A/N: Hope you guys are ready for this. I've got quite a few parts in this chapter that I love, and while I considered cutting it off at one of my favorites, I decided to continue on to finish where I did. Prepare yourselves~ Heh, just kidding. It's not that bad. Hope you enjoy the story! <3

P.S. So, I don’t really know high class japanese food, and was having issues finding out cause my internet kept failing on me. In the end I went with Japanese food I could find.

I was beginning to think that Mori might know more about me than I thought. The meal that he’d picked out was exactly what I would have wanted, and was surprisingly simple for the high class restaurant we were in. Beef Teriyaki, which meant that it was covered in a sweet soy sauce that made the meat practically melt in your mouth delicious. The silence that had followed my almost question, continued past when we got our meals delivered to us. My eyes kept straying back to his plate, which was some foreign cuisine that I doubt I could have named if I’d wanted to. Or at least, it looked foreign to me.

The only thing I could pick out were the noodles, and even then they were shaped rather strangely into half-circles and rather thick, looking like something was stuffed into them.

Eventually, the silence got to me.

“What are those?” I questioned, drawing his attention.

Mori paused, then finished the bite he’d just taken. A second later he studied his plate, then turned his eyes to mine with what seemed to be a bit of curiosity.

“You don’t know?”

A bit of irritation sprung up.

“If I did, I wouldn’t ask.”

“Gyoza,” he replied, not seeming to care about the tone my previous statement had taken.

“Oh.”

I dropped my eyes back down to my own plate and picked up a pepper between my chopsticks. Gyoza, the word sounded familiar…

“Nao-chan.”

Glancing back up from my plate, I was surprised to see Mori holding his chopsticks up, one of the noodle things pinched between them. I frowned a little, glancing between it and him, having a faint idea of what he was offering, but not wanting to guess and be wrong. My cheeks turned faintly pink at the thought.

“Here,” he added, seeing my expression. “Try it.”

I hesitated, glancing around us. I could feel my entire face heating up now, and was thankful to discover that while there were dozens of people within eyesight, all of them seemed more interested in their own business than that of those around them. I then took a deep breath and willed my blush to die down as I leaned forward. As soon as I had the gyoza in my mouth, I leaned away, turning my head to hide how red my face had become.

He didn’t say anything, obviously waiting for my assessment.

“It’s not bad,” I told him, although I’d barely even noticed the flavor. I was more caught up in the method I’d tried it. “It’s not sweet, but it’s not bad.”

When I chanced a glance in his direction, I found him watching his plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Interest peeked, I studied him a bit closer and discovered that, if I wasn’t wrong, there appeared to be the faintest hint of pink to his face as well.

Had the motion embarrassed him as much as it had me?

“I like teriyaki,” I commented, dropping my eyes as I took the bite I’d previously grabbed for myself.

“I thought so.”

“How’d you know?” I asked the moment that I’d swallowed. “You know a lot about me, how?”

I don’t talk about myself a lot. At the very most I answered questions when asked, that was about it. Perhaps he’d learned as I had, by observing? But how would something like that be obvious? I guess we had eaten enough meals together.

Mori shrugged, as much of a response as I was going to get, and we both returned to our meals. A short time later I was examining the dessert menu when Chie and Arai suddenly reappeared, Chie grinning and Arai as bright a shade of red as he could probably get.

“We just finished settling things with Arai’s mom,” Chie announced. “We’re good to go when you are. The movie starts soon, so it’d be a good idea...hey, did you even do anything remotely romantic? You two look like friends having dinner.”

I’d picked up my tea to finish the last of it, even if it tasted disgusting, and almost spit it back out with Chie’s words.

“We are friends!” I snapped.

“Yes, yes, of course you are,” Chie replied with a sigh. “Well, come on, why are you still sitting there?”

A few choice words muttered under my breath later, I found myself walking next to Mori as we trailed Chie and Arai out of the restaurant. I was actually pretty curious what they’d said to his mother, while being equally apprehensive about it, seeing as that as we were leaving she grinned and winked in our direction. I chose to believe that the action had been directed at her still tomato red son.

“What movie are we going to see?” I asked as we piled back into the car.

“A perfect movie for dates,” Chie replied cheerily. “A triller.”

“What?” I asked, with a deadpan expression in return.

“Chie-senpai…” Arai began, hesitation appearing. “Isn’t that a bit…”

She put an innocent look on her face as she turned her attention to Arai.

