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Sweet like candy,
But he's such a man.
Ariana Grande
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Akane and I hid behind the corner while we watched a certain girl talk to one of our fellow students.

"You have the candy?" I asked him.

Akane shifted around in the small basket he had in his hands before nodding. "Check."

"Flowers?"

"Check."

"Letters?"

"Check. All green." He shifted his glasses into place.

"Are you ready? Do you think this will work?" I asked him nervously. I wasn't even the one asking the question.

"If not, I'll at least get a rating. This is one of my grandest attempts yet." He tilted one of the letters to the side ever so slightly to make sure everything was in place.

Just as he was about to come out of hiding, a hand grabbed onto the collar of Akane's shirt preventing him to advance on his mission.

"Oh no you don't. We have papers to grade for Tsuchigomori sensei. Remember?" A very tall young male with sharp blonde hair reminded the poor redhead of responsibilities. Where have I seen him before?

Behind him, I saw a more familiar person. "Kou? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be having lunch with that pink-haired friend of yours?" I asked him. He had told me that he normally ate lunch with a classmate of his. I saw them walking around in the hallways together once or twice but I couldn't remember his name.

"Ahhh Mistuba said he had photos to take today. I decided to have lunch with my brother." Kou scratched the back of his head slightly as he looked at the so-called brother.

Now I know who he is. He's the boy that Nene kept fantasizing about. I could see why. But Kou and him looked exactly the same so... would that mean Nene liked Kou? Did she not know it? I already knew that he liked her from the night with the fireworks but this was a whole other level of drama.

The tall Minamoto stared at me before finally introducing himself. "Hello. My name is Minamoto Teru. I've seen you somewhere before haven't I?" His head tilted to the side before he waved it away. "It's probably nothing. I see you're friends with Kou?"

"Yes! My name is (L/n) (Y/n). It's nice to meet you, Minamoto." I bowed in respect. He looked older than me after all. Unfortunately, Aoi started walking in the opposite direction leaving Akane to save his confession.

"(L/n)? Are you the one dating Hanako?" The Minamoto boy propped his hands on his hips and looked down at me. He had an almost sort of hatred in his eyes.

"Hana...ko? Oh! Do you mean Amane? Yes of course! Is there something wrong with that?" my smile turned into a sort of smirk. Who's he to tell me what I can and cannot do?

"Not particularly. It was nice meeting you.    (L/n). Let's go Akane." The blond boy dragged his friend down the hall from the collar of his shirt.

"We will do it after school Akane, don't worry! She still has gardening after all." I smiled at the poor red-haired boy. His dull, saddened eyes seemed to sparkle at the reminder. Then, he got dragged around the corner. Kou stood in front of me. His gaze lingered onto the event before he turned to look towards me.

"Hanako? As in the toilet ghost?" I questioned. Kou's eyes widened and he scratched the back of his head.

"Apparently my brother met Yugi in front of the girl's bathroom? Teru hasn't liked him since. He thinks he's some sort of pervert. Because he was in front of the bathroom, he dubbed him Hanako."

"Isn't Hanako supposed to be a girl?" I giggled. But what if Hanako was a boy? I've never thought about that... "Plus, that stuff isn't real you know."

Kou nodded along with what I was telling him. "Well, I better be off then. What are you doing for lunch (L/n)?" Kou turned his body away but his eyes were still on me.

"I'll probably just wander around. Amane said he was going to eat lunch with his soccer friends and Yashiro said she had investigating to do in the library. I'm not sure what that means..." My head lowered. "I was planning on helping Akane out by providing him with some fresh ideas to confess to Aoi. But your brother kind of dragged him away."

"Ahhhh. I'm sorry about that. If you get lonely, just send me a text! I'll come to rescue you from your loneliness!" Kou smiled brightly showing off all of his teeth.

I just nodded solemnly, walking away. "What to do. What to do?" I hummed. My feet carried me back to my old piano room. It felt empty. The piano wasn't there anymore. It was just another storage room. Nothing special about it now. Only the memories within its walls carry meaning. But I can't seem to stay away from here. It's endearing.

I wasn't too hungry today. I had a bigger breakfast than I expected. My mother practically forced the rest of the pancakes down my throat when I needed to leave. She didn't like to waste food. But a sudden thump caught my attention.

Tsukasa had fallen from his sitting place on the windowsill. He was so still when I entered that I didn't even know he was there. "Pfffft. Really?"

"You startled me!" Tsukasa complained. He held his butt in pain as he hissed.

"Why are you in here?" I asked him. He knew this was my place to come when I was free. Even though it was a useless room, many of my friends seemed to gather in here. It must be special.

"I'm.....avoiding someone." His long pause made him look to the floor. His shy gaze made it clear that he hadn't told anyone else.

"Oh?" His change in personality piqued my interest. "Who?" I sat in front of Tsukasa, making sure to give him a piece of candy first.

He didn't open the candy right away. Which was unlike him. This must be a bother ."Natsuhiko."

Natsuhiko? Does he mean the weird guy from earlier? "Why?"

"I accidentally broke something of his and he's out to get me. It was the smallest little cat charm resting on his backpack and I think I pulled on it a little too hard." Tsukasa chuckled and rested one of his hands on the floor as he reached into his pocket to reveal a deck of uno cards.

Are you kidding me. This over a toy? "Was it important to him?"

"Yeah. I think? My friend Sakura gave it to him and he's a little over obsessed with her. I won't let him touch her though. She doesn't need his nasty hands on her." His face contorted into one of disgust while he shuffled the cards. "But he's still my friend regardless. Even though we constantly fight."

"Sakura? Is she your girlfriend?" I asked smugly. Tsukasa shuffling stopped and his face turned a bit pink. So he's harder to fluster than Amane?

"What? N-no! She's just a really good friend of mine! We all hang out in the broadcasting room after my astronomy club." He began to distribute the cards between us and I sighed taking my set.

"But you like her don't you? You seem awfully protective of someone if she was just a friend." I placed my first card down and he went as well.

"I guess...? I've never really liked anyone before. And I can't tell if she likes me too. And I tell her a lot of things straight up like 'your beautiful' or 'your hair looks great today'. And she does these kind things like help me with my homework and talk with me about how to treat girls."

"How to treat girls? You didn't know?" I began to laugh while he placed another card down

"Did you know about the space bubble? I didn't." His blue card caught me off guard. I pulled up another card until I got my blue.

"Yes. I know about the space bubble. I'm pretty sure your brother knows about it too. But... I don't know what's up really. I know the whole problem with the letters and fights are solved, but I miss him hanging around me 24/7 you know? Well, I know he has his own stuff to do and everything but just being away from him for more than ten hours makes me miss him a lot." I ranted to Tsukasa about his brother, and surprisingly, he listened. It was probably because the subject was Amane. He always listened to anything about him.

Tsukasa placed down a red card. "For me it's kind of the same with Sakura. We never Text each other outside of school like you and Amane do. Even though you do it rarely. And Natsuhiko likes her too. I don't really know what to do. But with Amane...why don't you tell him how you feel? If you miss him that much. I'm sure he would stick to you like glue if you did that." The red card he placed down gave me a perfect chance.

A red uno reverse card.

"Now you have to tell Sakura how you feel. You never know if she might reciprocate your feelings." I was honestly happy. Tsukasa and I have never talked this deep. He was opening up about a girl to his brother's girlfriend. So would I be family?

The bell rang signalling that lunch would be ending in five minutes. "Ahhh that sucks. Looks like we will end it here. Now you have to confess." I walked out of the room before I saw Tsukasa's next card drop.

A blue uno reverse.
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Original release date: July 14 2020