Chapter 20

Shuya gulped when he looked up at the tall building that was right in front of him. Even from far away he had started to feel his legs shaking and his heart pounding, and now that he was standing only a few meters from the entrance, he could barely feel his legs.

Iyori, who was standing next to him and had been able to follow his journey of fear while walking, couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore, lacking even the slightest bit of empathy. Shuya turned around, staring at Iyori who was still laughing and his angry expression made her quiet down a little.

“Sorry, you just look really funny,” said Iyori, but Shuya didn’t even have the strength to reply and simple let out a sigh, whereafter he took in a deep breath, sensing that Fuyoko was about to tell them to go inside.

“Alright everyone, are you ready to go to the top?” asked Fuyoko, just as Shuya feared, and while the rest of the students answered with enthusiasm, he wispered quietly:

“Just kill me already...”

The class slowly started walking to the entrance and moved on until they were in front of the elevator, waiting for it to arrive. Not everyone could go at the same time so they started lining up, taking turns to fill the elevator and watch it go all the way to the top. But even though Shuya tried to stay in the background, he was easy to spot when everyone else had already went inside.

“Coming?” asked Iyori and Shuya looked at her.

“I guess...” said Shuya and walked inside the elevator, standing next to Iyori.

“I’ll be okay... I’ll be okay...” whispered Shuya to himself while he felt the elevator moving. He continued whispering the same sentence, almost like a chant, until he suddenly felt a hand on his, squeezing it tightly. While holding his breath he looked down and saw Iyori’s small hand carefully wrapped around his. He looked up, but Iyori had her eyes on the doors in front of them, not sparing him a single glance or a word. 

Shuya didn’t do anything either. He didn’t shake her hand off or even question why she was holding on to him so tightly. Instead, he tried to focus on the warmth of Iyori’s hand and forget about the fact that they were now far above ground.

When the doors opened and everyone started exiting the elevator, Shuya was barely able to lift his feet, but Iyori gave another squeeze on his hand and started walking, dragging him with her, whether his feet wanted him to or not.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” whispered Iyori when he took the first step outside the elevator. Iyori suddenly let go of Shuya’s hand, but only to intertwine her fingers with his, getting a firm grip of him.

“I... I know...” said Shuya, trying to ignore the fact that a girl was trying to console him. “I’m fine...”

“Sure,” said Iyori with a raised brow, but she knew better than to pursue the conversation any further. Instead she slowly started walking around on the deck, making sure Shuya didn’t feel like he was being rushed.

Most of the students were standing with their faces plastered to the huge windows, looking out at the city, enjoying the view, just the like the other visitors. Iyori could spot at least 10 different nationalities around her. Even if it wasn’t high season right now, Tokyo Tower was still one of the biggest tourist attractions. It didn’t matter where you came from or what you wanted to see while you were in Japan, almost everyone would make their way to Tokyo Tower.

After Iyori and Shuya had walked around on their own for a little bit, she was starting to envy her classmates who were able to get a good view of the city from the windows. 

“Aren’t you even gonna look out and enjoy the view? We’re here already,” said Iyori annoyed.

“Nope.”

“So you’re just gonna walk around in the middle of the deck without doing anything until we have to go back down?”

“Yep.” Iyori let out a huge sigh and looked at Shuya.

“No... No I’m not letting you,” said Iyori and Shuya gave her a confused look. “You were the one who dragged me on this trip. Now that I’m here I’m not gonna spend my time standing in a corner of Tokyo Tower when I could be looking out on the city. And neither are you.” Without further ado Iyori grabbed Shuya’s hand even tighter and dragged him along with all her strength and before he knew it, he was standing right in front of the window.

“Open your eyes,” said Iyori when she noticed he wasn’t even looking.

“Nope... not gonna happen– Ouch!” Shuya exclaimed at the end when he felt Iyori pinch him and he instinctively opened his eyes.

“There, just look towards the horizon.” With his eyes already open, Shuya couldn’t help but look out.

“Woah, it’s actually really beautiful from up here,” said Shuya and Iyori nodded. “I have such a clear view of the entire city.”

“See, it wasn’t that bad,” said Iyori, proud to have pushed him to do this. “As long as you don’t look down, it’s not that scary.”

“You’re right.”

“Well well, Takahashi,” said Masashi, Shuya’s classmates who was currently seated next to him in the classroom. 

“You finally pulled yourself together,” continued Masashi and gave Shuya a huge smack on the back, making Shuya take a step forward, his head leaning forward, so he suddenly looked directly down the several hundred meters tall building.

“Hey... hey Shuya...” said Iyori when she saw the fear filling Shuya’s eyes. 

