Crossing Paths

When lunch time ended, we still had some time before the bell would ring. Both my sister and Yuki talked amongst themselves all the while I was engrossed in my own thing since I couldn't be bothered with trying to figure out what it was that they were talking about.

"When the cliffhanger dropped, I was left on the edge of my seat~"

"Yeah, same here~"

"..."

"Do you not watch tv shows like that, Tadao-senpai?"

"Huh?"

"It's no use asking such a thing from my brother, Yuki. He doesn't do anything like that. He just reads, practices kendo and from time to time, play's videogames with me"

"You sound like an honored student, Tadao-senpai~"

"I was, but the whole incident happened, and I simply stopped caring about all of that"

"But even then, you keep up with your studies and practice, the only thing you are holding back on is studying, but apart from that, you're still the same person, brother"

"That's how it looks to you, but for me... It doesn't feel like that"

Of course, it wasn't going to feel the same way, after all of that had occurred, nothing felt the same, at least during the time. Me going to school, going to club, practicing kendo and just my life in general didn't feel right.

"..."

"And has she done something to interact with you or anything, Tadao-senpai?"

"No, and I doubt that that's going to be the case to be honest with you" "What happened between us both isn't something that can be easily ignored"

"I see..."

Reiko cleared her throat and sneaked a glance over at me "Regardless, the both of you are already living out your own lives without interacting with one another, if you two are meant to discuss what happened, then life will most likely make it so that the both of you cross paths"

"If that's what you think, then we'll find out in this school year probably"

"Whatever happens, we're both here for you, Tadao-senpai"

"I don't know how I feel having a stalker saying that to me"

"I'm not a stalker!"

Both Reiko and I chuckled and as we were enjoying our moment in the rooftop, I heard the first bell ringing off in the distance.

"It's time to get going"

"Yeah, let's get going before we're late"

We all started picking up our belongings, cleaned up the area and then started heading back inside the school without a second thought.

"By the way brother, you need to pick up the rest of your things from the club"

"Yeah, I'll head there today" The thought alone that I was going to be heading there made me feel slightly nervous, but even then, it was something that I needed to do at all costs to finally cut off everything from my first year.

As we started heading down the hallway, I found myself staring out the window from time to time. Yuki seemed to have noticed this and was staring at me for a bit.

"Tadao-senpai?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you miss her? Shiba Akemi?"

Hearing her ask such a thing just like thing could have been taken in a lot of different ways, but in the moment, it was only understandable that she would ask it right now.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't" Reliving those memories in my mind, I saw firsthand that what I had was nice and probably the most fun I had during that time for my first relationship.

"But even then... What she did... I can't very well say that me making up with her and going back to being friends is possible" "What she did... It's still there and it's something that won't disappear at all regardless of what's done to fix it"

"I see..."

She didn't seem all that surprised by my words, and to be even more precise, the way she had worded it, it was as if she was curious herself about the actions that I would take myself if I found myself in that position myself.

When I left the both of them in their classrooms, I made my way to my own classroom, took a seat and waited for the bell to ring once more.

Upon it doing so, the rest of the students started taking their seats as well and as all of this was happening, my gaze happened to meet Akemi's gaze.

We both found ourselves staring at one another for a good thirty seconds or so until I was the one who decided to break that by turning towards my phone.

It wasn't because I was afraid or anything of the sort, I just didn't like looking at her face for the reason that reliving those memories wasn't a good thing for my own mental state.

The rest of the day went by without any sort of issues at all and once the bell signaling the end of class was going off, I stood up from my seat, grabbed my belongings and immediately booked it towards the club room.

I had already submitted my leave of the club and they accepted it, but I had yet to go and pick up my belongings for the reason that I didn't want anybody talking to me and asking about the whole story if they felt like it.

When I got there, it was luckily open, I went inside, grabbed my things and started making my way out of the clubroom without having bumped into anyone which was a very nice thing, but at the same time, it was sad to know that I was abandoning such an important thing to me.

I turned on my phone and noticed that Akemi had sent me a message about how her and Yuki were going on ahead. I didn't mind it so I simply sent a quick ok message and turned off my phone.

I grabbed tight hold of the wrapped up kendo stick and started walking down the path towards the house, as this was happening, in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but start thinking abotu what I was going to do for the rest of the day.

"Should I practice or simply relax?"

The question lingered in my mind or a good minute or so until I heard the scream of a girl coming from nearby.

"Huh?"

I looked around but didn't see anything of the ordinary and just when I had believed that it was simply my own imagination, it happened again.

"Where are you...?"

I focused my attention on the scream and when I had pinpointed it, I quickly hurried over to do something about it. If needed, I was ready to call the authorities to handle the situation, but if it was something that couldn't wait, it simply meant that I needed to do something about it myself.

When I arrived at the place where the voice was coming from, I stopped in place and found myself in complete shock.

"Tadao..."

"... Akemi"

Just like my sister had said, if we happened to meet up again face to face, it meant that life wanted us to meet up and interact with each other once more. I didn't know the reason as to why it wanted this to happen, but regardless, I couldn't just stand there and walk away after seeing what was happening.

"Who's this?!"

"Get him!"

"Yeah!"

They started charging at me and out of instinct alone, I pulled out the kendo stick that was still wrapped up and started fighting back. After a good five minutes of me fending them off and counterattacking, I had managed to knock them out and call the authorities as well.

"Haaa... Haaa... That was tough..."

"T-Thank you..."

"Y-Yeah..."

It was uncomfortable not just for me, but for her as well and just when I noticed that she was going to say something else, I bailed. I didn't want to be close with her. The memories were flooding into my mind and I feared that what I was feeling was going to develop into something far worse.

"I won't play along with your games. I won't interact with her and I won't try and change what happened. I refuse"