Alice was slumped over one of the outside tables of her favorite café, suddenly feeling exhausted. Resting her head to the cool glass was helping her calm down, but she could still feel all those eyes on her. She was no stranger to being on stage and performing in front of an audience, but playing the piano or even singing was absolutely different from acting - especially improv.

She had joined that particular class after the course had already started as a listener. Mostly because she only needed half of what was being taught - for doing voice acting, she didn’t really need to learn gesturing, and she already had posturing down from being a singer. But also because improvisation was a big part of the course and she was absolutely awful at it. Not so much the thinking up situations and comebacks, that she could deal with, but suddenly having to put on an act and possibly embarrassing herself? It was unbearable to even think.

So she kept to back of the class and quietly took notes, avidly watching everyone else’s performances without taking part. Which, of course, caught the attention of the other students. In particular, of one she recognized: Banri Settsu from the Mankai Company. And he was the one who decided to sit right next to her one day. He was in charge of the Autumn Troupe, right? Maybe it was just his leader instincts tingling at someone isolating themselves.

They’d gotten to hushedly chatting during lulls in the lessons. He was an amazing actor and she learned so much both from watching and talking to him. As much as she thoroughly appreciated him reaching out to her, Alice also found him to be a quite mischievous person. And it was absolutely a mistake on her part to have truthfully answered his question as to why she wouldn’t join in on the performances. One moment she was telling him she wasn’t good at improv, the next she was being gently yet firmly tugged to the front of the class, all but dragged into practicing with him.

Apparently, it had been a pleasant surprise for the entire class. The professor had commended her on her quick thinking, but it didn’t change the fact that she had stuttered and fidgeted her way through the entire thing. And now she was attempting to regain her bearings in the aftermath. The touch of a cool drink against her hand had her looking up to find Banri-kun taking the seat in front of her with an infuriatingly handsome smirk across his lips.