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That night, the cheers from the audiences were loud. Too loud. Probably one of the most successful events they ever held since they all worked together as a joint group. The pulsation of the speakers echoed through his body, the sound of singing through the microphone shook his eardrums as he sang the last verse for tonight. Even after the music slowly faded out, signaling the end of their performance, the excited cheers didn't subside; and so did the heat spreading throughout his body.
He experienced it many times, this excitement, but it was the first time he ever lost control of his body because of it. His mental alarm rang inside his head, warning him that he might do something he regretted if he didn't calm down soon. Even so, it was as if his body forgot who the owner was, and he couldn't do anything about it. As if a lid was being left open and the emotions overflowed.
"Akito, we did great!!"
The next image Akito saw while still being in that state was one of his teammates, Shiraishi An, running towards him with her bright smile and brilliant orange eyes directed straight at him. Ah, how dazzling, even he thought the lights of the stage didn't blind him this much. What happened after that felt like he was being drunk even though he hadn't reached the age to be able to actually experience it. No, maybe being drunk was better than this.
At least the memory would be hazy if you were drunk. Unlike now, when he could clearly see what was happening as his body refused to listen to him and only his instinct was taking over.
Walking towards An who was having her hands raised to ask him for a celebratory high-five, he then also raised his hands, although his hands didn't meet her hands in the end. Instead, they settled themselves on her face, softly cupping the cheeks.
"? Akito?"
The orange eyes that blinked innocently were so lovely and his eyes narrowed pleasantly, he couldn't believe he was thinking such honest thought before lifting her face and slowly closing the distance between their lips.
The last thing he remembered as he pulled away from the kiss was her surprised face, burning red to her ears and neck with her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, before she ran away with all her might towards the backstage. Leaving him only with his other friends gawking their eyes in disbelief at him and the cheers of the audiences that grew even louder.
Without even planning for it, he had done something unbelievable that sharply raised the excitement of everyone in the venue.
"...and so, Shinonome-kun has been banned from entering WEEKEND GARAGE for around a week? Well... how do I say it, sorry but I do think what Shinonome-kun did might be a little bad."
"More than that, Shiraishi refused to talk or even look at Akito at all ever since then. You don't have to be sorry for it, Souma-san, since I also think Akito deserves it."
"Congratulations for reaching a collective agreement, now can you guys stop rubbing salt on my fresh wound?"
Having been a regular for years that he couldn't remember going anywhere other than that place almost every day, Akito was at loss to do when he was suddenly banned from entering the cafe. An looked very serious so I can't do anything about it, Ken-san said to him while rubbing his nape awkwardly when he asked him about it. Practices still happened, although with her completely ignoring him as if he was just some dirt on the ground. Shinonome Akito had stopped counting how many times the other guys looked at him with pity in their eyes because of the current situation.
"It's entirely Akito's fault," Touya said coldly, seemingly forgetting the years of being singing partners that he shared with him.
"Shinonome-kun, don't you know that kissing someone without permission can be reported as sexual harrassment?" Kohane said with a smile on her face, but her eyes weren't smiling at him at all.
"Akito... to be honest I'm not really surprised with your awfully weak self-control, but at least do it in the backstage! Some people are allergic with PDA, you know!" Koutarou said while hugging himself, looking totally grossed out after having seen the person he knew since he was still a middle-school brat, kissing a girl in front of his eyes.
"Well, how does it feel though, Akito-kun? Your first kiss. Ah, if the other person doesn't want it then it doesn't count, huh?" Arata seemed to be asking for a fight with his usual annoying grin on his face.
"It's inevitable what Shinonome did to Shiraishi in the event will be the talk all over Vivid Street for some time. It'll be gone sooner or later, but just make sure to apologize to Shiraishi. No matter how you think about it, it wasn't something appropriate to do. You understand what you did wrong right, Shinonome?" Suddenly the mature aura of Tatsuya was so overwhelming that Akito could only nod his head as if he was a son getting scolded.
To cut it short, every single person who heard about what happened seemed to be in one agreement that he deserved how An treated him after that incident.
Of course, he also knew that he was completely at fault, that she had all the right for her to be mad at him, and that he should definitely apologize to her about it. Even so, how could he apologize if she didn't give him the chance to talk to her at all?
She slammed the door shut at his face the moment she saw him in front of the door, she told her friends to tell him that she wasn't there whenever he came to meet her in her classroom. His number was probably also being blocked, he wasn't sure, but An never read his message at all since then. The worst, he didn't know what to do with this situation at all and asking his sister for advice about it was totally out of the question.
Every passing day with him unable to apologize to her felt like gnawing in his heart. He'd really die drowning in guilt if this went on.
That was when Touya invited him to come visiting Souma in the hospital with him since he had some music composing stuff to talk about and Akito didn't know where else to go anyway after being banned from WEEKEND GARAGE. Somehow it progressed into a consultation session.
Hearing the story again from someone else's mouth was embarrassing, but Souma calmly listened to the whole story without giving him any judging look. After Touya was done with the story, the man on the hospital bed nodded his head with his brows lowered and a complicated expression on his face.
"I see, I understand the gist of it now," he said. "Shinonome-kun is having a hard time right now because Shiraishi didn't give him a chance at all to apologize, right?"
"...Yeah, to be honest the guilt is killing me. It's not a rare thing for us to fight, but this is the first time she refused to look at me at all. I didn't know she could be this mad."
Souma looked like he was thinking about something as he held his chin before he opened his mouth again, "Shinonome-kun... if I'm allowed to give my opinion about this, I think Shiraishi isn't mad at you."
"...Ha? Sorry, I don't think I understand what you mean, Souma-san. There's no way she isn't mad about it."
"No, I mean she must be mad because you kissed her all of a sudden, but the reason why she refused to talk to you might not be because she's that mad as you thought."
Both Akito and Touya had this confused expression on their faces that clearly told him they couldn't understand what he meant at all, Souma let out a laugh. It was probably a topic that would be a little hard to understand for some teenage boys so he'd try to explain it to them slowly, about the delicateness of a girl's heart.
"Let's see... judging from Aoyagi-kun's stories that I've heard before, you guys are good friend who have known each other for a long time, so she must already understand what kind of person Shinonome-kun is," Souma said, making Akito raised a brow. "She must know that Shinonome-kun isn't the kind of person who would do that kind of thing on purpose, she's definitely aware of that. The reason why she couldn't face Shinonome-kun until now is probably because she's currently sulking."
"Sulking? Shiraishi is?" Touya tilted his head, in which Souma nodded.
"Mhm, what Shinonome-kun did probably flustered her so much that she wanted to get angry at him, but because she knows that Shinonome-kun isn't that kind of person, she couldn't be completely mad at him. She might have no idea how to act in front of Shinonome-kun after that kiss and is embarrassed by that fact. That's why, she's sulking right now by refusing to see Shinonome-kun."
"...I see, I never thought of it at all..."
"It could be hard to understand but girls do have cute ways like that. Just give her some time until she's ready to face you again, Shinonome-kun, then you can apologize to her."
"I'll keep that in mind... thank you for the advice, Souma-san."
"Ahaha, it's just my objective opinion as a listener of Arata and Aoyagi-kun's stories about Vivid BAD SQUAD. I've never met with Ken-san's daughter directly so I could also be wrong about it," he waved his hand. "The most important thing is to not be pushy. You'll manage to fix your relationship with her when the time comes, I'm sure of it."
Souma once again laughed at the difficult expression the two boys in front of him showed. Arata would never bring this kind of topic when he visited him, so this talk was totally fresh to him. He wasn't wrong when he told him those kids were an interesting bunch. He never expected he'd give an advice about a girl's heart while resting on his hospital bed.
