Chapter Text
“Are you sure it's okay?” I warily asked my friend in front of me. “Parties aren't really my thing…”
“It’ll be fine!” Emu said with a bright smile. “We’re all here to have fun! No one's gonna chase you out.”
“But Emu–”
“Oiiii! Emu!” A Blonde guy, coming from the living room, approached us at the doorway. “It’s been a while!” He smiled.
“Whoa, Tsukasa!” My friend smiled brightly as she stared at the guy in front of us. “What's on your face?”
“My face?” The guy, Tsukasa, looked undoubtedly confused.
“You have drawings on your nose and forehead.” Emu pursed her lips to stop from laughing.
Tsukasa scrunched his nose and jogged back into the living room yelling a name. “AKITO!”
Emu chuckled as she glanced back towards me. “You okay?”
“Uh–me? Ah! Yeah…” I flubbed on my words a bit but Emu looked at me a bit gently and held my hand.
“Don't be scared, Nene,” Emu reassured me, “just grab a few snacks, eat drinks, and we can have fun!”
“O-ok.” I nodded, meekly, still scared for what's to come.
I’ve known Emu since high school. We were in different schools but we met by chance at an arcade and because of her, we quickly became friends. We’d hang out from time to time and as luck would have it, we ended up at the same University.
Emu was particularly the only friend I had that lasted for a long time. Which is something considering that we are from different places, so the fact that we still hang out is a miracle.
Emu’s nice and kind and considerate and she's shown me different places I never would have visited on my own. Even now, she's taking the time to help me get used to life at the University by introducing me to her friends.
Even still…I’m scared. Emu might be different but everyone I’ve met has ended up leaving me in one way or another. I can't bear the thought of going through those same things again.
To this day, I still can't muster up my voice in front of crowds because of what happened.
“Nene!” Emu’s voice snapped my mind back to the present. She looked at me a bit worried, her jewel-like purple eyes, staring with such concern. “You know what, let's just hang out at my place tonight!” Emu started to walk outside but I shook my head.
She’s doing this for me, I can't keep relying on her forever. “It's fine, Emu. I’m just nervous. That's all.”
“Okay, if you say so…” Emu still seemed to be worried but she pushed forward an optimistic smile. “But if you ever feel you wanna go back. Tell me. Okay?”
“Thank you.” I smiled at her and she finally led me deeper inside the place.
Apparently, this apartment was owned by a boy named Aoyagi. His father was pretty rich, so he could afford such a large place to stay and from what I heard from Emu, he’s a nice guy.
“Over there should be the bathroom,” Emu pointed towards a room at the end of a hall, “that place should be the kitchen, we're in the living room, other than that…there's a bunch of other rooms but I think no one's really using them at the moment.”
“I see.” I squeaked. There was loud music playing as well and I could feel the bass reverberate in my body. It felt nice to be surrounded by music again…
I shook my head and escaped from that thought. I’m still far too scared to try anything related to music.
“Emu!” A guy, this time with strange blue hair, came up to us. “You came.” He spoke with such a benign and refined tone that it caught me off guard.
“Of course!” She grinned. “Hehe…Also, what brought the idea for a party to your head?”
“Ah. That's—”
“Toya!” A smirking young man wrapped his arm around the person talking to us and chuckled with a smile on his face. “Meeting with the new guests?”
“Akito?” Toya, the blue haired boy, blinked upon being grappled suddenly. “Yes. I wanted to welcome them properly.”
Akito smirked and ruffled Toya’s hair as he then took a glance at me. “Oh? Haven't seen you around here before.”
“Tsk,” Toya clicked his tongue and pushed Akito’s face down his shoulder. “You always say that when meeting new people.”
“Shut it.”
Emu giggled at the two as she turned her eyes to me to see how I was doing. She gave me a nod, which I didn't understand the meaning of before addressing the two boys in front of us. “Hehe…this is my friend from High School, Kusanagi Nene!” She waved her hands in an arc as if she were presenting a sparkling treasure or something.
I’m unfortunately not a sparkling treasure. “N-Nice to meet you, I'm Nene Kusanagi.”
Toya raised his hand and offered a handshake. “Aoyagi Toya.” I nervously took the offer but his hands were firm yet warm, so it felt nice holding them.
His name was Aoyagi, so this means, he’s the one who owns this apartment where the party is taking place. I guess I’d have to thank him for letting me crash without an official invite.
The other guy, his name was Akito?
So he was the guy that drew on that blonde dude’s face earlier. I’ve forgotten that man’s name already.
“T-thank you for letting me come in.” I blurted out anxiously and bowed my head as a sign of gratitude.
The blue haired boy merely smiled and shook his head. “No worries, Emu’s friends are always welcome.”
“I-I see.” I bowed my head again.
“A-ah no need to keep bowing your head!” The host shook his hands frantically. “It's really no big deal.” Toya chuckled a bit.
“We should probably let her get accustomed to the place first.” Akito raised his eyebrows and patted Toya’s back. “We’ll get out of your hair now, cya later Emu!”
