Burning Bright

A Brave New World

But it wasn't fine. For the rest of the day, Kashiwagi ignored Suzuki whenever he tried to talk to her.

"What's your problem!?" he finally asked her when they were eating dinner.

"You want to know what my problem is?" Kashiwagi said in a low voice that grew louder as she spoke. "You don't come pick me up for breakfast, you don't kiss me goodnight, and you won't even share your chopsticks with me! You don't do anything for me, despite everything we've been through. The only time you're nice to me is when you want something!" By the end, she was yelling, and everyone was staring at them. "Stupid Ryouichi-kun!!" With that parting shot, she ran off with tears in her eyes. All around him, Suzuki could hear people talking.

"Ooh, he made her cry..."

"He really is the worst..."

"Maybe now she'll get wise and dump him!"

"Yeah, she should totally dump his sorry ass!"

"It's pretty obvious he was only using her..."

"Seriously, he's the worst..."

'Th-These bastards...!' Suzuki thought darkly. 'Saying whatever the hell they want... Even the guys are bashing me! And the girls... They're all glaring daggers at me... If I let it end like this, my stock will plummet, and I won't be able to get another girlfriend!!' Panicking, he stood up and chased after Kashiwagi. He looked in all the usual spots, but couldn't find her, so he waited for her at the girls' cabin. He wasn't sure how long he waited there, but it felt like forever. His stomach kept growling because he'd only had a few bites to eat.

"Ryouichi-kun...?" Kashiwagi said, and he looked up to see her standing in front of him.

"S-Sanae..." Suzuki said, standing up. "Sanae..." He kissed her before she could turn her head away. "Goodnight." Someone wolf-whistled. Suzuki looked in that direction and was horrified to see that he had an audience. Pretty much everyone else had finished eating, and most of them were watching with smirks on their faces. A few people cheered them on. Sanae blushed, looking pleased.

'These bastards... Did they plan this!?' Suzuki wondered. "... Like I said, goodnight!" Suzuki told his girlfriend and fled the scene as casually as he could.

"Good night," Yarai told Torako sharing a kiss with her.

"Goodnight," Torako said, waving at him as he left.

"Looks like you got him to come crawling back..." Miyauchi said to Kashiwagi.

"Are you sure you're okay with that, though?" Rei asked. "He was just copying Yarai..."

"It's fine!" Kashiwagi said, grinning. "After all, that's the first time Ryouichi-kun's done something like that!"

"Th-The first time!?" the other girls said.

"With how long you two have been dating...?"Rion said.

"That's the first time he was nice to you like that!?" Shigeno said incredulously.

"You should just dump him," Tokiwa said. But Kashiwagi was too happy to absorb the negative comments, and she went to bed with a smile on her face.

—∞—

Things continued on peacefully for another thirteen weeks, and soon Isurgi Miina was completely healed and moved into the first cabin, and the second cabin was completed. Yarai, Akira, Mariya, Suzuki, Miina, Yamato, Kairi, the president, Morita, Shiraishi, Katsuragi, Kokonoe, Yashiro, Seigou, and Murayama moved into the second cabin together.

"I guess it's nice to have a room with real walls again, but at this rate, it'll take us a whole year just to build four cabins..." Yashiro said.

"Yeah, I think we're going to have to ask the women to help more with construction, so we can free people up to start working on the boats..." Akira said.