When the door bell rang, I quickly ran down stairs, at the same time being careful to not trip by my yukata. When I came to the door, I opened it up without checking, already expecting who came. It was Lizz and Alluka, wearing the kimonos they said they would wear yesterday.

"Hi, Yuki-chan!" Alluka waved.

"Hey, guys," I greeted while breathing heavily from that unnecessary effort to get to the door quickly when I knew these two were the most patient girls I know.

They both looked beautiful in their dresses, however, one thing was standing out too much. I darted a glare at Lizz, then at her white sun hat with the raspberry pink sash around it. "What?" She asked sarcastically.

"Dude, really?" I asked in reluctant disbelief, and she was the one who was most excited about dressing up cultural. "There won't even be any sun out."

"Well you have to admit, I'm pulling this off," she said as she traced her fingers on the edges of the flowy head cover, giving me a wink of cuteness. "Are you ready for tonight?" Lizz asked excitedly as she pumped her fist in the air, her loose, silky sleeve and purse sliding down her arm.

I giggled and decided to let the subject slide. "Not yet," I lifted a finger. "We have to do our hairs first, remember?"

"Uh-why do you think we came here in the first place?" Lizz asked sarcastically. We all laughed.

"Come on, then. Let's head toward my room." I motioned them inside and led them into my bedroom. Come to think of it, the last time Alluka came into my room was when Killua got hurt. We should hang out here more often.

"Who wants to go first?" Lizz asked as she settled a bag of make up and accessories on the floor next to my mirror.

"I do!" Alluka cheered as she sat on a pillow in front of the mirror, which I laid out earlier. Lizz knelt behind her as she began smoothing out Aluka's dark brown hair with a brush.

In a couple of hours from now, the girls and I would meet up with the guys at the Southside Park Shrine to enjoy the Firework Festival together. Mom had a double ship tonight, and there was also my penalty, so of course she would expect me to chaperone Rin and his friends to the festival. Luckily for me, it only took a twenty jenny bribe for him to just secretly hang out with his friends without us around. After all, it wasn't like Rin wanted us to tag along with his friends either. He's mature enough to take care of himself. He had other plans too, just like me.

By the time Lizz finished braiding Alluka's hair into a high bun, it was my turn to sit on the soft, warm pillow.

"How would you like your look?" Lizz asked.

"Hmm... Can you braid my hair into pig tails?" I asked politely.

Lizz shrugged her shoulders. "Okay." She probably wanted to do something more complex.

I quickly raised a finger after remembering something. "Hold on a sec'," I got up from my pillow mat and walked over to my dresser, pulling out two strands of pink ribbons out of a box and sat back down. "Tie them with these, please," I instructed.

Liz parted my hair into two, separated on each side of my head, resting on my shoulders. As she began weaving my hair in a repeating process, I just blankly gazed at myself, wondering how I would look in Killua's eyes. I hope that he would find me pretty tonight, even in his sister's yukata. Would he actually fall into victim of my own charm? My face was heating up just thinking about trying to look attracted to Killua.

"And... Done!" Lizz smiled after tying the second ribbon at the end of my hair at the opposite side of where she started, admiring her masterpiece. I turned my head left to right to see if my new mane was presentable.

"Thanks, Lizz," I said gratefully with my image in the mirror smiling back.

"No problem." She straighten her legs as she stood up, stretching her arms after a good work.

"Do you want us to do your hair too?" I asked, considering how Lizz was the one left out.

"Uh, nah, it's okay," she kindly rejected the offer. "I have short hair, so there's really nothing much you can do with it. Anyway, the guys should be waiting for us by now. We should start heading out."

"Okay," I agreed, sounding like I didn't think much of it, but I did. Lizz was always my fashion police that I thought I could do just this one thing for her. She always refrained from doing anything that required her to remove her hat, almost protective over her head. If the reason was to hide a bad hair day, then I guess every day would be a bad hair day for her.

When I picked up the wooden yukata sandals that were sitting against the wall, the girls and I left the room together and headed down stairs.

In the living room was Rin, laying flat on the couch with his video game console over his head as usual. It was when we reached the feet of the stairs that mom walked out of her bedroom in a hurry, swiping the keys from the counter and heading toward the door.

