Garden: Takashi Morinozuka Love Story

10. Honey and Mori

Takashi spent most of his day, similar to many others, staring at various clocks above various black boards. Time crawled by at an agonizingly slow rate. He refrained from fidgeting in his seat, but treated himself to aloof staring out of each classroom window he could manage to stare out of without getting called on by one of his teachers. All the way up until his philosophy class, where Hibiki sat, seemingly in wait of his arrival. He walked over and she stood up from her chair, a small box wrapped in a baby blue cloth in the corner of her desk. She smiled to him and quietly wished him a good afternoon. He returned her welcome with one to the same degree before taking his seat behind her.

When class began, he started the countdown to the end of class, but this time with something else to admire - something that was inside the room.

At the end of their philosophy class, they walked, together for a brief moment  - before Takashi sauntered off to find Honey - not talking, just walking among the curious crowd that whispered and observed in failed secrecy of the questionable companion ship. Jealousy dawning on some of the girls within the school - especially one former music composition tutor.

"I think they're kinda cute, don't you? I don't know if they're a couple or not, but I've never seen Mori actually cling to someone like that before," Tskuna's friend Naomi whispered.

"Yeah, me neither," Tskuna said, a sense of something that felt like heartbreak shooting from her stomach and into her chest. Naomi looked Tskuna in the eye, a concerned look in her pale blue lenses.

"What's wrong? Oh! Tskuna! You liked Takashi! I'm so sorry! I always thought it was the Hitachiin twins you were interested in," Naomi expressed in a sort of whispered shout.

"It's nothing, Naomi. Forget about it," Tskuna hummed softly, turning her back to her friend and making her way down the hall.

"Oh, come on, Tskuna. You don't even know if they're together! You can't give up that easily," Naomi pushed, catching up with her friend.

"I'm not giving up, Naomi. I'm just not trying anymore. He already gave me up as his tutor," she tried to mutter, but failed on the account of Naomi had ears like a damned bat.

"He gave you up as his tutor? Who does he think he is? We can't let that slide. And now he's blowing you off for some new girl that can't even afford the school uniform? Forget him, Tskuna," Naomi spat.

"He gave me up because I was a terrible tutor. She probably helps him much better than I can. It was for the best," Tskuna said.

"For the best my ass," Naomi spat before Tskuna begged for the situation to be dropped.

When Mori arrived at Honey's class, instantly, he could tell there was something bothering Mitsukuni. He approached him with gentle alarm, but before he could say anything, Honey looked to him, feigning a smile saying, "let's go to the host club now." He obviously didn't want to talk about it, but Mori wasn't going to let it pass.

They got to music room three, missing Hibiki, who was in her math class making up a test from the day she'd missed.

"We were just about to finish talking about the preparations for the moonlight dance in a few days. Our costumes have arrived for the dance and we need to have a fitting so we can get any adjustments made in the next four days," Kyoya said, but Takashi hardly heard, not being able to lend Kyoya his full attention - something was bothering Honey and he hated that he wouldn't tell him what it was. He watched from the corner of his eye, Honey eat cake at a slower rate than usual, Usa-chan sitting loosely at his side.

One by one, the hosts took turns behind the dressing room curtain, changing outfits. When it was Honey's turn, Takashi followed behind him discreetly. He pulled the curtain around to give them the privacy they needed. Honey, clutching Usa-chan with enough force to smother an actual bunny, waited, knowing Takashi would follow him inside.