Okinawa (Part 2)

I don’t want to get out of bed… bed?? More like the super hot futon on the floor that all the boys sleep in in the same room. You know, the girls at least got twin beds!

Me and Tsukasa are the first people to drag ourselves out of the boys’ bedroom to meet up at the lobby with Chisako and Aki, who came out of their bedroom a few minutes before us.

“Looks like you guys got a great sleep.” Tsukasa rolls his sleepy eyes. We were still in our pajamas, but they were already ready to leave for the day. Chisako’s fashion was more modest with a light academia feel– she wears an oversized, warm brown crewneck with a collared shirt underneath, followed by a pleated plaid skirt and loafers. Aki goes for a soft grunge with her oversized gray sweater, a black graphic tee, bright red high top platforms, and gray shorts that match her sweater. I’ve never seen Aki in casual clothes until this trip.

“The tall dude from the 2nd year class snored so freaking loud…” Tsukasa whines.

Chisako looks me up and down. “But Katsuki-senpai seems much sleepier than you, Hiirasagi-kun.” She remarks, as I drowsily scratch my bed hair and my drooping eyes with large, purple eyebags are shut.

My eyes are still closed when I silently point back to the bedroom as if to say “Can I go get my hairbrush??” Somehow Tsukasa understands what I’m saying, and pats my back. “Yeah, go do whatever you need to do, we’ll be at the benches.”

I head back to the bedroom to clean myself up, and when I finish I head outside to the entrance of the inn where there’s blue benches where we eat breakfast. I look around to find the 3 at a circular table off to the side.

Much neatly composed this time around, I wave hello as I sit next to Tsukasa. We just chill and talk until most of the students finally start flooding out of the bedrooms. The teachers then pass out our onigiris, and we eat.

“These taste like trash.” I whisper to Tsukasa, and all he does is nod in agreement with a disgusted look on his face.

But all of us are hungry, so we have no choice but to eat the soggy onigiri. As Tsukasa, Chisako, and I eat unenthusiastically, I notice Aki not touching her onigiri at all.

“Shirasawa-san, you should at least eat a bit, you’re gonna be hungry until lunch.” I try to smile friendly as I say this to her, but it’s hard with a mouthful of onigiris that tastes like it’s a month old.

But when I talk to her, she blankly looks at me for a few seconds, pouts, and looks away, crossing her arms.

W- what?? Did I do something wrong?? I mean, I will admit, last night was a very *ahem* interesting moment with her (I blush a bit thinking about it), but that was all her actions!!

As I ponder this, I scan Aki as she pouts away from me. I notice her arms aren’t crossed as they normally are, but crossed in a way as if she’s covering her… her chest…??

I look down at my lap and think hard, when I come to the realization that she’s covering her chest for a reason–

It was dark last night and I couldn’t see anything after her phone turned off, but I reached out for her arm. Was it really her arm I touched?? I mean, but it didn’t feel like a normal chest, it went straight down like it was flat…

Oop– Oh shoot.

I, umm, might have messed up… I look up at her with wide eyes and red cheeks after realizing what I did. We make eye contact for 7 milliseconds, and she whips her head back away from me.

I look down at my hand. Curse you, hand, I don’t know how to properly apologize for something like this!!

For today, I should probably focus on how to talk to Aki instead of trying to get her with Tsukasa.

As I try to inch towards Aki to say something, she just scooches away. What am I going to do?

After breakfast we get ready to go out and leave to do whatever the teachers take us to do, and the whole time we were walking, we were lined up from left to right in the order of me, then Tsukasa, then Chisako, then Aki. Notice how Aki and I are furthest away??

Tsukasa basically skips, as he’s feverish gazing up at and walking next to Chisako like always. I droop myself along, disappointed in myself and making my eyebags look even more pronounced. Aki clings to Chisako’s arm, still pouting over me. They seem pretty close all of a sudden.

It’s really awkward between me and Aki. We haven’t exchanged any words at all this morning, and every time our eyes accidentally meet, she immediately closes her eyes and turns her head away. Even for partner work, she partners with Chisako.

“I’m so relieved they’re cool with each other now. I could not take another plane ride with the tension between them.” Tsukasa sighs. “Too bad I can’t be partners with Chisako-chan though.”

All I answer with is a mumble, looking down at my feet as we stand by the Shuri Castle, writing notes on our notepads, although all I’m doing is slouching and staring at my blank notepad.

Tsukasa’s eyes narrow as he realizes there’s something wrong with me. “You did something to Aki, didn’t you?” He snatches away my notepad. “Talk.”

I shake my head bleakly. “No, it’s nothing, Shirasawa-san’s never gonna talk to me again, that’s all…” My head tilts up to look at him, trying to force a smile on my face instead of the depressing look I have.

Tsukasa forces me to spend the rest of the Shuri Castle visit telling him about what happened last night. The whole time, he was smirking through my story, until I came to the part where I accidentally touched Aki. His eyebrows wrinkle and he slaps my arm.

“Aoi-kun, how could you??” Tsukasa tsks. “I thought you had a chance with her, but not after that.”

“I didn’t mean to!! And I can’t get a chance to say sorry, because she’s avoiding me!!” I whine and tug his sleeve.

“If I was her, I’d avoid you too.” Tsukasa humphs and turns away from me.

I grab his face, squeezing his cheeks, and turn it towards and close to my face. “Help me, please.” I have the most dire look in my eyes.

