At the mobile phone store, Hikaru looked around with interest while they waited. Kiri watched her and offered, "if you see something that especially appeals to you, you can still get that instead." Then he pointed at one of the most expensive models and said, "That's what my phone is."

"I can't let you buy me that!" protested Hikaru automatically.

Kiri frowned, "Why not? You said it would be fine."

"Kiri-san it's too expensive," she said uncomfortably.

His face stiffened. 

Hikaru was distressed by his reaction and explained, "I didn't know your phone was such an expensive model."

Kiri replied coolly, "It's not that expensive, but go ahead and choose anything you wish then."

Hikaru looked at him doubtfully, uncertain what to do. He didn't say anything else, only watched her with a controlled expression. After a few moments she said fretfully, "I've heard that most couple's fights are over money, but this isn't how I imagined that was meant."

Behind her the shop girl who had finally gotten around to them laughed. "Couple's fights are really common in here, but usually it's the person paying who's saying it's too expensive."

Kiri's lips twitched.

Hikaru blushed.

Hikaru looked at him and asked hesitantly, "You really want to get that one if I have no other preference?"

He nodded.

She relented and said, "Nevermind then, it's fine, you can get that one."

Kiri looked at her and asked, "Are you sure?"

She nodded.

She watched quietly, but winced occasionally as Kiri selected what he considered the minimum of accessories and added them.

He did ask her, "A headset? I use one, but I'm on the phone a lot for work."

She shook her head.

He nodded and said, "You can probably get by without it."

Then the plan was shown by the shop assistant, Kiri simply added her a line on his existing contract. The additional amount was about what Hikaru thought that Risa was paying for her phone, but the full amount was about five times that.

The transaction finished, they left the shop. When Kiri held the door for her he said, "Hikaru, I don't understand either why it was such a big deal, or why you went ahead with it."

As they stepped out into the sunshine Hikaru replied, "I went ahead with it because I realized that to you it's not a big deal, but Kiri-san, why does it seem like you're still mad at me?"

"Kiri-san," Kiri repeated.

Hikaru only looked at him in confusion.

He stopped walking and turned to face her. "You didn't realize?" he asked.

"Realize what?" she returned.

He studied her ruefully and said, "Earlier you were simply saying Kiri, but when we started arguing, you went back to saying Kiri-san, I thought… I thought you were being formal on purpose to," he bit his lip and continued, "it felt like you wanted to force some distance because you disapproved of the amount."

Hikaru blushed. "I'm sorry Kiri," she apologized hesitantly, "I didn't realize."

He nodded, then sighed and said quietly, "It's really not that much. And I'm sorry, I was too quick to assume." He took her hand. "Let's go sit somewhere and I'll show you how to use it."

--

They found a picnic table free at the overlook area. Hikaru sat on the bench, and Kiri hopped up and sat on the table above her, so he could see over her shoulder easily. Hikaru found where to turn the phone on, and then looked up at him.

Kiri explained the menus a little, but then Hikaru interrupted him and asked, "More like a tablet than a regular phone?"

Kiri nodded, "It basically is a small tablet with a cellular wireless connection."

Hikaru had less trouble navigating it after that. Kiri took the phone from her when they got to adding contacts, and put in his own information. But under occupation he listed 'Hikaru's boyfriend'.

Hikaru laughed and then said more seriously, "Kiri?"

"Yes?" he replied.

"I've been thinking about how to explain why it seems like such a big deal to have a man buy me something so expensive," she said.

He frowned at her and replied, "Hikaru, I'm not expecting anything in return but simply being able to contact you."

She nodded. "I wasn't worried about that." She blushed and added, "Besides, I'm pretty sure you could have whatever you wanted without anything like that."

He leaned down and bit her ear lightly. She jumped and he asked quietly, "Oh, really?"

She replied, "Yes, I mean, you said you don't want to push me, but I don't think it would be very difficult for you to."

He frowned again.

She added, "And can you not do that in public?"

"What?" he asked.

"Bite my ear," she said, still blushing.

He laughed and asked, "Is it OK if it's not in public?" She nodded and he raised an eyebrow. "How much is OK in public then?" he asked.

"Holding hands, or hugging sometimes, or kissing a little, I guess?" she answered.

"Only kissing a little?" he asked teasingly.

She shrugged and said, "When we were kissing so much, I wasn't really thinking about how many people saw us."

He hugged her and said agreeably, "OK."

"Anyway, about explaining, it's just that this phone," she held up the offending item, "costs almost as much as I can make in an entire month. And I realize that you are working full time and it's probably only a fraction of what you make in a month, so it doesn't seem so expensive to you. But it is really expensive to me." She bit her lip.

Kiri slid down onto the bench next to her with a thump, and put his arm around her waist. "OK, I get it. I'm sorry Hikaru. It really isn't that much to me, and it's not like I'm expecting to pay that much every month, but I understand."

She nodded.

"But Hikaru?" he asked.

"Yes?" she replied.

"I want you to let me pay for all our dates." He looked at her and saw that she was going to object, and added quickly, "I'm not saying we must always do expensive things, but I don't want to have to stop and consider things like 'is this restaurant too expensive for a high-school girl?' And I don't want our dates to become a burden to you. Like you said, I am already working full time, so while you're still in school please let me pay."

