*𝙎𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙮! 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙖 𝙗𝙞𝙜 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧!*
Glancing at Wood's expression for the third time, Willia looked back at Kaori again.
"𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳?"She clenched her hands into fists, "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳?"
Right then, Kaori and Yamaken had turned around as they talked, opening the sliding door that lead back inside.
Immediately, Wood engulfed Willia in a hug and squatted down, hiding behind the counter that was used to preserve the food that would be served to the table. He quickly covered her mouth with his hand so that she wouldn't be able to make any sound. Willia was bewildered at first but she understood Wood's intention so she cooperated with his actions and held her breath back. However, she couldn't hold her heart back from beating harder and the blood that was slowly rising up to her face because she was so close to her crush right now.
Kaori and Yamaken wished each other good night and left to their room when Wood and Willia sighed in relief that the other two didn't notice them.
After those two left, Wood finally seemed to able to realize the situation he was in with Willia. He quickly let her go and sat at a distance, awkward silence hovering over them.
"Why didn't you want them to see us?" Willia questioned first, breaking the awkward silence.
However, Wood stayed irresponsive.
For this, Willia thought that it was better to just go back to her room than sit here with him awkwardly.
She sat up and gave him a tight-lipped smile, "Then, I'll be leaving first. Good night."
Wood just gave a small nod at her as she went back into her room.
He sat there quietly for some more minutes before he drank another glass of water and also went back to his room.
*************************************
The next day.
In the morning, Kaori had taken two more classes with the students and also trained with her fellow mates of the clan. She also taught Haruhi some extra necessary skills aside from shinki skills that she was not acquainted with. She even studied in group with her friends for the upcoming third term exam as well in between. Kaori also didn't hear anyone talk about anything regarding the matter of the recent events as she had expected to.
At noon, Kaori was called to Kazuma's office room. When she was called there, she was, not much, but quite surprised. So she headed to his office right away.
After being permitted to enter the room when she knocked on the door, she walked in. Finishing the round of showcasing respect, she stood straightly before him and waited for him to speak.
He began with a question first, "How was your day until now?"
Kaori answered promptly, "It wasn't bad. Why?"
A smile appeared on his face. "That's good to know," He said, "I have something to give you."
"What is it?"
He stood up from his seat, taking something out from the drawer of his table. Approaching her, Kazuma took Kaori's hand and shoved something into her palms.
"These are some tickets to the yearly fireworks festival," Kazuma informed, "I am giving these tickets to you so that you can visit the festival together with your friends in the evening."
"Me? With my friends?" Kaori asked blankly. "Why all of a sudden?"
Kazuma sighed, "Your friends have been staying in the headquarters for quite a few days now. They must be bored without anything to do here. So I thought you should go and enjoy the evening with them."
"What about the others?" Kaori asked again, "Won't the other residents go to the festival?"
"They might, I think," Kazuma pondered, "It's a famous festival after all. No one would want to miss out," He chuckled.
"What about you?" Kaori asked directly this time.
"Me?" He laughed lightly, "I don't go to such events. It's okay. Enjoy yourselves while you are young."
"Huh?" Kaori said in disbelief, "Don't act like you are an old man."
Kazuma smiled, "Father will visit me in the evening. I will be with him when you all go there."
"Oh," Kaori nodded, "I see. That's good then. Sensei won't be bored, too!" She grinned, "Thank you for the tickets!"
"No need to thank me. It's my duty to do something for my student," He recited. "Sorry for not being able to accompany you to the festival though," He apologized.
"It's okay," Kaori smiled, "The teacher shouldn't apologize to his student."
Kazuma's smile widened, "So you remember?"
"Yes, how could I forget?" Kaori said, "It's something that deepened the bond of the two of us, the teacher and the student."
"Kaori," Kazuma suddenly confessed, "I'm proud that you are my student."