"I'm heading off to work now. You kids be safe, okay?" she said, turning her head, but not stopping her pace. "Call me if you need anything."

"We will," Rin and I both responded in monotonous harmony.

***

The four of us walked together to the park which was a terrible idea that we didn't think through. My feet were beginning to ache from the these wooden slippers that might even produce blisters. Rin was fortunate to not endure the pain since he was wearing his casual clothes with his comfy looking sneakers. It was a good thing that we took the train instead of actually walking all the way to the east side of the city from my house. The park still had a several block distance from the station though.

As we walked, more and more people began appearing on the streets, most likely heading toward the same place we were. Some girls were wearing kimonos like we were.

When we finally made it to the entrance, the boys were already waiting for us. They were wearing casual clothes, as expected. They appeared to be having a conversation until Gon's eyes caught us coming, then waved at us. Killua turned around and greeted us as well.

"Wow, you girls look amazing!" Gon complimented as he gazed at us with astonishment.

"Awe... Thank you," Lizz bowed. "What do you think, Killua?" she smirked, probably thinking about how Killua feels about me.

Thinking back to yesterday, I remembered how Killua saw me in this pink Yukata for the first time, and the memory immediately made my face heat up again of embarrassment.

Killua then whipped his head away. "You look nice, I guess," he shrugged. That statement made me feel disappointed. It would be nice to hear Killua say that I looked pretty.

"Oneesan," Rin poked me on the shoulder. When I turned to him, he was pointing at a group of boys his age, who were already walking inside of the park, one of them I recognized as his best friend. "Can I go with my friends now?"

"You got enough money with you, right?" I asked him, making sure if he'll need to borrow money or not so that he could be well fed.

"Yes."

"All right, but keep your phone on you." With my given permission, he smiled and ran off to catch up with his pack.

"Yay! Let's all go enjoy the festival now!" Alluka cheered with her hands raised high with excitement.

"Aye!" We all cheered of equal, agreeable excitement.

With the orange sky merging into a plum purple, the lanterns hanging from the line connecting the trees glowed warmly. Booths were facing booths from each side of the path, and the people did not leave one unattended. There were all sorts of games underneath their own individual canopies, and vendors were selling a variety of cooked food.

"Sugoi! Everything looks so pretty and lively!" Alluka's smile gaped open as she skipped ahead of us to spectate all the festivities around her. "What should we do first?"

"How about we visit the shrine?" Lizz suggested.

"Okay," I nodded. We talked along the way as we climbed up the cement steps to the park's shrine. Once we've passed the red altar at the top of the hill, there was a shanty built shelter with people walking toward and away from it. The trees that surrounding the shrine area were covered with holiday lights and strips of paper tied to the branches.

We followed the long line of people who waited outside of the entrance of the temple. After about ten minutes of waiting, we finally reached under the roof. In front of the porch of the temple were two nice ladies sitting behind a desk with separate stacks of colorful tags of paper and a cup filled with wooden pencils. I followed Lizz to the table. The woman in front of me generously handed me a pink slip of paper accompanied by a pencil. "Have a wonderful evening!"

"Thanks! You too," I replied back, though knowing that she might have to sit there for almost the duration of the event. As I walked away from the front of the line, I though about what to wish for. It better be something good and achievable. Maybe a brand new set of art supplies. Nah, I got to think of something beyond physical, consumable objects. Deep down, the answer was yelling at me from the beginning. I flipped the tag over my palm and began writing discreetly that I would tell Killua how I feel, and that he would hopefully feel the same way.

When I completed writing down my wish, I walked up to a tree with the least amount of crowd and wrapped the yarn, which was tied around the the punched hole of the paper, to the closest branch. As I tightened the knot, someone else was tying their purple wish slip to the branch next to mine. I turned to see a familiar face with silver hair.

"What?" Was Killua's frank response when he he noticed me staring at him. He looked bothered by it so I quickly averted my eyes away.

"Nothing. Nothing."

After each of us made our wish, we headed back down to the bottom of the hill.

"So Yuki, what did you wish for?" Gon asked.

I grinned and placed my finger over my lips. "Tee-hee, not telling."

