a/n: le drawing above is mine. //hides

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They walked side-by-side on the almost empty road, Takane humming happy high notes and Haruka listening to her with a content smile. Instead of her usual headphones which covered her ears, her earphones were on them. It seemed like the former was broken so she needed it fixed after school, and the male was more than happy to accompany her. He used the newly-opened negima store in the area as an excuse.

She had been humming the same song for two weeks already. It was different from that time, but this one was far more cheerful.

Though he was content with just the two of them walking, he wanted something more. Her recent song addiction seemed to be the perfect topic to spark a conversation. He gently tapped her shoulder to get her attention and she looked up at him curiously with an eyebrow raised – he knew she hated being bothered whenever she's listening to her music. His lips curled up; he talked loud enough for her to hear through the music blasting to her ears, "You've been humming that song a lot lately. Do you like it?"

To his delight, she took off the earphone from her ear on his side. For him, it indicated that he was doing well with his conversation plan and she was interested enough to talk to him. He mentally pumped his fist up into the air with an inner cheer of victory.

"Haaa...? You noticed," she replied then continued humming. "Guess I do like it."

Gladly going on with the flow of things, he pointed to her unused earphone. "Then would you mind if I listen to it too?" he asked, smiling happily. Her mood seemed to be fine, so he was hoping that her response would go as he wanted it to.

She stared at him for a second before her cheeks grew pink. "D-Do you mean you want to s-share it?!" she inquired rather loudly and flustered. Haruka found this side of her adorably cute, but he wondered what triggers it. There were a lot of times reacted like this and he had no idea why she did every single time. He was content enough that she could be flustered in his presence though. His wishful thinking brought him to assume that she might see him as a man and not just her classmate.

He nodded with a growing smile.

"W-Well, it's not like I want y-you to share it with m-me or anything!" She picked up the earphone from her shoulder, looking away with her cheeks turning red. "I-I just don't mind!"

He had to fight the urge to pull her into a bear hug for her insanely high level of utter cuteness.

She reached out to put the earphone to his ear herself. He scooted closer since the device's wire wasn't long enough to cover the distance between them. Soon enough, they were touching shoulder-to-arm, and it was the closest they had ever been with each other (literally). His body tensed the moment her shoulder made contact with his upper arm (even if there were their uniforms preventing their skin to touch each other) and when her fingertips touched his earlobe. She wasn't able to push it into his ear properly so he helped her with his hand on top of hers, pushing the device. She immediately pulled her hand away. Electricity seemed to rush through his body when their hands touched.

Their close proximity with each other made his heart skip a few beats faster and louder than normal and blood rush into his face. He covered his cheeks with his hand, feeling undeniably embarrassed with his body's reactions, and averted his gaze away from his classmate before he won't be able to control himself.

Only one worry lingered in his mind.

Could you hear the loud beating of my heart, Takane?