Archive of Our Own

“Yusaku, can I ask you something?”

A voice from behind him quietly sounded out, and he turned in surprise, before recognising the person who posed the question. Aoi was standing behind him, looking somewhat in his direction, but not entirely. She was clenching her skirt, as if struggling to say something.

Yusaku hadn’t ever seen her like this before. If someone were to force a response from him, he would admit that she looked kind of cute. “What is it?”

“Well, it’s just…” She took a breath, trying to compose herself. “I was going to go to the shopping complex on the weekend, and I was wondering…” A few more deep breaths, and her fists clenched tighter, as if she wanted to say something but was having difficulty actually forming the words. She bit her lip, and then the words tumbled out all at once. “I was wondering if you wanted to come along for the day?”

Yusaku was taken aback by the question. That certainly hadn’t been what he’d expected. Naturally, he opened his mouth to refuse, but stopped. She’d clearly gone to a great amount of effort to even ask him the question, despite knowing him well enough to understand that he would probably refuse. Besides, it wasn’t like he had any plans. And he’d never really spent time doing anything without an express purpose. All good points as to why he should accept.

But the most inexplicable, important point that was running around in his head? For some reason, he knew she would be disappointed if he refused, and he didn’t want to see her like that. He couldn’t just accept it indifferently, either.

So he gave her a small smile, and nodded. “Sure, I’ll come along.”

Obviously, by the way her head snapped to look at him with wide eyes, she hadn’t expected him to say yes. After a few, silent moments, she gave a radiant smile, and the hands that clenched at her sides relaxed, releasing her skirt from their grip. Yusaku’s heart began to beat a little faster when he saw her like this.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times, before she spoke in a cheerful tone. “That’s great! I’ll see you at the station on Saturday, then!” With that said, she rushed past him, giddy with unsuppressed happiness.

Yusaku watched her as she left his sight, stunned. Why was she so happy to see him accept? The gears in his mind slowly turned, and then he went red as it began to click. Had she just asked him on a date? Had he just accepted?

He shook his head. No, surely not. It’s not a date.

But still, he felt inexplicably happy at the prospect of seeing her on the weekend.

“It’s not a date.” He mumbled, staring at the coffee on the table in front of him.

Shoichi’s head poked out from the van. “Did you say something, Yusaku?”

Yusaku shook his head, but didn’t dare to look back at the man. “No, nothing.” He hoped he wasn’t blushing. He couldn’t stop thinking about the invitation he’d received yesterday. He’d seen Aoi a few times today, never interacting but spying her from across the halls, and she looked a lot more upbeat than usual.

He stood up from his seat, waving an arm in farewell. “I’m going to head home, message me if something comes up.”

He could feel Shoichi staring at his back, obviously confused at his actions. Usually he would stick around for hours.

It’s not a date, he thought, staring agonisingly at his drawers as uniform after uniform stared back. He didn’t have any casual clothes. He’d never needed them. But it wasn’t a date, so it wouldn’t matter, right?

He turned away from the drawers, picking up his wallet from where he’d discarded it on his bed and heading for the door, talking to himself.

“I need some new clothes.”

Aoi liked blue, right?

It’s not a date, he repeated to himself, making his way slowly towards the station where he knew Aoi would be waiting. His face felt weird, so he raised his hand to touch it. Oh. He was smiling? It made sense, though. There was some sort of expectant happiness inside him, as if he couldn’t wait to meet up with her.

He saw her, and stopped. She was standing in front of the station, looking around as if waiting for someone. No, he had to remind himself. She was waiting for him. He could only stare, dumbstruck, as he began to feel underdressed. She was wearing a sky blue dress, and there were three armbands on her right arm, spaced evenly and coloured in blues that got deeper and deeper on each ring.

In comparison, all he was wearing was a shirt that contained three different blues, in large, diagonal stripes to give off a somewhat appealing impression, and some black cargo pants, which he’d casually grabbed off the rack, thinking they looked neat. At least, he hoped the shirt looked appealing. He never paid attention to fashion.

“Yusaku!” A hand waved in front of his face, and he stepped back, giving a startled shout as he realised that she was standing right in front of him. Aoi giggled, the sound alone making him feel comfortable around her.

He struggled to form words of greeting, standing there gaping for a moment as they stared at each other. He settled for something simple. “Aoi.”

