- Daisuke -

"Man, I'm beat."
My classmate, Tanaka, was walking just behind us, or rather, he dragged his body while the rest of us walked through the hallway. We had changed into our regular uniforms after gym class, and now we were headed for the classroom.

"C'mon, it wasn't that bad."
"You are comparing apples with oranges here, Sugihara. You know I don't have your physical prowess."
"It's not like I was born like this. I worked for it."
Tanaka let out a sigh as he lagged. He stopped for a while, took a deep breath, and tried to catch up.
Yamada glanced at him. "You need to work out, dude."
"Even I started jogging in the mornings," Ryu said.
I grinned. "Yeah, with Aoyagi-chan."
"It's not like that."

Ryu had said he didn't want to rush things with her. While I had my concerns regarding that, I was in a similar situation, so I couldn't complain.

"Are you interested in someone, Tanaka?" I asked.
"There are some cute girls in our class, but..."
"Well, look at it like this: if you get in shape, talking to one of those girls won't seem so daunting. Probably."
"I see. Was that your motivation, Akaishi?"
Ryu scratched his nose. "Maybe."
"Sugihara, you said all that, but," Yamada pointed at me, "aren't you single? Even though you are the one in better shape among us four."

They got me.
Maybe it is time I got serious about her, or Ryu won't take me seriously whenever I tell him to stop being a coward and ask Aoyagi out.
No, I should do this for myself rather than to avoid being seen as a hypocrite. But, killing two birds with one stone wouldn't be so bad.

I took a deep breath and made a declaration.

"Fine, I will ask Niko out. Ah, but I have work today... "
"It doesn't have to be today, you know?" Yamada said.

Considering how close we were to the weekend, I decided to ask her if she had any plans.

As we arrived at our classroom, I saw Niko chatting with her friends. It seemed they had managed to return before us. She turned her head and smiled at me.

No way, I can't do this!
Now, now. Let's calm down. I just have to ask her to go somewhere with me. It wouldn't even be the first time the two of us hung out by ourselves.
I can worry about the rest later.

I made my way to her seat and greeted her. I had trouble remaining calm with her big, brown eyes fixated on me, but I managed to get a word out. After she returned my greeting, I cleared my throat and asked.

"Do you have any plans for the weekend?"
"No, I don"t."

Miyazawa and Nakajima gave knowing looks to each other, but I did my best to ignore them. I didn't need to add to my worries right now.
All that was left was to invite Niko somewhere, there was just one problem.

I've got nothing.

"I thought we could go, uh, somewhere."
"Sure," she replied in an instant, her eyes sparkling. "What do you have in mind?"
"W-Well, you know, that place, with the thing..."

Behind Niko's back, Nakajima looked like she wanted to smash her palm against her face, but at the last moment, she had some kind of revelation and looked through her bag. She took out a flyer and held it toward me, making sure Niko didn't notice.

A concert?
Spiralusion? Where have I heard that before? Oh, that's right, that's Wakabayashi's band.

She must have received that flier from our classmate, Wakabayashi Kanon, but that left another question. If they already knew about it...

No, don't be like Ryu. There's no need to overthink things, just... keep going. Besides, didn't Nakajima look as if she just remembered about it?

I invited Niko to Spiralusion's performance before my mind got the best of me and made me lose confidence.
Her reply was simple "Sure, sounds fun" but the way she said it made me melt.

It didn't seem as if she knew about it beforehand. Even if she was pretending not to know, it didn't matter. I had a date now.

After classes, I saw one of those fliers in the hallway and decided to take a closer look. If I was going to attend, I needed more details.
Right after I started reading, a short girl stopped by and looked at the flier. She wore a blue ribbon on her uniform, and a light blue lock stood out from her otherwise black hair. A pair of headphones rested on her neck.

Maybe she is a fan?

