a/n: hey-yo, everyone! 
(srsly, eru. who says that these days?)

Here's a long update. lol. Hopefully it's okay. Ahahaha--//slapped.

Thank you for waiting. UvU I appreciate that.
(I stayed up to 3 am typing this to show that--//shotslappedbrickedkicked. wat iz sleep tho)

and don't judge my songwriting skills. XD i can't even write a decent poem to save my life.

_____

Logging in to my Nico Nico Douga account, I was overwhelmed by flood of comments and feedback on my recently uploaded song---the same song I'd started composing since I was in the library before I was to attend school. With the stress the upperclassmen had inflicted on me, making the song was the most effective way to temporarily relieve me of my worries. The music video--or just a decent drawing with music playing in the background---wasn't that appealing, but the amount of positive feedback brought a smile to my face. Maybe staying up late was worth it.

There were some, however, who noticed faults in my composing, and gave honest criticism which I gratefully accepted. I did my best to ignore the small amount of hate, however, but I was way too elated to even care at the moment.

Among those notifications were at least three people who did a cover. Really, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that people actually covered some of my songs! Of course the ever-supportive Yuki-chan, who goes by the username 'Fuyuyu' in the said website, was one of them. I listened to her take on the song--which was usually leaning on the adorable side. I wasn't the slightest bit disappointed. She's improving! She placed twists in the song, and they blended in well. I'll call her later , I placed a post-it on my mind's to-do board. 

Another notable utaite was Kitsushin, a male singer with silk-like, heart-melting voice that will surely charm whoever listens to his covers. It was like his singing voice had an enchantment of some sort, like the first three syllables of his singing would turn anyone into his fangirl, regardless of the listener's gender. It's tried and proven; I myself had fallen victim to his singing and his arrangements. To say that I fell in love with his voice would make one of the world's greatest understatements. 

With that said, it's safe to assume that he has a large fanbase. Him covering one of your songs would be such an honor and the greatest valid flattery one could receive in this website. Imagine how I reacted when I saw the notification that he sang my song. I repeat: he, Kitsushin, sang my song!

Screaming like it was the end of the world, I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the glass jar containing my sweet chocolate cookies then plopped down back to my place in front of my beloved laptop. After placing my headphones back on my ears and pressing the replay button, I buried my face in the pillow I was hugging earlier and squeezed it tight, to the point where the cotton inside could almost burst out. It didn't help when I read one of the comments saying that "Maple-P's song goes well with Kitsushin's voice! I hope to listen more omg~!"

Oh. My. Glob.

I grabbed a chewy cookie from the jar and stuffed it into my mouth, breathing heavily. Calm down, calm down, calm down! I swallowed, my right hand trembling out of excitement, and added the video to MyList. My mind was blank of words, and I didn't know how to express my gratitude without seeming like a crazy fangirl, even if I kind of am. My poor little heart had to calm down and devouring four more cookies wasn't enough. I glared at my phone peacefully sitting on top of my couch, tried to decide against the idea since I wasn't sure if the person's free, then released a defeated sigh. I dialed her number and waited for at least three seconds when she answered, "Ki-chan? What's up? Is everything oka---"

"KITSUSHIN!" I squealed, "COVER! LOCK AND KEY!" 

"Calm down!" I could hear her hearty laughter in the background. "Kitsushin covered your song?"

"Yes! Oh my freaking gummybears! I---" I stood up and frantically paced around the room, "---I can't---"

More laughter. "Is this about your crush on Kitsushin?" 

"Of course!" I replied loudly, like she said one of the most obvious truths in the world. "Who doesn't have a crush on him?!"

"I, as a matter of fact, don---"

"You don't. Not yet," I corrected her before she could even finish. I took a deep breath as I stepped out of my apartment for some fresh air, looking at the setting sun in an urgent need to calm down. However, that didn't keep my heels and my feet from making me bounce with sheer elation. It wasn't even a concern that my hair was all over the place, and I was wearing an over-sized shirt over fitted shorts; in short, I looked shabby and I was kind of outside. "It's not just the crush, Yuki-chan! It's---It's him covering my song! It's a freaking miracle!"

I heard her little brother ask something loudly, and she shushed him before she turned back to her phone. "It's not a miracle," she stated in a-matter-of-factly tone, "You're a great composer; it's bound to happen sooner or later, you know."

I held back a breath. There are tons of other composers in the said site who's way better than I am! "But that's not---"

"Now, let me ask about Lock and Key."

I was now standing still, slightly worried about the change in her tone. It wasn't because her manner of speaking suddenly felt serious, but it was because I knew this kind of serious tone really well. I knew she was up to something as I could hear the smirk in her voice. "What about it?" I questioned, casually flying into her little trap. "Oh, thank you for covering it. Your voice was really cute---"

"Don't change the subject, Ki-chan! Geez!" And now, I was sure that she was pouting. "I'm just saying that it's kind of different from your earlier songs..."

