Chapter Four

The excited chatter and giggles of his female teammates reached Taichi's ears as he walked along the corridor with Komano. Taichi sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. Not again, he thought. The last time he'd overheard one of their conversations his whole world had been tipped sideways. He'd spent a whole day thinking about it and, even now, he was still reeling from the shock of what he'd learnt.

When the bell had rung out for the end of today's classes, Taichi had purposely taken as long as he could to gather up his belongings; hoping against hope that something would turn up to prevent him from attending to his club duties. He'd dragged his feet as he left the room, wondering if he should volunteer to clean off the board, or reorganise the textbooks; anything to keep him away from the clubhouse; and it was only when he noticed Komano staring at him oddly that Taichi realised just how ridiculous he was being.

But, even so, he really didn't want to be here right now.

Taichi could hear Chihaya's voice clearly now, coming from just behind the clubroom door, and he had to fight back another sigh. Of course the first person he'd see when he entered the clubroom would be her. It was that sort of day... Week... Month.

Really, it was his life in a nutshell.

Taichi hesitated for a second, wondering if he could still slither out somehow, but quickly dismissed the idea. Komano would think he was an idiot, for one, and, loath as he was to have anything to do with Chihaya, karuta and the clubhouse right now, he was still their president. Schooling his features into what he hoped was a cheerful expression; Taichi placed a hand against the door, sliding it back.

He wasn't at all prepared for what happened next…

As the door continued to roll backwards, Chihaya came tumbling headfirst through the gap. Taichi's look of forced cheerfulness quickly turned to one of surprise. True, he had spent many nights dreaming of the moment when Chihaya fell for him, but this wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind. Instinctively, his arms closed around her. He felt her weight leaning into him and he tightened his grip.

"Chihaya?" he said, looking down at her, "Are you okay?"

She was remarkably still and her eyes seemed unfocused.

"Chihaya?" Taichi repeated, louder and more insistent. Her silence was worrying him and he was all too aware of how close they were; his skin felt as though it had been set aflame where they touched and the scent of her shampoo filled his mind in an intoxicating way. This time his voice seemed to cut through to her, though, and she gave a quick nod. Taichi felt a rush of relief followed by embarrassment. He hurriedly let go of her; stepping away before she could notice the flush that he knew was colouring his cheeks. Thankfully, the commotion had distracted everyone else; and by the time Chihaya had re-entered the club room, Taichi once more had his body under control.

If only he could say the same for his emotions.

"Okay, that's it," Oe-san said happily, sweeping her eyes over her teammates. Taichi leant back in his chair and stretched. Deciding what needed doing and who was going to do it had taken far less time than expected, thanks to Oe-san's outstanding organisational abilities. She had seemed so in-control of events that Taichi had been happy to leave all the talking to her; only stepping in when an argument arose. Chihaya had caused the first of these by reaching for a pack of cards just as their meeting had begun. The rest of the team had rebelled, and Taichi had found himself explaining to her quite firmly that no, they were not going to be playing any matches today - since the whole point of this afternoon's meet-up was to clean the place. He didn't add that this whole thing had been her idea to begin with and that she was the one who'd wanted things to look nice for the new school year and the new recruits she was hoping would arrive. Taichi might have been the president, but he didn't have a death wish.

Now, though, they were ready to begin, and a busy hum settled over the group as they started shifting furniture and tatami; throwing open windows and gathering up the cleaning gear they'd require. Chihaya might have initially been upset at the thought of a day with no karuta, but she set to just as willingly as the rest. Taichi watched her for a moment before grabbing some cleaning cloths and dragging a chair over to the nearest shelf. He was envious of how easily she was able to let things go, automatically switching her attention to where it was needed.

Well, I'll just have to do that too, he thought.

Twenty minutes later, however, Taichi realised that people were wrong when they suggested 'keeping busy' as a way to take your mind off things. It didn't work. No matter what he did, the worry, the pain and the misery still found a way in. He just couldn't get over the previous day's revelation.

Arata had confessed to Chihaya?

When had that happened? And what had she said? Were they already going out?

Damn.

Damn, damn, damn.

Taichi felt like such an idiot. He'd always known that Chihaya only had eyes for Arata; but he'd never once lost hope. He'd fooled himself into thinking that she could be his, that if he kept trying hard enough she'd be bound to notice him… Only, the world didn't work that way. While he'd been busy trying to earn her affections, she'd been chasing after someone else's. And that 'someone else' had been waiting with open arms.

'Was it worth it?' asked a treacherous voice in his head, 'All that hoping and doing your best?'

And that was the sad, sorry fact of it, because Taichi knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he'd do exactly the same thing again.

