“I’m pretty sure it’s borderline illegal to take pictures of someone without their permission”, Kei and Daiki sneaked behind Ryosuke to get a good view of the photograph on his hand. This caused the younger boy to quickly withdraw the said picture out of sight.

Ryosuke felt a sigh of relief escape his lips, seeing two of his friends planning their usual rounds of teasing and ridicule, “You scared me. I thought you were Rio”.

“You guys do spend a LOT of time together these days. When are you finally gonna confess, huh?”

“Hey! Tell that to yourself, Arioka. You’re as much of a ‘single man’ as I am”, Ryosuke countered and saw his friend scratching the back of his head out of embarrassment. Little did he know, Daiki already made some progress with his own romance, but the latter decided to keep this little secret from his friends.

“Have you tried a simple ‘love letter’?”

“Isn’t that a bit… cheesy?”

“No, it’s not! That’s how I got Kim to be my girlfriend”

“Then it’s definitely cheesy!”

“I don’t think it’s “cheesy””, Kei rolled his eyes and used his 2 fingers to make air quotes, “I think it’s “easy”. Think about it, you just write what you feel in a piece of paper then put it in her locker. Then you don’t have to go through the painful silence if you’re rejected. Also, if she said she doesn’t like you, you can just pretend you didn’t write it. So, whoever invented love letters is a GENIUS!”

The two younger boys looked at him peculiarly and admitted that what Kei said actually makes sense. For all the random things Kei utters at times, for once, he finally gave some useful advice.

“Not sure if I trust Inoo-chan… but good luck, dude”, Daiki patted Ryosuke’s shoulder which didn’t help in boosting his confidence.

--

2:00am

Daiki heard an annoying ring right beside his ear, disturbing his sweet slumber. He tried to roll side to side to drain the continuous sound coming from his phone but failed miserably. He finally got the will to answer with the urge to bury the one at the other end of the line. He squinted his eyes and saw Yamada’s name printed on the screen as the caller ID.

“This better be important or I’ll personally tell Rio to head you”

“IT’S DONE! I’VE FINISHED MY LETTER!”

“You called me this late just to tell me that? It’s…”, Daiki withdrew his phone from his ear to see the time, “It’s 2 in the morning! And for future reference, if your call isn't about Amu-chan or cheeseburgers, don't bother calling”.

“Tsk, sorry... But I’m so nervous!”

“What are you nervous about? You’re just gonna drop it in her locker”

“But…”

“I’m hanging up now, you weirdo”

The clock 7:30 and all Ryosuke did the whole night was to stare onto his ceiling while taking glances at the white envelope sitting on his bedside table. For some good reason, sleep eluded him. His mind played mean tricks on him, thinking about the worst-case scenario on his planned confession.

He unenthusiastically pulled his body up and prepped himself for dooms day.

He deliberately went in earlier than usual in order to sneak into Rio’s locker. He slowly tiptoed his way into the corridor leading to it and begged heavens not to let anyone see him. However, his luck ran out when a sudden tap from the back was felt while he was reaching for Rio’s locker.

--

“Yama-chan? What are you doing here this earl-?”, Rio’s sentence was cut short when she saw Ryosuke reaching out for Amu’s locker. Yes, it seems like due to his unsettling nerves, he mistakenly took Amu’s locker for Rio’s.

Now, despite all the misfortunes that happened in her life since childhood, Rio never believed or took much notice when her friends called her the “walking-voodoo-doll”. Never - not until she saw the guy she likes putting what appears to be some sort of love letter in between the gaps of her best friend’s locker. Unlucky right? Yes. Rio could almost hear her heart strings break with the thought of Ryosuke liking someone else… not only that, he likes her own best friend, Amu Kitagawa.

“R-R-Rio-chan!”, Ryosuke quickly withdrew his arm holding a piece of white envelope. His whole body tensed up and felt his own blood being drained out of his system after been caught in the act by the same girl to whom the letter in his hand is intended to. “It’s not what it looks like”, he abruptly said to try and cover up his acts. This is NOT how he wanted to confess.

“You… like Amu-chan?”, he heard the girl say.

A million things went inside his head before he realised that he mistakenly aimed for Amu’s locker instead of Rio’s which are coincidentally next to each other.

“Eh? Uhm… Yes”, he lied and quickly placed the crumpled letter inside his pocket, hoping that Rio wouldn’t fixate on reading it. This might not be a smart way of dealing with it, but this is the only excuse he could come up with on why he was hanging around Amu’s locker without exposing his true purpose of confessing to Rio herself.

“I see. Uhm… M-Maybe I can help? I’m her best friend after all”, Rio gave off a fake chuckle while trying her best to stay composed. She could feel her eyes almost starting to water but shook this off by thinking of Ryosuke’s smiling face. If he’s happy, then maybe she’ll be okay with him and Amu being together.

“Help? How?”

“I can meet up with you after lectures and can give some pointers. If you want, I can even proof-read your love lette—”

“NO! No need”, Ryosuke interrupted, desperate to hide the letter from Rio. He felt cornered and suddenly did not have much choice but to agree to Rio’s proposal. As crazy as it sounds, he thought that this might be a good chance to spend some more time with Rio despite him pretending to like Amu. He chuckled nervously and just wished for the ground to swallow him whole. He felt