~ Kaede's POV ~
When Rantaro and I sat in our usual seats, Ms. Shiho released the grades for the project. "Yay, we got an A+!" I hugged him tightly, but he didn't seem extremely happy. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no. Sorry, just thinking about something."
"You always are. You know what? We need to celebrate!" The boy looked at me weirdly. "You, me, and my friends are going to karaoke!"
"Woah, I'm not a-" I put a finger on his lip grinning.
"No arguments. This Friday, after school." The bell rang and I left class not allowing the boy to say more. I saw Shuichi hanging by his locker and quickly put my books away before heading towards him. "Hey, Shuichi!" He turned to me, running his fingers through his hair and smiling at my direction. I could still feel butterflies in my stomach when I look at him. He's always got that far-away look in his eyes and it's so mysterious, but alluring in the same time, and when he looks at me with such innocent eyes, I can't look away.
"Hey, Kaede." I wrapped my arms around his neck as he wrapped his around my waist embracing me. The melody of his heart beat was echoing in my head filling me with happiness and passion. I noticed some people looking our direction. "How was class?" he asked as we pulled away, but still held hands.
"Good! Rantaro and I got an A on our project so we were thinking of all of us celebrating with karaoke. What do you think?"
"Congrats, Kaede. I would love to go. Does everyone else know?" I shook my head and noticed a girl running down the hallway. She was looking down at the ground while clutching onto her books. "Hey..." In the blink of an eye, I saw her push aside a boy next to us and his cup was hurling at our direction.
"Shuichi, watch out!" I quickly pushed him out of the way and shielded myself causing the liquid to splash onto my hands. The moment it did, a burning sensation engulfed my senses. "Ahh!" I screamed as the liquid began to burn my skin. A lot of students turned to my direction and the hallways started to fill with even more chatter.
"Kaede!" I felt my knees giving out causing me to fall on the floor, but before I did, Shuichi caught me in his arms. His eyes were wide as he held me close inspecting my hands. We both turned to the boy who had an extremely guilty look on his face.
"Kaede, I am so sorry! S-someone pushed me!"
"It's fine, it wasn't your fault," Shuichi said with a cold expression. He looked towards the direction the girl ran off to, but she was long gone.
"She didn't even stop..." I said quietly gripping onto my hands.
"We'll figure it out later. We need to get you to the nurse." Shuichi stood up quickly with me in his arms and headed towards the nurse's office.
Nurse Hannah opened her door with a concerned look as she saw Shuichi holding me in his arms. He gently put me down and stayed outside. Nurse Hannah's eyes widened when she saw my red hands.
"May I take off your shirt, Kaede?" I nodded and she gingerly undressed me before examining my hands. "Please explain to me what happened."
"I'm honestly not sure. A student was rushing down the hallway and pushed another student causing him to spill his drink on me." The nurse looked at me with an eyebrow raised, but didn't question my statement. She immediately filled a bowl with water and then signalled for me to put my hands in it.
"This is why kids shouldn't be running in the hallway," she murmured while examining my hands. "Keep your hands in there for a while. How much does it hurt?"
"Quite a bit... Are they serious?"
"It looks like you have some second-degree burns. Your dermis has been damaged by the hot tea and it'll take a couple of weeks to heal. Luckily, there are only small patches of these burns so you'll just need to be careful and use this ointment I have." Nurse Hannah stood up and went to her cabinets, but a frown formed on her face. "I must have run out. I'll give you the name of a good treatment I know of and you can get it on the way home. Be careful, Kaede. Check up with me a week from now to see how you're healing." I nodded and looked at my hands in the water. Tears started to trickle down my face. How could I get this unlucky? I shook my head. At least I was able to save Shuichi. I can't let this bring me down.
~ Shuichi's POV ~
I started walking back and forth in front of the nurse's office. I really hope Kaede is okay... I thought back to when she suddenly pushed me away. Not a single drop landed on me... Dammit, if only I noticed before, we both could have avoided it. "Shuichi?" I relaxed my shoulders and turned at the sound of my name.
"Oh, hey, Rantaro."
"What are you doing near the nurse's office?" he asked walking up to me.
"Waiting for Kaede in there." His confused look turned into an extremely concerned one.
"What happened?"
"Hot tea spilled on her." His eyes widened.
"She's the one who screamed... How is she?"
"I'm not sure yet, but someone pushed the guy and his drink... It was supposed to land on me, but she saved me..." My fists clenched again and guilt fell over me.
"That sounds like Kaede for you. Just take care of her if you want to pay her back." I turned to him and smiled nodding my head.
