Magika - Chapter 19 (New)
It had been a while since Nino slept on his own bed. He would lied down on it sometimes but he wouldn’t sleep on it. He preferred to sleep on Ohno’s bed, hugging Ohno close to him. However, after knowing what happened in the past between both he and Ohno, he didn’t feel comfortable to do so anymore.
He had been avoiding Ohno since the meeting with their parents a week ago. He felt guilty for what happened to Ohno’s father. If only he didn’t destroyed the sandcastle Ohno made back then, perhaps Ohno wouldn’t be angry at him and Mamoru won’t be desperate to search for the ritual mentioned in Founder Ninomiya’s diary. If he didn’t search for it, he won’t meet the woman and be tricked by her. Ah, it’s all started because of him.
“Good morning, Nino!” greeted Ohno, giving him uncertain smile. “Jun and I are going to the library. We have a test next week so we’re going to practice together. Do you want to join us?”
Nino didn’t answer, instead he just shook his head. He hasn’t go to the library with Ohno since last week.
“Okay. If you need me, you know where to find me,” said Ohno. He sounded upset and there’s nothing else that Nino wanted to do than to comfort him. However, he didn't do anything and let Ohno go with Jun. Of course, he didn’t miss the sharp stare Jun gave him before he went out.
He let out a loud sigh once they left.
“What happened?” asked Aiba. He was alone in the room with Aiba as Sho was in the bathroom taking his shower. “Why are you sighing?”
Nino decided to ignore him and pretend he didn’t hear that.
“Maybe because he was thinking of what a jerk he is for avoiding Ohno kun and hurt his feeling?" They were interrupted by Sho who just finished his shower. That was a quick shower, Nino thought to himself.
He didn't say anything about that because it's true. He was a jerk for treating Ohno like that. He was grateful when Sho didn’t talk about it any further. His friends had been looking at him disapprovingly for the way he treated Ohno but no one say anything yet, except for a few sarcastic remarks from Jun. The same goes with other students. He and Ohno had been the topic for gossip once again as they wondered what happened between them.
“Want to go with us to the library?” asked Sho as he’s getting ready to go out.
“He didn’t want to go,” Aiba answered on his behalf while Nino was still debating with himself if he wanted to go or not.
“On a second thought, I will go with you,” said Nino, getting to his feet and followed his friends. He decided to go with them because he will be bored if he was alone in the room. He needed something to distract him from the guilt he felt towards Ohno’s family, and of course, to stop thinking of the woman. Ah, when will he ever get a peace for his mind? First, the diary and now…
Sho and Aiba brought him to the second floor of the Great Library. There weren’t so many students there. Only Mao’s group and a few senior students. He also spotted Ohno and Jun with a few students from House of Matsumoto in a practice room. He had seen Ohno practiced before and he knew Ohno was good. However, right now, Ohno was clearly distracted. Once again, he felt guilty as this may have happened because he ignored Ohno but… He didn’t know how to talk with Ohno without thinking of his father.
As soon as they arrived, Sho put his stuff on a table that was far from the other students and immediately went to the Spell section and start collecting books. On the other hand, Aiba took out his experiment journal and start flipping the pages in the journal before he stopped at a page and started to read it. He usually wrote about the results of his experiment and a list of experiment he planned to do. Nino didn’t see him looking at his journal for a while so he wondered if Aiba had another experiment in his mind right now.
“Do you have a new experiment to do?” Asked Nino but Aiba shook his head, eyes still looking at his journal.
“I want to but I don’t have the time,”
“Then, what are you writing about?” He asked once again. Aiba looked at him and then looked at his journal.
“Ah… You thought this is my experiment journal,”
“It wasn’t?” Aiba shook his head once again before explaining to him.
“It’s my…..”
“Don’t tell him, Aiba!” Sho interrupted before Aiba could say anything. He carried a lot of books to the table. “We will let you know once you sorted things out with Ohno kun,”
What? Both Aiba and Sho had a secret and wouldn’t tell him about it unless he talked with Ohno? Wow, a clever way to threaten him.
“It’s okay. I don't want to know,” lied Nino. Honestly, he was interested to know about it but he will find another way to do so. Maybe he could trick Aiba to tell him whenever Sho was not around.