My eyebrows rose at her observation. "What do you mean?" As far as I could remember, I wrote and composed the song the same way I wrote the others, but, of course, with a few modifications to make it sound unique but still sound like a Maple-P song. "How is it different?" I asked. 

"The overall feel? The lyrics?" 

"Uh?"

"'In this hopeless love, there is only one thing to do,'" she started quoting a few lines from the chorus, "'No matter how painful it is, no matter how hard it is, I shall do it with all my might! I'll seal away these growing feelings with my heart's lock.'"

I blinked in confusion. I didn't see anything wrong with it. "What's different with it...?"

She sighed then continued, "'But why is it that with your smile, with your eyes, with your words, you always find the key?'"

"Um...?"

"Do you really not know what I'm talking about or are you simply playing dumb, Ki-chan?" Bits of exasperation were able to become evident in her manner of speaking, which merely sent me into a deeper state of confusion. "It's the cheesiest of all your songs!" she elaborated and giggled a little. 

My cheeks heated up. "You think it's cheesy?" I knew it. My lyrics for the said song felt different compared to the others. But it's not like I don't compose songs about love; it's just that the song had some sort of story about a girl trying to ignore her feelings for a guy, who actually likes her too, just because she thinks it's an unrequited love.

"Cheesy and vaguely familiar," she added, her voice turning mischievous. If she was beside me right now, she's be playfully poking my sides with a goofy grin on her face.

She couldn't be talking about---"It isn't based on the thing with Akashi-kun!" I denied immediately after realizing what she assumed. Did it really seem that way? The thought of him may have emerged while writing the lyrics, but I wasn't thinking of him while writing it! There's a difference!

"Oooh. Defensive. I didn't even say anything about Akashi-kun," she teased, and I felt my cheeks burn. Wrong freaking move. I brought my free hand to my face to hide it out of embarrassment, as if there was anyone else who could see me in the area.

"...darn," I muttered.

She let out a hearty laughter. "So it is about him!"

"It's not!" I retorted, my face's temperature rising with each passing second. 

"Maybe you could send the song to him to confess?" she suggested, and the mere thought of it made something explode in my chest, the effects of the explosion soon extinguished by my reason.

"Who said anything about confessing?" I asked with a frown as I took a seat on the floor. For once, I thought it could be nice to watch the colors of the sky slowly shift from yellow and orange, purple and pink, and indigo and blue. I immediately spotted the first star.

There was a brief moment of silence on the other line. "You're not confessing?" she asked in utter incredulity, as if I just told her that Japan was going to stop making anime and stop producing manga.

"Yep. I'm not going to confess. Ever. Who confesses to get rejected? That's just stupid and suicidal," I replied as I watched the neighborhood cat walk on the branch of the tree. The words that just left my lips were absolute truths that I had to realize and follow even if they made unpleasant sensations in my chest. The side characters in a shoujo manga confessing their love for the main character, who was clearly in love with the other protagonist, always made me wince and want to shout at them to stop. Right now, I planned to follow my advice as I'm pretty sure I'm one of those characters.

"What if he likes you back?" Her voice turned whiny, like a puppy's when they're asking for food.

"We're channeling bad shoujo here Yuki-chan; that's something that doesn't happen in real life."

She groaned. "But that happened to my mom and dad!"

"Some people just get lucky," I told her, my eyes following the aforementioned cat as he jumped from branch to branch like a ninja from Konoha, "You do know that some high school loves don't even last, right?" I was also sure that given some time, these feelings would inevitably pass.

"B-But---" she fumbled with her words, unable to find an argument, "What if it's meant to be?"

"What if it isn't?" I asked. The cat was able to get down to the street without the help of a fireman and a worried old lady. Congratulations, cat. "We have about 30,000 encounters in our lifetime; 3,000 of those are people we actually know. In those 3,000 people, there's only one person who'd be our 'fated'," I stated, quoting Akai Ito (Red String), a live action series I watched sometime ago. "Applying that, the chances of us being 'meant to be' is one out of three thousand. It's impossible."

"It's not impossible if there's at least a chance!" she replied hopefully, earning a shrug from me. "Aren't girls in love supposed to be more optimistic or something?" She let out a sigh, and I laughed at her faulty generalization. I wasn't even in love in the first place; this could be just some kind of a great infatuation or something. "You're in a league of your own, Ki-chan."

"Well, isn't that fine?" I continued laughing, and she replied with a grunt of displeasure. 

She sighed once again. "High school is full of firsts! What if this is your first love? You're trying to ignore your first love!" she scolded me, and my cheeks flushed at the mere thought. Did she really have to say that? I curled into a ball as I sat, burying my face in my knees. It was even more embarrassing that I considered that.

"What good is a first love---" my mouth needed extensive cleaning the moment those two words left my lips, "---if it's hopeless?"

