Bab 46: Knock-Out
Arata was unsure how to feel about what just happened between him and Akiba. The way she acted caught him off guard to say the least. It was the last thing he'd think she'd ever do.
Or, has she always been like that? Not necessarily the whole blowing up in your face type, just that she's always felt like that on the inside. Except, he couldn't think of much that would lead to that. Perhaps it was his teasing that caused her to snap.
Either way, during school, or more specifically lunch. She seemed more closer to her normal self. Except for that tension in her voice, as if she was afraid something was going to happen.
"Hey, is everything all right?" Yogi broke into his thoughts. As they were in break during class. "You're doing that look with your face again."
"It's all good, nothing for you to worry about." Arata lied.
"Are you sure? It looks like something's wrong with Akiba too, so I was thinking that you might have an idea of what happened." Damn, was he going to figure this out, Arata thought.
"What makes you think there's something wrong with her?" He asked nervously.
"She just wasn't acting like her normal self, plus when I asked I knew she was lying."
"You can just tell when she's lying?"
"Yeah, don't tell anyone else." Yogi leaned in to whisper this secret. "But when she's lying, she rubs her thumb and fingers together." Arata made sure to remember that, it could be important for him. At least to get an edge if he needed one.
"Interesting. I hope I don't have any tells I don't know about."
"When have you ever lied to me?"
"Oh, um. Not to you, of course." This was an odd conversation for him. The only thing more odd for him at this moment, would be the fact that he was holding onto Akiba's dress in his bag.
Since she threw it down, it left laying next to him when she left. He didn't want to just leave it there, even if it got a little dirty from the ground. Arata wanted to give it back to her, since she did pay for it. However, there was no chance for him to talk to her during lunch, nor would it be easy to get her alone to return it.
With the way things were, he wasn't even sure if there was going to be an opportunity to do so. He was worried that being alone with her might cause her to blow up again.
"Okay class. Is there anyone that wants to volunteer hanging up some decorations and posters for the festival?"
"I will." Arata instantly raised his hand to offer help.
"Really? But we were going to go study and get some fast-food." Yogi said to him. Those plans, he knew she'd be there. Arata knew he just couldn't be in the same room with her right now. It would be too hard for everyone, his blackmail situation be damned. Hopefully Erina would forgive him.
"If it's for the festival, it's fine. After all, someone's gotta do it, and I'm sure it won't take too long." Arata convinced him, though it wasn't like anyone was going to stop him from doing this.
Once school was over, the teacher escorted him to the staff room. Where all the supplies that were needed were located at. He explained to him that another student from a different class also offered her help.
"Then that should make it easier." Even though he wasn't the type to want some stranger helping him. At least it was better than being with Akiba right now. Though he knew that he couldn't avoid her forever… Or as he opened the door, right now.
"K-Kashimura?" She froze when she saw him, only barely able to breath. He couldn't say anything in return, this was an unbelievable situation for him to be in. What he didn't know, was that she offered her help to do the same as him. As fate would have it, that would lead to this meeting.
"Ah right." The teachers were oblivious to the problem with this. "I believe that the two of you are friends, so this should be no problem at all."
"R-right." She answered. He knew for a fact that was a lie. Quickly checking, he looked at her hands. Sure enough, as Yogi said, she rubbed her fingers with her thumb.
"Yeah, well we should get to work now." He rushed getting the things. Now that he was stuck with her, Arata wanted to get things done sooner than even humans were capable of.
They were going around the school, putting up the posters. It was mostly the type of posters that were to hype up the students for the upcoming event. He never paid much mind to them last year when the festival was coming up. Though looking at them now, he felt a little bad about ignoring them. After all, some students probably put a lot of work into them.
Partially because of the quick work they were doing, but mainly due to the tension between the two. They remained silent towards the other. Not sure how to even start a conversation, it wasn't like one could just forget what she said to him last time.
This girl was so odd to him. The way she acted now, was what she always was like. A quiet and shy girl, one that almost never spoke up. Yet, he didn't want to dare and say anything. Afraid to wake the monster inside her.
Once the posters were put up properly, next was decorating the main bulletin board with some cutesy crafts spread around. The type that a teacher would have taped or glued around in a kindergarten classroom.
While doing that, there was also a ribbon that needed to be wrapped around as a border. However, both of them were too short to be able to get it up onto the upper ridges of the board.
"I'm sorry." He apologized. "I guess I'm just a little shorter than most boys." They couldn't stay quiet for this, so he hoped that trashing himself would keep her cool.
"It's not a problem…" She spied a stepladder left on its own just nearby. "I know, we can just borrow this for a little bit." She walked over to grab it and bring it over. He knew that it would be too heavy for her alone, so he was about to go and help her with it. Until he noticed something at the top of it. Someone must've forgotten and left a tool up there… A hammer?
