Love Carnation

Kazuo Akimitsu SS: Troubles All Round

When Aki arrived back at his place, he sluggishly turned the doorknob and walked inside.

''I'm back...''

When he glanced throughout the place, it seemed like there was no one around. It appears like he was the first person to arrive home.

''Ahh, so tired...''

Aki's body was feeling sore all over, and he could barely feel his own movements.

It is most likely caused by his training today. After all, he made his team's training more rigorous than it normally was.

His arms were still feeling stiff as he was during training.

(I might've pushed them to their limit...)

Suddenly, he felt a pain rushing through his cheek.

''Ah!''

His right hand instinctively moved and softly touched upon his bruised cheek.

The punch that Kenji dealt to him was still on his mind. He felt the pain throughout his body from the blow, but he suppressed his agony when confronting him.

Aki's mind recalled what Kenji told him about Rin.

(That's right... how did he...)

While he was thinking about the possible ways Kenji could've made contact with Rin, his mind abruptly was reminded of something else related to Rin.

''Oh no...''

Aki hastily ran through the living room, all the way to his room.

He closed the door behind him and dropped all of his belongings on the ground, other than his phone that he earlier grabbed out from his bag while rushing here.

He turned on his phone and immediately went to his chat messages with Rin.

''(How did it go?!)''

After a few seconds from sending the message. Rin appeared online, marking Aki's text message to him as read.

''(What do you mean?)''

Aki was concerned with what happened with him and Suzuki after having been the one to tell Rin to go after her.

He was the one responsible for that decision, and was willing to own up to his mistakes if something bad happens.

After a moment, Rin started typing back to Aki.

''(Oh do you mean me and Suzuki.)''

''(Yeah how was it?)''

Aki was eying closely at his phone, waiting for Rin to respond back.

''(We're fine now, thanks for your input, it really helped me out.)''

When he read this message. Aki's mind was overwhelmed with relief and joy at the same time.

He was glad to see that Rin managed to restore his relationship back to normal.

''(Hehe see? What did I tell you, I'm always right.)''

At this point, Aki's ego was getting to him. It was evidently leaking out through his message to Rin.

''(Yes, yes. Anyways, did you get started with your homework yet?)''

''(Wait what? We had homework?)''

''(...)''

It had totally slipped by Aki's mind that sensei had set homework for them to do today.

''(Is it too late to change partner?)''

''(Oi! Wait a minute, I'll finish it today I promise!)''

Aki's desperation to keep Rin as his partner fueled him to work harder in school, not only for his sake but for Rin as well.

''(I'm just joking, you don't need to get so worked up.)''

He became somewhat puzzled once he realized Rin was joking around with him.

''(Don't joke around about that stuff, I almost believed what you said.)''

''(Sorry, I'll try to make it clearer next time.)"

Aki closed his phone and went over to grab his bag from the ground

(I've never thought of him as the joking type of person before.)

Aki quietly went over to sit at his desk in his room and pulled out the notebook from his bag.

He placed the book in front of him and stretched his hands out to loosen up his fingers, before getting ready to do his work.

With a determined mind, Aki grabbed a pencil on the desk and opened his notebook with his left hand

This was the time for him to start proving his worth to Rin. To show that he wouldn't be holding him back for the partner's test.

If he wanted to be worthy of Rin's partnership. Aki had to start learning to do his work himself .

The best way to start is for him to finish his homework without getting any external help from others.

Aki is going to force himself to purely rely on his notes to help him with his work.

''Alright! Let's do this for Rin!''

...

Later on into the night, he ended up asking Rin for help with his homework because he didn't understand how to do some parts of the work.