Kazuya was ready for the date wearing black jeans, a white collarless polo, and a navy blue blazer over that.

He walked out of his apartment and knocked on Chizuru’s door. That was what they’d decided. He’d pick her up from the apartment itself and they’d go have their date.

“Just a minute.” She calls from behind the door.

She opens the door and invites Kazuya in.

“Come on in. I’ll just be a minute.”

Kazuya notices her outfit before she goes to sit at her dresser.

She was wearing a white skirt that went to her knees with pink flat heels. Her matching pink top was tucked into her skirt, it was a loose v-neck shirt with a white collar and a cute red bowtie. Her hair had a brait running through one side with a lock of her hair hanging out from the side.

She was just putting on some matching pink earrings when Kazuya knocked on her door.

She was sitting in front of a mirror and had her hair turned to one side, revealing her neck, while she put on her remaining earring.

Finally done, she looked at him, “How do I look? It took me a while to do my hair.”

“Mesmerising. Though I think it was a mistake to do that hairdo... I’ll end up playing with your hair for the entirety of our date.”

“Pfft… feel free.” She laughed cutely with her hand on her mouth.

’So much work. I gotta get her comfortable enough first to get her to lose that mask.’ He sighed at how troublesome this girl was. But that was what made going after her worth it.

’I don’t want peace, I want problems.’ He thought back to one of the co-founders of his company who’d used this line as the quote for the promotions of the company and inwardly chuckled.

“Let’s go, we don’t want to be late for the movie.” He extended his hand to her.

“Sure thing.” She held his hand and left the apartment after locking her door.

As they walked in silence Chizuru started a conversation.

“What movie tickets did you get?”

“It’s a thriller by Karakida. They’re your favorite director, right?”

“I’m so glad you remembered. I thought that among all of the stuff we talked about that time, you’d forget about it.” Her dazzling smile makes Kazuya’s heart skip a beat.

“Girl your smile looks so beautiful people would think that I’m some random schmuck you took pity on and let him walk with you.”

“Pfft. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to keep holding your hand so they know that that’s not true.” She’s upped her game and isn’t going to get flustered with cheezy lines anymore.

“Phew… I’m just glad that you’re acknowledging that we’ve been chatting. Seeing you avoid me like the plague in college was giving me mixed signals.”

She gets a guilty look on her face, “You know about my college issue. I can’t risk getting seen in public with a client, especially around the college.”

“I see… That’s all I am to you. A client. And here I am taking you out on a real date.” Kazuya gets an overdramatic melancholic look on his face as if Chizuru’s words broke his heart.

“Come on. You know it’s not like that. Things are complicated.” She shakes his hand a little while they are walking.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just messing with you.” 

On the inside though, he was thinking, ‘Complicated, my ass! It’s clear as day that she’s just too chicken to talk to me in broad daylight because she fears being seen without her so-called girlfriend mask. At least being seen by someone whom she’s gone out with as the perfect girlfriend.’

As they were walking he heard a few stray comments calling Chizuru an idol and that Kazuya was a lucky bastard.

“Hear that, people already think you’re an idol. All you got to do is work up that ladder to become an actress.”

She rolls her eyes but has a slight smile on her face, “Yeah, right.”

Finally, when they reach the movie theatre, Kazuya gets some coffee for the two of them and they take a seat in their spots. The theatre was fairly empty and their spot was in the far back.

“Your seating choice along with the empty theatre makes me suspicious.” She narrows her eyes at Kazuya.

“Yeah, I’ll be making a move on you while we’re watching the movie. Try not to get startled.” He gives her a smirk.

When they take a seat, Mizuhara gives him a cat-like wary look but then the movie starts.

Chizuru seems to have completely closed herself from letting him even touch her, with her hands tucked within the seat and a fair distance away from the armrests.

Kazuya smiled amusedly at her attempt. Every once in a while he’d disturb her by flicking her hanging lock of hair.

“Stop it!” After ignoring him two times, she stops his hand from touching her hair for the third time.

“It was a difficult hairdo. Don’t ruin it.” She caresses her hair as if it was her baby.

Then she brings her arms back into the armrest.

‘Mission failed, guess I’ll have to wait for her to bring her hands back up on her own accord.'

She could sit like that for about 15 minutes of the movie but gets the urge to bring her hand to the armrest.

That’s where Kazuya’s hand is already waiting and he lightly brushes her hand, not wanting to be forceful yet as she would just run away if he did something like that.

