Date Her Instead Vol. 7 (Final Volume)

Chapter Five: Remembering

It wasn't much of a gesture, but Michi could tell Chiyo was holding her left hand a little farther away from her body. The gal herself looked meek and shy as she waited for Michi's response. "Ah, r-right..." the girl sputtered. She felt embarrassed about just the idea of holding Chiyo's hand, but now she had to actually do it. Walking back over to her, she reached out.

Michi's hand connected with Chiyo's. "This... is so weird..." Michi groaned internally, though on the outside, her face felt incredibly hot. "Not like that..." Chiyo mumbled, but being right next to her, Michi heard. "Not like- w-wha-" Before she could even ask, Chiyo took their hands a step further, intertwining their fingers. "This... is how you hold hands," Chiyo said. It sounded smooth, but when Michi looked up at her, she could see Chiyo blushing too. "If this is so embarrassing for you, then why did you suggest it?" Michi complained inside her head. But, despite her complaints, she didn't say a word. They walked hand in hand until they could see the school, and then as promised, Chiyo let go. For a moment, a brief moment, Michi had almost wished Chiyo hadn't.

The closer they got to Iwanai High, the more Michi was already starting to feel nostalgic. The fun of having someone with you in the morning. The joy of someone cooking for you. The warmth of Chiyo's hand in hers... Everything was so new, and yet also so pleasant, that Michi felt herself getting swept up in the moment.

"Hey, Chiyo," she said quietly. "If you want to... keep coming by in the morning... I won't stop you..." "Oh yeah?" Chiyo said smugly, seemingly recovered from her embarrassment. "Does that mean ya want me to keep ya company each morning?" "I-I never said every morning!" Michi exclaimed. "Just forget it!"

"Mi-chan," Chiyo said, stopping the girl from stomping off. "I'll keep comin' over if we can keep holdin' hands." Without thinking about it, Michi glanced down at the hand that had just been in Chiyo's. "...do whatever you want..." Michi muttered. It wasn't honest, but Chiyo had heard that phrase enough from the girl to know that it was her dishonest equivalent of yes. At that moment, Chiyo was happy Michi wasn't looking at her, because she had a huge, blushing smile on her face.

*****

"Huh? Why would Kana-chin wanna hang out with you?"

"I'm obviously the one she likes better, she even told me so."

"She was just being your friend to be nice."

*****

Eyes opening slowly, Haruna squinted as she tried to make out the details of her surroundings. Of course, it was her usual, somewhat messy bedroom, but the bigger issue was that it was still dark inside. "What time is it?" she wondered groggily. Checking her phone, she saw it was a little before six in the morning. Thanks to it being Saturday, Haruna could just go back to sleep, but a part of her didn't want to.

"What was with those dreams? Or was it a dream at all...?" she thought, vaguely recalling the events in her mind. "Kanako was there, but... when was that? Then someone was saying something to me... It was kinda mean, but that's all I can remember..." Haruna sighed. "It really feels like I should remember," she thought. "It might have something to do with Ikehara-san..."

Without a doubt, Haruna had become sure that at some point, she had interacted with Katsumi in the past. It felt like the more she had to deal with her, the stronger that feeling became. It had only been a couple of days, but it was just something about the way Katsumi spoke to her that made Haruna feel like she had experienced it before.

The question was when? It obviously had to be before junior high, but other than that, Haruna wasn't sure. For some bizarre reason, she had the hardest time recalling anything that had to do with Katsumi. "Did I just block her out of my mind or something?" Haruna wondered. "That kinda worries me. What if I did that because Ikehara-san did something so bad I needed to forget it?"