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"Sakuraaaaa," Mikoshiba whined softly. He was lying limply on the floor in the apartment they shared, staring at the ceiling during another of what had unfortunately become his regular attacks of heartache.
"Hm?" Sakura was on the couch, where she had been trying unsuccessfully to talk him through his feelings.
"You won't tell anyone about this, right? Not even Nozaki? I mean, y--" he cleared his throat and began to blush. "Your Nozaki?"
Sakura blushed to match. "It’s weird when you call him that.”
Mikoshiba whined again, listlessly. "You know what I mean. Don't tell him, okay?"
"Okay, but..."
"You owe me, Sakura. I helped you with him, didn’t I?"
"Maybe you should help yourself," Sakura sighed. "Why won't you just tell Mayu how you feel?"
"I can't."
"He adores you, you know."
"I can’t."
"Mikorin..."
But Mikoshiba had curled into a human ball on the floor, and there was no use talking to him once he reached that state.
"Alright, alright. I won't say anything."
*
It was six weeks since Sakura had last seen Nozaki, and while that didn't make her as sad as it would have once, there was still an anxiety humming under her skin as she waited for the doorbell to ring. Their winter break from university had started the week before, but Nozaki’s editor had taken the opportunity to send him on a multi-city tour, ending near their hometown. Today he was finally here; she was finally going to see him again.
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" she called from the kitchen. She looked over and saw that Mikoshiba hadn't moved from his fetal position in 20 minutes--which was impressive, even for him. "We're just going to get dinner and see a movie."
Mikoshiba made an unhappy noise and moved back and forth. "That's okay."
"He wants to see you too, you know."
"Maybe tomorrow. I’m busy tonight."
"...Are you busy being sad?"
Mikoshiba didn't answer, which was sort of an answer of its own.
Sakura sighed. "Please try to get your mind on something else for a while, Mikorin."
*
"What's with Mikoshiba?" Nozaki asked, over their dinner that night at the local Italian restaurant. The plus side to their long-distance relationship was that even something as mundane as this still seemed to be cast in sparkling light; the eager drumbeat in her heart of Nozaki, Nozaki, Nozaki when they were together hadn’t faded at all.
"Hm? Oh, nothing, really..." You should have seen him earlier, she thought. Mikoshiba had at least pulled himself onto the couch and managed a smile when Nozaki had arrived to pick her up.
"He seemed pretty upset,” Nozaki mused. “Is everything okay with you two? Any issues with living together?"
"Oh--no, that's been fine! Mikorin is actually a really good roommate." Or at least he had been, until the pain of what was apparently his first crush had turned him into a miserable sack of feelings. "He's just--feeling a little down right now."
"Hmm."
"Anyhow, tell me about your week!" she said quickly, changing the subject before her ability to withhold anything from Nozaki wore through. "I've hardly talked to you since you left."
Nozaki brightened at that and launched into a recounting of the signings and panels on his tour. “...And then my parents wanted to see me yesterday, after the bookstore event,” he finished. He gave her a small, shy smile. “I wanted to see you first, but…”
Sakura smiled back. “No, I’m glad you got to see your family. They must miss you a lot.” Her own parents were relieved, she knew, that she had decided to attend a university so close to home.
He shrugged. “They’re already used to me living away.”
“You're a lot further now, though…” It was a 3 hour and 45 minute train ride to Nozaki's school, to be exact; she could practically count it off in her head.
“Well, they were glad to see me,” Nozaki allowed.
“How are they doing?”
“Oh, they’re good. Well--Mom and Dad and my little sister are good. My little brother…” He pursed his lips. “I’m not so sure.”
“Y-yeah?” Sakura stammered, flustered. She had forgotten that Mayu might come up from this line of inquiry, too, and she wasn’t sure her poker face could handle it. “Is he doing okay in school?”
