Opening the door to his classroom, Tomoya heard the familiar chatter of his classmates. The sight wasn't all that different from yesterday, people were still acting elated because of yesterday. Not that he was exempt from that, he just wasn't very good at showing it.
Looking over to his left, he noticed that Sara was unusually inactive. Not wanting to disturb her, he made his way to his seat which was met with many stares.
Putting his bag down, he leaned over a classmate and asked, "Did something happen?"
"Huh? Ah, no. We're all just kinda curious."
He raised an eyebrow. The classmate looked disappointed at the reaction but shrugged it off. He then went on to explain that Sara was unusually quiet and that she even rested her head on his table, if only for a few minutes. With another shrug, he said, "We just thought something happened."
With a nod, he sat back on his seat. Looking over to Sara, she was still off in her own world, just absent-mindedly looking at the front of the class. Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, he decided that he'd just ask her the next time they talk.
It didn't take long for that time to present itself as someone from the school's staff came into the room and said, "Alright, sorry, class. Your teacher seems to be running late today, so just do some self-studying, okay?" He said before leaving the room.
He moved his sights to Sara and their eyes locked onto each other. After a moment of hesitation, they pulled their heads away. It was probably too awkward to even have a conversation right now, let alone ask about why she rested on his desk.
Pulling out his book, he could see in his peripheral that she was still stealing glances at him. He kept telling himself to just suck it up and approach her, but he never built up enough courage to do so.
After a few minutes, an exasperated groan could be heard as she stood up and walked over to him. The whole class was watching, the only one who wasn't was the boy himself. He was too absorbed in his book to even notice her. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder.
He froze in shock for a few seconds before reverting to his usual self. "You...okay?"
"Can we talk...later?" she asked in a very low tone.
She went back to her seat after a quick nod.
Classes were uneventful. Lunch break came and went. He was pretty sure the class picked up on the tension between them, their glares towards the both of them weren't exactly subtle.
Hours passed and school had ended. Looking over to Sara, he noticed that she was staring at him, a wistful expression on her face. Packing his things into his bag, they made their way to each other.
Without even saying anything, they both nodded and made their way back to the spot from yesterday, the park. This time, however, multiple kids were playing on it. Their parents were off to the side chatting.
With an admittedly embarrassed smile, they both sat down on the familiar bench. This time, he didn't want to mince words, he wanted to get his feelings out. Without any hesitation, he spoke up.
"Hey, Sara. Do you like someone?" The tone of his voice was different, it was far more firm.
She stiffened at the question, no doubt recalling the question from yesterday. It took a few moments, but she rigidly nodded. "I've never loved anyone romantically except one person."
The last part piqued his interest. (Only one?) he thought. Despite her strong feelings about Valentine's Day, she's only had one person she liked? He found it odd, to say the least.
"You'll probably think I'm weird but..." her voice started to sound strained, she was most likely forcing the words out, "I've only ever liked my tutor."
Her words didn't register in his head for a few seconds.
Not knowing how to respond, he muttered out, "Why're you...telling me this?" His firm tone had all but vanished.
"After our conversation last night...I contacted him again," she said, playfully swinging her legs from the bench. "He's a great guy. He's the one I've always wanted to be, he's probably the reason I am who I am today."
What exactly was she getting at here? He just blankly stared at her as she kept gushing over this guy he had no interest in.
"Anyway, what I wanted to ask was...could you help me?"
"...Help with what?"
"Well, you see..." she started fidgetting with her fingers. "I'm pretty sure he would only like me if I was smart. And well, I may look good but I'm not actually that smart..."
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he asked for clarification, "So you're telling me that you want me to help you get together with your tutor?"
"He's still in college, it can work."
He wanted to slap her, it took all of his rationality not to. What kind of sick joke is she trying to pull? Is this just her way of rejecting them? At this point, he was already gritting his teeth. His heart felt like it was getting stung with needles, just breathing became something he had to be conscious of for it not to hurt.
He felt some solace as she suddenly held one of his hands. Looking at her, he could see the sincerity in her eyes. She was being completely serious about her request.
In his head, he remembered the stories he's read where the hero would sacrifice his love for the happiness of others. Maybe it was because of that, or maybe it was just out of sheer stupidity, but he accepted.
