My Father's Secret

Chapter 22

"Lets just start today and get it done with"

"Thats fine with me. Do you want to discuss it over dinner?"

"Why not. Where should we go?"

"Rairaiken?" they both suggested at the same time. Kimiko giggled and Tsurugi smiled for the first time since the first day of school.

***

They were the only customers in the restaurant at the time, partially because they were relatively early and because most people spend Sunday dinner time with their families. Kimiko had already called Ichinose-san to tell him she wouldn't be having dinner so that was settled.

When the two of them entered the restaurant, Kimiko recognised a familiar face sitting behind the counter.

"Tobitaka-san?" the purple haired man looked up from his newspaper.

"Kimiko-chan, welcome to Rairaken. Who is that with you? What would Ichinose say when he finds out you have a boyfriend..." Tobitaka-san teased.

"No, no, no!" they both shouted while waving their hands frantically.

"We are just classmates" Kimiko explained.

"Alright, alright. So what would you like to order?" So Kimiko and Tsurugi both ordered a bowl of Ramen and sat down to discuss the project.

Turns out Tsurugi knew quite a lot about paralysis and he was doing most of the work. He also allowed using his brother as a case study. From that, Kimiko grew to understand that Tsurugi Kyousuke was not the bad guy he seemed he was. He was just someone who was stressed out from the several things on his mind.

When they started wrapping up, Kimiko suggested they meet one more time tomorrow to finalize the details and practice presenting. Tsurugi agreed without hesitation.

He's actually a lot easier to work with the I thought. Maybe this is the real Tsurugi that I've never seen until now?

***

The next day at school however, he was back to the same cold hearted Tsurugi.

There is definitely something going on. Is this because of the fact that he is a seed and he's not supposed to be friendly to other people in the soccer club? Theres got to be something going on.

That day in the soccer club, Coach Endou came in with a poster. Written on it in big font was the words 'Holy Road'. He posted the poster in the club room and announced that Raimon was going to participate in the tournament this year.

While everyone practiced at the field, Endou was called to the principal's office. There, he was told the score order for the first match, Raimon loses with out scoring a single point. However, it would be weird for a team who made it as far as the semi-finals last year to lose their first match without a single goal.

Endou decided that he wont tell the team.

***

"Shindou-senpai is quitting the soccer club!?" Tenma was surprised to hear such a thing. It must have been because of Coach Kudou having to leave after Shindou-senpai made the goal during the Eito match.

"I will go talk to him" Tenma told everyone and quickly left.

When he reached Shindou's house, he was a little taken back because of how huge Shindou's family mansion was. Tenma talked through things with Shindou and even invited him to the riverbank to play soccer. In the end, Shindou agreed to return to the team as their captain.

***

While Tenma was busy trying to get Shindou to come back to the team, Kimiko was waiting in Yuuichi-san's room for Tsurugi to come. He was already 15 minutes late. At least she had someone to talk to.

When Tsurugi finally came, he was already half an hour late.

They walked back to the waiting area and settled down. Tsurugi took out his laptop and began to do some work.

"Where were you? I've been waiting for half and hour" Kimiko asked trying not to reveal her annoyance.

"I have things to do, its none of your business"

"Tsurugi, is something wrong?"

He stopped typing and looked up from his computer.

So something was wrong.

"Nothing" and he continued to type.

"This is about the whole Fifth Sector and Seed issue isn't it"

How did she know?

Tsurugi was silent.

"You can always talk about it if you want"

"I'd rather not. At least not now"

"Alright. Just know I'm always open to discuss anything with you if you need it" Kimiko could tell  that this boy just needed someone to talk about his problems with and he probably didn't want to share his problems with his brother, given his conditions. Kimiko wanted to help.

They didn't talk anymore about Fifth Sector again after that and dedicated their time to finish up the whole project. Which they managed to do very quickly. Tsurugi wasn't a good presenter but Kimiko made sure to help him out and got him to say the right things.

For the first time, Kimiko could see the happiness and joy in Tsurugi's eyes.

What do you guys think about the story so far? The story just beginning to start so keep readingggg for even more exciting things.