“Oh, he’s barely surviving his classes as usual,” Nozaki said. “He’ll still do fine in his entrance exams next year, though, I’m sure.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” Sakura opened her mouth to change the subject to Nozaki’s sister, but Nozaki pressed on before she could start.
“He’s just really torn up right now…”
“...Oh, really?” A curious flicker of hope lit in her heart. Maybe she was right about Mayu, despite what Mikoshiba thought. And if she could get some hint… “What’s bothering him?”
Nozai pursed his lips. “Hmm. I promised him I wouldn’t say anything.”
Sakura frowned, the gears in her mind working at that. “Oh, well then…”
“But I’ll tell you anyhow,” Nozaki continued.
“What? Nozaki, that’s terrible, don’t!” Sakura protested, but it was too late, Nozaki was already speaking over her:
“He’s got a crush on Mikoshiba.”
“W-wait…” Sakura gasped. She felt herself starting to blush. “Nozaki, is--is that true?”
Nozaki blinked at her flatly. “Huh? Yeah, that’s why he’s so miserable. I told him he should probably get over it and aim for someone his age, but he seemed pretty serious.”
“Oh--but…!” She was definitely bright red now, and her heart was pounding in her chest like it usually only did for Nozaki. I promised I wouldn’t tell him, she told herself. And apparently he’s awful at keeping secrets! But it was different, with what Nozaki had told her; it was for his own good. “But Mikorin feels the same way!” she blurted, unable to hold it in.
Nozaki stared back at her. “What?!”
“You can’t tell him I told you, Nozaki, please,” she begged quickly. “He told me not to, but--but he’s been driving me crazy with how sad he’s been, and I just--I mean, if Mayu likes him too…”
“Mikoshiba… Really?” Nozaki still looked shocked. “But he never said...”
“You couldn’t tell, last year?” Sakura wondered out loud. “I guess it’s gotten worse… I don’t think Mikorin took his feelings that seriously when Mayu was just a first year, but the last few months…” She sighed. “It’s really hurting him, Nozaki.”
The confusion on Nozaki’s face slowly gave way to determination. “Then we need to do something about it.” He closed his hand into a fist and set it firmly on the table. “We need to get them together.” He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
“Nozaki, no!” Sakura shrieked, reaching across the table and snatching it from his hands before he could open it. “What are you doing?!”
Nozaki looked surprised and a little put out. “I was going to tell Mayu.”
“Nozaki…” Sakura rubbed at her forehead. It was sort of cute how blunt Nozaki could be, but this was taking it too far. “You can’t just tell him something like that. It’s bad enough that I told you when Mikoshiba asked me to keep it a secret.”
“Then how is he going to find out?”
“Mikorin needs to be the one to tell him,” Sakura said. “It’s way too embarrassing if we do it.”
“Hmm.” Nozaki pondered this seriously for a moment. “So I can’t tell Mikoshiba how Mayu feels either?”
“No!”
“But then… What are we supposed to do?”
Sakura sighed and rested her chin in her hand, thinking. It was a fair point, actually. “I’ve been telling Mikorin to confess his feelings for months now,” she admitted. “I even told him that I thought Mayu might feel the same way, but he always says he just can’t do it.”
Nozaki nodded. “I don’t think Mikorin has ever really had a crush before,” he said. “It’s probably too much for someone as fragile as him.”
“It’s awful,” Sakura agreed. “It was better when all he needed to be happy was his manga and his bishoujo dolls. Now he just gets sad and stares at the walls.”
“So maybe Mayu should be the one to confess.”
“Hmm.” Sakura tried her best to picture that. She was used to Mayu by now; he spent plenty of time at their apartment, even if he saved most of his words for Mikoshiba. Still, she had a hard time getting a read on him sometimes. “Wouldn’t confessing be… you know... troublesome?”
Nozaki frowned. “You think he wouldn’t put in the effort for someone he really cares about?”
“Well--I don’t know.” Sakura blushed; it was actually too cute, thinking about Mayu having strong feelings for Mikoshiba all this time. And it was true that Mayu expended more effort for Mikoshiba than he did for anyone else. “Why hasn’t he confessed already?” she asked.
“He said he’s sure Mikoshiba doesn’t feel the same way.”
“That’s it? He’s sure?” Sakura had a sudden urge to hit them both over the head. “That’s so stupid! Doesn’t he notice how Mikorin turns into an eager little puppy for his attention? It’s so obvious!”
Nozaki shrugged. “So what do we do?” he asked again.
Sakura sighed in frustration and pressed her face into her hand. “I don’t know,” she said. “Isn’t it your job to come up with clever ways to get people to admit these things?”
“Hmm…”
Sakura looked up warily at the change in Nozaki’s tone. “Something that’s not too over the top, please.”
“Okay,” Nozaki said, decisively. “How about this: Mysterious clues appear in each of their mailboxes, giving them clues about their ‘secret admirer’... and the final clue leads them to a secluded location where they’ll see each other and realize who their admirers are at the same time!” He looked up eagerly, waiting for her response.
“Nozaki… That’s so much more embarrassing than just telling them.”
“...Really?”
“And we’d still be the ones doing the work for them!”
Nozaki poked at his food for moment. “Okay,” he said. “Then what about this? We take them to an amusement park at night and get them to ride the ferris wheel together, and when they get to the top, we stop the ride! It’s romantic, right? If they’re stranded together long enough up there, one of them will definitely confess.”
“What about all the other people on the ride?! And how would we even--?” Sakura cut the sentence off short with a huff of air, not even knowing which obvious flaw to point out first. “Nozaki, think more seriously.”
Nozaki made the thoughtful expression that constituted a pout, for him. “We... could strand them somewhere less romantic?” he suggested. “Like a stairwell?”
Sakura slumped down onto the table. “They spend hours together just sitting and playing on their phones already,” she groaned. “I don’t think that’s going to do it.”
“Those are all the ideas I have,” Nozaki said, a little sullenly. “What do you think? Should we just wait for them to figure it out on their own?”
Sakura thought about Mikoshiba back in their apartment and shook her head quickly. “I can’t leave Mikorin like that,” she said. “I’d feel horrible knowing, if I couldn’t convince him…” She turned her face into the crook of her arm, on the table. “I don’t even know how I’m going to look at him tonight, if he’s still like he was when we left.”
“You’ve tried your best with him already,” Nozaki reminded her gently. “I wasn’t as much help for Mayu… Maybe you should try talking to him, instead.”
“Me? But I only see him when they’re together.” She actually wasn’t sure if she’d ever been with Mayu when Mikoshiba wasn’t there as well.
“Then let’s do it tonight!” Nozaki exclaimed suddenly. “We can skip the movie and go to my parents’ house right now!”
Sakura lifted her head quickly. “Your parents? Right now…?!” At least she was dressed nicely for their date, but the thought of barging into Nozaki’s parents’ house on short notice still wasn’t a pleasant one.
“O-or we could have him meet us somewhere nearby,” Nozaki amended.
“Okay,” Sakura said, relieved. “That’s better.”
“So you want to? Let me ask if he’s free.” He reached out his hand for his phone, and Sakura gave it back to him. After a minute of typing, Nozaki looked up. “He says he’s not busy.”
How are we going to explain that we skipped our date to hang out with him? Sakura wondered. But the thought of Mikoshiba stewing in his sadness at home was enough to convince her. “Okay, let’s do it,” she agreed. “It’s more exciting than a movie anyhow, isn’t it?”
Nozaki smiled. “Definitely.”
*
“...but the movie theater was closed for fumigation, so we thought we’d come hang out with you instead,” Nozaki said. They were seated at a small table in a coffee shop close to Nozaki’s parents’ house, the two of them on one side and Mayu on the other, like some sort of interrogation.
Mayu raised his eyebrows, and even Sakura could interpret that.
