Ch 14

POV Akari Nakano

"If you are tired you should just say so, there\'s no need to force yourself to keep going on. There is no point in it if you aren\'t enjoying just as much as others. If you don\'t express your true feelings, you are just making the overall experience of everyone worse. What do you think would have happened if I didn\'t suggest taking a break you would definitely break down at some point right? Do you think any of us would still be able to enjoy then?"

He turned silent and didn\'t say anything.

I just didn\'t want someone to be having a bad time while the others are having fun. Earlier he was clearly tired but kept going on for the sake of others. I even told him I don\'t like people who keep their true feelings hidden, but he clearly hasn\'t changed. I too am definitely not forcing myself to be with him, if I didn\'t want to be together with him, I wouldn\'t agree to come to the trip itself.

After a few minutes of silence, he suddenly stood up.

"I am feeling alright now. If we can\'t take the intense rides, we can still stroll around together, right?" He smiled at me.

A grin formed on my face as well.

"Yeah, let\'s walk around while eating ice-cream" I also stood up and suggested.

He got a single chocolate scoop with more chocolate toppings on top of it.

"Why is your taste so basic? You should try more things."

I had got a triple scoop of pistachio, strawberry and mango, with rainbow sprinkles on top.

"The thing is I have already tried almost every major flavour when I was a kid and I feel chocolate is just superior to everything, except maybe cookies and cream."

What? Is he for real? He actually compared all the ice-cream flavours when he was a kid?

"Not only ice-cream, I have done that with my everyday life as well." he turned and smiled at me bitterly.

Oh… So that is why he is so reluctant to reveal his true feelings to in front of others. He already tried being himself and all it did was hurt him. Aren\'t I the same? I keep this prejudice of mine just because of an incident in the past. Wouldn\'t it be hypocritical to tell him to do something even I don\'t do?

Just then I realized, somewhere in my heart I have already changed. Otherwise, I would never be with him right now. I didn\'t notice, but somewhere along the way I had already let go of the past. The memories of those days were already overwritten my multiple new ones of my friends and family, and even the with memories of Makoto.

I understood what I wanted to tell him,

"That was just when you were a kid. Have you tried the different flavours now? How do you know you will feel the same while eating them now?"

"…"

"Here taste this." I said while giving him my ice-cream.

He stared at my face for a while before taking the ice-cream from my hand. Then he grinned evilly and said,

"This is an indirect kiss."

My eyes widened, "Wai- " before I could stop him, he already took a bite out of it.

"You pervert" I shouted. What courage this guy has. If I don\'t teach him a lesson he will never repent. I was going to beat him up right then when I noticed the people around us were looking at us weirdly. I grabbed his jacket collar and dragged him to behind one of the buildings.

"Bam!" I slammed him against the wall of the building.

"Eh, reverse kabedon, are you going to confess to me?"

This fellow was still making fun of me. On top of that this position reminded me of the time at the karaoke bar. I quickly cleared my thoughts.

"Confess your mother. I swear the next time you pull off shit like this I will make sure you know the consequences."

"Damn, by any chance is your family a part of yakuza gang?"

Bastard. In anger I struck the wall from the gap between his legs with my knee. He quickly shut up.

Shit, my delinquent habits are coming out.

"Sorry, I took it too far." He finally said.

"N-No, I am also sorry." I said as I separated from him. In my anger I didn\'t notice but the ice-creams had fallen on the ground.

"You wait here for a bit" he told me to sit on a bench and left.

Did I overdo it? But he definitely won\'t have the audacity to tease me like that now.

He soon returned with two triple scoops of ice-cream. Both were similar to the one I was eating before.

I couldn\'t help but smile and the tension from earlier disappeared. At least he learnt something.

"So you did like the earlier ice-cream."

He took a bite out of it and replied, "No, this one isn\'t as good as the one that was yours"

My face turned red as I blushed.. I take my words back, he clearly hasn\'t learned a thing.