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He wondered if she knew that he was actively avoiding her.
“I’m so sorry, Tokugawa-san!” Funny, in his memories, he always imagined her voice to be more shrill. “I swear I didn’t press anything out of the ordinary.”
He supposed it was just a defense mechanism on his end, so he wouldn’t obsess over how adorable and rich her actual alto tones were. He remembered hearing her sing with the school choir, remembered Masamune nudging him when she handled a solo piece during one of the school’s commemorative events.
He also remembered ducking out of the hall to pretend to use the bathroom, but in reality he ran to the library, trying to forget her pleasant voice pleasant face pleasant smile and ugh, maybe if he stuck his nose in his anatomy book he could cool his burning ears.
“I guess I’ll call security,” he heard her say meekly, and inwardly he berated himself for not acknowledging her earlier apology.
“It’s fine, I’ll do it,” he muttered, but it was too late. As he reached out to press the emergency call button, she had done so as well, causing their fingers to touch and almost-entwine because she was just so clumsy like that. Ieyasu felt his neck heat up.
“S-sorry!” She squeaked — squeaked! — and withdrew her hand like she was burned.
Ieyasu glanced at her and saw that she looked almost scared. She settled at the corner of the small space they were in and wrung her hands together, looking fearful, as if he would be upset at her every move.
It wasn’t a lie, but not for the reasons she probably made up.
Ieyasu sighed. “Calm down,” he tried to sound reassuring, “And stop apologizing. It’s not your fault we’re in this mess.”
“I thought you blamed me, since I touched the button last,” she said, then bit her lip, as if considering something. “Like that last time, during pathology class — I touched the microscope slides last, and you seemed really mad when they fell from their container after I stored them.”
Ieyasu blinked; it was such an odd time to bring that up, but he remembered just how candid this girl could be.
“I'm not blaming you,” he said, while finally pressing the emergency call button. “Also, I wasn’t mad that time.”
Of course he wasn’t mad. He was worried — when the slides fell from the high cabinet, she was right there, and everything shattered in front of her. What if a glass shard hit her? What a careless girl.
Ieyasu huffed at the memory. He pressed the red call button again, but no one was picking up from the security office.
“Maybe they’re on dinner break,” she murmured from behind him.
He frowned. “It’s too late for dinner. It’s 11 in the evening.”
She gave him a small smile. “Well, have you had dinner?”
“No.”
“My point exactly.”
Ieyasu glared at her.
“I don’t understand you,” he grumbled, “One minute it’s like you’re scared of me, then now you’re as annoying as ever.”
She looked amused. “I’m not scared of you, Tokugawa-san,” she stepped forward, invading his personal space, reaching beyond to try and press the call button on her own. “You could just say I’m cautious.”
Against his better judgement, Ieyasu asked, ”Cautious?”
“Well, I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”
“I said already — I was never mad.” They listened to the call push through, ringing and ringing and ringing. “Also, I thought I told you to stop calling me that.”
She tilted her heads towards him. “Tokugawa-san?”
Ieyasu looked away. “You’re not like that to the others.”
“Like what?”
Did she want him to spell it out? “You know what I mean.”
She laughed. “I’m polite to you now, you mean. Like I said, it’s because I want to be cautious.”
“Why?”
She seemed to consider her answer. She did that habit of hers where she licked her lip when she was nervous, and the action made Ieyasu’s attention zoom in to her lips. It was a bad idea.
Finally she decided on, “Well, how you view me matters to me.”
Ieyasu coughed to hide his embarrassment. “How you address me won’t change how I view you.” He pressed the infuriating red button again. “Besides, you know me best among those idiots. It just doesn’t make sense we’re still on a last-name basis.”
She seemed shocked he made this admission, but the smile that spread on her face was so bright that Ieyasu wanted to mash all the buttons at once if it meant getting out of there. He didn’t know how to process how she made him feel, so he dealt with it the best way he knew how — by escaping from it.