He can audibly hear her sigh as she turns her hand around and grabs his hand on her initiative.

Since they’re sitting together he’s able to get close to her personal space to talk to her without any issues.

Every once in a while, he’d get close to her ear and whisper something about the movie, making her giggle or hum in agreement.

Her starry eyes when watching the movie would’ve been visible to anyone across the hall and were unmistakably noticed by Kazuya.

‘Well… at least the movie is good.’ He also liked it, probably not as much as Chizuru did. But anyone would enjoy a good thriller.

Halfway through the movie, as he was about to comment on something related to the movie, Chizuru tilted her head to his side inviting him to speak, as if she was expecting him to come close to her ear.

He brings his arm around her neck and pulls her in even closer while telling her about it.

She thought that after telling her he’d let go but seeing that he didn’t she asked him.

“Hey… Let go.” She asks in a tiny voice that Kazuya is unable to hear but he got what she was asking for.

“You don’t like my arm around you?”

“…It’s not that-”

“Then it’s fine.” He turns back to look at the movie.

‘Dumbass, I was trying to be polite. Let me finish my words.’ She screamed internally. 

‘It feels weird with his arm around my shoulder.’ She keeps herself a little upright since she doesn’t want to get comfortable with his arm staying around her shoulder.

Although not used to the feeling of a guy’s arm around her shoulder, she ends up leaning back into the seat sooner or later.

By the time the movie’s over she doesn’t even feel that his arm is wrapped around her shoulder.

“God I love Karakida movies so much. His direction just brings out so much more from the actors.”

They stay sitting in the theatre as the credits are rolling while Chizuru excitedly comments on her favorite aspects of the movie.

Kazuya keeps chiming in every once in a while, keeping her enthusiasm going. 

She was talking so excitedly that that little lock of hair bobbed up and down as she spoke her words.

They keep talking up till the credits are over.

“Come on, even the credits are over we should leave.”

She agrees with him and gets up from her seat.

They start walking with Kazuya’s arm wrapped around Chizuru’s shoulder. This forces them to walk much closer than they usually walk.

After the close contact with him in the theatre, Chizuru is comfortable enough with him being close to her so she doesn’t mind, or actually, she doesn’t even realize that it’s different and he’s much closer to her.

They walk out of the theatre as if they’re a couple with almost no distance separating them.

“You enjoyed the movie?” Kazuya asks with a smirk, knowing damn well that she did after how long she talked about it with him.

Her smile is genuine and bright as she turns to look up at him. She’s a good 10 centimeters shorter than him so she has to look up at him, even with the heels.

She finally realizes how close they are, and her heart skips a beat. The natural blush on her face takes over the makeup, making her look red as if she had a fever.

She hurriedly pulls herself back from Kazuya and he doesn’t stop her. He pulls his arm back as she hurriedly makes some distance between them.

She looks down for about a few seconds before she brings her head back up. Her ‘girlfriend mask’ is back up on her face.

“Yeah, I did Kazuya-kun. What did you think about the movie?” She brightly smiles as if her blush just now didn’t exist. 

Although there’s still a red tint on her face which could’ve been either the makeup or her actual blush.

‘God, girl, it’s one step forward and two steps back with you.’

“I love a good thriller as much as the next guy.” He shakes his head a little and starts walking, prompting Chizuru to follow after him.

“If you’re left thinking, ‘Holy fuck!’ at the end of the movie, it’s a good thriller.”

She nods a little too enthusiastically, “Mhm. I agree. You-”

“You know, I have this friend Kuri…”

He interrupts her from her girlfriend-mode conversation and decided to sacrifice Kuri. He told her an embarrassing story about the guy that would lead to anyone laughing like crazy by the end.

His interruption catalyzed to break the flow of her girlfriend mode. This way she’d start talking to him normally easier.

Although interrupting someone like that is pretty rude, he’d already set up the premise to do something like that beforehand.

‘When in doubt, make her laugh. That always seems to work out.’

Chizuru also didn’t mind the interruption that much since the talks that she had with people in her girlfriend mode aren’t the most interesting at least for her.

Those talks were for socially inept people who didn’t know how to keep up an interesting conversation. 

They’d think that she’s talking to them, she’s such an amazing girl without actually paying attention to the contents.

It was hard for Kazuya to get her comfortable enough to remove her mask again but he was successful by the time they reached the restaurant.