----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part Four
Mutou finishes his inane scientific ramblings early, leaving the class to do as they please until the bell signalling the end of the school day sounds. Glancing at Miki’s notebook sticking out of my bag, I realise I could be using this time to finish copying the notes from our previous lesson for her, but I shrug the thought off and shove my own books away. Swinging my bag over my shoulder, I scan the room for a certain blue-haired narcoleptic, my eyes finally resting on the far corner of the room by the window, where she and Akio are engaged in conversation.
Akio notices me looking at them and turns away from Suzu and waves me over. Making my way to them, I dodge around another group that stands in my way, apologising when one stumbles back into me, receiving a similar reaction from the short statured girl; I think her name was Ritsu. She returns to her conversation quickly, met with light-hearted teasing from the rest of her clique.
Chuckling at me as I approach, Akio extends a hand for me to shake, which I firmly grasp. “Glad to see you could make it, friend. We heard stories about stumbling musicians taking out troops, we were starting to worry.”
“Can it Akio, we need to discuss plans for the next literature club meeting.” Suzu says, acknowledging my presence with nothing more than a curt nod.
“That can wait Suze, can’t you see we have a visitor?” He says, releasing my hand as conversation starts back up. “Besides, Yuuko’ll help with that later, she has a good enough taste in literature to hold a valid opinion. Right now though, I want to hear about that impromptu poetry lesson. How’d that turn out?”
Suzu pouts, annoyed at how easily he dismisses her, but obviously eager to start on his newly suggested topic of discussion. “I have his attempt here,” she laughs, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from her bag and handing it to Akio. “It isn’t bad, but I forgot to tell him that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme.”
“I see…” Akio mutters as he quickly shifts from his relaxed demeanour into a critical, analytical state, mouthing words under his breath as he scans the short verse. “I think I understand what this is, Suzu was giving you her murder gaze, wasn’t she? That’s what the ‘scary girl’s gaze’ is, and the harsh day probably has to do with your busy lunch break. Is that what you were going for?”
“I don’t know, probably? Suzu just told me to write what I was thinking, and I came up blank until I noticed how she was looking at me. How did you get all of that from, what, fifteen words?” I ask, astounded by the amount of information he could draw from my first poem. Suzu groans, leaving me wondering if I should’ve kept my amazement to myself.
“I analyse things too much sometimes, makes stuff like this easy. I’d give you my fancy speech, but the bell is about to ring,” he says, timing his statement perfectly as the bell rings on his mention, “and you have a run to get to if Suzu isn’t lying. Good meeting you earlier, see you tomorrow unless you come down to the common room at midnight like the rest of us booksomniacs.”
Suzu rolls her eyes at his remark as he makes a display of grabbing his cane, twirling it in the air before striding away with a strange sense of confidence. “He’s an ass. You headed back to the dorms Hisao?” She asks, her comment about Akio quickly buried under the question as I nod in response. “Good, I’ll head back with you.”
Swinging her bag over her shoulder, she takes the lead as we exit the classroom, joining the flow of students in the busy hallway. Gravitating slowly to the wall, Suzu grabs the railing and tugs me through a couple to close the distance between us. I apologise to the stunned pair before turning a disapproving glare on the innocent looking criminal.
“You could’ve just waited you know.” I scold her, but she just turns her sleepy face into that of a puppy, her eyes, although tired, fill me with unexplained guilt. “Stop that.”
“Why, does it make you uncomfortable?” She asks, turning us out down some stairs and into a less crowded hallway. “Fine, I’ll admit that was stupid, but you’ve done your share of dumb things, like letting Miki eat that much food at the festival yesterday.”
“How is that my fault?” I ask, holding the door open for her as we exit the building.
“You should’ve been spouting some fitness talk or something, like Kenta does, something like ‘your insides will end up fried if you eat this much crap’ or something.” She laughs, deepening her voice in a poor attempt at imitating me.
“She gets enough of that from him, besides, I’m not exactly a fitness freak myself, I only run for physical therapy.” I chuckle, turning us down one of the shortcuts to the dormitories. “And I don’t sound like that, miss ‘we need to discuss the literature club meeting’, my voice is much deeper and manlier.” I tease, doing my own impersonation of Suzu.
“Oh shut up, you ass.”
“Oh no, my heart, how will I ever deal with this sorrow?” I mock, drawing a light punch in the shoulder from the giggling narcoleptic as we step back onto the path, nearing the crossroads splitting the girls’ and boys’ dorm buildings.
“You won’t, I’ll make sure it eats at you for the rest of your life.” Suzu smirks, throwing her head back and laughing maniacally. We reach the crossroads, both still laughing like idiots. “I’ll see you tomorrow Hisao, I’ll tell Miki you said ‘Oh woe is me, my love is bedridden’~!” She laughs, turning on her heel and breaking into a light jog, waving at me over her shoulder as she narrowly avoids colliding with a lamp pole. I smile to myself, turning around and making my way inside the dormitory building and past the common room, where several boys are already crowded around the television.