“Bye bye!” Emu waved as the two young men headed off to talk to two girls leaning on a wall at one end of the room. “You hungry?” Emu tilted her head curiously
“I could use a snack.” I sheepishly smile at her and she just nods and holds my hand as we go over to the kitchen table where all the food was laid out.
“Take anything you want.” Emu offered as that comment was supposed to be for me but her eyes were already twinkling at the sweets before her.
I smiled a bit as I glanced at her rather adorable expression as she reached over and picked up a pink frosted cupcake with star shaped candy placed all over it.
“Humuhumu~ haaaa~” Emu had this pretty satisfied look as she ate the cupcake which made her unconsciously giggle. “Hm?” She turned her head to me, who was covering my mouth with my fingers to hide my grin.
“It's nothing.” I tried to look normal as I took a cupcake for myself. “Does it taste good?”
“Yeah!” She nodded her head vigorously which terrified me a bit but I went along with it.
I took a bite of the cupcake and they were in fact very delicious. I could feel my mouth explode with the flavors and satisfying sweetness. “These are good.” I placed my fingers over my mouth while I chewed so I didn't look weird when I saw Emu next to me just eating hers with glee.
“Emu!” A blonde guy approached us, it was the same blonde guy earlier whose name I forgot. “It seems like you're having fun with those desserts.”
“Mhmm!” Emu nodded her head and grinned with a few crumbs left on her cheek. “They were very delicious!”
“Thanks! My sister baked them.” He proudly raised his chin and put his hands on his hips as he looked like he was ready to be praised.
Ahhh…what is with this guy?
“Whoa! Thanks, Tsukasa!” Emu’s eyes glittered with wonder. “Tell your sister she's amazing!”
“Ha! Ha! Ha! It is only to be expected from my sister!” The man’s laugh was obnoxious as he made a smug look, acting like he was the one who baked these cupcakes. “I brought them over at her request since she couldn't make it.”
“Awww.” Emu looked rather sad. “Saki, couldn't come along?”
“Her band has a gig tonight at some popular local bar.” The man, Tsukasa, explained. “She told me to go in her stead and to bring these cupcakes along.”
“Wooow!”
“I’m going to the bar later since they’ll be there all night performing.” Tsukasa smiled. “Wanna come with?”
“Oh. Um…” Emu took a second to look at me and she looked like she was about to decline for my sake but I pulled on her shirt to tell her that I'll be fine. She looked at me with a scrunched up face and leaned in to whisper. “Are you sure?”
“I don't wanna keep you to myself this entire night, Emu.” I said. “I don't want to stop you from having fun.”
“But I’m having fun with you.”
“Hehe~ But you look like you want to go.” I pinched her cheeks and wiped the crumbs next to her mouth. “Don't worry about me too much.”
“Okay.” She gave me a smile before turning to Tsukasa. “Yeah! Sure! I can come!”
“Great!” Tsukasa cheered and then pointed to a direction. “I wanna show you something too, Emu. If that's okay with…?” He glanced at me and I realized I hadn't introduced myself to him yet.
“Kusanagi Nene.”
“If that's okay with you, Kusanagi-san?”
“Just Nene is fine.”
“Okay then. Nene, is it okay for you if I borrow Emu for a bit?”
Emu glanced at me again, she still carried a concerned expression. I simply just sighed and pushed the worried star eyed girl to him. “It’s fine. See you later, Emu.”
“Nene?” Emu blinked.
“I’ll be okay, the people here are nice anyways.” I reasoned with her and that proved to be enough to calm her down as she took the boy’s hand and happily went over to a different part of the living room with him.
For some reason, the moment Emu left, the music picked up on its volume and the once calming reverberation of the beats started to make me feel a bit anxious.
I looked around for a place to sit down but they were all occupied or right next to groups of people, all of which I don't recognize. There were conversations happening left and right and slowly but surely they slowly overturned my head like noise.
I am not so used to an environment like this and it's not like I can just waltz my way in on a conversation with people when I have no idea who they are.
Emu did point out a bathroom at the end of the hallway but right now it had a bunch of girls in front of it talking and having fun. my legs would not dare take me there to even risk interrupting them.
I felt a bit of panic.
No actually, quite a decent sum of it.
Maybe I shouldn't have told Emu to go…No. I shouldn't think that. I didn't want to be greedy and ruin her night by just having her be around me the entire time. I wanted her to at least have fun without having to worry for such a troublesome girl like me.
I don't want to be a bad friend.
I walked around the house as the music grew ever so louder, making my chest feel tighter and tighter. Thankfully, I finally found an unlocked room and shuffled my way inside.
I silently closed the door once my legs were tiptoed inside and laid my back on it as I felt my knees buckle and my body slowly droop to the floor.
I took one heavy sigh as I peered up my eyes to gaze around the room I had decided to run away in but my heart came to a stop when I realized that there was another person in here.
He laid on the bed with his legs crossed as he read a book. He had long purple hair, with a blue-ish strand streak on his bangs. He had this slightly surprised look as he stared at me slowly dying inside from embarrassment.
“I-I’m sorry. I didn't know someone else was in here.” I fretted as my hands instinctively and hurriedly reached over to the door knob.
