Garden: Takashi Morinozuka Love Story

2. Mori's Secret Spot

Takashi's seventh hour class, unlike Honey's, was a study period. every day after roll, Takashi would asked to be excused to the library, where he would sit and read peacefully. The libraries during last few periods weren't nearly as noisy as they were after classes or during lunch periods. During seventh period, the library sounded actually as any library should.

Takashi scanned the spines of the given literature, looking loosely for something to pleasure read until class was over. Eventually, he settled on a history book - about Jack Churchill an interesting British officer who, instead of using traditional British weaponry during WW2, used a sword and a long bow, and carried his bagpipes. Satisfied with his find, he tucked it underneath his arm, stuck his hand inside his pocket, and headed for his uniform spot in the library - the table at the end of an isle and in front of a window. This spot, perfect for not only reading but also serene window gazing, was Takashi's secret. No one ever bothered to walk back as far as the last row - that shelf was occupied with nothing but old magazine articles about Ouran alum or awards the school had won and, quite frankly, no one could care less.

But on that frigid Wednesday afternoon, there was someone seated in the chair at the tail end of the table, immersed so solidly in a book that they hadn't noticed him. from where he stood - slowly approaching the table - he could point out with clear precision her large purple eyes, scanning the pages of her book; her short purple hair, cut bluntly and framing her adorably heart shaped face. Her uniform, an obvious dissociation from the girls' uniform at Ouran academy, was a yellow jacket with red trim around the collar and three buttons down the middle. underneath, she wore, what he guessed, was a white button up, and topping it all off, a turquoise bow tie.

And when he realized it, he could only imagine what Tamaki would say when he brought the news to him that this new boy, in fact, wasn't a new boy at all, but a pretty new girl.

He sat in a seat both across and to the right of her, wanting to give her the space, but leave enough room to easily slip her the invitation, had he decided to still give it to her. Takashi cracked open his informative Jack Churchill book and started reading only briefly before peering from behind is own literature to note what kind of books Hibiki Sadeki enjoyed. The fresh spine of the book simply read "A Distant Mirror" a book Morinozuka had just recently read - about the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages that Europe endured in the 14th century. History was, in fact, Mori's favorite subject.

Feeling intrusive enough, Mori's eyes fell back to the words of his own book. By the time he reached the 68th page, the bell signifying the last transition of the day rang. In a split second, he'd decided to withhold the invitation from the new girl for the time being. If anything, he was sure he'd be able to find her again and offer her the invitation.

When he stood up to leave, he peeked over to see if she'd gotten herself ready to go, but she hadn't. Instead, she continued to read, probably so solidly immersed in her book, she hadn't even noticed the bell.

Takashi slipped the envelope into his bag and figured that he could tell Tamaki, for now, that he had no such luck finding the new boy in school who, to his dismay, wasn't a boy at all. Eventually, he figured, another, more true rumor would spread, revealing the correct gender of the new student. For sure, Tamaki would hear it and call off Mori's search. But that day, as expected, Tamaki ran up to Mori with a glinting hope in his eyes, his fingers interlocked so pleadingly, as he asked if he'd found the new student.

"No," he answered, and walked past him, over to Honey, who sat at a table with crumbs on his face and a mouthful of cake.

Ouran wasn't particularly fond of non-rich newcomers, she decided on her second day of school. Albeit, being invisible, she'd reasoned, was better than being noticed and ridiculed. in her first class of the day, advanced trigonometry, she was placed in the back of the classroom, on the opposite side of the windows. Not quite the seat she'd preferred, but she was granted a grand view of the orange and blue trigonomatreasy poster taped to the wall.