“Don’t you want to see me get scared and hide my eyes from the screen by clinging to you?” she questioned. “Think about it, wouldn’t that be perfect?”

Somehow, I highly doubted that Chie would be the one out of the two that would get frightened. Arai, not seeming to come to the same conclusion as me, turned red once again and nodded.

“A thriller is an amazing idea!”

“What kind of thriller?” I cut in.

Personally, I’d never been the movie type. When I did watch them, I’d never had a problem with the scary sort. Well, as long as it avoided the few things that appeared in those movies that I hated.

“Oh, you’ll see. I talked to your friends earlier to get a good idea of which to watch.”

Shit.

___________________

“No. Go to hell. I’m not going in that theater.”

“Come on Nao-chan~ Don’t tell me you’re afraid of spiders!”

“Go to hell. Now. I don’t care. I’m not going in there. You can’t make me.”

Snickering, Chie latched onto my arm and attempted dragging me towards the door that lead into the room we were supposed to be watching the movie in.

“Come on~ That’s so silly. You’re not afraid of anything, so why can’t you come watch?”

“Let go!” I hissed, jerking my arm away.

“I see, you just don’t want to be in a dark theater with Mori. I didn’t know that y-”

“Shut up! I’m coming, just shut your mouth!”

“Sure~Sure~”

Mori cast a questioning look in my direction, reminding me that I’d actually told him once that I was frightened of spiders, snakes, and all of those creepy, unnatural creatures. In response to the questioning look, I simply shook my head and reluctantly followed Chie into the theater. Once inside, I glanced around, noting the lack of other people.

“Must be a horrible movie if no one else is coming to see it,” I announced. “We should leave and watch something else.”

“Nonsense, we just rented out the theater, that’s all.”

Dammit.

Chie pursed her lips, glancing around the dimly lit theater before making a decision.

“I want to sit in the front row.”

“No,” I retorted immediately. “I hate sitting there.”

“Then sit somewhere else~ We have the whole theater,” she replied, gripping Arai’s arm and tugging him down to the front. “Arai and I will sit up here.”

“Chie-senpai!” Arai complained. “You’re going to ruin your eyes sitting up here.”

“Oh, shush, I already ruined them, so making them worse doesn’t matter. You know I wear contacts, right?”

“No, I didn’t,  and that’s no excuse!”

“Shush, we’re sitting up here.”

Turning my attention away from them, I focused on Mori. Offering a sheepish smile, I gestured towards the seats.

“Where do you want to sit?”

He frowned, studying the seats, before pointing to the top. I nodded my agreement and carefully made my way up the stairs. After we’d seated ourselves in the center of the top row, I began focusing on getting myself to relax. When you combined the focus of the sci-fi thriller movie, the dimly lit theater, and the annoying anticipation to the start of the film, I found this effort rather difficult.

“I’m here.”

I blinked, glancing in Mori’s direction.

“What?”

I couldn’t quite make out his expression, seeing as the lights in the theater began to dim even further at that moment. He cocked his head in my direction and I strained to at least catch a bit of his expression.

“Don’t be scared.”

I opened my mouth to say something, and when I found myself at a lack for words, shut it again. Instead I simply smiled and turned my attention to the screen which soon began showing the previews.

Despite his words, however, when the film began showing giant spiders and screaming people, I found myself shrinking back in my chair and forming fists with my hands.

I’m not even sure if there was an actual plot behind the movie, I was having such problems focusing. At some point, I shut my eyes, and suddenly felt something touch my hand. I was close to screaming when I realized that a spider couldn’t pull my hand into the air. Peeking my eyes open, I found Mori placing my hand on top of one of his, and he slowly managed to get it to relax and flatten out of the fist I’d formed. I chanced a glance back at the screen to hide my blush and cursed my luck to find the screen entirely filled with a close up of the main creature thing.

I flinched back into my seat, my hand instantly clenching in his once again. His hand tensed slightly beneath mine, then I felt him pull one of his hands away and I blinked open my eyes, which I hadn’t even realized I shut. Without a word, much like the previous action, Mori used that single hand to tug me closer, which I had no problems with. Chie’s earlier words flashed through my mind as I hid my eyes against him.

My initial thought was that he smelled nice.

My second was embarrassment that I’d actually done something that I’d only read about girls doing. Hiding their face in their crushes’ c-

Wait, no. What was I thinking?