"Wait! Stop!" He yelled at her, too late as she already attempted to lift it herself. She stared at him, confused, while picking it up. The ladder leaned towards her, causing the hammer to slide off of it, falling right for her. In a rush, he dashed to her. Pushing her away from danger, but he was too slow to avoid it. The hammer slammed down on his head, knocking him out. The last thing he remembered, was feeling the ladder crash down on top of him before everything went black.
The next thing he knew, his eyes were slowly opening. It took a while to gain any focus on where he was. From what he could see, it appeared that he was still in the main hallway of the school. There were locker in the direction he was facing in, his body felt like it was lying on one of the benches.
Except his head didn't feel like it was on the hard surface of a school bench. It was much softer than that. It felt good to him. Once his eyes no longer had any more blur, he looked towards what his head was on. Legs? But whose were they?
"Huh?" Were the only words to come out of his mouth. He turned his head up, the person he was lying on, it was Akiba.
"I'm so sorry." She muttered. Her face turning red seeing him waking up. "This is all my fault." He couldn't believe what he was seeing, she was being nice to him?
"It's not- Ah." He moaned in pain, his head throbbing from the impact.
"D-don't move too much." She said to him. "You might have a concussion, or something." He couldn't disagree with that, though all he knew right now was that it really hurt.
"You're right, I'll stay still for now." He knew they couldn't just stay like this forever. Nor did he feel that comfortable with resting his head on her lap. Being this close to her, it didn't feel right for too many reasons for him. The silence between the two felt deafening, until she was the one to break it.
"Why…"
"Why what?"
"Why did you save me?" She struggled to get her words out. Despite their close distance, he could hardly hear her.
"I'm not just gonna stand around and let someone get hurt." He said to her, as if that should be obvious. "I guess you can thank my dad for hammering it in my head."
"I'm so sorry." She said again. Except he wasn't sure what she was apologizing about this time. "You must think I'm a terrible person, right?"
"I won't lie and say what you said didn't hurt me." He replied, believing she was talking about last night. "But, I'm more surprised with what you said about the others." She didn't say them by name, but he knew who she was referring to with those descriptions. "I thought you were all friends?"
She didn't answer. Or at least, not with words. While laying there, he felt something fall to his cheek. It felt like water, turning his head up, he realized it was a tear drop.
"It's not fair…" Her eyes were a waterfall. She was crying over him, and he could feel the drops fall down to him. "I've known him longer than anyone else here. I've loved him for so long… But then all these girls came in…" Her sobbing was making it hard for her to say anything.
"So then, you hate all of us?" He asked.
"It's… Not like that." She replied. "I… I care about everyone, we're all friends. Even you…" Is that what she really just said? Arata was sure that had to be a mistake, the way she talked to him. He was certain that she hated him on the inside.
"But, yesterday-"
"Whenever someone gets close to him. I get so angry sometimes… I just want to scream, yell…" She explained. "But, I really do like you guys. I just don't know what to do." He thought he understood her, but he was wrong. That nice girl, one that was so inviting. She hatred in her heart, but also conflict between her feeling on everyone.
"I never thought you'd be so jealous of the other girls." He said.
"It's not just the girls. When you came along, I hated how close you were to him." Arata never considered himself close to Yogi in any way, but it must've look like that to her. "I just couldn't control myself, those things I did to you."
"The things you did?"
"The tea, water bucket, volleyball. I even sat on your desk without permission so you wouldn't try and talk to us." So all those thing he just brushed off. She did all of that on purpose to spite him. "It was only in the moment, and I regretted them instantly." She claimed.
"I never would've known." He wondered if those so-called clumsy mistakes she did with the others. How much of that was on purpose as well.
"So I guess you're going to tell everyone now." She said. "It would help with Erina, right? Making it so that Yogi, and everyone else hates me." She believed that her high school life was over. She was going to be a lonely outcast, something she had already accepted.
"No." He responded plainly.
"What? But why?"
"Because I doubt they'd believe me." He explained. "After all, they've know you longer, so they'll take your side." That was his explanation. The truth was that he had his own secret he was trying to hide. It just didn't feel right for him to expose someone else.
"Are you feeling better now?" She wasn't sure how to react to his response, so she ignored it instead.
"Yeah, I think we should go to the nurse's office." He knew that the teachers would be okay that they didn't finish their job due to his injury. Certainly someone else could handle this. Hopefully he wasn't too badly injured.
Arata couldn't say that this relationship was mended in any way. After all, with the way she felt about the other relationships to Yogi, was there any hope of fixing that?
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone