The Story We Realize With You

Feelings

"Aqours no minna, honto ni, hontou ni...!"

"Otsukaresama deshita!"

The HAPPY PARTY TRAIN TOUR was a third of the way done. The girls' next stop is in a week, in Kobe. We decided to celebrate back at the apartment, in our room.

"Cheers!" Leo said, as everyone clinked their glasses. The girls brought a lot of the leftover catering from the last two nights. Curry, dango, takoyaki, tempura, such a smorgasbord, it was crazy! We had music, courtesy of yours truly, and you can only guess what was on my playlist.

Yep. Aqours.

I went over to the speakers to change the current song on the list. I scrolled through the playlist, when I suddenly felt someone tickle my sides.

"Hee!" I squealed. I turned to see Shukashuu smiling. "Haah, Shukashuu..."

"Hehe! Kurisu-chan, got a sec?"

"Eh?" She grabbed my wrist, and pulled me into my room. She closed the door behind her, and I turned to see Rachel. "Something... the matter?" Rachel chuckled.

"Shuka-chan wanted to talk about your relationship with Leo." My cheeks immediately tinted pink.

"Wha—?! Wait, why?" I looked at Shukashuu, who giggled.

"I'm just curious, that's all. I mean, some of the other members have seen how close you are with him." She winked, and I blushed even harder. I pursed my lips, hesitating.

"I told you, we've just been friends for a long time." Shukashuu scooted closer to me.

"Are you sure you haven't developed any feelings for him, recently?" I gave her a look.

"Did one of the other members put you up to this?" Shukashuu shook her head.

"Nope, this is completely of my own volition," she said confidently. I groaned, still suspicious. Her eyes gleamed as she eagerly awaited the details. I glanced to Rachel, who shrugged. I pursed my lips, sighing.

"Alright, I guess I'll share a bit of our history with you." She gasped hopefully. "But..." She frowned. "you have to swear to me that you won't say a word of this to the others." She smiled once again. She held up her pinkie finger. I furrowed my brow.

"Hey, when I make a pinkie promise, I keep it!" she insisted. I sighed, locking my pinky with hers.

*Yubi kiri genman...

Uso tsuitara...

Hari sen bon nomasu...

Yubi kitta!*

It was well past 1am, but I could not sleep.

My conversation with Shukashuu was still lingering in my mind.

"Leo... Leo!" I whispered, poking his back, since he was facing away from me. We told Rachel that he and I would share the bed in my room.

"Mmm... whaat?" he groaned.

"You were asleep?"

"I was."

"Turn around for a second."

"What for?"

"Just turn around!" I whisper-yelled. He groaned before turning to face me. He pouted, seeing only my eyes, my mouth blocked from the blanket. He pulled it away. Despite the darkness, he could tell...

"Why are you blushing so hard?"

"Well, it's just..." I laughed. "Shukashuu asked me a pretty silly question tonight." Leo furrowed his brow. "She asked if... if there was anything going on between us..." He chuckled.

"Well, that's obviously not true." I nodded.

"I mean, I love you like a brother, really." I could see his lips curve into a soft smile. "But, I mean... do you... think, maybe..." I bit my lip and peered down. "Ah, never mind," I said quietly, turning away from him.

"Mm? What is it?"

"Nothing! Forget I said anything!" I could feel my cheeks heating up with every passing second. My heart raced, and it took me everything I had to calm my breaths. "We have to be up early in the morning, so we should get some sleep. Good night, Leo."

When he was finally asleep, I slipped my earphones in, and decided to listen to music, to hopefully, help me fall asleep. I scrolled through the music and decided to play AZALEA's "Tokimeki Bunruigaku". Arisa-san's vocals are so soothing in the song, but the lyrics...

Why is it

When I tried raising the lid on my emotions, they overflowed

Why is it

Just imagining it makes my ears grow hot

Why is it my emotions are overflowing

That's how it is

The heart-throbs are uncountable

Letting those words linger in my ears, I buried my face into my pillow, wanting to scream these feelings out.

The next morning, my stomach was in knots. I gripped my skirt, before glancing at Leo, who was talking with Suwawa.

Today, the girls wanted to take us to Harajuku, to look around. I didn't hear a set of footsteps behind me, when Arisa-san and Rikyako came up beside me.

"Kurisu-chan!" Rikyako squealed. My head whipped over to the two girls beside me.

"Something the matter?" Arisa-san asked. I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly growing dry. I relaxed my trembling hands before peering down.

"Just... didn't get much sleep last night, is all..." I glanced at the two girls, seeing that they looked from each other, then back to me. "It's the truth. I..." They eyed me for a few seconds, before I finally heaved a sigh. "And, here, I was hoping that I wouldn't spill this to anyone else..." I mumbled. I noticed we had made it to Harajuku. Since the place was filled with little shops, we decided that we would do some window-shopping in groups, before regrouping back at the entrance. I pulled Arisa-san and Rikyako into Daiso, before quietly looking around.

"So, what's on your mind?"

I stopped in my tracks, and turned to the two of them. Rikyako lent a smile.

"Don't think that you can't trust us, because you can," she encouraged. "You were looking pretty down on the way over here, so..."

"If anything's wrong, you can always come to us," Arisa-san added, smiling. I took a deep breath, before slowly letting it out.

"Alright, the truth... The truth is..." I fidgeted slightly, before biting my lip. "I... I think I'm in love with Leo."