The Dreamer and The Star-Eyed Boy

Hiroto stood in front of his house, his eyes gazing at the door where his parents came out carrying many boxes from the residence to their family car.

As he watched, the young brunet felt a pang of guilty swirling in his heart. ‘It’s all my fault.’ He thinks, holding back tears.

All because he couldn’t control himself.

He continues to watch for a couple more minutes, after some time, he stands up and gulps down, before turning around and silently walking away from the house.

The young boy wandered through his neighborhood with no specific place in mind, yet his feet brought him to a little recreational area.

Getting on the swings, the brunet just pushes himself back and forth while thinking back to the incident that caused all of this.

“Hiroto-kun?”

A familiar feminine voice took the boy out of his thoughts. Looking to his side, he sees his brunette friend with a weak smile on her face.

His gaze quickly moves away from her face and down to her left arm, where an ugly scar tainted her perfectly smooth skin. “Nanami-chan…” Hiroto’s tone is filled with guilt as he once again looks at the girl’s face. “I-“

“Can I sit here?”

“Huh?”

The two stare at each other for a second, then he slowly nods.

Sitting by his side on the swings, the girl smiles gently. “I heard you’re moving out.” Nanami says as the boy looks away from her. “So it’s true, eh?”

“Yeah.” He swings slowly. “We’re leaving later today.”

“I see.” The brunette gazes at the sky. “I’ll miss you.”

Stopping his swing in place, the young boy stares at her direction. “Y-You-“ She looks in his direction and suddenly he feels even smaller than he already is. “-you don’t hate me?” His voice comes out as a whisper.

“Of course I don’t! That would be silly!” Nanami smiles brightly, then pushes a hair strand behind her ear. “You didn’t do it on purpose, right? In fact, you only lost control because you really wanted to protect me, right?” He nods and she chuckles. “See! A little incident like that wouldn’t stop you from being my best friend!” Swinging herself, she adds. “Try not to be too hard on yourself, okay?

The brunet stares at her before putting up a fake smile. “I’ll try.”

“Hiro-kun!” Suddenly, Mrs. Kanzaki’s voice echoes around the recreational area. “Where are you? It’s time for us to go!”

Staring at each other awkwardly, the two children stand up from the swing and start to make their way towards the exit.

Just as they are about to step out, Nanami moves in closer and plants a kiss on Hiroto’s cheek, making the brunet blush heavy.

“I’ll miss you.” She smiles gently as the boy feels the tears building up in his eyes.

“Nanami-chan… I-“

***

Slowly opening his eyes, Hiroto groans. “Urgh.” He looks around. “Where am- ouch!”

“Hiroto-kun!”

The boy barely has the time to get his eyes used to the brightness of the room before Umiko jumps towards him, enveloping him in a hug.

He would be very happy to be hugged by a cute girl, but the sharp pain in his arm caused by said hug simply couldn’t be ignored.

“Ouch! U-Umiko!” With a pained moan, the girl finally notices what she is doing and steps away, chuckling awkwardly.

“Hehe, my bad!” She scratches the back of her head in embarrassment.

“So our star player finally woke up?” Ken jokes as the brunet looks towards the bed besides his own, in which the delinquent was sitting down. “I watched your duel through the television here in the infirmary.” His body was all bandaged up, but he seemed in good health. “Nice work!” Giving the other boy a thumbs up, he smiles.

“T-Thanks.” The brunet replies with a slight blush. “But I wouldn’t say I was the ‘star’ player.”

“Look at him being humble!” Another familiar voice says, making the star-eyed boy gaze towards the entrance to the infirmary, where Kayoko, George and Laura stood with soft smiles on their faces. “How cute!” The fashionista winks.

“C’mon, you three, pipe down, Kanzaki just woke up.” Says the club advisor with a sigh.

“Congratulations!” Laura cutely hops towards the bed and drops some cookies on the boy’s lap.

“Hehe, thanks Laura-chan.” Chuckling, the brunet pats her head.

“But-“ George comes closer to his student and glares at him, sending shivers down the boy’s spine. “-that was incredibly reckless, and you are lucky that a broken arm is the only thing you ended up with.”

“S-Sorry.”

With a sigh, the man puts on a smile. “But anyways, you did well Kanzaki.” He ruffles the boy’s hair. “Congratulations.”