“So, you really have a problem with Ohno?” They were joined by Erika who take a seat next to him. “Something happened when you guys went missing during the quest?”
“Or…” Erika asked once again when Nino didn’t say anything. “Did he confessed but you rejected him and things turned out to be awkward between the two of you?”
“Erika, stop making speculation,” said Sho but Erika ignored him as she continued.
“Very unlikely, actually. Both of you seem to love each other so much so I think it had something to do with the quest,”
Nino sighed. He didn’t know what to do with Erika. What made him feel even more irritated is the other students were looking at them, expecting him to answer Erika’s question. The only thing he was grateful for was Ohno and the other students in the practice room were too preoccupied with their practice that they didn’t noticed what happened outside.
“Please… Tell me what happened,” pleaded Erika. She sounded so desperate to know. “Everyone is dying to know what happened between you guys. Even Kimura sensei asked me and Mao chan about it,”
“Kimura sensei?” Asked Nino. He didn’t expect his favourite teacher to be interested with the gossip in school.
“Well, teachers were talking about it too,” said Erika in response. “He was just concern. You were not performing in class lately so he wonder if it had anything to do with Ohno,”
Erika was right. He was distracted in class lately and it affected his performance in the class. He didn’t have the chance to tell everyone to mind their own business when he noticed the students in the practice room were looking at him, interested to know what the commotion is about. Ohno was looking straight at him with a pair of sad eyes and he became even guilty to see that. Without saying anything, he walked away from Erika and his friends, hiding himself in one of the empty practice room. Aiba tried to stop him from leaving but he ignored him.
“Go away. I don’t want to talk to anyone,” said Nino when the door was opened from the outside. He didn’t bother to see who it was. But he could hear footsteps approaching him and the person sat next to him without saying anything. He didn’t have to lift his head to know it was Ohno. He recognized the familiar scent.
“I guess… I must be the last person you want to talk to right now…” Ohno started when Nino didn’t say anything. He lifted his finger to point at the window. “… But they pushed me inside,”
Even though he already know who Ohno meant by that, he still lifted his head to look outside of the room. As expected, his friends and other students outside were pretending to do their homework and reading when he looked at them.
“I guess I should go…”
Ohno stood up but unconsciously, Nino held his hand to stop him from going. Ohno looked at his hand before looking back at his face. He seems confused but that didn’t stop him from smiling and Nino couldn’t help but laughing as he looked at the cute, innocent face of smiling Ohno, something that he hadn’t seen for a week. How foolish he was for ignoring Ohno. He wanted to hug Ohno so badly but thankfully, he remembered people were still watching them. His friends and the other students didn’t pretend this time when he looked at them. He stood up and closed the curtain of the room, but not before he flashed his signature smirk to the audience.
“Eh?” He was surprised when Ohno suddenly hugged him from behind. “Ohchan?”
But, Ohno didn’t say anything as he let go of Nino and made him turned to face him before planting a soft kiss on his lips and hugged him tightly once again. Nino was too stunned with what Ohno did and he didn’t know how to react.
“That is your punishment for ignoring me,” said Ohno. He didn’t let go of Nino this time, still holding Nino close to him. Nino chuckled. How could a kiss be a punishment? It should be a reward.
“I miss you so much, Nino!” Ohno continued talking. “Do you know how hard it is for me to control myself when you ignored me? Luckily, nothing bad happened,”
Nino stopped smiling when he heard that. Reluctantly, he pushed Ohno away from him. He remembered why he ignored Ohno in the first place. He felt guilty for what happened to Ohno’s father and now it seems he had caused another trouble to Ohno. He already aware of how Ohno’s feeling affected his magic and his decision to ignore Ohno wasn’t a good idea. He made Ohno upset and this would make Ohno lose control of his magic once again. Thankfully, like Ohno said, he didn’t lose control this time and nothing happened. If not, maybe people will discover Ohno’s true identity and it would be his fault for revealing it.
“I’m sorry,” said Nino, almost whispering. That’s all he can say. But, Ohno didn’t seem angry at him as he pulled Nino closer once again.
“Did you ignore me because you’re afraid of what I can do?”