Hikaru said uncomfortably, "Only if you don't expect to buy me things."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She tried to explain, "Um, things like paying for our food, or a movie, things we are doing together is OK, but not like going shopping?"

"Alright," he agreed and kissed her.

He showed her how to make a call, and send a text. And then he grinned and said, "Let's take a picture." He showed her the camera controls and they cuddled together and took a picture. Then he kissed her and took another picture.

"Delete that!" protested Hikaru.

"Never," he replied laughingly. "I'm going to send them to myself, here's how you make the message attachment." He demonstrated. "If you want to delete them from your phone now, you'll have to figure out how on your own later!" He laughed.

She took the phone back, and he cuddled her while she tried to navigate the menus.

"I'm surprised that you make as much as this phone costs in a month actually, your school has very relaxed work policies?" he asked.

She shrugged and explained, "Sort of. Students whose grades are in the top 60% can work up to 20 hours a week, but they give half off tuition to the top 20%."

"Nice incentives," he commented.

"Yes, but I kind of hate it," she replied.

"Why?" he asked.

"I'm not that smart. I hate school. Staying in the top 20% is agony," Hikaru said.

"If you can stay in the top 20%, you are plenty smart," he replied laughingly.

"You don't understand," she protested tiredly, "it's pure drudging hard work for me. I'm not like my brother who can ace things with only a few minutes a day, I have to spend hours and hours on things that take other people minutes. And I've had so many people help tutor me to even manage it at all."

He frowned, "Even so, you are managing it? That's a big accomplishment. But why are you working so hard for it?"

She hesitated. "Can you promise not to tell anyone?" she asked finally.

Kiri regarded her warily, "As long as I don't think you're in danger?"

She relaxed and smiled which made him relax a little too. "I'm paying half my brother's college tuition," Hikaru said.

Kiri said, "OK, I don't understand how that means you must stay in the top 20% or why it's secret?"

"Even on half tuition, I can barely make enough to pay it. It's a secret because when he started university he was trying to do it all on his own. He nearly died. He was hospitalized for a while from working himself into exhaustion," Hikaru explained.

"My mother persuaded him to let her pay the tuition so he would only pay his living expenses and extras. We were doing OK, I was just helping some with our household expenses. But then she got pregnant, and she started fainting at work, the doctor told her she had to stop working," she went on. "Izumi-san doesn't make enough to pay the tuition easily, especially with a baby to prepare for, and he didn't think my mother should have been paying it anyway."

"So to stop Yuki-ni from working himself to death again, I asked our uncle to pretend that he was paying half, if I could pay it. He agreed, except that he also gave up his apartment and took this tiny little room so that he can pay the other half, so that the full tuition is still paid," she finished.

"Wow," Kiri said.

Hikaru shrugged.

"So you are secretly conspiring with your uncle to pay your brother's tuition," he said laughingly.

Hikaru nodded.

He kissed her. "Thank you for trusting me with your secrets," he said.

Hikaru blushed.

Kiri's phone rang. He frowned at it. "Sorry, it's my boss, just a minute," he said.

Hikaru nodded.

"Hello, I'm in the middle of my date? The one I even went so far as to add to my work schedule so I wouldn't be called in to work?" he said when he answered it.

He listened for a minute and then said, "You have got to be fucking kidding me." He ran his hand through his hair and listened a bit more and said, "Yes, I'll leave now, it'll still take me a couple hours to get there. Do your best."

"Hikaru, I'm sorry," he told her when he turned back to her.

She shrugged. Then she wiggled her new phone at him, and suggested, "You can call me later?"

He grinned and kissed her, "I will absolutely call you later."

He left quickly. Hikaru played with her new phone for awhile. She added everyone she had memorized to her contacts list, starting with her mother, brother and uncle Kaoru. Then added Risa and Shizuoka, Yukito-san and Taka-ji. Last she added Ryu-sensei and Rin, she had Hatsuharu and Nezumi's contact information at home, but couldn't remember them for sure. She figured out how to send a group text to all of them that said 'I got a mobile phone, this is my new number. Hikaru'.

From Taka-ji she received an immediate text back, 'Got it love. Miss you. Busy as hell.' Right after that Risa called her.

"Oh my god!" Risa replied to Hikaru's hello. "I've been asking you to get one for ages, why all of a sudden?"

Hikaru was glad Risa couldn't see her blush, and replied "Um, Kiri bought it for me."

"Who is Kiri?" Risa asked.

"Well, ah, he's my boyfriend," she replied.

"What!?" shrieked Risa. "Where are you?"

Hikaru told her.

"Don't move, we'll be right there," Risa instructed.

"He already left? We who?" Hikaru replied.

"Makoto and I are on a date, we're about five minutes from you, be right there," Risa said and ended the call.

Hikaru stared at her phone. A message had arrived while she was talking, she opened it. It was from Yukito-san, the friend of her father's who'd insisted on managing her solo music jobs. He owned the bar 'Blue Moon'. He'd been the first person to let Hikaru perform on stage and Mirage played there about once a month for half the cover fee. 'Glad to hear, it will be more convenient. Y.'