Looking at the still hesitant Akito, Souma shrugged his shoulder before opening his mouth again.
"Well... now I want to ask you then, Shinonome-kun. What if it wasn't Shiraishi?"
"Huh?"
"If it wasn't her at that moment, would you still lose control and kiss that person?"
"...Souma-san, are you also taking me as some loose bastard without any self-control?"
"Ahaha! Sorry, sorry. Don't get too offended, I just want to make sure my guess isn't too far off. I apologize alright, Shinonome-kun?"
"Geez... don't go around making strange guesses about someone."
Akito closed his eyes as he held his face in his palm, giving what Souma said a serious thought. Despite everything that confused him as of why he kissed her that night, there was only one thing that he was very sure about.
That incident could only happen because it was An, that's all. If it was someone else, then it was impossible.
That alone was already implying something that he had been refusing to realize until now, and Shinonome Akito let out a sigh.
Akito did as Souma said—giving An some time to calm down. He didn't try to persistently talk to her anymore and just wait for the moment. Days passed just like that, until one day, she suddenly came searching for him to his class. Exactly like Souma said, she'd come to him herself when she was finally ready.
"Akito, come with me for a bit."
She said in a low voice, gesturing with her hand towards the direction of the back of the school building. Her eyes were still refusing to look at him as she had this frown on her face. Akito nodded, as he didn't have any other intention than to comply, afraid of ruining the chance he'd been finally given.
Walking down the school hall, passing the infirmary, making a turn, then finally stopped in a more deserted part of the school. An glanced to her left and right, after making sure that no one else was there she took a deep breath. Clenching her fist in front of her chest, she finally looked at him. For some reason her eyes were so determined that Akito was taken aback.
"Akito, just tell me now! Why did you kiss me that night!?"
A very straightforward question. He'd think she was mad at him for sure if he didn't notice the red shade on her ears and how her shoulders trembled nervously. Akito opened his mouth, his voice came out much calmer than he expected.
"...If you ask me why, then I have no other excuse other than I thought I wanted to kiss you," he rubbed his nape nervously. "Even so, I shouldn't have kissed you just because I wanted to. Sorry, the excitement of that live got into my head, making me unable to think straight. That was entirely my fault, but I promise this will be the first and last time I ever act like this. I sincerely apologize to you about that, you can slap me as hard as you can if you want."
An blinked her eyes when Akito bowed his body at a 90 degrees angle, his face clearly showed he was feeling really bad about it. Sighing, she told him to stop the posture already since it was awkward to see. While waiting for her to decide whether she'd forgive him or not, Akito had this look that An secretly thought he looked like an abandoned dog.
"I see... mhm, I accept your apology. That Shinonome Akito already went out of his way to bow so deeply at me after all. Don't look that depressed now!" she slapped his shoulder lightly to lax out the atmosphere. "Anyway, it's not like I was that mad at you in the first place to the point that I want to slap you, so it's fine."
This time he raised a brow, "You were not?"
"Hmm, no, I wasn't... I guess rather than mad, I was a little disappointed."
She scratched her cheek awkwardly, laughing a bit. Akito was beyond confused now.
"Even though I know Akito isn't that kind of person, I can't help but wonder... can you really do this kind of thing easily no matter who's the person? Even if it's not me? I should've been mad because you kissed me all of a sudden, but instead I became more disappointed because of that kind of reason, when it's entirely up to Akito whoever you kiss... strange, huh?"
"...An."
"Ahh, but I see! There must be times like that, huh! When you suddenly want to kiss someone because of the mood, I understand, so it's just the mood. I guess I happened to run into Akito in that kind of mood, so you thought you wanted to kiss me."
"Ha...? What are you talking about? That's—"
"Ahaha, it's fine, it's fine! Well... if that's so I should feel bad for Akito then. Sorry, I was the one who came to you at that time."
