Te o Tsunagi Mashou ~Let's Hold Hands~

"So it is settled then," the homeroom teacher said.

After a few moments, the teacher waved goodbye and left her students. Some students went to talk to their friends, some started reading for the next class. All but one person remained uncomfortably seated. His name is Kaidou Kaoru and he had just begun trying to absorb what had happened to his day.

It was during their homeroom period when their teacher announced that Seigaku was to have its annual cultural festival and that, of course, every class is require to participate. But seeing that Class Seven's representative had already been delegated to supervise the swim team's booth, the teacher had no choice but to hold and election for the class's booth supervisor.

Kaidou sighed. He did not expect this to happen. Why did he have to win?

"Now what?" he mumbled to himself. Being the class's booth supervisor would probably eat too much of his time -- time he would've as well spent helping the tennis team with theirs, he argued, hissing to himself.

He was shortly interrupted by the sound of someone pulling a chair up beside him. He looked and found his classmate, , to his right, smirking at him.

"As expected from the hard working Mamushi," she grinned as she prodded.

Kaidou all but glared at her as she welcomed herself a seat beside him. He was in no mood for neither humor nor flattery.

Before homeroom had ended, only volunteered to help Kaidou out with this newly assigned duties. Everyone else were simply too scared to work with him. Now, the latter, Kaidou wasn't too surprised nor baffled by. The former, to him, was a bit disconcerting, however, knowing how notoriously lazy had always been.

"Since I will be your partner," continued, "we have to work together, right?"

Kaidou looked at her and nodded but barely.

shifted her seat, leaned towards Kaidou and asked, "So, got any ideas?"

Kaidou was too surprised by how close 's face was to his by then that he had to pull away, take a moment and regain his composure before he could reply. "No. Not yet. Homeroom just ended, remember? It wasn't like I was expecting this."

sighed. "Oh well. How about talking about this stuff after class? At the library, perhaps?"

Kaidou just nodded, just barely, as usual.

Of all the things he has yet to fully absorb about what had just happened to his day, it was 's enthusiasm that Kaidou found particularly bothersome. He had a bad feeling about this partnership.

**********

After class, immediately headed towards the school library to meet with her classmate, Kaidou Kaoru -- Mamushi as he had been renowned for both his tennis moves and his habitual hissing. She wonders what Kaidou thinks of her now that she's shown how enthusiastic she is about working with him on the year's cultural festival.

has her reasons, but she has decided not to tell anyone just why she had dared volunteer partnering herself up with Kaidou. Not just yet, at least.

Minutes later, she saw Kaidou entering the library, looking for her, most probably. She waved at him and got his attention. If only for a while.

"I have practice, so please go straight to the point." Kaidou blurted bluntly.

raised her eyebrow and teased, "My, getting impatient already, Mamushi-san, hmm? Maybe we should do some brainstorming first. That helps, right?" as she whipped out a small notepad and a pen.

"How about a café?" Kaidou asked.

"Eh?! But a lot of people will probably set up food stalls already!" sharply disagreed.

"A photo booth?" Even Kaidou didn't seem too convinced with his suggestion.

pondered about this for a bit -- which infuriated Kaidou -- tapped her pen on her notepad -- which infuriated Kaidou even more -- and said "Know what? ... Nah."

"A pet store, chrissake?! And why haven't you been writing what I've been saying? I thought we were brainstorming? Look , just write all my suggestions down so we can --"

"Oh! Oh! I got it!" exclaimed, cutting Kaidou off, annoying him even more, "How about a haunted house? I think it'd be great! Y'know, we can wear costumes and make up and dress up like monsters and go, like, raaawr! It think it'd be great! It will be, right? Right? Right! So that's settled then!"

With this, started listing down things she thought they might need for a convincingly scary haunted house. Quite frankly, it didn't take much for her to scare Kaidou. Her enthusiasm bothered him enough.

"But... but... but..." Kaidou tried to reason with who was, by then, too caught up with excitement to even listen to him. "Fine. I get it. You don't want to listen to me. I'll just have to tell the teacher about YOUR wonderful idea and see what she thinks of it, I guess."

With that, Kaidou grabbed his bag and stormed off. took her eyes off her notepad for the first time in a while, looked at Kaidou and smiled triumphantly. Her enthusiasm just might be enough.

**********

It didn't take long for Momoshiro Takeshi to notice how his rival and teammate was having an off day. "Kaidou's been hitting flats, there must be something up," he thought to himself.

He was about to taunt him, really, when he saw his buchou, Tezuka Kunimitsu who himself didn't take long to notice his kouhai's lackluster game. "Kaidou! What's wrong with you? Give me 10 laps right now!"

Kaidou promptly obeyed, as if he had expected the punishment himself.

"Momoshiro," Tezuka inquired, "what's bothering Kaidou? He wasn't playing like that this morning."

Momoshiro shook his head. “I noticed that too, Tezuka-buchou, but you know me and Mamu -- I mean, Kaidou, we just piss each other off -- we don't talk much. I have no idea. But something definitely is up."