Kaori's eyes slightly widened at the sudden confession but she replied nonetheless with a happy smile, "And I'm proud that I could be your student."
*************************************
Kaori was walking through the corridor when a voice called her from the back, "Yo, Izumi!"
Kaori stopped on her track, squinting at the greeting in her own mind. She turned her head to her left to see Touma when she felt a hand slide down her shoulder.
"When will you stop calling me that?" She demanded of him.
Touma shrugged, "Why? I like this name better than 'Kaori'."
"Shush!" She threw his arm off of her shoulder and walked faster.
"Hey, wait, Izumi!" He quickly caught up with her pace. "Why are you being mad at me?" He asked her innocently.
"What do you want?" Kaori stopped again, facing him this time.
"I just wanted to talk to you," He pouted, "But you're being a meany."
"....."
As Touma's pout grew more, she sighed in defeat, "Sorry."
"It's okay!" He brightened up at an instant. "Where are you going off to in such a hurry?" He asked curiously.
"Ah, that," Kaori let out a sigh, "Kazuma-sensei gave me some tickets to the yearly fireworks festival that's being held today evening. I was going to ask my friends if they are okay to go with me."
"Oh, you're going?" He asked.
"If they want to, I will," Kaori shrugged. "By the way, is anyone else going to the festival today?"
"Yes, everyone's going individually with their friends or the one they wish to go with," Touma replied.
A question popped into Kaori's mind, "Are you going?"
"Yes," Touma replied with a smile.
"With whom?" She asked curiously.
"Yukine, Saki and Haruhi," He replied, "Haruhi had nothing better to do and she'd be alone if Yukine left with me. So Saki asked me to invite her along with us."
"Whoa, you're so thoughtful," Kaori said gratefully, "Thank you for taking care of Haruhi."
"You're always welcome," Touma grinned.
"About Saki.. Is she alright?" Kaori asked lowly, the atmosphere suddenly becoming gloomy.
Touma couldn't understand what she was aking for as the answer but he got the hold of it after giving it a thought. "Ah," He said, "She's okay, don't worry."
Kaori sighed, "I feel bad for her. But I couldn't let Mabuhi off like that, too. I should apologize to her."
"Kaori," Touma cupped Kaori's face in his hands as he leaned forward to her match her height, "She chose you over her master. She must've done it knowingly back then. So you shouldn't pressure yourself about this, okay?"
Kaori was surprised by his soft tone and behaviour that she ended up blushing slightly. Then she gained back her composure by a small cough and said, "It's really touching how everyone took my side that day - Saki, Koutarou, Gin, Hayami, Rinka, Aoi, Yada, Ishika, Kofuko, Kyouko, Mirai, Maki, Satoru, Kazuma-sensei and everyone else. I was truly happy to see all of your loyalty towards me, the current headmaster."
"Yes, I'm glad that they are loyal, too," Said Touma. Then again, he huffed, "But you excluded me! I was also one among them!"
Kaori laughed and replied playfully, "Aw, I'm sorry." "But, Touma," Kaori suddenly gave him a smile of gratitude, "You've changed a lot from the time I first met you. You used to hate me, but now you stood up for me. Thank you for your loyalty."
Now it was Touma's turn to blush. He flushed as soon as she thanked him. "I did it because-" He mumbled, stopping midway of his sentence.
"Yes?" Kaori asked in curiosity.
"Because," Touma met her eyes, an embarrassed expression still lingering on his face, "I still have a long way to go. Watching you made me realize how much I had left to learn. And also because I tried thinking of you as my older sister. I mean," He fidgeted, "You are older than me. And you're also my cousin. So when they were saying bad stuff about you, I thought of how I would feel listening to them if you were my real sister. And my blood boiled the moment I thought of them slandering my older sister like that. I had acted on the impulse but-" He stopped again. "But I don't regret speaking up for you. If anyone talks about you like that again, I'll scurry them off!" He huffed again.
