Swallowtail: Mariposa Radiante

Labor Thanksgiving Day

Swallowtail:

Chapter 18:

Labor Thanksgiving Day

Kaikane lay in bed, staring at his ceiling with a look of boredom on his face. It was early in the morning, just past 8 am in fact. Normally, he would be in school by now, but today was different. It was Labor Thanksgiving day, meaning he and everyone else had a day off from school. Since it was Friday, that meant he also had the weekend off so it was a three-day weekend. Normally, he would be ecstatic at having a day off, but after spending time off at the hospital, he felt like he was getting lazy.

While he did work a lot on the English Project and did study all the material and did his homework in preparation for the upcoming finals, one could only take so much studying at once. The Quints were going to be busy as well, taking the time to spend it as a family, and Futarou was going to spend the day studying. That meant that he had nothing to do during the day.

Fluffy was at a convention in the UK so he couldn't ask her to play games, it was a rare occasion where he was free, yet had nothing to do. His mind tended to wander a bit, and that led him to think about the thing that had been bothering him for the last few days. That picture that he saw in Nino's room.

The young man had been pondering things about that fateful day when he met that pink-haired girl at that park. He tried to recall as many details as he could, briefly hoping he could dream about that day as he had not long ago. But nothing ever came of that. He detailed the entire day, what they did and what they had spoken about. The ducks, the bandage, the coin, everything was vivid. He cursed himself for not asking the girl for her actual name. He didn't even recall if she had given him her name.

"It was such a long time ago, if she did give me her name then I probably forgot it. But what I can say is that it was one of the girls. But who was it? Surely that story could have jogged their memory." he thought, as he slipped his hands beneath his head, closing his eyes. "Is it Miku? Ichika? I doubt they would act the way they did, and Yotsuba is way too energetic to match that girl. That means it has to either be Nino or Itsuki."

He thought about the idea that it would be either of them. Nino's attitude matched how rude she had been initially, how she had dismissed Star Wars and had been overly competitive. But Itsuki could have also fit that since she also had a bad attitude. Not to mention she was speaking in a rather proper tone and seemed to be enjoying that ice cream as if it was the last one on Earth. He grabbed a handful of his hair, his fingernails digging into his scalp.

"Thinking about this is going to make me sick. It doesn't matter anymore... I'm with Nino. Whoever that girl is doesn't matter."

Even thinking those words made him sick. This girl he had hung out with had kept that promise, and not only had he lost his half of the bracelet, but he hadn't figured out who she was. And now, he was dating one of her sisters, and she likely had to accept their relationship. If she even remembered that is.

"I don't think so. If you give something that special to a girl, no matter what it is, she'll keep it for eternity. It might be a dumb coin to you but to her, it probably meant the world." Itsuki said cheerfully. "Who knows, she probably still has it, and it means more to her than anything else on this planet."

"That coin... I have to find that coin, if Itsuki is right, then that means whoever I gave it to still has it. But wait... if she said that, does that mean she's the one I gave the coin to? Could that be why she's so hellbent on being with me if me and Nino break up? God... why? Why did you have to do this to me?" he exclaimed, forcing himself to sit up.

Any young man would be happy to have two girls pining for him, but for him, it wasn't so easy. He hadn't been expecting this to happen when he decided to join Futaoru in tutoring these girls. He hadn't been expecting his life to be turned upside down. He hadn't been expecting to fall in love with one of the most gorgeous girls in the world, and now he was beginning to question her origins. Was it fate that he ended up running into them again? Or was this just a coincidence? He didn't know, and at the moment, he was starting not to care.