For some odd reason, I felt like something was missing. The air almost seemed... Quiet. I counted among our numbers and realized Lizz was missing. "Where did Lizz go?"

It was then that my cell phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my purse and read the caller ID. To no surprise, it was my absent best friend.

"Hey, where are you?" I answered, scoping the area to see if she was possibly close by.

"Hey, Yuki. You're not gonna believe this, but I think I'm lost," she replied back with a nervous chuckle.

"What?" I snapped back in disbelief. "How could you possibly get lost so fast when you were right with us?"

"It's a big park with a lot of people. People can get lost in the park." That time, she was sounding less worried, and more casual. "Uh-oh, I'm walking into a tunnel- I can't- I- You-" her choppy wording was then cut off by fake static noise produced by her own voice. As I was about to argue, the call ended.

"Lizz, what are you doing?" I muttered as I looked down at my phone, holding it firmly. "You better not be doing this to me." I peered at my companions, who looked at me confused and worried; everyone except Alluka, who's attention was on her own mobile device. After carefully reading what was on her screen which I couldn't see, her eyes flashed and she looked up.

"Ah, Lizz-chan is missing!" She exclaimed shocked. We..." She looked back down at her phone as if for guidance. "We should... split... up... And go find her." She then hastily linked arms with Gon and pulled him closer. "I'll go with Gon-kun. You go search with Onii-chan." Without anyone's consent, she dragged the bewildered Gon away. She did this with a smirk on her face.

"W-wait! Killua!" He looked at us with pleading eyes as his hand reached out toward us while being pulled away against his own will.

"H-hold on!" Killua started.

"Wait a second, guys!" But they didn't stop. They disappeared behind a wall of people, leaving the two of us alone. Just the two of us.

My heart picked up speed as I stood stiffly next to Killua. I was feeling so nervous that I couldn't figure out what words to say to him right now. How did we end up alone like this? After a moment of processing, I finally realized what was going on here. Lizz, you sneak.

"So what do you wanna do?" Killua broke the silence between us.

"U-um... Shouldn't we be looking for Lizz?" Honestly, I would like to look for her so that I could give her a piece of my mind for setting us up.

"Or we could have fun and say that we looked for her everywhere," when I turned to him, he was smiling. Was he actually okay with us being alone? It didn't bother him at all? I felt a twinge in my heart.

I responded with a nod and smile. "Okay."

"All right. So like I said before, what do you wanna do first?"

"Hmm... Let's see..." I looked around to see what kind of booths were around us. The first one that caught my attention was the smell of grilled pork. "How about something to eat?" I asked.

"Sure."

I followed the smell and ended up in front of a booth where two men were cooking shish kebabs on their grill. The smell was so relishing and devine that I couldn't keep my mouth closed. "Two please," I asked.

The kind vendor handed me two sticks of meat as I exchanged them for currency. I passed one to Killua as we walked away.

I took a bite, and the sensation of the warm, fresh, juicy meat already spread across my taste buds. "This is good," he said as he slid another piece of meat off and continued munching on it.

"Ooh, those look good!" I said, pointing at chocolate covered bananas with sprinkles on sticks.

I slid one foot over to meet eyes with the seller behind the counter. "One please!" I made my request with a cheeky smile.

"You're not going to finish that first?" Killua asked, referring to my half finished meat stick.

"Hmph! If you're referring to me as a pig, then you don't have to watch me eat," I retorted back with my head turned away, chin up.

"No, I'm just saying take it easy." He raised his hands up defensively, trying not to offend my eating behavior in any way.

"Here you go, little Miss," the lady smiled kindly as she thrusted forward a white chocolate covered banana with rainbow sprinkles.

"Make that two," Killua said as he held out four Jenny to the woman, the total price of both of our treats. He then gave me an irritated glance. "What? You're not the only one who likes chocolate."

The woman took the money and gave him back a milk chocolate banana coated with dark chocolate drizzles.

We spent the rest of the night playing whatever games the booths provided. At first, Killua had an easy winning streak, which I accused him of cheating. Of course I was joking, but after a while, I gradually began winning the other games. Was he letting me win on purpose? My victories eventually grew less satisfying due to his humble nature.

