章節 11: Contrary To His Claim, Hikigaya Hachiman Is Kind
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I stared at the smiling chestnut-brown-haired girl for a moment before standing up. The bunnies scrambled away as I did so, causing her to pout in disappointment. Hearing another footstep coming, I looked around and found a middle-aged couple approaching. They held some resemblances with the pouting girl, so they must be her parents.
"Camping with your family?" I asked for the sake of formality.
"Well, we initially planned to have a picnic but this place is too awesome, so we decided to also spend a night here," the girl answered cheerfully, losing her pout.
"Why would even your family choose this place to have a picnic in?"
"Ah, I was the one who chose it. I figured it would be cool to have a picnic in the middle of nowhere, away from the crowd, just enjoying the sound of nature."
I found the reasoning acceptable and sound but didn't agree with her choice. I wasn't criticizing it because she had chosen a real place, of course. I wouldn't have minded if she had chosen another place. Kiss-Shot and I chose this place because it was almost guaranteed that we wouldn't encounter anyone. Therefore, the Yamauchi family's presence was hindering our activity. We had to be careful of what we did as they were around.
I was about to say farewell to Sakura when her mother who had just arrived at her side smiled at me. I sensed a conversation coming, so I internally smiled wryly.
"Hello, I am Sakura-chan's mother, Yamauchi Haruka. Thank you for taking care of my daughter," Sakura's mother greeted with a bow.
Returning the bow, I replied, "Hello, I am Hikigaya Hachiman. It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
"Say, Hikigaya-kun, I have never heard Sakura mention anything about you. Are you her secret boyfriend?"
At Haruka-san's teasing, Sakura whined in exasperation, "Mom, I have no such thing. I didn't hide my previous boyfriend, did I? Why would I do it now?"
Haruka-san chuckled, satisfied with her work. The man who had taken his time in walking to us, the patriarch of the Yamauchi household stared at me silently upon reaching Sakura's side. He was sizing me up and down but lacked the look that Dad always had whenever Komachi talked about boys. He seemed to be the open-minded but still protective type of parent.
"Yamauchi Aito. Nice to meet you," the Yamauchi patriarch said as he extended his hand.
Grabbing his hand, I replied, "Hikigaya Hachiman. Nice to meet you."
We didn't let go of each other's hand even after our introduction as we competed on who had the stronger grip. I wasn't into the contest as I would win any day and any time, but I couldn't just ignore his challenge. Moreover, I didn't have any interest in his daughter, so his challenge pissed me off. It lasted for a couple of seconds. I took his wry smile as his defeat admittance and didn't hesitate to let his hand go. There was no need to embarrass a man who was trying to protect his daughter despite how stupid his way was.
Expecting to still be hated despite my consideration, the Yamauchi patriarch bewildered me by shooting me a smirk. His look was screaming 'I approved,' making me wonder if he had some screws loose in his head.
Ignoring his expression soon, I turned to Sakura. "My friend and I still want to explore the forest quite a bit, so I guess I will excuse ourselves."
At this moment, Kiss-Shot decided to finally give everyone a look at her face as she turned around. The Yamauchi parents audibly gasped, enamored by the sheer beauty of the blonde. Sakura, on the other hand, just like the day she first met Kiss-Shot, didn't show any sign of enamorment. She merely smiled at Kiss-Shot and said hello.
"Hello, everyone; my name is Laura. Pardon me for introducing myself late as I was too occupied by my phone," Kiss-Shot lied as easily as breathing.
"A-Ah, it's okay. We are the ones bothering you after all," Haruka-san replied, meanwhile, her husband nodded dumbly beside her.
"Then, Hachiman and I shall take our leave."
As expected of Kiss-Shot, she knew how to get away from unwanted people. She didn't give time to anyone to introduce themselves and no one minded it as they were too blinded by her beauty to think about etiquette. Unfortunately, a wry smile had to appear on my face as I turned to Sakura. She seemed to have thought up an interesting idea and I had a feeling that we wouldn't be able to get away from her.
"We also want to explore the forest! Why don't we do it together? The more the merrier, isn't it?" she exclaimed.
