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On a rare day where they didn’t have practice with Ken, An and Kohane had decided to meet up at café. The sun was shining gently, enveloping them both with warmth as they sipped their coffee at a table outside.
This was such a rare occasion, with them being busy gaining the skill necessary to surpass Rad Weekend, the girls happily chatted about anything interesting they’ve heard lately. And perhaps because it was only the two of them today, Kohane felt bold enough to satisfy her newest curiosity.
“Hey, An-chan, can I ask you a weird question?”, she said, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
“Of course, I don’t mind any questions coming from you.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said while placing down her half-finished cup of coffee, then continued shyly. “Have you… have you ever kissed someone?”
An almost spit her coffee from the unexpected question. She took a napkin and gently wiped her mouth, trying to ignore the heat rising on her ears. She put it down and, while scratching her cheek, replied:
“W-well, I may have. Once.”
“E-eh?! Wh-who did you kiss if I can ask…?”
An giggled. Of course her partner would be surprised, but the way she reacted was still cute. After looking around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation, she gestured for Kohane to come closer, then whispered in her ear:
“This is probably shocking to hear, but…Akito…”
Kohane yelps and jumps back in surprise.
“Shi-Shinonome-kun?!”
“Don’t be so loud,” An says embarrassed. “It was a while ago and I’m surprised he doesn’t hate me after all that…”
From the look on her face, she could tell Kohane was dying to hear more but wasn’t sure if she was allowed to ask.
“I’ll tell you about it if you’ll tell me about yours after, ok?”
She smiled softly at her partner.
Kohane’s eyes lit up. “Okay!”
The starry sky-haired girl finished her coffee, gestured for the waitress and ordered another cup. When her second cup arrived, she spent a few awkward minutes stirring it, before finally starting to speak:
“Well, this was during our first year…”
It was a late autumn evening. At Weekend Garage, two lively teenagers were busy singing their hearts out in the closed café. Vivid Bad Squad finished practice early since Toya and Kohane wanted to work on their assignments. Akito offered to walk An home and, at their partners’ insistence, promised to work on their assignments together. Unsurprisingly, they were doing anything but that.
An was having lots of fun. She usually either sang with the whole team or only with Kohane so she kept choosing all kinds of songs to see which ones matched their voices, with Akito casually following her lead. They kept going like this until the sun had set for a long time.
An took a moment to catch her breath before grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. She sat down at a nearby table and gulped down almost the whole bottle. Akito sat across her, still catching his.
“That was so fun!”, she said while putting the bottle on the table a bit too loud. “You need to show me how to hit those high notes!”
“I can teach you on our next practice session,” he said while smiling.
“Really? Well, I’m looking forward to that! Oh wait, aren’t you thirsty too?”
“Of course I am.”
She grabbed the bottle and pointed it towards him without a second thought. Akito looked perplexed, which made An raise an eyebrow. Sighing, he said:
“Give me another bottle, geez.”
“Eh, what’s wrong with this one?”
“You just drank from it,” he said exasperated.
She still looked confused. Akito sighed again, louder this time, putting his fingers to his forehead.
“If I drink from that bottle after you drank from it it’ll be an indirect kiss, which is gross.”
Having finally understood, An blushed a little. “Oh. Sure, I’ll get you another one.”
Her voice sounded a little sad. On her way to her fridge, she started wondering why.
“This weird, fuzzy feeling… It’s spreading in my chest again… It’s normal for him to mind it since we’re only teammates. He doesn’t see me that way. And yet…why do I feel so…down…”
She decided to mess with him a little for making her feel this way. So, turning back, she put on her best pouting face and walked back to the table they were sitting at and put the bottle in front of Akito quite forcefully, farther away from hers. He took it while raising an eyebrow. After drinking, he sighed again and asked:
“Why are you so upset now?”
An crossed her arms while still pouting and looked away.
“Are you mad for earlier by any chance?”, she could hear him ask. Akito sounded so concerned for her she almost considered dropping this act out of guilt, but this was only the beginning. She couldn’t back away now.
Sighing, she turned her head back towards him, choosing to face the table instead. She put on her best sad face and asked in a small, trembling voice:
“What part… what part do you find gross?”
“Huh?”
“Is it the indirect kiss itself…or the thought of kissing me?”
She looked up towards him. Akito was taken aback. Looking away from her, Akito opened and closed his mouth, at a loss for words.
“I knew it… there’s no way anyone would want to kiss me… It’s too gro—”
“An.”
