Hated by You ☆ | Riki Nishimura

第6章

Middle of Nowhere

Hitomi crouched admiring the flowers in the forest while they were trying to think a way back to the camp. Or not actually, they were just hanging around by themselfes. There was a heavy atmosphere around them, but Hitomi tried to lighten it by doing something of her own and ignoring Niki's presence.

"Okay, let's go." Niki suddenly stood up from pondering on the ground.

"Where?"

"To get the fuck out of here of course?" He seemed mad and frustrated which made Hitomi feel even more annoyed of the situation.

"We could get lost even more."

"Then are we gonna stay here the rest of our lives or wait for wolves to eat us?"

"Well, no.." She realized that he was right. They had no other way out.

"So, let's go." He started walking to the direction they came from and Hitomi followed him with a small distance.

-

After a moment the surrounding looked like she never saw those, which made her feel goosebumbs.
They were hiking in a dense part of the forest. Niki walked in front of her and she had to speed up her legs more because Niki was way taller than her.

"Stop." She said while panting a bit.

"What now?" He asked and sighed, turning around and looking at her.

"Don't walk so fast. I need to almost run." She complained and lay her palms on her knees to catch some breaths.

"Not my problem." He replied surly and continued to move.

Is he serious? Never think about others? Whatever, I could just go by myself, but that wouldn't be a help

She caught him up by jogging slightly. He walked in front of her all the time and she just followed him not having a clue where were they going again. They were passing through a brushwood when a stick hit her face from the front.

"Ouch-" Hitomi held her palm on her face as a reflect. "Seriously, you hit that on me!" She yelled at him.

"No actually I didn't, I just passed by it and it hit you." Niki wised up.

"Whatever."

"Wait.." He looked at her face observantly. Hitomi backed a little when he leaned his upper body closer to her.

"You have a cut here." Niki gently brushed a wound on Hitomi's cheek with his thumb and his other fingers affectionately touching the back of her ear.

"What? A cut?" Hitomi touched her cheek too and felt it. Niki slowly took his own hand away and straightened up.

"Oh.. it's just a scratch." She secured even though she could see some blood on her finger, from the cut that the branch caused.

"Mm." He hummed back.

"Wait! You see that! It's a river." Hitomi pointed behind him to a small river.

"Yeah, so?" Niki asked in confusion.

"See if the map shows a river!"

"Oh, right." He took the map from his pocket and research it.

"Here." Niki pointed his finger to the river on the map and lowered it down to her view.

"I think that might be it, should we follow the river?" She looked up to him and questioning him.

"We should." He nodded while gazing her eyes unstoppably.

-

They followed the river for almost half an hour and finally saw people, it was people from the camp. They were at the lake where they first started the mission.

"Oh my god! They're here!" Mina shouted and ran towards Hitomi and hugged her.

"Where were you! Everyone was back at the camp hours ago!" A full relief was heard in her voice. "I though Niki threw you in a lake and you drowned!"

"Hey! I'm right here?" Niki said taken aback and furrowed his eyebrows.

Mina didn't reply anything, just clanged at him hostilely and looked back at Hitomi. "You have a wound in your cheek." Mina said and caressed it with her thumb.
Hitomi took Mina's hand away and smiled, meaning that it was nothing. The teacher approached them looking uneasy, "Did you get lost?" She glanced both, Niki and Hitomi repeatedly.

"Kinda." They simultaneously answered.

"Well, you're now here so let's get back to the camp." The teacher patted both of their shoulders and left, instructing them to follow.

"Where's Yuma?" Hitomi asked Mina, because after all they were in the same group.

"He is chatting with Hikaru. I think he already has a crush on her." Mina said while smirking.

"Hikaru? The girl in your group?"

"Yes, her."

"Sooo, he went talk to a girl knowing I was missing?" Hitomi inquired raising her one eyebrow and smiled slightly.

"Mm.. yeah. He just said you would get back soon."

"What a friend."
-

They walked back to the camp with Niki following the girls and hearing all their discussions, aswell totally being ignored, but it didn't bother him at all.

There was a campfire in the center of the cabins and students were eating grilled food. Mina and Hitomi joined the crowd and Niki left to his friends.

"Oh! Hitomi, you're here!" A boy called her from the crowd and approached them.

"Were you lost?" Yuma asked looking at the girl.

"Yeah, we got lost but managed to get back here."

"Fortunately you're alright. Here, have some meat." He offered the girls some grilled meat from his plate.

They ate dinner in the campfire and chatted this and that. It was already getting dark and some students were heading to their cabins already. The trio sat there a little bit longer and then after a long moment they left to their cabins.
Hitomi entered her cabin and saw Niki in deep asleep on the sofa.

He's probably tired of the long walk today

The TV was still on after he watched it and fell asleep. She decided to turn it off and then went to the bathroom to get washed up.

-

Hitomi woke up to clattering coming from the kitchen and checked the time.

Gosh, it's only 7AM why is he awake so early?

She stood up from her bed, rubbing her drowsy eyes and went to see the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Hitomi asked and saw him looking for something.

"Nothing, go back to sleep." He urged in a low morning voice.

"You're noisy, I can't sleep anymore." She walked closer to the kitchen counter and saw him taking something from the cupboard.

"Painkillers? Why?"

"My back got sore from sleeping on the sofa." He said, being annoyed like it was her fault.

"Tsk.." She grinned in displease.

Why he has to be so rude even early in the morning?

"Fine, I'm going back to bed." She huffed at him.

☆