Kaori was surprised by Touma's words, of course. She was looking at him with slightly widened eyes and her lips were also slightly parted. She recalled again, how much he had changed from the day they had first met. This same boy had said such harsh words to her and her sensei, but this same boy now thinks of her as his older sister.
What did she feel right now? Nothing, it was nothing but pure happiness and thankfulness that slight tears started to shed from her eyes as she smiled up at him. "Thank you. Thank you so much, Touma," Was all that she could say to him.
Seeing her sudden tears, he couldn't hold back that he ended up embracing her in his arms and gave soft pats on her back while she let her tears fall silently.
*************************************
Willia was lying on her back on the bed as she watched the ceiling up above with her hands holding her head underneath while replaying the same scene from last night in her head again and again.
"Ugh," She covered her eyes with her hands, "What was with that look?" She mumbled as she recalled Wood's expression when he was looking over at Kaori and Yamaken at the balcony.
𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦..?
She groaned, sitting up straight on the bed, "Stop thinking, Willia. Stop." She patted her ears, "Yeah, you should stop. I must've been mistaken. What if Wood doesn't actually like Kaori and he was just watching them naturally? I must be thinking too much right now. Yeah, I am-"
𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮? 𝘏𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭.
𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪.. 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬? 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮..
"Argh! This is so frustrating!" She screamed and started whacking her head with the pillow.
!Knock knock!
"Ah, who is it?" Willia asked loudly.
An answer came immediately, "It's me, Kaori."
"Oh! Come in, come in!" She yelled back. "𝘈𝘺, 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨.." Willia sighed internally.
As soon as Kaori entered the room, Willia tried to smile brightly and greet her, "Hey, there!"
"Hi," Kaori smiled back as always, "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah!" Willia tried to answer energetically. However, she couldn't act casual around Kaori anymore now that last night's thoughts were clouding her mind all over again.
"Is something wrong?" Kaori suddenly asked.
"𝘏𝘶𝘩? 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨'𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧?" Willia thought before saying out, "Nope, everything is fine! So, did you come here for something?" She tried to change the subject.
Kaori handed something over to Willia, "Here, I brought them for you."
Willia took it and unwrapped the folds of tissue to find some small candies inside. There were gummy bears as well as other candies. "Why these all of a sudden?" Willia asked Kaori, dumbfounded. She was happy to receive what she was given but she was taken aback by the sundden timing.
"Wood told me that you like sweet stuffs in breakfast," Kaori explained awkwardly, "But Yukine didn't make anything sweet for our breakfast as he had made spicy chicken sandwiches. So I brought them for you.."
"Oh," Willia ended up smiling without realization, "Thank you!"
𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 '𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦'. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.
"Um," Kaori played with the hem of her long sleeved shirt. "Willia," She called softly.
"Hm?" Willia replied as she slipped a candy into her mouth.
A vain hesitation worked on Kaori as she told Willia, "You see, Kazuma-sensei gave me these tickets."
"Tickets?" Willia repeated blankly.
Kaori nodded, "He gave me these tickets to visit the yearly fireworks festival.."
"Fireworks festival?!" Willia squeaked.
Kaori was startled by her friend's sudden exclamation, "Y-yeah. He wants me to visit the festival together with you guys because he thinks you must feel bored here with nothing to do."
Willia squinted at Kaori, "He didn't need to say that, we are just fine." Then her eyes twinkled, "But I ought to thank him for the tickets! I love fireworks!"
Kaori giggled, "You are so cute." "I love fireworks as well," She smiled gently. "Then you're okay with coming with me to the festival?" Kaori asked for the last assurance.
"Of course! Do I need to say anything more?" Willia jabbed two more candies in her mouth, "Did you ask the others, too?"
"No, I have to," Kaori muttered thoughtfully.
Willia grinned, "Don't worry! They will surely agree to go!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! Why not ask them right now?"
"Now?"
