June 29/It's not a date or anything!!/PG/Closed

[hannah]

Character(s): Ayame Natsuri and Ren Yukio
Time: 6PM
Location: Movie Theatre

The wind shot through her clothes and whipped through her hair. It was a lot colder than every Autumn in the past. She held her scarf over her mouth and braced against the wall. If Ren is late, I'll kill him. she thought. But at the same time, she knew that even if he didn't show up at all, she'd still want to see him, and she hated it.

"How do we even rehearse for a play at a movie theatre?" she thought out loud, looking around for Ren.

Would he show up late? How late? Would he even show up at all? She worried that he'd just told her to be there and laugh about it later, which wasn't very unlikely. The time she'd spent putting her clothes together and fixing her hair after the chlorine from the pool ruined it would have all been a waste. Sighing, she huddled closer to the wall, and checked the time on her phone.

6:14

And her heart sank.

[ariana]

"Shit, I'm running late." Ren said as he entered his dorm room still in full uniform. He sighed, he's been stuck in detention ever since five in the afternoon. He didn't have time to dress all fancy, so he just put on a random pair of black jeans, and his favourite grey shirt. "Shit, it's already 6!?" He stared at his clock and grabbed a random vest so he wouldn't get cold and slipped on his shoes in a hurry. He ran out of the dorm and grabbed his cellphone, trying to call Ayame - but no answer, as usual.

"Fuck!" his quick walk turned into a fast run - "Why do I have to be late on my first d-" He stopped that thought abruptly - "this is NOT a date - what am I thinking?! I just.. don't want to get yelled at." He said, reassuring him with lies that he made up himself. "This is not a date, this is not a date-" He kept repeating until he arrived at the movie theatre.

Small gasps escaped him, and he saw Ayame right infront of him. "....Oy!" He said angrily as he approached her. "....I know, I'm late. Detention and all..." He scratched the back of his head, not sure how he should put this. "I hope... you aren't mad." He avoided eye contact once again. "It doesn't make a difference if you're mad anyway. I'm only twenty minutes late!" He shouted and crossed his arms.

He's just glad that she showed up - or in fact, that he actually made it.

[hannah]

Just when she was about to head back to her dorm, Ren appeared out of nowhere, breathing heavily, and looking...apologetic.

"Don't worry about it," she said, smiling. "To be honest, I'm kind of surprised you even showed up at all. Well, no offense, but..." She was messing up her word choice again. "Never mind."

Say, "It's nice to see you, Ren." Say something nice. the voice her head whispered. She opened her mouth to say it, but it wouldn't come out.

"So, what exactly are we doing rehearsing here?" she asked, looking around stupidly. That was probably the worst possible question to ask. It was obviously a date, no matter what he said, and if people from school saw, they'd never shut up. Even her roommate Sayuri mentioned something about Ren. And especially Yousuke.

[ariana]

"I know, I know." Ren said as he was checking the pockets for the script. "I'm not usually reliable so you better be thankful I'm here today." Ren smirked and looked at her, "No offense taken -- shit." Where was his script? "SHIT!" He dug deeper into his pockets - he left his script in his back pack at the dorm. "Er, Ayame." He said stupidly. "I forgot my script."

Great. Now that ruined the whole purpose of this 'date'. He shook his head - "NOT a date, god damnit." He thought to himself as he placed his hands on the back of his neck. "You know... if you didn't come... early I wouldn't have rushed. And I would have remembered to bring my script. So this is your fault." He shouted and pointed at her lightly and stuck out his tongue.

"HAHA, you still smell like chlorine!" He joked as he put his hands in his pockets.

[hannah]

He was so awkward. Even when he tried to be smooth and cool, he was still just as awkward as that little boy with with bandaged knees in a dorky polo. She couldn't help but crack a smile.

"HAHA, you still smell like chlorine!"

"Do I?" she asked. "Then stop standing so close to me." She smirked at him, laughing inwardly that he'd actually stuck his tongue out at her. "Anyways, I have my script. We can work something out."

The wind blew even harder now, and the papers fell from her hands and flew down the road and into the river. Damn it. She was such a klutz, always losing things. "Shit," she whispered, watching them float away. Even though he said it wasn't a date, and she convinced herself it wasn't a date, the way things were going with both of them being without scripts, it started to seem more and more like it was turning into one.