Startled, she looked back at him. His beautiful olive eyes were looking straight into her orange ones, his gaze so intense it almost reached her soul. An’s breath caught in her throat and she gulped. He only looked so serious when he was talking about his dream—no, their dream— of surpassing Rad Weekend.
“I would never find it gross,” he began, his eyes softening. “Awkward or embarrassing sure, since we aren’t dating or anything, but never gross.”
“Do you really mean that?” she said hopefully.
Akito moved the 2 water bottles to the side of the table and extended a hand towards An, who uncrossed her arms in a defeated motion and placed a timid hand in his open palm, starting to feel a bit warm inside.
“Of course. C’mon, you’re more than average looking, there’s no way I’d find kissing you disgusting.”
“So you think I’m pretty?” she grinned.
Startled by her sudden mood shift, Akito stuttered, his cheeks reddening:
“I-I never said that…”
When her smile dropped, he quickly added:
“But yes, you are pretty, so please don’t make that kind of face.”
“What do you find pretty about me?”
She felt another pang of guilt for messing with him like this, but he wasn’t usually this honest. And an honest Akito was a sweet Akito.
“Just a bit more teasing should be fine.”
Covering the bottom half of his face with his other hand, Akito turned towards the stage instead of her and began listing: “Your hair. The way your whole face lights up when you smile. Your eyes. Your laugh. The way you smile when talking about the things you like. Your—”
“Alright, alright, I get it, you can stop now,” she interrupted him, her cheeks growing redder than his.
Akito chuckled and turned back to look at her, smiling softly. Her heart skipped a beat. This was more than enough payback for that feeling from earlier and yet a part of her wanted to tease him more. Smirking, she looked him straight in the eye and said:
“Finding me pretty is not enough. Prove it.”
“What?”
“Prove that you don’t find it gross.”
“…Do you want me to kiss you?”
“Well, that would certainly prove it,” she said while twirling a strand of her hair, looking at the water bottles.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Before she could open her mouth to say “Relax, I’m just kidding”, he dropped his hand, muttering something she didn’t quite catch, and looked at her.
For the second time that night, she was taken aback. He was almost as red as the tomatoes she hates, but he cupped her face and leaned in over the table until their foreheads touched. Her breath hitched and An was sure she could cook an egg on her cheeks right now. Losing herself in his olive eyes, she thought Akito looked even prettier up close.
Not too long after she closed her eyes, she felt wrapped in his warmth. The tenderness he was holding her with and the gentle brush of his lips against hers made her melt completely. His intoxicating smell was making her feel light-headed. Being kissed like this felt like breaking into a scene from the mangas her girl classmates were reading during lunch break. She never thought something like this were to happen to her when she spent most of her time working towards her dream, but here she was, kissing a boy who was too kind for his own good. Another wave of guilt washed over her as she remembered the only reason they were in this kind of situation was because of her pretending to be insecure, but she tried to push it away by leaning further into his touch. It was of no use though, as with each stupidly sweet kiss the guilt inside her chest kept rising. God, why did he have to be so good at this.
Parting felt like waking up from a nice, cozy dream to the cold reality in which she tricked Shinonome Akito into kissing her. Catching her breath while facing the table, she once again prepared to say something when Akito lifted her chin back up, gently tracing all the way from her cheek to her bottom lip, wearing the softest smile she’s ever seen. Damn, this guy didn’t deserve this.
“See?” he said in a voice just as sweet as the kiss from earlier. “I don’t find it gross. I could never find kissing you gross, so please stop saying things like that.”
Has Shinonome Akito always been like this? Where’s that annoying cheeky guy that always got on her nerves? This Shinonome Akito didn’t deserve to be fooled like this any longer.
Shifting in her chair, An decided to put an end to this act.
“Listen… There’s something else I want to tell you.”
Akito hummed to show he was listening.
“I was exaggerating.”
“What?”
Her heart sank when he pulled away the hand he was cupping her face with. Lacing her fingers through the ones from his extended arm so he wouldn’t pull that away too, she continued:
“Your comment from earlier made me feel all weird and fuzzy inside and I didn’t know why. So I decided to mess with you for a bit since you made me feel that way. But I went overboard and I apologize…”
Daring to look up at him again, she saw Akito looking at a point far away from her, bottom of his face covered by his hand. The tips of his ears were red and she wasn’t sure if it was out of embarrassment or out of anger.
“You were messing with me,” he said absentmindedly.
