Date Her Instead Vol. 7 (Final Volume)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Fear And A Festival

It was the middle of summer break, and Chiyo Wakabayashi had accomplished absolutely nothing. The fact that her summer homework remained untouched wasn't surprising, but she had done little else with her time other than lying around, sighing and moping. Her major mistake still weighed heavily on her mind, and it had become the only thing she could think about.

Overall, Chiyo didn't believe what she had done was necessarily wrong. In the end, most people decided to believe that Katsumi was just a troublemaker who would kiss anyone. Of course, there were those that still thought otherwise, but the quickly growing bud that was a cheating scandal had already been nipped. To Chiyo, that was a victory. She achieved what she had hoped to do.

However, that meant little now, as it had come at a terrible cost to her. Thanks to her self-sacrificing nature, she was perhaps too quick to act. If she had given her plan a little more thought, if she had waited for Michi to get farther down the hall, if she had come up with a better approach that wouldn't have been so costly, etc. It was things like that that Chiyo kept going over, though it did her little good considering there was nothing to be done about the past.

All that remained was the future, currently a bleak outlook for the gal. Not only had she majorly screwed up, but because she was the one at fault, she also felt like she couldn't just go up to Michi and just say "Sorry!" It would normally be the guilty party's job to do just that, but knowing how Michi was, Chiyo was sure anything she had to say would fall flat on the girl's ears. "There's just no way she'll listen..."

Sitting on the couch, she sighed once more. At the moment, she was the only one home. Chitose had gone on a trip with some of her friends, partly because it was a chance for her to have fun, but also because she was getting sick of her sister's depressing mood. Chitose had tried to be her usual, big-sister self, but that had done little to change Chiyo's mood.

*****

The day after Chiyo's reckless kiss, she had been in an even worse mood. Naturally, Chitose noticed. "Chi, you alright?" she asked. "Ya look pretty pale. You're not gettin' sick, are ya?" "No, I'm perfectly healthy," the gal said with zero energy. "That doesn't sound healthy at all..." Chitose said. She sat down near Chiyo. "C'mon. What's goin' on?" Chiyo stared at her big sister for a second, biting her lip in internal debate with herself until she finally decided to say.

Then, once it was all out in the open, Chitose brought a fist down on top of Chiyo's head. "Are you stupid?!" she exclaimed as Chiyo rubbed the assaulted area. "I-I'm not!" the gal cried. "Are you sure, because it sounds like ya are!" Chitose shouted. "I don't recall raising ya to do somethin' this dumb!" "What does you taking care of me have to do with this?!" Chiyo yelled.

"Could you seriously not use your damn head for more than like, two seconds before ya decided to have a make-out sesh with this Ikehara-san?" Chitose sighed in exasperation. "It wasn't a make-out sesh! She doesn't even kiss good anyways!" Chiyo shot back. "Her kissing skills aren't the problem here Chi," Chitose said, preparing to go into full-blown big-sis lecture mode.

"Why the hell did you ever think that was a good idea? I can think of at least three problems with that plan right off the top of my head. And why didn't ya just talk to Kana-chan and Haru-chi about this? I'm sure they woulda been more than willing to help come up with a plan to put a stop to something that was more their problem than yours. Actually, lemme correct that last part. A problem that was entirely theirs, and not yours."

"And let's say that even if you did pull this off, did ya seriously think it wouldn't get back to Mi-chan? Even if she never saw it, I'm sure she would've been less than pleased to find out the girl she likes is kissin' another girl." "I-I don't know for sure if Mi-chan likes me..." Chiyo interjected, but Chitose just rolled her eyes. "Please girl, if that ain't love, I don't know what that girl's deal is then."