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“Hey, Kanon…”
“Yes, Misaki-chan?”
The two of them were facing each other, standing at an empty park that were familiar to the two of them. The red sky was a sign of how late it has gotten, but for some reason, Misaki dragged Kanon here right after their band’s practice, regardless of the time. During the time they spent coming here, Misaki didn’t mutter a single word till now. Kanon was confused, but at the same time curious about Misaki’s actions.
As she waited for Misaki to continue her words, she could tell that Misaki’s face looked flushed. She wondered if it was due to the light outside making it seem that way, or if it was really Misaki herself. But before she could get any further with her thoughts, Misaki spoke out.
“You know… Kanon, I… L-”
“L-?” Kanon repeats Misaki’s word as she tilts her head to the side.
No, Please don’t say it.
“L…”
PLEASE, DON'T SAY IT.
“I love you, please go out with me!” With a big bow, Misaki sounded her feelings towards Kanon. Her embarrassment couldn’t help but show on her face, and she was trying to hide that away from Kanon. Regardless, Kanon was shocked. Tears of what seems to be joy, formed at the corner of her eyes. Her body shaking as she tries give her reply.
“I…”
DON’T SAY ANYTHING!
“I love you too, Misaki-chan.”
“Kanon!”
In an instant, Chisato shot up from her bed, sitting there as she tried to calm her heavy breathing. Her face looked pale as if she had seen a ghost. Without realising it herself, tears were starting to drop down onto her bed.
“...Was it just a nightmare?” Chisato mumbled out loud as she wiped at her eyes. .
Yeah, it couldn’t have been real, right? This is Kanon that we’re talking about here. There’s no way something like that could have happened… Chisato reassured herself in her mind, but her body reacted differently. She reached out for her phone and immediately tried to contact Kanon. She still wasn’t thinking straight when she did that, so when the call connected, she didn’t know what to say to Kanon. All she knew was that she wanted to hear Kanon’s voice.
“Hello, Chisato-chan?”
She sat there in silence, trying to figure out what to say to her.
“Chisato-chan?” Kanon was starting to sound concerned. “Are you there?”
In that moment, she finally figured out what to say, or rather, to do.
“Hey, Kanon. Are you free this afternoon?”
“Hmm? If it’s after band practice, then I’m free.”
“That’s good enough. Can I see you after your band practice?”
“Sure… But why?”
“Well…” She tries to come up with a valid reason, but without it even being a second, she gave up and added, “You’ll see why.”
Kanon thought that Chisato was acting a little strange, but she didn’t really pay any particular attention to Chisato’s behavior and accepted her request.
After some small talk between the two of them, they finally ended the call.
Chisato’s face seemed calm as she stood up from her bed to get ready for her own band practice later this morning, but her heart wasn’t even close to being calm. It was as if her heart was about to explode from the thought of what she’s going to do this afternoon.
Regardless, she went on with her preparations as she tries to keep her thoughts at the back of her mind so that it wouldn’t distract her. Right when she finished her preparations though, she received a text from Kaoru.
“Ah, my little kitten, would you care to accompany me on a walk on this fine morning?”
Without even taking a second to process her words, she wrote back her reply. Her mood slightly sour from both her nightmare, as well as from imagining Kaoru’s face saying that.
“I have band practice. Also, could you please not talk like that when we’re talking with each other?”
“Sorry. If morning isn’t good for you, then is this afternoon fine? After my band practice that is.”
“I have something to do this afternoon, so that’s not possible. Is there something you need me for?”
“I guess so, I have something to talk about with you. However, I want to see my little kitten’s face as I do. I won’t take long, so fear not.”
Chisato was starting to feel annoyed from imagining Kaoru’s stupid prince-like face and gesture saying that. But she decided to calm herself before replying back.
“...Didn’t I tell you not to talk like that? Anyways, if you really want to, I guess we can meet up an hour before you start your band practice. It’s going to be at CiRCLE, right?”
“It will be there, yes. I have no problems with that time too.”
“I’ll meet you there then.” With her final reply, she placed her phone into her pocket, grabbed her bass, and left her room, heading to the studio for practice.
Chisato had a problem. She had known Kanon for a while now, back in middle school, and they’ve been best friends ever since. But recently, something was starting to bother her. Lately, all she could think about was Kanon and how she wanted to see her more often. She also noticed that Kanon was changing, and that change could be attributed to the fact that she joined Hello, Happy World!
She was happy that Kanon is slowly and ever so surely changing herself for the better, and that, as a friend, seems to be an obvious feeling to have. But a part of her felt strange, or rather, scared. Scared that this change would lead Kanon to go further away from her. The times when she could see Kanon shrunk until she could only see her in school, the moments where they hung out became less frequent and their time together in general seemed to be dropping. Sure, some of that was due to how busy she was herself, but compared to before Kanon joined her band, there was a noticeable difference in the time they spent together.
And to make her even more scared, Kanon seemed to be getting closer to Misaki, her band member. Whenever she saw the two of them talking to each other, she couldn’t help but feel a pain in her chest. It had been happening for a while now whenever Kanon was talking to someone else, but when she was talking to Misaki, that was when it hurts the most.