The ringing in the background stopped. “No one’s answering,” she said thoughtfully. “That’s odd.”
Ieyasu had to agree. The security personnel of their school were quite reliable. It was unlikely they would leave the office for as long as five calls.
In this case ‘odd’ definitely equated to ‘suspicious’.
Angrily, he pulled out his phone.
“I’ll call for help,” he punched in the number of one of the people he knew would be awake and available at this time of the night.
Within three rings, someone picked up.
“Ieyasu my boy, what’s up?”
The voice sounded amused.
She looked at him inquisitively and mouthed, “Masamune-san?”
Ieyasu barely had time to nod towards her before he bit out, “Oi, Masamune. I need help.”
He didn’t know if Masamune knew that he was in such a small space, and that every word of his could be heard despite not being on speakerphone, but instead of asking what he needed help with like a normal friend would, Masamune instead said, “Is this finally about the girl you’ve been pining over for forever?”
Unable to stop himself, Ieyasu glanced at her, red-faced, before looking away and sputtering, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She seemed unaffected by Masamune’s statement, but Ieyasu didn’t know if she was just doing it for his sake. She started looking interestedly at the buttons in front of her.
“O-ho,” Masamune said from the other line, “And I thought for sure this would be the time. I mean, why else would you call me at eleven in the evening if not for advice regarding night activities?”
If he wasn’t desperate for the help, Ieyasu would have cursed at him.
“First of all, I would never ask for advice regarding that, especially from you,” he tried to make his voice level, but he was sure he sounded as exasperated as ever. “Listen to me for a moment. I’m stuck in an elevator.”
This seemed to make Masamune go quiet.
But only for a few seconds. “Alone?”
Ieyasu glanced at his companion. He couldn’t lie; he was sure she’d heard the question. “No, I’m with Mai.”
As if on cue, Mai moved closer to his phone receiver and said, “Hello, Masamune-san!”
Ieyasu instinctively moved away because she had gone just too close to his face. His heart felt like it would jump out of his rib cage, and really, he needed to get out of here. “You heard her. We’ve called the security office several times. No one is picking up.”
There was some shuffling at the other end of the line, and Ieyasu thought he heard other voices muttering, but then it returned to being ambient noise.
Masamune’s tone indicated he was extremely entertained, and Ieyasu didn’t like it. “What were you doing so late at school, Ieyasu-chan?”
“Shut up, you know I volunteered to catalogue the library books.”
“And Mai-chan?”
She didn’t even need to be prompted. “I had student council work!”
Masamune seemed thoughtful. “I’m very busy right now, you know.”
Ieyasu grit his teeth. “Doing what? Your coursework?”
“Bold of you to assume I even know when there is coursework. No. I’m busy enjoying my bachelor life in a bar, with some select friends.”
“You mean Nobunaga and Shingen.”
“And a few others. I was about to invite you, actually.”
“I’ll pass,” Ieyasu rolled his eyes. “Besides, I can’t go anywhere when we’re still. Stuck. Here."
“I suppose I could find it in my good heart to try and contact the security office...”
Ieyasu glared at his phone, hoping Masamune could sense that he didn’t want to put up with his games. “Don’t play innocent with me, I know your family owns the security firm the school hired.”
From somewhere beyond the line, there was some monotone static and clicking noises, but it was drowned out by Masamune’s confident drawl of, “Oh? Is that your way of making an accusation?”
By this point, Ieyasu was just tired. “I’m not accusing you of anything. Just,” and he stared at Mai, who was innocently looking up at the only fluorescent light inside their small metal cage. The bags under her eyes seemed more prominent under white light, and he sighed. “It’s late. We have class tomorrow. Mai has a student council meeting and choir practice in the morning. I want to sleep.”
The way he made his statements didn’t go over Masamune’s head, he knew, but he chanted shut up shut up don’t say anything about how I know her schedule, in his head, hoping his angry telepathy would finally be effective.
