Ishi shut his eyes and did his best to try and fall asleep. Perhaps that wasn't the right course of action, as the harder one tries to sleep, the more difficult it becomes to do. He wanted to do so as quickly as possible since there was a major concern something might keep him from doing so.
After all, he was stuck in a cabin with Otoya, along with the other four girls. Despite their conversation at the dinner table, he could sense that Rinse hadn't fully been able to get over his near death experience. Youna was always one to worry about everything, so she might try and check on him every hour to really make sure the snake wasn't venomous.
Chinae probably wouldn't care all that much, so he wasn't worried about her. But the one he was most annoyed with was Ryugi. The reason was simple.
"Hey, are you still awake?" Because she was the one already shaking him as his eyes were closed. "Ishi, you can't have already fallen asleep, right?"
"When I didn't respond the first time." He opened up his eyes and got a good look at the girl's assets above him. "That's supposed to tell you that I don't want to wake up."
"Well, you see." She backed off from him as she had an obvious lying voice. "I might've drank a bit too much during dinner. Could you… Help a girl to the bathrooms in the scary dark night?"
"Hmpf." He grinned at her poor excuse. "I see this is your way to get me alone." Ishi replied. "Your trick might've worked if it wasn't for the fact that the counselors have a restroom as a part of their cabin." The boy pointed over to the back of the building which had a door open to reveal a toilet.
"Fine, you caught me." She hung her head down. "But can you please just come with me?" He scanned the room to check on the others. It seemed that everyone else was out for the night.
"How long has it been since we headed for bed?"
"I don't know. Like, an hour or something."
"An hour?" He didn't realize how much time had passed. Now the boy was coming to the painful realization that getting a good night's rest was not in the cards for him. "Fine, I'll come with you." It was better than laying in bed all night being frustrated. "Whatever you got to say better not be stupid." Not that it would matter either way, since he was going to join her.
"Hehe, of course I'm too hard for you to resist." She bragged as the girl pulled him quietly outside. The area was nearly pitch black, with only the stars in the night sky to light the way. Apparently standing out in front of the cabin was too boring for her, as she continued to lead him out into the woods.
"Should be a little careful." He warned her. "You never know what might be active during the night."
"I'm sure you know all about danger." She referred to his snake bite. "But come on, isn't it a little exciting." He didn't envy her spirit of adventure. "Plus, if the adults catch us we're totally going to be in major trouble."
"I see you wanted me to come along to try and reduce your punishment if that happened." He quipped. "Something tells me you've done this before with some other boys. Let me be the first to warn you that someone other than me might want to take advantage of the situation."
"Oh please, I can totally handle myself." She grabbed onto her bicep in a show of strength. "We both know I'm stronger than I look." While she wasn't wrong, he still had his doubts on the safety of her behavior.
"Really? So you're strong enough to handle this?" Ishi took advantage of the fact that she had her guard down. As they had established, they both believed he would never pull something bad to her. Which was why when he did exactly that, she wasn't ready to stop him.
The boy grabbed onto one of her arms and threw her into a tree. Then, he took control of her potential escape routes by pushing himself up to her. There was no way for her to leave without him preventing it. Ryugi's heart nearly stopped as he was now standing pushed up against her body. She felt her chest to his as well as the heat from his breath. "This is why you need to be more careful."
"Mmhmm." She nervously agreed, anything it took to get him to give her some space back. "Now, um, could you, like, let me go?"
"That's not all I have to say." He didn't budge from his spot, preventing her from doing the same. "I know you wanted to bring me here alone for a reason." Not that he was aware of what said reason was, but the motivations were clear as the sky above them.
"What?" She was unnerved by his behavior. "Of course not, there's nothing weird with a cute girl bringing a boy like you along." Ryugi's move was to try and get him flustered in return to place them on equal footing. "Who knows? Maybe I just wanted to get us to do some… Fun things."
"Obviously not." He didn't bite. "I'm pretty sure what you wanted to talk about is this." Ishi put up his injured hand to her face, causing her to turn her head to avert her gaze.