She was almost going crazy with that strange feeling in her chest, but when she had that dream, everything became clear to her in an instant.
I… love Kanon.
That realization made her feel like a huge load had been lifted off her chest. She was relieved that she finally managed to figure out the reason behind that strange feeling, and was happy about it.
But that realization also brought in more problems. Her thoughts back then when she called Kanon were still a mess due to that dream, so when she thought of confessing to her before Misaki could after their band practise, she went straight for it.
Now that her mind had calmed down a bit more though, she was starting to worry. What if she gets rejected? Or worse, what if Misaki and Kanon were already together as a couple, and she was the only one who didn’t know about it? The thing she feared most was that the result of her confessing to Kanon would lead to them having an awkward distance between each other if Kanon rejected her.
But it wasn’t as if she told Kanon that she was going to confess right? She could just hog Kanon all to herself for that afternoon so that the events from her dream wouldn’t happen in real life. And besides, that was only a dream so it wasn’t as if it was going to happen in real life. So why was she so scared at the thought of it ever happening?
That question was something she could answer with just one simple sentence.
Because I don’t want to lose her to anyone else.
As soon as her band practice ended, Chisato decided to head on over to CiRCLE to meet Kaoru to listen to what she had to say, as well as to see Kanon’s face before her confession. When the two of them sat down at the Cafe right outside of the Live House, Chisato asked Kaoru a question before she could even say anything.
“Has Kanon arrived yet?”
“The little kitten? No… In fact, she said that she was going to arrive a little later than usual.”
“Hmm? Has she told you the reason why?”
“She said she has something to do with Misaki so they might be late. Anyways, Chisato-”
At that moment, Chisato’s heart dropped. In an instant, the nightmare that she had popped up in her head, with her feeling hopeless as she sees that scene replay over and over again. The thing that she never thought could happen, which was for the events of her dream to take place earlier than it was in her dreams, was starting to feel unbelievably possible. It felt as if someone took a spiked bat and swung it hard right at Chisato’s heart when she thought that they might be in the middle of confessing to each other. Tears began form at the corner of her eyes before she realised what she had to do instead of sitting here, crying about it. Cutting Kaoru off, she stood up from her chair and asked in a hurry.
“Do you know where they are?”
“No… They didn’t tell me that much. Why?”
“Nothing. Anyways, something just came up so I’ll see you later, sorry!”
And that moment, she took off running. Kaoru’s surprised voice could be heard in the distance, but at that time, Chisato was already far enough for her not to be able to hear it clearly.
Chisato wasn’t anywhere close to athletic, but when that nightmare she had replayed in her head over and over again, she bit her tongue and forced herself to run faster, even faster to the point where she couldn’t feel her legs anymore.
The tears ran down her cheeks as she continued running, heading towards that park in her dream. That park was a place she knew well, as she and Kaoru used to spend a lot of time playing there when they were younger. It was also the spot where she and Kanon would meet up before heading out somewhere together. It wasn’t that far from their homes too, so it was a really convenient place.
But from where she is now, it’s close to almost 30 minutes away, walking. Memories of her time with Kanon flashed by as she continued to run. All the fun times they had, the sad times they went through together, that time Kanon tried to give Chisato a surprise birthday party, only to get lost on the way to her home and lose valuable time to set everything up resulting in Chisato finding out about it, the moments where she comforted Kanon when she didn’t know what to about her drumming, all of that flashed by her as she continued running.
She could tell that she was starting to get tired by the time she reached the halfway point of the whole distance to the park, but she kept forcing herself to run. She was so tired in fact, that she managed to trip and bruise her knee not long after she passed by the busy town into the neighborhood where the park is.
She wanted to stop running due to the pain. That small part of her wanted to give up. She even saw that her knee was starting to bleed pretty badly. But when the thought of losing Kanon flashed by in her mind, she stopped that train of thought and continued on running.
“Please, if there’s even any god out there listening, please let me make it in time!” She pleaded in her head and she continued running, with her only a few meters away from the park.
When the park was finally in her vision, she thought of slowing her speed and taking a breath, but when she heard the words that came from inside the park, replaying close to how it was in her dream, she started to sprint to the park.
“Hey…” Misaki said, trying to get herself ready to speak out her words. The nervousness in her voice could be heard clearly, even from outside the park.
“Yes?” Kanon replied, unsuspecting of anything.
Just a few seconds after Kanon’s reply, Chisato finally made it to the entrance of the park. There they were in front of Chisato’s eyes, the two of them facing each other right in the middle of the park. She managed to arrive right when Misaki was in the middle of preparing herself to confess, and while a part of her was relieved that she managed to make it in time, that only lasted for a while.
“You know, I… L-” In the middle of Misaki’s confession, Chisato rushed in between the two of them, taking Kanon’s hand before confessing to her. Misaki couldn’t even attempt to finish her sentence.
“I love you, Kanon. Please go out with me!”
