Kokuhaku: Part 1 of A Tanabata Story

Epilog

Miko Miyamoto dwelt at the top of the social pyramid. As a gaijin, Jack was nowhere near the top. He wasn't on the pyramid at all. The puzzled, shocked and occasionally bemused faces of his fellow students reflected this truth back to him as he and Miko walked, arms wrapped around each other, back to the main school building. Everyone they passed froze in mid-step. A few wearing red and white ribbons, faces growing pale with shock and eyes red with rising tears, exchanged panicked looks.

Jack gazed into Miko's upturned face. "Mind if I go inside a moment to change clothes? I need to get my uniform anyway."

"I don't mind." Miko clung to him a little more tightly as if he were a life preserver that might drift away if she let go.

They entered the school and came to the shoe cubbies where Jack had to resist both her grip and his own reluctance to peel her away. Though separated only long enough to change shoes, Miko looked relieved at Jack's return as if she had feared something might have happened to him in that short time.

Jack took her soft warm hand. It locked smoothly into his as if each had been designed to hold the other. Sharp and silent eyes followed them down the school's hallways in growing numbers, rising on a tide of whispered questions. Miko clung to him, clutching his arm and gripping his hand until his interlaced fingers began to ache.

Thankfully, the hallway outside the classroom that served as the boys changing room, was free of other students. They stopped and Jack said, "I'll be right back." He checked for witnesses then stole a brief kiss. He didn't linger on her lips. He knew he wouldn't be able to tear himself away if he did. "I love you Miko-chan."

She looked away. "I...love... you Jack-kun." She blushed so hard that her face turned purple.

The sound of his first name on her lips shivered down his spine.

Jack stepped inside the classroom and yanked off his T-shirt. He quickly cleaned himself with a wet-wipe and jerked on his school uniform.

Girls' voices approach from the hallway outside of the room. "Miko-chan! I heard they are going to make you a starter in volleyball. Congratulations!"

"Er, thank you."

"Hey, what are you doing here?" a second voice asked.

"Are you waiting for a boy?" another voice teased. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Miko didn't answer. Jack yearned to see her expression, but he could easily imagine the girls' faces shifting from curious amusement, to suspicion, to disbelief and then shocking realization as the silence stretched out.

"Why are you blushing? You can tell us!"

"Do you? Really?"

"Actually she does." A male voice joined in as a whole troop of male voices came noisily down the hall. "She was making out with him on the practice field."

"What?" The first girl's voice rose a couple of octaves, accompanied by a chorus of squeals.

"Really?"

"We only kissed a couple of times."

"Eh?"

"You already kissed?" voices shouted.

"Who is it? What class is he in?"

A voice that sounded like Takashi's said, "It's Jack-kun."

"Who?"

"Jakku Patorik-kun."

"The gaijin?"

"Go search Nicovideo for Miyamoto's First Kiss," said another voice which might have been Daisuke's.