Beyond the Horizon

Episode 10. Cause and Effect

"Yuu... I thought senpai and Seki-kun were pretty good friends."

Airi tried to say it quietly so Tomo and Ken didn't hear it, but he did. Ken likely did too. They were walking right behind them after all.

"They should be..." Yuu said and turned to Tatsumi, who shrugged.

He suddenly felt a tug at his arm. A surprisingly strong one at that.

"Senpai, Seki-chan! You're so boring!" Sakura said and the distance between Ken and Tomo shortened as he tried to keep his balance while she tried to pull the two together. Ken was too trying not to stumble. "You need to get along!"

Airi stopped to look at what was happening behind her, seemingly confused by the sudden ruckus, and Tatsumi and Yuu did too when they noticed she had stopped.

Sakura moved her hand to his wrist.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Having an inkling of what she was planning he turned to Sakura and saw how she pull their hands together.

Ken jerked away, probably startled by what she did and out of habit since neither Ken nor Tomo wanted to be overly intimate in public. That, however, just meant Sakura yanked his arm as he was trying to get away from her.

Her mouth was smiling, but Tomo could see she was getting mad. He pulled his arm away, surprising her enough to get away and grabbed Ken's hand.

"Fine! Is this what you want? I'll go along with it!" he snapped at her.

"Let me go, Tomo!" Ken urged him.

"Shut up!"

"Eh... Momo-chan, senpai?"

"What?!" Tomo said more harshly than he meant to.

Yuu looked apologetic. "You might have gotten a bit... friendly."

Tomo turned to Sakura.

"This is all your fault, Saku-chan!"

"It's yours! You're ruining the mood. Why can't you two get along at least now? You've been in some weird fight for weeks!"

There was a tired sigh and Tomo felt how Ken's tense hand relaxed a little and held his hand in return. "Stop, you two. You're making it worse." He looked slightly stressed and uncomfortable. "Besides," he added after a moment of silence between them all, "could you not shout in the middle of the street?"

***

"Is this where Makkun works?" Airi asked as they sat down at a table at the family restaurant. "I haven't seen him in forever! You should tell him to come home sometimes so I can catch up!"

"Calm down, Airi! He said he's in the kitchen and that it'll help for his degree," Yuu said and pushed the button on the table. Soon they had a waiter at the table and Yuu asked if it was possible to talk to Sakuraba since they had someone with allergies. The waiter both looked worried and relieved at the same time.

Tomo didn't eat out all that much, as it wasn't unusual for waiter and managers to have no idea how to handle allergies. After excusing himself the waiter left and Yuu, Airi and Tatsumi all turned to the three childhood friends.

Tomo was seated to the right, and Ken to the left, with Sakura between them holding their wrists.

"Can someone explain?" Airi asked.

Tomo looked to his left before he turned to Tatsumi and Yuu.

"Eeeeh..." Yuu looked at Tomo, then at Tatsumi. "Stuff happened when Hana-chan and Momo-chan were in middle school, so they try to avoid that same thing to happen and pretend they don't know each other."