Ch 9

POV Haruto Nishikawa

"haah…", I am so pathetic. I sighed as I made my way back to the karaoke room, behind Hiwari san.

"Why didn\'t you fight them off?", She asked.

"…"

"It is because you are like this, they pick on you."

I lowered my shoulders further in shame.

"Please tell Makoto san I am leaving" I told her, and left the karaoke bar.

I ran away again. I can\'t even face myself after acting like such a pathetic person, especially in front of my first love.

As I was going home with heavy footsteps, I recalled my first year of middle school. I wasn\'t this much of a loner back then. Although I didn\'t have anyone whom I could call friends, I could still manage to talk to my classmates. Since I was the quiet one, people always pushed off their work to me during cleaning or watering the plants. One day as I was taking the trash to throw it out, I noticed a girl from my class crouching near the flower beds. Curious, I went closer and realized she was taking pictures. The smile she had at that time pierced my heart. It was so pure and full of passion, something I never had. I in love at first sight with Hiwari san. I thought of confessing then but I could never gather the courage to do so. As time passed, I didn\'t do anything and soon we were in different classes. That is why when I saw her on the first day of school, I was surprised, so much so that I couldn\'t even talk to her because my heart was pounding so hard.

I guess I still like her.

To be honest I don\'t like school. I may be biased, because I didn\'t have any friends. To any loner school is just torture. I mean the classes are super dull and all but that isn\'t even the worst part. The absolute worst thing for a loner is the breaks. If you don\'t have any friends and just keep sitting in your spot, people will jeer at you. So most loners study even during break or some put their head down and act as if they are asleep. There are no afterschool clubs or team activities either.

However, this year you could say that I made a friend. Although it was more like him making me a friend. I was no longer alone during lunch breaks, and for the first time I felt that maybe school isn\'t that bad. Honestly, I had always wanted to go to a karaoke bar or an arcade with my classmates, so, when I was invited today, I was really excited. Maybe because of that I forgot about the people who would laugh at me for being alone. They were still there but I just didn\'t notice them. There was a part of me that thought that I was no more alone and they would leave me. But those turned out to be nothing more than the fantasies of a loner. I forgot the main reason I ended up alone – my lack of confidence. Just as Hiwari san said, if I fought those guys off even if I lost, they would likely leave me alone. However, I didn\'t even have the courage to protect myself.

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POV Shizuo Hiwari

"Why is he acting so pathetic right now.", I mumbled to myself, remembering the events that happened on the morning of the first day of school.

I was walking along the road, and since I had lots of time before school started, I was taking pictures of anything that caught my eye. The beautiful spring weather, the Sakura trees, a cat lounging on a fence wall, and anything that seemed pretty enough to me. I took a bit of a detour to take the more scenic route to school. There is a small canal that runs across the road and there is a there is a concrete bridge over it. As I was thinking of taking a photo from the middle of the bridge, I noticed a boy jumping onto the canal. My heart stopped for a second, I thought I witnessed a suicide incident. I rushed to the edge to see if he was okay. The boy was fine, he was holding a small cat in his embrace and was smiling. I unconsciously took a picture. As he was wading across to get to the shore, I called out to him if he needed any help. He looked at me and shook his head. Soon he was out of the water but his clothes were wet. Only then I noticed that he was wearing the same uniform as me. He looked at me and bowed, and got on his bicycle. Before I could call out to him, he put the cat in his lap and cycled off.

That picture is one of the best ones I have ever taken. The happy smile on the face of a boy holding a cat in the middle of a river, with Sakura trees lined up on shore. It feels like something out of a painting.

Later when I got to know his name and looked at his picture properly, I realized that I knew him from middle school. We were in the same class. However, I don\'t think we interacted much except for being on class duty together for a few times.

This is why I couldn\'t understand. If he can jump into a canal to save a drowning cat why can\'t he just push off some bullies?

As I was thinking about him. I entered the karaoke room.

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POV Shinji Makoto

"Huh, he left?", I asked Hiwari.

"Yes, he told me to tell you.", she replied flatly.

What, is he embarrassed? But the guys bullying him left as well. I guess it is better, otherwise the mood would get awkward. But Nishikawa really needs to work on building some self confidence.

"Did you talk about something?"

"Nothing much"

We continued the karaoke session until evening.

"See you later" I waved my hands and Nakamoto and a few other people and turned to walk home.

"Haah..." I sighed when I was finally alone.

What a waste of time this was. Do other people really enjoy this sort of activities? Although I couldn\'t say if there was positive or negative development in Nishikawas\'s and Hiwari\'s relationship, there was development nonetheless.

While thinking of today\'s events I remembered the disconnected conversation I had with Nakano. From her reactions it would seem that she thinks I\'m in love with Hiwari. Thinking back on my actions I realized that I may have come off as such. I need to clarify the situation to her, otherwise she might botch things up between Nishikawa and Hiwari.. I resolved myself to be more careful in the future.