“Get a grip,” said Iyori and tried to shake him, but it didn’t matter. His eyes started flickering and he started swaying from side to side. Then suddenly, Shuya closed his eyes and collapsed on the ground with a thud, loud enough that it made everyone around them turn around in surprise.

“Oh come on!” said Iyori when she looked down at Shuya.

***

“You fainted?” said Yusuke in a questionable manner while he stared at Shuya through the screen.

“Yeah...” answered Shuya embarrassed. “How did you find out so fast?”

“Someone wrote it online on our school board, I called you the second I saw it,” said Yusuke and he saw Shuya throwing his head back in defeat.

“That means–”

“That means the whole school knows,” said Yusuke and finished Shuya’s sentence.

“It’s probably Iyori,” whispered Shuya, still resting his head on the back of the bed.

“I doubt that,” said Yusuke and Shuya quickly sat back up, surprised that Yusuke had heard him clearly.

“Didn’t it happen in front of everyone?” asked Yusuke and Shuya nodded. “Most people would love to spread gossip like that, Iyori wouldn't gain anything from it though.”

“I know...” said Shuya with a sigh. “It just annoyed me how scared I acted when Iyori was feeling just fine. I feel pathetic.” 

“No, don’t–”

“Hey, is that Shuya? Can I say hi too?” a female voice spoke from the background of Yusuke’s call and soon a head popped in to the picture.

“Noriko, hey,” said Shuya when he saw Noriko’s face on the screen.

“Shuya, are you okay? How are you feeling?” Shuya thought for a while before answering.

“Just pathetic, otherwise fine.”

“What’s he saying?” spoke another voice from the background and Yusuke turned the camera so Shuya could see Keiko sitting behind them.

“Hey Keiko, I just said I’m fine,” said Shuya and Keiko got up from her chair and moved closer to the phone.

“Really? Is that so?” said Keiko with a raised eyebrow. “Then why weren’t you allowed to walk around Tokyo with the class for the rest of the day?”

“Because miss Nishida is overreacting, that’s why! Really, I’m fine,” said Shuya and even though they all looked at him in suspicion, he quickly changed the subject. “Can we just drop this already? Tell me what’s going on back in Otaru.”

“Nothing much, just normal school days,” said Yusuke. “It’s pretty quiet in the club room without you guys.”

“It’s incredible how quiet it is when you and Iyori aren’t here to argue all the time,” added Keiko and the other two laughed quietly.

“Wha– We don’t argue all the time,” stated Shuya, but the look he received from the other three made him shut his mouth just as quickly as he opened it. 

“Anyway–” said Shuya, thinking of all sorts of possible conversation topics, when he heard the sound of a knock and went quiet. “Did that sound come from my place or yours?” 

“I think it came from your place,” answered Yusuke and Shuya turned around and looked at the door to his hotel room.

“One sec,” said Shuya and put down his phone whereafter he slowly got up from the bed. No matter what he said, he still felt a little lightheaded and made sure to make slow movements. After taking a few breaths, he walked over to the door and opened it.

“Iyori, Mei, what are you doing here?” asked Shuya, surprised when he saw the two girls standing outside his door with two plastic bags in their hands. Actually they were both in Mei’s hands, Iyori had her arms crossed while diverting her eyes, in contrast to Mei who wore a huge smile on her face.

“We came to check on you!” said Mei enthusiastically. 

“Really? But what about walking around Tokyo?” said Shuya and looked at Iyori who finally looked his way.

“Don’t look at me like I sacrificed something to come see you. I already walked around Tokyo last year, I’ve seen what needs to be seen.”

“O... Okay,” said Shuya and shook his head slightly before looking at Mei instead. “But what about you, you were so excited to see Tokyo when we talked about the trip.”

“I’ve seen enough, I’m definitely never moving to Tokyo, I already miss home,” said Mei and walked inside. “So when Iyori said she was going back to check on you, I thought I might as well join her.” Iyori widened her eyes at Mei’s way too straight forward statement and Shuya looked at her with a smirk.

“So you were going to check on me,” said Shuya and Iyori looked away again.

“I just thought you might be hungry, and I was bored, it felt like two flies,” said Iyori. “Miss Nishida thought it was a good idea as well. Don’t get any weird ideas.”

“Alright alright,” said Shuya and raised his hands in defeat. “Well, come on in, I was just one the phone with our friends back home.”

“What, really?” said Mei and quickly handed her bags to Shuya, whereafter she ran to the phone and grabbed it.

“Mei!” yelled everyone in union and waved at Mei, who waved back. While Mei explained the situation to all of them, Shuya started unpacking all the food Iyori and Mei had bought.

“You sure bought a lot,” said Shuya and looked at Iyori.

“I was hungry,” said Iyori.

“You’re always hungry,” said Shuya.

