The ball was scheduled to start at this exact moment, yet you still hadn’t left your room. About five minutes ago, you told Rima to go without you, and that you’d be there in a while. But honestly, you were freaking out. Technically, you were dressed and ready to go, but mentally, now that was a different story altogether. You were pretty nervous. No, scratch that, you were a complete trainwreck of nervosity and you didn’t know what to do anymore.

You were nervous about all the day class students, especially Shoko, Minami and Mizuki. You were nervous all to hell about dancing with Takuma later on. Hell, you were even getting all nervous about how you looked! What were you, a schoolgirl in love?! Wait... Either way, it was completely unlike you, and you didn’t like it. No way were you going out there like this, your nerves would have to settle before you took one step outside your door.

~A little timeskip to the ballroom~

Sitting alone by one of the tables, Takuma was still waiting for you to arrive. Although, seeing as you still hadn’t showed up, almost half an hour into the ball, hope was getting slim. Still, he was refusing to take his eyes off the door, in case you showed up against all odds. His view of the door was then blocked by a rather short girl with long bright pink hair. “U-Uhm, he-hello... I was wondering if... if you’d be alright with dancing with me” she said with a hue of red covered her cheeks as she started making eye contact with her feet.

Being the considerate person he is, he decided to accept her offer. “That’d be lovely, thank you” he said with a charming smile as he stood up, extending his hand to her. She gladly took it as he escorted her to the dancefloor, making sure that he had clear view of the door from there. “Hey, Takuma?” she asked quietly as the two of them danced in sync. “Ah, yes?” he answered, quickly looking down to make eye contact with the girl. “That girl you’ve been spending time with recently, do you like her?” she asked, out of the blue, making him sweat ever so slightly. “Wh-Why are you asking?” Takuma then asked, not knowing what else to say in that situation.

“(f/n) used to be a close friend of mine, but she always seemed unhappy when she was spending time with us. Even now she hasn’t made any attempts to talk with us again. But lately, whenever the two of you walk to class together, even when you chased after that new student, she smiled. She seems so happy around you, happier than she ever was with us. I’ve probably liked you for a longer time than she has, I mean, she didn’t even seem to know about you before Saint Chocolates day. But still... I can’t help but feel that she really loves you. I don’t want her to get hurt! That’s why, please tell me how you really feel about her!” she then said, sincerity written all over her face, and her response stunned Takuma, to say the least.

“I... I love her. It feels a little strange to say that to a girl I don’t even know, but I was actually planning to confess to her tonight but she hasn’t showed up yet. I’m starting to think she stood me up” he said, smiling sadly at the girl in front of him. Just as he then looked up at the door to once again check for you, he saw a piece of (f/c) fabric in the corner, before it disappeared. “I’m sorry, I have to go” he said quickly to the girl he had even yet to learn the name of, before dashing off toward the door. He had no way of proving the theory, but his gut feeling told him that that had been you.

Before he reached the door, however, someone had grabbed his arm. Turning around, he saw his best friend and roommate Senri look at him with a serious expression. “Come with me” he said plainly, looking him straight in the eyes. “B-But I...” Takuma began, before getting cut off by Senri. “Just come on” he said, before starting to drag the blonde male off to an unnamed destination, attracting the attention of basically everyone in the ballroom.

Meanwhile, when you walked into the ballroom, the first thing your eyes had landed upon was Takuma, smiling while he danced with another woman. And not just any woman, but Mizuki herself. Of course, you never told her about your feelings for Takuma, and she’s had a crush on him for over a year. But still, watching the scene in front of you unfold just felt so wrong, it made your stomach turn just seeing it. You soon felt tears forming in the corners of your eyes and not wanting to cry in front of everyone in there, you quickly ran out again.

Seeing as your field of vision was blurred due to crying, you couldn’t run at your fastest pace, and thus you soon felt someone stop you by grabbing your arm. As you turned around she was looking at you with her signature emotionless expression, that soon turned into an annoyed one upon seeing your face. She tried handing you her handkerchief along with a small mirror, but you didn’t take it. “Fix up your face” she said demandingly, shoving the two items in your face but since you had no intentions of returning to the ball, you didn’t see the point in fixing the ruined makeup.