Tsukasa sighs and ducks under my arms to get his face out of my grip. “Fiiiine. But do something for me in return.”

I immediately snap out of my gloomy mood and exclaim, “Yes! I’ll do anything!”

Tsukasa smirks and chuckles like a villain. I gulp, I might regret this. But then, Tsukasa rolls his eyes. “I doubt you could, but make a shojo-manga moment ‘coincidentally’ happen between me and Chisako-chan.”

My eyes widen. If I do that, Chisako and Tsukasa could become a thing, and ShiraHiira may never be! I can’t let that happen. I look at him with a desperate gaze and pursed lips. “Isn’t there anything else?” I moan, and Tsukasa sternly nods no.

“Hey, I’m getting you to make up with Aki-chan, so you get me with Chisako-chan. So, deal?” Tsukasa extends a handshake for me. I sigh. It’s a one-time thing, so I’m sure this is just going to be a minor setback for ShiraHiira…

I reluctantly take his hand and shake weakly. “What should I do?”

Tsukasa shrugs and grins. “I don’t know, just do something. I’ll do my part after you do yours.”

Mr. Inoue called all the students to gather, and we were going to leave for our next destination. Tsukasa and I start to walk over to the class group and we see Chisako and Aki-chan sticking to her, so we join them as we all head to follow the teachers and chaperones.

Before I can do anything like talk and apologize to Aki, I have to do something for Chisako and Tsukasa. I guess I could just do the simplest thing, like…

“Oh, Kachimi-san,” I call her by her last name when I’m talking to her, but talking about her, I call her ‘Chisako-chan’. “There’s a stag beetle on your shoulder.” I say monotonously, and point to her shoulder area where there’s nothing there but her collar.

“HUH??” Kachimi-san jumps suddenly, unbalancing her glasses, and even surprises the students around us. Aki quickly lets go of Chisako’s arm and backs away.

Tsukasa also staggers away and gasps loudly, until I glare at him and he finally gets the idea that it’s their shojo-manga moment, lol. “O- oh. Sorry.” He whispers back at me, then approaches Chisako.

Dramatically, as if everyone was watching (in which they aren’t), he puts his arm over her shoulder and shoos away the imaginary beetle. From there, he uses his other hand to hold her chin and turn her face towards him. He fixes her unbalanced glasses and puts his hand back on her chin.

“Don’t worry about it, Chisako-chan. I won’t let a beetle take you.” Tsukasa grins as if he’s the most handsome thing in the world. I put my face in my hands. So cheesy… I glance at Aki and even she looks weirded out by Tsukasa lol.

A few hours of the day passes, and Tsukasa and Kachimi-san stick together like glue the whole time. This isn’t good… maybe this could be more than a minor setback…

Me and Aki walk separately though, and every time I catch her looking at me, she turns away and frowns.

Now that it’s sunset and we’re all going back to the inn, Chisako and Tsukasa are holding hands tight and Tsukasa smiles blissfully.

I whisper to Tsukasa, “What about our deal??” Tsukasa nods at me and walks on forward with Chisako, leaving me and Aki behind.

“Wait!! Our deal!” I whisper-yell as they abandon us, then I realize that he left me and Aki alone.

I sigh. I’m not prepared for this. Both me and Aki continue to walk unsettlingly with our hands behind our back, and when I step a bit closer to her, she steps a bit away. How do I do this??

She pulls her phone out of her jacket pocket to change the song she’s listening to on her headphones. But if she’s on her phone, I can’t talk to her! I blurt out when she has her phone half out of her pocket.

“I–” I silence myself. I step closer to her side so that I can properly talk to her, and this time she doesn’t scooch away. But she still isn’t looking at me.

“It was really dark and I couldn’t see what I was doing, and you surprised me, so I sorta, and I thought it was your arm, and it was–” I rant quietly, looking down at my feet as I talk and my face red in embarrassment.

I hear her footsteps suddenly stop, and I stop walking too. The group of other students end up walking in front of us, casting me and Aki towards the back of the group as they leave all us to be alone.

Aki doesn’t say anything. The silence is piercing and I gulp; what is she going to do??

Aki takes a few steps and ends up in front of me, but I can’t dare look up from my feet at her.

Aki places a gentle hand on my chin and tilts my head so I look at her. She’s pouting, but her face is blushing just like she was last night. Intensely, we hold the longest eye contact we’ve ever held this whole day.

Without breaking her gaze, her hand that isn’t on my chin slides her phone back into her pocket, and it trails up, and I feel a warmth grow on my chest. My eyes dart downwards, and I find her hand on my chest.

“There. That’s what you get.” Still pouting, we stay like this for a good minute, then she lets go and starts walking again.

Even though she already left, my cheeks are burning hot and my hands are sweaty. My heart won’t stop racing where she touched me. I still can’t move.

“Let’s go, why are you so slow??” Aki calls out to me as she strolls ahead of me towards the inn. “They all left us behind!” Aki stops walking and looks back over her shoulder to me, smiling from ear to ear, with the prettiest pink cheeks.

I bury my face in my hands, then scurry over to her. Aki just giggles and pats my head playfully. “Don’t hide your face, I can’t see your starry eyes.”

I peek out from behind my hands, her petite smiling face too much for me to handle, and I cover my face even more.

“Pfttttt. You’re so silly Aoi-kun.” Aki laughs and slaps my back as we make our way back to the inn under the purple clouds and skies of orange shades.