Nino shook his head. He wasn’t scared of Ohno at all, not even for a second. But, he understood why Ohno would think that way. He started to ignore Ohno since they know what Ohno could do, so naturally one would think he is afraid of Ohno, especially when Ohno almost killed him back then.
“I’m afraid…. But… I’m not afraid of what you could do. I’m afraid that you… that you blamed me for what happened to your father,” answered Nino. Ohno frowned upon hearing his reason.
“I don’t understand. Why would I blamed you?”
“Because I caused your father’s death,” explained Nino and Ohno was still looking at him like he didn’t understand what Nino was saying. “If I don’t provoke you in the past, you may not lose control of your magic and your father won’t try to find the way to get rid of your magic and… you know…” explained Nino. He couldn’t bring himself to say more than that.
“Nino….” said Ohno as he smiled softly and shaking his head a few times. “You’re not responsible. A lot of people are blaming themselves for that. My mother, your father, myself but it wasn’t our fault. If there’s anyone to be blamed, it should be the murderer for killing my father using a sly method like that. She took advantage of my father’s desperation to find a way to fix me,”
“But…”
“I don’t blame you. Not for something that neither of us can remember. So, stop blaming yourself and don’t ignore me anymore. You made me upset and you know if I get upset, things might get ugly,”
“But, if you’re upset, how come you didn’t lose control?” not that he wanted that to happen, but, he was curious to know why Ohno didn’t lose control like he did in the cave and headmaster’s room. Maybe Nino didn’t affect him as much as the woman.
“Well…. Sho told me to give you time to come to your senses and our one week separation made me realize something too,”
“What is it?” asked Nino immediately, curious to know what is it about. But, Ohno didn’t answer him, instead he keep on smiling.
“You’re being creepy. What do you realized?” he pouted when Ohno refused to answer him. Ah, is this how irritating Ohno felt when he ignored him?
“You’re so cute when pouting,”
“No no. Flattery won’t get you anywhere,” said Nino and when Ohno still refused to answer him, he continued. “Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, I will go first. See you later,”
It was an empty threat. He didn’t really want to go anywhere.
“Okay, fine. I realized how important you are to me,” answered Ohno which made Nino frowned in return. Important? What did Ohno meant by that?
“Hmmm… I don’t know how to explain this. You remember in the diary how Samii… I don’t remember exactly how it was… but something like he cannot control what he was doing when he is with your ancestor… that he cannot control himself from reading Founder Ninomiya’s mind?”
“Yeah….” Answered Nino, trying to figure out what Ohno meant.
“Well, it was similar with me. The reason I lose control of myself while in the cave and the headmaster’s room is because of you,” Nino was surprised to hear that. Him? Why would he had anything to do with Ohno’s magic?
“I mean… in the cave… I wasn’t afraid… well, I was afraid of her but it wasn’t because of my fear for her that made me lose control. It was the thought of seeing she hurt you… the same goes with Kitagawa sensei…. I was terrified to hear what I did to you and that’s why I didn’t want him to continue.. I realize… I cannot stand knowing you were hurt because of me. That’s why I’ve been trying my best to relax and don’t push you to talk with me again. The last thing I want to do is hurting you and if I push you or lose control again, you will be upset with me and… I think… With that thought, maybe that’s why I didn’t lose control of my magic… Hmmm… Do you understand what I meant?”
“Ohchan….” He was speechless. He didn’t know what to say when he heard those words from Ohno. They just met so he found it hard to believe that he meant so much to Ohno. But, he couldn’t deny there is a strong connection between the two of them since the first time they met and he now knew the connection was because they used to be friends back then. They must be so close years ago that when Ohno left him, he felt hollow in his heart before Aiba broke the barrier he created between him and other people.
“I know we’re still young but I want to be with you forever. I’m happy with the way we’re right now but I cannot deny that I want more…” said Ohno. He paused himself and Nino could sense something was bothering him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well… how about you?”
“What do you mean? If you’re talking about my feeling, of course I feel the same way and I want to be with you too,” answered Nino, though he had a hunch of what Ohno really meant. He must be afraid that the woman would use him to get Ohno.
“Are you sure? You could be in danger because of me and I don’t want that to happen,”
Nino smiled in return, appreciating how thoughtful Ohno was to him. But, he had made a choice. No matter how dangerous it was, he would stay by Ohno’s side.