“Yes and I’m sorry…”
He let his head drop to the crook of his arm, letting out a groan. Startled, An asked if he was ok.
“Just let me stay like this for a bit,” came his muffled voice. “That was the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever done and now you’re saying you were just messing with me?”
“I said I’m sorry!! ...I know it’s not much…But if I make you some pancakes, would you consider forgiving me…?”
He laughed and her heart skipped a beat again. They stayed like this for what seemed like an eternity, before Akito lifted his head and faced her, a sad smile on his face. His hair got a bit messy and all An wanted to do was ruffle it. Shaking her head, she scolded herself for not taking this situation seriously, but she couldn’t help it, the boy in front of her was just too pretty. Has her crush on him always been this big or is this just because they were kissing earlier?
“After all that, you’re bribing me with pancakes?” he finally spoke, tone slightly amused. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem upset.
“W-well…”
“Relax, you don’t have to. I won’t pretend like I’m not mad or anything but…it’s fine. Just…don’t ever do something like this again. I don’t like seeing you get sad ‘cause you think you aren’t good enough, that’s all.”
An looked to the ground. It was unfair how kind he could be, her heart couldn’t take it anymore.
“I promise I won’t do something like this again.”
With that, she didn’t resist when he let go of her hand, chair scraping against the floor when he stood up. An looked up towards him as he pushed the chair back.
“Well, it’s late so I should get going. Tell Ken-san I said hi.”
He already greeted her father when he first arrived with Toya and Kohane, but An still nodded.
“Have a safe way home.”
He turned back and left Weekend Garage. After a few seconds of staring at the door, An crossed her arms on the table and dropped her head against them, face down. She should have felt bad for teasing him like that, and she did, a little, but most of all, she felt happy. She felt happy she kissed Shinonome Akito.
And also because she got to see his sweet and caring side.
But mostly because of the kiss.
“I couldn’t look him in the eyes for like a week,” An finished her story with a sad laugh, stirring what was left of her coffee. “He’s been treating me the same as always but I’m not sure if he forgave me. And, after that, I haven't tried to flirt with him again.”
Kohane seemed deep in thought for a moment, before she put her long emptied cup on the table, giving An an understanding smile.
“I don’t think Shinonome-kun resents you,” she said. “If anything, I think he feels the same as you.”
“Akito feels the same as me…?”
“The things he found pretty about you are usually the things a shoujo manga protagonist would list,” she chuckled. “And he said it was nerve-wracking for him, right? Kissing your crush can be scary.”
She stared into the distance with a sad look on her face, recalling an incident with a two tone-haired boy. Shaking the memory away, she looked back towards An, who was still stirring that coffee.
“So would it be fine for me to make another move…?”, the starry sky-haired girl asked.
Kohane nodded. “But don’t trick him like that again.”
“I won’t, I won’t.”
“Also, what happened to your assignments?” she said coldly.
An gulped down the rest of her coffee. She winced at how cold it had gotten. But she didn't dare look Kohane in the eyes. Her partner could be a little scary if she wanted to.
“Mizuki helped me with mine during the lunch period a-and I’m sure Akito got help with his from Toya! Ahaha…But enough about me! How about you, Kohane, have you ever kissed someone?”
The hamster-like girl cast her gaze downwards.
“About that…That day, Aoyagi-kun walked me home and, when we arrived, he tried to kiss me…I was so scared he ended up kissing my cheek instead. He insisted that was enough for him, but I could see his disappointment. Maybe if I pushed myself a bit…”
An patted her on the back gently.
“I’m sure Toya would want you to be comfortable first. He wouldn’t force you to do something you don’t want to.”
“You’re right, An-chan,” she smiled, feeling a bit better.
The waitress passed by and An asked for the bill. After paying for their drinks, the two girls sat up and started walking towards Vivid Street. When they arrived, An wished Kohane good luck with Toya.
“Good luck with Shinonome-kun too, An-chan,” Kohane said before waving her goodbye and she left.
Maybe Kohane is right, the starry sky-haired girl pondered before taking her phone out of her pocket. I don’t want to give up on him yet either. She tapped Akito’s name on her contacts list and started typing.
“Hey, are you free tomorrow? There’s this pancake place Mizuki told me about"
Her eyes lit up when she received a reply almost instantly.
“I have some time in the morning”
“It’s a date then ;) “
“If you want it to be sure”
Grinning, she put her phone back in her pocket. This was a good sign. She couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come.