Watching Over You
- 02 – From afar.
“Tanaka-saaan!” a black haired female shouted towards a short brunette who continued running away. “Wait for me, Tanaka-san!”
“Junjun! I told you leave me alone! Just today!” Tanaka Reina, second year, Math Club vice president, shouted as she rounded up a corner.
“Tanaka-san! Don’t run away!” Junjun shouted once more as she chased the younger female.
Standing beside a certain Qian Lin, Linlin, Risa looked at the two before sighing and shaking her head left and right. A dictionary in hand, Risa dragged Linlin inside the school building a certain Takahashi Ai, owner of the book, had entered a while ago.
After successfully dragging the second year Chinese transfer student into the library, she held up a finger in front of the girl. “You see, Linlin, no one knows about that. Remember, I don’t like attracting attention to myself.”
“But if you are the school’s top 1, wouldn’t you be attracting enough attention to yourself?” Linlin reasoned out with a smile. She spoke in a heavy accent that definitely seemed to be foreign.
“Remember, no one knows who I am, or what this ‘Niigaki Risa’ looks like. But now… I’m not so sure anymore.” Risa put both of her hands on her waist and shoook her head left and right as if she was in disappointment. “I really shouldn’t have approached her…”
“But you wanted to see her, didn’t you?” Linlin asked her senpai with a wide grin.
“Well… now she doesn’t want to see me again?” Risa replied with uncertainty.
“You have something she needs, doesn’t she?” Linlin grinned wider. “You’ll meet again. Anyway, Niigaki-san, I need to go. I smell meatbuns in the direction of the cafeteria!” Quickly after speaking, the girl dashed out of the library.
Risa sighed as she looked at the dictionary in her hand. “If she would bother taking this from me…” She ran a hand through her hair. “Aw, man, that really hurt.”
~o~o~o~o~
Seated inside the classroom of 3-B, Takahashi Ai had both of her elbows on the table, both her hands covering her face in a double facepalm.
“Of all things to do, Takahashi Ai! Throwing a book is surely not the right thing.” Ai shook her head left and right. She folded her arms towards the desk and rested her forehead on her arms. “First of all, she saved you from a yankee. You should be thanking her, Takahashi Ai!” She looked straight at the ground after opening her eyes. “But she… kissed you too…”
Ai definitely could feel the heat climbing up from her stomach to her chest and up to her cheeks then to her ears. She lifted her head up a bit, looking straight with her nose hidden behind her arms. “And I threw her a book for calling me Forever Second… shouldn’t it be for the kiss instead?” She looked at her side with her eyebrows furrowed. “Did I like… did I like it?”
“WAH!”
“UWOOOH!” Ai immediately let out a manly scream after being shocked by a rolling turtle on the ground. “ERI!”
“I’m sor—haha—Ai-chan, that was—haha!” Kamei Eri, Turtle Extraordinaire, rubbed her stomach as she laughed to her heart’s content.
“We came here because we worried.” Sayu explained. “There’s still thirty minutes until homeroom.”
“I’m seriously fine, Sayu. You should be asking your pet turtle here instead.” Ai sighed while she looked at Eri who kept on laughing. “Really. Don’t worry about me, okay?” She sighed again. “Ijusthavetogetacertainbookbacklateranyway…” She mumbled the last sentence in annoyance and then sighed again.
“You just sighed three times in a row,” Michishige Sayumi, math club president, told her friend again who just nodded and smiled at her. “Well… alright. If you need someone to talk to, we’re here, alright?”
Ai just nodded at her and watched Sayumi drag Eri away in amusement. She waved at them and sighed again.
She didn’t know how to think of this day at all.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
“Someday, you should tell me how you don’t attend classes but still ace them anyway.” Ishikawa Rika put both of her hands in the pockets of her lab gown. She closed the door to the school’s rooftop while she looked at the figure at the top of the door beside the school’s water generator.
“There’s no particular reason,” came the immediate reply with a cough. “Ahh, why is it so cold here?” She grumbled as the pages of the dictionary on top of her stomach were slowly opened and flipped by the wind.
“Get down here, Niigaki-san.”
“Hai,” the female answered reluctantly and went down to sit beside their school nurse and guidance counselor on the rooftop’s bench. “What’s up, Ishikawa-sensei?”
“I saw that racket outside this morning,” Rika told her. “How’s the book bump on your head?”
“Eh? There’s no bump.” Risa sighed. “I think I made her hate me.”
“Don’t be too fast on judging now, Risa-chan.” Rika stood up from the bench and looked at her. “Takahashi Ai-chan is a very sweet girl. She was just a bit taken by you.” She pivoted on her right heel and made her way to the door. “Make sure to attend P.E. after English period, alright? Yoshizawa-sensei is looking for you.”
“Haaaai~” Risa answered lazily and lay down on the bench.
Ishikawa Rika walked down the hallway, unexpectedly bumping into a confused female. She looked at the brunette who kept on looking left and right inside each classroom.
“Takahashi-chan?” Rika approached the female with her arms tucked under each other.
“Ah, Ishikawa-sensei.” Ai bowed at the teacher and smiled.
“Is there anything I can help with?” The teacher offered as she looked at the direction Ai was previously glancing at.
“Umm… I’m… I’m looking for Niigaki-san…” Ai asked shyly as she looked around once more.
“Hmmm…” Rika hummed to herself and smiled. “If it’s Niigaki-san, she’s usually on the rooftop. If not, the library.”
Ai immediately thanked her and rushed towards the rooftop after a bow.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
“Say, Eri.” Sayu called to her friend as she bit into the rice ball in her hands. “Do you know Niigaki Risa?”
“Mhm,” Eri answered briefly as she continued eating her lunch. “She was my classmate in middle school.”
“Oh. Right, you did get held back a year.” Sayumi nodded and finished her food. “What kind of person is she?”
“I don’t really remember much. But we used to be really, really close,” Eri answered. She put her chopsticks on top of her bento then scratched her head. “She should still recognize me if we see each other though.”
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
The door to the rooftop opened. The female sitting down on the bench with her head hanging on the backrest looked up and met with uncertain orbs belonging to a certain brunette.
“Umm… Hi,” Takahashi Ai greeted. Risa immediately scrambled up from the chair and motioned for the girl to sit down with both of her hands. When Ai obeyed and sat down, Risa also followed in suit and sat at the other side of the chair, leaving a large space in between them.
After a short moment of silence…
“Umm… can I have my book back?”
Risa just looked at her with a blank stare. She pondered for a little why, then raised an eyebrow.
“No.”
Chapter 2 End.
A/N: I apologize for the very delayed update. A lot of things happened OTL. Thank you so much for the comments! They make me happy! Thank you! I hope you guys like this chapter >_<!