I beamed at him, fidgeting.

“Then, how about next weekend? Saturday to Sunday? I can book everything.”
“Alright. I’ll leave it to you.”

Yaaaay!
I was hopping on my way home, immediately jumping my father once he entered the door.

“Daaaad”, I whined, tugging at him, which must have looked funny because I was taller.

He patted my arm and turned to me with gentle eyes.
“Spit it out.”

“I wanna go on an overnight trip with Mizuki, can you pay part of it?”
Aand here I was, even more shameless. But it was normal for my family to speak openly like this.

My father froze, then looked to the door with a slightly panicked expression.
“Mari?”

My mother stepped in, relaxedly smiling and coming over to my father and me, who was hanging on his shoulder.
I confusedly looked around.

“What is it, darling?”
“...Overnight trip…”

My father mumbled in a troubled voice, face awkward as he kept on glancing at me. My mother laughed amusedly.

“Mizuki is not a woman so there is zero to worry about. I’m also quite sure they’ll get separate rooms. It will be nice for them to get away for a bit.”

I hurriedly nodded like a chicken. It was somewhere between awkward and funny that my father was worried about me sharing a room with Mizuki, but he wouldn’t have to worry about that just yet.

“Soo… You’ll help?”
“Sure. We will pay for the train fare and the lodging, you just pay for whatever you want to do there.”

I hugged her, then my father, then stormed off to book everything.
"Love you!”

I heard my mother laugh behind me as I ran upstairs to get to my laptop.

Finding a cheap but nice place wasn’t overly hard. There was one hotel that specialized on short trips - you couldn’t stay longer than three nights - and it was rather cheap.

I happily took the deal and booked it, then searched for a good train before sending the info to Mizuki who just repeated for me to take care of it.

[He quite enjoys you spoiling him.]
He does? I mean, is this spoiling him?
[You are planning this trip completely with him in mind. It is.]

I rubbed my neck in embarrassment but still grinned.
If I could spoil him, then I would love doing that. All the comfort he gave me, I wanted to return it.

[...In the end, the reason for your feelings is the same, isn’t it?]

Ah?
Hey, wasn’t there just a message? Why is it gone so fast? I couldn’t read it…

Heeey?

The system ignored me and I rolled my eyes at it.

The next days, I was slightly absentminded at school, spending a lot of time just analyzing the info about Mizuki and the places he liked.
What kind of things would we both enjoy? What could I do to make it a fun trip for both of us?

I was just short of writing a detailed plan.

Once we were sitting on the train, watching the scenery fly by, I was finally to fidgety to hold back.

“Aren’t you going to ask what I have planned?”
“Nah.”

…
“Don’t look at me with those puppy eyes.”

…
“Alright. What have you planned?”
“I won’t tell!”
“...Yeah, I knew this was coming.”

Well, excuse me for being a bit too overjoyed and motivated…
I cuddled closer to him, grinning broadly.

The small compartment allowed for six people, but only we sat inside it. The train wasn’t very full, so we had our privacy, which made for a great start.

Mizuki looked at me and lowered his eyes peacefully.

“You look completely back to normal.”
“Eh? What, did I not look normal before?”
“You were weird for a while. Even weirder after we met Prez on the train.”

………..Ooooh. Yeah. I had tried to strike that out of my mind.

My smile faltered and I sunk into the seat.

He poked me into the arm and I spoke up.
“Can I ask you something? About something that happened?”

“Ask away.”
He leaned against me as if trying to cheer me up. I sniffled.

“...Risa said that she saw you and a guy looking like Prez in the cinema, before we started going out. She said it looked like you were-”
I broke off and continued pouting.

It took Mizuki a solid twenty seconds before he remembered the incident, then he shrugged.

“You want to hear the story?”
“...Yes, please.”
“Alright. It was a while after I had kissed you”, he began, perfectly relaxed, which in turn helped me calm down.

“I was trying to sort things out as well as possible since I didn’t want to continue the situation without being exactly certain of what was going on in my mind. At that time, Prez invited me to the cinema. I just agreed on a whim.”

That wasn’t the start of a story I liked, but I kept my mouth shut.