I shook my head, attempting to dismiss the idea, which only further buried my face in his tux. The scent of his cologne was enough to distract me for a moment. What sort of cologne did Mori like? Which brand was his favorite? Did he wear it all the time?

There were so many things I didn’t know.

I hate not knowing. How was I supposed to learn, however? It’d be creepy to ask questions like that. I didn’t have a good reason to ask him anything along those lines. Plus, what would he think knowing that when I was hiding from the movie I was focusing on what he smelled like? It’d be strange, wouldn’t it?

I stayed like that throughout the rest of the movie, until the creature was finally destroyed. Why it took so long for them to burn the freaking spider, I’ll never know. I didn’t really care, either, as long as the thing was dead and I didn’t have to look at it any longer.

“Nao-chan.”

At Mori’s amused voice, I quickly pulled away from his chest and jumped to my feet. Luckily, Chie was too busy teasing Arai to have noticed the position that Mori and I had been in. A second later, he stood as well and we made our way down to where Chie and Arai stood waiting for us.

“We’re going to go get ice-cream, alone, as a nice finishing touch to the date,” Chie declared. “You can take the car, I’ll call for my driver when Arai and I are finished. That vehicle is Mori’s anyways, isn’t it?”

Mori nodded and Chie offered a bright smile.

“Perfect!”

Before I even had a chance to protest being left alone, Chie was dragging Arai out of the theater, despite his protests that he should at least get to say goodbye.

Which left Mori and I alone.

Again.

Great.

“Ice-cream?”

I blinked, turning my attention to Mori. There was a questioning look on his face, which I could actually make out seeing as the lights had gone from off back to dim now that the movie was over. It only took me a second to realize he was asking if I wanted to get some as well. Hesitation swept through me and I looked around the theater, hoping to spot a clock. When I didn’t, I sighed, deciding I might as well agree seeing as he probably knew what I wanted to say.

“Sure.”

With that barely there smile of his, which while being neat wasn’t breathtaking like when he gave a full-out smile, he turned and lead the way out of the theater, then out of the building itself. When we were outside, I paused and glanced around the darkening streets.

“Where do you want to get it?” I asked, pursing my lips thoughtfully.

Despite how long I’d been in this town, I hadn’t learned all of the treat shops like I’d known before moving. My uncle wouldn’t have approved.

I wonder if he’d approve when it was Mori taking me? Knowing him, he’d probably even suggest where to go in that case. I bet he’d actually smile at me if I told him about this date, which I wasn’t about to do. It’d been Chie’s idea, he’d think there was more to it than there really was.

“I don’t know,” Mori answered truthfully.

“Let’s just walk?” I suggested after a moment’s thought. “If we don’t find a place you can always call your driver to pick us up.”

Nodding his agreement, Mori stepped over to where the driver was waiting for us. A few words later and we were walking down the street, his driver had even suggested a place that he’d seen once upon a time, although he wasn’t certain if it still existed. While we walked, I turned my eyes up towards the sky, noting the very faint hint of stars that were trying to peek out past the city lights as well as the bit of the sun that was still in place.

“Do you like stars?”

Surprised, I dropped my gaze to Mori. Giving the question a bit of thought, I shrugged after coming to a decision.

“I don’t like, or dislike, them really, I just don’t get to see them very often anymore,” I informed him. “I thought it might be nice to spot some.”

Realization crossed his face as he tilted his head upwards as well.

“Right, you used to live in a more rural area.”

Yet another thing he knew about me that I had to wonder about how. Perhaps he and Honey had looked up some of my older interviews when they’d come up with me the competing again idea. As it was, those should have been hard to track down. Even I only have a few copies of articles my mother had cut out.

“It’s one of those things you don’t know you’ll miss until you don’t have it anymore,” I replied, turning my eyes from him to the buildings around us.

“There are a lot of things like that.”

“Yeah.”

As we wandered down the street, the little bit of sun that had been left completely died away. When I was certain that we’d passed where his driver said that the ice-cream shop should be, I paused and studied the streets around us.

“Dd we pass it?” I wondered aloud.

“No.”

Mori, seeming to come to the same conclusion as I had, stopped beside me. After a long moment, he turned around, the light of one of the streetlamps just barely revealing the frown on his face.

“We’re not lost,” I announced before he could say a word. “Don’t you dare say we are, because we aren’t.”

That frown twisted into amusement.