“Um, Nozaki means… I mean…” She blushed; it was still weird to call Nozaki anything but Nozaki, but that could get confusing fast. “Umetarou means to say that he wanted to show me one of his old favorite places in this area,” she explained. “And… and he thought you might want to get out of the house, too, since we were nearby.”
Mayu looked up to meet his brother’s eyes. “You told her, didn’t you?” he said flatly.
“W-what? Told me what?” Sakura interjected loudly, at the same time as Nozaki said, “Yeah.” She snapped her head toward him. “Nozaki,” she hissed.
“It’s okay,” Mayu said, looking at her. “He’s always been really bad at keeping secrets. I should have known.”
“...Oh,” Sakura said, turning pink. “Well--um. Sorry for--for finding out.”
He shrugged. “It’s okay,” he repeated. “It’s just embarrassing.” He looked as affectless as ever, but Sakura remembered what Nozaki had said about him being miserable.
“Well, are you… doing okay?” she probed gently.
“Not really,” he said, his voice even. “I’m actually pretty sad. But there’s nothing to be done about it, is there?”
Next to her, the older Nozaki gave her a this is your cue look, but she was already there. “Well--maybe you could give it a shot!” she said. “I mean, you guys are pretty close, right…? I don’t think… anything bad would happen if you tried.”
Mayu blinked at her. “What do you mean?”
“I--I just mean…Mikoshiba cares about you, so if you tried telling him how you feel, I don’t think it would ruin your friendship.” She was proud of that phrasing; it didn’t reveal too much, but it would hopefully be enough of a hint to push him in the right direction.
But to her surprise, Mayu just gave her a faint, rueful smile. “I know that,” he said. “He already knows how I feel.”
It was Sakura’s turn to blink in confusion. “What?” she blurted. “No, he doesn’t!”
“He doesn’t feel the same way, but we’re still friends,” Mayu continued blandly. “I’m not sure if I want to be friends any more, though.”
“He doesn’t know!” Sakura insisted. “I’m pretty sure I would know if he knew! What exactly did you tell him?”
Mayu tilted his head slightly, cat-like. “I mean, I didn’t spell it out,” he allowed. “But I did kiss him.”
“...Wait, what?” Sakura turned to Nozaki in shock, but he looked as confused as she felt. "Seriously?!" she demanded, turning back to Mayu. "When?"
"Hmm... A few months ago, I guess."
"And he--he didn't... What did he say?"
Mayu sighed, as if to say he was tired of wasting his breath indulging her questions. "He didn't take it well, okay? That's all."
Oh my goodness, she thought to herself, I'm going to punch Mikoshiba in the face.
Nozaki seemed to sense her simmering rage, and he put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you know, it's probably time for us to--uh. Get going."
Mayu frowned at him.
"Yeah, I know, but... we need to catch the train back soon."
Mayu raised an eyebrow, and Nozaki’s cheeks turned pink. "No, I'm still coming home! I'm just taking Sakura back first!"
"It's okay, you should go home with Mayu," Sakura said. "We're already by your house, after all." And I can deal with Mikoshiba on my own, she thought darkly.
"I'm taking you home," Nozaki said, his tone final. "Mayu, I'll see you later, alright?"
Mayu shrugged and lifted a hand to wave at them as they left.
"Nozaki, you really don't have to go all the way back with me," Sakura protested again. "I'll be fine on the train."
"You're going to confront Mikoshiba, aren't you?"
"Of course I am! Nozaki, why wouldn't he tell me something like that?" she implored. "And why is he acting like this if he knows, anyhow? Or is he really that stupid...?"
Nozaki didn't say anything for a few moments, as they walked. "I'm not sure," he finally said. "But... I want to be there, too."
*
When they got back, the lights in the apartment were out, but Mikoshiba was still sitting there, on the floor, his back against the front of the couch. He was looking at a magazine, flipping the pages idly in the dim light from the street lamps outside.
"Oh, hey," he said, looking up. "You guys are back early."
