Feels Like the First Time

Chapter One - Meeting the Host Club

We're here.

I read the text with a chuckle. It was so sweet of Mei wanting to come to see my show. She was bringing her boyfriend Kasanoda Ritsu, who regularly tagged along on our shopping and movie trips. It was crazy to think that I only met Mei five months ago; we now spent most of the week together having dinner or occasionally going out.

"Brown-senpai, the audience are in." I turned to face the petit undergraduate who had spoken. I smiled and dipped my head in reply to her before shaking out my hands to rid myself of some of my excess energy.

"Ready?" I asked, turning to the other performer. Nanako widened her dark brown eyes slightly and then closed them in a deep exhale before smiling slightly and nodding her confirmation.

                                                                                                ***

"Good job, Nanako. That went better than I could have hoped." I grinned at my partner, squeezing her into a hug which she returned. The adrenaline running through her system made her hug me harder and giggle.

"That was amazing," Nanako responded. "you were amazing! Well, you're always amazing but the energy tonight was-" I waited for Nanako to finish her sentence with a knowing smile but she just sighed with a grin.

"I agree," knowing exactly what she meant. "I can't wait to hear the feedback from Kanoya-sensei. He seemed a bit worried about how we were amalgamating styles, but had a lot of positive notes after our first performance."

"That's true. I need to speak with Kanoya-sensei next week about the report and how he wants us to approach the evaluation. I've never done a performance evaluation before." Nanako replied with a roll of her eyes as she changed out of her costume.

"Well, let me know if you need help, I've done a lot of them."

"Oh yeah, you did something similar for your Master's degree didn't you?"

I nodded and smiled at her. Nanako was doing this project for her Master's whereas I was working towards my PhD. I was so grateful that she had wanted to do this project, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been invited to join her for my doctorate.

"Right, I'm done. I'll see you next week. I'm meeting my parents outside so I won't hang around." Nanako informed me as she rushed out the door of the dressing room.

"Have fun." I shouted after her but she was already gone. I chuckled to myself, that girl was always in a rush. I shrugged my bag onto my shoulder and walked towards the foyer. Before I could even begin to search for Mei, she ran up to me and threw her arms around my neck, making me take a step back to keep my balance. I laughed into her neck and wrapped my arms around her too. She pulled away and grinned at me while stepping back to grab Ritsu's hand.

"You were so good! It was even better than the last one! I can't believe how good you were. I even cried. So did Ritsu!" Mei gushed, shooting her eyes at Ritsu then back at me.

"Thank you, Mei," I chuckled then smiled at Ritsu. "What did you think, Ritsu?"

"It was really good," he replied with a slight smile, "but I didn't cry." Mei rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's attempt to be macho even though he had a deep blush on his cheeks.

A short brunette girl walked up behind Mei with an exasperated look on her pretty face.

"Mei, you can't just walk off like that and leave me alone with them when you got them all excited." The girl growled. She didn't look old enough to have a child to tell off but by the tone of her voice I could tell she was practiced at it. Although I was impressed with her chastising, it had no effect on her desired target who just rolled her eyes and muttered a half-arsed apology.