“Then, do you want me to ignore you like the way I did before?” Asked Nino and Ohno immediately shook his head.
“I don’t know, Nino. What should we do?” Asked Ohno in return. Nino knew what he wants to do but he wasn’t sure if Ohno would like it.
“Do you think it would be too reckless if we try to find her before she find us? So that she won’t come between us in the future,”
“The headmaster warned us not to do that and we don’t really know who the woman is so how are we going to find her…” Ohno seems to reject the idea at first but he become quiet as he stared at the closed door. “… But Sho…” Nino was confused when Ohno suddenly mentioned Sho and then he remembered Aiba and Sho’s secret mission. He wondered if it has anything to do with the woman.
“Did you know what Sho and Aiba are up to?” Asked Nino and Ohno nodded his head.
“Sho wouldn’t let Aiba and Jun told me about it but Jun told me a bit…” Said Ohno but he was interrupted when the door was opened from outside by Kimura sensei.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I disturb you?” Asked the teacher. “The students were gathering outside of this room so I just want to see if something fishy happened here. Now, I know why they were doing that,”
“It’s nothing, sensei. They were just nosy to know what happened between us,” answered Nino.
“Well, I’m happy to see you’re talking again. But, if you’re not using this room for practice, I want to use the room to help my students prepare for their test. So, if you may…” The teacher didn’t need to finish his words as he gestured to the door. Both of them looked at each other before they stood up and leave the room. Once outside, Nino chuckled as he watched how the other students were interested to interrogate him one more time but couldn’t do so because of Kimura sensei.
“Well, I better get back to my practice. Talk to you later,” said Ohno, leaving him behind. Nino walked to the table he was sitting earlier, where Aiba and Sho were busy reading.
“Sort things out with Ohchan. Care to tell me what you’re up to?”
A/N: I finally have the courage to post this. This chapter was ready for since April but I don't know why I don't want to post this. I've read the comments from the previous chapter and people were asking me why Nino ignored Ohno. Well, when I was writing chapter 18, I thought Nino was blaming himself for what happened to Ohno's father and he was afraid that Ohno was blaming him for that. That's why he decided to ignore Ohno. That's what I was thinking at that time. I don't know what you will think of this chapter but hopefully it is okay. Comments are very much appreciated :)
He had been avoiding Ohno since the meeting with their parents a week ago. He felt guilty for what happened to Ohno’s father. If only he didn’t destroyed the sandcastle Ohno made back then, perhaps Ohno wouldn’t be angry at him and Mamoru won’t be desperate to search for the ritual mentioned in Founder Ninomiya’s diary. If he didn’t search for it, he won’t meet the woman and be tricked by her. Ah, it’s all started because of him.
“Good morning, Nino!” greeted Ohno, giving him uncertain smile. “Jun and I are going to the library. We have a test next week so we’re going to practice together. Do you want to join us?”
Nino didn’t answer, instead he just shook his head. He hasn’t go to the library with Ohno since last week.
“Okay. If you need me, you know where to find me,” said Ohno. He sounded upset and there’s nothing else that Nino wanted to do than to comfort him. However, he didn't do anything and let Ohno go with Jun. Of course, he didn’t miss the sharp stare Jun gave him before he went out.
He let out a loud sigh once they left.
“What happened?” asked Aiba. He was alone in the room with Aiba as Sho was in the bathroom taking his shower. “Why are you sighing?”
Nino decided to ignore him and pretend he didn’t hear that.
“Maybe because he was thinking of what a jerk he is for avoiding Ohno kun and hurt his feeling?" They were interrupted by Sho who just finished his shower. That was a quick shower, Nino thought to himself.
He didn't say anything about that because it's true. He was a jerk for treating Ohno like that. He was grateful when Sho didn’t talk about it any further. His friends had been looking at him disapprovingly for the way he treated Ohno but no one say anything yet, except for a few sarcastic remarks from Jun. The same goes with other students. He and Ohno had been the topic for gossip once again as they wondered what happened between them.
“Want to go with us to the library?” asked Sho as he’s getting ready to go out.
“He didn’t want to go,” Aiba answered on his behalf while Nino was still debating with himself if he wanted to go or not.