Making sure not to draw Kenji’s attention, though I’ve come to worry less about that in the past few days, I push my way into my room and close the door behind me, pulling open my closet and pulling my old soccer clothes out before changing into them for my run. I still have a few minutes to kill before I have to head down to the track, and I look around my bare room for some form of cheap entertainment. The only thing I can see is my phone, resting on my bedside table, but the only numbers I have are Emi’s, Miki’s, Suzu’s and my parents’, and none of them will be available right now.
Collapsing backwards onto my bed, I consider pulling out one of the books I borrowed from the library last week, which I should probably return, but there isn’t enough time to bother trying to read. I should probably decorate my room somehow, but I don’t have any of my old belongings with me to do anything meaningful; the most I can do is move the furniture around, but I like the arrangement as it is now. My phone buzzes on the table, and I roll over to check who it is; Emi. Flipping open the phone, I ask why she’s calling me.
“I’m waiting outside the dorm dummy! I thought you might like some company on the way to the track.” She shouts, making me wince and pull the phone away from my ear for a moment.
“You don’t need to yell so loud, I can hear you just fine. Gimme a minute, I have to find my running shoes. I’ll be down soon, unless Kenji distracts me again.” I say, holding the phone to my shoulder as I dig through my closet looking for the expensive running footwear.
“Kenji Setou? Aww man, you got stuck with that weirdo?”
“Yeah, I did unfortunately. He means well, but he’s harmless. Well, probably harmless. I’m coming down now, see you in a minute.” I say, sliding my shoes on and hanging up when Emi says she’ll be waiting. I grab my key and lock my door behind me as I sneak past Kenji’s door and down the stairs. Walking past the common room again, I catch a glimpse of an old western game show on the television, but I ignore it and step outside, though Emi isn’t anywhere to be –
“Guess who!” She giggles, pulling her hands away from my eyes before waiting for a response and bouncing on her running blades in front of me. “Now come on, let’s go, I like to get there earlier than everyone else!” She chirps, hopping on alternating blades as she edges backwards, like an eager toddler.
“Alright, just don’t make me run there, last time I did that didn’t end well.” I say, catching up to her as she turns and slows her pace to match my own, though she continues bouncing. “You seem happy, something good happen?”
“Well, I have a running buddy again, one that isn’t faster than me~!” She teases. “Even if that running buddy is the same one that ditched me for another partner a week ago.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, I just felt like it’d be better if I was running with somebody I already spent a lot of time with.” I apologise, forcing an awkward laugh.
“Don’t worry about it, I get it, you didn’t know me. I’d probably have done the same thing when I first came here, you feel like crap when you get shoved in a special school, we’ve all been there.” Emi sighs, though she quickly perks back up. “That doesn’t last though, looks like you’re already over it. Come on, this way, there’s a shortcut through the nurse’s building~!” She adds as she grabs my arm, tugging me up the stairs to the entrance and through the door, where we are almost immediately stopped by the nurse.
“Nakai, Emi, good afternoon. Going somewhere?” He asks, his fox-like grin spread across his face. Emi tries pushing past him, dragging me along, but the nurse grabs my arm and stops us both again. “Emi, hold on a minute. I’d like to have a chat with your friend here.”
“But we have a run to get to~!” She protests, sounding more like a child complaining about not getting a toy from the store than somebody pressing an urgent matter.
“I understand, it’s under my orders after all, but this is important. Nakai,” He starts, turning his gaze to fall on me, the smile on his face quickly dropping. “We may need to change your medication, there’s been a change and we need to substitute a few of the pills. I’m not sure if you’ve experienced it yet, but there’s an unfortunate side effect that results in swelling around the throat, which would affect your exercise regime. Swing by my office later, bring your current pills and I’ll swap them out and have them renewed.”
His sudden swing from casual to professional catches me off guard briefly, leaving me stunned for a few seconds before I realise I should answer him. “Oh, uh, sure. Is there a specific time I should come by?” I ask, unsure whether my question is pointless or not.
“No, no, just swing by later today. Make sure to remember your pills, all of them, and I’ll have everything ready. Now go do that other thing that keeps you alive, I’ll see you when you come visit.” He says, his smile returning as quickly as it disappeared, if not quicker. He waves us off as he continues past us, mumbling something about coffee as he heads behind the reception desk.
“What was that about?” Emi asks, biting her lip as though she shouldn’t have asked.
“It’s nothing, just medication for my heart, don’t worry about it.” I explain, waving off her concerns. “Now let’s go, we have a run to get to.” I start walking down the hall, ahead of Emi, but that lasts all but two seconds before she sprints past me and out the door at the opposite end.
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The only thing this chapter didn't have was the running scene with Emi, where not much would've happened in terms of plot development. Hisao'd say he was going to the track meet, so he'd speak to her there, but he'd end up completely ignoring her on the day and spending all of his time with a defeated Miki.
Now, that is everything that should be public, public. Blossom is officially cancelled, as there will be no further development and I don't have any actual prose left to post. I still hang around the forums, mostly in public discussion nowadays as I find Potato and Munchenhausen hilarious, so if anyone does want some advice with route writing, character creation or general writing tips, I'm always available via private message. Thanks for following the project, I greatly appreciated all the support, I'll take my early retirement now