“Let’s go this way,” I continued, starting down the road in the direction we’d already been headed. “We’ll find it, it was probably my imagination that we’ve already gone to far.”

Seeming to decide not to argue what would probably be the logical side, Mori trailed after me. Only a few minutes after that, we somehow managed to go from a half-well lit street to one that had maybe one street-light for the entire block. Sticking closer to Mori, I stopped walking once again and glanced around, trying to catch sight of a street sign.

“We’re not lost…”

“We’re almost there,” Mori replied, starting forward once again.

Pleasantly surprised, I found myself being the one to trail behind him this time.

“You recognize this street?”

“I do. Mitsukuni and I were attacked on it once.”

I stopped dead.

“Attacked?!”

He glanced at me over his shoulder.

“Mitsukuni and I knocked most of them out. The others surrendered and begged forgiveness.”

“... oh.”

Despite the reassuring, matter-of-fact tone he was using, I found myself hurrying forward so I could catch up with him. As a result, much to my stupidity and the lack of light, I missed the step down from the side-walk to the street when Mori began to switch sides. A gasp of surprise left my lips as I stumbled, catching my heel in the street drain. Even Mori’s quick reaction speed couldn’t keep me from falling backwards, twisting my ankle and my body in different directions.

At least I was in black. Imagine what falling in the street could have done to a white dress. I would have died of humiliation.

“Nao-chan, are you alright?”

I nodded, then winced as I attempted to stand. Luckily, Mori caught my arm, meaning I didn’t fall back down again. At his concerned look, I internally ridiculed myself.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. It’s as if I’m cursed to injure myself around him.

“You’re hurt,” he commented, obviously dismissing my answer to his question.

I scowled. Why was it whenever something like this happened, it seemed as if no matter what I said, not a word registered in his head?

“I’m fine,” I grumbled. “Just… give me a second.”

Pushing myself away from him, I hesitantly tested my ankle, biting my lip to keep a hiss of pain escaping. Despite it being what caused this, I couldn’t help but feel grateful for the darkness. As long as this distance was kept between us, he wouldn’t see whatever expression I was currently wearing.

“I can walk. You said you know where the ice cream place is from here?” I continued, keeping my voice even.

I heard him sigh and was startled enough that I turned to face him.

“You’re not walking.”

“I am!”

“You’re not.”

“I am, and you can’t stop me,” I snapped.

“No,” he replied calmly. “I could, but I won’t. Why not just rely on someone else?”

“I don’t need to.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

He was silent, then turned around. For a moment I thought he was going to leave, that I’d upset him, but he simply knelt, down, holding his arms behind him in my direction. My face heated up as I stubbornly stood in place.

“Everyone needs help sometimes.”

I didn’t move right away, glaring in his direction with my arms crossed over my chest. My weight was balanced mainly on my good foot, my ankle throbbing from my attempt at walking. At least I knew it probably wasn’t anything worse than a simple twist, I’d hurt myself enough dancing to be able to tell the difference. Still… I also knew that walking on it wasn’t the best idea in the world, even if I was attempting to insist on doing it. Pushing my pride aside, as hard as it was, I slowly hobbled forward and wrapped both my good arm and my casted one around his neck.

I could practically feel his approval as he tucked his arms around my legs and stood. It was an effortless movement, as if I weighed nothing. The reason why he managed it so easily was obvious to me, I could feel his muscles moving as I held myself close. I wasn’t about to risk falling, yet it was the awareness of each of his movements as he began walking that made me realize just how close we were to each other in this position. I could feel my cheeks heating up, and despite myself I hid my face against his back when I realized we’d reached a well lit area, which meant that we were near the shop.

If it couldn’t be blamed on an overactive imagination on my part, it felt as if with that simple movement Mori tensed, holding my legs just slightly tighter than before. Was all of this effecting him as well? It seemed unlikely, but this wasn’t the first event that made that idea occur to me.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be a horrible idea to voice what had occurred to me. The answers to all of the questions I’d been holding for some time, that while seeming as impossible as the reactions from him that I thought I’d been seeing, might be worth mentioning.

I took a deep breath.

“Takashi-kun?”

He didn’t say anything and I took his silence as an okay to continue.

“Takashi-kun... “ I continued as he released one of my legs to tug open the door into the shop. “I think I might-”

“Hello!” a cheery voice called out. “We don’t see many young couples at this time of night, normally. Are you two on a date?”

