My Father's Secret

Chapter 40

It was getting late and Ichinose-san insisted that everyone go home despite Endou-san's effort to get everyone to stay. Most of the children agreed with Ichinose-san since their parents were starting to phone their children one by one asking them why they were not yet home.

Eventually, Endou-san had to let everyone leave. Kimiko still had Aoi-chan's issue on her mind and she was too busy thinking about it to remember to bring her bag with her.

Only when she reached the front door to put on her shoes did she remember her bag. By then, the boys were already piling out into the area at the front door where their shoes were scattered.

Kimiko pushed her way through the bunch of boys who were trying to make their way in to get their shoes. Once she made her way out of the crowded began heading towards the living room where she and the girls last were, she heard a voice calling her name.

When she stopped to look, she realised the sound was coming from somewhere in the crowd. After looking carefully, she could see Tsurugi pushing his way out of the crowd towards her. Her bag was in his hand. He must have seen it and picked it up for her. Since her bag had her name stitched onto it in big letters (something Aki-nee had helped her do before school started because Ichinose-san was so afraid that she was going to lose it), it wasn't hard to figure out who the bag belonged to.

"Kimiko, you forgot your bag" Tsurugi said as he walked up to her. It seemed that in the past few days, Kimiko had been running into him quite often. She wished that they were mere coincidences.

"Thanks, Tsurugi-kun" Kimiko said with a smile as she took the bag from his hands. When their hands made contact, she couldn't help but feel something special, especially after that 'moment' they had in the elevator. Even though she made a promise to herself that she wouldn't think about Tsurugi, her mind still wandered back to him regularly. It seemed like letting go wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. Was this just proving that she really had feeling for him? It couldn't be, right?

***

Even when Kimiko had the nightmares, she always managed to fall asleep. Not tonight. Not with everything going on at the moment. She tossed and turn until her sheets were wrinkled and fell off her bed. After pulling them back up, she kept moving until she eventually got wrapped up like a cocoon in her own sheets.

I think I must be developing feelings for Tsurugi. But this can't happen, not now. First off because he probably doesn't like me either and secondly, because Aoi-chan, my best friend called dibs on him. But is it right for me to left her have him? Or should i stand up for my own feelings?

Kimiko tried closing her eyes but the thoughts dancing in her mind kept her awake through the night.

***

Monday came along with a few surprises. The homeroom teacher introduced to the class to the newly transferred student, Kariya Masaki. Seemed like the soccer team was going to gain a new member, more specifically, a new defender.

Furthermore, the teacher announced that at the end of the week, there would be a residential to Okinawa. The timing for the residential was very ideal because it was right between the waiting time between the district and national championships. Normally, the last to finish district championships would have a two week break before the nationals start. For now, Raimon had an estimated 3 weeks for a break from the tournament.

Information packets were passed out to the students and each one eagerly flipped through the pages with excitement. The packet consisted of various information with regards to the residential. It ranged from the date and time, the safety issues to groupings for the camp and room allocations.

The first thing Kimiko checked was the room allocations. She was pleased to see that her roommate for the two nights would be Aoi. Then, she check her groups. Since all three first year classes were going, there was going to be a total of about 60 students. There were 6 groups in total for the residential and Kimiko was in group 4. Unfortunately, Aoi-chan was in group 2. However, Tenma and some of her classmates that she got along with quite well in her group.

One of them was Miyazaki Arata-kun. He was Kimiko's partner for the recent English project along with Saki-chan. The other 6 people were from the other two classes and she wasn't quite close to them. Then, she came to the very last name on the list: Tsurugi Kyousuke.

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