River of Stars

Chapter 10 - It is Special

During the rest of their winter break, Nishikata and Takagi went out a lot of times to have competitions. Besides that, they'd usually go to each other's houses to play games or watch movies, like they had started doing during the beginning of last semester. But the rest of winter break passed fast, and soon they were back to school.

Nishikata started studying once again with Takagi in the library and at home. This time, however, he wasn't pushing himself that much, and he didn't feel exhausted at all. At that point, he felt pretty comfortable with every school subject, and he could understand every one of them and do the exercises without much problem. Because of that, he was having much more free time now, he hung out with Takagi and his other friends regularly, for them it was almost like he'd gone back to normal (before last year's summer).

As for Takagi, she decided to follow the same plan as Nishikata. She would just continue studying to get good grades at school, and once they were in their third year she would start studying for Sekai Eda High's entrance exam.

With that said, the year's first weeks were quite uneventful, even for Nishikata and Takagi. But one day in particular was bound to shake things up for them: February 14th, Valentine's Day.

Nishikata was making his way towards school, he reached the intersection where he usually met Takagi, and there she was. She was wearing her school uniform with a scarf wrapped around her neck, just like last year, but this time, she also had pink gloves in her hands. The zipper of Takagi's bag also had the keychain he gave her on her birthday. Nishikata, of course, also had his gloves on, though he hid the cat-shaped pins with his uniform's sleeves, since they were small enough to hide.

"Good morning, Nishikata", Takagi greeted with her usual smile.

"G-Good morning, Takagi-San" Nishikata replied, looking away. 'Valentine's Day' he thought 'I wonder if she's gonna tease me or just keep me on the edge all day like last year'

"Do you know what day it is, Nishikata?" she asked while they started walking to school.

'Already??' he thought nervously "V-Valentine's Day".

"Ding Ding" she said putting on a cute grin, right before getting close to him with a smirk "Expecting to get any chocolate this year?"

'Oh no, she's going for it!' he blushed and looked to the side "D-Don't know"

"Hmm" she hmmed, giving him back some space "Did you find out who was that girl that put chocolate on your shoe locker last year?"

"N-No, I didn't" he blushed even more.

"Do you think she's gonna give you any this year too?" she asked.

"... Don't know..."

"Hmmm... Well, I think she's gonna give you some chocolate this year too" she said "Maybe she'll even do it personally this time..."

"Eh?" Nishikata turned to her "H-How do you know?"

"To be honest, I'm actually pretty close to her" she got up close to his face again, making Nishikata look away again.

"D-Does she... Like me?" At this point, Nishikata didn't even know what he was saying or why. He couldn't see it, because he was looking away, but Takagi's eyes widened, and her cheeks glowed red. She recomposed herself pretty quickly though.

"I won't tell you how she feels, you know?" she said, facing ahead "You'll have to find out yourself, or wait to see if she... confesses to you"

Nishikata twitched. A girl, confessing to him? Nishikata tried to imagine. A heart-shaped box of chocolates held with both hands, her face was completely red, and she had a shy smile, both her huge eyes and long hair were brown, and she wore a scarf and pink gloves, "I like you Nishikata, please go out with me", Nishikata's face went completely red 'Why am I imagining Takagi-San???' he thought in desperation. His thoughts were interrupted by the girl's laughter.