soda popped heart ☆

a great friend

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rui and tsukasa made it to the stage in only a minute, and upon arriving were greeted by an attack hug by emu. "hi you two! is nene with you guys?" rui shook his head, emu frowning.

"she is coming right though?" tsukasa's expression looked exhausted, remembering he has to take his other two bandmates' measurements as well. "i kinda need to take her measurements.."

emu hummed as the three sat on benches in the audience area. with nothing else to really talk about, they began talking about stage layout ideas as rui jotted down things the other two said. as the friends kept talking, they didnt hear nene's footsteps, causing rui to flinch when nene laid her hands on rui's shoulders. rui smiled realizing who it was, and emu smiled at her partner, waving excitedly.

"oh, nene! perfect timing. i was just about to get emu's measurements." nene looked confused, and tsukasa sighed. "for the show costumes..yknow?" nene then recalled needing to do that, and nodded.

"i'll go first then, just to get it over with." nene looked tired, presumably from school. tsukasa nodded, and pulled a small pouch out of his school bag, which had a measuring tape and a notebook that he took rui's measurements in aswell. "you two can work on stage related things for now, well until me and tsukasa are done."  emu and rui nodded, and scooted closer to each other to work.

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tsukasa and nene moved behind the stage, where there was a lot more shade and far enough to not hear the other two troupe members.tsukasa began measuring nene's height, and the girl looked tsukasa in the eye while he wasnt looking.

"do you like rui tsukasa?" tsukasa paused for a short moment before moving again.

"well..i dont think so. he just makes me feel weird. not in a bad context, just..different from anyone else." nene hummed as she watched the blond scribble down numbers. "why do you care?"

the girl glared at tsukasa for a split second before talking again. "ive been his friend since kindergarten tsukasa, so i care for him as if he's apart of my family. i want to make sure he's happy and comfortable where he is in life currently, not just trying to fit in with people around him..like in the past."

nene paused as she fidgeted with a strand of hair. "he seems to open up to you compared to others, so i just wanted to say that if you do end up liking him truly.." nene trailed off as tsukasa stopped to listen to the girl. "nevermind, i suppose it doesnt matter right now."

tsukasa raised his eyebrow. "you sure nene? you seemed pretty intent right now." nene nodded, and tsukasa gazed at the girl quietly for another moment before going back to measuring. "you can be as open as you want to me, i wont mind." tsukasa smiled and wrote down a few more things, before going quiet and focusing fully on the task at hand.

———

soon, the two friends came back to where rui and emu were, who seemed to be laughing over something. tsukasa double checked the measurements for nene before looking up. rui was staring at tsukasa and smiled, to which the blond waved back.

making his way towards emu and rui, rui pulled tsukasa close to show the blond the stage designs they came up with. "what do you think tsu tsu, isnt it great?"

tsukasa blinked with a blank expression. "thats a wolf rui. what does this have to do with a story about a pianist..?"

emu smiled as nene sat next to the optimistic girl. "theyre an alpha wolf tsukasa! arent they cute? i saw it yesterday and i thought the wolf looks super adorable!"