“On a second thought, I will go with you,” said Nino, getting to his feet and followed his friends. He decided to go with them because he will be bored if he was alone in the room. He needed something to distract him from the guilt he felt towards Ohno’s family, and of course, to stop thinking of the woman. Ah, when will he ever get a peace for his mind? First, the diary and now…
Sho and Aiba brought him to the second floor of the Great Library. There weren’t so many students there. Only Mao’s group and a few senior students. He also spotted Ohno and Jun with a few students from House of Matsumoto in a practice room. He had seen Ohno practiced before and he knew Ohno was good. However, right now, Ohno was clearly distracted. Once again, he felt guilty as this may have happened because he ignored Ohno but… He didn’t know how to talk with Ohno without thinking of his father.
As soon as they arrived, Sho put his stuff on a table that was far from the other students and immediately went to the Spell section and start collecting books. On the other hand, Aiba took out his experiment journal and start flipping the pages in the journal before he stopped at a page and started to read it. He usually wrote about the results of his experiment and a list of experiment he planned to do. Nino didn’t see him looking at his journal for a while so he wondered if Aiba had another experiment in his mind right now.
“Do you have a new experiment to do?” Asked Nino but Aiba shook his head, eyes still looking at his journal.
“I want to but I don’t have the time,”
“Then, what are you writing about?” He asked once again. Aiba looked at him and then looked at his journal.
“Ah… You thought this is my experiment journal,”
“It wasn’t?” Aiba shook his head once again before explaining to him.
“It’s my…..”
“Don’t tell him, Aiba!” Sho interrupted before Aiba could say anything. He carried a lot of books to the table. “We will let you know once you sorted things out with Ohno kun,”
What? Both Aiba and Sho had a secret and wouldn’t tell him about it unless he talked with Ohno? Wow, a clever way to threaten him.
“It’s okay. I don't want to know,” lied Nino. Honestly, he was interested to know about it but he will find another way to do so. Maybe he could trick Aiba to tell him whenever Sho was not around.
“So, you really have a problem with Ohno?” They were joined by Erika who take a seat next to him. “Something happened when you guys went missing during the quest?”
“Or…” Erika asked once again when Nino didn’t say anything. “Did he confessed but you rejected him and things turned out to be awkward between the two of you?”
“Erika, stop making speculation,” said Sho but Erika ignored him as she continued.
“Very unlikely, actually. Both of you seem to love each other so much so I think it had something to do with the quest,”
Nino sighed. He didn’t know what to do with Erika. What made him feel even more irritated is the other students were looking at them, expecting him to answer Erika’s question. The only thing he was grateful for was Ohno and the other students in the practice room were too preoccupied with their practice that they didn’t noticed what happened outside.
“Please… Tell me what happened,” pleaded Erika. She sounded so desperate to know. “Everyone is dying to know what happened between you guys. Even Kimura sensei asked me and Mao chan about it,”
“Kimura sensei?” Asked Nino. He didn’t expect his favourite teacher to be interested with the gossip in school.
“Well, teachers were talking about it too,” said Erika in response. “He was just concern. You were not performing in class lately so he wonder if it had anything to do with Ohno,”
Erika was right. He was distracted in class lately and it affected his performance in the class. He didn’t have the chance to tell everyone to mind their own business when he noticed the students in the practice room were looking at him, interested to know what the commotion is about. Ohno was looking straight at him with a pair of sad eyes and he became even guilty to see that. Without saying anything, he walked away from Erika and his friends, hiding himself in one of the empty practice room. Aiba tried to stop him from leaving but he ignored him.
“Go away. I don’t want to talk to anyone,” said Nino when the door was opened from the outside. He didn’t bother to see who it was. But he could hear footsteps approaching him and the person sat next to him without saying anything. He didn’t have to lift his head to know it was Ohno. He recognized the familiar scent.
“I guess… I must be the last person you want to talk to right now…” Ohno started when Nino didn’t say anything. He lifted his finger to point at the window. “… But they pushed me inside,”
Even though he already know who Ohno meant by that, he still lifted his head to look outside of the room. As expected, his friends and other students outside were pretending to do their homework and reading when he looked at them.