As we continued to stroll along the trail where children ran around with sparklers, we came upon a wall of masks. Some had the traditional faces of spirits and demons, while others were popular and well known. "Look, Hello Kitty!" I squealed in a girlish, cheerful voice, as if I was a little girl again. I took one off the wall and pulled the elastic strap back and set the plastic on my face. "Nyan," I purred with my hands in the gesture of paws and my ankle kicked up. Killua just stared at me amused. "You try one on, Killua," I insisted, pointing at the wall of masks.

"What?"

"Just do it. C'mon, you're making me look ridiculous." Even though he couldn't see it, I was smiling underneath my warm mask.

Killua sighed and just picked up a random mask of a white cat with red whiskers. "Nyan..." he bluntly mused with an unenthusiastic whip of his fake kitty claws.

"Pfffft-ha ha ha!" I began cracking up, seeing Killua do something like this for the first time. I didn't actually think he would do it, let alone act like an emo cat. Killua crossed his arms and looked away, making himself look even more adorable. As I slipped my hand under my mask to wipe a tear away, I noticed a white blur through my seeing hole. A familiar white sun hat was peaking at the top of a shroud of hedges. Before I could identify who was under it, the person ducked down, which gave it away.

"Pst! Killua," I whispered harshly, hoping that he could hear me through the noise of all the activities.

"Yeah?" he responded while exchanging his mask to try out another one. The new one he laid on his face now was of a Pikachu. He seemed to be barely paying any attention to me.

"I think our friends are spying on us."

"You mean you just noticed?" he replied back, not making much of a big deal out of it. He made it seem like that was the only thing that surprised him.

"You mean you knew?!"

"Shh!" Killua pressed his index finger against the mouth area of my mask. "You'll ruin the fun. Whatever you do, don't look around. Act like you didn't notice them." He then slid his fingers under my masked and gently pulled it off, placing it back on the wall. When he returned his mask, without permission, he took my hand and started walking. I followed him silently, only focusing on his hand holding mine. I was feeling this warm, tingling sensation surging through my arm from his hand. "When I count to three, we make a run for it." I turned to his face to see him grinning.

Oh, I get it now. Killua wanted to wait for the right moment to mess with them back. Running all of a sudden would leave them confused, and would totally get them off our tail for good. I could just imagine how excited Lizz was feeling right now.

"H-hold on," I stuttered as I made us stop. I was still embarrassed at the fact that Killua was holding my hand. I slipped my wooden planks known as shoes off and bent down to pick them up. There was no way I was going to run in these unless I was prepared for an accident. "Okay, now I'm ready," I said, fixing my back straight.

We continued to walk naturally. "One..." Killua began counting.

"Two..." I followed.

Our hands squeezed tighter. "Three!" We sprinted forward full speed without looking back. We swerved around people without stopping to let anyone pass. We were the ones who had the right of way tonight. We laughed stupidly as we ran aimlessly away from the crowd. Eventually, the noise got quieter, and the lights faded dimmer. We slowed down for breath when we reached far away from the festival area and began wandering around the vacant parts of the park. We were close to the lake, on a path illuminated by the yellow glares of the lamp posts.

"Did we lose them?" I heaved as I was still giggling.

"Yeah, we lost them."

As we continued our quiet walk together, I remembered that we were still holding hands. Killua hadn't departed yet, so why should I break it? He didn't seem to mind, and I certainly don't mind.

We kept walking into a darker road, which brought into light some memories that began to surface. Although dark, I remembered this path clearly. It was a place that I hadn't been to in a long time. We were about to approach it.

"Hey, what's that?" Killua pointed at a run-down amusement ride.

"That's the old carousal," I answered with nostalgia. The roof, walls and horses still had their original color, but their surfaces were rusting and rotting away. The platform was carpeted with leaves and the mirrors were coated in muck. This landmark of my childhood used to look so shiny.

"I used to come here a lot as a kid," I continued to reminisce out loud. "It was when my dad died that this old thing broke down. They never got it back up. What a shame..." I faced down to the ground, thinking why I brought that up. I was then reminded why I hadn't come here in a long time. Looking at the way the carousal was now symbolized how my father's life ended. We had fun times that kept coming back around and around, but then suddenly stopped. Now I could never enjoy the presence of either of them.