Masamune didn’t disappoint — “You’re quite knowledgeable about Mai-chan’s schedule,” he pointed out as smugly as he could, and Ieyasu regretted every moment of the conversation right then and there.
Why hadn’t he called Hideyoshi instead? He would have gotten a scolding but at least he would probably had some real help. “That’s it, I’m calling someone else.”
“Mitsunari would run to help you,” Masamune said last, maybe to spite him, but Ieyasu had already jammed his finger on the ‘end call’ button.
He scowled at his phone. He was in the middle of vowing never to help Masamune with any subject again and who cares if he begged? when he heard a soft giggle from his side.
Mai looked giddily amused. The smile on her face matched the brightness in her eyes, and she looked so lovely — so naturally, it made Ieyasu even more frustrated.
“He could have just called the main office and gotten it over with,” he mumbled, wiping a hand through his face. Then, he ran through the contacts on his phone. “I’ll try someone else.”
Mai shook her head. “We could just wait for the security office to notice our calls,” she said, and for some reason her ears were tinted with a dusty shade of pink. “I don’t mind.”
Ieyasu didn’t understand why she would prefer such an ineffective option. “For all we know, they’re out for the night and we’ll be stuck here until morning.” He opened Hideyoshi’s number on his phone book and contemplated. “Besides, you should really get some rest.”
“I’m fine —”
“You’ve been going home late again the past week because of whatever the stupid council is making you do. You should really learn when to say no.”
He thought she’d be offended at his callous statement, but instead her grin grew wider. Boldly, she drew closer to him, going as far as to grip his arm while saying, “You really do know my schedule!”
Ieyasu felt mortified. He hoped the scowl on his face countered the flush on his cheeks. “I just happened to notice. Don’t start reading into it.”
This seemed to trigger something in her. When Ieyasu braved to gaze at her face, her eyes had a determined set to them that weren’t there before. “Is that why you started avoiding me? Because I was reading into it?”
Ieyasu wished the elevator doors would open. Now. Or that the ground would swallow him whole. This was not a conversation he wanted to have at the moment. He was not prepared.
But Mai wasn’t done. “When you gave me those earrings after our paper won during the conference — it made me really, really happy.” She gripped his arm tighter for a moment, then slowly let it go. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable after, when I wore it to school. I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”
Ieyasu could think of a million things to say — it was never a big deal, he was happy when she wore it, when Masamune asked if it was really from him he felt stupidly embarrassed that there was a bit of pride when he answered yes.
He remembered that day, a week after he gave her what he said was a ‘thank you for being a decent partner gift’ : he was in the classroom, reviewing a scientific paper Sarutobi wrote, when she came in, wearing a pretty smile like usual, her aura full of color. She waved to him from across the room, and he immediately noticed the dangling flowers by her ears. She looked positively radiant with them on, and seeing her wear something he gave awakened something primal in him, a possessiveness he couldn’t name. He remembered his chest being tight and his stomach doing flips and everything that followed— the rush of heat and discomfort — all of it frustrated him, so he grabbed all his papers and walked out from the classroom, not returning her greeting.
He successfully avoided her ever since.
Ieyasu stared at her, at this girl who he watched from afar, whom he let get close then almost let slip away. Finally he said, “That’s not why I was avoiding you.”
Mai made sure they were face to face. “Then...”
She looked unsure as she chewed on her lower lip again, which made Ieyasu quick to interrupt her.
“It would be annoying to explain it,” he rushed to say, because he really did not want to delve into his untapped emotions now, not when they were midway the second and ground floor, stuck in an elevator where he could not help but notice all her small mannerisms especially the ones that drew attention to her lips. He distracted himself by glancing at her ears, which, to his frustrating dismay, were empty of earrings. “But, it’s fine if you wear them everyday.”
Ieyasu wanted to slap himself. The ‘everyday’ in his statement was unnecessary, and he didn’t know why it slipped from his mouth. He counted the ways this entire evening where he sounded like a total creep.
