Sakura finally let go of my hand, moving to introduce herself to Rio.

Mai took the opportunity to pull me into the living room, where Sakuta was now resting on the couch after his shopping trip. I took a seat on the opposite couch, while Mai settled in next to her fiancé.

"So, you never mentioned that you two were dating before."

Mai had a curious look on her face, matching the one Sakuta had. I cleared my throat.

"Well, that was a more recent development."

Almost in sync, their eyebrows raised up.

"How recent?"

Sakuta asked first, beating Mai by mere moments.

"Uh, this morning actually."

They both smiled, though Sakuta seemed a bit disappointed. Mai quickly explained why.

"We had made a challenge, Sakuta bet that you two had been dating longer, I figured it was more recent or had yet to happen."

"To be fair, you'd have to be madly in love with someone to go through what you did."

Seeing the look on my face, Sakuta added.

"Well, I know that's why I did bet on that. You do love her, right?"

I thought over everything, every moment from the first day I had met Sakura to now.

"I'm not exactly an expert in any of this, but I suppose you have a point. If I had to give an answer, then yes I do love her."

Sakuta and Mai shared a look, and I didn't quite understand it.

"That's a little embarrassing you know."

I turned around to see Sakura and Rio standing there, Sakura was blushing so hard I was worried she might be stuck permanently blushing.

I felt my face warming up as I realized that she had heard me say I loved her.

"S-Sakura I... uh…"

She held up her hand, not finished.

"I was hoping to hear you say that to me first, before you started telling other people."

She moved closer, sitting next to me on the couch.

I tentatively held my hand out to her, and she placed her hand in mine.

"Next time, maybe say it to me first. Though give me a warning before, okay?"

I nodded, determined to stay quiet for now so I avoided saying anything else too embarrassing.

Rio took a seat in one of the chairs, probably feeling too uncomfortable to sit next to one of the couples. She looked over to Sakuta.

"We may have a seating arrangement issue once the others arrive."

Looking around, I realized there was only one open chair, after that it was just the couches which the couples had occupied.

Mai thought for a moment, then smiled wickedly.

"Not a problem, we can always just put Sakuta in the corner. He did lose the bet after all."

Sakuta pouted, and Mai pinched his cheek gently.

"I'm only kidding dear, after all you're not getting off that easy."

I could tell without even looking that Sakura was enthralled and amused by their relationship. I'd have to do my best to make sure she didn't pick up any bad habits while we were here.

She smiled mischievously looking at me with as side-eye.

I understood what she was thinking and then I remarked.

“Please no. Don’t try it on me.”

She replied.

“Just for once.”

She came close and pinched my cheek gently by giggling just like how Mai was pinching Sakuta.

Others were chuckling as well, but then came a knock from the front door. Sakuta stood up to go answer.

"Hey, glad you guys could make it, come on in."

I turned around to see Kyoko and Issei walking in behind Sakuta. He gave me a quick wave, and after noticing Sakura was next to me, flashed me a not at all discrete thumbs up.

"I always knew this was coming, congrats."

He held out his hand, two pieces of gum on his palm. I reached out, taking both and offering one to Sakura. Thankfully, she took it with her hand, saving me the embarrassment of feeding it to her in this room full of people.

Issei took a seat in the open chair, and Kyoko sat on the other side of Sakura. Sakuta sat back down next to Mai, looking to her and Rio to see who would say something first. Neither of them spoke up, so he got things started.

"I just wanted to bring everyone together, I know some of you may not be aware of all the events that have transpired recently. But despite that, I wanted to throw a celebration for the two of you."

He looked to me and Sakura.

"We may have just met, but I think I can speak for Mai-san and Futaba that it feels like we've known you for a while."

He looked over to Kyoko and Miyata before continuing.

"I know you two may not know the whole situation, but you both helped tremendously that this celebration simply wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for your help."

He looked over to Mai, and she nodded.

"I appreciate everyone for taking the time to come here today, we may not know each other but I consider all of you to be friends. I hope we can continue to get along."

Kyoko looked a bit embarrassed, and Issei seemed to be confused. But despite that, they both nodded.

I looked over to Rio, expecting her to say something profound as a continuation. Apparently, I wasn't the only one.