"Yes!" Willia squealed, "Come on! What are we waiting for, let's go!"
*************************************
The day of the festival.
Since the others except for Willia had also agreed to go to the festival with Kaori on the respective day, all of the eight friends had met up at the entrance of the venue on the very day.
As the festival was a Japanese traditional yearly fireworks festival, most of the visitors were wearing Yukata or Kimono according to how their tradition followed. But Kaori and her friends had skipped this part because Kaori didn't want to go through all the trouble. So they wore casual clothes to the festival.
The festival entrance was decorated with lanterns and other traditional materials. There were stalls of different merchandises and some of the goods were displayed to attract the festival visitors. The stalls were crowded with customers and aimless window shoppers.
After entering the festival, the very first thing Kaori did was running to the man who was giving away balloons for free. While the others were surprised by her action, Yamaken only smiled at her behaviour towards balloons. Kaori had eagerly taken balloons from the man for all of her friends however, she did not take them for free. In fact, she insisted that he had to take something in return for the balloons even though he kept rejecting her. But in the end, he was gifted the bag of chocolate that Kaori bought from a stall that was selling chocolates because he was refusing to take money. The stall of chocolates were the first thing that had caught her eyes so she went with that as the exchanging element.
Then they walked through the festival and began to look around everything. As always, the game stalls caught Kaori's attention first and foremost. She drgged all the others to the game stalls with her. There, she played the claw machine to win a large packet of chips for herself. Then she tried to play the game where you have to throw rings onto the bottles but failed instead. Hearing her whine, it was Yamaken's time to show. He had gotten all of them on his very first try that his confidence level had boosted up to the max.
He then also played the game where he had to catch fishes from a bowl with a filter that had very thin sheets that it would get torn while catching fishes were still on the process. Not surprisingly, he had actually cleaned the whole bowl out, catching all the different sized fishes with his filter. There had formed a crowd, watching him play. They also cheered for him when they saw he had won.
They played dart in another stall afterwards and pretty much enjoyed the excitement throughout the whole game.
Having played a few more games in which Wood, Willia, Robin and the others had also joined, Kaori thought it was time for them to grab something to eat. So they went over to the stalls that sold foods. There, they started a discussion on what they should eat.
"What are the foods that we can get?" Wood whispered to Kaori, not understanding what he should say.
"Hmm," Kaori scanned over the menu that was hanging on the top of the wall of the ordering counter. "I see that these are all Japanese food. So choose anything you want to eat."
Melissa had a bewildered look on her face, "What are they? How do we choose?"
Yamaken stepped out to help, "Why don't we - Kaori and I choose? I mean, you guys won't know which one you would be better off eating."
Tom shrugged, "I bet I can eat anything on that menu."
As soon as Dylanthy heard him, she quickly urged Yamaken, "I would like to let you two choose. So please hurry and choose, I'm starving!"
After some more of discussion between Kaori and Yamaken, they finally ordered for two large bowls of Yakisoba, one large bowl of Fried Rice with Tempura, a plate of Tamagoyaki, a plate of Meat Balls, two plates of Yakitori and two plates of Chicken Dumplings.
Robin took his chopsticks from the table as he asked Kaori, "What is Takoyaki? It looks tempting."
"It's Octopus meatball," Kaori answered, slurping in the Yakisoba and taking a meat ball with the help of her chopsticks.
Robin had stopped in his actions, "Good thing that I didn't ask you to order it."
Kaori stopped munching, "Why? You don't eat Octopus meat?"
"No, I have allergy," He said uncomfortably. "Do you eat it?"
Kaori smiled as she went back to eating, answering in the process, "I hate all other meats except chicken and beaf."
"That's better," Wood commented, "Because I'm the same."
"Beef makes a burger complete," Dylanthy said, drooling.
Yamaken looked at her, "You like burgers?"
"Yeah!" She replied cheerfully.
"I like sandwiches more," He said, munching on his dumpling.
