The hushed whispers of students in the background, the shuffling of chairs and desks, the liveliness of the classroom was beginning to die down as the time left until the first class started was fast approaching. Students were gathering into their seats, taking out notebooks as they prepared for the impending lesson.

Hikaru was doing something similar, having already been sat at her desk for longer than the others. But, she was staring intently down at her notes for a different reason.

Daring to peek up for a split second, Hikaru turned her eyes quickly back down at her notes, her heart racing.

Did they see?! Did they see?!

Hikaru couldn’t believe that Aya had actually caressed her hand in front of the whole class. Although, it was only for a flicker of a moment, Hikaru had an unnerving feeling that there were quite a few students in the room that had noticed what happened.

“Hikaru?” Sana called out to Hikaru from behind, causing Hikaru to jump. “Are you okay? You look really tense…”

“I-it’s nothing…!” Hikaru quickly blurted out, a slight flush on her cheeks. “Please don’t worry, Sana!”

“Huh…?” Sana blinked at Hikaru’s reaction. “Okay…”

“Hmm…” Fumiko glanced over from her seat, squinting her eyes at Hikaru.

Gak! I acted even more strange! Hikaru was thinking as she drilled her eyes down at her notes.

Thankfully, the homeroom teacher, Mr Abe, arrived and all eyes in the classroom turned to him, much to Hikaru’s relief.

The cloud of anxiety was still hanging over Hikaru’s head as she stood in the sporting field of the school, dressed in Hibiya High’s athletic uniform of high-cut maroon shorts and a clear white t-shirt.

She held a hand to her cheek, her eyes fixated at a dirt crevice on the ground and her thighs hugging onto one another for warmth.

What would actually happen if someone did see? Hikaru thought to herself. I mean, they’re going to have to find out eventually, right?

“Why is it so complicated…?” Hikaru sighed. “I’m so flustered….”

“Watch out--!!”

A scream came from the side of Hikaru, belonging to a female student. Hikaru glanced up, turning her head around just in time to see a baseball flying straight at her face.

“Aah!!” Hikaru let out an involuntary cry, her expression darkening as the ball shot through the air towards her. She tried to step backwards, but there was no time to move out of the way.

Just as the ball was about to collide into Hikaru’s face, a figure darted between her and the baseball.

“Arghh!!”

The figure grunted, then whirled a baseball bat at the ball, slamming it perfectly at the centre of the barrel. A loud pang erupted from the bat and the ball volleyed up into the clear sky at an insane speed, disappearing from view.

Hikaru fell down on her behind with a dazed look, having slipped from trying to take a step away from the ball.

“Hikaru! Are you okay?!”

The figure spun around to face her. It was Aya.

She was dressed in the same outfit as Hikaru, except she had on a baseball cap, streaks of velvety black hair falling past the side of her saintly face.

“A-Aya…” Hikaru stared up at her saviour, still recovering from the shock.

Despite the fact that they were both in the same athletic attire, Aya’s well-developed body and curves in contrast to the modest figure of Hikaru’s made it look as though they were wearing completely different clothing.

“I… I was so scared…!!” Hikaru cried, leaping up on her feet and onto Aya, wrapping her arms around Aya’s back.

“He-hey…” Aya shuffled backwards, her cheeks reddening as she felt Hikaru’s body on hers. “It’s okay, Hikaru…”

“Is everything alright?!” The female student, that warned Hikaru earlier, ran up to check on the two of them, followed by a group of other students. The rest of the class was still out on the field.

“It’s fine,” Aya turned her head to face the crowd, trying to play off the situation with a light laugh, patting Hikaru on the head. “She was just a bit frightened, that’s all!”

“Ahh, thank god…” The student sighed.

Other students gathering around Aya and Hikaru didn’t have the same outlook though. Pangs of jealousy struck upon some faces, glaring in Hikaru’s direction.

“Anyways,” Aya pulled Hikaru off her hastily, then turned to face the crowd with her hands at her hips. “Who was it that threw that ball?!”

“Ara~, that must had been me.”

A girl with waist-length blond hair stepped forward, an unapologetic smile tugging on the corner of her slender lips.

It was Rikka.

The girl that bullied Hikaru before, when Aya was in America.

“I’m sorry, Hikaru.” Rikka said nonchalantly, holding her arms behind her back with a fake smile. “But you know… you’re supposed to look at where the ball is when you’re playing baseball.”

“You…” Aya gritted her teeth, but quickly clasped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from ruining her image at school.

