Okay... so I'm just gonna be really honest, this chapter really disappointed me. It's really short and really only details the very, very, veeery beginning of the friendship between Kuon and our main character.

Soooo... this is a Mini-Shot. It's the type of thing where I wrote this as a good base, and whenever I come back to it, I'll try to pick up whatever I wrote here and make it better!

So yeah, I hope you enjoy this really small Mini-Shot!

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She was beautiful. She was smart. She was funny.

For (Y/n), there was only the option of falling into his stupidest fit of love.

He'd heard the rumors though. People called her heartless, soulless, and emotionless. They called her a "doll."

He thought those were heartless things to say.

After a week and a half of working up his courage, he approached her room during lunch. Tohou University was where the beautiful researcher spent most of her time, so even if it was unconsciously, (Y/n) ended up spending a lot of his time there.

His hand was held up to the door, getting ready to knock, when it just stopped in its tracks.

"Wait... what do I have to use as an excuse...???" (Y/n) searched around in his pockets, only to find a whopping lot of nothing to build an excuse from.

At that realization, (Y/n) flipped on his heel. He was very quick to come up with the classic 'Hey, can I sit here" idea. All he needed was a tray of food and his plan would go without a cinch!

He flipped on his heel with an excited expression on his face, but his sudden satisfaction was quickly sucked away from him when he heard a soft cough. His head had unconsciously raised to the sky, so when (Y/n) lowered it, he was met with a soft glance from Ichinose. She smiled. He almost melted.

"(Y/n)," Her voice was beautiful too. He was surprised and flattered that she knew his name. "Is there a reason that you need an excuse?"

(Y/n) tried not to look like a bumbling idiot in front of his crush.

"Ah, well, I just... Er...."

He failed.

She giggled, holding a dainty hand over her mouth.

"Well, if you excuse me, I've got some work to get to," Ichinose softly gestured to the room behind (Y/n), and after barely stuttering out an apology, he moved so she could enter her room. She opened the door without a worry, as if showing that it was unlocked the entire time.

She looked back to (Y/n), smiling softly at him. His heart fluttered.

"Have a good day," She nodded to him once, her smile never flickering away from her. She turned and closed her door behind her.

(Y/n) stood there for a moment, looking at the door with a grin on his face. It was only after a few minutes passed that (Y/n) absorbed what had even happened. His smile fell away.

"Well... that was a total failure. Damn," (Y/n) sighed, running a heavy hand over his face. "Did I even get a full sentence out of my mouth?"

(Y/n) silently weighed his options. He could leave, and try again the next day, but he knew that his odds wouldn't rise by waiting just a little bit.

Feeling stupid all the way to the depths of his soul, (Y/n) knocked on Ichinose's door. In a time that was way shorter than he thought it would be, Ichinose's door slowly opened.

Confusion struck her features. The confusion faded a little bit when she saw (Y/n) on the other side of the door. She gave him a warm smile. It was the exact same as the first smile, but this time, it unnerved (Y/n). It was still beautiful, undeniably so, but something was... off. Something was there that wasn't there the first time.

Because of that observation, (Y/n) had enough thought behind his eyes to push forward, curiosity driving him.

"Hey, Ichinose, may I... er... well," (Y/n) took a small breath, restabilizing himself. "I actually have no excuse. I'd just like to talk to you for a bit."

(Y/n) waited for a moment, just a few seconds, to observe Ichinose's features. He was no detective, and he certainly couldn't read body language, but he noticed her smile fading a bit.

"Ah, but you're busy today, so I was wondering if we could—" (Y/n) was suddenly silenced when Ichinose spoke up.

"I can make time if you'd like. It's not like I have a deadline, being EMMA's creator and all," She smiled. "I could spare some time to a...."

Her voice drifted off, but this time, how troubled she was made it to her face.

"I'd love to talk," (Y/n) softly interjected, making sure to give Ichinose a sympathetic gaze.

Her face became blank. Not troubled, or glad, or happy, but... blank. It was gone in a flash.

"Ah, good! Please, come on in!" Kuon pulled (Y/n) into her office, smiling happily.

(Y/n) was quiet. His mind, as stupid as he felt about it immediately after, was suddenly filled with ideas of dates he could come up with. Then, "immediately after" hit him, and he was brought back down to reality.

Ignoring the fact that his crush was actually expressing a desire to talk to him, (Y/n) heard the rumors before. She wasn't supposed to be so... nice. He was expecting the cold shoulder, not... this.

In the corner of his mind, he wondered if this was how she acted when she liked someone. He pushed that thought away nearly almost instantly, sounding too good to be true.

He gave her a small smile. She giggled.

He had no idea what he was getting himself into.