“Man, that was some really crazy fight.” Ken comments, and soon the entire room is filled with a jovial atmosphere as the teens continue to commemorate their victory.

George chuckles and soon enough leaves to let the youngsters have some time to themselves.

***

The dueling club had to stay for a bit longer in order to get proper treatment for their wounds. Once that was over, George called for a cab, and they went back to their own school.

Just as they stepped onto school grounds, the group was swarmed by students, asking them questions or just congratulating them for winning an impossible battle.

Umiko thought it was a dream at first, she was actually getting asked about people interested in joining her club!

Eventually all the commotion died down and the Yumehara dueling club found themselves at an empty school entrance.

“Man! What a day!” The blue-haired teen exclaims while stretching her arms up to the sky. “I’m beat!”

Ken scoffs. “That’s rich coming from you.” He smiles softly and jokes. “You didn’t even fight.”

“You understood what I said!” Turning around to face her clubmates, she pouts. “And to be fair to me, your duels were so intense I almost had a heart attack.”

“How reassuring. Our cute little manager could go out during our first official duel as a club.” The fashionista joins in on the teasing making the smaller girl groan.

“You guys are the worst!” Umiko shouts, before all four of them burst out laughing. “Hahaha!” The atmosphere between them was quite relaxed and friendly, definitely way more intimate than it was when they first came together. “…” With her smile slowly disappearing, the manager asks. “So, what are you guys going to do now?”

“What do you mean?” Questions the silver-haired girl.

“Well-“ The bluenette scratches the back of her head. “-now that Kurohane is beaten, you guys have no reason to still be at my club.” With a sad tone to her voice, Umiko continues. “And I don’t plan on forcing anyone to sta-“

She is interrupted as a hand rests on the shorter girl’s shoulder. “I assure you darling, I have no plans on leaving the dueling club.” Kayoko smiles, then adds. “I’ll admit, it’s been a long time since I had this much fun doing club activities. Sparring, hanging out, dueling. It was quite the experience and I want more of it.” She winks. “But sometimes I might skip out on training because of the fashion club.”

“Really!?”

“Yep!”

“As for me.” Ken smirks while putting his hands on the pockets of his spare uniform, which was closer to the normal one from school. “I’ll admit, dueling isn’t that different from street fighting and-“ He scratches his cheek and laughs. “-and, this last month has been pretty fun.” Pulling a hand out, he gives Umiko a thumbs up. “In other words, I ain’t quitting yet.”

“Onimaru!” The bluenette happily returns the thumbs up, before her gaze slowly moves to the brunet standing just a couple of feet away from her.

For some reason, she felt the thumping of her heart stronger with him than with any of the other two.

“I’ve given some thought to it.” The short boy looks towards Umiko. “And m-maybe, if you don’t mind, I’d like to be a full member of the dueli- oh!” He barely has the time to end his sentence and Umiko is already hugging the boy.

“Of course you can! Why wouldn’t I let you in?” With a bright smile that could illuminate even the darkest of corners, the blue-haired teen looks at the boy’s eyes. “We'll be honored to have you!”

Looking at his friends all smiling at him, the brunet grins. ‘Always expecting the worst, that’s silly of me.’

Try not to be too hard on yourself!

Nanami’s words come back to his mind and boy smiles. “Thank you for having me.”

***

After hanging out with her friends, Umiko says goodbye to them and makes her way back into the school.

Taking a deep breath, the girl prepares to walk to her dorm when an all-too-familiar voice comments.

“Quite the interesting group you managed to get together in such a short amount of time. Truly impressive.”

She didn’t need to turn around in order to know who it was. “Thanks, I certainly didn’t get any help from you.”

The headmistress sighs. “I never implied that to begin with.” She walks past the blue-haired girl. “Come, we need to discuss the future of the dueling club.”

Umiko nods and slowly follows the older woman deeper into the school.

***

The walk through the halls was a long and awkward one, with neither of the two speaking a single word.

As they got closer and closer to the office, the blue-haired manager couldn’t help but feel her heart beating faster and faster. She knew deep down that no matter what she did, the headmistress simply wouldn’t ever let her keep the club, so she prepared for another impossible challenge that would be put in her way.

Finally, reaching their destination, the two sit down as the older woman stares Umiko down. “So-“ The bluenette mentally prepares for the worst and asks. “-let’s not waste any time, just spill it out. What do you want?”

