"…"
Hibiki looked at both Sara and Shouta who were right beside him. Sara was crying and being hugged by Shouta.
Hibiki turned to the kimonos.
"Alright everyone, get back to work!"
He said as he walked towards them, his hand clapping.
The next moment, all of the kimonos turned and went back to their places where they were working.
This has never happened in the Fujiwara household. It was also Hibiki's first experience with something like this.
A girl crying and getting hugged by a boy? Seems like someone close to each other.
"Kazehaya-san"
"Yeah?"
"I'll get a room ready for you two"
"Uhmm… Thanks"
Hibiki shortly left the two after that.
As he entered the main building, he told his gray kimono to get a room ready for two people. The young girl nodded her head and walked towards one of the red kimonos to help her.
Hibiki watched the two girls left to get a room ready.
Meanwhile, in the garden, Sara was slowly calming down and drying up her tears. But not long after, she fell asleep in Shouta's arms.
Shouta felt a sense of déjà vu, like he has been in this situation before. But that feeling came from a manga that he read long ago, quite impressive that he could still remember the feels that he got when he first read it.
The scene was too familiar to him too. A girl falling asleep in the boys embrace. And after that, getting carried into a room where the boy then waits for the girl to wake up again.
The very same thing is happening right now to Shouta.
He carried the sleeping Sara to the spare room that Hibiki's gray kimono had prepared.
On the way to the room, Shouta examined the house. It wasn't to say that he suspected anything strange or wrong, but rather, he found it calming to walk down the open hall way of the house.
"Here is the room, dear guest"
The gray kimono welcomed Shouta as she opened the door to the room.
"Thank you…uhh…"
"…? Oh! It's Noel, dear guest. Thank you for your help"
"Yeah, it's no problem, Noel"
Shouta walked inside the room, closing the door behind him.
"Oh… this is nice…"
The room was 10 tatami floor mats wide and there was two futons ready to be used in the middle of the room. Shouta could also see a small table in the corner of the room, and a lamp was placed on top of it.
"T-there…"
Shouta slowly rested Sara on the futon.
"Phew…"
She's heavy than I remembered!
The last time Shouta could remember carrying Sara like this was back when she was when she was still ten years old.
Sara was visiting Shouta and fell asleep on the living room couch. Shouta felt bad looking at the tired Sara sleeping, snoring, and drooling on his couch. And the only ones that were home that night——
"—Excuse me!"
The door to his and Sara's room opened.
A girl in a gray kimono walked in, her face smiling like the morning sun.
"I brought some tea"
"Thank you very much"
The girl sat down in front of Shouta, beside Sara. She placed the tea in front of her
"Are you a close friend to Lady Sara?"
"No, we are actually——"
Shouta stopped. He now realized what he was about to say; stopping the words from coming out of his mouth.
"Uhmm… Dear guest?"
"We're just… Yeah…Yeah, we're just close friends!"
Shouta felt something crawling down his back as he saw the girl's face grew suspicious about him.
Shouta should have said that he was more than friends to Sara.
From the start, when he planned to follow Sara to her house, he didn't want to be caught as a suspicious person. Or so that's what he thought. Not accounting the suspicious following a high school girl and also his deep stares at Sara.
But now, he was facing with someone that knows who Sara is.
"Sorry… We're more than friends"
Then he sighed.
"More than close friends even"
"Then… Who are you to Lady Sara's eyes?"
"Truth is… I don't really know. She has a deep affection about me and really loves me like… more than anything in the world"
"…"
"First, I only saw her as a friend…"
※
The young Shouta was walking through his neighborhood at night.
The small boy really liked to walk all by himself; imagining fake scenarios as he walked through the dark road. He was also fond with making imaginary friends, making new ones every time he's bored by the last one.
He walked through various different places that he could fit through.
And as he left a small alley way between houses, he sighed at the thought of not being special, and how boring his life was.
"Homework… and then homework…"
The young Shouta was more of a lazy type; didn't care anything about the world around him, and was stuck in his own thoughts and imagination.
A summer night. Well, close to summer, that is.
The park was dark, really dark. The lights were turned off for some reason.
"——hic"
"——?!!!"
The sound of a girl's cry made him jump.
—In the middle of the park, in the middle of the night, a girl is crying.
What would you do? Call the police? It would be reasonable to call the police, but Shouta doesn't have a phone.
So the logical thing to do is to run away and call for help, right?
Well, for Shouta, danger is just a call to a long adventure. Shouta craves for adventure, even ready to leave this life and go to the next; hoping for a true adventure.
So, Shouta walked closer to the crying sound.
From the back of a tree, the young Shouta watched a girl sitting all alone on a swing; the only lit thing that is in this park.
But, without him noticing; without him being conscious about it, suddenly, he was in front of the girl now, but the girl was still looking down, still crying.
"H-hey, don't cry!"
※
"And that's how you two met?"
Hibiki asked to Shouta after hearing the story of how Shouta and Sara met.
"Yeah, that's about it"
They were talking inside of Hibiki's office. The office is in the very upper floor, close to a balcony that looks over the garden down below.
Before, the office was one of the first rooms that a guest would see when they enter the Fujiwara house. It used to have two large doors and a kimono standing in front of the door, guarding it. The one guarding the door is usually the head of the house's gray kimono.
But when Honoo took charge of the place, he didn't like the idea of a dark and murky office on the first floor. So he moved his office to the upper floors and made a balcony around it. The old room that used to be the office is now an indoor zen garden.
"Noel, can you get Hinata to come here?"
"I can, sir"
Noel bowed before her master and went outside of the room, leaving to get Hinata who was sitting beside Sara, keeping her accompanied.
"Tea, Kazehaya?"
"Thanks but… I think I had enough tea today"
Around the time Shouta arrived at the Fujiwara house, it was almost night time, around 06:00 PM. Now, he was in the office of the head of the Fujiwara house, talking to the head himself, at 10:00 PM.
It looks like it's the boy's turn to sleep under the same roof as the girl.
※
Noel walked down to the second floor, which is where Sara and Shouta's room is.
She arrived in front of the bedroom's door. And when Noel opened the door, she was greeted by Hinata sitting beside the sleeping Sara.
There, Hinata was patiently waiting for her friend to wake up.
"Hinata…"
From the door, Noel called her. Then she walked slowly towards Hinata, sitting beside her at the end.
"Hi… Fushiguro-senpai"
The room's atmosphere felt warm for Noel. The warm itself was filled with something else, like it was infused with a strong feeling from someone.
"I had a dream… Senpai"
"Like… what?"
"I want to believe it is a dream… But looking back at it. It felt so real…"
"…"
"There's this… Big fight between two members of the Fujiwara family…"
In this dream, Hinata saw and heard two people arguing with each other. One's voice was sad and regretful, wanting forgiveness. While the other one was overflowed with anger, screaming each word but also crying at the same time.
In the end of the argument, the one with anger left the house and in doing so, left the family.
"Do you think…? It's a vision? I really want to believe that it was just a dream… But I'm still not sure myself"
Hinata's hands covered her face, she wanted to hide and close her eyes. Hinata doesn't want a future where tragedy and sadness happens.
Seeing her junior sad, fearing a future like that would happen, Noel turned Hinata towards her and embraced her, squeezing her tightly.
"It's gonna be okay"