A Brother's Sacrifice

Maika opened her eyes slowly, seeing the blue sky accompanied by weird shapes of clouds.

*Cough* *Cough*

Those coughing sounds were originated from Maika's mouth. I looked in her direction and said,

"It looks like it was a success. Good job Kinoshita."

Kinoshita nodded with his business-like face and turned back to look at Maika, who was lifting her upper body slowly. She wiped off the remnants of droplets of water in her eyes to make her eyesight better.

"Are you okay now?"

Kinoshita raised a question, which was pretty common to ask after such an accident has happened which involves someone almost dying.

Maika first looked at Kinoshita who was asking the question. She analyzed him because Kinoshita was also wet, as if he just walked out of the shower without wiping off the water. She then quickly realized what just happened.

"I-I'm really thankful that you saved me! I don't know how to repay you this immense debt of saving my life!"

Maika bowed deeply to his saviour, Kinoshita, who was quite perturbed by this sudden apology just after being woken up.

"N-No, it was nothing."

"You went and dived into this cold water and saved me. I'm sorry for making you do this."

"N-No...Well, it was our fault."

"No! It was my fault! I didn't hold on properly!"

His business-like face started to wear down after being pressured by this cheerful girl's act of apology. From our point of view, it seems like Kinoshita is the victim here and Maika is worrying about him.

"Well you two relax now, the problem has been solved. Maika, you feeling alright? Any weird feeling anywhere on your body?"

I broke into their little interview, which made those two feel comfortable.

"No there is nothing wrong. Although..."

"Although?"

"I...felt a soft sensation on my lips before I was fully awake."

"Oh, that was Kinoshita kissing you."

"W-What!?!?!?"

Maika immediately looked at Kinoshita with anger, disgust and a little bit of embarrassment. Kinoshita was confused and also worried. I guess I should've told her in a different way.

"You...You pervert!!!!!"

Those loud noises of screaming, along with a slapping sound echoed in the lake, where no one but only us who could've heard it. It seems like I was a bit too late explaining the misunderstanding to Maika.

........

"I'm sorry that I slapped you Kinoshita! I'm really sorry!"

"N-No...it's alright."

"I'm reeeaally sorry!"

"It's alright."

A hand mark can be seen on Kinoshita's cheek. He was just rowing the boat along with me while fending off the apologies of Maika yet again.

Seeing the colour of the mark, it displayed how much strength she put on that slap. And I could assure you that the mark was really red. I really can't imagine being slapped this hard.

"I guess it was my fault too. I shouldn't have said it like that. I mean doing a CPR on a person technically means kissing, right?"

"Tenma, you are missing the whole point here. One is to save people and the other is to p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e both the persons. Simple, isn't it? So don't get it mixed up."

Aki, who was kind of sneering, corrected my assumptions briefly and made it as simple as possible, which was hard to not understand. Even an idiot would get the gist of it.

'Wait. Is Aki indirectly telling me that I'm an idiot?'

Anyway, diverting my line of sight from those two to the land, we pretty much arrived. And as expected, we were the last ones to have set our foot on land. And we know the reason why.

Maika continued to apologize to Kinoshita but he was starting to get tired of this. So he ignored her.

Most of the students, who arrived before us, gathered their attention on us. They observed us for two reasons.

One is because we are late. And the second one was because of Kinoshita and Maika. Those two were drenched completely in water, picking the interest of many onlookers.

Two of the onlookers were Imai Murasaki and,...Reika. Those two came before us like the rest of the two classes. Imai saw me in this group where most of people's attention was.

And he, without hesitation, put his one arm in the air and waved at me. Reika was wondering what her boyfriend was doing. Then she looked at who he was waving at.

'Shock' is the only word that could describe Reika's face right now. I didn't know what to do, so I also reluctantly waved my hand at him, with a wry smile on my face.

Imai retracted his hand from the air and informed Reika to go. But Reika was staring strangely at me. Imai noticed that and called out to her once more. This time, Reika noticed her boyfriend and she went with him.

Looking back to our group, Maika seems to have already gone to her own group of friends. Since the sun was starting to set down to the west, the sky became a bit darker than when we saw on the boat.

The teacher in charge informed us to go back to the lodge as it is time. His curiosity was piqued when he saw Kinoshita completely wet. But his urge was suppressed and he ignored his figure.

The only thing that was in my mind was the hot spring. I really need that to get rid of dirt as well as my stress.

........

"Well, goodnight Aki."

"Same to you."

In front of the men and female hot bath entrance, we greeted each other off as today would be the last time we would see each other. After getting out of the hot bath, we would directly get to our rooms which in the exact opposite direction. So that's why we said our 'good nights' to each other.

Entering the hot spring, Kinoshita was already inside, so I went to the corner near him.

"..."

"..."

Nothing was going on between us. I tried to find something to talk about, and boy did I find the best topic to discuss with him.

"Hey, Kinoshita, ummm..."

"What is it Kaburagi? Is something troubling you?"

"It's just...i have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"Umm...How did you find it? That kiss?"

"What?"

Kinoshita turned his head so fast towards me, that his neck could've probably been broken due to that fast movement.

"Well. Weren't you smooching her? I saw that you were quite enjoying yourself there so i thought you could tell me how did it feel."

"A-Aren't you kind of...misunderstanding something here. I was giving her CPR and not kissing!"

"Didn't seem like it. You were blushing then, and even now. Your ears are red you know."

"Wha...?"

"So tell me. Her lips were soft but cold, weren't they. Tell me man, in details that is."

"Like I said, that was NOT kissing!"

"Hmph! Even though you enjoyed it. You won't share those moments with me, you selfish bastard."

"How am I suppose to defend myself here?"

"You can't. And you are not supposed to."

Kinoshita dropped his shoulders and sighed pretty loudly. He looked up at the ceiling and thought about something. After a while, he blushed again and shook his head.

'Oh how innocent. Fantasizing about that kiss, I see. How naughty.'