A Surprising Visit

 Only one month is left before the start of the semester exams. During what seemed like another regular class, Hirugami saw Kitomi, outside his class, trying to catch his attention to her and signaling her to come and talk with her. Hirugami tried to ignore her by pretending he didn’t notice her. As soon as the bell rang, declaring the end of the period, and the teacher left, Kitomi raced towards Hirugami to ask him about how he was doing with the manga. But on seeing Kitomi racing towards him and in an attempt to avoid her, he fled the scene, fast on his legs.

After fleeing from Kitomi, Hirugami found Mitori and Hayako, at the hallway. They were talking about something exciting; at least that’s what Hirugami thought. On seeing Hirugami, Mitori became more hyped and tells him that the Blu-ray discs for their favourite ‘Robot Girlfriend’ are currently out and he even has got his hands on two of them, presently, and pulls out three discs from his bags. Hirugami became happy on hearing the news and talks about how he had always wanted to watch it. But their celebration is short-lived as Hirugami hears Kitomi’s voice coming from the way from which he had come across his friends and she was on her way there. Seeing Kitomi nearing on them, Hirugami took a hold of both Mitori and Hayako’s collars and said “I am extremely sorry for this guys”, and before anyone could ask what he was talking about, he grabbed the Blu-ray discs from Mitori’s bag and jumped down the window and made a run for it to run away from Kitomi and keep the discs away from her.

Hirugami wanted to make sure no one was following him and especially not Kitomi, and looked backwards only to find Kitomi flabbergasted and both Mitori and Hayako being on the verge of passing out. When they saw that Hirugami had made a run for it and with the discs too, they ran after him in an attempt to at least make him give back the discs, so that the three of them could watch it together. Hayako called out to Hirugami who was way ahead them now and had resumed his running escape. He showed no signs of response, must have not been able to hear him. Mitori was falling behind a bit. He increased his speed and ran faster to catch up with Hirugami. Mitori, in an attempt to catch up with the both of them, tried to run faster and increase his speed. He sped up quite a bit, but didn’t notice that he had entered the main road, until it was too late. He was on the middle of the road, when a red car came and just grazed his feet. At this, he fell on the ground, holding his foot and crying with pain. The car came to a halt and from in it came out the Literature teacher. Hayako also came to a stop and shouted loudly at Hirugami to stop and both of them made their way to Mitori, who was quickly admitted to the hospital.

The next day, when Hayako and Hirugami came to visit Mitori, they found their Literature teacher, arguing with the nurse to let her enter the resting room to visit Mitori. She felt that it was her fault that Mitori had a broken toe and he got hospitalized. Hayko actually had a huge crush on the teacher. He didn’t want to miss any chance of talking with her. He controlled his temptation to talk with her during the accident with Mitori. Makano was arguing with the nurse to let her enter the room to Mitori. On seeing Hayako trying badly to converse with her, and she herself arguing with the nurse, made Hirugami think what was bad, a crash or a crush. After arguing with the teacher for a long time, the nurse finally gave in and allowed only Hirugami and Hayako, 5 minutes to meet with Mitori. She became frustrated on hearing this and Hayako told her-

 “I will tell you all about Mitori’s injury and health after we see him, Miss Makano”. 

They entered the room and on seeing them, a bright smile came on Mitori’s face. He told that he would be released from the hospital soon as he only had a broken toe. There was a look of relief on his friends’ face.

One week before the exam, it was a normal day at college, but not for Hirugami. He always managed to escape from the clutches of Kitomi, but this time he had been cornered. There was no escape. But this time, Kitomi didn’t corner him to ask about the manga, but to help her study this last week before the exams. This caught Hirugami off guard. He normally expected her to make her some bizarre request about the mange, but here she is pleading to him about tuition lessons with him. Though reluctant at first, when Hirugami saw the face of Kitomi on the verge of disappointment and crying, his mind took a whole 360 degree turn and he agreed quickly.

After college, Hirugami went to her house that day. Although he hadn’t been to a girl’s house before, he felt quite comfortable there. Just like him, she also lived in an apartment, away from her family. After being comfortably seated, when Hirugami asked Kitomi some basic questions on the chapters to be coming in the exams, he was shocked to find that Kitomi hadn’t been studying at all lately and all her concentration had been on the manga. On seeing the look on Hirugami’s face, Kitomi felt that Hirugami thought that she was beyond help and wouldn’t be able to pass her semester exams. Tears fell down her eyes. When Hirugami saw tears in her eyes, he understood that she felt disappointed in herself. He held her soft, white hands and looked at her tearful face and told her that he shall help her pass the exams by hook or by crook. She became awestruck on seeing Hirugami’s confidence and seriousness which she had seen for the first time. This boldness and confidence of Hirugami developed some unknown feelings towards him, which made her blush. She was surprised and couldn’t the reason for blushing out of nowhere. She thought to herself, “Is it love that is bringing a connection between us or something else?” Her tutoring session with Hirugami went on for the whole week and they studied hard and seriously.

After one week, the time of the exam arrived. Although Kitomi was a little scared about it, she felt confident enough about walking into the exam room and passing the exam with flying colours which she did. She became surprised that she did pass the exams and with good grades too. For this, she felt really thankful to Hirugami. For his help, Kitomi stopped pestering Hirugami about the manga, as she knew that he keeps his promises and will do his work, within time, as he promised and thus, a new chapter begins in the entangled life of Hirugami and Kitomi.

As the exams were finally over and Hirugami passed with good grades, he could finally start working once more on the manga and he planned to complete the first set of the drawings of Kitomi’s manga. He had to finish it before the vacation, as his friends, Mitori and Hayako were planning to spend some quality time with each other at the beach during the vacation. They also invited Kitomi, who had in turn invited her friends, Ada and Ichiko. Oblivious to the fact that Ichiko only stuck around because she had a crush on Mitori, whereas he was excited about this vacation at the beach because his crush, Ada was joining them, who in turn was also oblivious to the fact that Ichiko had a crush on him.

After their tutoring period together, the connection between them seemed to grow stronger and Hirugami and Kitomi returned homes together from college daily, some of its reason being that they had to discuss about the manga. They discussed about their next chapter in the manga and what art style they should follow. Their houses were located in opposite roads to each other and when they split to go their separate ways, Hirugami noticed that his father is waiting outside his apartment building.

Hirugami, due to his dark and unforgettable past with his family stays away from his past and his family. His father welcomed him to his home and asked him how he was doing by himself in that small apartment, he had rented. He told him that he had been doing fine by himself and he had finally found his passion back. His father tells him that he wouldn’t find happiness in it and it would torture him just as it tortured him at the time of his mother’s death. Hirugami’s father reminds him that it was because of him that his mother died. He tells him that Hirugami should study well and follow in his footsteps to carry on the family business. Hirugami put his head down and says that he would like to give this new opportunity in his life a chance and if this fails him, he would follow in his father’s footsteps.