"Why is everyone looking at me? You two took all the best lines, anything I say would just fall flat after."

We all laughed, and with that, the celebration truly began. 

“Mind if I help you?"

I was in the kitchen with Sakuta and Issei, the girls were all inside discussing whatever they talked about. Sakuta shook his head.

"It's fine though. You’re our guests… but if you wanna help anyway, then help me with the barbecue here."

We, and well by we, I mean me, Issei and Sakuta, were grilling dinner. He had picked up some steaks earlier, and the aroma of the cooking meat was heavenly. Sakuta opened up the cooler near the grill, offering us a beer but we declined after reminding him we were still a bit too young to drink. He shrugged, closing the cooler and taking a seat on it. 

Issei watched us and was curious about what I was going through since the last couple of days, and I realized he probably deserved to know what had been going on.

"Don't tell Sakura any of this just yet, I want her to hear it from me."

He nodded, and so I told him nearly everything. I left out some parts, like when I was too late to save her. Some things were just better left unsaid.

When I had finished catching him up, he let out a slow whistle.

"I'll be honest, that sounds absolutely insane. But you don't seem like someone who would lie, so I'll take your word for it."

He was right, I'm sure most people who heard about my experiences the past few days would be quickly calling a hospital to report an insane person.

"So, because of that whole situation, it led you two finally dating? I always knew it was coming, it was kind of obvious."

He leaned back, and smiled.

"I'm happy for you guys, I always felt like you two had a spark, even when you said there was nothing going on."

I was surprised, had it been that obvious from the beginning?

Sure, we got along and spent a lot of time together, but it had only been recently that I found myself caring and worrying about Sakura more than just a friend might.

After Issei gave me a pat on the back, he went to join the others in the living room.

Sakuta got up to check the grill, and I took the momentary lull in the conversation to gaze at the sunset from the window.

The sound of the footsteps made me turn around, and Rio joined us.

"They're busy discussing movies with Mai-san, so I decided to check up on you guys."

Sakuta pulled out a can of beer from the fridge, handing it over to Rio. She leaned against the wall, doing a quick cheers with Sakuta. Then her gaze turned to me.

"So you did it, I heard a little bit from your girlfriend. I guess I was wrong."

She shrugged.

"I suppose it happens every once in a while."

I half expected her to sound disappointed for being wrong, but instead she was happy.

"You were still a big help, though I'll admit I was a little worried that you might be right."

"This isn't exactly a typical scientific problem, a lot of it is simply theoretical. There's so many things that you can chart, but some things you can't anticipate. I don't think my theory was wrong about you not being able to get close to her, I think you just had the willpower to overcome that hurdle."

I thought back to when I had finally seen Sakura, trying to think what I had done. I was determined to save her of course, but was there more to it?

I voiced my thoughts to her, and she mused over them for a moment.

"I think you're forgetting an important variable here."

I tried to think what I had missed, but came up with nothing. She rolled her eyes, smiling.

"Your feelings for her… Love isn't something we can measure, despite what some online quizzes and websites may lead you to believe it. It's a complicated emotion, with so many hints of other emotions boiled into one. Happiness, fear of losing that person, ecstasy when you see them or think about them, so many parts that come together. You may not have realized it at the time, or even before how you felt about her.”

“Yes, you cared for her, or else why go through everything if you didn't? But there's a difference between doing something because you care about someone, and doing something because you love them."

Hearing Rio talk, I realized that she was right.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience, I guess things are going well with Toranosuke then."

Rio blushed, but nodded.

A sudden call out got our attention, we all looked to see Mai on the other side pointing directly at me.

When she saw that I had noticed, she beckoned me inside with her finger.

She directed me to the couch that Sakura was sitting on. Mai took a seat next to Kyoko on the opposite couch.

"If it's okay with the two of you, I was really interested in hearing your story. I'm working on a new project, and I think your relationship would make for a great inspiration."

I looked over to Sakura, but she nodded.

"I assume you wouldn't be using our names or anything, so it's okay with me if that's the case. If it's okay with him, I'd be happy to talk."

I couldn't find a problem with it either, so I nodded as well.

