A Silent Voice: Children again:

4. Knowing Shouko more:

For some strange reason on Monday, Shouya decided he wanted to learn more about Shouko. "Don't know why the heck. But I just felt like it." And then that following day, he waited before lunch. When that bell finally rung, he dashed outta there and waited in the hallway for Shouko. "Hey, Shouko," he called after seeing her walk by. She stopped to look at him and smiled. Then she sigh languaged, "What's wrong?" And he said, "huh, nothing, it's...." he looks at her embarrassed, "I just.......want to.........know more about you...." she tilts her head to the side in confusion as he tries to tell her again, but in sigh language. She then gasps at the fact that he actually knows sigh language. "W-Wha?" She then sigh languages, "You actually know sigh language?" "Y-" he got stuck on his words before
Saying, "Yeah...." then she smiled and ran up to hug him while saying something in her squeaky voice, but that was heard faintly. He was really embarrassed now as he tried to push her off, but failed, "H-Hey! Get off me!" Then he stopped and looked at her face for a minute. It was still that happy face she always wore, the cute face he couldn't get over. Over. Wait. "WHAT AM I THINKING!!??" He finally pushes her off hard, but she only stumbles a little before getting balance to stand up again and look at him confused. "None of that gross, hug, kissy stuff, got it?" He crossed his arms at her. She just smiled at him and nodded. He looked up half way to his right while frowning and blushing. Then he looked her way and closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Alright, now that you've got that, go home, park, or whatever...." instead though, she ran to grab his hand, startling him. "Huh!?" He looked down at his hand that was now tangled with Shoko's. "S-S-Shoko! W-What are you doing!?" She looked up at him and smiled. "Where you go, I go," she tried to say through her squeaky voice. Shoya blushed and said, "I'm heading home, don't plan on doing anything special. So you go home too." Then he shoke his hand off hers and started walking home. Despite what he said, she still followed behind him. Then after it bugging him a while, he stopped suddenly, making Shoko bump into him and look at him confused. He turns around, "Shoko, I'm heading home, so leave me alone, got it?" Shoko, strangely still smiling, sigh languaged, "Let's go somewhere fun," "huh?" He looked at her confused. "What do you mean? And why me?" She sigh languaged him,

"I want to get to know you better"

"What?" He stared surprised at her. That was his intention, why does she suddenly want to more about him? "Shoko, why me?......I don't get why me...." "Because I want to," he looks up at her as she continues speaking, "I kinda like----" "AS A FRIEND!" He interrupted her, "As a friend! Right!?" She looked at him surprised, but then smiled and nodded. "Well," he sweated a little while blushing still, "If you want to go somewhere with me so bad, then, where?" "The park maybe?" She sigh languaged. "The park?" He asked curiously, "Why there? There's many other cooler places, the park's not all that special," she started sigh languaging again as he tried to figure out what she was saying, "Huh? Ohh......Because it might be a good start for hanging out?" She nodded. Then he smiled at her. "Sure, let's go." An hour later, they were shown at the park together, Shoko looking around fascinated, Shoya on his phone, texting his mom he's gonna be a little late dued to 'something important'. She tugs on his sleeve a little, drawing his attention. "Hm?" She points to a slide and smiles. "You wanna go there first?" She nodded and then he smiled back, "Alright then, what are we waiting for?" Then the two of them laugh as they race to the slide and start sliding down it multiple times. "Shoko! Look!" He pointed to monkey bars as she looked at him surprised with wide eyes, however, she still had her cute smile. She sigh languaged him if he's sure that's okay for the both of them to play on. "Yeah Shoko, don't be such a scardy cat!" He laughs as she runs ahead. Then she laughs and gets off the slide, catching up to him from behind. "I call dips!" He jumps up to the first bar from the ground, which was a bit high. Then he continued to quickly swing to each bar while laughing before reaching the last one and landing on the ground. "Alright, your turn," she looked at him surprised again, and then slowly climbed the mini staircase to the bars. When she saw it, she then slowly started putting her left hand on the first one, then the right hand, and then, she dared to jump off the platform. She was now hanging onto the first bar for dear life while whimpering a little scard. "Shoko! Come on! You got a few more bars to go!" She then tried to reach the second bar with her right hand, but missed and almost fell. "Shoko!" She hung there with her aching left hand, feeling very terrified about letting go and hitting the ground. "Shoko! It's okay! Just reach the next bar again, and whatever you do, don't look down," despite his warning, her curiosity made her look down, which turned out to be a horrible idea. "Ahhh!" She screamed scared from how scary the height from the ground was. "Shoko!" Her last hand holding on then slips and lets her fall. "AHHH!" "SHOKO!!!" He ran and then slid under the bars, catching her in his arms. In that process, his phone drops out of his pocket as he then stands back up again, still holding Shoko in his arms. "Shoko, are you okay?" He asked concerned. Then after shaking a while, she finally opened her eyes slowly half way, then all the way after she sees Shoya. "Shoya!" She cried in her sqeaky voice while hugging him. "S-S-Shoko!" She then giggles cutely, which then settles Shoya. He then finds himself laughing along with her and smiling together as the sunset view glowed a beautiful bright yellowish orange on them. "Oi," they both turn around to see an old man, smiling at them with his eyes closed. "Isn't it a bit early to start that type of stuff? I mean, unless you were playing hero," it only takes Shoya a moment to realize what he was talking about, and then looked at Shoko surprised while his face burned up. Yes. Shoko was still in his arms. "E-EH!?" He then throws her and rubs his back embarrassed. "Hehehehe, well, uh, we were in fact, playing hero!" Shoko then stands up, brushing herself off as Shoya continues, "Yeah! And then, uh, when she fell, I had to catch her and reenact the hero and princess scene! That's what happened!" The old man just looks at them and then giggles again, "Alright then, you children carry on then," and then he left with his cane banging the ground on every beat of his feet. "Sorry Shoko, you're okay, right?" She looked at him confused, but then smiled at him and sigh languaged him again. "This was fun, let's do it again some time," Shoya couldn't help but blush and look at her confused. "R....Really? But....why me?...." "Because I enjoy doing it with you," he then jumped a little in surprise, but the smiled warmly at her. "You know what?" she looks back at him curiously as he wraps his arm around her and walk home with her, "You're actually pretty fun to hang out with," she then smiles brightly as the two are shown walking together home. Then the phone on the ground is shown, beeping as kazuki shimada's name and photo are shown. Then after a while, it stops, shows two missed calls, goes back to photo file, and a new picture was then shown.