"We didn't go to the movie," Sakura said flatly. She walked straight over and sat down on the coffee table in front of him. "Mikoshiba, why didn't you tell me that Mayu kissed you?"
Mikoshiba's eyes went wide and darted over to Nozaki, who was hanging back. "Sakura--!"
"He knows, okay?"
"Sakura, you promised..." Mikoshiba was blushing, and his eyes had fallen to his lap.
Her frustration gave way briefly to guilt. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I wasn't going to say anything, but--but when Nozaki told me about Mayu... Mikorin, did you know?"
Mikoshiba drew his legs in and folded his arms on top of them, then let his forehead fall against his arms. "Know what?" he mumbled.
Sakura looked up abjectly at Nozaki, who gave her a look that said I don't know, up to you.
She sighed and put a tentative hand on Mikoshiba's arm. "He has feelings for you, too, Mikorin," she said. "But you must have realized that, right?"
Mikoshiba didn't answer; he just curled into a tighter ball and let out a soft whine.
"Mikorin..." Despite herself, she felt a sudden wave of sympathy for him, and she slid down to join him on the floor. "Hey," she said gently, resting her hand on his back. “Will you tell me what happened?”
Mikoshiba was silent for a long moment, unmoving. Then finally, in a small voice, he said, “Like you said, he kissed me, okay? A while ago.”
“And you didn’t… you know, kiss him back?”
He shook his head.
“Why not?”
“I didn’t know,” he said, miserably.
“Wait…” She frowned. “You didn’t know you liked him?”
He nodded. “Not until then.”
“Mikorin…” She pressed her cheek to his shoulder. “I just thought that was when you got up the nerve to tell me.”
He lifted his head to look at her. “You mean you knew before then?”
“Well--yeah. At least, I was pretty sure… You were always hanging around him and trying to get his attention, and stuff…”
He sighed and let his head drop back onto his arms. “I’m such an idiot, Sakura,” he moaned. “I knew you would think I was being stupid if I told you what happened.”
She didn’t really know what to say to that. Even if Mikoshiba had realized his feelings too late, it was stupid for him to wallow like this when Mayu had already made the first move.
While she was trying to figure out what to tell him, Nozaki moved over to sit where she had been, on the coffee table. “So what did you do after that?” he asked.
Does he want to use this as fodder for one of his stories…? Sakura thought darkly. But she reconsidered when she glanced up at him; he looked honestly concerned.
Mikoshiba looked up at him, surprised. “Nozaki… Don’t be mad, please.”
“It’s okay,” Nozaki said, seriously. “You can tell me.”
“Well… I--I asked what he was doing, and… and… I didn’t know what to do.” He was turning bright red, and Sakura had a sudden mental image of how Mikoshiba usually acted when he was embarrassed. If it had really hit him all at once, how he felt, was it really any surprise that he had reacted badly? “And then I just… I ran away. I panicked, I guess,” he said softly.
“Oh, Mikorin,” Sakura sighed. She wrapped her arm around his waist and squeezed him tightly. “Why didn’t you tell him once you realized?”
“I...I just couldn’t,” Mikoshiba said, in a small voice. “He probably changed his mind, anyhow.”
“Mikorin, no, why would you think that?”
“He likes you,” Nozaki confirmed.
“Really?” he asked weakly.
“Really,” Sakura told him. “You just need to tell him you feel the same way.”
“Well… but…” He trailed off and fell silent.
“But what?”
He pulled himself into a ball again, hiding his face. “I--I don’t think I can,” he whispered.
“What?!”
“You don’t understand.”
He’s right about that much, Sakura thought. “Mikorin…”
But before she could say anything else, Nozaki pushed himself off the coffee table and sat down on Mikoshiba’s other side, putting his arm around Mikoshiba’s shoulders. “I understand,” he said simply.
“You do?” Mikoshiba asked in a tiny voice.