"Over there! Wait, Shuichi and Rantaro!" We both turned around and saw Miu, Maki, Tenko, and Mikan. Tenko and Maki raced to us while Miu and Mikan were trying to catch their breaths.
"Is Kaede in there?" Maki asked with a calm , but concerned voice. I nodded and she sighed.
"W-what happened?!" Mikan asked.
"Long story, someone accidentally spilled tea on her," Rantaro answered. I glanced at him then turned towards Maki who had a frown on her face.
"How the hell can someone be so clumsy?!" Miu asked.
"Wait, how did you guys know Kaede was here?" I asked.
"We all heard the scream from the tables and ran to see students still talking about it. They told us where you both went so we raced here," Tenko answered.
"I've gotta go. Let me know how she is." I nodded at Rantaro who smiled softly walking past me. He had a strange look in his eyes, but I didn't think much of it.
~ Kaede's POV ~
"Okay, now we just need you to get a change of shirt. Do you happen to have a spare one from gym?" I shook my head then remembered that Shuichi has a shirt underneath his coat.
"Can Shuichi come in?" She looked down at me in my bra, but I nodded again to let her know I was okay. She opened the door, slightly. I was surprised to see all my friends standing right at the entrance.
"Kaede!" They exclaimed as they noticed my presence.
"Hey guys! How did you know I was here?" I asked a little amazed at how fast news traveled.
"People and your scream was pretty loud," Miu commented.
"Oh. Anyways, do any of you happened to have a change of shirts?" They looked at each other and then shook their heads.
"I had to give my last spare to Mikan who tripped earlier, again..." Miu said side-eyeing Mikan.
"Here, Kaede." I turned to Shuichi who took off his coat exposing only a white button up handing it to me. He never turned to look at me and his face was crimson red. So cute, Shuichi.
"Thank you. Give me a second, guys!" The nurse closed the door and I put his coat on. Wow, it really smells like him. I snapped out of my daze before the nurse could give me weird looks.
"Well, it's good you got a shirt. Remember what I told you." She handed me my wet shirt then turned around and jotted down my visit in her notepad.
She lightly wrapped my hands in bandages before I left the office. "Thank you, Nurse Hannah. Have a nice rest of the day!" Shuichi blushed when he examined my new outfit.
"Don't I look cute?" I asked him playfully. He quickly nodded his head turning more red. "What are you guys planning to do now?"
"Wait, first off are you okay?!" Tenko asked in need of an answer. I smiled showing her my wrapped up hands.
"Kind of. Apparently, I have second degree burns and they hurt quite a bit, but they're not the worst." All of them sighed besides Maki who seemed to be thinking about something.
"Can you tell us what happened, Kaede?" she asked.
"Um, Shuichi and I were talking until some guy got pushed and spilled his drink on me. The girl ran off before we could see her. Then, Shuichi took me here."
"Did she not hear you scream? Who just runs off like that?" Miu asked a little irritated. I shrugged my shoulders.
"I guess she was in a rush. It's not that big of a deal anyways." I looked down at my bandaged hands. I don't really care who did it since it was an accident. I just hope my hands recover before...
"Well, if you say you're okay then I'll head home now," Maki stated. I nodded and the rest of the girls left us. Shuichi and I glanced at each other.
"Wanna do homework at my place?" He nodded and we started walking towards the entrance. Most of the hallways were empty with a few students talking. The front of Shuichi's locker seemed to be clean. I saw our two backpacks and went to pick it up. Before I could take the handle of mine, Shuichi took both his and my backpack.
"You're hurt, Kaede. Let me take it for you."
"My other shoulder is fine, Shuichi. I can take it." He shook his head.
"I can't risk you to get anymore injuries or worsening the one you have. Please..." I sighed knowing that I wouldn't win so I let him take my backpack. He smiled like a satisfied child so we walked to his car. As soon as we reached the parking lot, Tsumugi ran up to us breathing heavily.
"Tsumugi! I thought you had a ride home today," Shuichi said with a little irritation in his voice.
"S-she had a thing to go to, so I told her it was fine. Are you both going somewhere?" We eyed each other and I just shrugged.
"Maybe we can work at your place today." He blushed slightly before nodding his head. As he drove to his house, I leaned back into his jacket smiling at the familiar scent.
"Kaede, is that Shuichi's coat?"
"Yeah, I got burned and had to change shirts so he offered his." I smiled at Shuichi who was still blushing.
"Oh, no! You burned yourself? Did the nurse give you an ointment?" I was surprised to see Tsumugi's concern. I shook my head.