It was as if the world was working against me.

“Yes,” was Mori’s simple response.

The girl began to gush something about how that was so cute as Mori stepped over to a nearby table and turned so that he could deposit me in one of the chairs. Embarrassed, and perhaps slightly disappointed and irritated, I silently watched as he began taking care of our orders, quietly turning to me when it came to what I wanted.

No way was I getting the courage to ask try that question again.

____________________________________

“I have to go to lunch with my uncle tomorrow, but I’ll be back in time for club hours. If it’s alright, we can head to your house for practice after that. This is just a twist, I’ll probably be fine by then.”

Mori nodded as the car rolled to a stop at the end of my drive. I was about to open my door when he caught my arm with his hand and gave me a disapproving look. Sighing, I released the handle and sat back, waiting for him to get out and come around to my side. By the time my door was open and he held out a hand to help me up, I had a wry smile on my face.

“I feel like… a princess,” I decided. “With you being the charming knight assigned to protect me, who also makes sure I don’t do anything for myself.”

His amused smile was all I needed to know that saying that aloud had been worth it. The second I’d balanced myself using the door, he slipped an arm over my shoulder, and I awkwardly gripped onto his with my good hand. Awkward being the key word, trying to support yourself using a guy a lot taller than you is pretty hard to do. I couldn’t just slip my arm over his shoulder. At the same time, Ren was supposed to get back today. I wasn’t going to allow myself to be carried to the door on the off chance that he saw me. I’d explained as such to Mori, and he reluctantly gave in. I guess his bad opinion of the ass hadn’t completely disappeared.

It took a little longer than the other option would have taken, but we eventually reached the door. As I released his shoulder, I reached for the door handle to balance myself with.

“... earlier...” Mori commented after an awkward moment’s silence.

I flinched.

“That…”

“You started twice,” he prompted.

“...yeah.”

Silence fell again.

I fidgeted, mulling the idea over in my mind.

I’d been willing to say it earlier. Nothing had changed between now and then except for the setting. I should be able to say it now.

“Takashi-kun… I… wanted to say…”

The porchlight showed me his patient expression. Earlier, on his back, I didn’t have to look at him. That had changed.

“...”

How was I supposed to finish that sentence when he was looking straight at me? It felt hard to breathe, let alone speak. My heart felt as if it would burst from my chest.

The arm that was over my shoulder shifted, his hand moving to the top of my head. It felt as if fire was sparking from that one point.

How was I supposed to speak?

“...I…”

His lips twisted up faintly, the expression on his face one that I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t just a small twist of emotion that was difficult to read, it was a full out expression that was impossible to deciefer.

I’d turned to face him, but my hand was still on the door. I adjusted the doorknob behind me, ready to escape if my frayed nerves demanded it. The words were there, but I couldn’t get them out. It was different when he was looking at me. It was different when it seemed as if he knew what I wanted to say.

It was different when all I could think of was how his hand slipped down from the top of my head to the side of my face, pressing my hair lightly against my cheek. I could feel how it’d hardened slightly from whatever Chie had stuck in it earlier. It itched, but I wasn’t about to reach up and move his hand so I could fix that.

“...I… I can’t.”

“Nao.”

I spun around, nearly falling as I jerked the door open. His hand fell from my face and I could finally take a breath.

“I had a nice night. See you tomorrow, Takashi-kun.”

I didn’t wait for his response, I stumbled in the door and quickly pulled it shut behind me. The second I was certain it was closed, I relaxed against it.

My face felt like it was on fire.

The expression in his face…

The touch of his hand…

How close he’d been…

“Kami.”

My heart couldn’t, or woudln’t, calm down.

“Ah, Nao-kun, I thought it was your voice I heard. Hot date?”

My eyes had almost fallen shut as I’d tried to calm my heart, but now they snapped open to focus on the figure sitting in the middle of the hall, tugging off his shoes. If anything, my face only felt hotter. I couldn’t imagine how red it must have been by this point.

“R-ren-kun.”

He rose a brow.

“I thought I was Kimura-san to you? What a nice surprise.”

Ignoring his sarcasm, I studied him, trying to decide how much he’d heard. Ren was actually dressed rather nice, his hair combed instead of fixed in some messy style, his clothing consisting of a nice tux similar to what Mori had been wearing. His sunglasses were missing for once, and his cheek a nice shade of purplish-blue.

Well, if you took out the last part, he looked nice.