Sighing in frustration at your stubbornness, she then started cleaning your face off herself. Once she felt somewhat content with her accomplishments, she then grabbed your hand and started dragging you off to somewhere. Much to your surprise, however, it wasn’t to the ballroom, but rather what seemed like one of the porches by it.

Once you got there, you saw Takuma and Senri waiting, and upon noticing the two of you Takuma seemed as shocked as you were. Senri, as well as Rima, didn’t even seem the least bit surprised, which led you to believe that the two of them had been planning this. When seeing the two of them, Rima changed from dragging you after her into pushing you in front of her, which in turn resulted in you stumbling forward and almost falling on your face. Luckily for you, Takuma had managed to catch you before that happened, so that you were instead stood close to his chest with his arms wrapped around you.

“Well, have fun you two” you heard two plain voices say in sync, before footsteps could be heard, along with a door opening and closing, indicating that Rima and Senri had left the two of you alone out there. You then looked up at Takuma, who was looking down at you with almost as red cheeks as you. It then seemed as if he remembered something as he took a step backwards from you, looking you straight in the eye as he did. Not really sure what he was doing, you questioningly raised an eyebrow at him, that is, until he bowed forward and reached out a hand toward you. “May I have this dance?” he asked, slightly shaky on the voice, making you recall the promise he had made to take your first dance and show you the ropes.

At that very moment, it felt as if all your previous worries just flew out the window, and you couldn’t really care less about any doubts you had. In that moment, you were just happy to be there, to have him all to yourself for once. With a bright smile, you took one step forward before placing your hand in his, holding it gently. Taking that as a yes, he stood up again and brought you closer to him, placing his free hand on the small of your back. Not really sure what to do, you hesitantly placed your hand on his shoulder, which earned you a low chuckle from the male.

“You already seem to know how this goes” he said with another one of those dashing smiles, making your face turn bright red. “Sh-Shut up” you managed to stutter out in embarrassment as you looked off to the side. “Alright, just follow my lead. I’m sure you’ll do fine” he said sweetly, waiting for your response before doing anything else. Still blushing, you nodded ever so slightly before once again looking up at him with a small smile. Having seen your answer, he then slowly began leading, making sure that you were following along. After a little while, you actually seemed to get the hang of it.

“You look lovely tonight” he then complimented, still looking down at you with the most dashing of smiles. “You look pretty handsome yourself, mister” you said, half jokingly as you smiled cheekily at him. You then noticed how it grew quiet, seeing as the song ended, and it soon changed into another one. “May I have another one?” Takuma then asked with a low chuckle, having noticed your disappointment. “You can have as many as you want” you say happily, giving him one of the most cheerful smiles you could muster.

As time passed, the two of you kept dancing. Eventually, he let go of your hand, instead placing it together with his other at the small of your back. Not really certain of what to do you just kind of held your free hand up in between you awkwardly, to which he chuckled slightly. “You’re incredibly cute, you know that?” he said, before grabbing your hand and placing it behind his neck, and then pushing your other arm up to the same position. He then gently placed his hand at the back of your head, bringing it closer to him so that your forehead was resting against his shoulder, before once again placing the hand back at the small of your back.

Dancing like this, the proximity between the two was so close it had both of you blushing like crazy. Not that either of you could really see it since you had your forehead against his shoulder while looking down, but you could still tell. You could even feel his hot breath against your ear and it was quite fast. You could also hear his quick heart beats. All in all, you could tell how nervous he was at the moment, but then again you were just as bad.

“Hey, (f/n)?” he then said, breaking the silence. As a response, you looked up only to see him looking down at you with the most nervous expression you’d ever seen him wear. Just seeing him like that actually made you somewhat nervous. “W-What is it, Takuma?”

Author's note! Ending it on a cliff hanger because I can! Heh, actually, it was mostly because this site has a length limit, and I don't want to exceed it. Still though, as you can probably tell, stuffis finally happening in this relationship, so stay tuned for that. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you're looking forward to the next one! //Yours truly, Handsomesquid :3