(Note: This story takes place 3 years ago.)

Michi loves to make promises. She uses the word 'promise' a lot. But she was loyal to those promises. Despite falling in love, she kept her promise to be Takiyo's friend. True, he didn't get as much time with her as he used to, but she still would spend time with him.

The school festival was coming soon.

"Takiyo-kun, come and help over here for a bit!" Michi called, beckoning him over.

"Sure."

The other girls smiled at each other, then at Michi.

"We really are glad for you, Michi-chan." Okemia Murai told her. She had very short brown hair, and big, hazel eyes. She was very petite-looking. "Honestly, if you weren't there, we would never get Hamasaki-kun to do anything."

"It's just in your heads." Michi laughed. "Takiyo-kun is a really nice guy."

"Yeah, but whenever you talk to him, he acts like he doesn't want us to." Ainu Okazaki pointed out. Her short, smooth brown hair was clipped back with some purple clips, and she was short, but looked quite mature for her age.

"Are you sure you two don't have anything going on?" Namie Kinoshita asked mischievously. She was the tallest one of the four, with untidy black hair and bright eyes.

"No, no, we don't have anything." Michi replied quickly.

"Keep quiet, Namie-chan." Okemia giggled. "Remember who Michi-chan likes?" She leaned in and opened her mouth, but then Michi leapt at her and covered her mouth.

"Okemia-chan, shush!" Michi said, blushing.

"Oh, oh, can I guess?" Ainu asked, grinning. "Does his name maybe start with an 'I'?"

"Ainu-chan, please!"

Okemia and Ainu laughed heartily, while Michi scolded them. Namie also laughed along, but then she looked sideways at Takiyo, who was doing his work silently. She was so sure. Didn't Takiyo like Michi? In her opinion, he was much better than that Yoichi Ishida. But she never voiced that out.

When Okemia and Ainu wouldn't stop teasing her, Michi got up and went to work with Takiyo.

"Jeez...saying whatever they please..." she muttered, but she was blushing. Takiyo looked at her for a moment, then back down at his work.

"Hey, Takiyo-kun." Michi said suddenly, tapping his arm. Takiyo looked at her. Her eyes looked bright. "We haven't been able to hang out as much. So how about we roam around the festival together?"

Takiyo listened incase she wanted to say something more, but when she didn't, he asked, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely!" Michi replied. "I want to spend some quality time with you. How about...we make a promise?"

"You love making promises." Takiyo remarked.

"It's okay!" Michi said. "We'll meet up, and we will hang out. It's a promise, okay?"

"Okay."

"Nice. I look forward to it."

Takiyo smiled inwardly. Michi liked Yoichi. He already knew that. But as long as he still had an important place in her life, as long as he wasn't forgotten, he could do this. It was true that Michi was slipping away from him due to her friends, but she would always come back. That's how it always was.

***

"Iseri-san!"

Michi looked around. Her duty was finally over. Her duty ended a little after Takiyo's. She was just going to their agreed meeting place, but somebody had called out to her.

That someone turned out to be Yoichi. She noticed that he was looking nervous, and she automatically felt nervous too.

***

Hotaru Ikehara was walking along the corridor. His duty had just gotten over, and he was walking to the outside. He was of average height,with sand-coloured hair, that fell back down into his eyes no matter how much he pushed them back, and sludge brown eyes. He wasn't looking where he was going, and tripped over someone crouched on the floor.

He looked back to see the culprit, who turned out to be Namie. She had a shocked look on her face, and was curled up, back against the wall. She had hardly even noticed him.

"...Namie-san?" he said, pushing himself off the floor.

Namie finally looked around. "Oh, hi Hotaru."

"What's up? Or in this case, I think the appropriate question would be what's down?" Hotaru said all of this with a straight face, like he wasn't trying to be funny at all. Namie shook her head.

Hotaru waited.

"Actually..."

There it was. He sat down beside her.

"I just heard something." Namie confessed.

"And...?"

"It was Michi-chan and Ishida-kun."

"Oh yeah...they... like each other, right?" Hotaru asked.

"And they just confessed. To each other." Namie said.

