#stringharmony

She fingered the ribbon that closed the paper bag in front of her, lips pursed anxiously.  How should she give it to him?  Just walk up and give it to him?  Shove it in his arms and run away so he wouldn’t see her red face?  How?

(And how could she let him know without saying it outright?  That was going to be hard.)

Today was Valentines Day.  The day of romance in where girls professed their love to their crushes and gave chocolates and gifts to the ones they loved.  Haruka had already seen two of her fellow friends go out with smiles on their faces, ready to spend a day with their significant other (and potentially fix things up in one case).  And so she was left here, left to ponder how exactly she was going to give this to her object of affections.

She didn’t even know to begin with, and it was forbidden.  A wave of nervousness swelled within her.  How was she going to do this?

Inside was a symbol of importance to him, a character he had full attachment to.  It was a continuation of a gift she had made before for him, and now she was simply completing it.  It would have been simple if not for the fact that lately, said person had messed up her emotions on Christmas Eve.  The mistletoe event had made the two end up under said mistletoe and sparks flew - literally.  There was even a standing ovation - which only made it worse as she had fainted on him - fainted!!

And now she was confused.  She saw him in a different way, a ‘butterflies-in-your-stomach’ kind of way.  She wanted to always see him, be near him and by his side.  It was a whole different attraction than when she was drawn to his star potential. And it scared her, scared her because she knew it wasn’t right but at the same time excited her - because it made her heart swell with joy and cheeks flush red and overall feel different.  

She was in love.  For all of the things that could happen, she was in love.  She was in love with Otoya and she had a feeling he was too, after their recent cuddling session and she wanted to know, she wanted it to be true, oh she--!!

She wanted him.  She wanted Otoya.  She wanted him to be hers, and her to be his.  There was no going around it, no amount of rationalizing that could defeat this truth.  She was in love.

Haruka was startled out of her thoughts with a knock on the door and she leaped up, making a futile effort to hide the bag sitting on her desk.

It was another day at the Master Course.  Haruka had decided to do work in the living room, and spent the day with the television on to STARISH and QUARTET NIGHT appearances while composing music.  She also greeted whoever came through, but with yet another busy schedule the most she said hi to was Tomochika.

Upon getting word that her old friend Otoya was in town, Shiki invited him over on his day off to hang out.  She had wanted to hang out with him a ton of times before upon realizing they were back in the same vicinity of each other, but there were many obstacles that got in the way - whether it be fans, paparazzi, or even his own work.  Either way, now she was inviting him back to her home like old times and they could finally have a semblance of privacy.

Or whatever semblance there could be with noisy siblings and two excited parents around.

Dropping down the movie she had picked out on her bedroom floor, she sighed and leaned against her bed frame.  It had been years since they had last been able to do something like this.  She obviously knew that he had become successful in the dream she had supported him in, with all the promotions around town and whatnot (she was guilty of even buying some of his merchandise, which were now conveniently hidden in one of her desk drawers).  He knew what she had been up to as well, with her gaining more friends.  

As she sat contemplating this, she heard her brother Ren yell up the stairs.  “Shiki!  Otoya’s here.”  She scrambled up, with her little sister and brother calling “Nee-chan!  Otoya-nii’s here!” as she walked into the hall.

“I heard you, shush.” she bopped their heads affectionately before joining Ren at the door, where her close friend stood.

Haruka had a bad case of being a workaholic when she wanted to be.  And today was unfortunately the day she had a relapse, as she was determined to finish as much composing as she could.

Thus, she ignored Otoya’s texts for dinner - as amazing as that was in itself, Haruka not responding to Otoya?  Unbelievable - and only briefly looked at it before returning to her work.  It wasn’t until around 10 PM did she decide to take a look at the texts she had amassed, as it her phone was vibrating at least twice throughout the hours.

A feeling of dread dropped into the pit of her stomach as she read the texts, especially the latest one which had come in a minute before.  She knew that when Otoya texted without an emoji he was either upset, angry, or both.  In any case, it meant something bad was amiss.  Haruka inwardly panicked.  Surely if she stayed in here he would find her and make her take a break - and she couldn’t afford that.  So her hands flew across her keypad as she fired off a few brief texts before slamming her phone shut and setting it on the desk - if she took it with her, he’d just find her.

[TEXT]  It’s okay, Otoya-kun!!!  I had something to eat already.  Please don’t worry about me!  (*ﾟｰﾟ)ゞ [TEXT]  Otoya, I’m serious!  You must be tired, so don’t bother with me!   Get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.  (⌒_⌒;)

Now where should she hide?  Her eyes scanned the room quickly.  She couldn’t leave the room, so she had to find somewhere inside, and fast.  Her gaze landed on the closet and her feet automatically moved in the direction of it, hands reaching out and opening the door.  Her body launched itself inside and she quickly shut it, stumbling down onto the soft carpet.

        Haruka sat under the gazebo, swinging her legs back and forth.  It was the weekend and today was Otoya’s birthday.  Haruka hadn’t found out until she had heard Tomochika talking about it and she quickly inquired to her best friend and roommate about the details regarding her red-headed friend’s birthday.  So during the week, she had made herself scarce in order to plan out her gift for her fellow classmate.  He had helped her out so much that she wanted to give him a birthday gift that was the equivalent of all his generosity.  In her opinion, it was going to be tough, but she might as well try, right?

        She felt bad for refusing his offers to get lunch or work on homework, which they regularly did together; but Haruka felt that it would all be worth it when she completed the gift.  Tomochika was a great help, distracting Otoya when necessary (her motives were questionable, though, as Tomochika would give confusing winks).  Either way, Haruka was able to complete the gift on time.

        Her gift consisted of a variety of packaged food, especially curry packets.  She knew his favorite food was curry and thus she put in many varieties, even opting to take a quick trip out to the city after school one day to get some curry that wasn’t available in the store on campus.  She had also embroidered a small Onpu-kun for him.  Onpu-kun was the music note character Otoya had created, and had shown the cute little character to her during a project they had in class.  From then on he would doodle Onpu-kun on her music sheets for fun and it would cheer Haruka up when she was down or make her feel even more happier if she was happy.  Haruka hoped that when Otoya looked at this Onpu-kun it would make him happy, just like how his doodles did for her. She had, as a bonus, also made a bento for him. She usually did not make bentos because of the school cafeteria, but as she was trying to top Otoya's generosity, she refreshed her rusty bento-making skills.