"Just let me go, and I'll talk." She relented to him, and Ishi backed away to allow her to speak. Her eyes revealed to him that the topic was one that angered her.
"I don't think I did anything wrong." He spoke first. "Things happen, and I'm fine now."
"That's twice now." She responded, not really making any sense to him at first. "Rinse's life. You really are just her hero, aren't you?"
"Technically I only saved her life once." He corrected. "The snake wasn't going to kill her."
"That's not what you thought in the moment." She countered. "Plus what's all that stuff you were doing at the dinner table with class rep?" When a girl is jealous, it wasn't hard for her to feel envy brewing with things like that happening in front of her face.
"Wait, when you got upset." He was now putting the pieces together. "It wasn't because of our talk. You just didn't like that they were taking away attention from you."
"It's not because of attention." She turned more meek as she clutched a hand around her arm. "I guess… It's because you're not always like that." When he would do things like that for Youna, or even Rinse, that made the other people around them guess what he was feeling when doing it. "You made me realize where I stand with you."
Obviously some people might take it to be romantic, even if that wasn't what was on his mind. To some people, they might wonder what he would do if something bad happened to them. "You even told me that I was at the bottom of the list. So, I just know that you don't really care about me as much as your other friends."
"That's really it, huh?" He sighed as he looked around to ensure that nothing was going to interrupt their conversation. "You really are stupid, aren't you?"
"Hey!" She got upset that he would take her feelings so lightly. Ryugi gave him light punches to his chest to show her frustrations. "How can you say that?"
"Sorry." He apologized. "I don't mean that how you feel is dumb, but you really haven't seen it, have you?"
"Now you're not making any sense."
"Of course I care about you. It's just not the big showy type of stuff that get burned into your memory." For starters, he always warned her that her behavior could get herself in bad trouble. Even going as far as to simulate what he meant just minutes prior.
But there were plenty of times when he did so. While his words were harsh about her singing, he did it so that she wouldn't get embarrassed from her delusion. Which is also why he invited her to join the judge's table since she was looking forward to the talent show.
"Really?" She paused to think about those times. When she got so upset that he would pull those things, the girl never considered to think of his thoughts behind them. That was even despite realizing that he was looking out for her by being honest about her singing, Ryugi never thought that it was because he cared about her.
"I don't like say things like that out loud." He informed her. "So, don't worry about things like who I do and don't care about. If you're here, then I like you enough for that." Ishi really hated having to state it. Why should he be placed with the responsibility to say it, rather than show it? "But if you really want proof…" The boy took her arm once more. "Then it's my turn to take you somewhere."
Swiftly, he led them slightly deeper into the forest. There was a small clearing within it that gave them a clean view of the night sky above. "Don't act like you're the only one who knows secret spots." He had found this place during their first year. Back then, he had gotten annoyed with the students he was forced to sleep with, so he headed outside to avoid all of it.
"Wow!" she was enamored with the location as she plopped herself face up on some lush soft grass. "I knew you always had the hook up."
"I guess this place is cool for most people." He didn't pick it out for the sights back then, only that no one else was here. However, he knew that she'd enjoy being able to view the stars above them. Ishi laid down besides her as they peered the world above them. "You know, the moon looks beautiful tonight." It shone above brightly to them. From where they were situated at, it appeared to be larger than ever before.
"Heheh, is that supposed to be your way of confessing to me?" She giggled.
"Huh? Oh, right. That is a way people try to confess their love." He turned head to talk with her. "Indirect confessions like that aren't my style. If I really did fall in love with someone…" He inched nearer to whisper to her ear. "I'd confess to them on the spot."
"R-right." Slowly, she backed away from him. Her heart skipped a beat from the thought that he was about to do so. Even if she was joking, the girl was well aware of what her answer would be to a declaration of love like that.
"Ryugi."
"Wh-what?" She responded nervously to what he was going to say next.
"Make sure we don't fall asleep. I'd hate to get in trouble."
…She forgot and they got in trouble the next day.