River of Stars

Chapter 9 - Resolve

Two weeks had passed since Takagi's birthday, and Nishikata's relationship with her started gradually, but rather quickly, going back to normal. They were going to and from school together everyday, and during those moments, Nishikata did his best to put away his worries so he could enjoy Takagi's company as best as he could, and he was having regular rests between his studies. Takagi also lessened the intensity of her schedule, not back to the beginning of the year, but still much less packed than it was before.

The results spoke for themselves. Even though they were studying less, they started being able to go through chapters much faster, solve more exercises and focus more easily.

It was now a sunday's morning, and Nishikata was standing in front of the intersection where he usually met Takagi to go to school, and he was indeed waiting for her, but to go somewhere else this time. They had agreed to go on a date after Takagi's birthday, and the appointed day had finally come.

Now that it was time to meet her, unsurprisingly, Nishikata was getting more and more nervous, it would be his first date with her (or at least since he realized his feelings towards her), and now several questions were popping up in his head. How would she be dressed? Would she wear makeup? Did he get ready properly? He wasn't stinking, was he? At that moment, he started rehearsing their plans. 'Right, we'll take the 9am bus to the water park, then go through the attractions, at midday we'll have lunch and then go home, nothing will go wrong'

Nishikata's anxiety grew with every minute, and he was going through his plans over and over when he heard a voice behind him.

"Nishikata!"

He turned around, and as he did he was frozen in place by the sight before him. Takagi approached rapidly, with a smile of joy on her face, and she wore a light, sea colored dress. She also held, by a long strap around her neck, a purse, and on its zipper there was a keychain, with a pink stuffed ball and a golden heart locket, which was kneaded.

Nishikata was struck by this vision, which he thought was both cute and beautiful, and he blushed even more than he normally would at the sight of the collar, and thus it took him a few seconds to realize that something was wrong. He had stared at Takagi for a few seconds, but only now he noticed that she had brought her bike with her.

"Hello, Nishikata," she said with a smile.

"H-Hi, Takagi," he said, still stunned by her beauty, but noticing the bike "Um, T-Takagi, what's the bike for?"

"Oh, this..." she turned to the bike "I thought we could tandem ride it to go to the park"

"Huh??" He exclaimed, turning red at her proposal.

"You don't want to?"

"It's not like I don't want to, but... It's a bit dangerous" he looked to the side, giving the same excuse as he did years before.

"There's a bike lane that goes there, so it should be fine", she said. Nishikata was still hesitant due to his embarrassment, but Takagi knew he also wanted to, and she only needed to push him a little further. "It's been so long since we've done this... I really want to..." she said, trying to sound as "cute" as she could, and of course Nishikata fell for it.

"... Fine" he said, looking to his side.

Nishikata got on the bike, and Takagi sat behind him and put her hands on his waist. He blushed a little, but more than making him embarrassed it brought him memories of their first year, when it had been only a few months since they first met, how they had spent their first middle school summer together practicing tandem riding. He couldn't remember clearly any of those days in particular, and he wondered now if by that time he had already fallen for her.