"Why do I have to come too?" Aiko asked while packing her things.
"Because you're the manager." Seijuro answered leaning on the door jamb.
"But there's no other girl!" she whined.
"Come on, training camp is not that bad."
"If you say so..." Aiko whispered closing her bag.
"Good night, Aiko." Seijuro said approaching her and then kissed her on her forehead.
"Good night, Sei~!"
~Next morning~
Seijuro and Aiko woke up at the sound of their doorbell. Seijuro got out of his room and opened Aiko's door.
"What are you doing?" she asked yawning.
"I've heard the doorbell." he said rubbing his left eye.
"And why did you open my door?" she asked getting up.
"...wrong door." he said closing it.
Aiko chuckled and followed him downstairs.
"Who's there?" Seijuro asked.
"Daisy!" the voice on the other side of the door said.
"Hayama-kun..." Aiko thought.
"Kotaro." Seijuro thought.
"Daisy who?" Aiko answered since she knew that was another of Kotaro's lame jokes.
"Daisy me rolling, they hating."
"That's a good reason not to let you in." Seijuro said walking upstairs.
"Sei-chan!" Kotaro whined knocking on the door.
Aiko laughed opening the door. As soon as Kotaro saw her, he hugged her.
"Aiko-chan~!" he exclaimed. "Good morning!"
"It would be better... if I could breath..." she said.
"Sorry!" he apologized and closed the door.
"Why are you so hyperactive at..." Aiko said and checked the time on her phone. "Five in the morning?! What's wrong with you?"
"I couldn't sleep so I came here."
"Is he still there?" Seijuro asked from upstairs.
"Yes." Aiko replied.
"Where exactly?"
"In front of the door."
That's when a pair of red scissors flew and stuck in the door, next to Kotaro's left ear.
"Tch. You could have told me he walked to the right." Seijuro said walking down the stair with his bag. "That's for waking me up two hours earlier."
Kotaro gulped loudly.
"He's not a morning guy." Aiko stated patting Kotaro's shoulder. "Wanna watch a movie?"
"Sure!" Kotaro smiled trying not to think about that pair of scissors next to his ear.
~Two hours later~
"Let's listen to music together, Aiko-chan~!" Kotaro said jumping around.
"Why? I have my own music." Aiko stated taking her iPod.
"But I really wanna do this with my crush." he pouted.
"So?" she tilted her head to the side.
"So dense!" Mibuchi thought facepalming.
"Listen to music with me!"
"Tch, fine!" she said getting inside the bus.
They sat next to each other in the middle of the bus, Aiko decided to sit next to the window because she needed the sunlight to read her manager's stuff.
"Here!" Kotaro smiled handing her his left earphone.
"Thank you." she said taking it.
"What kind of music do you like?"
"Whatever's fine."
Kotaro choose 'Blink' sung by Revive and since the back of the bus was very noisy, he increased the volume of the phone.
"Too loud." she stated gazing at him from the corner of her eye.
"Sorry!" he said decreasing the volume and then stared at her during the whole song. "You know, Aiko..."
"You seem to forget the honorific lately, uh?" she stated looking at her papers.
"Aiko-chan, I gave her a lot of hints but she hasn't realized how much I like her."
"Your crush?" she asked and he hummed in response. "So what are you going to do?"
"I think I should give up." he said looking down.
"Don't give up." she smiled brightly turning towards him.
Their training camp lasted three days and two nights. They played on the sand so that they could work on their feet skills and posture, in the wood to run on different type of ground in order to increase their agility and so on.
On the last day Mibuchi asked the team to take a photo all together to remember this training camp even if it was really hard to survive because of Aiko and Seijuro. Nebuya asked a random guy who was passing by to take the picture. When they were ready, Aiko simply showed a peace sign with a sweet smile and Kotaro kissed her left cheek just in time for the guy to snap the picture.
"Thank you!" Mibuchi said taking his camera back.
"You're welcome!" the guy smiled and waved walking away.
"W-What have you just done?" Aiko asked blushing touching her cheek.
"You told me that I shouldn't give up!" Kotaro smiled brightly showing his snaggle tooth.
"W-What's the connection? You kissed me!"
Seijuro heard his sister's voice and turned towards the two of them, occasionally glaring at Kotaro.
"Confess already, Kotaro." Seijuro ordered in his thoughts.
"You really don't get the connection between the two things?" Kotaro tilted his head to the side.
"Do I look like someone who got it?" she asked still touching her cheek.
"I like you, Aiko-chan." he stated looking at her.
"W-What?" her eyes widened.
"I can tell she's beautiful, very smart, smaller and younger than me, she has beautiful golden eyes and red hair and... and I really like her!" Kotaro's words echoed in Aiko's head and realization hit her like a truck.
"I really really like you." he repeated smiling.
"I... I..." Aiko tried to answer but words wouldn't get out of her mouth.
"This hurts... really..." he whispered looking down clenching his fists.
"What now?" Aiko thought. "Damn!"
"May... may you give me some time to think about it?" Aiko asked looking away as Kotaro looked up. "I've never thought about you in that way."
"Yes!" he said. "But don't make me get my hopes up for too long."
Aiko nodded and between the two of them fell an awkward silence.
"This is quite embarrassing now..." Kotaro thought.
"Looks like he's been rejected..." Nebuya thought making a sad face.
"I need to do something..." Seijuro thought since he overheard the conversation.
"Aiko!" he called making her jump. "I need you to help me find my red scissors."
"O-ok! Uhm, looks like he... he called for me so... see you later!" Aiko waved running away from Kotaro.
"I've ruined everything!" Kotaro screamed in his head punching the backrest of a bench next to him.
Hello everyone!
This space is quite useless since I've never said anything important... Anyways, thanks for voting, following me and reading this story :D
See you next chapter,
Bakashi_Naruse