Hated by You ☆ | Riki Nishimura

第42章

The Losers

They played maybe an hour the trivia quiz. The really difficult questions started to tire and frustrate the game little by little. In the lead were Mina and Haruto while Niki and Hitomi were abundantly at a loss. Maybe they just got the hardest questions, or that's what Hitomi wanted to believe. ​

Hitomi lost her hope when the others crossed the finish line with their pieces, while Niki and Hitomi were still laps behind. 

​"Aah, it was such a long game that it's getting tiring." Mina celebrated the end of the game and yawned. Then she glanced at Niki and Hitomi with a wicked smile. "Losers clean up. The rest of us can go upstairs and hang out." She said and stood up from the floor.

"We didn't agree on that?!" Hitomi complained in despair, looking at the mess all over the living room. 

"Well I just decided so. Let's go, let's leave these two love birds with each other." Mina lastly said while giggling before running up the stairs. Haruto, Yuma and Hikaru followed her. "Sorryy." Yuma said teasingly.

The door to Hitomi's room slammed shut and silence descended on the living room, although faint sounds could still be heard from there to downstairs.

"Okay, let's get to work." Niki suggested and lifted Hitomi up off the floor with him, holding her arm. 

​Niki started collecting trash wherever there was some. Hitomi put the game back in the box and quickly took it upstairs to her mother's bedroom. 

Coming back down, she took half of the glasses from the living room table and took them to the kitchen at the other end of the same room.

Then she lazily went back to the living room to get the rest of the glasses.

Hitomi was not sure how it happened, but the first glass she picked up from the table slipped from her hand and shattered to the floor. She even flinched in shock as the sound echoed in the quiet room. 

"Hitomi!" Niki exclaimed worriedly from the kitchen and started approaching her fast.

"Oh no.." Hitomi murmured to herself and crouched to pick up the biggest pieces of the glass. She already lightly touched one, and it immediately made a small wound on her finger with its sharp broken edge.

"Don't touch it. You might cut yourself." Niki ordered firmly, after he stopped like a meter further form Hitomi. The shards were spread all around her and when she steps out she should be very careful, if she doesn't want shards of glass on the soles of her feet. Hitomi stood up and pretended that she didn't touch the glass at all, even though she felt how the cut was slowly starting to bleed.

"Come here. I'll help you." He said before reaching to firmly grap Hitomi's arm and pulling her towards him. 

His other arm quickly wrapped around Hitomi's lower back, lifting her onto the air. His whole gesture was quick and of course Hitomi didn't know his intentions in advance. She whined a little in startle and held tightly onto his shoulder, but for no reason. Niki held her firmly against his chest, almost in a 'shoulder hold', where parents can hold their child.

Niki put her down, when he was far enough away from the glass shards. After doing that, he quickly took Hitomi's hands and turned them around looking for any wounds. "Did you get hurt?" He asked worriedly.

"N-no.." Hitomi murmured quietly.

"Do not lie. look at this." He said after he spotted the wound on her right hand.

"What was that sound?" Yuma asked as he stepped down the stairs with the three following him. He looked around, but only saw Niki with Hitomi, holding her both hands in his. 

"Hitomi dropped a glass." Niki informed now calmly. 

"Oh, did you hurt yourself?" Yuma asked and walked closer to check Hitomi as well. Now he saw the shattered glass a little distance behind them.

"Just a little. I'll take care of it." Niki answered instead of Hitomi, before she could say anything. Hitomi tried to twist her own hands out of Niki's grip, but his grip only got tighter the more she tried to squirm them away. It would not have really bothered her, but others appeared on the scene and that's why it started to feel more uncomfortable.

"Okay good. We can then clean up the shards." Yuma volunteered and started looking for a tool to clean up the mess. Niki finally let go of Hitomi's hands, but now grabbed her other wrist and pulled her towards the kitchen. 

"It's just a small wound. No need to do anything, it will heal quickly." Hitomi hastily tried to refuse whatever Niki meant by, 'I'll take care of it'. 

​"But it still needs to be cleansed at least." Niki said before dragging her in front of the kitchen sink. He turned the tap on and took Hitomi's hand again to wash the blood off. ​The water ran over her finger as Niki held her hand under the faucet. Soon he turned off the faucet and again looked at the cut closely. "Wait a moment. I'll go get a band-aid."

He walked to the bathroom to get a what he needed and Hitomi waited in the kitchen as he said to do so. The others were cleaning the mess she made and the other messes as well, to help them after all. 

After a while, Niki returned with the band-aid, took her hand again and put it on the wound for Hitomi. 

-

They cleaned rest of the downstairs all together and then allowed to rest in Hitomi's room. The rest of the evening was quite lazy for everyone. Mina and Hikaru went through Hitomi's wardrobe, while she herself browsed social media on her bed. 

She wasn't even sure what the boys were doing, maybe they were talking about something secret, because they were sitting on the floor next to Hitomi's bed and she couldn't see them. Or then they proudly examined Hitomi's drawers, which Niki had already done earlier.

However, it was already late and there was school tomorrow, so it was already time to go home soon. They walked downstairs and Hitomi was saying goodbye to them. They put on their outer wear, as she stood wearily against the kitchen counter. Niki put his rider's jacket and gloves back on and took his helmet from next to the shoe rack. 

"Hey, can I drive it?" Yuma asked eagerly, referring to Niki's bike. 

"No, definitely not. You don't even have a license." He answered coldly.

"Oh, and you do have one?" Yuma inquired teasingly. He probably thinks Niki does not have the license and he just drives it. Or, of course, Hitomi isn't sure either, but she believes so, since his mother lets him drive.

"Of course I have."

"Bye then, Hitomi." Mina said as she was about to enter outside. The others also shared goodbyes and left together. Niki was the last to leave. He stood there for a moment and stared at Hitomi. "Good night." He wished and rubbed her shoulder gently before leaving. 

"Bye." Hitomi shortly replied, as she was pretty tired to talk much anymore. 

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