Kaori took a chicken dumpling when Willia nudged her. Kaori turned at her to be asked out of curiosity, "What are those things that the kids are eating?"
Kaori looked around to see some children holding red candy like something in their hand. Kaori looked back at Willia, "Those are Apple Candies. Do you want one?"
"Apple Candies?"
"Yeah, though they are very sweet. But I'll get you one if you want to taste it."
Tom squinted at Kaori, "Why is it that you act like an adult, spoiling a child on this kinds of occasions?"
Yamaken butted in, "How about we buy two? The girls will share one altogether while the boys will share the other."
Kaori scrunched her nose up, "I don't like Apple Candies. They are way too sweet."
"I don't like sweet stuff," Dylanthy mentioned.
"Oh.." He was disheartened.
"I don't mind tasting it," Robin said to make Yamaken feel better.
He looked up at the boys, "What about Wood and Tom then?"
Tom nodded aggressively, "Do I need to answer? Of course!"
But Wood shook his head as the answer.
After eating, they walked over to the Apple Candy shop to buy two candies. They also received a chance to have practical experience on how Apple Candies were made. And of course, it thrilled them. Kaori bought themselves some Ice-cream aling the way of buying Apple Candies.
As soon as Yamaken handed each of the two to the ones who wished to taste them, they had ripped off the thin polythene packet that had wrapped the candy around and licked them. Immediately, they melted in the sweet and yummy taste of the Apple Candy.
As Willia, Melissa, Robin and Tom enjoyed the candies, all of them strode to have another go at the festival. That was when a special something caught Kaori's eyes. She went over to the small boy who was giving away flyers to the visitors. After getting one from him as she had asked for, she came over to her friends.
"Hey guys, look," She pointed at the flyer. "It has the list of all the events that are going to be held in the festival tonight!"
"Really?" All of them gathered around her, "What's written in there?"
"It says that amazing amusement rides will be free to ride on for tonight from the evening just for the guests of the festival," Kaori murmured. "There will also be special a fireworks show! Well, that's not quite surprising since it is a fireworks festival," She remarked, emphasizing the word 'is'.
"Fireworks!" Willia, Dylanthy and Melissa squealed in excitement.
"Oh my God," Willia said, her white teeth all shining in the dim lantern light, "I'm loving it tonight! We should really thank Kazuma-sensei when we go back."
"Yeah, totally," Tom chimed in, "I can't even believe we're enjoying a festival in Japan!"
Kaori laughed out at this. "I'm glad you all are enjoying. Now let's go enjoy the rides! It says it's free from the evening until the festival ends!"
"Yeah! We shouldn't miss out! C'mon!" They pulled each other's hands, dragging themselves away to the amusement ride area.
**************************************
After riding all the rides allowed in the festival to their heart's content, they all gathered at the roller coaster ride's entrance.
"That was crazy!" Kaori yelled.
Tom laughed as he clutched his stomach, "It was so fun!"
"No! I said, it was crazy!" Kaori repeated again as she brushed her short hair out of her face.
"I loved it, too, though," Yamaken said as he eyed the giant coaster ride again, "Want to give it a second go?"
"No!" The girlsp screamed altogether.
Then started an argument about which one they should re-ride. Robin, Wood and Yamaken loved the roller coaster so they wanted to go back there. But Kaori and Dylanthy liked playing on the swings while Melissa liked the carousel ride whereas Willia and Tom liked the bumper cars.
Thus, they decided to seperate ways because if this went on any longer, they would only be wasting time and the festival would end before they could wrap the conversation up then and there.
"Let's meet up again at this lamppost here.," Kaori tapped the long body of the lamp that was made of metal. "Remember, don't enjoy yourself too much. Let's meet here right after thirty minutes. That should be enough to let you enjoy your rides, right?"
"Yes!" The other's replied as if they were obedient childrens.
"Okay," Kaori put her hands back in her pocket, "See you later. Dylanthy, let's go?"