How could he not?

If only I'd told Chihaya sooner, he thought.

'Ah, but you didn't,' said the voice in his head, 'because you're a coward.' The fact that it sounded just like Arata did nothing to improve Taichi's mood. He threw down the cleaning cloth he was using and glared at the now-spotless shelf in front of him. Then he sighed. Taichi knew he was being unfair; none of this was Arata's fault, after all. It was something he'd brought upon himself.

And now it's too late, he lamented. There was no way Chihaya would even look at him; not with a confession from Arata filling her mind.

As he stepped down from the chair on which he was standing, Taichi cast his eyes about for the next set of shelves to clean. He heard laughter coming from outside and, looking that way, he saw Nishida and Tsukuba beating the tatami clean; large clouds of dust rising into the air with each whack! Oe-san, Komano and Hanano-san were there too, lugging the newly dusted mats back to the clubhouse door. Further on, beyond the gardens and pathways, Taichi could just make out the track team hard at work; their shouts of "Fight, On!" carrying across the grounds.

When he turned his attention back to the club room, Taichi found his gaze being drawn to Chihaya. She had a broom in her hand and a look of concentration upon her face. The sunlight played across her hair as she swatted the cobwebs from the windows.

I should have told you I loved you the minute I met you, Taichi thought regretfully.

Suddenly, after an entire day spent trying to avoid eye contact with her, now all Taichi wanted was to drink in her every detail. Slender frame and tied back hair. Curving lips and shining eyes. Her hands; strong and quick, the nails cut short…

Taichi didn't know how long he stared but, when he came to, he realised that Chihaya had stopped working and was looking at him curiously. Taichi found his cheeks warming for the second time that day.

"You missed a spot," he said, pointing to a web in the corner to try and hide his embarrassment.

"I know," Chihaya replied. "Someone's living in it." And, as if it had heard her, the web's occupant waved a long, spindly leg from within its castle of threads. Taichi looked from it to Chihaya and back again. Wordlessly, he took the broom from her hands and swiped both web and spider from their place above the window.

"There," he said, holding the broom back out to her, "I didn't think you were scared of spiders."

"I'm not!" She replied indignantly. "I never said I was scared. I said someone was living in it!"

Taichi rolled his eyes and waited for Chihaya to take back the broom. She reached for it before quickly recoiling, eyes wide.

"What?" he asked.

"There's still lots of web on it! What if there's a Mrs Spider hiding in there, too?"

"Ha! Not scared my foot!"

"Tai-chi!"

"Okay, okay," he relented, moving to the open doorway and sitting down inside it. Chihaya plonked herself beside him. Doing his best to ignore her, Taichi balanced the broom across his lap and started pulling at the sticky threads - wincing slightly as he did so. Chihaya noticed his shudders and couldn't help herself from commenting.

"Oooh! Who's afraid now?" she teased. Soon, their bickering began again.

"Now, now," Oe-san said placatingly, coming up beside them. "We can't have our prez and captain arguing. Especiallynot when prez was nice enough to save you earlier, Chihaya-chan," she added with a grin. Taichi allowed himself a small smile; the first real one that day.

"Mmmm," Chihaya said slowly. "Taichi's always nice to his friends…" Her voice trailed off. She turned and regarded Taichi with a thoughtful look upon her face.

"Taichi," she began hesitantly, "did… are-"

But whatever she was going to say was cut-off as Nishida came barging past. "Man! That was tiring!" he complained, throwing himself down onto the clubroom floor. "Who wants to go for ice-cream?"

"Eh?" Chihaya exclaimed, Nishida's words grabbing her attention. She scrambled to her feet and rushed to where he lay. "But we haven't finished yet!" she argued, trying to pull him back up. "Come on!"

With much grumbling, Nishida allowed himself to be moved. The other team members laughed at his begrudging manner, until Chihaya rounded on them too.

"Come on!" She urged. "Clean! Clean, clean, clean!"

Taichi remained seated. He wondered what Chihaya had been going to say to him. It couldn't have been that important… Could it? Taichi's smile slipped. Of course it couldn't. Nothing about him would ever be important to Chihaya. He'd been silly to think that the easiness with which they'd teased each other only moments before was a sign that everything would be okay. The ache he felt wasn't something that could be healed so easily. Distractions and positive thinking weren't going to cut it on their own. He was going to have to find another way to deal with the mess of emotions he was currently experiencing.

If only he knew what that way might be…

A/N: Was that as torturous to read as it was to write? Punctuation and plot progression are beyond me… But, on the upside, I should be able to update quicker from now on(is that an upside?).