Girl Next Door

Chapter Forty-One

It was raining at dismissal time later that afternoon, and luckily most of the students brought their umbrellas. It was different for those who had forgotten theirs though.

Yukie was about to exit the library after another library committee meeting. Once again she was joined by Ichiro, who helped her maintain the library before everybody left. When the two came upon the doorway, they had just realized it was raining. Yukie then checked her bag if she had brought her umbrella, but it was in vain.

"Oh, no," she said in a worried tone. "I left my umbrella at home."

Ichiro looked at her with concern. But he was a smart boy, and quickly remembered he had an umbrella in his bag. He then groped for it and pulled it out.

"I have one," he said. "Wanna share?"

"Ah! Um..." said Yukie, quite surprised. She felt awkward about the prospect of sharing an umbrella with Ichiro.

"Nakamura-san?" said Ichiro, wondering what was wrong.

"Um, uh..." stammered Yukie. "Well, d-don't you have somewhere to go after this, Toyama-kun?"

"Uh, no," replied Ichiro, rubbing the back of his head. "P-Please, don't be bothered by it. I'll take you home."

Yukie blushed lightly as she nodded her head in reply.

Later, the two were walking side-by-side on the side of the street under Ichiro's umbrella. Yukie, however, still felt a little uncomfortable and kept her distance from Ichiro, so that her shoulder was sticking out of the umbrella's shade and getting soaked in rainwater. Ichiro noticed and was quite unsure of what to make of the situation, but soon made up his mind.

"Y-You should come in closer," he said. "You'll get drenched."

Yukie replied, "Oh, that won't be necessary--"

Suddenly Ichiro took Yukie by the shoulder and pulled her in closer to him, startling her. When she saw how close their proximity was to each other, she blushed. Nevertheless, the two of them kept walking towards home, kept warm by their closeness to one another.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke too was on his way home. He brought his umbrella, and he was hoping Risa had forgotten hers so they could share, and maybe so Kyosuke would have the opportinity to talk her. Unfortunately, Risa had brought her own umbrella, much to Kyosuke's disappointment, and what's worse, she did not wait for him and walked home alone.

Kyosuke felt rather depressed as he walked through the rain, dry under his umbrella. By now he had truly regretted what he had said to Risa. Once again he felt as though she had become distant from him. He sighed deeply as he thought of her.

"What have I done?" he thought to himself. "I've been such a jerk today. Now Risa's pissed at me. I wonder if she's ever gonna forgive me."

Kyosuke continued his lone walk down the rainy street, thinking of Risa and what she was up to, and how to earn her forgiveness.

Risa, meanwhile, was too busy preparing for her dinner with Chiba to be thinking about anything else. She put on her best dress, a black one for the evening, then she grabbed her handbag and left the house. Fortunately, it had stopped raining.

The restaurant Chiba told Risa to meet him at was out into town, and the only problem was walking all the way there. Luckily for her, the brochure he gave her had a map that gave her directions to the restaurant. When she got there, she took a deep breath, quite nervous, and stepped inside.

It was indeed a place for fine dining. Only rich people could enter the doors of the restaurant without feeling shy. Risa saw customers all wearing fancy clothes that she could only dream of wearing. But she felt that her dress was beautiful enough to be compared to those of the other customers, and she half-smiled.