"Hmm..." Tezuka nodded as he cast his gaze upon Kaidou. With a match coming up soon, he can't afford to have any his teammates be distracted.

**********

felt accomplished. Everyone seemed to support her idea when she and Kaidou presented the haunted house booth proposal to the class. Kaidou, on the other hand, still thinks they could have had better proposals if had let him talk. Nonetheless, he felt a bit relieved that at least one part of the festival project was done.

The sooner we get this over with, the better, he thought.

After homeroom, Kaidou went to his seat and took out his notes. sat in front of him. Kaidou glared, as usual. She had gotten used to it.

"Look, I know you're still angry about this whole thing and I'm sorry. Okay, so I guess, I was a bit selfish, but I have my reasons, believe me." said.

She looked serious. Kaidou almost felt sorry for her. "But you should try NOT to be selfish, you know. This is a class project and everyone's going to be working hard for it. This isn't just about you."

stood up and tapped Kaidou's shoulder. "I know, I told you, I'm sorry. Let's just forget about this whole thing and work hard, okay?"

Kaidou's gaze followed her as she left. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to make of anymore.

**********

"Where should I put this -san?"
"Kaidou-san, could you help me carry these things?"
"-san, we still need 5 yards of black cloth!"
"We're done making some youkai ^[1] costumes, Kaidou-san! What are we going to do next?"

Just three days now before the cultural festival kicks off and each class is busy preparing for their booth. Class Seven will be putting up a haunted house filled with legendary monsters from Japanese folklore.

Kaidou and have been working as partners, supervising the class, giving instructions as to how to make their booth stand out from the rest. For the first time, Kaidou was able to work well with , forgetting that she was once an unreliable student. He thinks she wasn't as bad as he used to think she was. Truth, he's now realized she can be fairly easy to deal with.

What he hasn't realized yet, though, is how he breaks into the smallest of smiles every time her name crosses his mind.

**********

"We're almost done!" exclaimed.

It was a bit past six in the afternoon and most of the students had had already left the campus. Some were stil inside their classrooms, touching up small details for their respective festival booths. Kaidou and were working together, cleaning up Class Seven's.

picked up a large box filled with unfinished props and turned to Kaidou "I need to bring these home so I can finish them. I don't think we'll have enough time tomorrow since there's still a lot of other stuff to do."

"I have to bring these outside first," Kaidou raised the garbage bags he's filled, "then I'll probably go home."

"Let's get going, then, it's getting kind of late," motioned as she waited for Kaidou outside their classroom door, "I'll go with you to the trash bin. Oh, and don't forget to lock the door. We don't want to ruin the surprise for everyone now, do we, Kaidou-san?"

"Yeah, thanks." Kaidou smiled. He hoped she didn't see that.

"So, see you tomorrow then?" struggled carrying her box as they reached the school gate.

"Yeah." Kaidou bit his lip, hesitated. "Oh just give me that already." He took the box from 's arms and started walking.

She was stunned motionless. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be going home already?"

"Eh, I'll help you bring these home first. You look like it'd take you forever to get home if I didn't. And we need these things finished by tomorrow, too."

"Thank you, Kaidou-san but... ah... my house is that-a-way." She smiled, a bit embarassed, and pointed towards the opposite where he was heading.

"Oh, right."

"Arigatou." She said softly as he went back towards her.

She couldn't tell if it were just the sunset or the embarrassment or the physical exertion or her imagination, but she thought Kaidou looked as if he were blushing. She didn't want to know. She was happy as she were.

She smiled as she led Kaidou to her home.

**********

Kaidou didn't expect to stay long inside the reside. But he decided to nonetheless. He had helped bring the unfinished props home after all, he might as well help her with finishing them.

He stayed in the living room while went upstairs to change her clothes. Maya-san, 's mother, came in and brought Kaidou a glass to drink and a plate of snacks. She welcomed him as warmly as she would've is she had known him all her life.

"I am really sorry for bothering your home at this time, -san." Kaidou bowed profusely.

-san looked at the young man and let out a small smile. "What are you saying, Kaidou-kun? I should be the one thanking you for helping my daughter."

Kaidou let out a smile. "Oh no, if at all, she's been the one who's helping me! If it hadn't been for her our festival booth would've been--"

"No, no, that's not what I mean." -san smiled as she gracefully shook her head. "I mean, thank you for making happy."

"A-anou, I don't understand." The young boy looked confused.

"See, hasn't been doing well since she entered her second year because her grandfather died." -san narrated. She stopped for a while, she was getting the poor boy too worried. "Don't worry about it, it's been a long time now. It's just that wasn't able to recover quickly from it. See, her father's dad was the only grandparent she ever knew since my parents and her paternal grandmother died a long time ago. When he died, she just stopped functioning. I know some people think my 's just being lazy or irresponsible because she wants to be, but she's been going through a lot."

