✔ | SEASONS OF CHANCES AND LOVE BOOK 3: Promised Love In Autumn

One October's Memory

CHAPTER 5

"Woah... I never thought something like that happened," Hanako commented after recovering from shock.

"But can Kana-chan really do that? I mean turn dead on the outside in an instant? It could really be a perfect front but in my opinion, that's not normal at all," Aika added.

A wry smile crossed Miyako's face soon after. "She was trained to do that. But using it in this situation just to save her heart, in the end it would only hurt her too much and I won't be surprised if this act would cost Kana her sanity."

"Oi, Miyako, that's not even a nice joke!"

"... that is, if we don't do something to fix this," Kazumi countered.

"But how are we supposed to fix this? Kana-chan had been avoiding Oishi-kun since the incident."

"And besides, she wouldn't even let me explain the truth," Oishi said in frustration. "Whenever I could find a chance to do so, she was avoiding me. She wouldn't even talk to me or answer me at all. It's like I don't even to her at all."

Well, frustration wasn't the only reason why Oishi suddenly decided to seek for help from Kazumi and the others. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't fully rely on his teammates' help at this point. He thought that those people who knew Kana probably much more than he does could help him.

But that thought was slowly becoming obscured by his worries when he saw how serious the girls' faces were. At the instant he noticed it, tension hovered around. He knew the severity of the issue upon realizing his actions and the words he uttered back then. But he wasn't lying when he said to Maya—the girl who asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend but later on provoked to prove to his obsessed suitor that he was indeed her boyfriend, leading to that kiss—that he wasn't falling in love with Kana.

He has his reasons for saying that, though. But it seemed that he didn't put it in a better word to make it understandable. It was solely his fault that he was facing this kind of predicament. And now he felt that he wasn't deserving to even ask for him from the other Columns.

"Oishi-kun..." Kazumi stated that caught his attention. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Eh?" He blinked. "You mean... alone?"

Kazumi nodded, still with a serious face on. "I just need to confirm something from you. But I won't be able to do that if there are some... possible interruptions."

"But..." Oishi was unsure and so he glanced at Tezuka. The man just gave him a nod of approval—probably saying that it was okay. Feeling relieved with that, he stood up and Miyako told them where to go.

However, he couldn't help thinking about the possible questions that Kazumi was going to ask to him. From what he knew, Kazumi wasn't the type of person who would just barge people with her questions. In fact, Kazumi was the silent type among the Five Columns. But as they say, the silent ones were those that could be considered extremely dangerous.

Especially when they snapped.

"I'm not going to eat you if that's what you're thinking."

He winced at those words. With that, he found himself in front of Kazumi inside a small study room. The look on her face was surely serious. But weird enough, it wasn't a scary type of seriousness.

"What you said to Nakajima-san that day..." Kazumi started. "...it's a lie, right?"

Surprise filled his whole being as he heard those words. What part of his statement was a lie? "I-I don't... understand..."