“It's okay.” His voice was playful but sweet. His hand raised up, probably gesturing for me to not run away. “I take it you went here to get away from all the noise outside?”
I don't know why but his voice helped my shoulders relax and my heartbeat started calming down as well. “Yeah.” A sigh I didn't expect came out from between my lips. “I don't like it that much.”
“Me too. It's not like I can't handle it but I was struck with an idea and it's a bit hard to mull it over when there's too much going on around me.” He explained as he continued to browse his book. I nodded back and didn't say a word after.
I am not good at this, okay!?
I continued to sit in one corner as I watched him slowly flip from page to page. “What are you reading?” I find myself suddenly gaining confidence to ask a question.
“Just something about the History of Classical Music.” He muttered as he took his time to turn the book and flash me a page. “Did you know Mozart was already composing music at five years old?”
I chuckled a bit. “That's so young.”
“Yeah.” He scoured through the pages and turned over to help me see another one. “Look at this one. It says that the largest orchestra has around 12,000 members.”
“Whoah.”
“Hehe.” The man took a glance at me and smiled. “Are you more relaxed now?”
“A bit.” I felt my chest loosen as I breathed, the tightness from before seemingly never existed.
“There's a few more facts here…if you wanna take a look?” He offered the book to me and I unconsciously found myself smiling.
“Sure.” I stood up and headed over and sat next to him.
We sat there on the bed just reading up on this random book he found. We laughed, chatted, and basically had each other's company for a while
“Rui.” He suddenly spoke as he turned a page.
“Hm?”
“That's my name, Rui Kamishiro.” He turned to look at me and I was a bit caught off guard, my cheeks flushed red for a second.
“Oh?” My eyes darted around for a second but I managed to face him properly. “Nene. Kusanagi Nene.” For some reason, his name triggered something in my brain but I couldn't quite pin it down exactly.
“It's a pleasure to meet you, Nene-san.” He smiled at me.
“It's nice to meet you too, Rui-san.” I smiled back.
There was this slight spark in the air like a crack of electricity but before it could develop any further, the door swung open and a small pink haired girl was the cause of the commotion. “Nene-chii!”
Emu ran up to me and hugged me, her eyes were teary as she wiped them on my clothes. Tsuruge, the blonde haired guy earlier, stood by the doorway with a soft expression as he stared at us.
“Emu?! What's going on?” I panicked and glared at the blondie by the doorway.
“I-I thought you left the party all alone, after I left you. I was scared that I ended up abandoning you and…” She sniffled onto my dress.
“Oh.” My face softened as I realized she was just worried about me.
I found myself comforting her as she was basically completely bawling her eyes out at this point.
“She was tossing and turning every rock looking for you.” Tsuruge–was it?– commented.
“I see. Thanks, Tsuruge-kun.” Somehow, I felt extremely happy at the moment after hearing those words. “And you especially, Emu!” I ruffled her hair.
The blonde guy looked at me with a bit of a shocked expression. “It's actually Tsukas–”
“HM?!” Emu finally seemed to realize that I wasn't alone in the room she just barged into. “Rui-kun!?”
“You finally noticed me.” He had a pretty laugh.
“Whaaaa!” Emu panicked as she wiped away her puffy face. “Were you keeping my Nene-chii company?”
“That was the intention. Did I do a good job? Kusanagi-san?” He smirked and I chuckled, although I did notice he stopped calling me by my first name.
“Yes, it was very good, thank you.” I replied.
“Hehehe~” Emu giggled. “Thanks so much, Rui-kun!” She expressed her gratitude to the boy.
“No, it was an honor to entertain her.” Rui shook his head. “I would love to speak to you again someday, Kusanagi-san.”
“I’d also like that.”
“Oh yeah, Rui.” Tsuruge leaned on the doorframe. “Toya was also looking for you, he just assumed you left to do your own thing.”
“I wouldn't leave without a word to the host.” He shrugged and stood up and walked over to Tsuruge. “I should probably tell him where I was. I’ll see you later, Kusanagi-san.”
“See you too.” I waved as the two boys left and went off to find Toya.
“Nene.” Emu called next to me. “You're not mad right?”
I giggled at her with a confused expression. “Why would I be mad?”
“Cause I left.”
“I told you to.”
“But still.”
“Don't worry, Emu.” I patted her head. “I had fun.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I thought back to the brief moment I had with Rui and for one reason or another, that memory felt warm and gentle, like a fireplace on Christmas eve. “I had a lot of fun.”
Some notes:
I would like to say that there is a second chapter in the works but god only knows when I continue and finish it.
If you like this enough give it a kudo or a bookmark, that'll let me know if I should pick my ass up and satisfy all of youse~
If you didn't like it then, I'm sorry for creating a travesty. T^T
Edit:
alright this became a lot more popular than I could've expected...
When we reach either 200 hits or 30 kudos i'll continue the next one so yeah... Keep your eyes peeled heh~
Edit again:
FINE! Damn... It didn't take a month... I'll make another chapter soon...jeez lololol... Also apparently Rui's special hair strand is blue not yellow my bad... It's changed now. T^T