A pained smile that made his heart ached. She faked a laugh as if it wasn't so painfully awkward without realizing that she gave everything away with the way her face looked like right now. Even though she finally gave him a chance to apologize, she didn't give him a chance to properly respond to her assumptions. How she talked as if he could kiss anyone and it just happened to be her also made his frustration welling up. What kind of person do you think I am?
So frustrating, he clenched his fists. At the very least, let me have a say in this.
"...Uhh, since we've cleared the misunderstanding then see you at practice, Akito! Well then, I'm gonna go back to clas—wha!"
We cleared nothing at all, dumbass! Akito pulled on her hand to stop her. Sorry, Souma-san, but you won't manage if you're not at least a little bit pushy when dealing with this girl.
"Stupid... I said I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you, not just because I wanted to kiss! Listen to what people said properly. What happened that night only happened because it was you, An!"
"H-huh?"
"Even if it was Kohane who came to me for a high-five at that time, I'd give her a high-five then ran towards you. If it was Touya, Touno, or anyone else, I'd still come to you in the end... You're the first person I saw because my eyes naturally searched for you, is it that hard for you to understand? How stupid can you be?"
"That's... eh, huh...? No, I don't want to be called stupid by Akito though??? I'm hurt!"
"If you don't want to be called stupid then quickly process what I said with that small brain of yours... I am also hurt here."
An looked flustered, her face was once again dyed in red, similar to that night when he kissed her. The adorable reaction, which made him wanted nothing more than to take her lips once again right now. Maybe he was wrong after all, by blaming things on the heat of the live, since his mind was currently as clear as ever but he had the exact same thought as he did that night. The excitement just made him feel bolder, as if he could accomplish anything at that moment, that he actually did it after that live.
According to what she said earlier, if he didn't make a mistake in interpreting her words, then she might be sharing the same feelings as him.
Then there's no need for me to hold back anymore, is there?
Feeling more confident, he slowly cupped her cheeks, imitating what he did that night. The big orange eyes that blinked at him innocently were still as lovely as ever.
"...Even right now I still want to kiss you, do you think it has anything to do with just being swayed by the mood?"
"W-wait, wait, wait!! What are you talking about!? Give me a moment! Don't get so close all of a sudden!"
"An."
"Wha—! Don't speak in front of my ear like that!! Hey, Akito!"
"Earlier I said I won't ever act like that again... so, I'm gonna ask you first this time," his thumb gently stroked the cheek. "...An, can I kiss you?"
Her eyes opened wide at him before they escaped to stare at the ground. He thought there was no way her face could turn any redder than now, but turned out it could. An was biting her lip, seemingly hesitant for a moment, then she looked at him with an upwards glance and a furrow between her brows. The red shade on her face had subsided a little.
"...Somehow isn't it more embarrassing when you have to ask for permission first?"
"Haha, it sure is, huh? Then should I just kiss you without saying anything?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself," she hit his chest. "...Anyway, no. I'm not giving anyone other than my lover permission to kiss me. Currently, Akito is still nothing but a teammate to me, right? I don't want to deal with more confusion after this."
"Ah, that's right... my bad, I might have skipped a few steps. I'll make things clear right now then."
Despite what she said, her hands already settled around the back of his neck. Akito let out a small laugh at the smug grin plastered on her face as she waited for his words.
"An, go out with me."
"No way. After kissing me as you liked, now you're demanding me? Akito is the worst!"
"...You're really not going to make it easy for me at all, are you? How big of a grudge do you have on me?"
"Ahaha~!"
Where's the blushing, bashful mess from earlier? Akito wondered. All he could see in front of him now was a girl smiling in satisfaction, as she pulled him lower enough until his lips were in a reachable distance. 'Sure', he heard her finally giving him the answer in front of his ear.
More than being forgiven, he was accepted. It was hard to believe what he initially thought as a big mistake opened up an opportunity for him instead.
The second kiss they shared was the start of a completely different relationship than what they had before.