle but I got slower.

“I got you!” he said and reached out for my top. I couldn’t hold my balance and fell down, he fell on me. “I said I’ll get you!” he sat up and helped me to turn around, because I fell on my stomach, but he didn’t allow me to get up. He let me lie on my back on the ground. He sat down so that I was squeezed between his legs on the ground.

“Now say, how did you get the hanky?”

“It’s not your business.” I had to hold back the urge to stick out my tongue once again.

“Yeah?” he leaned towards me, so that his face came nearer to mine.“ and how it’s my business.”

“No, it’s not.” His closeness made my heart beat faster. I couldn’t concentrate anymore.

“You shouldn’t have said that.” He started to tickle me

“Stop that!” I said while squeaking.

“First you have to answer.”

“Alright, everything you want.” He still was so close. I even forgot the question. So I asked him to repeat it.

“Where did you get the hanky from?” he came even nearer. Our lips were about to touch. I thought about useless stuff like: he’ll hear my heart beat and that made me feel bashful.

But his question made me come down to earth. I turned away from him.

I told him the story of how I got the handkerchief. How I ran into a guy, when I cried, after running away from Kento. “Because I didn’t look up I don’t know who the person was.” My voice was really quiet and just came brokenly out of my lips.

“I see.” He let go of me, got up and stepped a few steps back. Then he looked up to the sky as if he was avoiding my gaze. “I’m sorry” he murmured.

I got up and didn’t know what to do. He was behaving strangely without a reason and it didn’t seem like he’ll tell me anytime soon why he is like that. I thought about a way to make it more comfortable for both of us but just then we heard Mia calling us. Shosuke heard her too and turned to me.

“Fast, we have to go”, I whispered.

“Why that fast? Can’t she know where we are?” he looked confused.

“Not now or she won’t ever disappear from here.” I winked.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me towards the bushes.

“Nao?” again Mia’s voice.

Shosuke pulled his arm out of my grip and got the lead, which was the better choice, because I wasn’t sure where we had to go through the bushes. He helped me to go through them. Just in time. Mia just came around the corner and if she saw us there she wouldn’t think we were on the other side of the bushes.

“Ah, here you are.” She sounded relieved.

“Yeah sorry, we forgot about the time over our serious talk.” Shosuke explained to her. I almost forgot what our talk was about but I still nodded and agreed with him. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Alright, and I’ll leave now. We’ll see each other later anyway. Together with Yu we’ll come to get you and do what we talked about.” He waved, turned around and left. He seemed like he had to disappear really fast from here. When he was out of sight Mia asked worried what he wanted to talk about with me.

“Why do you sound so worried?” I asked because I didn’t understand it.

“Your eyes are red!” she told me. “Something serious must have happened. Tell me about it!”

I told her the short summary of what we talked about, about the information about Kento and the guy who was hospitalized. I didn’t tell her about the handkerchief though and what happened because of it.

“Oh Damn!” I muttered when I remembered Sho still having it.

“What happened?” Mia asked.

“Nothing important. We have to go back. Our free time is almost over.” I replied, held onto her arm and pulled her towards the classroom.