My Father's Secret

Chapter 43

When the bus finally came to a stop, Kimiko made an attempt to rush off the bus as fast as possible to get away from all the gossiping. But being at the back slowed her down and she wasn't able to get off as quickly as she wanted.

So when she set foot on the ground, she broke into a run. The bus was parked on top of a gentle slope and the convenient stores and bathrooms were at the bottom. Students and teachers started to make their way off the bus and down the slope.

Because Kimiko was running and wasn't paying attention to where she was going (again) she tripped on big rock and tumbled down the slope. Luckily the grass was able to break the fall but the slope was steep enough to create the right amount of momentum make an impact at the foot of the hill.

Kimiko rolled and rolled and crashed into someone at the bottom of the hill who was making their way to the convenient store and her head collided with a metal trash can with a loud bang.

The person who she had crashed into fell over and scraped their knee across the pavement. Kimiko groaned as she rolled over and put her hand over her head where it was hit. It felt numb and she felt dizzy. The person she had hit wasn't exactly in a better situation than her either. Because the person was wearing shorts, the fall had a big impact on their knees and their hands were also scrapped in the attempt to break the fall.

"Ichinose-san!" came a familiar voice belonging to a male. Kimiko heard him run down the slope and approached her but she couldn't open her eyes to see who it was. The pain was just too much.

"Ichinose-san! Are you ok?" The voice called again.

The boy who had been crashed into by Kimiko was now on his feet. Small streams of blood trickled from his injured knee. He quickly turned the instant he heard a familiar name.

"Kimiko" the boy called when he saw her on the ground clutching her forehead.

Kimiko recognised two blurred silhouettes looming over her. She recognised one of the voices to belong to Miyazaki-kun and the other to Tsurugi...

She wasn't sure which person she had hit but logically, it couldn't have been Miyazaki-kun because she was sure she had gotten off the bus before he did. A few moments later, she noticed that one of the silhouettes had gone from her side but slowly returned. She felt a hand lift her own off her forehead. She secretly hoped that it was Tsurugi.

Then without warning, she felt a sudden, shocking cold at her forehead. It caused her to jump a little though she was still lying on the ground and she heard the boy laugh. He had gotten her an ice pack which was now the cause of her brain freeze. Her head was even more numb than in was before.

"I can do it myself" Kimiko said reaching for the ice pack. She wold do anything to get the freezing pack off her head. Kimiko reached her hand over to the ice pack and her hand made direct contact with Tsurugi's just as Aoi came walking down the hill.

From the distance Kimiko could hear Aoi-chan's voice as she approached.

"What happened?" Kimiko heard her ask.

Kimiko quickly pushed herself up into an up right position hoping that Tsurugi's hand would move away from hers. She didn't want Aoi getting the wrong idea but Tsurugi's hand wouldn't move.

"I tripped and rolled down the hill and hit my head on this trash can" Kimiko explained to Aoi, "but I'm ok now" this time directly hinting to Tsurugi that she was fine. Since his hand didn't move, she assumed that he didn't get the hint.

Kimiko saw Aoi-chan eyeing the ice pack where their hand were touching so Kimiko tried to get up to try and get Tsurugi's hand off hers. By now she couldn't feel a single thing on her forehead. When Tsurugi saw that Kimiko was trying to get up, he quickly used his free hand to hold onto her arm to steady her.

"I can get up by myself, its ok" Kimiko told him and quickly pulled away. Kimiko suddenly realised that Tsurugi's shin was covered in blood. She couldn't believe she hadn't realised before.

"Tsurugi, what happened?" she asked, pointing to the cut. Aoi took initiative right away.

"Tsurugi-kun, you should sit down first. I'll go get some first aid from the nurse" and they watched as Aoi helped Tsurugi sit down on the grass and run back to the bus to get first aid.

When Aoi was out of sight, Tsurugi asked,

"Kimiko, how's your forehead?" reaching for her hand that was on the ice pack and taking it off to see how bad the bruise looked. With the same hand, he gently stroked her forehead where the bruise was. Seeing this, Miyazaki quickly made an excuse to leave the two of them alone.

"I just realised I haven't gotten any snacks yet. I should get some now before time runs out. See ya" and he quickly disappeared into the convenient store.

"The bruise doesn't look so well"

"neither does your leg" and they both laughed.

"Thanks for getting me the ice pack though"

"No problem"

"But how are you going to do any activities during the camp? That cut looks pretty deep"

"It's ok, I can manage a little cut won't hurt me"

"Kimiko!" It was Aoi running back empty handed from the bus. She was panting when she reached the bottom of the hill and delivered her message in stutters.

"We-we don't have-much time-left. The-nurse told-us to get on the bus first"

"Oh ok" Kimiko replied and got up instantly.

"Kimiko, could you help me get up" he asked sticking his hand out.

Kimiko hesitated to take his hand because she could feel Aoi's eyes burning the back of her neck but it wasn't like she had much of a choice since Tsurugi clearly stated that he wanted her help. So she turned around, gripped Tsurugi's hand and pulled him up from the seat. Since Tsurugi was a little heavier than she expected, she fell back a little as she pulled him up. But Tsurugi's strong grip on her hand prevented her from falling backwards.

And from the corner of her eye, Kimiko could see Aoi-chan standing there ready to pounce the instant they got back on the bus...