"Ah, yeah," Dylanthy said in a daze as she followed the girl in front of her.
"We should be going, too, right?" Yamaken asked, unsure.
Wood nodded, "Yeah, let's go."
***************************************
"If I had known, I would never have thought of this stupid idea," Kaori said with droopy eyes.
Wood tried to make reason with her, "It's not your fault. How would you know this festival would flood away with millions of visitors? We had come way earlier back then that it wasn't this much crowded."
"Don't try to reason with me!" Kaori suddenly shouted, making Wood flinch. "I mean, how the hell did you get seperated from your group of boys?! Are you a child? Huh?!"
"Hey, calm down.."
"I can't!" Kaori crouched down on her legs, "My mind feels like a mess right now."
So as they had planned, Kaori went to ride on the swings with Dylanthy and the others went on their way, too. Then Kaori had to use the restroom because she got all sweaty since the weather was hot. So she asked Dylanthy to wait outside and that she would come right back soon. But when she returned, she couldn't find Dylanthy anywhere near. Instead, she saw lots of males and females of different ages having a look around the festival. And there, she also had run into Wood, who coincidentally enough, had also come to use the male restroom.
Wood put his hand on his chin, "Maybe we could use our phone?"
Kaori fished her phone out from her pocket in an instant to see that there was no network available - she couldn't make any calls.
"Urgh!" Kaori rambled, "Why is everything going wrong like this?"
Wood was surprised by Kaori's behaviour. Even he couldn't believe what was running through his mind right now.
𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩? - this one was the one which ran around his mind the most that he couldn't help blurting it out, "Kaori, do you dislike being with me that much? To the extent that you're so frustrated that you can't even look up at me and you're so fed up on everything?"
At this, Kaori froze in her actions. She turned around to face Wood with a visible blank look on her face, "What are you thinking like that for? Are you stupid? Why would I feel that way? You're my friend."
"Then why-?"
"Because I want to know if Dylanthy is safe or not, why else?" Kaori yelled, smacking some sense into Wood with her words.
"Oh!" Wood smiled in relief, "I thought-"
"Don't think like that," Kaori forbode, "I would never feel that way."
Kairi stopped in the middle of her sentence as her phone's display lit up with a message notification on the screen.
(𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚)
"𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘋𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘉𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺, 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘠𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘥. 𝘜𝘨𝘩, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩! 𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪, 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦. 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴!"
As Kaori read her message, relief washed over her. But a specific part surprised her. Kaori's fingers typed on the keyboard in a hurry -
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘖𝘩, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘠𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢?
!Ding!
(𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚)
"𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵... 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘸. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘵𝘰𝘰. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘛𝘰𝘮, 𝘐 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘠𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸."
Kaori furrowed her eyebrows, "𝘏𝘮.."
Wood's tap on Kaori's shoulder made her come back to reality, "Huh?"
"Let's go stand somewhere with less crowd," He suggested and Kaori agreed.
The two walked forward and farther to find a road with railings on the sides that lead to the main festival.
"Let's stand here," Kaori dragged Wood by his hand. "We can see the sky clearly from here so we won't miss the fireworks."
Wood and Kaori stood side by side, a comfortable silence hovering over them. None of them wanted to break it, because it felt good to stand just like this, without any sound.
!Ding!
Kaori tilted her phone's display so that it would be visible to her eyes. Willia had sent her another message.
(𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚)
"𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘺. 𝘕𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥'𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘮."
Kaori replied - 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘮.
(𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚)
"𝘖𝘩, 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺!"
Kaori was going to out her phone back in her pocket to enjoy the atmosphere properly but she stopped when another sound of notification popped off.
She went over to the messages to check the message left by Willia. However, she was left shocked.
The message read -
(𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚)
"𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪, 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥."
"Eh?" Kaori blurted out loudly, making Wood turn his head at her with a questioning look.
⭐🌟⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐🌟⭐