“Why are you glowing?”

“Eh?” Maki looked up from the book she was reading. She turned to Erika who was intently looking at her as if trying to find out if she was hiding some sort of secret. “What do you mean I’m glowing?” She asked, returning the book into the shelves. She turned back and walked away, aware that her friend was still walking behind her. They went there to research but she was feeling tense with the looks Erika was giving her.

“You’re blooming.” Erika declared.

Laughing, Maki faced her friend, causing them to both stop walking. “A while ago I was glowing, now I’m blooming, you’re very good with synonyms Eri-chan.”

Erika scowled and crossed her arms. “Na Maki, you’re happy today.”

“Eh, am I not allowed to be happy?” Maki asked. She turned away yet again with Erika following behind and continuing with the interrogation. She stopped walking when she noticed Tomohisa at the far end of the hall talking with a student. What was that? Oh her heart was just beating fast. She shook her head and saw that Tomohisa had been gazing at her. That should be illegal! “What are you looking at Yamaa!” She smirked.

Tomohisa shrugged, returning the smirk she was giving. “Not you Horikita!” He returned before facing his student once again.

Erika rolled her eyes at this. She was used with the daily banter these two had. But she wasn’t finished interrogating Maki. “You were absent last Friday, just one weekend and you’re already hiding something from me?” Erika said. She pouted. Now they were outside of the library.

Maki heaved a deep breath before facing her friend. “Eri, this is nothing, maybe I just had a good rest during the weekend. Don’t worry. I still have a class, let’s talk later ne? we still have to finish with the acquaintance party.” She smiled at Erika, patting her bewildered friend’s pretty cheeks.

Maki hastened her walk, Erika might still not give up and follow her. She was walking continuously when someone pulled her to the sides.

“Ah!”

“Sshhh.”

When she came to, Maki realized that the culprit was Tomohisa. The man smiled, making him more handsome, before he leaned down to give her a soft kiss. She answered him with her own kiss, brushing her hands along the hair on the back of his neck. She pulled away after a minute, still smiling. “What gives Tomo, someone might see us.”

“No one will see us, no one even goes here.” Tomohisa answered still smiling.

How Maki loved that smile. It’s because  Tomohisa rarely smiled, that’s why she felt that smile was always for her . “Alright, we’ll talk later, I still have class.” She leaned up and pressed another kiss to his lips, ending with a smile before walking to the direction of her classroom. She looked back to see Tomohisa standing on the same spot, smiling back at her.

She smiled back before finally pulling herself away and heading for her classroom.

Like always, the students were noisy but immediately fixed themselves and sat in their appropriate sears when Maki entered.

This was Maki’s favorite class. There were only 8 students and they had their own organs in-front of them.

“Okay class, I will give you an excercise. We have three hours for this class and for those three hours you must be able to play ‘Rena Sashin’.”

Some looked excited but some also looked nervous so she gave a comforting  smile. “Don’t worry. I will help you one by one. Now, please bring your organs inside the booth and I’ll be with you shortly.”

The students all moved. Maki waited until everyone was inside their booths before entering.

The student inside turned when she went inside. She wasn’t surprised when she saw that it was Mirai inside.

“Ah, my favorite student.” Maki said with a smile.

Mirai slightly blushed as she faced her organ. “Atashi? Your favorite?”

Maki shrugged. “It’s so easy when I teach you. Anyways, let’s start?”

Mirai also straightened, ready to learn from her favorite instructor. She placed her hands on top of the piano keys.

“So, I’m just guessing here but you do know ‘Summer’ right?” Maki asked. She saw the confusion in Mirai’s face but continued what she was saying anyways. “I know I told you guys that you’d be performing ‘Renai Shashin’ but for you I choose ‘Summer’.

Mirai smiled. “Hai, when I was a kid, I always played that song, with Ryosuke and…his dad.”

Maki saw that Mirai almost froze with her sentence but only shrugged as if nothing had happened..

“You really are close with Ryosuke ne?” Maki asked with a smile.

