Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Ehhhhh?! He did THAT to you?" Minami exclaimed to Salali in the class the next day. Some people turned their attention to the two, which made Salali grab Minami and go straight to the girl's restroom. "Don't make a scene in the classroom! Rumors may start." Salali told her as she pinned her against the wall with a red face. "Gomen. Gomen. Can you let me down now?" Minami asked and Salali loosened her grip and went to sit in a corner. Minami saw this and walked over to her, sitting down right beside Salali. "If it makes you feel any better, I can get Ren to kick his ass for ya. He's a knight in shining armor." She told her with a sigh. 'Now that I think about it, Akimoto has always been distant around me. When ever we talked, there was always a group around us and it seem like he was more interested in others more than me. I was probably a bit dumb to see that he had no interest in me. Baka. But, it's probably best to stick around my friends, especially Minami. She's so cute and ditzy.' She thought and giggled a bit. Minami looked at her with a pouting face. "Why are you laughing?" "It's nothing. Hey, can we get out of here? It kinda smells in here." "You the one who brought me he- hey, I don't remember those in a girl's bathroom." She said, pointing to a urinal. Suddenly, a toilet flushed in one of the stalls and a boy with earphones walk out. He notices the girls and immediately pull off his earbuds. "What are you two doing in the Boy's Restroom?" He asked. In an instant, both Minami and Salali turned bright red and ran out of there.

~Namine's Cafe~

The bell rang for lunch and Minami comes over to Salali's desk. "Let's go to lunch together. I just bought these cool books yestarday and I wanna-" "Sorry. Can't today." Salali interrupted. Minami then went from happy, to curious, to irritated, then to shocked. "HUH?!" She yelled. "Hey. Don't yell. Sorry, but I'll be eating lunch with the guy from yesterday." "Huh? But I thought Aki- oooooh. You're talking about Soujiro-kun, eh? If that's the case, I'm fine with it." "Wait, you are?" "Yeah...but you own me a favor." Minami said, putting up a finger a winking. "Sure. Later, Minami." Salali said as she grabbed something under her desk and went to lunch. "Huh...a cake? Weird." Minami said as she went to lunch as well.

Outside, it was a bit windy as Salali made it to the tree. Gladly, Soujiro was there with a few bandages on his arm and an eyepatch on his left eye. He looked over, saw the cake, and smiled. "And I was thinking you would have not took it seriously." He told her. "You seem like a serious guy, so I took your request as serious. Plus, it's a 'thank you' for helping me out yesterday as well as a 'sorry' for getting you mixed up in this." Salali said as she pushed the box containing the cake over to him. "It's no problem really." He replied as he took the box and opened it. "Wow. This looks great." He said, then grabbed the fork that was attached to the box and took a bite. "It tastes good too. Did you make this?" "Yeah, but I could have done better with it." Salali said, turning red and playing with her hair. "Better? This is pretty good already...but, you went home late yesterday. Did you..." "I baked it last night, slept til morning, it was cool when I woke up, and I put it together and put the icing on it before I left the house this morning. Don't worry, I didn't stay up all night if that's what you were thinking." She laughed, then started eating the food she bought for herself.

Midway during Lunch, Salali looked up at the tree. Compared to 3 weeks ago, the family of leaves have grown into a community. Each leave had their own branch and everything seemed at peace. It was windy, but each leave stayed up and didn't stray from the rest. "You know, there's always a deeper meaning to something that looks simple, like this tree growing back it's leaves." Soujiro said as he leaned against the tree. Salali thought about it for a minute before saying, "If that's true, what does this tree represent?" "It could represent three things: Coming of Age, The Beginning to Summer, or The Beginning of a Friendship." "What about love?" Salali blurted out. "...that would be a Sakura Tree. This is just a regular tree with green leaves...but, surprisingly, this did use to be a Sakura Tree, but one year, it just started growing green leaves. No one knows why or how, but they just went with it. I looked it up in the alumini of this school." Soujiro said, looking up at the tree. 'I didn't know trees could do something like that...' Salali thought, then she heard the bell ring for them to go back to class. '

Maybe I should give him a hug for helping me yesterday.' "Thanks for the cake, Salali-chan. I'll be on my way." Soujiro said as he stood up. Salali got up as well and went over to him for a hug, but didn't see the cake box before she stepped on it, causing her to slip onto him, making them fall to thew ground with Salali on top of them. Once they opened their eyes and looked at each other, a gust of wind blowed on the tree, making it sing in the wind above the two. Salali was the first to get off and turn away from him, blushing. "I'm sorry. I didn't see the box, and I slipped, then I knocked you do-" "It's alright, Salali-chan." Soujiro interupted her and got up, grabbing his bag. "Later." He said, walking off. Salali just stood there...blushing. 'Why do I all of a sudden...want to have lunch with him more...?'

To be continued...