"Do you know them?" I asked.
Her green eyes still glued to the flier, she replied. "Yeah."
"I invited the girl I like to this, but I'm not familiar with them. Even though the vocalist is in my class..."
"I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Those girls are on a whole other level."
She looked at the flier with a bitter smile, then she extended her hand forward and closed it.
"One day, I'll..." Her gaze seemed lost in that piece of paper, but then she glanced aside. "Oops, my bad. I was thinking aloud."
"Don't worry, it happens."
She used her phone to check the time. "It's almost time. If you'll excuse me."
The girl bowed and left. I, too, had things to do, so I left the school.

The weekend wasn't that far off, so I didn't have to spend too many days feeling nervous, but at the same time, I felt I didn't have enough time to prepare mentally.
I put on my nicest clothes and headed to the meeting point we agreed on. Less than a minute after arriving, I saw Niko approaching. When she saw me, she hastened her pace.
"Did I make you wait?"
"No, I just got here."

Now, what should I do? Right, a compliment.

"You look great."
"Thank you. You are no slouch either."
"I wanted to look good for our, uh..."
"Date?" Niko said.
"Yes. This is a date. Let us be off, then."

The venue where Spiralusion would play was within walking distance from where we met up, so we put our legs to use and hurried there. On the way, I considered holding her hand, but something caught my- no, our attention.
A ticket came flying toward us. I managed to grab it and noticed a girl coming in our direction, her blonde ponytail going up and down as she sprinted.

"Thank you so much- Eh?"

A pair of familiar hazel eyes stared at us through the blonde girl's glasses. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost, and in a way, that was what she saw. The same went for us.

"Fujimura?"
"Mari-chan?"

The girl standing before us could very well be described as a "ghost". A ghost from the past, to be precise.

"It's been a while, Sugihara, and Niko, too."
"Yeah..."
The girl, Fujimura Mari, looked around, "Is he...?"
"Relax, Ryu is not around. We are here by ourselves," I explained.
"I see. Then, are you two...?"
Niko hugged my arm and smiled, "We are on a date."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I..."
"You don't have to be on edge like that, I hold no ill will towards you. Here."
I put the ticket in her hand, "'Spiralusion', huh? What a coincidence, we are gonna see them too."
"You are not mad at me?"
"I mean, you were kinda right. It does feel like Ryu is just floating through life sometimes. He needed that wake-up call."
Fujimura's gaze went downwards. "Well, you two keep doing your date stuff, I'll go on ahead."

She turned around and dashed in the same way she came, but this time she was holding onto her ticket tightly.

"What a shame, we didn't get to tell her about Rihona."
"Why would we do that?" Niko asked.
"I wanted to see her reaction."
"Then, what was that about not holding ill will?"
"Even if she had a valid reason for doing so, she still hurt my friend."
"So you were only pretending to be mature about it? I wonder why I fell for such a shrewd person..."
"Eh?!"
"I'm kidding. I agree with you, although that does bring up a question," Niko leaned in, resting her head on my arm, "If things don't work between Ryu and Rihona-chan, will we cut her off from our lives as we did with Mari-chan?"
"That's... Ah, this must be why he is so hesitant."

  - - -

- Ryu -

"This is bad, this is bad, this ba-"
"Ryu?"

I was peacefully spending my Saturday sitting on the couch and pulling my hair when Mom called out to me.

"This is bad, I tell you!"
"What's wrong?"
"Daisuke and Nicole are..."
"You said they were going on a date, right? Did something happen?"
"No, I'm sure they are having a great time right now."
"Then, shouldn't you be happy for them?"
"But-"
Mom lifted my face by grabbing my chin. "It seems you are overthinking things again."
"Don't you get it? Now that they are dating, they are gonna put pressure on me."

I had no more excuses to dismiss their nagging. Now that they became a couple, I couldn't call them out on their cowardice anymore.

"Is this about Rihona? If you are sure you want to take things slowly, just tell them so. I'm sure they will understand."
"Life is not that simple, Mom."
"Oh? Are you implying you know more about life than your mother?"

I was right, though. Life was not that simple. Sometimes, it was even more simple.

"It's fine if you want to take things slowly with her. Sorry if I bothered you before."

That was what Daisuke told me on Monday. I didn't even have to say anything, he apologized on his own.

"Huh?!"