Chapter 13

It was a Sunday afternoon. Ken and Kai were at the arcade. They had decided to spend the weekend together for old times’ sake. This week had been especially hectic and messy, with all the incidents. After the incident on Monday with Hana, Shizune had skipped school for four days before returning. After she returned, the first thing she did was apologize to Hana in front of the entire class. It looked like she had been crying non-stop for four days but she seemed to be at peace. She went ahead and even apologized to Kuroso Sensei. Ken noticed that Shizune had given up her haughtiness and acted like a normal girl. He took in the figure of her properly for the first time, and he realized that she was indeed attractive.

Kai was sipping an apple juice when he looked up at Ken from the screen, “Oye, how many hours has it been?”

“Don’t know maybe three or four? Not sure”

“My bum’s sored”

“Mine too”

“Let’s go take a walk”

“Yeah that’ll be good for our bum”

They left the arcade and started moving towards the main street.

“Say, Kai, are you interested in anyone?”, Ken suddenly felt the urge to ask this question

“Yes, there is”

“Oh, I guess so ... Huh, what?”, Ken was caught off guard, he never expected Kai to answer him seriously, “Who?”

“Saichiba Ano”

“Oh her”

...

“WHAAAATTTT!”, Ken had a dumbstruck look

“Baka, why are shouting?”

“You’re not joking right?”

“I never lie”

Ken was in deep thought, “Why?”

“Why do you like Hana?”, Kai answered Ken’s question with a question

“Huh, figures...”, Ken thought. Ken knew Kai was way ahead of him in these matters, so him knowing Ken’s secret was predictable. But still, his embarrassment got the better of him, his face was as red as a tomato.

They had reached the traffic intersection when Kai blurted, “Isn’t that Hana?”

Ken looked at where Kai was pointing, indeed it was Hana in front of the shopping mall, but that wasn’t what caught his attention, she was with someone. Not Saichiba, not a female, but a male. That also a handsome one. She had interlocked her hand with his.

Ken could feel the ground slip beneath his feet. He tried positive thought like the guy maybe her family. But he was too young to be her father and too close to be her brother. Ken was automatically taking a step forward when Kai stopped him, “I know how you feel, but that doesn’t give you the right to interfere in her business”

“I just wanna talk to her”, said Ken without giving Kai a glance

“You’ll just make a fool out of yourself”

“Then what do you expect me to do, just watch?”

“Let’s follow them around”

“Wouldn’t that be stalking?”

“Not if two people are doing it, then it would just be following”

“Okay”, Ken agreed to Kai’s decision.

They secretly followed Hana and Ken’s new arch-nemesis, the handsome looking yet not worthy of Hana, Sporty looking but not as much as Ken, guy.