"Ahhh, geez! I don't know what to---" I then heard her little brother's nagging voice, followed by her muffled one. She must've covered her phone's receiver. They argued for a bit, until I heard her say something in resignation. She went back to her phone and said, "I'm sorry, Ki-chan! Eita needs help with his homework and Onii-chan's still not home! Should I call you back when I get things sorted out?"

Thank goodness for her little brother, his homework, and their eldest brother's absence. I didn't like the topic we were talking about at the moment, especially now that the whole thing was associated with a certain redhead. I let out an internal sigh of relief and replied, "No, no. It's okay, Yuki-nee-chan," I teased with a smile, "Go ahead and do your sisterly duties!"

"Aw, shut up," she whined when I teased her about being an older sister, "Well, I gotta go. Bye~!"

"Bye!" 

I stood up from my seat, dusted the filthy particles from my legs and butt, gave the purplish-blue sky one final glance, and went back into my apartment.

***

"Akiyama-chan~!"

I turned at the unexpected chirpy sound of my name, immediately wondering who'd even call my name in this school. A pair of golden eyes met my dull ones, and I felt myself shying away from the piece of sunshine quickly approaching me that was Mariya-san. She smiled, bouncing on her heels as she was giddy for something. Well, she always seemed that way to me.

"Are you going to eat your lunch now? Under the tree?" She gestured to the boxed lunch hanging from my hand. Since the excitement produced by my little success with my new song was more than enough to keep me energized, I cooked for today's lunch that was enough for two people, dessert and side dishes included. I didn't get to eat enough breakfast today, so this might come in handy. (Also, I'll never know when Kanato-kun joins me for lunch.)

I nodded, still unconvinced that this creature of light even noticed someone such as me. That, and I was still uneasy in her presence. 

"Good!" She bent slightly to me, her smile still there but now her brows furrowed with worry. "Can you keep an eye on Sei-chan, if you can?" she asked, her voice almost crossing the border of whispering and plain talking. Something about her way of addressing him sent a stinging sensation down my chest which I needed to shoo away immediately. "I think he's been overworking himself. With the Winter Cup coming and all. And I don't even think he eats lunch."

Now I felt guilty cooking for too much. The boxed lunch suddenly weighed a ton.

"Okay," I muttered, careful not to offend her as I also wanted to escape her heavy stare. I glanced at her eyes and looked back down on my indoor shoes.

"Thank you, Akiyama-chan~! See you!" She stepped back and bowed curtly, sending me a small final smile before turning back to her friends, who waited for her in one side of the hallway. 

I discretely rushed outside, the realization of the upperclassmen trio's absence only dawning on me when I was near to my destination. Along with that was them cornering me in that empty hallway, Akashi-kun treating my wound in the infirmary, and him making an imaginary smile at me. I shrugged the thought off my head. Just. Stop. 

Under the tree lay Kanato-kun, snoozing the way I saw him when we met. I felt myself smile at the embarrassing memory. I sat on an area opposite his, hoping that it was far enough to keep the hugging and licking incident from repeating. Once I got the lunch arranged on my lap and on my side, I started munching away, relishing my food and the breeze. It was cooling considerably outside, but it was still good enough to continue being out. It made me wonder on how long I could continue eating out here until the winter air starts to chill my being.

My gaze fell on the open window of the student council room, the white translucent curtains fluttering in the room. From my position, I couldn't see him, but I simply knew that he was there, working as always. Mariya-san's words echoed in my mind, about him overworking himself, about him not being able to eat his meals. I looked at the rainbow jelly and three rice balls on my side, both stored in different containers. I glanced back to the open window and released a sigh of defeat. 

I took the two and quietly and hesitantly went to the window. If he sees me, I'd rush back to my seat. If he doesn't... I got close enough to see what's inside, and I instantly found him through his noticeable crimson hair. His head was bowed slightly and his eyes were closed. He was hunched over some papers on the table in front of him; I've never seen him so peaceful despite his current situation. My heart skipped a beat at the rare scene in front of me.

Someday, I'll get over these troublesome feelings. 

I set down the rice balls and rainbow jelly on the cabinet pushed against the window, giving me enough room to place the two containers. Though I was careful not to make a sound, he shifted in his position once the containers were on the wooden surface and produced a soft thud. My heartbeat's rate picked up; I stepped away and caught one final glimpse of him rubbing his eyes with his right hand before I turned and went away.

But today's not the day. 

My hands trembled as I placed my lunch back on my lap when I was already seated under the tree. Did I just do that? I shut my eyes in embarrassment and regret, my cheeks once again reaching their boiling point. I heard movement in the room, so I picked my chopsticks up and continued eating with my head bowed like nothing happened, though I was sure my movements were stiff and unnatural. 

His footsteps went close to the window, stopped, and retreated back into the room. I snuck a peek at the window. The containers were no longer there.

After all, he has my lock's key.