Mai did not seem to find anything wrong with what he said, however; in fact, she seemed to glow brighter. “I’ll wear them right now!” She began sifting through her bag. “I bring them everyday, you know.”
Ieyasu didn’t want to turn red anymore, but this girl was just too much. “Why would you do that?”
She didn’t reply; she focused on unclasping the earrings and then wearing them, brushing her hair back so that the golden flowers were visible, resting against her ear perfectly, just like how he imagined it would be when he first bought them on a whim.
Then, she looked at him like a woman with a mission. Her eyes were alight with hope, and he couldn’t help but feel that this was how she always looked at him. That day in the classroom was probably only when he figured out how exactly she made him feel. He ran because he was in a vulnerable position, and he hated feeling weak.
But then again — was this really being weak?
She seemed to have an infinite amount of strength, to be vulnerable in front of him and yet still be able to speak her mind. She said she was cautious, but the way she stared at him was closer to someone ready to throw caution to the wind.
Ieyasu considered his options. She had him where she wanted him; he could fight back and delay this push and pull for longer. Or, he could give in and maybe allow her to be brave.
He breathed in. Mai licked her lips.
Maybe he was done running.
He didn’t interrupt her anymore when she began to speak.
“I kept them close to me everyday, Ieyasu, because I lik—”
Her statement got cut off as the elevator suddenly jolted downwards, causing both of them to lean forward towards each other. Ieyasu didn’t know when he had grabbed her shoulders, but he held her still against him until the elevator chimed and the doors grated open.
Sarutobi Sasuke appeared from the other side of the metal, looking at them with his ever impassive demeanor.
True to form, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before speaking. “I’m sorry I took so long, Mai, Ieyasu-san.”
Ieyasu glanced at Mai’s face; her bravery had disappeared, and now she was just a nice shade of embarrassed.
“S-Sasuke-kun!” Her exclamation was a mix of shock and something that sounded petulant. She seemed to be at a loss as to what to say but somehow settled with, “It’s alright. Thank you for coming for us.”
She looked down and bit her lip again. Ieyasu was filled with a sudden urge to keep that expression for himself.
“Come on,” he said, gruffly, releasing her. He acknowledged Sasuke with a nod but walked past him. Then, he asked, “You haven’t had dinner, right?”
He wasn’t looking at her, but he felt her get excited. “Yes! Where do you want to eat, Ieyasu?”
He delayed his answer, because it suddenly dawned on him: could be considered as a —
“Is this a date?”
Sasuke went straight for the kill.
“Because if it is not, well, I am quite hungry too.”
Ieyasu wasn’t sure what compelled him to turn around so swiftly, but he thought he saw Mai kick Sasuke’s shin.
He couldn’t be too sure, however, because she smiled sweetly as always after. “Don’t place words in our mouths,” she berated, but she looked strangely disappointed.
“It’s not a date,” Ieyasu said with finality. When Mai froze, he found himself rushing to explain, “Besides, it’s too late for a first date. Nothing good is open.”
He felt like Masamune would be proud of what he said.
But he also knew that wasn’t enough for someone as honest as Mai.
“We’ll go somewhere better next time,” he conceded, then tried to save his contrarian ego by adding, “It's because we still have something to talk about. Right?”
Mai lit up in the dark corridor.
“Right!”
Ieyasu nodded resolutely and turned around again.
As he walked ahead, he thought heard the sound of a high-five from behind him.
.
.
.
.
.
“Wait. Sarutobi, how did you know we were in the elevator?”
“I was with Masamune-san when you called.”
“Come to think of it. I never mentioned we were stuck in the elevator in school.”
“Well, that is —”
.
.
.
.
.
Masamune sipped iced tea from his position in the security office.
His phone rung with an alert.
The message read:
“He asked me out on a date, Masamune-san! Mission accomplished! ♡(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)”
FIN - 020719