“After the movie, I kept on thinking about the fact that the cinema’s seats were too small and that the people around me were too close. I hadn’t thought that when we were watching a movie together, so it got me thinking.”

He paused and shrugged again. I could feel the movement where our shoulders leaned against each other.

“So I thought, it’s best if you are certain. I asked Prez if I could test something and if he could hold still for a while. I just leaned in close, so I imagine what your sister saw was mostly angle.”

……….Teeeeeth………. crunching……….

“When I pulled back, Prez asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was just comparing whether I would feel comfortable with him in close distance, as well, or not.”

I perked up. 

“Did you say it exactly like that?”
“Like what?”
“As well.”
“Pretty sure I did, why?”

I turned to look at him.
“...How did he react?”

Mizuki frowned.

“Kinda weird. He raised his eyebrows and just dragged out an ‘Oh’. Then he sighed and shook his head and said he’d see me on Monday again. He was never the first to leave, so it was weird. But he’s been more okay to be around lately, not always pressing me for stuff.”

I fell back into the seat.

…

[Surprised?]
How could I not? So, Prez pulled back once he knew for certain that Mizuki had someone he liked, who wasn’t him?
[Akihito is not a bad person. He is simply different from you.]

...I felt like a weight was off my shoulders.
Not a love rival, after all?

If that was the case, then maybe we could kinda-

Ugh, embarrassing.

“Were you worried that your sister saw us making out?”, Mizuki inquired with lowered eyebrows. 
I winced.

“I was nervous!”
“We really have to work on that.”
“I… understand...”

He patted me on the head, which was surprisingly comforting. I held still and let him pat before leaning over to nuzzle my head against his.
“Let’s just enjoy the trip, alright?”, he mumbled in a low, quiet voice and I hummed in reply.

Although we weren’t overly far away from our home, the sea managed to give the city a completely different vibe.

It smelled like salt, the cries of seagulls greeted us the moment we stepped out of the train and the wind was different. People were dressed for the beach, giving me a feeling of vacation.

I took in a breath of air, enjoying the salty but fresh scent. I got sunburned easily and wasn’t the type to lounge around on the beach for hours as other people did, but that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the atmosphere.

Mizuki turned his nose into the wind, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds. I watched him relax just as I did, then blink slowly and turn to me.

“Hotel?”
“Yep! This way!”

I led us to the cozy little place.
We were greeted amicably, shown our rooms and given some suggestions for what we should try to eat.

Once we were out of the door again, Mizuki stretched, his sleeves slipping up his shoulders as his arms lifted above his head, trembling slightly with tension before deflating.

“Alright”, he said as he breathed out. “I’m looking forward to what you have planned.”

I was beyond beaming. I was at a point where I almost took his hand to skip through the city with swinging arms and singing some melody.
Stupidly happy would be the accurate term. I just wanted him to like what I had planned for us and have fun. 

I just wanted him to smile.

Because we were in public, I didn’t dare to take his hand, but it didn’t matter because we walked shoulder to shoulder anyway.

Along the beach to catch some snacks while watching the sea, into the city for some relaxed shopping, through a museum about sea-life with the newest technology. We spent the evening in a small adventure restaurant that played shows we watched while eating, then went for a swim during sundown.

Before his door, we stopped, and he hit my head.

“I don’t understand why you’re about to cry!”

My voice was a wee bit unstable as I answered.

“Am not!”
“Are!”
“I’m just happy you had fun…”

I had always thought of myself as someone who was easy to bring to tears but gooood. I was a helplessly emotional person with my boyfriend.

“Your taste suits mine well. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, okay? Now stop looking like you want to cry and go to sleep”, he soothed me.

I nodded, then leaned over to rub my forehead against his and give him a quick kiss.
He gave a peck back before vanishing into his room, leaving me to plod over to my own.

Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Really, ever since we started going out, that word has become more and more to my liking.

Owl

Sorry that the date wasn't overly detailed, ahaha... Anyway, that's the end of arc2. Since I missed two days, the two extra chapters will up after 5 and then another 5 hours. After that I'm taking a break again to begin with editing arc3, a maximum of a week (but likely shorter, though I won't promise!)

Also, please expect a long warning message at the beginning of arc3, okay? xD