“You never mentioned that you liked to cook.” Tomohisa said as he and Maki cleaned up the meal the pianist made.

Maki shrugged as she placed the last of the plates inside the holder. She had her hair tied up into a ponytail and some strands were escaping from the knot as she worked.

“I didn’t really need to mention it. My mom loved to cook so naturally, I learned from her.” She smiled and face Tomohisa only to see that the man was staring at her. “Tomo?”

“I’m sorry…” Tomohisa shook his head awake. “What were you saying?”

“Nothing.” Maki chuckled. “Why don’t you dry some of these plates here.”

“Ah sure.”

Tomohisa reached out until they stood beside each other. Maki washed the plates while Tomohisa dried them. It was quiet as they worked together. Maki could feel Tomohisa’s heat beside her and this caused a little color to come to her cheeks. Stealing a look, she turned her eyes subtly and glanced up at him. Being comfortable at home, he was only wearing a white wife beater. Only one word came into her mind; arms. Tomohisa had fantastic arms she admitted. How could someone who played guitar be so muscular? He probably works out.

“Maki was that the last plate?”

His deep voice snapped her out from her trance. She nodded her head before drying her hands with a towel then finally removing the hair tie she had.

“Jaa, I guess your hunger pangs are no more, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Maki slowly made her way out of the apartment but Tomohisa reached out and held her hand.

“Ch-chotto…”

“Hmm?” Maki asked. She realized she liked the feel of Tomohisa’s skin.

“I…” There went Tomohisa being all flustered. “Anou… would you like some coffee??” He said it in a way as if he was relieved.

Coffee? He was inviting her to have coffee? “Coffee?” She repeated.

Tomohisa nodded his head and pulled on her so she wouldn’t be a step closer to leaving. “I have my own recipe of making café mocha.” He offered a small smile.

“Okay then.” Maki nodded her head. She followed a joyous looking Tomohisa back into his apartment living room.

“Sit here, I’ll make the coffee.” Tomohisa said, slightly placing her to sit on the sofa.

While sitting, Maki wondered to herself how Tomohisa knew that café mocha was her favorite coffee drink? She looked around and had to smile as she saw some of the photos Tomohisa had. There was one with Jin and Kazuya, they were at the beach, all holding surfboards. Then there was one with the six of them, to her surprise. It was taken during the showcase of the academy’s first year. Then there was a picture of Tomohisa with his parents. Well, at least who looked like his parents. He had a very handsome father even if he seemed like he was in his fifties.

“Yeah, my otou-san’s pretty good looking.”

Tomohisa suddenly appeared, holding two steaming mugs. He gave one to Maki who smiled at him in thanks.

“No wonder you’re spoiled, you’re an only child.” Maki teased, she drank from the coffee and felt her eyes go wild. This was amazing!

Tomohisa smugly drank into his cup as he sat down beside Maki. “Not my fault. But it’d be a rest if my mom would stop babying me.”

Maki laughed softly. Tomohisa loved hearing her laugh.

“I can imagine your mom pinching your cheeks and making kissy faces.” Maki teased. But then she kept quiet and brought the mug closer. She was suddenly swarmed with memories of her own mom. She really missed her. After her dad left it was her and her mom against the world. Now she was all alone. A sad smile started crawling onto her lips but she remembered Tomohisa was there. Too late. He had seen her.

“Maki, what’s wrong?”

“Ah iie…” Maki shook her head. She was contemplating all of her thoughts but she then blurted out. “I just miss my mom, that’s all.”

“I’m sure she’s up there guarding you.” Tomohisa offered.

Maki smiled at him. “Thanks.” At least he comforted her. This was her chance to talk to someone though. Besides, it was 1 in the morning and they had nothing better to do.

“I still wonder where my father is though.” Maki said as she sipped from her mug.

Tomohisa inched closer. “You still don’t know where he is?”

