**

Under the evening sun, Koji, Ren, and Lucas paced themselves without worry as they strutted across the school’s courtyard. To the left of the three was a small extension of the school, which only stuck out with one story. It was plastered with windows which reached the floor, as it was almost like a glass tube framed with red brick.

To their right were various fenced off fields with a small stadium at the end. Although, “stadium” was a bit of an overstatement…

In front of them was a perpetually open gate which had red brick connecting it to the fence on the right and the school to it’s left. The squared concrete ran rigged as it eventually reached the parted gate.

“I would, but I already made plans… Well, I didn’t make plans… I was more or less forced into them…”

Lucas grew solemn the more he talked. The rays which hit his face really exemplified his look of self pity…

“Forced into..? By who???”

Ren turned to Lucas with a perplexed face. It was similar to a face of worry, except the worry was not directed towards his friend, and instead more so towards the monster that could force Lucas into something…

“Yuki… She wants-“

Lucas coughed and cleared his throat, as to correct his mistake.

“She needs me to read her scripts or something… So I’m heading over to her place soon.”

This time it was Koji’s turn to act surprised.

‘Yuki..? And Lucas..?’

He pondered on the thought for a moment, but then ultimately decided such a thing wasn’t possible. Besides, it’s better to not come to unclear conclusions anyway…

‘…Right..?’

“Wow, well okay then… have fun?” Ren spoke as he looked towards the open gate, as if looking for answers from it. Soon after, he turned to Koji;

“You, Koji? Wanna hang out?”

Koji turned to Ren, disengaging from his face of ponder, as he stopped thinking about both Yuki and Lucas.

“Uhhhh… Yeah sure. I’ve got no plans-“

Suddenly, something tugged on Koji’s backpack from behind. Actually, it was less of a tug and more a forceful grab.

Immediately, Koji’s shoe lost traction from the ground, as he became entwined in a one eighty.

The world spun, and his eyes blurred as various things flashed across smeared pupils.

Suddenly- following an abrupt stop -he found himself facing Akari. She was releasing her hand from Koji’s backpack, as he just stood in utter shock. His hands were down by his side- standing straight as a nail.

“You do have plans.”

She turned around, facing Ren and Lucas now- of which they both watched in astonishment.

“He does have plans.”

Then, she turned back to Koji…

“Hm..?”

Suddenly, many eyes were watching the two. They were mostly boys, but some girls were locked in on them too.

Koji was in as much shock from his sudden plans as he was from the brutal one eighty. He had no mental capacity left to pay attention to the surrounding audience whose eyes were filled with both jealousy and intrigue.

“You. Have. Plans. Remember..?”

“N-Not really…

…Should I..?”

“Of course you should! Remember my ~surprise~ for you???”

Koji could never forget her “surprise”… It was one of the only things on his mind, actually.

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“You said the weekend…” Koji became a bit wavering as his voice trailed. He was like a small child who was overwhelmed by his older sister

“Friday is as much the weekend as any other day!.. Now come on..!”

She grabbed Koji’s hand, which was still frozen by his side, and started dragging him. His toes dragged on the concrete as his friends looked on in surprise. They too, we’re silent and frozen.

In a somewhat similar manner; the group of Akari admires watched with a fiery gaze in their eyes. The farther Koji got dragged off, the bigger the flame grew.

That was until they- Koji and Akari -had both left the school grounds… in which the ire driven animosity reached a plateau.

**

“Are we almost there yet?..”

“Nope~..!”

It had already been many minutes since Koji got dragged off.

Since then, he’s traveled across streets, through hordes of traffic, and now found himself on a big hunk of metal- a train.

His last shimmer of hope was that the two were within reasonable distance of Akaris “surprise” after they got off the train.

But, as Akari had just answered, it turned out his last hope was for not... At this point, he might be traveling for days…

‘Ughhh…Maybe she was lying..?’

A distant hope was born yet again.

Koji looked over to Akari, who was stood just as he was.

They were both forced to hang tight onto the cold, metallic, support rails- as there wasn’t enough room for either to sit. Even if there was room for one sitter, Koji knew Akari would ruthlessly take it from him.