Crap. I almost swore at her. Aya thought. I keep forgetting that I have an image at school to maintain whenever Hikaru is involved…

“It’s okay, Aya…” Hikaru laughed shakily, noticing Aya’s reaction. “It really was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I saw what you did, Rikka!” Fumiko chimed in, stopping near them after having ran over. She stabbed her index finger in Rikka's direction venemously. “You threw that ball purposely at Hikaru!”

“Hey now,” Rikka said in an annoyed tone, “don’t be pointing baseless accusations at others, Fumiko. How am I supposed to know that she was daydreaming in the middle of the baseball field?”

Fumiko glared at Rikka, while a perturbed Sana held onto Fumiko’s shoulder gently at the side.

“Come on, Fumiko…” Sana said. “She’s not worth it…”

“You’re gonna ruin that pretty face of yours, if you keep scowling like that, Fumiko.” Rikka grinned, and the girls standing by Rikka’s side chortled. “I imagine your future husband won’t be very impressed by how quickly you age.”

“W-what did you... bitch—!” Fumiko shrugged Sana off her shoulders violently, then took angry steps towards Rikka and the crowd of students hastily stepped out of the way to make room for Fumiko.

“Fumiko, that’s enough.” Aya called out sternly, and Fumiko immediately stopped, though her hands were still clenched into shaking fists.

Aya turned to Rikka with a polite smile. “Rikka, thank you for reminding us about the rules of baseball. Next time however, could you please try to be a little more careful when you throw the ball.”

“Sure, Aya,” Rikka beamed. “Anything for you.”

The group of students around them slowly dispersed, breathing sighs of reliefs that a fight didn’t break out. Rikka and her friends went along with them, returning to their positions on the field.

Aya turned her attention back to Hikaru.

“Are you sure you’re not hurt, Hikaru?” Aya asked in a concerned tone, staring down at Hikaru’s hands. Hikaru had used her palms to soften her fall. “Let me see,”

“I-I’m fine, Aya, really—” Hikaru tried to laugh it off, but Aya had already reached out, grabbing onto her hand.

Aya raised Hikaru’s palms up to inspect them, revealing light grazing on the surface.

Fumiko stepped in to the side of them, with Sana, also peering at Hikaru’s injuries.

“Ah, thank god it’s nothing…” Fumiko said. “Otherwise, I would had gone back after her…”

“Lucky…” Sana sighed. “Good thing that Aya stopped that ball in time…”

“Yeah…” Hikaru laughed, blushing with embarrassment.

“Let’s take you to the nurse to be safe…” Aya said, biting her lower lips.

“Huh?” Both Fumiko and Sana raised their eyebrows at Aya, who had a look of serious concern on her face.

“R-really…?” Hikaru blinked, then waved her hand away from my Aya’s grasp weakly, as though to show that she was okay. “I’m fine, Aya, it’s just small scratches…”

“Yes, but you don’t know if it could get worse,” Aya insisted. “Scratches like those get infected all the time without proper care.”

“Is that really necessary, Aya…?” Fumiko asked Aya, unsure. “I mean I play volleyball all the time and get scratches like those…”

“Yes, definitely,” Aya said, “you should had gotten your own injuries checked, Fumiko.”

Fumiko opened her mouth as though to rebut Aya, but stopped, deciding against it.

“Come on, let’s go, Hikaru…” Aya said softly, giving her baseball bat to Sana to carry, as she took Hikaru away.

“Okay…” Hikaru said hesitantly.

The two of them went over to the physical education teacher, a young man with black hair in a matching coloured sports uniform, who was standing at the edge of the field.

“Sensei,” Aya called out to him, “I’m going to take Hikaru to the nurse, she was injured falling down.”

“Ah, really?” The teacher quickly turned to them with concern on his face. “Is she okay? It’s not bad, right?”

“It’s nothing major. I’m taking care of her.” Aya said as they walked past him, towards the school building.

“Okay, take care, Aya! Tell me what the nurses say when you come back!” He called out, trusting Aya to look after Hikaru. “And, Hikaru, you should be more careful!”

Aya nodded in reply, while Hikaru shuffled next to her.

This is so embarrassing… Hikaru thought with a red face. I don’t even have any serious injury…

It didn’t take long before the two of them were approaching the doors of the nurse’s office, with Aya leading the way for Hikaru.

“Really…” Hikaru laughed softly once they were out of earshot from people. “You didn’t have to do this, Aya…”

“I do.” Aya replied. “I’m serious about cuts getting infected. You need a bandage at the very least.”

