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Suffice to say, An liked to make people smile. She considered it her duty. A large chunk of her felt fulfilled that she had the power to bring happiness to others. It gave her a meaning, if that even made any sense.
One person she especially wanted to see smile was Shiho. There was a simple reason why. Shiho had dimples. Now, this wasn’t the rarest thing ever; but An found Shiho’s dimples especially cute, because she may or may not have had a teensy weensy crush on Shiho.
But, it wasn’t like that. Now that she thought about it, ‘crush’ was definitely the wrong word. An just admired Shiho’s dedication to music, and how she was kind of cute and cool at the same time, and how was that even possible, because An wanted to be just like Shiho; but then again, she wouldn’t mind being with Shiho either.
Yes, that definitely wasn’t something as stupid as a crush. Friendly admiration was what An liked to call it. It had quite a ring to it, in her opinion.
It was one of those lucky days where An and Shiho were planning on meeting up somewhere. An had made sure to prepare herself. Again, not because she had a crush on Shiho (even though it was basically a date in her mind), she just wanted to look good for herself. Although, she’d have no problem with Shiho thinking that she looked nice, too.
An sat on a bench in the park, nervously brushing her bangs this way and that way. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was nervous. Shiho had recently performed with her friends at some big event, and An was excited to discuss it with her. She wished she had been present to see it. She was very proud of Shiho, in a way.
As An thought of this, staring down at her clammy hands, she felt a few gentle taps on her arm; so she looked up. And saw Shiho.
“Hey, An.” she said.
“Oh, hey, Hinomori-san..!” An spluttered with a flustered look, louder than she intended because Shiho was still touching her arm, and it was really distracting.
“Were you having fun sitting here by yourself… for thirty whole minutes?” Shiho asked, a small grin on her face. She removed her hand and took a seat next to the other.
“What?”
“You’re early, I mean.” responded Shiho.
“Oh, right.” An nodded, embarrassed that she had been found out. “… Because I was excited to see you, I guess. Is that so wrong?”
Shiho blinked a few times before looking away. “No, it isn’t.”
“If you were here early, you should’ve come and said ‘hi’ or something.” An replied.
“Hm… You’re right, I should’ve. But… I kind of felt… shy…” Shiho mumbled. “I kind of had to prepare myself for this conversation.”
“You? Shy?” An smiled. “I’ve got to see that.”
“Hey, don’t laugh at me.” Shiho replied, fiddling with her fingers.
There was a slight break in the conversation, and, because An didn’t want it to get too awkward, she quickly stood up.
“Well, shall we get going?” An said, extending her hand to Shiho in a very obvious jokey manner, as if Shiho was a princess and she were a prince (this simile slightly flustered An). She was pleasantly surprised when Shiho took her hand and got to her feet.
“Where to?” asked Shiho. She let go of An’s hand and looked curiously down at her own. An did not know what this meant.
“Oh… I didn’t think about that when I asked you out…” An muttered quietly. A moment later, she realised what she had just said and flushed a bright red. “I mean… Not like that… It’s not- You get what I’m trying to say, right?”
She was making a big mess of things. This wasn’t like her usual self. Normally, she was calm, but, for some reason, she couldn’t keep her cool exterior up in front of Shiho.
Shiho gave An an odd look, her eyes brimming with something An couldn’t understand. “How about we just walk around for a bit…?”
“Okay.” An nodded her head.
They set off on the pathway, and An was getting more embarrassed by the second. What did the look Shiho had given her mean? Surely, it wasn’t anything bad. Or perhaps it was? An couldn’t really tell with Shiho. As much as it pained her to say this, she didn’t know much about Shiho.
“So… have you made any improvements with your singing lately?” Shiho asked, glancing at An.
“Oh, I’m actually really glad to say yes!” answered An. “Recently, I’ve been practicing with Kohane and everyone a lot more often, so that we’re more in sync as a group. It’s been fun.” She paused. “What about you? Have you been having fun?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Shiho’s lips curved into a smile, and her dimples were suddenly visible. An almost wanted to reach out a hand and softy touch those cheeks. But that was weird. She couldn’t do that. “We’ve been better than ever lately.”
“That’s great! What if we did something similar. Like, if I sang, and you played your bass. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it?” An rambled in a quick voice. “Just for practice, you know. What do you think?”
Shiho was quiet for a couple seconds, as if mulling this over. “That really would be cool. Something like secret practice.” She nodded quickly. “Yeah, I really like that idea.”
“Okay, we should do that soon.” An replied, her eyes shining at the thought of getting to spend more time with Shiho.
“All right.” Shiho looked at An and smiled. A full, happy smile. Dimples glowing and all.
An felt her heartbeat quicken. “Hey, you know, your dimples are really cute..!” she exclaimed. She stared down at the floor. “You should totally smile more...”
Shiho was silent for a long time, so An, ashamed, moved her head up and turned it to sneak a glance at Shiho’s face. It was a bright red, and her eyes were as wide as the sun itself.
“Oh, um… Thank you, you too…” Shiho mumbled. “I mean, not you, too. But… You know.. As in, ‘thank you, I think your smile is… cute, too’.”
An felt her stomach drop, but in a positive way. “Oh, uh… yeah. Thank you very much, Hinomori-san.”
“You’re welcome.” Shiho said, her face still burning red (which, frankly, An definitely didn’t understand). “You should smile more, too.”
“Will do.” An said. Then, she cringed at her words, because that was something an old person would say.
Shiho just gave An a pained expression, and, a second later, she laughed a little. So, naturally, An laughed, too. She didn’t understand what was so funny, but Shiho just had one of those contagious laughs.
There were a lot of things that An didn’t understand about Shiho, but as time went on, she was sure she would learn to love them.