[Her Between The Past And The Future]

Chapter 3

"Ok! That's all for today, Minna!"

The pink haired captain shouted. Dismissing their practice. Everyone stopped and went over the bench where their managers, Midori and Akane, were waiting while holding a bottle and a towel for the players to drink and wipe off their sweats. They plopped down on the ground panting heavily as they were finally near the two girls, while the others went to sit on the bench or were just standing. Midori and Akane were handing over the bottles and the towels on each player then nodding at them as thanks. The team was way too tired to move a single muscle right now. They don't know why but they practiced extra hard than the way they practice everyday, like there was something motivating them to practice even more to become stronger. But stronger for what? All they knew was they would do that to catch up to them, but their guts were telling them something different that they don't even know what it is. Later on, the team already went home, though Kirino stayed behind as he forgot his notebook on his classroom and went to go take it or else he will get a bad score just by not studying because he forgot his notebook in class.

Kirino went out of the school building, now holding his dear notebook on the side. He started to walk home while looking at the ground with his eyes furrowed, thinking deeply. Everything had been settled after he told the team his worries for them, in which he got scolded by his friends for not saying it sooner and as punishment for him, he will now tell them every single problem he had related to them. And he did just to get away from his extremely-worried-friends. Still not looking up, he felt something, rather, someone bumped into him. The notebook fell from his grasp as he stumbled backwards and regained his balance after, but the one he bumped into fell on the ground and yelped in surprise. When Kirino looked at the one he bumped into he noticed that, that someone was actually a girl. Now he felt guilty for hurting a girl just because of him not looking out on the front.

The pinkette quickly reacted and held out his hand for the girl to hold and help her stand up. Now that he could now see her clearly, she had dark green eyes and a light pink hair with a light shade of gray that reaches up her shoulder. Then she wore a mint green dress and dark blue jacket on top. Black jeans and brown knee high boots. Is it a little too hot for someone to wear a jacket... Kirino wondered.

The girl was rubbing her head in pain from hitting her head on the pinkette and when she noticed a hand held out for her, she looked at Kirino with confusion but turned into shock when her dark green eyes landed on his face. "Y-you..." She stuttered. The both of them stayed in that position as silence filled them, with Kirino's curious face and a surprise one from the girl. The pink haired girl snapped out of her thoughts and looked away, a blush of embarrassment visible on her cheeks. She finally took his hand and as if on cue, Kirino pulled her up.

"T-thanks. And sorry for bumping you." She thanked him, still blushing. Kirino, being a gentleman, smiled and forgave the girl infront of him. "That's okay. I should be the one apologizing, I'm not looking where I was walking, after all."

"By the way, what's your name?"

"It's Rina..."Rina said, a little hesitant. Though Kirino was confused as to why she didn't told him her last name but he just shrugged it off, at least he knew her given name. But hearing that name, Kirino felt something like some connection to her. Now that he finally noticed, Rina also had a pink hair, in which is very unusual for him to see aside from a female player of Earth Eleven and him. Is she a distant relative or something..?  He mentally nodded at his own theory, agreeing that maybe, just maybe, she is one of his distant relatives that seldomly visit his family.

He went back to reality as he noticed that Rina was blushing once again looking down at... something....... Kirino blushed instantly, redder than his pink hair. He didn't noticed that they were still holding hands until he finally looked at it. The both of them retracted their hands at the same time then looked away from each other. "S-sorry.." Kirino apologized. Rina cleared her throat and faced Kirino confidently. "It's getting late, we should go home now."

"Do you want me to walk you home then? It's dangerous for girls walk alone on the street when it's already dark." Kirino offered. The sky was covered in orange and violet hue. The sun was now setting in the horizon and the moon and stars could now be seen in the sky. Rina shook her head "Thanks for your offer but there's no need to, I can manage myself and besides my house is in the street just next to this one." She winked at him. Kirino at first wasn't convinced but sighed and agreed. "If you say so." He started walking pass her but stopped and turned to look at Rina once more. "Ja. I hope we can meet somewhere again." Rina nodded happily and smiled at him. "Hm. I do hope so!"

Kirino turned towards where his house was located and walked away. Rina watched his figure disappear in the distance until it was finally none. The atmosphere around her turned silent and a little cold as well as her expression changed from her happy smile to a sad frown. She turned, her hair flowing beautifully behind her. She started walking as she smiled sadly. "I finally found you..."

Her mouth moved, at the same time the wind whistled making it couldn't be heard by anyone even for her.

***

Uhh..... Am I late or am I late? I'm sorry for not updating for two weeks!!! I really am sorry! YusaChan is sorry! My life's been busy for the past 2 weeks. There were so many contests in my school and me being me, wanted to join. And in my country, we celebrate our teachers' month in October so in this month, September, were full of contests about teachers' month such as Poster making, Slogan making, Thank you Letter making, Song Writing Contest etc. etc. (Just Google those if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Though, this chapter and the previous ones are just fillers of the story. Because I need to make the characters and my OCs have a peaceful moment first before jumping to the climax. Tehee. Gomen for not telling you about it first.

And also, I am planning that I'm going to make a longer chapter from now on but will take days or a week to finish. But I promise you guys that I will update as fast as I can.

[09/30/18]