Her face lit up with excitement. She was practically jumping up and down as she smiled to herself with excitement. It didn't take long after that before she left, saying that she had some plans with her friends.
Looking to the ground, he felt dejected. Did his feelings not matter at all? Maybe he just didn't make it clear enough that he liked her? Well, those questions didn't really matter anymore. With every breath he took, he felt like crying.
(Is this what it feels like to get rejected?) he thought, clutching his chest. He took in a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
Just then, he heard someone crying.
"Sis...?!" A child spouted out while crying.
Looking around, he noticed a kid all alone on the seesaw. Not having anything else to do, he walked over to the child to try and comfort him.
"Uh... Hey there, you okay?"
The child didn't even bother to respond as it kept sobbing and sniffing. To be honest, he wasn't used to dealing with kids at all. He kind of just awkwardly fidgeted around the child trying to stop him from crying.
After a while, he did calm down a bit. Though he wasn't sure if any of that could be attributed to him.
"Um... Can you play with Haru...until big sis comes?"
After taking a look around him, he could see the other parents awkwardly staring at him. He gave them a less-than-reassuring smile as he focused back on Haru.
"Uh... Sure, sure. Where's your sister...Haru?"
He looked surprised for a few seconds before turning around and pointing in a direction, it was in the exact same direction as his school, Jiyu High. He thought about bringing him to the school but decided against it.
Sitting on the ground, he watched as Haru kept switching between the slide and the swing set. The child invited him to play on the seesaw but he declined.
Time felt like it had slowed down to a crawl, him just sitting while looking after a kid play around. Not that he minded, he wanted something else to do at this point besides just reading.
Putting a hand over his chest, he found that his heart had mostly calmed down. Distracting himself was definitely a good idea, he thought so, at least. Letting go of the grip on his chest, he looked around to see that Haru was gone.
(Uh oh.) He mentally berated himself as he searched around.
Looking outside the park, he saw him petting a cat on the other side of the road. He let out a sigh of relief as he called over to him. Haru, with the cat in his arms, started to run over.
Then he heard something. A car was driving downhill and it wasn't slowing down at all.
Glancing back over to Haru, he felt a sudden urge. He started running. Looking over to his side, the car was still a handful of strides away. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed Haru and jumped backwards.
From his peripheral, he could see the brightness of the car's headlights. Clutching Haru tight in his chest, he closed his eyes in anticipation and...they were safe. They had just narrowly avoided being hit.
"Are you okay...?" Tomoya asked.
He seemed to be on the verge of crying but was holding himself back. The child gave a weak nod as he hugged the cat in his arms.
The schoolboy couldn't help but form a small smile as he patted Haru's head.
Adrenaline was still in full effect but he was calming himself down. He looked over to his side to see a terrified girl looking at them. Her lips and legs were quivering. She looked like she had seen a ghost.
(Is that...our girls' uniform?) he thought as the girl came running over with tears in her eyes.
"Haru! Are you okay?!" she asked, wiping off the dirt from the kid's face.
He once again gave a nod in reply. They could tell that Haru was still in shock; his face was almost robotic, the same with his actions. And he was still holding onto the kitty in his arms, refusing to loosen his grip.
Kazuya and the girl separated from Haru as the parents in the park came running over, presumably to check if he was okay.
Just before turning to leave, the girl thanked him.
"Um... Thanks, Kazuya."
"Oh no, it's no big dea— How...do you know my name?"
The girl looked dumbfounded at the question.
"I'm...your classmate."
It was then the boy's turn to look dumbfounded.
"I know it's much but...would you be okay with me treating you to lunch tomorrow?"
"Huh? I, uh...sure," he replied.
And after a quick nod, Kazuya let—presumably Haru's sister—attend to him. He also wondered what happened to that driver from earlier, he never came back.
With him walking back home alone once again, he stretched out his arms. It felt like so many things happened today. He agreed to help Sara out, helped a kid wait out for his sister—who was his classmate, apparently. Though thinking about it, he never did catch her name. Not to mention that car incident.
Tonight though, he didn't want to do any introspection. He just wanted to get home, lay on his bed, and read a good book to get his mind off of things.