Kyoko looked a little uncomfortable, probably still not yet used to the change. But I had to give her some credit, despite all of our interactions in the past it seemed like she was trying to not make a fuss at least for Sakura's sake.

Mai smiled, pulling out a pad of paper and pen to write down our story. She looked back and forth between Sakura and I, waiting for one of us to start. I decided to let Sakura take the lead, giving her a little nudge before holding her hand.

"Well it all started when we met at the hospital one day, in the front lobby."

Mai began writing, but then looked up.

"Why were the two of you at the hospital?"

I tensed up, I had no issue saying my reason. But for Sakura, it was a different story.

"I was there to get some stitches removed from an appendix surgery."

I spoke up first, giving Sakura some time to come up with an answer. I looked over to her, only to see her lips trembling. Before I could say anything, she spoke up.

"I have some problems with my pancreas, so I have to go in for checkups."

She skirted around the truth, just enough that she wasn't lying but stopping from revealing everything. I wondered if she would have said more if Kyoko wasn't there, but I doubted it. She didn't like people making a fuss over her because of it, and I'm sure Mai definitely would have if she knew the truth.

Kyoko looked surprised, but Sakura flashed her a smile.

"Sorry I didn't say anything before, I just don't really like to talk about it. It's not a big deal."

Kyoko seemed unsure, but nodded.

"I'm sure you have your reasons, if you didn't want to talk about it then I can respect your wishes."

I could feel a bead of sweat roll down my back, the crisis was averted for now. We continued telling our story, taking turns so one person wasn't doing all of the talking. When we got to the day where Sakura had almost kissed me, I wasn't sure who was more embarrassed between Kyoko, Sakura, and myself.

"Nothing going on huh? Now from whom did I hear that from?"

She muttered, just loud enough for us to hear. Sakura looked away awkwardly.

"I'm not exactly proud of what I did, I regretted it the rest of that night."

She squeezed my hand, looking over to me.

"I am sorry about that situation, I should never have done that."

I shook my head, squeezing her hand back.

"We both made mistakes that day, but we bounced back and became even closer because of it."

Mai made a little "aww" and smiled.

"That was really sweet, you two have a very touching story."

The two of us blushed. What else could you do when hearing such a compliment? I took over for a bit, and told the story of the day we saw the fireworks. I could have sworn I saw Mai's eyes misting up as I spoke, but maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

"Firework scenes are very big in romance projects nowadays."

Mai remarked as she continued writing. From there, Sakura talked about the events of the past few days, wrapping up our story. Once finished, Kyoko was the first to speak up.

"Sakura, can I ask you a question?"

She nodded, and Kyoko paused for a moment.

"When did you first start liking him?"

Sakura thought it over for a bit.

"Well probably from the beginning, but I think I realized it the night when I almost kissed him. The one thing I kept thinking was how he might hate me even after we made up, and that thought hurt more than anything."

She blushed, looking over to me.

"You didn't hate me for it, did you?"

I shook my head.

"I was a bit mad, sure. But I never hated you for it. I just didn't like being the butt of a joke like that."

She looked almost sad when I said that, but I squeezed her hand in reassurance. Kyoko coughed, and we quickly looked to her.

"Okay I get it, I get it. All this lovey dovey stuff is just a little hard to get used to, don't mind me."

We laughed, and Mai set down her pad of paper.

"Thank you for telling me all of that, it really is a great story. I hope I can do it justice, and one day show it to you guys."

I could sense Sakura becoming melancholy, as she probably not be around to see it. I caressed her hand with my thumb, trying to cheer her up. Mai and Kyoko didn't seem to notice, and didn't make any remarks.

Then, Sakuta and Issei carried the plates of cooked steaks to the table for serving, as Rio made her way to the couch.

She glanced at the pad of paper, and Mai passed it to her.

"If you guys want to go ahead and start eating, feel free."

The three of us got up, and headed to the dining table. Sakuta had laid out plates, so we quickly filled them up. The aroma of everything was making my mouth water, and I couldn't wait to dig in.

We took a seat at the table, digging into the feast. We passed our compliments to Sakuta, remarking how well everything tasted. Before long, Rio and Mai joined us.