“What about you? Piss some girl off?” I retorted, attempting to keep my voice even.

He didn’t look like he’d heard anything.

Instead of responding, Ren scowled, tossing his shoe to the ground.

“Girls are a bunch of temperamental brats. Who the hell would teach one to throw a punch?”

I couldn’t help it, I actually laughed despite everything that had just happened.

“I’m a girl.”

He blinked, focusing on me.

“Point made,” Ren retorted, then paused before continuing. “Although, I’ve never actually thought of you as a girl after learning your true personality.”

“Go to hell.”

He chuckled, but put his hand up against the wall when I attempted to make my way by. Thankfully, my ankle didn’t complain as much by this point when I put weight on it, so at least he couldn’t have stopped me because he’d noticed that.

“Hey, you are a girl, though, right?” he asked.

“... you really do enjoy insulting me, don’t you?”

Rolling his eyes, Ren put on a serious face I hadn’t seen before.

“What do girls like on first dates? Like… what sort of gift would you give one?”

“What, the ladies’ man hasn’t been on a first date before? Shouldn’t you know this by now?”

He sighed, giving me an annoyed look.

“Of course I’ve been on a date, but this is im- nevermind, I shouldn’t have asked you.”

He dropped his hand and looked away, despite that I could make how tense he was. Feeling a bit guilty, I gave in. He’d at least managed to distract me from the fact that I probably just screwed up my first date in a long time with how I’d ended that.

“Don’t piss her off enough that she’ll punch you again,” I informed him. “And get her flowers. She’d probably like that.”

Ren wrinkled his nose.

“She’d hit me even if I didn’t piss her off.”

“So there is a girl.”

“Where you just on a date with Morinozuka-kun?”

“Hint taken,” I snapped. “Although, I thought you were meeting your father about something, how did that turn into getting punched by a girl?”

“Are you two dating now?”

“Fine! I’ll go. Asshole.”

“Hm… nice to see you too, Nao-kun.”

Grumbling under my breath, I quickly made my way back to my room. Well, as quickly as I could while being sure that I wasn’t stressing my ankle. When I’d made it inside, I was startled to discover a little ball of fur with his head tucked under my bed.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

When I reached down to pull him back, he yipped and released whatever he’d had ahold of. When the greeting excitement he immediately displayed had died down, I braced my hand against the top of my bed and reached down to see what he’d head hold off.

“Aki! You can’t touch this. Ever.”

The item he’d been chewing on wasn’t clothing like I thought i might have been, but the corner of a box. Tugging it out from under the bed, I decided there hadn’t been any lasting damage. Which was a relief, considering what exactly it was. Dropping the box on my bed, I pulled it open, lightly skimming the family photos on top with my eyes. I flipped them to the side almost immediately, even if it’d been a year, I still couldn’t handle them.

I’d almost confessed to Mori.

Confessed?

My face heated up as the thought burst into my mind. It seemed that even if I tried to ignore what had just happened, it’d find me anyways.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the discs sitting in the bottom. If I was going to compete, maybe it’d be worth watching my old videos. Pulling out my favorite, I turned my attention to setting up my T.V. that sat in the corner of my room. It was a disc from quite some time ago, my second competition. The reason it was my favorite was simple, I didn’t actually have any solid memories of the event.

I’d fallen off of the playset at home later that week, while there wasn’t any horrible damage from the concussion it’d given me, it had made the events of the week rather fuzzy, including the competition.

When I got the disc playing, I pulled up the information I knew of the tournament in my mind. It’d been hosted by a family, in this town actually. One of my old dance friend’s mother’s had been in charge. The reason I’d gotten invited was because my family had connections to one of the special judges.

It’d been fun. My eyes followed the younger me as I stepped through what now seemed like an extremely simple dance, but had seemed so difficult back then. Despite how fun the video was to watch, usually, I found it difficult to focus.

How was I supposed to face him tomorrow?

Would he be upset I’d shut the door in his face? I would be if someone had done it to me.

“That was such a pretty dance.”

My attention snapped to the screen with that voice, although I wasn’t sure why. The woman that was speaking was knelt down slightly, a bright smile on her face. The younger me grinned, then stared at something behind her.

“Who’s that?”

The woman’s eyes widened slightly and she stepped to the side.

“Oh, him? This is my son.”

I stared at the figure that came into view.

That was impossible.

“Say hello, Takashi.”