“Ah…” Hikaru didn’t want to argue. In a way, she was also kind of happy that Aya cared that much about her. “Well… if you insist…”

“Hikaru,” Aya said, stopping to turn around and face Hikaru with a sombre look. Hikaru stopped too in front of her, blinking up at Aya.

“What’s wrong, Aya?” Hikaru asked.

“I’m not going to let you get hurt, Hikaru.” Aya said slowly in a clear voice. “At all.”

“O-okay…”

“I promised you, didn’t I?” Aya said. “I told you I was going to treat you right.”

“…”

Hikaru felt her heart fluttering in her chest, and warmth surging to her face. She stared up into the glistening beauty that was Aya’s face, unsoiled by even the smallest of blemish. The seriousness in Aya’s eyes made Hikaru lightheaded as though she was about to fall.

Slowly, Hikaru leaned herself closer to Aya, a soft shade of pink disturbing the complexion of her cheeks.

“Aya…” Hikaru murmured, pouting her lips forward.

Suddenly, giggling from behind Hikaru jolted her awake, and she jumped, spinning around to face the source of the noise with a flustered look.

It was Mika and a girl with curled brown locks, both dressed in the normal school attire. That girl was Mika’s friend that was always around her.

“What were you doing, Hikaru?” Mika raised a hand to her lips, doing a poor attempt at hiding her sniggering. “Were you trying to kiss Aya?”

“Wh-what?! No!” Hikaru immediately spluttered. “I-I was…”

“That’s none of your business, Mika.” Aya said, biting her tongue to control the anger that was urging to break out on her face.

J-Just one more second and Hikaru and I could have… Aya thought. Gaah! Why does this always happen to me?!

“Sorry, Aya, but that’s what it looked like from here.” The girl next to Mika added, then turned her gaze back at Hikaru distastefully. “You should know your place, Hikaru… doing something like that to Aya, of all people…”

“It wasn’t!” Hikaru shook her hands out in front of her in a frantic motion. “Definitely not! Nooo way! Haha!”

“Anyways, what are you two doing out here?” Aya quickly added, trying to gloss over Hikaru’s poor attempt at lying. “Why aren’t you guys with the rest of the class out on the field?”

“Hah!” Mika crossed her arms uncomfortably, her cheeks flushed slightly. “There’s no way I’m going to prance around in my shorts for that pervert! Not a chance in hell!”

“Pervert…?” Hikaru repeated, slowly trying to calm herself down.

“By pervert, do you mean our physical education teacher?” Aya replied.

Hikaru thought back to their physical education teacher. He just seemed like a normal guy, nothing that would strike out of the blue as a pervert.

“A-anyways, stop trying to change the topic, Aya!” Mika said, blushing more. She raised a hand to toss her shoulder-lengthed cherry hair back. “I could ask you two the same thing…”

“I’m just taking care of Hikaru.” Aya replied in a composed tone. “She got injured while we were playing baseball. Right now, I’m taking her to the nurse.”

“R-Right…” Mika trailed off, having nothing to say about Aya’s perfect response. “Um…”

“Hey… let’s go…” The girl by Mika’s side pulled at the shoulder of Mika’s jumper. “We shouldn’t make Aya angry…”

“I’m not trying to make her…! Ugh…” Mika shook her head with an embarrassed look, then she straightened up, coughing into her fist. “S-sorry, Aya… we will take our leave now… please excuse our rudeness…”

“Bye, Aya…” Mika’s friend forced a smile at Aya. “It’s nice to have you back.”

Aya stood silently, glaring at the two of them.

“See ya…” Hikaru said, waving at them feebly.

The two girls turned around, then made hurried steps out of Aya’s sight.

“Well… that was strange…” Hikaru laughed, feeling more relaxed now that they were gone, but still embarrassed that she had tried to kiss Aya.

Did Aya even notice that I tried to kiss her? Hikaru thought.

“Come on, let’s get to the nurse now…” Aya said.

Hikaru sighed as the school bell rung, sounding the end of the day. She started packing her textbooks in her bag, her mind preoccupied.

I can’t believe that I actually went to the nurses for those small scratches… Hikaru thought. I also can’t believe that Aya never asked me about the kiss… did she really not see it…? Or is she just pretending that she didn’t notice…

“Hikaru,” Itsuo stood at the side of Hikaru’s desk, waiting for her, his bag already slung over one shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

“Yep,” Hikaru broke out of her thoughts, glancing up at Itsuo with a friendly smile. “Glad that’s over, right?”

“Sure am,” Itsuo laughed. “I honestly didn’t understand a single word from the last part of what Mr. Abe was saying.”