She grabbed his hand, pulling at it as he instinctively followed, brain still trying to catch up. “The train leaves in five minutes, so we should hurry.”

Her words snapped him out of his stupor, and he nodded as they both sped up to a run.

They barely made the train, both panting in exhaustion before making their way to an empty spot to sit down.

Yusaku found himself already having fun. After recovering, they engaged in small talk. It was something Yusaku had never done before, but he tried, for her sake.

It’s not a date. Yusaku was made to watch as Aoi tried on different sets of clothing, asking for his opinion on each one. It definitely was not a date. His heart was not beating faster than it ever had before.

She forced him to at least try on some clothing, so they made their way to the men’s section, looking through the shirts. He spotted one that immediately took his interest, snatching it off the rack and refusing to show it to her when she asked what it was. The pout she gave in return was somewhat adorable, but he didn’t relent, instead letting her follow as they made their way back to the changing rooms.

She hit his arm the moment he came out of the room. Naturally, it was because the shirt he was wearing had a depiction of Blue Angel on it.

He finally cracked, doubling over laughing for the first time in forever. Before she could hit him again, he ducked back into the changing room, putting his original shirt back on. She tried to get him to leave the Blue Angel shirt behind.

He didn’t.

It’s not a date. He was not enjoying the movie that they were watching together. Okay, that was a lie. He was enjoying the movie. It still didn’t mean it was a date.

She was definitely not holding his hand during some of the more tense moments. And he was definitely not happy with the fact that she was. Okay, that was a lie. He was happy about it.

His resolve was definitely crumbling. He could tell.

It was late in the afternoon when the movie finished, and seeing Aoi’s tired state, he asked if she wanted to go home. She tried to refuse, but yawned, so he forestalled her, making the decision to bring her home anyway.

They made their way to the station closest to the complex, taking the first train they could back to the station they had began their journey at.

She fell asleep on his shoulder, a small, tired smile on her face. It was slightly uncomfortable, but he didn’t mind. He made sure not to move, so as to avoid waking her up before they reached their stop.

She was rested enough to be coherent, so they went to a restaurant for dinner to finish off the night. On the way, he asked her why she was so tired. Blushing, she told him that she was so excited for the day that she wasn’t able to get to sleep until early in the morning.

They both focused on their food, not really making much conversation. Yusaku kept going through the events of the day in his head. Trying over and over to convince himself that it wasn’t a date.

He walked her home, making sure that she made it in her exhaustion.

It wasn’t a date, he reminded himself as they walked through the doors of the towering building that contained her home. They stopped in the lobby, preparing to part ways.

“Thanks for today, Yusaku. It was really fun.” There was a hint of a sad tone in her voice, but Yusaku wasn’t quite sure why.

“Yeah. I’ll see you at school on Monday.” Something was wrong. He felt as if something was about to slip out of his grasp. He looked at Aoi’s face, right as she turned away. Were those… tears?

She began to walk away, raising a hand to her face and rubbing her eyes. Yusaku’s heart wrenched. He couldn’t just let her walk away like that. He finally realised.

“Aoi!” He called out to her right as she called for the elevator, and she turned back to look at him. His throat went dry as he saw the tears on her face. His mouth opened and closed a few times, the words refusing to come out.

The elevator arrived, and Aoi, seeing his silence, turned back to it, ready to step in. It was the final straw. He couldn’t let her just leave like this. The words finally began to come out.

“Would you…” Hearing him speak, she stopped. She didn’t look back, but she stopped. There was a chance. He gave a few more breaths. This was difficult. “Would you like to…” She looked back, and even at this distance, he could see a hopeful look on her face. “Go out… again… sometime?”

He stared at her after finishing the agonisingly difficult sentence. She stared back. She took a step. Not towards the elevator. Towards him. Step by step, she came closer to him, reaching out and embracing him with a smile.

A whisper reached his ear. “I’d love that.”

He gave his own smile, filled with remorse. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realise.”

“It’s fine, that doesn’t matter now.”

She released him, and then kissed him on the cheek, finally making her way back to the elevator. She still had tears on her face, but this time, she was genuinely smiling, and he could tell that the tears were out of happiness instead.

It wasn’t a date.

Okay, that was a lie.

It was definitely a date. Their first date. Hopefully, the first of many.