Bocchi the Love Story!

19. Resolve

School......why did school have to come back....

After rising back from the deep depths of homework, reviews, and quizzes...

I present to you a new chapter! ( Send Help )

An hour after Bocchi had left, Akihiko's eyes fluttered open. He was no longer resting on the comfortable material that is Bocchi's thighs and he sighs in disappointment upon realizing that he's lying down on his usual pillow. It was a complete downgrade, he thinks.

For a moment, he thought everything that happened before was a dream, but that was quickly dismissed once he noticed he was still on the couch. So he was definitely using Bocchi as a lap pillow.

His face turns red.

" God.....did I seriously just....ask her to do something like that..." He palms his face, seething in embarrassment. He worries that he might've made her uncomfortable.

And then he recalls another thing. He intertwined his hand with hers.

He examines said hand and recalled how warm her hand felt in his grip. He wishes to hold that hand again, if the heavens are kind enough grant him that opportunity again....

Hopefully, not as friends but as.....

Before he could finish the thought. Another memory resurged in his mind, the memory where he left his feelings bare to her, when he surrendered his fate.

" I love you, Gotou-san."

Akihiko grimaces upon remembering her response.

" I don't believe it." She chuckles, sardonically.

"....If I say it to you again.....would you give me a proper answer?" He mumbled to himself in wonder.

She said that she wouldn't believe a sick man's words, even if it was the truth. She wouldn't risk it. And he understood that, but still, he wishes that she'd take the leap and....

No, that would be selfish of him to expect, wouldn't it?

Akihiko knows how scary taking a leap is. And he knows Bocchi, especially, that  taking a leap already means a death sentence for her. But she's been doing that many times since he met her, she's opened up to him about certain things and eventually find it comfortable to confide in him. And she made a new friend out of Mayafumi too.

Even before his arrival in town, her bandmates told him that Bocchi does her best to improve, taking leaps she wouldn't have before. That type of courage is something he admires about her, and shares with her.

But taking a leap when it comes to feelings....

He's not entirely sure if Bocchi likes him. He's suspected it, that she's begun to develop the same feelings he has for her, but he doesn't want to accidentally misunderstand her. Because he really is yet to understand her completely.

Whether she loves him or not, that's not the issue. Just like him, she didn't want to misunderstand things....even if it was obvious.

Akihiko thought he'd taken the leap when he asked if she could go out with him.....but that was only because he had a safety pin when doing it. If she rejected him, he'd blame his own feelings on his sickness, and say that he never felt that way and completely sees their relationship as platonic.