“I guess I should go…”
Ohno stood up but unconsciously, Nino held his hand to stop him from going. Ohno looked at his hand before looking back at his face. He seems confused but that didn’t stop him from smiling and Nino couldn’t help but laughing as he looked at the cute, innocent face of smiling Ohno, something that he hadn’t seen for a week. How foolish he was for ignoring Ohno. He wanted to hug Ohno so badly but thankfully, he remembered people were still watching them. His friends and the other students didn’t pretend this time when he looked at them. He stood up and closed the curtain of the room, but not before he flashed his signature smirk to the audience.
“Eh?” He was surprised when Ohno suddenly hugged him from behind. “Ohchan?”
But, Ohno didn’t say anything as he let go of Nino and made him turned to face him before planting a soft kiss on his lips and hugged him tightly once again. Nino was too stunned with what Ohno did and he didn’t know how to react.
“That is your punishment for ignoring me,” said Ohno. He didn’t let go of Nino this time, still holding Nino close to him. Nino chuckled. How could a kiss be a punishment? It should be a reward.
“I miss you so much, Nino!” Ohno continued talking. “Do you know how hard it is for me to control myself when you ignored me? Luckily, nothing bad happened,”
Nino stopped smiling when he heard that. Reluctantly, he pushed Ohno away from him. He remembered why he ignored Ohno in the first place. He felt guilty for what happened to Ohno’s father and now it seems he had caused another trouble to Ohno. He already aware of how Ohno’s feeling affected his magic and his decision to ignore Ohno wasn’t a good idea. He made Ohno upset and this would make Ohno lose control of his magic once again. Thankfully, like Ohno said, he didn’t lose control this time and nothing happened. If not, maybe people will discover Ohno’s true identity and it would be his fault for revealing it.
“I’m sorry,” said Nino, almost whispering. That’s all he can say. But, Ohno didn’t seem angry at him as he pulled Nino closer once again.
“Did you ignore me because you’re afraid of what I can do?”
Nino shook his head. He wasn’t scared of Ohno at all, not even for a second. But, he understood why Ohno would think that way. He started to ignore Ohno since they know what Ohno could do, so naturally one would think he is afraid of Ohno, especially when Ohno almost killed him back then.
“I’m afraid…. But… I’m not afraid of what you could do. I’m afraid that you… that you blamed me for what happened to your father,” answered Nino. Ohno frowned upon hearing his reason.
“I don’t understand. Why would I blamed you?”
“Because I caused your father’s death,” explained Nino and Ohno was still looking at him like he didn’t understand what Nino was saying. “If I don’t provoke you in the past, you may not lose control of your magic and your father won’t try to find the way to get rid of your magic and… you know…” explained Nino. He couldn’t bring himself to say more than that.
“Nino….” said Ohno as he smiled softly and shaking his head a few times. “You’re not responsible. A lot of people are blaming themselves for that. My mother, your father, myself but it wasn’t our fault. If there’s anyone to be blamed, it should be the murderer for killing my father using a sly method like that. She took advantage of my father’s desperation to find a way to fix me,”
“But…”
“I don’t blame you. Not for something that neither of us can remember. So, stop blaming yourself and don’t ignore me anymore. You made me upset and you know if I get upset, things might get ugly,”
“But, if you’re upset, how come you didn’t lose control?” not that he wanted that to happen, but, he was curious to know why Ohno didn’t lose control like he did in the cave and headmaster’s room. Maybe Nino didn’t affect him as much as the woman.
“Well…. Sho told me to give you time to come to your senses and our one week separation made me realize something too,”
“What is it?” asked Nino immediately, curious to know what is it about. But, Ohno didn’t answer him, instead he keep on smiling.
“You’re being creepy. What do you realized?” he pouted when Ohno refused to answer him. Ah, is this how irritating Ohno felt when he ignored him?
“You’re so cute when pouting,”
“No no. Flattery won’t get you anywhere,” said Nino and when Ohno still refused to answer him, he continued. “Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, I will go first. See you later,”
It was an empty threat. He didn’t really want to go anywhere.
“Okay, fine. I realized how important you are to me,” answered Ohno which made Nino frowned in return. Important? What did Ohno meant by that?
“Hmmm… I don’t know how to explain this. You remember in the diary how Samii… I don’t remember exactly how it was… but something like he cannot control what he was doing when he is with your ancestor… that he cannot control himself from reading Founder Ninomiya’s mind?”