=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=

It was Maki’s break after that class. She allowed her students to go first then went to her table. She fixed her things first before leaving the room . A scream almost escaped her when she turned and almost collided with Tomohisa’s chest.

“Easy!” Tomohisa laughed once he saw Maki’s surprised face. He was still laughing when he placd his hands on Maki’s arms.

“You surprised me!” Maki whispered yet exclaimed. She breathed in first, calming herself. “What are you doing here anyways?”

“Waiting for you.” Tomohisa explained. “I’m hungry, let’s go eat outside!”

Maki smiled at that. “You should’ve texted me instead of giving me an almost heart attack.”

Tomohisa only answered with a smile, obviously still amused before wringing one arm around her shoulders then capturing her lips with his. He was enjoying it too much that Maki was the one who pulled away, afraid that Tomohisa would leave her lips swollen “Enough, let’s go eat, I’m getting hungry too.” She chuckled

Tomohisa led Maki, holding her hand tight in his. There was a back way where nobody ever passed since it was far from any exit; naturally that’s where they went so no one would see them. They had just gone a few steps, their feet barely touching the grass of the grounds when the sound of someone coughing as if to get their attention had really done so. Both Maki and Tomohisa froze with their steps but Maki was the one who had to grip Tomohisa’s hands tighter since she felt she was going to faint. Call her scary but she knew that cough, knew very well who it belonged to.

“Were you planning to tell me about this? That goes for both of you.”

Meisa’s tall form was planted by the doorway where Maki and Tomohisa were just a while ago staring googly-eyed at each other.

Tomohisa’s face was calm and he actually seemed to be enjoying this as he faced Maki and gave her a comforting look. Unfortunately Maki could still feel her heart thumping in nervousness though she had no idea why she was nervous.

“Come of it Horikita and face me.” Meisa jested. She walked around the couple who still had their backs to her so she could see their faces.

“Want to come to lunch with us Mei-tan?” Tomohisa asked as if in challenge. Too bad Meisa was never one to back down from a challenge.

“Tomohisa…” Meisa began warningly. “I’m asking you to let go of my best friend’s hand so I can talk to her properly.”

Maki rolled her eyes at this. When was her life going to be without drama? She pulled her hand away from Tomohisa’s grasp but not before squeezing it comfortingly then faced Meisa, a sweet smile plastered on her pretty face.

“You wanted to talk to me, Mei-tan?”

“Enough with the sweetness Maki.” Meisa pulled her friend to the sides, leaving Tomohisa breathing to himself.

They only took a few steps away, just by the school grounds walls.

“Look, before you go all motherly on me--”

“Oh I’m not going all motherly on you.” Meisa cut Maki off. “I just want an answer as to why I see my best friend face with the man she always seems to want to bite his head off.”

Maki chuckled nervously. “Was it that bad?”

Meisa crossed her arms. “To put it this way, I advise you to put some chapstick on before returning to class.”

That got Maki blushing bad. And when she blushed, it was always noticeable!

“Is Tomohisa the reason you were absent last Friday?” Meisa asked. She glanced over at the man and saw that Tomohisa was still patiently waiting while playing with his phone.

It was no use denying it now, even though she wanted to find a way out of this. “Hai.” Maki answered.

“And you two really do like it each other? It wasn’t just in the heat of the moment?”

Maki laughed quietly. “Na Mei-tan, I think I’m ready to admit that I’ve always really liked Tomohisa and was just fighting with him since it made me actually feel closer to him.”

After that sentence, Meisa stared at her friend. It was getting too long that Maki felt awkward. But then Meisa turned around and approached a curious looking Tomohisa. She stepped forward, not caring that Tomohisa towered over her before poking the man’s chest. “Listen to me Yamaa Tomohisa, hurt her and you’ll lose the ability to have children. Am I clear?”

Maki watched as Tomohisa who usually did not back down from anything actually nodded his head as if a boy being scolded by his mother, eyes widening.

“Good, now run along and eat.” Meisa said, she faced Maki and kissed the latter’s cheek. “I’ll see you later Maki-chan, we still have that meeting for the acquaintance party. Kami-sama knows how Erika won’t stop until everything will be perfect.”

