Ryoma broke free from Ryouko and stepped back. "Done. Let's go now." He said, immediately turning around.
"What the heck's that about?" Ryouko thought, looking at his back and then at her hand which she used to pat his shoulder with. She ditched the thought and shrugged. "Wait up." She said, following him.
Catching up, she jogged alongside him. Ryoma had both hands inside his pockets and he was staring straight ahead, his eyes partly hidden under the hood. It seemed like he wasn't in any mood for a conversation so Ryouko kept her mouth shut. She was, however, in definite curiosity and kept her eyes locked on him in side glance, blinking every once in a while.
The dead of the night was the same as when she took a walk with Sanada, except this time, the cicadas' noises were louder. Perhaps it was because they were closer to the woods now.
"What?" Ryoma suddenly broke the ice.
"Huh?" Ryouko asked, stunned that he talked first.
"You were staring. Is there something you want to say?" He asked back.
"Well... Nothing really... I just thought you were unnatural back then. Is something wrong?" She said, swinging her paper bag on her left hand and using her right to tuck in the stray strands of her long hair behind her ear.
"Nothing. It was just a little chilly." Ryoma answered.
"You were cold?" She asked.
"Nope. You were." Ryoma replied simply.
"No, I wasn't." She said, shaking her head. "And what was that about calling me stupid and..." She paused to recall. "You said I was always worrying you."
"Baka. Is what I said that hard to understand? You're supposed to be intelligent... I said that you're a great stupid oaf for wearing such a thin jacket on a cold night and you're worrying me that you'd catch your death on the beach later. Ichidou would have me beheaded if you get sick, so I generously shared a bit of my precious body warmth with you. It's my way of saving my hide." He narrated smoothly.
"But I wasn't feeling the least bit cold." Ryouko pointed out.
"Really? I'm pretty sure I saw you shiver when you stepped out of the gate." Ryoma said, looking at her.
"Nope. The temperature is fine. And my jacket is very warm." She answered.
"It must have been my misconception then." Ryoma said, shifting his eyes on the road ahead. "Were you startled?" He asked.
"Just a bit." She admitted. A thought hit her and the corners of her lips went up. "Maybe it was you who needed somebody's body warmth." She elbowed Ryoma on the ribs. "Hey, are you cold? Want a hug?" She said teasingly.
"Yeah, yeah, very funny. You should be grateful that I'm concerned about you." Ryoma said, bumping her with his shoulder a little too forcefully.
Ryouko was propelled a few steps to the side. Annoyed, she charged and bumped him back with twice the force. "Aww, come on now. Don't be shy." She grunted. Ryoma was forced sidewards, almost tripping in his own feet. He blinked before the annoyance registered in his brain. He glared at Ryouko.
She smiled at him smugly. "If you need warmth, I'll be your human heating pad." She said matter-of-factly.
"Thanks but no thanks. I'd rather hug myself." Ryoma said with a grunt as he bumped her again, getting his revenge.
Ryouko sighed with exaggerated patience and slung the paper bag on the hook of her elbow. "There's no need to be so reserved. Come here and I'll smother you with hugs and kisses." She cracked her knuckles in a menacing way.
Ryoma stepped back, swallowing in nervousness. "Hey, what's with the seriousness? I was just joking around..." He said cautiously.
Ryouko continued to advance towards him slowly, rubbing her fists together. "Let's have a bit of fun, eh Ryoma?"
Ryoma made his escape by running along the road they were walking on, the hood flying off of his head. "Oi! Hikyou mono! (You coward!)" Ryouko yelled and ran after him.
The wind whipped Ryouko's hair from her face as she gathered speed. She was catching up to her target. Ryoma looked over his shoulder to see how near she is. That was a fatal mistake as it caused him to slow down a notch. It was all Ryouko needed to reach over and grab the back of his jacket. She pulled, making him trip. "Oi, baka!" He shouted and maneuvered to keep his balance. Unfortunately, he stepped on an uneven part of land and slipped. "Ledge!" He yelled, looking at the land angling downwards.
"Uh oh." That was all that escaped from Ryouko's mouth as she was pulled together with him all the way down.
They slid down the smooth grass, yelling their heads off. Ryouko instinctively pulled on Ryoma's jacket, which she hadn't let go of yet and they were sent rolling off to the end of the uncomfortable grass slide.
Finally, they reached the end, with Ryoma rolling off ahead of Ryouko. The latter landed on top of him, the side of her face resting on the right side of his chest.
"Ow..." Ryoma groaned and looked downwards at the girl whose head was suffocating his lungs. "Oi, you're heavy. Get off me already." He grunted.
Ryouko made no response nor moved an inch from her position.
"Ryouko?" He called.
No response. Ryoma held her shoulders and struggled to sit up. "Ryouko?" He said, with a much more worried voice.
