Desire - H. Umemiya

Chapter 9. Chase in the Sun

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"So, you're telling me the 'her' that you're talking about is a cat?" Yuki muttered as she watched everyone going after the agile animal. She was leisurely walking as she catches up to the group running after it. She was lagging behind, that some of the guys turned their heads towards her and made a face.

'Man, make some effort, will ya?' some thought.

Though she continued following them.

Yuki halted when she witnessed Sakura easily climbing up the building. 'Are you actually a cat yourself?' she thought. She tried imitating him and surprisingly she was able to. She looked down and saw the others gaping at her too in surprise, she waved at them. "They went north." She yelled before following Sakura.

"They're like monkeys..." The others thought as they gape at the two.

After exactly fifteen minutes, she got tired and stopped jumping from building to building and rested at the railing beside the river, she sat on the ground and brought out her snack.

"This could suffice." She muttered. She got hungry from all the chasing that she was eager to bite on her bread when a certain thing jumped on her direction and bit on her snack.

"O-oh..." To say she was upset was an underestimation, her mood dropped on a 180 degree scale.

Shortly, the sound of water splashing was heard along with various yelling voices. She turned her head to look at it but was only met with Sakura almost falling from the railings. Fortunately, he is at an arm's reach. She grabbed the hem of the back of his uniform to prevent him from falling further and when he finally regained his balance, she let go of his uniform.

"T-thanks." He murmured as his face flashed from embarrassment. She stared at him, surprise that he can actually express gratitude to her. It just felt like he dislikes her that's why she was shocked.

She slowly nodded her head in acknowledgement, though, she was actually failing to understand that on the inside. Sakura left after that.

While the culprit of the whole predicament, on the other hand, only sat on her lap unbothered and has only its focus on finishing her food. She shifted her gaze at it with tiredness in her eyes.

"That's the only snack I got." She muttered as she patted the cat's head. The cat purred and shifted its gaze to her before laying comfortably in her lap. It seems like it had already finished her snack. Soon, she stood up and hug the cat to her chest, she turned around and snickered when she saw the wet Kaji.

"Did you take a dip?" she asked jokingly.

"Shut up." He answered before receiving the towel that his classmate had offered. Yuki offered him her hand to give him a pull to which he hesitantly took.

'It was sure a tiring day.' She thought before yawning.

Some time after, they had returned the cat to its owner and were preparing to go back when she saw Sakura confronting the second year's grade captain, Kaji Ren. She stood there, waiting, all ears for the tea. It was not only her though, Suo Hayato was also beside her eyeing the two. He seems quite interested about what is happening.

"What is it... that you wanna do?" Sakura started as his gaze found the sitting Kaji.

"Come again?" The latter replied with an eyebrow raised.

"Suo-san? Shinomiya-san? What are you doing there?" Both jolted from being caught in the act. "Eavesdropping is bad you know." Nirei spoke with eyes sparkling with naivety, Suo immediately covered his mouth and hid him too.

As if they heard Nirei speak, the subjects of their evesdropping looked at their direction but immediately returned their gaze towards each other when they found no one.

"Shh.." Nirei struggled from Suo's grip but stopped wriggling when Yuki shushed him up with her index finger on her lips. The three became silent after that.

Suo and Yuki sneak a peek on the direction of the two but failed to hear anything now. The two released a sigh and shifted their gaze to Nirei whom at the moment felt so guilty for no apparent reason. 

"What?" he asked.