"Oh, that's right! Do you mind if we join, Laura-san?" Haruka-san asked sincerely. The sign of her enamorment was gone.
Kiss-Shot had a strained smile on her face as she stayed quiet. She didn't wait for long though until she spoke up a response. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to refuse. We resumed our exploration soon with the Yamauchi family in tow. Kiss-Shot wasn't pleased but didn't show it. Though, as someone whose arm she was hugging, I suffered from her displeasure. Thankfully, Sakura was only rambunctious and not private space invasive.
We spent a few hours exploring and taking photos of everything we deemed interesting. In my case, every one of my photos was taken care of by Kiss-Shot as she was holding my phone. She giggled disturbingly at some of my photos and I figured she must have caught me in a not-so-cool pose. However, I wasn't worried since she was using my phone. I could just delete the photos later.
It was around midday when decided to wrap up our exploration. It was also at that moment that the Yamauchi family revealed that they hadn't erected their tents. Much to our dread, they even asked us to camp with us on the same ground. Kiss-Shot's lightened mood turned heavy once again as she accepted their request. It seemed we had to spend the last day of our camping as a normal person.
"Uwaah! That was tiring but so worth it!" Sakura exclaimed as she sat down on the ground the moment we reached our camp. "Hmm…it would be awesome to soak my feet in the water after all of the trekking we did."
Sakura grimaced slightly as she massaged her legs. I had thought she had limitless energy, so I was glad I had been wrong. Standing beside her, I watched along with her as everyone busied themselves with their activities. Kiss-Shot was preparing our lunch, meanwhile, the Yamauchi parents were erecting their tents.
As if having the same thought, Sakura stood up just as I was about to walk to Kiss-Shot to offer her some help. We looked at each other for a moment before smiling softly. Walking to the people that we wanted to help, we immediately garnered their attention. Seemingly knowing what we wanted to do, they immediately told us what they needed.
"Hachiman, we need some wood."
"Sakura-chan, can you get us some clean water?"
"All right," was our immediate response.
Sakura turned to me with a wry smile after getting an empty bucket from her parents. I nodded wordlessly and motioned for her to follow me. I could find some wood near the river, so accompanying her wouldn't hamper my task. When we reached the river, she immediately forgot her task. She took her shoes off, sat on the river bank, and soaked her feet in the water.
She sighed in pleasure before turning to look at me. "Don't want to join me?"
"I am good," I replied calmly.
I didn't want to kill myself by exposing my skin to the sunlight, so I could never join her no matter how tempting it was. If Sakura found it odd, she didn't say anything. She wiggled her feet and chuckled in childish amusement as the water splashed on her. I watched on the sideline, wondering when she would fill up the empty bucket with water.
"Hachiman-kun, what will you do if you find out that you will die in a year?" Sakura asked, pulling me out of my mind.
"I would try things that I had never dared to try and live my life to the fullest, so I could leave the world without regrets," I answered instantaneously.
"As expected, that's the answer, right?"
Sakura sounded like someone asking for validation. I noticed a slight relief in her tone when I agreed with her but didn't comment on it. The talk was going in an uncomfortable direction and I wasn't too eager to listen to it. I hoped she would realize what she was doing and dropped the matter entirely.
"You know that I am going to die soon, right?"
Unfortunately, she didn't do what I hoped her to do.
"I could see the look of realization in your eyes that morning. I almost thought that you were going to be like the others, immediately offering me sympathy, but you surprised me by merely saying farewell as if you weren't interested at all." Sakura looked up at me. "At that moment, I felt like Yamauchi Sakura again; not the poor lass suffering from pancreatic cancer."
Yamauchi Sakura was nearing the end of her journey. Unfortunately, she chose the wrong person to listen to her story.
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Honorary Mention:
Venerable Immortal AsheCrow
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Frona_Gorgophone
Frona_Gorgophone Sorry for the sporadic updates. I got too tangled up with being a snarky and grumpy fan fiction reviewer on FF. I swear that place has many brilliant minds but lazy bums. That aside, I hope you enjoy this chapter and await another update in a few hours.
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