“Yeah….” Answered Nino, trying to figure out what Ohno meant.
“Well, it was similar with me. The reason I lose control of myself while in the cave and the headmaster’s room is because of you,” Nino was surprised to hear that. Him? Why would he had anything to do with Ohno’s magic?
“I mean… in the cave… I wasn’t afraid… well, I was afraid of her but it wasn’t because of my fear for her that made me lose control. It was the thought of seeing she hurt you… the same goes with Kitagawa sensei…. I was terrified to hear what I did to you and that’s why I didn’t want him to continue.. I realize… I cannot stand knowing you were hurt because of me. That’s why I’ve been trying my best to relax and don’t push you to talk with me again. The last thing I want to do is hurting you and if I push you or lose control again, you will be upset with me and… I think… With that thought, maybe that’s why I didn’t lose control of my magic… Hmmm… Do you understand what I meant?”
“Ohchan….” He was speechless. He didn’t know what to say when he heard those words from Ohno. They just met so he found it hard to believe that he meant so much to Ohno. But, he couldn’t deny there is a strong connection between the two of them since the first time they met and he now knew the connection was because they used to be friends back then. They must be so close years ago that when Ohno left him, he felt hollow in his heart before Aiba broke the barrier he created between him and other people.
“I know we’re still young but I want to be with you forever. I’m happy with the way we’re right now but I cannot deny that I want more…” said Ohno. He paused himself and Nino could sense something was bothering him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well… how about you?”
“What do you mean? If you’re talking about my feeling, of course I feel the same way and I want to be with you too,” answered Nino, though he had a hunch of what Ohno really meant. He must be afraid that the woman would use him to get Ohno.
“Are you sure? You could be in danger because of me and I don’t want that to happen,”
Nino smiled in return, appreciating how thoughtful Ohno was to him. But, he had made a choice. No matter how dangerous it was, he would stay by Ohno’s side.
“Then, do you want me to ignore you like the way I did before?” Asked Nino and Ohno immediately shook his head.
“I don’t know, Nino. What should we do?” Asked Ohno in return. Nino knew what he wants to do but he wasn’t sure if Ohno would like it.
“Do you think it would be too reckless if we try to find her before she find us? So that she won’t come between us in the future,”
“The headmaster warned us not to do that and we don’t really know who the woman is so how are we going to find her…” Ohno seems to reject the idea at first but he become quiet as he stared at the closed door. “… But Sho…” Nino was confused when Ohno suddenly mentioned Sho and then he remembered Aiba and Sho’s secret mission. He wondered if it has anything to do with the woman.
“Did you know what Sho and Aiba are up to?” Asked Nino and Ohno nodded his head.
“Sho wouldn’t let Aiba and Jun told me about it but Jun told me a bit…” Said Ohno but he was interrupted when the door was opened from outside by Kimura sensei.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I disturb you?” Asked the teacher. “The students were gathering outside of this room so I just want to see if something fishy happened here. Now, I know why they were doing that,”
“It’s nothing, sensei. They were just nosy to know what happened between us,” answered Nino.
“Well, I’m happy to see you’re talking again. But, if you’re not using this room for practice, I want to use the room to help my students prepare for their test. So, if you may…” The teacher didn’t need to finish his words as he gestured to the door. Both of them looked at each other before they stood up and leave the room. Once outside, Nino chuckled as he watched how the other students were interested to interrogate him one more time but couldn’t do so because of Kimura sensei.
“Well, I better get back to my practice. Talk to you later,” said Ohno, leaving him behind. Nino walked to the table he was sitting earlier, where Aiba and Sho were busy reading.
“Sort things out with Ohchan. Care to tell me what you’re up to?”
A/N: I finally have the courage to post this. This chapter was ready for since April but I don't know why I don't want to post this. I've read the comments from the previous chapter and people were asking me why Nino ignored Ohno. Well, when I was writing chapter 18, I thought Nino was blaming himself for what happened to Ohno's father and he was afraid that Ohno was blaming him for that. That's why he decided to ignore Ohno. That's what I was thinking at that time. I don't know what you will think of this chapter but hopefully it is okay. Comments are very much appreciated :)