A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Twenty: Part Three

“Hanabusa-sama!”

Keita approached the limousine, back straight and shoulders poised. After almost a week of walking to the limousine with the red-headed girl trailing behind him or beside him in some sort of klutzy way must have stuck to him. Walking without her seemed strange, and Keita tried his best to remind himself that he didn’t have to turn around to see where the girl was because the girl wasn’t with them at that moment.

Or, so he thought.

He glanced towards Megane, nodding when he heard the chauffeur call his name.

“Good afternoon, Hanabusa-sama,” Megane stepped beside the limousine, standing tall and straight. “Did you complete your homework?”

“Yes, I did.”

Keita wasn’t particularly lying. During the rest of the silent period with Hinata, Keita got his attention back towards his homework. They didn’t talk for the rest of their time at the library, and when Keita felt that he was finished with his work (and he had finished before Hinata), he simply got up out of his seat, packed his things and left the room, saying no more than a, “See you tomorrow.”

Keita had only finished the homework that Haruka had assigned that day. He hadn’t finished the rest of the missing work that he was supposed to finish. But Keita was satisfied, since he knew that he got the homework for the day done, and he no longer had to worry about it.

Megane held open the door. “Please be careful as you take your seat,” he added.

Keita found that statement peculiar. He was always “careful” when he stepped inside. It’s not like he rammed head-first into the car. However, Megane had never told him to be careful unless there was hardly any space in the limousine, and that hardly ever happened.

Perhaps more boxes were added into the limousine, and it happened to take up the last little bit of the free, open seat that Keita usually sat in.

“Careful?” Keita repeated as he stepped closer towards the open door. “Why?”

He immediately found out why when he looked into the limousine.

Lying across the seats, eyes closed and hair extra ruffled and messy, was the auburn-headed girl. Her hands were loosely placed before her, arms hanging off the front of the seat.

Keita didn’t say a word in response to what he saw. Instead, he simply stared forward, making sure his mouth didn’t hang open.

“She implied that she could wait,” Megane informed. “We’ve been waiting here for around the last hour, so I doubt that she was able to find much to do. She must have gotten tired. Would you like me to shift some boxes in order for you to sit in the seat behind her?”

“No.” Keita took another step towards the open door, towards the sleeping girl. “I’m fine sitting next to this.”

“Are you sure, Hanabusa-sama?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like me to wake her up?”

“No. I’ve never woken her up before, and she might be the type of girl to roar at the top of her lungs when she’s woken up from sleeping.”

Megane probably found that this made sense because he didn’t object or reply.

Keita had already started to step into the car. After getting one foot inside, he noticed that he wasn’t able to sit down unless he was evil enough to sit on top of her head.