The beginning

Part 1

If you told Nishikata yesterday that he'd be on a boat, standing in front of the girl he liked, having effectively just confessed, he'd call you crazy, yet there he was, with Takagi standing right in front of him, looking dumbfounded at his extremely sudden confession.

'How did I get into this situation?' He thought to himself as Takagi tried to collect her thoughts.

It mainly had started the previous day, Friday, or what some would refer to as the best day of the week, and Nishikata and Takagi were walking to school together, both trying to maintain focus through the sweltering heat that was summer.

"It feels like it's been forever since we walked together like this," Takagi noted.

Nishikata looked away in a futile attempt to hide the blush on his face. "Well ... things keep popping up, I mean with track and field, my day gets a lot fuller a lot faster."

"Hmm, true, but we are just friends, so it's fine if we can only walk together once a week."

"Yeah but ..." Nishikata looked away as he tried to find the words. 'I hate highschool.' He thought with a defeated look. "Don't you usually tutor someone before school?"

Takagi gave a weak smile as she glanced toward the sky. "He said he'd be out today, but he did ask if he and I could study over the weekend."

Nishikata felt a wave of uncomfortable anger build up inside him as Takagi referred to the boy she was tutoring. 'Damn it, he doesn't even need you to tutor him, he just has a crush on you.'

"Of course I said no, I don't want to waste time studying for longer than I usually do over the weekend."

Nishikata took a deep breath as he calmed himself. 'Easy there, there's no way Takagi hasn't noticed, and if she doesn't like him, then she could just say no.' The anger disappeared as Nishikata began to calm down.

"Though I have to say, walking together with a friend is nice."

'Friend?' Nishikata thought feeling a little hurt. 'Takagi-san, I thought we were best friends.'

"And walking with my best friend is way nicer."

Nishikata let out a sigh of relief.

"Too bad I don't get to walk with Sumire-chan all that much."

Nishikata's eye began to twitch with the constant rollercoaster of emotions he was going through with every other sentence. 'Right, she doesn't see me as her best friend.' He began feeling jealous but shook his head. 'If she knew how much I like being with her ...'

Takagi looked at Nishikata and felt a wave of guilt. "But hanging with you is ... a different kind of nice." Nishikata's mind went blank as Takagi mentally scolded herself. 'I did it again, I can't make Nishikata think he's just another friend, I want him to know that he's at least special ... otherwise, we might drift apart.' She took a deep breath and calmed herself. 'I need to stop playing risky games.'

The two continued walking in relative silence as an awkward silence enveloped them both. "So, any games today?" Takagi asked.

"Can't think of any, I'm busy worrying about two different tests today."

"Ouch," Takagi noted. "That's really gotta suck."

"Oh, you have no idea," Nishikata noted. "But I've been studying really hard, so I'm at least expecting a somewhat decent grade."

"Ah, well that's good."

The two continued walking in awkward silence; lamenting the fact that the time they got to spend together had become shorter and shorter.

Eventually, their time ran out, and they reached the school where they began going their separate ways. 'Damn it, half a Friday wasted.' Nishikata thought to himself. 'I just ... don't know how to handle this.' He continued walking, mostly out of mussel memory rather than watching where he was going. 'Takagi-san ... why don't unique situations that allow us to hang out happen more often?' He sighed. 'I just ... well it's not like we need a special reason to hang out ... but what can we actually do together?'

He continued walking until he bumped into something snapping him back to reality as he stumbled back. "Ack! I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" He opened his eyes and saw that he had actually bumped into one of his friends, Nakai. "Nakai?"

"Yo, Nishikata!" Nakai greeted. "You need to be more careful or you'll end up running someone over."

"Right," Nishikata said as he looked away. "Yeah, sorry."

"You okay?" Nakai asked as he looked at Nishikata curiously. "You seem ... distracted."

"Yeah, I'm just a little- wait," Nishikata stated as he looked around. "Where's Mano?"

"Yeah, we're ... not talking right now."

"What?"

"We had a disagreement so she's going to be angry for a while."

Nishikata looked at Nakai in complete shock. "You two ... broke up?"

"What? No, it was at most an argument, we're still together ... I think."

Nishikata looked at him quizzically, not exactly understanding what he was saying. "But ... you two ... I don't understand."

Nakai laughed. "Nishikata ... no one gets along perfectly, or at least ... not many."

"Well, yeah but ... what are you doing about it? Did you apologize yet?"

"I ... don't really see why I need to, I mean sure, I'm not happy that we had a disagreement, but it's not like either of us yelled or anything."

'He's not handling this well.'

"Anyway, I'm sure things will work themselves out, let's get to class."

"Uh, yeah ... sure." The two resumed walking as Nishikata felt deep in thought. 'So Nakai and Mano are having issues ... I guess highschool is rough on all relationships.' He sighed and shook his head. 'And if that is true, then if I don't make some move, Takagi-san and I will end up drifting even further apart.'