"S-Sorry about that..." she mumbled, turning back to him, and covering her face with her scarf. So far, she was doing a great job of messing things up.

[ariana]

"Eh?" He said at her remark, "I'm not even that close to you! You're the one moving closer to me!" He whined as he pushed her back a little, but smiled. "It's pretty windy out, you better not be holding your script like t-"

Ren was too late. The script already fell into the river - and he couldn't help but laugh, again. That seemed like the only thing he did when he was with Ayame. Laugh freely, and he liked that. He liked the fact he was always having a fun time with her.

"You fucking clutz! What the hell!" He said, still laughing pretty hard. "Well what are we going to do now? You messed up pretty bad." He smiled while punching her lightly on the shoulder. "I should've seen this coming." He sighed and turned around, trying to think.

"Well, we're already out. Anywhere you wanna go?" He muttered as he glared at her.

"This was a complete waste of time. You owe me."

[hannah]

"Well, we're already out. Anywhere you wanna go?"

"This was a complete waste of time. You owe me."

"Ehhhhhhh?" She looked at him in disbelief. One day he wanted to get rid of her and now suddenly they were friends again? It seemed too good to be true, but she wasn't going to pass up being Ren's friend again. Her face turned pink again, but she hoped the cold wind would be an excuse in itself.

"Well..." she stammered. "I'm not sure. You didn't have anything in mind, did you?" The town wasn't very big, but she was admittedly curious about the area. Plus, it would be like exploring like they used to do.

[ariana]

"I've never really.. been around town, yet." He looked at the small buildings and the sun that was going to set anytime soon. "Well we could have been practicing, like you've been nagging me to - but someone dropped their script in the river." He grinned as he approached her.

He frowned a bit and looked at Ayame and let out a little sigh - "Nope. I don't even know why this town is fucking small - can you even call it a town?" He yelled and tried to open the doors of the movie theatres - they wouldn't budge.

"Well, looks like we can't see a movie. What kind of a place closes at 6:30?!" He shouted and kicked the door out of anger. This was going to be really awkward.

"...I'm pretty sure there are shops down there", he pointed down the streets, "Or a mall, I think. We can go there. You like looking at clothes, right?" Being considerate was really something Ren wasn't good at, but for Ayame he was trying his best.

"God, I'm turning soft." He thought to himself as he looked down.

"Why am I being so nice?"

[hannah]

Trying her best not to laugh at his effort, which was a nice change from the past few days, she nodded. Right, looking at clothes. For a girl, she really didn't care too much for clothes, but as long as she was with Ren--No, she didn't mean that. It was Ren. An obnoxious jerk with a short fuse and a loud mouth.

But somehow, he was different today, and Ayame couldn't quite place why he'd suddenly changed, but she didn't argue. Instead, she went with it and used it to her advantage.

"Let's go!" she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the street. It was like they were little kids again, and she was dragging him down his driveway (which wasn't much shorter than the street they were on), running toward Yousuke, laughing and screaming until they fell down and scraped up their knees.

Only this time, a scraped knee was the least of their problems.

[ariana]

"H-hey!" Ren shouted as he was being dragged by Ayame. "Slow down before I trip you, god damnit!" He commanded in a harsh voice. "Let go of me!"

No matter how much Ren hated physical contact - Ayame was always an exception for some reason. To him, everyone in this world is out to get him. Out to hurt him - whether it be physically or emotionally, he'd always have his guard up no matter what - not letting anybody tell him otherwise. He's never felt safe or secure, to him it was all about insecurities and how you shouldn't trust anybody that easily.

Ayame was truly different. He trusted her, probably more than anybody else. If somebody else tried to grab his arm and drag him to another place, he'd freak out and probably beat them up until they bled. Both Yousuke and Ayame were so valuable to him, and that scared him.

Before, he only cared about himself. He was self centered and greedy, and only paid attention to his own needs.

Although, the more time he spent with Ayame, that slowly changed. Now, he soon realized that there's someone more valuable to him than his own life. Someone that was there that genuinely cared for him, not because of his money.

But because of him.

[hannah]

continued.