"Ah, Kagome," sounded the familar voice from the doorway, "I'm glad to see you aren't sick today!"
It's Houjo again, Kagome thought bitterly to herself.
Kagome's chagrined expression melted and did a 180 as she spun around a similar amount of degress to face him.
"Houjo," Kagome smiled whitely and maybe a little too widely, with her hands tied behind her back, "What a surprise! I really wasn't expecting you!" she exclaimed truthfully.
She could now see Houjo standing mildly in the doorframe, carrying a bouquet of fresh daisies in one hand and clinging to a heart-shaped box of what was presumably chocolates in the next. A bulky looking messenger bag had been slung across his shoulders neatly. He was clad in his characteristic black suit and matching pants, however these seemed to be specially pressed and ironed for some occasion Kagome only could guess.
Now as she looked to face her guest, she noticed he seemed a little flushed, "I wasn't sure if these would upset your allergies," Houjo admitted, his eyes darting to the bundle, "But I thought you'd like these flowers." He held them out for her to take.
"Why, thank you Houjo," Kagome smiled as she grabbed the bundle, "Don't worry, they're not a problem at all. These will look great in my room-" she commented, about to elaborate on which nightstand, but some slight change in Houjo's complexion caught her eye.
Was he starting to blush?
"Ah, good," he let out a breath of relief, "And I brought these too," Houjo continued, indicating his second gift, as he opened up the heart shaped box.
"Oh, chocolates," Kagome said, almost tongue in cheek, "Houjo, you really shouldn't have."
"I know, I know," he acknowledged, "Chocolates would only raise your blood sugar, so I picked these out- they're caramel flavored tofu squares."
Holding back an abrupt chortle, Kagome squeezed out a, "Houjo- how considerate!"
As she gladly accepted the heart chock full of tofu, Kagome contemplated whether or not Grandpa actually disclosed her having some form of diabetes as another excuse for her absence. She really should sit down and have a nice talk with Grandpa about how hindering the ramifications of citing various diseases for-
"Uhm, Kagome," Houjo blurted, snapping her out of her musings.
She swiftly picked herself back up. "Oh, sorry- yes, Houjo?"
"Uhm, well," he muttered again, a growing sense of insecurity and shyness grew on his crimson face. Taking a deep swallow, he cleared his throat.
"You see, I was wondering if you'd-," he started audibly, paying a lot of attention to the foot he was shuffling from side to side, "if you wanted to go see 'Anacondas on a Jetliner' at the movies tonight with me?"
A date. Kagome tried not to jerk at the sudden proposal. It wasn't entirely unexpected, but. . . Houjo?
Kagome stopped, remembering the open book and work she had left at her table.
"That's right, Geometry. . ." she sighed before, apologizing and explaining herself, "I'm sorry, Houjo- I'm just worried I'm not going to be able to learn and cover all the material I need to for the test on Monday."
Immediately, Houjo's hand darted into his messenger bag and withdrew a cleanly stapled packet, hot off the printer, "Here," he offered, "I made a study guide of the chapter you're doing in Geometry; it has all the main points. If you want, we can do it together right now instead. I'll show you all the processes you need to know how to go through."
Kagome reached for the study guide, but stopped, "But Houjo, aren't you taking Precalculus this year."
Said upper track student's expression flattened, "Uhm... yeah," he mumbled as he tapped two fingers together sheepishly.
Kagome turned around sighing deeply to herself.
It wasn't like Houjo was a bad kind of guy to be with. Kagome knew he was quite the sweet and cheerful guy, albeit a little naive when it came to her friends or her grandpa. Heck, according to her friends' speculations he was ranked as the top student in the entire school and was a star athlete at that. Her friends never could understand why she didn't come practically leaping into his arms. It's just that she had already realized her feelings were for Inuyasha, even if he had been a bit of a jerk to her before she left.
'Houjo went through all that effort to impress me. . I can't just shoot him down like that,' she thought.
Come to think of it, Houjo was constantly trying to help her out with her troublesome diseases, terminal, pretended, or otherwise. Even when she was away, her family kept on telling her of how Houjo showed up almost every afternoon with her homework, sometimes a gift, and asking how she was, before rushing back to school to make it to his tennis or swimming practice or whatever he did. That elicited an ashamed sigh from Kagome. For as much attention he paid her, she didn't even have a clue what sport he played anymore.
Besides, it wasn't like she was going on a dinner date or anything. She was just going to see a movie with another guy to have fun.
"Well," she replied tentatively, "I don't see why not."
A relieved smile quickly overtook Houjo's face, "Excellent!" he exclaimed, "So shall we go to the movie now or study first?"
Kagome's immediate answer was...
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