“Love is painful,” Nozaki said. “And for someone like you… it’s not easy to handle that pain. No matter how hard it is not to have your feelings returned, you know you’ll only be more vulnerable if they are.”
“I guess so,” Mikoshiba said softly. Nozaki rubbed his shoulder, and Sakura leaned against his arm. “I just… I don’t even know if I could be any good in a relationship,” Mikoshiba whispered, after a long silence. “And anyhow, he--he’s still in high school, and he wants to go to Tokyo to study judo for university, and I… I don’t know.”
“That’s a long time from now,” Sakura said gently.
“But what if I mess everything up?” Mikoshiba implored, his voice wavering. “Or what if… what if it doesn’t work out?”
“Mikorin,” Nozaki said, his voice gentle. “It might not work out, but you need to be brave. There’s nothing more important than learning to let someone into your heart, even though you know it might get broken. Being with someone who loves you… it’s worth it.”
Nozaki, Sakura thought, her own heart filling with love and admiration. Is that really how you feel? But she just smiled against Mikoshiba’s sleeve and rubbed her hand soothingly on his back. “He’s right, Mikorin,” she said quietly. “You’ll only know how it works if you try. And even if he moves away, you know, long distance… it isn’t really so bad.”
Mikoshiba laughed softly, through a sniffle. “I’ll remember you said that, Chiyo-chan.”
She blushed. “Be quiet.”
They held him then, just sitting in silence for a few minutes as his sniffles slowed and finally subsided. Finally, he cleared his throat and sighed deeply, lifting his head. “You guys are right,” he said softly. “If--if he really hasn’t moved on already, then… I should stop being afraid.”
Sakura smiled widely. “Good,” she said, and gave him a tight hug.
“Good,” Nozaki echoed, more sternly. Sakura looked up at him curiously, and he continued in a flat tone, “Because this is my little brother we’re talking about, after all. I think I would be obligated to hurt you if you broke his heart for no reason.”
Sakura couldn’t help it; she started giggling, softly at first, then--when Mikoshiba started to join in--uncontrollably, until her eyes were blurry with tears.
“Thanks, you guys,” Mikoshiba said, finally sitting up and straightening his legs. “I’m sorry for all of this.” He wrapped his arm around Sakura, and she leaned into him, her head resting on his chest.
“It’s okay, Mikorin,” she said, smiling. “We love you, you know.” She looked up at Nozaki, who still had his arm laid across Mikoshiba’s shoulders, and he nodded seriously.
Mikoshiba laughed, then sniffled again, and pulled them both close. “Will you stay here?” he asked, his voice raw. “Just… a little longer?”
Sakura nodded against his shoulder and reached across him, and Nozaki took her hand. “Of course,” she said softly. “We’ll stay as long as you want.”
*
They ended up carrying him to bed in the middle of the night, and Nozaki never did make it back to his parents’ house; he fell asleep on the couch instead.
“Your parents won’t be mad, will they?” Sakura asked, after they left Mikoshiba in the spot where he had arranged to meet up with Mayu. “That you didn’t go home?”
“Why would they be mad?” Nozaki asked, looking confused. “I’ll go back today.”
“Well--but…” What if they think I’m a bad influence, keeping you at my place overnight? Sakura thought, her cheeks turning red.
But Nozaki just took her hand, oblivious, and she resigned herself to letting it go.
“Come on, this way,” he told her, leading her up a set of stairs. They were at their old school, Mayu’s school; Nozaki had suggested the location. Rather specifically, actually, she thought with dawning realization as Mikoshiba came into view through the railing ahead.
“Nozaki!” she hissed. “Are we spying on them?”
“We should make sure Mikoshiba follows through,” Nozaki said, without a hint of remorse. He led her to a spot behind two tall, potted bushes, between which they could easily watch Mikoshiba as he leaned against a pillar in the courtyard below.
Sakura thought about protesting, but her guilt gave way to undeniable curiosity when Mayu arrived on the scene, his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“Oh, he looks sad,” she whispered out loud, pressing her palms to her pounding heart.