“So?”

“No, nothing,” said Shuya with a smile and it quickly got quiet between them. Only the sound of Mei talking in the background filled the room. 

“Hey,” said Shuya then in a low voice and grabbed Iyori’s attention. “Thank you... for checking in on me...”

“No... No problem...” said Iyori, trying hard not to blush while speaking. “It was nothing, really... I was so bored walking around with the rest of the class, if you think about it, I just used you as an excuse to skip classes.”

“Sure, if you say so,” said Shuya. “Anyway, come on, you should say hi to the others.” Shuya grabbed Iyori’s hand and dragged her over to Mei and made sure she was in the picture.

“Look who’s here as well,” said Shuya.

“Iyori!” exclaimed Noriko immediately and everyone let out a chuckle.

“Looks like someone misses you,” said Shuya and nudged Iyori in the side.

“Hi Noriko,” said Iyori and completely ignored Shuya’s statement. “How’s everything back home?”

“It’s boring, please come back, we miss you,” said Noriko and looked at Iyori with huge puppy eyes.

“I think you miss her more than the rest of us combined, no offense,” said Yusuke in a teasingly manner.

“At least someone misses me,” said Iyori.

“Yusuke is just kidding, we all miss you. We miss all of you,” said Keiko and interrupted the conversation. “But tell us, was Shuya really that scared when you went to Tokyo Tower?”

“He was shaking like a small child,” answered Iyori immediately.

“Don’t say it like that, it only makes sense to be scared, it’s so tall!” said Shuya to defend himself, but the others just laughed.

“I think I get it,” said Noriko then and broke the laughter. “I think I will be scared as well when I have to go there. I really don’t like heights.”

“See!” said Shuya.

“Okay okay, you might be scared,” said Yusuke and looked at Noriko. “But will you be so scared that you faint?”

“...Maybe not,” said Noriko a little hesitant, knowing what her statement meant towards Shuya, and just as she expected, everyone broke into laughter again.

“Come on guys, everyone has something they’re scared of,” said Shuya. “Right?” Shuya stared directly at Yusuke, hoping he would take a hint and help him out.

“Oh... yes of course,” said Yusuke when he caught the look in Shuya’s eyes. “I’m scared of flying. Sailing too, actually!”

“Really?” said Noriko and looked at Yusuke. “I’ve always been scared of spiders. In fact I think all kind of bugs scare me.” Noriko got chills just from thinking of it.

“I’m scared of going to the dentist, I almost faint whenever I go into the waiting room,” said Mei.

“Hear that, Shuya,” said Iyori. “Almost faint.”

“Yes yes, let’s move on,” said Shuya and brushed her off. “What about you, Keiko, what are you scared of?”

“Me?” said Keiko, looking like she was hoping to be able to skip this. “I... I’m not scared of anything.”

“Yes you are, I can see it in your eyes,” said Mei quickly and stared at Keiko through the screen.

“Tell us!” said Yusuke.

“Fine,” said Keiko. “I... I’m a little bit scared of thunder... a lot scared... I hate it!” With Keiko’s usual chic and mature demeanor in thought, everyone couldn’t help but laugh by the thought, and Keiko’s face turned red as a tomato when they started teasing her, asking if she slept in her parents bed when it was thundering. 

“I sleep with my sister...” admitted Keiko in the end. At least it felt better than saying she slept with her parents. “Can we move on now. There’s still one person here who haven’t shared what they’re scared off.” Everyone turned their attention directly towards Iyori, who just looked back at them in confusion.

“Why are you all looking at me?” asked Iyori.

“Tell us what you’re scared off, we all shared our fears,” said Mei.

“Me? I’m not scared of anything,” said Iyori, copying what Keiko said earlier, but on the contrary from Keiko, Iyori didn’t sound the least bit hesitant when she spoke. She was calm and collected, not a hint of fear in her eyes.

“Oh come on,” said Shuya. “Everyone is scared of something.”

“Shuya’s right,” said Yusuke. “There’s gotta be something.”

“Nope, there really isn’t,” said Iyori.

“Iyori, seriously,” said Keiko. “It doesn’t matter if you think it’s embarrassing, I thought so too but I still told it.”

“I already told you I’m not scared of anything. If you don’t believe me, that’s your problem,” said Iyori.

“There’s something, there has to be,” said Shuya and looked at her intensely. “And I’m gonna find out.”

“If you say so.”

Hello everyone!

I really enjoyed writing this chapter, I think I imagined this scene way back in the beginning when I started planning out this story. I guess I like to make a character scared of heights since I am too.

What about you? Would you be scared if you had to go to Tokyo Tower? 

Also, I hope you're doing well and are staying happy and healthy. Take good care of yourself!

Love, Annalise~