가슴이 너무 두근두근 두근거려, 너 때문에 난 하루하루 행복해져.
My heart beats so fast; my everyday becomes happy because of you.
--CNBLUE, Love Girl
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AO3 LINK: http://archiveofourown.org/works/2487854/chapters/6672572
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Twenty years ago, that particular play full of stand-ins.
Yu had told Mikoto that the script was the older Nozaki’s genderswapped version of a classic Old Hollywood movie.
(“Remember, Mikorin, the one with the princess?” “That does nothing to help me narrow down your collection, Yu.” “The one with the Vespa, then?” “Ah, right.”)
Act one: ingenue Crown Prince sneaks out for a night at the town with a sassy young reporter who wants to make a story out of his escape. Act two: they drive around on a stationary onstage bike and do a lot of silly things.
Act three: they fall in love, and say goodbye.
Which are supposed to be two things that Mikoto does not associate with this viscerally, but hey, maybe what Yu said was right and he really wassome kind of Method actor.
It’s just something about working across the little girl, something that just clicks. A thing that relaxes Mikoto and all his tightly-wound strings, makes him spout off Yu’s character’s cheesy words with surprising ease, makes him relax and pull adlibs and, sometimes, even makes him believe that the two of them really were the only two people in the auditorium.
This is the same thing that, when all is said and done, curtain calls made and bouquets pressed into their interlinked hands, makes Mikoto want to pull her into a hug and never want to let go.
But that would be weird. His hands would be trembling. So he doesn’t.
She’s the one who snakes her arms around him instead, however, and Mikoto can’t get it in his weak feeble self to pull away.
“You did really well today!” she pipes up, cheerfully, pat-pat-patting him on the back with her smaller hands. “Congratulations!”
“That’s only ‘cuz I was acting with you, though.” Mikoto says earnestly, squeezing her shoulders unconsciously. She’s just so cute and little, Mikoto wants to cry. “You’ve been a big help.”
“Nah, it was nothing! You were a big help, too.” the girl says, her cheeks growing as pink as her hair ribbons. “Especially with the...err. Kiss scene.”
“Oh, um.” Mikoto says, also flushing red and averting his eyes. Yu had lots of advice for him - too much advice, really - but when it came to that scene she was just all smiles and “Just go with the flow, Mikorin!” So he had to take matters into his own hands.
This does not mean, however, that he does kiss her.
(Even if, damn it all, he really wants to.)
“...you’re five years old,” Mikoto says dryly, reminding her, reminding himself. “And I’m eight. No matter which way you look at it, we’re just too young.” So shame on you for wanting to kiss the little girl, Mikoto Mikoshiba. Shame on you. He’s mentally kicking himself right about now.
They’re stuck in a rather comfortable silence after that, the girl still patting Mikoto’s back and one of Mikoto’s flushed cheeks resting against her neck, and because Mikoto is Mikoto he just has to break the moment with his goddamned autopilot mode.
YOU ARE READING
DIAMOND GIRL
عاطفيةThere's a lot of reasons why Chiyo "Sakura" Hori isn't supposed to get married to Mikoto Mikoshiba, some of them being, as follows: she still has to finish her masters', come to terms with her terribly one-sided crush on Umetaro Nozaki, and look for...
