Ashita no Kioku

I hit her.

I wasn’t entirely sure when it happened, but I knew my hand had swung and made contact with her cheek.

I also knew that her cheek was turning red, and there was an imprint of my hand on it.

However, she was still staring at me with the same intense look. She hadn’t waivered when I hit her, the only sign was the kiss my hand had left on her cheek and the fact that her hair had moved a fraction of an inch.

Now, why did I hit her?

That is a very good question lets rewind about a minute before.

Megumi’s eyes were still red and slightly puffy from yesterday, we were at the park. This is when the foreigner girl walked by, she was dressed in a Keio school uniform; her skirt was swinging with every step she took. I blinked at her, she looked normal.

She looked up, her Pocky dropped to the ground and her eyes got intense, but she shied away from us. She turned her heel and began to walk away, Megumi ran towards her and got in front of her, she turned her heel again and began to walk towards me.

“Tell me what you think!” Megumi screamed at her, I saw her eyes flash for a moment, before they went blank again; the foreigner girl was trying to hide her reactions.

“Tell me! Come on! Tell me what you think of me loving Kazunari!” The foreigner girl’s eyes got wide, but she said nothing.

“Did he tell you?! He kissed me, and touched me, we almost did it, but Matsumoto-kun showed up.” My eyes widened, the foreigner girl stopped, her eyes flashed in rage.

“You will never be my replacement; you will never be good enough.” Her voice was cold, her words harsh, the air around her made chills run down my back. “This is what I think, now if you excuse me, I have to go meet up with my boyfriend.” She moved past Megumi who crumbled and began to cry.

This was when I hit her.

They way she was staring at me, broke through the sugary idol façade she had, this was a bittersweet version, no this was not the idol that was made up of giggles and smiles, but of cold stares and harsh words.

“Stop it!” I snapped, she blinked at me expectantly. “Stop acting like you’re 13 and Ninomiya-kun is your first real relationship! Grow up! It’s not like you’re sleeping with him!” she sighed.

“I am.” She replied coolly.

“What?”

“I am 13, and Ninomiya-kun is my first real relationship, and I am sleeping with him.” She paused, “And compared to you, I am grown up, now if you excuse me, my Riida seems to want a word with me, and I also have to go into my agency earlier now that I have to go to make-up.” She bowed, “Thank you, I’m going to be in trouble now, if you excuse me.” With that she briskly walked away, I spun. Ohno-kun was standing a few feet away, his hair seemed to have been combed by the wind, and he was breathing hard.

“Did you run here?” the foreign girl asked, there was something wrong with her voice. He gave a nod. “Why?”

“Because I saw her hit you, but I was all the way over there, I’m sorry, I couldn’t get here fast enough. Shall we go?” I felt my world falling. He put a hand on her back and began to guide her gently away, “It’s okay we’ll get away from them soon, okay?” I saw her nod; I also noticed that her shoulders were beginning to shake.

“Don’t cry, everything is okay, I’m here now I’ll protect you.” I heard him mutter, I collapsed, disbelief running through my veins.

-The Next Day -

I couldn’t shake the feeling of my hand hitting her cheek, the smacking sound echoed in my head, and I could still feel the impact.

“Norman-chan are you still with us?” Ito Sensei asked.

“I hit her.” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry say again?”

“I hit her.” I looked up, and fell into myself, “Sorry, what did you ask?” everyone was staring at me.

“Can you read form page 124 to 126?” I gave a nod and stood, I read over the words, without reading them, the foreigner girl’s words were replaying in my head, along with Ohno-kun’s. I sat back down, collapsing into myself.

This day was not a good one.

The bell rang, but I hadn’t heard it, I didn’t notice until everyone had left. I sighed and grabbed my bento but I couldn’t eat. I had to apologize, I just had to. My phone buzzed.

I got a phone call from Fai-manager-sama, she says that Arashi wants to talk to us and so does she. -Megumi I blinked at the message nothing good could come from this.

-Later-

We were sitting in the room that they all drank in, that seemed to be years ago. Megumi ran in and sat next to me but not before she made eye-contact with Ninomiya-kun, he looked right back at her, before he looked at Aiba-chan, who was talking about some new animal at the zoo. Ninomiya-kun smiled and began to talk to him, I noticed they were acting like normal, but Ohno-kun was missing. It seemed we were waiting for him.

Just then he walked in, he bowed and sat down.

“Sorry for being late.” He said quietly.

“Go for it Sakana-chan.” Fai-manager-sama said with a slight nod, she then opened her manga and began to read.

“I think, no we think, that it’d be better if you both stay away from us.” Ohno-kun said softly, Arashi sat back a bit their eyes on the ground.

“We’ve talked about it, it’s better this way, this way Ninomiya-kun won’t feel guilty, Wakahisa-san will be able to move on, and Norman-san will never touch Chaos-chan again.” He paused.

“If you stay away from us, then we won’t report you for harassment and violence towards Chaos-chan, this goes for both of you, seeing as Wakahisa-san verbally provoked her and Norman-san hit her.” He looked up.

“What gives you the right to tell us this? Why not let Ninomiya and the foreigner girl tell us this?” Megumi snapped.

“Because I’m their leader, and her name is Chaos-chan, not ‘the foreigner girl’, she not really all that foreign she was born here.” He looked up. “Do you agree?”

“Do we have to sign a paper?” I was surprised my vocal cords even worked.

“No, we’re hoping that in the future this problem will be forgotten, that in the future we can meet again.” Sakurai-kun spoke.

“Please leave.” Matsumoto-kun said quietly, “If you excuse me, I have to go out for some air.”

I hadn’t noticed but he had been glaring at me and Megumi, Aiba-kun stood up immediately after that and followed him out. Megumi stood up and bowed.

“Good bye.” She said before looking at them with a serious expression she then left the room.

“I’m sorry for hitting you.” I said not that it meant anything now. I turned and left that room. I looked at Ohno-kun one last time before I left, he made eye contact with me, his eyes saying ‘I thought you were different.'

And I was, I was a gentle being I still am, I hit her because she hurt Megumi, I don’t care which side he takes, I’ll always take Megumi’s.

“Osaraba, Satoshi-kun.” I said softly, his eyes widened and I excused myself from the room.