"Hey, turn around and close you eyes," Killua said out of the blue.

"Huh?" I responded confused.

"Just do it."

"Okay," I did as he told me to and waited. He wouldn't actually try to fix that broken old machine, would he? If the repairmen couldn't fix it all those years ago, what makes Killua think that he could possibly fix in one night?

"Okay, you can look now."

It only took within a minute for Killua to do what he had to. When I opened my eyes, I noticed a solid shadow of my own body stretching from my feet, surrounded by the glowing color of yellow on the ground. As I slowly turned around, the light grew brighter. When I fully turned, I gasped in shock. All of the light bulbs around and under the roof were emitting bright light, reflecting its radiance off of the mirrors in all direction. It was almost like looking at a dream coming back to life.

Killua stood behind the control panel, smiling from ear to ear.

"You... You fixed it... How?" I was speechless. I was amazed that Killua could do something like this, going above and beyond.

"I know a thing or two about electrical appliances," he grinned as he chiefly scratched below his nose. I stood dumbfounded as I gazed at his result. Looking at the carousal now melted away its age and filth. "Well don't just stand there. Get on!"

[Press Play]

I snapped out of my fantasy and opened the rusted gate. I was feeling so excited that my legs were actually feeling a little wobbly. I slipped my sandals back on and stepped over the metal platform, crunching the dead leaves under my heels. I got on the stallion that was closest to the man in control. I sat down with both legs on one side so that I could sit comfortably while wearing my yukata. This sensation felt so nostalgic. "So do you know how to work this thing?" I asked, before I get my hopes up.

"Let's see..." Killua's attention focused on the controls. He placed one hand on one spot, and after a few seconds, the foundation shook and began to slowly rotate.

"You actually did it! You're a miracle worker, Killua," I praised, holding the golden pole of my horse. My ride began to automatically move up and down as I marched forward. As I was about to make my first lap, Killua was standing next to the carousal, watching me with adoration. "Come on!" I gestured him to join me, but he waved his hand to turn down the offer. As if I was going to let that happen. "Oh no you don't." As we met, I quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him up. Killua was taken by surprise, but recomposed his smirk.

"Okay," he swiftly moved to the rear of my horse, and without a single notice, he hopped over and sat behind me. I yelped startled for I didn't mean for us to share the same seat. He could've just picked the one next to me, or the other twelve. However, when I looked over my shoulder to check on him, he had a certain sparkle in his eyes which showed innocence. He was really enjoying himself, as was I.

"Woo-hoo!" I cheered as the two of us continued to have our infinity travel on that single spot in the park.

After about twenty rounds, we decided to take a break before getting dizzy and found a bench with a view of the pond. Killua turned off the carousel, so we were once again submerged into total darkness. The lamps were shut off, meaning that the fireworks would be starting soon. We sat quietly as we watched the squiggly white lines of the moon's glow ripple in the water.

"So when are the fireworks supposed to start?" Killua asked.

I checked my phone for the time. "It should start any minute now," I answered. "Hey Killua,"

"Hm?"

"Thank you so much," I said, still gazing at the lake.

"What for?" he asked curiously.

"For this wonderful night. Even though it wasn't as we expected it to be, and you would rather have spent it with Gon and Alluka... I'm still glad about how it turned out." I paused for a moment, being hesitant for the next thing I was going to say. "I'm... Really happy spending time with you."

"I'm glad of how it turned out too."

Just then, a bright red tail swam across the surface of the water and bursted into an enormous sparkling ball of light, followed by a canon boom. I pulled my head up and saw the first firework. "Ooh, it's starting!" The next two were a green and yellow. The following tail exploded into the shape of a white star. The next couple bursted into dots of light, which dispersed into smaller sparkles of light dancing in the night sky. Each one was unique, flaring around to the sounds of booms so loud I could feel my eardrums shake. The show looked even more beautiful with the colors and lights reflecting off of the water like a rippling kaleidoscope. "Wow..."

"Yuki..." Killua spoke in a gentle but firm voice.