"I was actually going to ask my grandmother to get me some." Tsumugi smiled softly.
"Don't bother! My dad is a doctor and I happen to have one of his newest creations." She pulled out a small tin.
"I don't think we should be experimenting on Kaede," Shuichi intervened.
"He's a professional! Here, Kaede. It'll take away the pain and heal your burns in no time." I smiled thanking her. Maybe she's not as bad as I thought. I sat back humming to the song on the radio. When the chorus came, I started singing softly. Shuichi heard me and quietly joined in. Although I could barely hear him, the smile on his face made my heart flutter and my mood rise even higher. We looked at each other singing the song.
We stopped when we heard Tsumugi clear her throat. "Focus on the road, Shuichi!"
"R-right, sorry." He turned back to face the road and I looked out the window. I totally forgot she was here for a second. "Kaede, Rantaro visited and told me to let you know that he hopes you're okay." I smiled and texted the green-haired boy to let him know how I'm doing.
"I'm home, Uncle!" We all took our shoes off. Tsumugi started following us to Shuichi's room. "Can I join you guys?" Shuichi and I glanced at each other nervously.
"Tsumugi, let them be. You still haven't cleaned your room," Shuichi's uncle said. Tsumugi groaned and headed to her room causing us to sign in relief. Shuichi put both of our backpacks next to the bed and sat down with me. We immediately started working as I leaned my head against his shoulder. "Ugh, I don't get this, Shuichi! That stupid teacher gives us ridiculous problems." I glanced at Shuichi's paper and saw all of his answers already filled out. "What?! You actually understand what that guy talks about in our class?! You're so smart, Shuichi." He shook his head blushing at my compliment.
"Thank you, but it's not as hard as you may think. Here..." Shuichi explained one of the problems to me making sure I understood every step. He was an amazing tutor and I was confident in answering the next question following his steps.
"I-is this it?" He looked over at my answer and sadly shook his head.
"Almost, Kaede. Remember step #5? You have to apply that to this problem here or it messes up the entire process." I groaned and lied back against my bed.
"I can't do this! It's so difficult!" Shuichi laughed innocently causing me to puff my cheeks.
"Does my suffering make you laugh?"
"No, you're just really cute." I tried to not think about his compliment, but couldn't hide my pink-tinted cheeks. "How about this? If you solve that problem, then... I-I'll give you a kiss." My eyes lit up at the idea causing me to spring up on my feet and start solving the problem. After a couple of minutes, I tapped on Shuichi to check my answer.
"Yes, that's the right answer," Shuichi said filling me up with a sense of victory. I threw the papers in the air cheering.
"Yahoo!" Shuichi started laughing at my mini cheers. "Hey, I didn't forget my reward." I leaned in closer to Shuichi and closed my eyes. He held my chin in his hand and leaned in to kiss my lips. That soft, warm feeling filled my entire body once again reminding me what I missed so much. His lips parting from mine made me frown in disappointment at how fast the kiss was. I managed to complete the rest of the assignment quickly. After a couple of hours, we both finished our homework. We heard a buzzing sound and when I checked, it was Ms. Takahashi. "Hello?"
"Kaede! Thank god you answered! Do you know what's happening in a month?"
"Y-yes, it's the Dedicated Global Annual Piano Competition..." I sighed at the reminder of that event. As I've said before, the DGAP is a worldwide piano competition held in Japan where top young pianists are invited to win up to $35,000 and attention from several musical colleges and possible internships. I was actually the winner of last year's competition which granted my grandmother and I $35,000 so we could continue paying for rent. It's a major competition for pianists and I plan to win again.
"And guess who's invited? The winner of last year!"
"Yay..." I said sarcastically.
"Oh my Lord, girl! You gotta get pumped up cause you're winning again! I get a free mani-pedi from their spa just for being your 'sister'!"
"I still couldn't believe that they believed that..."
"Are you saying I look too old?" Oh boy... "Kaede-!!" I immediately separated my ear from the phone as Ms. Takahashi screamed into the phone. Shuichi gave me a concerned look, but I waved off his worries. I put the phone back next to my ear.
"That's not what I was saying. Anyways, I've already started practicing so there's no need to worry." Her tone changed from its normal cheerfulness to one of serious nature.
"Kaede, I heard the competition got much harder this year. Remember the competition we had last month? I'm so proud of you for winning but I'm sure you noticed that she was missing." I shivered at the reminder of the pianist who has been my biggest competitor since I was little, and the one who resents me the most.
"Yes, Junko Enoshima..."
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