The shoulders suddenly shook up and down and Ryoma realized that she was laughing silently.
"Damnit, you." Ryoma said in annoyance, rolling her off to the side away from him. Ryouko laughed out loud. "Man, that was fun! Let's do that again!" She said in between giggles.
Ryoma sat up, tangles of dried leaves and grass stuck on his hair. "That was not funny! I thought you fainted or something!" He yelled angrily.
Ryouko remained spread-eaged on the grass, laughing heartily. "Yeah, that was hilarious." She said.
"What did you say, you-stupid-ball-of-stampeding-chaos-you." Ryoma said, his fist shaking.
Ryouko finally stopped laughing and let out a huge exhale. "Now, now, don't get too worked up." She sat up and looked at him, the mischievous light in her eyes dancing.
Ryoma felt the anger subsiding as he looked at the glossy hair tumbling in waves over her shoulders, the ponytail that held them together lost somewhere along the way, the disheveled head with leaves for decoration, looking very much like a forest nymph. She smiled with utmost good-naturedness and reached over one hand to take a dried leaf dangling from Ryoma's bangs.
"Damn. I'll let you off 'cause you look too pretty tonight." Ryoma thought. Aloud, he said, "Any broken bones?"
"None. I survived." She replied with a shrug. "Well, anyway..." She said as she stood up, brushing leaves and dirt off of her clothes. "It seems like this was the fastest way to get to our destination." She stared off towards the woods directly ahead of them.
"What the heck does that mean?" Ryoma asked, brushing leaves off of his head.
Ryouko pointed to the forest. "At the east of the campsite, a pathway directly at the left of the biggest cedar tree. Or so they said." She answered.
"Hmm..." Ryoma responded, looking at the towering tree ahead.
"It's been a while since we went on an adventure didn't we?" Ryouko suddenly said.
"Huh?" Ryoma took a side glance at her. "Well, yeah... We're not so little anymore to go exploring places."
He was taken by surprise when Ryouko grabbed his hand. "You're never too old for a bit of adventure. Besides, we're still kids. Better enjoy it while we can." She dragged him towards the cedar tree, pulling on his hand.
As he let her lead him, he stared at the side of her face that he could see. He couldn't quite grasp it, but there was something different between him and her at the moment. Something he never noticed before.
Something special.
~~~
"Let me see, let me see..." An said, blinking in the glare of the lampshade in the room that she shared with Ryouko. She was tapping a pen on a sheet of notebook paper that she was doodling on for the past ten minutes ever since she witnessed that scene that unfolded outside the window.
"From my observations, Ryuzaki-san likes Echizen-kun." She circled Sakuno's name and connected a line towards Ryoma's name. "Ibu-kun likes Ryouko-san." She placed a rectangle around Shinji's name and connected it to Ryouko's name. "Yukimura-san..." An repeatedly encircled Yukimura's name, thinking hard about that kiss on the cheek. "I don't really know." She finally said.
"But then, I caught Echizen-kun hugging Ryouko-san outside..." She murmured and drew a long line connecting Ryoma's and Ryouko's names. "So does that mean that Echizen-kun likes Ryouko-san?" She asked herself and enclosed Ryoma's name inside a heart and drew arrows towards Ryouko's. "Let's not forget the fact that Ryouko-san actually hugged him back. Does that mean that she likes Echizen-kun as well?" She placed small hearts along the line connecting Ryoma's and Ryouko's names. "The feeling is mutual?" She asked herself.
An blew out air from her cheeks. "This is a lot more complicated than I've thought... But ifever those two like each other then the others..." She tapped on Sakuno's name, thinking hard. "Poor girl." She murmured. "She doesn't know what the heck she's up against."
She took a long look at Shinji's name and sighed. Finally, she tucked the paper inside the bedside drawer. "Well... I'm not going to lose sleep thinking about these sort of things... It doesn't even involve me." She told herself and placed the pen back to its case.
"Let's just sleep, An. Just go to sleep." She murmured to herself. But no matter how hard she tried, curiosity is getting the best out of her. She wanted to see Ryouko return and see for herself that it is indeed Ryoma that she was hugging outside earlier. She just made assumptions after all.
~~~
Ryoma let out a long exhale and placed a hand on a tree trunk, supporting himself. He was out of breath. "You mindless creature. Darn you Ryouko. You said it was not far." He panted.
"Well, they said it wasn't." Ryouko replied, also quite out of breath. "Did we take a turn somewhere?"
"No. We went straight." Ryoma said, knitting his eyebrows together.
"Maybe it was the wrong cedar tree?" She said in uncertainty.
Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Once again, your spectacular sense of direction brought us into trouble." He said in exasperation, sitting on a tree stump and tying his shoelaces tighter.
Ryouko scoffed. "You're aware of my terrible sense of direction. You should've taken the lead then."