-san stopped again only to pick one unfinished aburasumashi^[2] mask from the box. "Her grandfather used to maintain a specialty store for haunted houses, so is really fond of these things. When she told me that your class is going to have a haunted house booth for the cultural festival, I was worried. I thought it would just bring sad memories to my . But she seems happy now, and I am glad."

Kaidou remained silent while -san told him more about than he's ever had known about her before, though he felt it would've been rude if he had asked more questions.

So that's what her reasons are, he told himself.

broke the silence when she finally went downstairs in her houseclothes.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting! Let's begin, shall we? I don't want you to go home too late, Kaidou-san!"

-san excused herself, walk towards the kitchen and, for a while, just looked at the two.

She smiled.

**********

Kaidou and sat behind a table in front of their class booth, receiving guests as the Seishun Gakuen cultural festival commenced.

"Mamushi! It's been a while, eh." Momoshiro Takeshi teased Kaidou as he passed by. "Ready for another 10 laps?"

Kaidou just raised his hands in acknowledgement.

This surprised Momoshiro. "He doesn't feel like getting pissed of today, eh?" He thought to himself. He then noticed and realized how she might be the girl Arai told him of -- the one Kaidou's been paired to work with, only he didn't know she were as pretty.

"Ma, ma, this is different. Mamushi is not angry. Is it because he doesn't want to appear bad in front of his GIRLfriend?" Momoshiro thought to himself, only louder -- loud enough for Kaidou to hear. And make him angry. This pleased Momoshiro. He smiled, widely, if only to piss Kaidou even more.

Kaidou was poised to pick a fight with Momoshiro when held his arm and turned towards Momoshiro. "You're right about that, Momoshiro-san. I don't want Kaidou-kun getting angry or whatever, right, Kaidou-kun?"

Kaidou was surprised and looked at , who let out a very playful grin.

"You certainly know how to piss him off. I'll check your booth later. See you!" Momoshiro said to before he left. then let go of Kaidou's arm and messed up his hair. Kaidou glared at her angrily.

"It won't work. I've gotten used to it already, Kai-dou-kun." She said and stuck her tongue out. Kaidou hissed and turned his head away. He blushed.

**********

After a couple of weeks of planning and hardwork, the cultural festival ended a safe success. Most of the students took their time, eating snacks before cleaning their classrooms. Class Seven went outside their classroom to eat since the place was still full of props. Besides, it was still all a bit too dark and scary.

stretched her arms and sighed in relief. "It's finally over." She then turned to her partner, Kaidou. "We made it, didn't we?"

Kaidou smiled back at her, seeing that she looked so calm despite being stressed for weeks.

Suddenly, stood up and took Kaidou's hand. "We haven't been inside this. Let's try it out!" Before Kaidou could even protest (because he is, in fact, scared of these things), he had found himself inside the haunted house already.

Most of their classmates who wore scary costumes for the booth were already outside eating so their experience was nowhere near as scary as what it was supposed to be. Still, Kaidou was too afraid to be alone so he just followed wherever she went.

found the fake pond they've set up and sat on one of the big "stones". It was then that she noticed how frigthtened Kaidou was. "Oi Kaidou," she smiled "you really don't have to be scared. No one's here anyway."

"I-I'm not scared. The room's just too dark, is all. I'm having a hard time seeing things."

smirked.

It took a while before Kaidou got over his fear enough to notice how quiet has been. "-san, is something wrong?"

turned to him, smiling. "Nah. I just miss my grandfather." Kaidou remained quiet, waiting for her to continue. "I remember him every time I see these things. I felt bad for so long, then, one day, I just realized that I can't be like this forever. I have to move on. And grandpa will never be happy if he finds out that I'm sad." She had no idea Kaidou knew of everything already. "This is the reason why I wanted to set up a haunted house. I wanted to pay tribute to him. Hopefully, by setting this whole thing, I'll be able to remember our happy days together, as well as letting go of the sadness that I've kept here." said, pointing to her heart.

Kaidou nodded. He finally understood why was so lazy during the start of the class, why she was so out of herself. He was happy that his classmate was able to overcome the sadness that enveloped her for so long.

"I-I am glad that you are fine now." Kaidou said, looking down. He felt that he has to say something to support , and he was not able to think of any nice words to say.

Kaidou looked up and saw that was smiling at him. "Thank you for letting me help. For working hard. I really thank you." blushed as she smiled widely. She didn't wait for Kaidou's response and instead, took his hand once again and went outside the room.

They are both unsure about what is going to happen next, but as long as they hold each other's hands, each path they take will lead them to a bright ending.

##########

May 8, 2006
Written & edited by: Megane-ko & Doinee

^[1] a broad term pertaining to Japanese traditional mosters and supernatural beings.
^[2] a type of obakemono (traditional Japanese ghosts/creatures) that has a very distorted appearance and a potato-like head. For more information, you can visit the Obakemono Project.

A/N: This dream novel also serves as a birthday gift to Kaidou Kaoru (May 11).