A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Nineteen: Part Three

Keita stuffed the hand closest to the girl into his pocket and he held his briefcase with the other. He was turning away, wearing a firm frown and narrowing his eyes.

The hallways were clear. The tall ceilings towered above their heads, and the sun shone brightly through the windows. Walking down the hallways felt like walking down a long balcony.

 

“She only needs one escort, you know.”

Keita turned towards the voice of the figure walking on the other side of the girl. His glare was already directed towards Keita.

Keita remembered the figure’s first and last name, “Amanatsu Mashiro”. But when he tried to say his first name, it came out distorted and out of order, and he didn’t feel like pronouncing it wrong and looking stupid.

Keita glared in response. “Exactly. I can escort her myself.”

“What I meant was that I should escort her.” The boy named Amanatsu jabbed his thumb against his chest.

“What’s so special about escorting me? I’m perfectly fine with walking to class alone.” The girl sharply sighed, rolling her eyes.

“You’d get lost.” Amanatsu objected. “It’s not like we have a locating device planted in your head.” He glanced back towards Keita. “That is, unless you’ve planted something of the sort in her head already.”

“I know what I want to plant in your head,” Keita happened to retort with Amanatsu with his perfectly calm voice. He felt strangely triumphant, but he didn’t dare show anything through his emotions.

The girl released a long, frustrated groan. “I don’t think you guys want to escort me. I think you guys simply just want to out-nag the other.”

Keita didn’t wish to nag anyone, but he silently desired the feeling of defeating this guy at that moment. He kept his glare focused on Amanatsu.

Amanatsu was the first to speak. “I’ve known her longer.”

Keita’s eyebrows rose over his forehead and he placed on his smart-ascot face. “I live with her.”

“She’s my employee.”

“My limousine took her to school.”

“Well, she’s in my class.”

Busted.

Keita felt a feeling of defeat. What else was he to the girl? He couldn’t think of anything else.

He wanted to come up with something else. What else was the girl to him? What did he think of her?

But then his thoughts paused—halting to a stop with a sharp, ear-piercing screech.

What was he trying to fight for? Escorting this girl?

Did he want to escort the girl this much?

 

He didn’t usually argue with someone just for the sake of winning the argument. Plus, it took a lot to get him to fight for something.

Did he really want to escort this girl this much?

He exhaled. “Hotaru,” he murmured in a quieter voice. “You only need one escort, right?”

“Jeez, you can both escort me!” she let out another frustrated groan. “I’m not taking sides. I think of you both as equal escorters.” She began ruffling her hair, regardless of how much hair mousse and slavery it took from Keita’s maids to do her hair. “Don’t fight over something like this.”

“Alright.” Keita turned back towards Amanatsu, feeling the glare fade away from his face. “I won’t.”

And Keita began stepping further ahead, gaining more speed than the two people he was walking beside.

He didn’t need to fight over the girl. Why would he need to? Why did he want to?

Besides, fighting for something like that is dangerous. If he had no desires with that girl, he would fall in love. It’s as simple as that.

“Keita.”

He stopped walking once he heard her voice. He slowly turned back around, giving the girl a side glance through the corner of his eye.

“What is it?” he asked.

She glanced between Keita and Amanatsu with an uncomfortable glance. “You know, when I’m only being escorted by one person, I kind of wish that the other one was walking along with us, too.”

Was she referring to something?

Keita turned his head further around, giving the girl his full-frontal glance. “Are you asking me to escort you?”

The girl didn’t nod or shake her head. She simply glanced towards him with an expression that seemed to tell him, “Yes.”

Keita’s eyes dimmed, narrowing. He frowned. “Yes. I can. But I have somewhere to be.”

He turned away, hurrying the rest of the way down the hallway. He didn’t turn back around to see how farther away he was getting from the girl and Amanatsu.

He would have escorted her. Part of him wanted to stay beside her and bicker and attempt to beat Amanatsu in their nagging event. But the part of him that didn’t want to bicker over her told him to hurry away, and he followed that part.

He felt that she would be fine with Amanatsu, anyway. He’s seen the way Amanatsu can make the girl smile.

He didn’t know how to do that. In fact, Keita figured that what he had just done—hurrying away from the girl when she had asked him to stay—showed that he didn’t know how to make her smile.