Clouded Minds

Chapter 2: Guys' Advice

Nishikata ran. He ran for at least the tenth time today. But this time, he was pretty sure he set a new personal speed record.

With his mind in overdrive, he sprinted all the way home, blazed through his pushups and shower, and appeared at the dinner table in nearly the blink of an eye. Barely able to keep still during dinner and hardly tasting his mother's normally delicious gyoza, he excused himself quickly. He paced around his room for a minute haphazardly, then grabbed his sneakers and bolted out for another run.

He ran and ran to get away from all of it. He just kept running, beginning to gasp for air. He really didn't want to think about what had just happened, and this was the only way to take his mind off of it. The sun was starting to go down, but he just kept going for as long as he could.

Eventually, he could go no further. After a full day of being out and about, Nishikata had exhausted himself. Spying a bench near the path, he slumped into it for relief.

As soon as he caught his breath, the thoughts came back at full force. There was no way around it now.

What the heck had just happened!? Nishikata had had the perfect plan to beat her topped by a solid new defense against teasing, and the combination had made Takagi... hug him? Hold his hand?!

There was no way he was hiding his emotions like that again.

Nishikata had stepped up his game. It was only natural that she do the same. Nishikata knew from frustrating experiences that Takagi somehow always had the upper hand; it was serendipity if nothing else.

So when she had flirted, he was sure it was just to get a rise out of him. But he hadn't let it show, or done his best. When she wanted help with the kite, it was obviously a setup, but she made him jump to a new level by needlessly making him guide her hands.

But the real confusion began when she stepped back into him. Countless times, Takagi had joked about holding his hand or some other embarrassing thing, only to pull back at the last moment, purely because she thought it was funny. Nishikata knew her well. But when they just stood there, she hadn't moved away. Not one bit. As they stood, Nishikata's offensive mindset had quickly morphed into embarrassment and stress, and he didn't know what to do besides sticking to his plan—holding it in as best he could.

The back of his mind had kept waiting for the inevitable joke Takagi would crack about him bear-hugging her. Something to justify the closeness, something to make him spring back and cry out. He found himself almost wanting the tease to come so he could get out of this new territory so things would make sense again. The only thing that kept him anchored was knowing that they were doing this to practice kite-flying, not anything else.

But the biggest shocker of all came while lying in the shade under that tree, when Takagi moved her hand over onto his, all the while smiling innocently at him. There was no motive for doing so; they weren't holding the kite handles anymore, and they were completely out in the open where others could see. He had barely kept it together until that point with his emotionless facade, but that had pushed him well over the edge, letting everything out at once. Teasing was all she ever did; how was he supposed to react to a Takagi completely devoid of it? Sure, he had instinctively grabbed her hand at the festival to help her down the steps, but he now knew that was completely different.

After something like this, even someone as dense as Nishikata could realize that Takagi had to like him? Not even a teasing mastermind like her was willing to pull off a trick that mean, right? But any joy he might have felt from the possible realization was overshadowed by one sheer fact: Nishikata had no idea how to react.