He observed her, wondering what exactly it was he was doing right about now. He had abandoned his friend(s), traveled the earth- or so it felt -, and mindlessly followed Akari…

Of course, Koji had recently- no more than a week ago -decided to help Akari, but does this count..?

As he was thinking on that linear path, the train shook ever so slightly.

Everyone on the train suddenly tightened, as anyone standing grasped the support rails with slightly above average tension.

It was by no means a big deal, so Koji re-adjusted promptly, before glancing back at Akari.

Her hand was shaking expressively as it attempted to clamp on to the rail.

Her wrist spasmed, her fingers writhing. She tried to switch to her off-hand, but it did the same thing.

Koji didn’t act in urgency, as it seemed she wasn’t in pain- so instead he kind of just watched.

He didn’t exactly know what was happening…

Suddenly though, the train underwent turbulence once again. This time though, while all other travelers clamped down to their seat or rails, Akari didn’t.

She quickly lost balance, until Koji caught her.

She suddenly found herself leaning on his shoulder, and quickly prompted herself to stand again.

She acted as if nothing happened, and continued trying to grab the hand rail.

However, before she could, Koji grabbed her wrist.

Then, more turbulence struck…

Before it could affect Akari however, Koji planted her hand on the rail and clamped it down- sandwiching her hand between his and the rail.

Again, Koji didn’t know exactly what was happening, but clearly she couldn’t grab the rail correctly.

He looked down at her to make sure she wasn’t in any pain, but instead only saw her blushing.

She then met his gaze, housing a pouting, red face.

Quickly, they both looked away from embarrassment.

Akari had something to be embarrassed about, but Koji… he really didn’t…

Who knows why he looked away?

‘Cute…’

Oh, that’s why.

**

After about 10 minutes of essentially holding Akari’s hand, they arrived at their stop.

Although, Koji didn’t exactly know what that stop was…

“A-Alright… Let’s go…”

Akari wasn’t fully recovered yet. Her face still had shades of red, in fact.

The two now found themselves under the mighty scope of the sun, as they walked the concrete paths of the inner city.

Yes, they were now within the inner city...

…But for what..?

“Alright, time to close your eyes.”

Koji looked to Akari, only to be met with a hand.

“Hm? Huh?!?”

Suddenly, Koji’s vision was enveloped with darkness. Akari’s hand fell onto his eyes, clasping down onto his face.

“Huh?!? Akari??? What are you doing?!?”

“Come on, just keep walking…”

“What are you talking about?!?”

Koji couldn’t handle this much…

‘Why is her hand fine now???’

Koji was actually wishing for misfortune to fall upon Akari- in the sense that her hand would start shaking again, and therefore be off his face.

Her hand was a bit cold, probably from the metallic chill of the train before. But even so, it ran chills down Koji’s spine… for more than one reason…

**

Only a few minutes passed, but Koji was already a husk of his former self.

It took every ounce of his energy to not overreact and embarrass himself in this perilous situation.

It probably would have been calming for him to know that on the other side of her hand, Akari was blushing almost as hard as Koji was dying…

“O-okay… We’re here..!” Akari quickly composed herself after fumbling with her first word.

Finally, the shiny rays of the sun reached the small crevice which was previously encompassed in darkness. The light hit Koji’s skin, and then his pupils, which quickly adjusted to the change of Lux.

Dilating, his eyes first set onto Akari, who was hard to make out at first- but eventually grew easier. Still half blurred, he realized her pointing up and to their left- seemingly towards the sky.

Of course, he followed the point with his gaze as his pupils finished dialating. They were now looking half at the sky and half at the large building which they stood in front of.

The building towered over the two, as a large sign was illuminated by the sun in it’s front.

It’s red background was bolded by large white letters which were raised off the board just ever so slightly.

[Jones’ Recreational]

‘Huh?’

Koji lowered his gaze to the large windows and glass door which decorated the front.

Inside, various equipment could be seen.

“Today…”

Koji turned to Akari with a face of terror- afraid of what she was gonna say.

“…You're gonna workout!”

Akari smiled at him brightly, as if she could do no wrong.

Then, she handed him a piece of paper- on it was various regimens for various days. At the top, it was titled: [Basketball Specific].

It seemed that Akari had been working very hard for his sake as of late…

**

End Chapter 12:

Lots of Hands