"You were the one who asked for directions." Ryoma pointed out.
"Fine, fine. I'll figure this out." She said, throwing her hands in the air.
"No you don't. I'll figure this out. We might find ourselves on the goodness-knows-where if you continued to guess directions." He said matter-of-factly.
Ryouko glared at him but she said no word of retort. She knew that he was speaking the truth. All of a sudden, she heard something.
"Hey, did you hear that?" She asked, grabbing him by the arm.
"Hear what?" He asked back.
"Just a moment." She said as if in a daze and started to go down the path, paving bushes on her way.
Ryoma groaned. "Not again..." He said but nevertheless followed her. They went deeper down the shrubbery, twigs pulling at their clothes. Ryoma was on the verge of snapping when he heard a sound.
Waves breaking into shore.
"Yes!" Ryouko said, punching the air as they exited the shrubbery. Right there, in full view, was the shoreline, dark blue and vast against a starry horizon.
"I told you so!" She said in a bragging tone, whirring around to face Ryoma. Her hair whipped in the air as she did so and she ran towards the sandy expanse of the beach. "Maybe I'm not so bad with directions after all!" She yelled without turning back.
Ryoma gave a helpless smile and followed. "Yeah right." He said in half-sarcasm.
The air was welcoming and the salty breeze blew steadily. The waves rocked and crashed on the beach repeatedly, making a series of comfortable sounds to the ears of the tired teenagers.
Ryouko set the paper bag she was holding on a flat rock near the shore before kicking her shoes off.
"Oi!" Ryoma scolded. "It's cold! Don't—"
Too late. The naughty girl had walked on the edge of the shoreline, letting the waves crash over her feet.
"This is it. The feeling I'm craving." She said, digging her toes deep into the wet sand.
"Okay. Enough. Get out of there. It's a cold night. The water must be freezing." Ryoma yelled at her.
"It's fine. It's not so bad." She answered, walking ahead to go knee-deep into the water.
"Fujioka Ryouko, I'm dang serious here." Ryoma said with an even sterner voice.
"It's fine, really. Wanna find out for yourself?" She said and scooped some seawater on her hands. She splashed it towards Ryoma. He was barely able to dodge.
"That childish little..." Ryoma said between gritted teeth.
Ryouko laughed at his reaction and started marching heavily back to dry land. "You are such a grouch." She commented.
"A grouch huh?" Ryoma said, arching an eyebrow. "I'll show you what a grouch is." He said and hooked his arm over her neck as soon as she was near enough.
"Hey, stop that, I'm suffocating." She complained. "Can't we just have a peaceful walk?" She said.
"Well, you're the one who was fooling around." Ryoma said matter-of-factly, letting go of her.
"Gotcha!" She yelled all of a sudden and hooked her arm over his neck like he did with her. Ryoma struggled to get her off. "You sneak." He grunted. They ran around for a few minutes until they decided to break it off.
Ryouko took the paper bag she carried and spilled its contents. A few chocolate bars, two cans of Ponta and a thin, checkered beach blanket were revealed. She spread the sheet on the sand and layed down flat on it.
"Oi!" She called towards Ryoma who was starting to clear an area for him to sit on. "Right here." She tapped the space on her right side. Ryoma blinked down at her and did not move from his spot. "Hurry before I drag you down myself." She threatened.
With a sigh, Ryoma sat down next to her. He was shocked when she suddenly pulled the back of his jacket to make him lie down. "Arm." She said, or more like ordered.
Rolling his eyes, Ryoma reached his left arm over, palm facing up. Ryouko placed her head on the bend of his elbow. She closed her eyes and breathed gently. "Now this is the life..." She said, the words escaping her lips. Ryoma caught himself staring at it, light pink and lightly parted. He swallowed and immediately shifted his eyes to the sky above, the twinkling stars illuminating the dark. There was a crescent moon smiling above as if mocking him.
"So... What's the deal this time?" He said amidst the breaking of the waves overhead.
"What deal?" Ryouko asked, her eyes still closed.
"I told you before. You fool around in an excessive degree whenever something's bothering you. Just like what you're doing now." He answered. "What is it?"
"You make so many assumptions. Nothing's bothering me." Ryouko said. This time, her tone was almost annoyed.
Ryoma maneuvered and tossed towards his left. With a single swift movement, he lifted his forearm, drawing Ryouko close to him.
"You can't fool me. You can fool yourself but you can never fool me." He said, staring at her eyes sincerely.
It was at that moment that Ryouko noticed something. She already knew in their childhood that Ryoma had this ability to guess what she was thinking and it annoyed the hell out of her.
But this was different. It wasn't a simple connection... Such a thing crossed her mind as she stared back at those deep golden-bronze eyes. It was something she never noticed before.
Something special.