"And why... are you... shocked? Did you...like him?" Hotaru asked. His face expression never changed. That was because he had alexithymia, which is the inability to identify and express one's emotions. So his expression was always of the same innocence. But to make up for it, he was very clever.

"No, I did not!" Namie replied. "...but what about Hamasaki-kun?"

"Hmm..." Hotaru thought for sometime. "If I'm not wrong... he likes Iseri-san, right?" Then he looked at Namie. "You...worry about other people a lot." Hotaru always took time to place emotions, and he was very cautious when doing so, as if he was afraid to get it wrong. Namie was one of the very few people who had the patience to talk with him.

Namie suddenly started and gasped. "Michi-chan was supposed to meet Hamasaki-kun. They were supposed to walk around together." She suddenly stood up and went off.

"Why am I coming too?" he asked as he was dragged along.

"I need to check!" Namie said frantically, running ahead.

"Namie-san...how long have you been sitting there?" Hotaru asked her finally.

"I don't know, a while. I encountered them right after my duty was over." Namie responded.

"That was... half an hour ago." Hotaru said.

They stepped outside, and Hotaru wordlessly let himself be dragged along with Namie. She looked around, then spotted what she was looking for. She pulled Hotaru behind a stand, and they both peeked out.

Takiyo was sitting exactly where he was supposed to meet Michi. Only, he was alone. He sat there, not talking to anyone, not looking at anyone. He was waiting and waiting, for someone who would never come.

"Should we talk to him?" Namie asked, and Hotaru shrugged. Namie thought for some time, then said, "We should probably leave him alone. Not jump to conclusions."

Hotaru nodded. "Namie-san worries far too much... about problems that aren't hers."

"Namie~ What are you two doing?" Okemia stopped short at the sight of the two of them.

"Are you guys stalking somebody?" Ainu asked, looking them up and down.

"Actually–" Hotaru began, but Namie slapped his mouth shut.

"No." she answered plainly.

Okemia and Ainu thought. "Then what are you two doing? In this godforsaken place?" Okemia wondered aloud.

Ainu suddenly grinned and started to speak, "Okay, are you–"

"Okay we're on a date. Bye." Namie said nonchalantly, waving them off. Hotaru looked up at her.

"Wow... really?" Okemia looked satisfied. "Okay, Ainu, we should leave them alone. See ya~" She pulled Ainu away and Namie removed her hand from Hotaru's mouth.

"Are we... on a date?" Hotaru asked her.

"No."

"But... you told–"

"It's known as covering up your tracks." Namie replied sagely.

"Oh, I see." Hotaru nodded.

This is a pair of people between whom awkwardness does not exist.

"At any rate, let's go around!" Namie said happily. It's easy to mask your emotions in front of Hotaru. Or it should be. But he's clever.

"Namie-san is still worrying." he said plainly. It was annoying because you couldn't understand what he was feeling.

"Okay, okay, fine. We'll come back later. Later." Namie pretended as though she did not care and walked away. Hotaru comprehended the situation.

Oh, she said 'we'll come back'. Hotaru nodded to himself. In conclusion, she was still worrying. In his brain, it was like deriving the formula for kinetic energy.

But they only came back when everyone was walking towards the after-party. Takiyo was still sitting in the same place. But when they walked by, looking at him, he got up, and walked away in the opposite direction.

Michi had broken her promise for the the first time.

And she didn't just break one. She broke two.

***

"Hi, Hamasaki-kun." Namie said, approaching Takiyo the next morning.

Takiyo gave her a cold-hearted look, and then turned away. Namie was shaken by his cold look. Since she held the status as one of Michi's friends, Takiyo wouldn't be downright cold with her, but he still would be cold. But this was coldness to a whole new level.

Hotaru saw what Namie was doing and walked over too. Takiyo was indifferent towards him. Namie and Hotaru looked at each other. He was already going cold in his heart.

They do say love conquers all.

Author's note
I built far too up on side characters. I love side characters. Seriously, Namie and Hotaru are side characters but have enough potential to become main characters. I love them too much, and they pretty much only appear in this chapter T_T I need to make them EXIST more. I was just writing, and then I'm like BAM! Hotaru has alexithymia. I just love him too much, he's so precious. He is level 100 uwu.