"Hm?" I turned my attention away from the light show to the boy sitting next to me. For some reason, he looked serious. More serious than he had looked all night.

"There's something I need to tell you... Something that you should know about me." He fixed his eyes to face mine, showing his sincerity.

"What is it?" The mood suddenly depleted by his expression which said something was wrong.

He opened his mouth, empty air coming out first. "... I..." His eyes veered away as he vigorously ran his hand through his hair. "I'm... um..." He was looking pretty nervous. The thing he wanted to tell me must be really important if it was so hard for him to say. "Don't freak out what I'm about to tell you," he said looking back at me with flustered eyes.

I couldn't help but giggle. "It's okay, Killua. Whatever you say, I won't judge you," I ensured with a sincere smile. Hopefully it wouldn't be something too bad at least.

Killua then took a deep breath. "Okay..." He then scooted closer to me and cleared his throat. "Yuki, I..." His words lingered again. I have never seen Killua this nervous before. I should probably tell him that he doesn't have to force himself to say something to me if he can't. Just then, without warning, he leaned in closer to my face with closed eyes. I didn't know what he was doing until his lips gently pecked my cheek for a brief moment. With just that one kiss it set a blaze on my face.
I held my breath when he pulled away and opened his eyes. "I like you." With just that short, simple statement, he leaned back on the chair with hands shoved in his pockets, looking away. I could still see the blush next to his ear.

I exhaled gravely as my heart accelerated nonstop. Suddenly, I had my own firework show exploding inside of me. I turned away while holding my red hot cheeks. Killua likes me! He actually said that he likes me. Not only that, but he was the first to initiate a kiss... On me! Does this mean he had liked me for a while? Not only that, but he actually confessed to me first, which meant this made things easier for me. I can tell him how I feel and we both can be happy.

I shifted back to him with my chest puffed up. "Killua, I-" I was about to say the three words until I felt my purse vibrated. This was the most inconvenient time for a cell phone to go off. I felt awkward at first, keeping my sentence on pause as Killua waited for my response. I wanted to tell him now more than any time, but the phone would just ruin the mood. Heck, it already ruined it. "I-I'm so sorry. Just let me check this and I'll get right back to you," I said nervously as Killua was left with a confused and disappointed expression.

When I pulled out my ringing phone, it indicated that Rin was calling. He better be dying to call me at a time like this, or I'm gonna kill him. I quickly answered the call. "What do you want, Rin?" I tried the best I could to not sound like an angry beast in front of the boy I like.

"Well that's not a nice way to say hello," said an unfamiliar man's voice.

My anger dropped and my face went cold. I held the phone closer to my ear. "Who is this? Why do you have Rin's phone?"

"Oh, I'm just checking in on how you two are enjoying your night," the voice said so calmly, but also menacingly. Right when I was about to turn my head, the voice spoke again. "Don't bother looking around, I'm not there. I'm here with your little brother."

"What have you done with my brother?" I stood up, voice shaking as my vocal cords tightened.

"Yuki, what's wrong?" Killua, asked, standing next to me, but I didn't pay any attention to him. I placed all of my concentration on hearing the phone.

"Don't worry, he's still alive, but I don't intend to keep him long." My heart stopped for what seemed more than a second. Never in a million chance did I ever think my brother could fall as a victim of a kidnapper, and probably a murderer. "You can come and pick him up, but only if you bring Alluka with you." Alluka? Why would he want Alluka? Unless... He knew her secret. My hand was shaking. I was put in a position of a hostage ransom of my brother's life for Alluka's. "Come into the Astronomy Symphony Theatre. You have until midnight to comply. Oh, and it'll be pointless to call the police. Just make it easier for of us."

"Wait!" I shouted into the speaker. "Where's my brother? Let me talk to him first."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the mysterious voice said. "He's not conscious at the moment, so you're gonna have to talk to him later. Bye!" He signed off and hung up with that stark beeping in the end.

"No, wait! Wait!" I yelled at my phone, panicking.

"Yuki!" Killua spun me around and held my shoulders firmly. "What happened?"

Tears were streaming down my face as I could barely have the strength to stand. "M-m-my brother... My brother's been kidnapped."