With a shake of her head, Maki sighed. “No. I mean, I tried looking for him and contacting him but that was a long time ago. Now I have no idea where he is. It’s like he never had a daughter.”

At this, Tomohisa’s blood boiled. How could a father take someone as amazing as Maki for granted. “It’s not your fault Maki-chan, and frankly, he’s the one missing out on how a great person you are.”

Maki looked at him in slight surprise. “Wow, Tomo. Thanks, I didn’t know coffee made you say sweet things.”

Tomohisa laughed at her joke and shrugged. “I can be sweet at times.” It was enough with chitchat and they were back to teasing while enjoying the coffee Tomohisa created.

“How about we watch a movie?” Tomohisa suddenly offered when they had nothing to talk about anymore.

Maki scrunched up her face in mock annoyance which only brought Tomohisa to a laugh. “Don’t you remember that we have class later?” It was already 3 in the morning the last time Maki checked.

Tomohisa shrugged. “Come on, we have nothing better to do. And the coffee kept me awake.”

“Of course it would genius.”

Tomohisa ignored Maki’s comment and went ahead to fish out some DVDs.

“Ah here we are!”

It was a comedy and Maki had no objection whatsoever to watch it. “This is my favorite!” She cheered. Tomohisa set it up and they sat down together on the couch in-front of the tv. It went ahead smoothly and they both just laughed their butts off. But the after effects of the coffee was slowly getting to Maki.

“What an idiot!” Tomohisa laughed at a stunt the lead actor of the movie did. But when he turned to his side, it was to see at that moment how Maki’s sleepyhead fell on his broad shoulders.

Hot damn. She felt so smooth and soft against him. Shut it Tomo, bad thoughts. Very bad thoughts.

“Maki?”

“Mmm…”

“Come on you can sleep on my bed…”

“5 more minutes.” Maki groaned and snuggled her face closer.

Tomohisa felt himself stiffen. This girl was going to be the death of him. He couldn’t move without waking her up and well, she just seemed like she was literally passed out from tiredness.

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Gosh, what time was it? Maki ordered herself to wake up and reached for her pillow but found that she wasn’t in her bed. Her eyes widened and she immediately shot up when she realized where she was. There she was, lying on Tomohisa’s couch; actually, she was lying on Tomohisa, his arm was around her waist. Forced of habit, she checked her wristwatch and discovered the time.

“Tomo wake up we’re late!”

“Huh—what?” Tomohisa shot up.

“We’re late! We slept too long!” Maki announced, she pried the man’s arm away and stood up from the couch, blinking her eyes awake. A series of knocks jolted both of them to attention and what was worse was the sound of Jin’s voice coming from the other side.

“Tomo? Tomo are you alright? We’ve been calling you!” Jin continued knocking.

Tomohisa scrunched up his hair and stood up to approach the door but Maki held him back.

“What are you doing?!” She whispered.

Tomohisa looked at her. “Opening the door so Jin can come inside.”

“What will he think when he sees me here?” Maki said, still looking worried.

Tomohisa smirked devilishly at her and she slapped his arm.

“Itai!”

“Tomohisa?! Are you with some girl?!” Jin yelled once again. Didn’t this guy have any filter.

Maki finally decided for herself to lessen the embarrassment. She stepped over and opened the door, scowling at Jin. To say the latter was flabbergasted was an understatement.

“M-Maki?”

“Before you think of something, I just fell asleep on his couch,” Maki said in a defiant manner before walking past Jin, out of the door then walking into her own apartment.

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“You slept in Tomo’s apartment?!”

Maki grimaced at Erika. “Thanks Eri, you want me to call the news team so that everyone will know?” She gritted her teeth. They were in the cafeteria, Maki thankfully reached second period and just had her first period class do an assignment. She hadn’t seen Tomohisa since that morning after bolting from his apartment and she went ahead to school before he did.

