KNB: Stay Forever with Me (Kise Ryouta)

35 - Campfire

THIRTY-FIVE – Campfire

The campfire was supposed to start a few minutes ago; but due to technical difficulties, it was delayed. All free members of the Riddle Society came by to help, leaving the king and queen of the night to their own devices.

"H-Have you eaten already?" The raven-haired female raises a brow to Kise's question.

"Really? You're starting the conversation with that question?" she commented. She, however, answers the question anyway. "I don't think I'll be able to eat dinner this time – thanks to you dragging me from stall to stall."

"You heard Akashicchi. You need to enjoy the festival. That includes sampling everything that they're selling there," Kise replied, turning his attention to the girl's twiddling thumbs.

"I didn't even know of this event," Sayoko said. "I knew there was a campfire, but I never really knew what they'd do for this."

"Word says that Akashicchi's company is sponsoring the event."

"No wonder he'd never let anyone touch this event."

The conversation ended as quickly as it started. A few minutes of silence was shared among the two. They heard the high-frequency screeches coming from the speakers, irritating the both of them. After that, it was back to the deafening silence.

"Ah~ I don't know what to talk about anymore!" Kise whined, absolutely frustrated about the silence.

Silence was something that Sayoko enjoyed, but only in solitude. Whenever she was with Kise, he would send down a barrage of questions wherein she can't answer one without another question coming in. However, he will always ask the same question everyday and wait patiently for her to answer it.

"Huh." Sayoko listlessly stare at the ceiling, analyzing the patterns of the ceiling tiles and lights.

"Huh?"

"You haven't asked me that yet," she says out of nowhere, confusing the blond beside her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Kise-san!" Pretty girl from the Riddle Society is running towards their direction, almost out of breath. "Sayoko-san! It's ready! Please get into position..."

After checking that she won't pass out, the two of them locked arms once more, and walked in front of the dark curtain.

They could hear the host introducing them to the crowd. "... an unlikely duo. Word tells me that one of them is in the throat of the other..."

"You said it."

"H-Hey!"

"Regardless, they are this year's Teiko High Festival's King and Queen!" Upon hearing their names, they walk pass the curtain and into the balcony where everyone could see them.

A huge 10-foot campfire was placed in the center of the field. Surrounding it was most of the 500 student population present in the event, along with the 25 faculty members and administrative members. All of them, regardless if they knew, liked, or hated them, are stunned in awe of their appearance in the first few seconds. The high-pitched squealing and camera flashes followed, obviously because of Kise's fangirls. Of course they couldn't hide the jealousy that some other girl is with him instead of them. They might even replace their face with the witch beside him.

However, at the back of Kise's mind, she's the only girl he wanted beside her right now.

They stood as the program progressed. After the spectacular shadow-dancing around the campfire, Akashi was given the microphone to thank the school in behalf of their family company and give a short recap of the entire festival. Everyone is pleased to hear that next year, they will be extending the festival to three days instead of one.