“” ...Eh?”” Both Misaki and Kanon sounded when they heard Chisato’s sudden deceleration. In an instant, Kanon’s face turned red.
“H-Huh? Eh? Wha? C-Chisato-chan? Why are you? Huh?”
“Kanon…” Chisato took a step closer towards Kanon as she sounded that under her breath.
“W-W-Wa… T-This is too sudden! W-Why are you doing this now?”
“Because I can’t wait any longer, I love you.”
“T-That’s not what I… Huh? What? Huh?”
"Kanon, please… Could you answer these feelings of mine?”
“W-Wha…. C-Chisato-chan, are you serious?”
“Yes”
She looked right into Kanon’s eyes as she said that, trying to show her that the words that she was saying wasn’t a lie or a joke. Kanon was still trying to process everything that was happening, letting out a quiet, “Fuee” as she did.
Tears started forming at the corner of her eyes, her body shaking. She didn’t want to react that way, but she couldn’t help but do from the suddenness of Chisato’s confession. It was clear that Kanon was having a tough time with her confession, but regardless, Chisato didn’t give up and waited for her answer.
Seeing Kanon like that, however, made Misaki decide to try and help Kanon out of it.
"Shirasagi-san, it’s clear that Kanon’s troubled by your sudden confession. Why don’t you give her some time to think about it? I’m sure she has a lot of things to sort out right now, so pressuring her won’t really do any good.” “In fact, I’ll be angry if you pressure her any further.” Misaki added, saying the last line in an irritated tone.
Chisato thought about it for a while, and she realised that what Misaki was saying is true. She shouldn't just be forcing her feelings on Kanon without respecting her own. And even if Kanon accepted her confession, it would be because she was forced to. It might seem strange, but if it was Kanon, it was possible for that to happen.
Right when Chisato was about to give up and leave it for another day, Kanon spoke up.
“Thank you for feeling that way for me, Misaki-chan. But it’s fine. I want to give her a response now. Just… Give me a few minutes to take in everything…” As soon as she said that, Kanon looked at the ground, with her trying to calm herself down and sort everything inside her out. She felt bad that she was making Chisato wait, but she had to think this through carefully.
After what felt like minutes of silence, with a flushed face, Kanon stepped closer towards Chisato and whispered her reply in her ears.
“I…love you too.”
The moment Chisato heard Kanon’s response, she leaped at her as she screamed out, “Kanon~!”
Her heart felt light the instant she heard that response. All of her worries were washed away in an instant. She had done it. She managed to prevent that dream of hers from happening in reality, and thanks to that, the two of them became a couple.
And while Kanon was trying to break free from her embrace, saying that it was embarrassing and that Misaki’s looking, Chisato couldn’t give a damn about how embarrassing it was and started laughing on her own, happy that she’d become Kanon’s girlfriend.
Watching the whole thing unfold in front of her eyes, Misaki couldn’t help but feel a little awkward from the suddenness of the whole thing.
“...How did this happen out of nowhere?” She mumbled underneath her breath, as she tried to look away from the scene in front of her.
When Chisato heard that, she released Kanon from her hug and grabbed one of her hands as she declared something to Misaki.
“Sorry, but I’ll be taking her.”
“Uh… Yeah, sure.” Her nonchalant reaction seemed to have made Chisato confused.
“Hmm? You’re…fine with that?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t have any reason to oppose that.”
“But, weren’t you about to confess to her? Aren’t you mad that I came in the middle of that confession and stole her away from you?”
“What do you… Wait, did you think it was real?”
“...Eh?”
“I can’t believe I did something like that…” Chisato said with a sigh, as Kanon looked at her from the other side of the table. It had been a few days since her confession, and the two of them were having a date at Hazawa Coffee. It had been a while since they went out together, and well, they were a couple now, so it was more of a reason for them to go on a date. Even then, Chisato still couldn’t get over what happened after she confessed.
“A-An Act?!” Her surprise couldn’t be hidden after she heard Misaki’s explanation.
“Or more specifically… Kanon was helping me practice my lines for my class’ play. This was the only role that didn’t do much, but the role’s lines were kind of embarrassing so I wanted Kanon to help me practice. I didn’t expect someone to have such a big misunderstanding till it resulted to… well, that, though… Even after I went out of my way to find a secluded place too.”
“I’m not going to ask about who told you that I’m somehow going to confess to Kanon, even if some important details are missing, but how did you know we were here anyway?” Misaki added.
“Uh… Instinct I guess?” Chisato tried to laugh it off as just her instinct, but it couldn’t have worked if Misaki didn’t take the hint that Chisato didn’t really want to talk about it. She couldn’t tell her she saw a dream about this after all.
“Are you talking about that day again?” Kanon asked curiously.
“Yeah. I just can’t believe that you two were only practicing… I really thought it was real.”
“Well, I’m glad you thought it was real then.”
Chisato tilted her head to the side in confusion. She was about to ask why, but before she could even make a sound, Kanon’s bright smile and words made her blush in silence.
“Without it, we wouldn’t have been a couple afterall.”