=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o==o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o

Mirai fixed the glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. They were slipping again. Maybe she needed new glasses? Or maybe the heat was just making her sweat too much. She looked up from where she was sitting. Everyone was already eating but she wanted to wait for Ryosuke  and Suzuka was still buying food.

Laughter that echoed from her left side caught her attention. When she went to look, she found out it was Fujiko with her friends. Fujiko is a voice student who looked and acted like a princess. She turned away, looking at the music sheet Maki-sensei had given her. There was that laughter again. When she turned her head yet again, she was surprised to see Fujiko and her friends looking directly at her. And they laughed yet again once she lifted her head. What was their deal?

BLAG!

A tray slamming in-front of her snapped her back to place. It was Suzuka. And the girl was looking red, flushed. Was it because of the heat?

“Ne Suzu-chan, what’s wrong?”

But Suzuka didn’t answer at first. She was too busy gripping the tray as if she was trying to break it.   

“Suzuka?” Mirai repeated as she hesitantly looked at her friend.

This time Suzuka diverted her eyes over to where Mirai was also looking and that’s where the latter found out that her friend was giving Fujiko and her crew the stink eye. “Ne Suzu-chan what gives?”

“They all think they’re so great! If I know, I heard Yuichi-sensei telling Tomo-sensei how he had to spend some extra time with Fujiko because she keeps singing sharp!” Suzuka hissed.

Mirai turned again to the group and saw that they were all still laughing about something. She shrugged in answered and comfortingly grasped Suzuka’s hands. “Just ignore them, they’re always like that.”

“Not when they’re talking about you.”

Mirai froze at this. She looked at Suzuka, making sure that her friend wasn’t joking. She wasn’t. “What do you mean they’re talking about me?”

Before Suzuka could say anything, they heard the pushing of chairs and saw Fujiko and her group heading their way. It was as if a challenge was going to happen. Mirai tried to ignore it to the best that she could but she couldn’t hide, not when Fujiko was standing there next to her. Her head turned slightly and she looked at the girl. “Kurosawa-chan, what is it?”

Fujiko actually scuffed, still gripping her empty tray. “Nothing really. I just wanted to get a closer look at your face.”

“May I ask why?” Both Mirai and Suzuka could tell that something wasn’t right.

Fujiko shrugged her petite shoulders. “I was wondering what on earth Ryosuke was thinking when he picked you to be his girlfriend.”

“Hey back off!” Suzuka stood up, also pushing the chair away from her.

Mirai acted immediately and held her friend down. “Suzuka, don’t cause a scene.” By this time the other students were now looking at their direction.

“No Mi-chan, this girl thinks she can be y about this stuff and get away with it.”

“Who says I’m y?” Fujiko wasn’t backing down. “I really am just wondering. Have you seen Shida here? And have you seen Ryosuke? They’re light years apart!”

“Why you little…”

“Is everything alright here?”

The girls turned at the voice just in time to see Kazuya heading their way. They immediately acted cool, whereas Mirai stayed put in her seat.

“I could hear all your bickering at the other side of the canteen.” Kazuya pointed out. He smiled softly at them as if reassuring that there wouldn’t be a problem. “Play nice kiddies.”

“We were just talking sensei.” Fujiko cleared . She smirked once again at Mirai and Suzuka before walking away. Her posse followed along behind her. When they were gone, Kazuya turned to Mirai and Suzuka.

“Never knew mean girls still existed.”

Both Mirai and Suzuka chuckled at this. At least they weren’t in trouble.

Kazuya smiled, knowing that the two girls were feeling better now. But Mirai chose this moment to think things to herself. There was some part of her that was deeply bothered by what Fujiko said.

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AN: Hello everyone! First of all I would like to apologize for the lack of update. I've started being an intern medical technologist at a hospital :D yay me! 

Hopefully I'll be updating this and 'It Has Always Been You' this weekend since we have it off! Here's to hoping I don't have writer's block! Fighting!  :D Thank you to everyone! Please comment :D