Me and Ai

Chapter 38: Who Are You? (Part 2)

Chapter 38: Who Are You? (Part 2)

Ichinose-san went over to Kaoru to give the wig but when he went to the area where Kaoru was searching, he found him lying on the grass. He went to Kaoru immediately to check what was wrong.

"Huh?"

Kaoru was sleeping.

"He was probably tired from his job today."

Ichinose-san tries to wake up Kaoru but he wouldn't wake up.
Thinking that Kaoru was tired and shouldn't sleep outside, Ichinose-san picks up Kaoru's things and carries Kaoru into the main building. He then realizes that he doesn't know Kaoru's room. He searches thru Kaoru's pockets and bag to find his dorm key. He finds them in Kaoru's bag but is shocked to find out that his room key was for the female dorm. He brings Kaoru to the room and puts him on the bed. He looks around the room and goes over to the desk and sees a notebook with Kaori's name on it.

"Yamashita Kaori?"

He opens the notebook to find some songs written inside. He then thinks that perhaps the siblings share the same room but it would be impossible for opposite genders to be in the same room even if they are blood related.
Ichinose-san looked at the other notebooks on the desk and every single one had Kaori's name and not one had Kaoru's name. This made Ichinose-san curious.

A cell phone suddenly rings and realizes that the ringtone was familiar. The sound of the cell phone seems to be coming from Kaoru. Ichinose-san checks Kaoru's pocket and finds the cell phone but was shocked to see that it was Kaori's cell phone. He looks at Kaoru, who was sleeping soundly on the bed, and starts to suspect that perhaps Kaoru is Kaori—one and the same person.
He then tells himself that it can't be possible but then Kaoru starts to talk in his sleep.

"No...stop...I'm not going to buy anything from you, creepy salesman-san...I have no money..."

"Ugh...I hate banana..."

Ichinose-san became shocked because the voice was that of Kaori.

"No way...that's Kaori's voice. Is he actually Kaori?"

Not wanting to think about it further, Ichinose-san rushes out of the room and tries to forget everything. However, the more he tries to forget about it, the more he ended up thinking about it.

"It's not entirely impossible since they look really similar. In fact, their face features are almost exactly the same but then just like he said, they are siblings so it's only natural to look alike."

Ichinose-san kept thinking as he walked to his room.

"But then, it could be the same case as me. I am Ichinose Tokiya but I am also Hayato. It could be possible that Kaori is Kaoru."

He reaches his room and opens the door.

"Tokiya! You're back!"

Otoya was still awake.

"You're still awake? I thought you'd be sleeping by now; it's pretty late."

"Yeah, I know but somehow I couldn't sleep so I was reading this book that Masato lent me."

Otoya looked at Ichinose-san.

"Hey Tokiya, you okay? You look like you're troubled or something."

"It's nothing."

"Eh? Really? You sure?"

"Yes. Just go to sleep already. I'm going to sleep."

"Sigh. If you say so. Goodnight."
Otoya pouts since he knew that Ichinose-san was hiding something but there was nothing he can do and tried to go to sleep.

Ichinose-san was lying on his bed but he couldn't sleep because he kept thinking about Kaoru.

"I wonder if Kaoru and Kaori have ever been in school at the same time. If they have then it would prove that they're not the same person; the fact that Kaoru hasn't been going to class is suspicious enough and it could be because Kaori is in class. Thinking back, Hyuga-sensei never called Kaoru's name during the roll call before. Is he even in the class register?"

He ended up thinking about it until he fell asleep.