Acknowledgement

As soon as the rest of P.E class finished, I had believed that I had managed to get away from having to do the rest of the pickup of the obstacles and what not that had been utilized, but sure enough, Miss Makoto noticed me trying to escape and quickly called out to me.

"Tadao, could you help out Akemi with cleaning, please?"

"Got it"

It wasn't worth trying to dismiss her words as me simply not hearing her, she clearly saw me staring at her, there was no other way around what was to come.

I slowly made my way towards Akemi and noticed that she had already started picking up everything all on her own.

"She really didn't need my help at all. I could have left it all to her"

Just when I had thought those words, she picked up some relatively heavy objects and as she was walking, she tripped on something and was about to fall to the ground.

"Tch"

I clicked my tongue and hurried over to grab her. Luckily, I managed to do so, all the things she had picked up fell to the ground with a thud, but none of that mattered in the moment.

I grabbed tight hold of her hand and pulled her towards me "Watch where you walk"

"Y-Yeah... T-Thank you"

"No worries"

I was heartless, but I wouldn't go to the point of letting a person I clearly saw falling, fall headfirst to the ground. 

We stayed in the same position for a good minute or so and once I had noticed how we looked, I was about to let go of her hand when she tightened it a bit more.

"You saved me..."

The way she looked, the way she spoke to me in that moment, that alone was what had made me fall head over heels for her, but as that was taking hold, I remembered everything once more... This wasn't her, or at least, this wasn't the only side I knew of her.

"I'll never get fooled like that again"

"I didn't save you, I just stopped you from making a fool of yourself, that's all"

I forcibly pulled my hand free from her grasp and proceeded to pick up the things that had fallen. I knew that the way I had done it could be seen as rude and what not, but in my eyes, that didn't matter one bit.

"This is nothing compared to what she made me go through with just a single word from her mouth"

Once I had picked up everything, I made my way towards the storage shed and right behind me, I could hear the sound of her footsteps following me.

After a few minutes of going back and forth, we had successfully managed to put everything in its place and as soon as I was going to try leave, I heard the sound of the door to the shed closed with a thud and following that, a click of something locking.

"Huh...?"

"Wait..."

Akemi hurried over towards the door and tried to open it, but to no avail "They locked it..."

"Wait, you left the key in the lock?"

"Y-Yes, I did..."

"In what universe did you think that doing that would be a good idea?"

"S-Sorry for thinking otherwise!"

"..." I let out a sigh and looked around the room for a bit, but since the shed was old, it really didn't have any other ways of an escape if need be.

"The only thing here is the small window there, but neither one of us would be able to fit in there"

"Are you calling me fat?"

"I'm calling us both fat, so don't start"

She started pouting at my words which was relatively surprising to see, but at the same time, I couldn't be focusing on her. I needed to find a way to escape at all costs.

I glanced around the room for a bit more, but sure enough, there was no way out.

"Damn it..."

"No way out?"

"Nothing"

"I see..."

She let out a sigh and proceeded to sit down on one of the mats that we would use to stretch. Seeing as how she wasn't anxious or anything, I took a seat on the opposite one and sighed to myself.

"Who would've thought that we'd be in a situation like this, huh?"

"Yeah?"

"I mean, this is so cliche that you can't even make it up"

"Mm"

"..."

"Mm"

"You're not even paying attention, are you?!"

"Huh?"

I snapped back to reality and noticed that she was glaring daggers at me "Now that's the Akemi I know!" "Sorry, my automatic response system kicked in back there"

"You were giving the same damn response!"

"Like I said, automatic"

Normally, I would've thought that she'd start getting angry with me because of my antics, but to my surprise, that wasn't the case at all. There was something else to it and I could more or less guess why it was like that.

"You still trying to apologize to me, huh?"

"H-Huh?"

"Hit the nail on the head, did I?"

"W-Well...."

I let out a sigh and stared at her for a bit "Look, regardless of if I accept your apology and what not, it won't change how I act with you"

"I know... But even then, i still want you to know that I was in the wrong... I should have looked into everything that was said and found out the truth about it"

"..."

"I... I really shouldn't have told anyone about those rumors that had been said about you... I know that and I still feel guilty about it to this day"

Yes... That was it. The only reason a human being apologizes is because of the feeling of guilt. They want to be forgiven for their misdeeds because of fear... Fear of the unknown, that's it.

"You're not doing this because you're sorry... You just don't want to feel guilty, that's all, isn't it?"

"No, it's not!"

I could tell. Just by the way she was staring at me, I could tell that it was partially because she felt guilty. If I couldn't see that, I'd have probably accepted her apology, but to me in the moment, it didn't matter if she apologized or not, it wouldn't mean a damn thing to me.

"I'll prove it to you, Tadao!"

"Prove it, how?"

"I'll tell you once we get out of here!"

"Fine by me, but two things" "First, stop yelling, it hurts my ears. Second, we need to find a way out before we can start trying to get out"

"..."

She started pouting for whatever reason and after a while, almost magically, the sound of the lock unlocking caught my attention.

"It was weird when I heard that the two of you hadn't gotten back to class"

Our savior, Miss Makoto opened the door and stared at the both of us for a brief moment "Come on, class started, I'll tell them what happened so that both of aren't given a strike"

"Thank you, Miss"

"If you'll excuse us"

With that, the both of us started making our way out of the storage shed and back towards the inside of the school.

As we were doing so, I felt a sudden chill run down my body "Tadao"

"... Yeah?"

I turned towards her, and I could tell for the first time that she was determined. She didn't seem afraid or nervous. She looked just as strong as the first time I had seen her.

"We're going to go on a date this weekend"

"..."

"Make sure your schedule is open for then, got it?"

Before I could say anything, she left me standing there confused and I simply stared at her fleeting figure "What the hell is happening?"

"Are you alright, brother?"

"Yeah..."

"You don't seem fine, Tadao-senpai"

"Don't mind me..."

"What happened? You know you can tell us"

"I'd rather not... I want to think that what happened was a nightmare"

"It can't be that bad, Senpai~"

"..."

A moment of silence fell between the three of us and ultimately, I took in a deep breath and spoke up "Akemi wants me to go on a date with her this weekend"

At these words, I noticed that Yuki stopped in place almost instantly "W-What?"

"She did? That's surprising"

"Yeah, supposedly she wants to make amends over what she did to me back then"

"And? What was your response?"

"She told me I have no choice. Since she knows where we live, she told me that If I was late, she would just drag me out of the house"

"That's dedication"

"Stop, it just sounds like a nightmare to me"

I let out a sigh and just as I was about to speak up once more, I saw Yuki start running away.

"What happened to her?"

"..."

"Reiko?"

"Maybe hearing this will make her do something..."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about it. You'll find out what's going on with her if she decides to do it or not"

"I see..."

"For now, focus on your date~"

"Stop... Please..."

With that, I left alongside my sister, but at the same time, I couldn't help but wonder why Yuki had simply left like that "I guess I'll find out tomorrow"