Standing behind her, Nozaki put a hand on her shoulder. “His face usually looks like that, you know,” he said mildly.
They were just close enough that she could faintly make out Mikoshiba’s nervous, “Hey.”
“Yo,” Mayu replied.
“Look, I… need to tell you something,” Mikoshiba said, visibly summoning his courage.
Mayu gave him a questioning look.
“I… I know I should have said something sooner,” Mikoshiba said. He was already starting to turn red, and his voice was shaking. “I--I’ve been really stupid, and… and I hope you won’t be too mad at me...”
“Mikorin, get to the point!” Sakura whispered urgently to herself.
“I… I just…” He ducked his head and shoved his own hands into his pockets as he said something too low for Sakura to hear.
It must have been something right, though; she could see it on Mayu’s face, the hope dawning there as his eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly open.
Mayu took a few cautious steps toward him and said something indistinguishable back, a question. Mikoshiba finally looked up to meet his eyes, and then, blushing, leaned up and pressed his lips to Mayu’s in a brief, nervous kiss.
Sakura gasped and covered her mouth to muffle a squeal. “Yes!” she whispered. Beaming, she spun around, just in time to see Nozaki hit the shutter release on his digital camera. “Nozaki!” she hissed, horrified. “What are you doing?!”
“What?” he asked, looking down at her as he snapped another picture. “This is great reference material. It’s not like I’m going to blackmail them with it.”
“You’re terrible. Give me that!” She tried to grab the camera, but Nozaki kept it out of her reach. “Nozaki, you’re so…” But she trailed off, noticing Nozaki’s expression change to--was it embarrassment?--as he looked off above her head.
She turned back around to follow his gaze, and a blush sprang immediately to her cheeks. “Oh!” she exclaimed.
In the space of a few seconds, Mayu had pressed Mikoshiba up against the pillar and was kissing him deeply, holding him in place with a hand on either side of his waist. Mikoshiba’s face was bright red, but his eyes were closed, and he was clinging to Mayu’s shoulder and making soft, muffled noises against his mouth.
“We--we should really go,” Sakura whispered, but she stayed frozen in place, staring, until the sound of the shutter clicking above her head finally made her turn. “Nozaki!”
“Alright, alright.”
They hurried back down the stairs, Sakura blushing like she was on fire. “Where did your little brother learn to kiss like that?” she demanded, once they were well out of hearing distance.
Nozaki looked mildly discomfited. “Beats me.” He lifted the camera and turned it on, examining the screen. “Maybe we should blackmail them.”
“Put that away,” she said, swatting at his arm.
He smiled and pocketed the camera. “You know, I gave Mikoshiba that talk about breaking Mayu’s heart, but maybe he’s the one I should be looking after. He is pretty delicate, after all.”
“I think Mayu knows that,” Sakura said. She leaned her head against him as they walked. “Let’s just look after them both, okay? You take Mayu and I’ll take Mikorin.”
Nozaki nodded and put his arm around her shoulders. “Sounds like a plan.”
“So,” Sakura said, after a moment. “What should we do now that that’s taken care of?”
Nozaki considered. “Well, we never did see that movie.”
“Oh, yeah! What was it about, again?”
“Some kind of historical love story, I think,” Nozaki said. “The outfits in the trailer looked like good reference material.”
Sakura let out a happy sigh. “I don’t know if I need any more romance today, after that.”
“Hmm,” Nozaki said.
She looked up at him curiously. “What?”
He didn’t meet her eyes, but said, “We could follow their example and use the movie as an excuse to make out.”
“N-Nozaki!” she exclaimed, blushing deeply.
“Just a thought…” he said, under his breath.
“W-well--you know… Now that I’m thinking about it… I could actually go for some popcorn. Maybe a matinee?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “Yeah?”
She took his hand and smiled at his pink cheeks. “Yeah,” she said. “Let’s go.”