Hikaru laughed too as she got out of her chair, lifting her bag to her shoulders.

While Itsuo was saying something else, Hikaru glanced behind her for Aya, seeing her chatting with Fumiko and Sana.

Ahh… She’s busy again… Hikaru thought, pursing her lips. Can’t help it…

Aya caught Hikaru glancing over, then smiled cheerfully, walking over.

“Come on, let’s go, Hikaru,” Aya said, then glanced at Itsuo, the smile in her eyes faded at the sight of him. “Itsuo.”

Itsuo likewise grimaced at the sight of Aya. Although almost everyone at the school was happy that Aya was back, Itsuo couldn’t shake off the feeling that Aya was a bad influence for Hikaru.

“Let’s go out this afternoon!” Fumiko announced from behind Aya. She didn’t notice the tense atmosphere between Aya and Itsuo. “To celebrate your return!”

“Sure,” Aya nodded with an affable smile, then glanced at Hikaru. “You’re coming as well, right, Hikaru?”

“Um, yes, sure!” Hikaru returned the smile, but secretly she was sighing inside.

At this rate, I’m never going to spend time with Aya alone… Hikaru thought. I wish we could just get some time together alone… Ah! I have to invite Itsuo too, otherwise he’s gonna be lonely!

Hikaru turned to Itsuo. “Itsuo, do you want to come with us?”

He glanced down at his phone, as though checking the time, then shrugged casually. “Sure, why not.”

Of course I have to go! Itsuo thought in his mind. I have to look after Hikaru after all… Something about Aya just seems off to me… I haven’t forgotten that incident at the school rooftops…

“The more, the merrier,” Sana added in a laughing tone from the side of Fumiko.

Fumiko sighed in a purposefully loud manner so that Itsuo could hear her. “It’s supposed to be a girl’s night…”

“Well, now it’s a girl’s and guy’s night,” Itsuo shot back, “Sorry, princess.”

“Do not ever call me that ever again,” Fumiko wrinkled her nose, “you should thank your lucky stars that Hikaru seems to like you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be standing where you’re standing right now.”

“Yes, yes,” Itsuo nodded non-chalantly.

The group of them joined the wave of students walking out of the classroom, and into the bigger wave that was trying to escape the school building.

“He-hey, Aya…” Hikaru glanced to her side at Aya. They were walking side by side to one another fortunately, despite the chaotic flow of students around them. Hikaru, Sana and Itsuo were pushed out ahead.

“Hmm…?” Aya replied, staring out ahead. “What is it, Hikaru?”

“Where are we going to go to anyways?” Hikaru asked, shuffling closer to Aya to avoid a group of students that were pushing to her side.

“Hmm…” Aya thought about it for a second, then leaned in to Hikaru. “Follow me,” She grabbed onto Hikaru’s hand, then ducked through the crowd hastily, dragging Hikaru along.

“Wh-wha—okay!” Hikaru managed to utter before being pulled away.

The two of them ended up behind the school building, having left through an unlocked fire door.

Pushing past the door, Aya led Hikaru out briskly before anyone could see them, laughing wholeheartedly.

On the other hand, Hikaru was panting heavily, and took her hands out from Aya’s grasp so that she could rest them on her thighs, supporting her upper body.

“Wh-what was that, Aya…?” Hikaru breathed out, staring up from the grass at Aya. “What if someone saw us…?”

“No one saw us, relax Hikaru!” Aya giggled, trying to slow her laughter. “I made sure of it,”

“Still…” Hikaru sighed, her cheeks rosy from the run. She closed her eyes, catching her breath. "Jeez..."

Aya should be more careful… Hikaru thought. We ran out in front of so many people…

“It was fun though, right?” Aya said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts.

Hikaru glanced up, seeing a gentle smile on Aya’s face. “I… I guess…” Hikaru paused, staring into Aya's eyes for a moment in silence. Slowly, she found herself smiling back at Aya.

“See, I told you!” Aya broke out into a laugh. “You’re smiling!”

“Th-that’s because you were!”

The two of them started laughing together, the cool wind brushing past them in the background.

Aya looks so happy right now… Hikaru thought. A lot happier than the face she usually puts on in the classroom… I guess this is her true self…

Aya stopped laughing, her expression suddenly turning serious. “Oh, before I forget,”

“What is it?” Hikaru blinked at Aya, confused.

“Here,” Aya walked up close to Hikaru.

Before Hikaru could figure out what was happening, Aya grabbed onto the sides of Hikaru’s face, then pulled her forward, their lips meeting.