Erika sighed and waved a hand off. This was supposed to be a meeting about the acquaintance party but everyone was running late. Particularly Maki; it was a good thing she was able to give her students something to do.

 “I don’t get it with you Maki, you cook a meal for the man in the middle of the night, then sleep in his apartment, what does that say huh?” Erika challenged as she drank from her smoothie.

“Can’t a guy and a girl just be friends?” Maki begged that all of this would be over.

Erika rolled her eyes, taking the smoothie away. “Jin and I are friends, you and Yuichi are friends, Meisa and Kazuya are friends… you and Tomohisa? Are one kiss away from getting together.”

“You kissed Tomohisa!?”

Great, why did Maki have such loud mouthed friends. She turned to Meisa who had just arrived and proclaimed said activity.

“No Mei-tan, I did not kiss Tomo.”

“Oh but you want to?”

God! There was no winning with these two! “I don’t know with you, but aren’t we supposed to be talking about the acquaintance party?”

“We’re waiting for Keiko and Aki.” Erika said.

At the mention of the former’s name, Maki stiffened and looked at her friends. “Guys, promise me you won’t be mentioning this to Keiko.”

Both in wonder, Meisa and Erika turned to each other before the taller one asked; “Why? What does she care if you slept with Tomo?”

That didn’t sound good. But technically, she did sleep with Tomohisa but not in the way everyone would think when they hear that. She just hoped Meisa and Erika could control themselves and not let their tongues slip.

“Hi guys! Sorry we’re late!”

Keiko and a vocal instructor, Aki, walked over to their table in the cafeteria, both having wide smiles on their faces.

“Hi guys! Let’s start with the meeting ne?” Maki said in a little too eager tone. She’d do anything just to make Erika and Meisa shut up about last night.

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Tomohisa sat inside the dark sound booth, his head in his hands. These are some new feelings erupting from him. He could still remember how soft Maki felt next to him. He did it absent mindedly but he loved having his arm around her pliant body. Was this just a simple attraction? He already knew that the first time he saw her a couple of years ago. She looked fresh, simple and smart. But what really draws him to her was her talent and her kind and caring personality. She was strong. Not many could handle being left and forgotten by your own father. Adding to that was the passing of her mother but she still greeted the day with a determined spirit and a shining smile.  

“Knock knock…”

He lifted his head up at the voice and saw Kazuya. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with this one grilling him about what happened last night.

“I heard what happened last night.”

Scratch that. Sighing, Tomohisa leaned back on the couch and looked at his other best friend. “before you say anything, or believe anything what Jin says. Maki and I fell asleep on the couch, that’s all.”

“I believe you.” Kazuya chuckled, walking over to sit down beside Tomohisa. “Besides, when Jin says something, I don’t really believe him.” That got Tomohisa laughing.

“But in all seriousness.” Kazuya started. “What are you doing with Maki-chan? And don’t deny it because I know you and you my friend are falling for her.”

Was he really? Tomohisa talked to himself . And there was one thing echoing in his mind. He wasn’t falling for Maki.

“I’m not falling for her Kazu.” He voiced out, still looking at the ground. Kazuya kept quiet, realizing that his friend still had something more to say. “I’ve fallen for her a long time ago…”

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“Jaa! I guess we’ll continue with this tomorrow!” Erika cheered. She declared the meeting to a close as they packed away all of their things.

Maki planned on getting ahead to her next class but Keiko slowly pulled her to the side.

“Ne, Maki-chan?”

“What is it Keiko-chan?” Maki asked. Something wasn’t right. Her heart was suddenly beating fast.

It seemed Keiko was rearranging all of her thoughts before turning back to Maki.

“Anou, Maki-chan, I heard Jin talking to Kazuya…”

Oh God. Maki’s heart was literally going to explode.

Keiko glanced up at her. “Maki, Jin said, you were with Tomo in his apartment… and you slept there?”

“K-Keiko…”

“Do you like Tomo too?”