Chase The Truth

Chapter 39: Back from the Trip

Begin!

~Normal POV

9/10 - Saturday

Despite their rather disastrous hang out last night, Rise somehow managed to convince Naoto to join them for lunch at a local ramen place before they had to board the train again. Yu sat with Kanji at a table. While the girls, Naoto, Teddie, and Yosuke all took spots at the counter. For whatever reason, Teddie dressed up in his bear suit for this outing. (Probably to avoid leaving it behind at the hotel.) Of course, Yosuke thought this was a stupid decision. But even though they assumed something would happen, nothing did. All it got was a very confused look out of Naoto; he didn't ask about it at all.

"Oh, man! This is really something!" Chie said, happily eating her ramen.

"This place serves the best ramen in town!" Rise said, "When we were filming, a lot of times I came here instead of eating boxed lunches... Huh- you're not hungry, Yukiko-senpai?"

Yukiko hadn't touched her ramen bowl yet. "Um... what happened last night? I don't remember much about it..."

Yu glanced at the two of them worriedly. Teddie had already shown he didn't remember anything that happened at the club, either. Not even the part where he tried to force a kiss onto Kanji. (Which Kanji wasn't planning to remind him about, obviously.) And Yosuke opted only to spread a few vague rumors about the events, rather than say anything definite. These rumors were not the most flattering.

"Oh, I think the two of us fell asleep quick," Rise said, "I heard it got pretty wild, though."

Naoto side-eyed her, but didn't say anything, and just kept enjoying his ramen. Chie also gave her two friends a nervous look, silently wondering if it was right to tell them what really happened last night. She then shrugged. It was better if they didn't know. It's not like anything bad happened after all. It was just a little over the top...

"Wild is one word for it..." Yu thought. His brain drifted back to what Rise said to him last night...

Yu was tired... He was up for a while last night, just lying in bed thinking about it over and over. Until he finally couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. It's often said that there are only two types of people in this world who are truly honest: small children and drunk people. Rise may not have been truly drunk last night, but she was certainly acting like it. And she appeared to not recall anything about it. Or about the conversation she and Yu had outside her hotel room. He just could not get those three words out of his head. She told him she loved him... Was it true?

He once again subtly glanced at her back out of the corner of his eye. He felt a warmth in his chest at the thought... Perhaps there was more to this crush he had on her than he originally thought? Maybe there was a reason why he always dropped everything and ran to her side whenever she wanted to hang out? Maybe that was why he couldn't stand the idea of seeing her sad; how he absolutely had to find ways to make her smile again whenever she was upset. Maybe... he loved her? That bubbly, mischievous, gorgeous idol... The one who rarely left his mind since the first day he spoke to her. That would explain a lot. Sure, he knew of her before that, and was attracted to her then, too, but meeting her in person was different. He was close to her now. Closer to her than he ever thought he would be. She was the one he dreamt of when his dreams weren't taken over by the Velvet Room.

Well, he'd never been in love before. It wasn't for lack of wanting to; he just rarely gave dating a thought. He was more open to the concept when he assumed his parents were going to let him live alone in Tokyo while they were away; before they settled on sending him to his uncle, instead. Due to how often his family would move, it seemed like a mere dream to him. So, even when he started getting interested in girls, he purposely held back from trying it. What was the point of getting involved in a relationship if you were just going to end up leaving again in a few months anyway? It wouldn't be fair to the poor girl, or to himself. He'd had a few offers, some from Inaba too, but he kept turning them down for varying reasons. But staying in Inaba had given him some reconsideration to that idea. So far, this was the longest he'd ever stayed anywhere in his life. And the closest he'd ever gotten to any girls he met along the way. Now, it didn't sound like such a bad idea to at least give it a try with Rise.