The eldest woman in the room sighs, then after a deep breath, she says. “Good job, Umiko.”

Blinking slowly, the duo stare at each other for a good second. “Huh?”

“Good job.” Repeats the headmistress. “There is nothing to it, you just did a good job. You have done well.” Looking away to the wall of framed photos in the wall. “I truly believed that you would fail this task, but instead, you managed to get together a team good enough to defeat Kurohane Academy.” She pauses, then closes her eyes and continues. “Which means-“

Umiko interrupts her by standing up and excitedly slamming her hands against the desk. “The dueling club will be reinstated?!”

With sigh, the elder nods. “Yes. The dueling club will be fully reinstated into our school.”

“Hell yeah!” Throwing her arms to the air, the blue-haired manager smiles brightly.

“Language!”

“Oh, shush it!” Umiko puts on a smug grin and adds. “I’m just gonna say that you suck, you old hag!” Turning around, she points at herself. “Your loss for not believing that I could get past that!”

The older woman shakes her head. “You really should work on being a more graceful winner.”

“Ain’t no way I would do that.” Putting her hands on her hips, she laughs out loud. “I’m never gonna let you forget this!”

Yet again the headmistress sighs. “You really never change do you?” Clearing her throat, she continues. “Ahem! That should be all. From tomorrow onwards the dueling club will be officially considered part of Yumehara again and will be expecting to bring tangible results to our school-“

She goes on and on with the usual spill about their school responsibilities.

“Yeah, yeah I know all that.” Umiko stands up and prepares to leave. “Just don’t go back on your word tomorrow, okay?”

“I assure you, I will not.” Replies the headmistress as she watches Umiko move towards the door. “Wait!”

Stopping right in front of the door, the bluenette looks back at the older woman. “What?”

“…” Holding onto the pendant she always carried around, the older woman smiled softly. “Your grandfather… I’m sure he is proud of you.”

Clicking her tongue, the short girl replies. “Duh! Of course he is, I’m just that awesome!” She looks away and pulls the door open. “But-“ Looking back to the older woman, the two share their first genuine smile. “-thanks anyways.”

With that, Umiko leaves the room and the headmistress holds onto her pendant and looks at the picture frame on the way. “Maybe you’re right about her, dear.” Her eyes land on the photo of a gentle old man. “She really is special.”

***

The next day comes by and Umiko slowly trudges through her usual boring classes, she anxiously waits for the school day to be over, so she can finally start her, now official, club activities.

Just as the bell rings, she bolts out of the classroom and towards the small room she called the dueling club. Maybe they would be able to afford a larger one in the near future.

As she ran through the halls, the bluenette heard the other students still talking about their victory from yesterday, and she even managed to catch some pondering if they could join the club.

Umiko could hardly believe it, from someone who had nothing to possibly the most talked about club in the entire school, it was like a dream come true.

She knew that wouldn’t last, of course, but just knowing that now they weren’t just a joke that everybody laughed at, was enough to make her want to keep going and not lose that momentum.

“Umiko?”

Without noticing it, the blue-haired teen had walked all the way to the clubroom, where Hiroto was standing, seemingly waiting for someone.

“Hiroto-kun?” She asks as the boy smiles. “What are you doing here?”

Yesterday, after coming to her dorm. She received a message from the other members of the club, saying they wouldn’t be partaking in activities the next day.

Understandable, Kayoko had been neglecting her work in the fashion club in order to help Umiko out, so she had a lot of work at her other club to catch up on.

Ken was still recovering from his battle, so he was resting at home, although it was obvious that he wasn’t going to attend school either way.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be resting?” The bluenette asks and the boy nods.

“Yeah, but I kinda wanted to talk with you.” He says as the girl goes to open the door to the clubroom. “A-Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask.”

“Yeah?” Turning to face him, the bluenette sees that the boy is as red as a tomato.

“Uh, eh, ahh-“The brunet shifts in places as he tries to find his words. After a while of basically just squirming in place, he takes a deep breath and stares at her face. Star-eyes meeting triangle ones. “W-Would you like to go out with me? I-I mean, just the two of us?”

An awkward way of asking her out, but Umiko didn’t mind. In fact, she thought his shyness was very cute.

“Yeah.”

Umiko smiles as she holds onto Hiroto’s hand.

“I would love that!”