You're Welcome

The bright morning sun shone through the windows of the Sakuragaoka High School class 3-2 homeroom. It was exam time at Sakuragaoka High, which meant one particular girl was in a state of utter dismay. Yui Hirasawa sat at her desk, and even though class had ended, she had not budged from her catatonic state of laying on her desk, staring blankly out of the window.

"Yui-chan?" Nodoka called out as she approached Yui but the girl did not respond. "Yui-chan, it's time to change class," Nodoka continued as she gently shook the unresponsive girl. Yui slowly sat up, her eyes melodramatically large and shimmering with tears.

"Nodoka-chan..." she said with a sniffle, her voice wavering dramatically. Nodoka raised a curious eyebrow.

"It's...it's exam time!" Yui cried out as she leapt from her seat and began crying on Nodoka's shoulder.

"You forgot to study again, didn't you?" Nodoka asked the obvious as she patted Yui on the back.

"Help me study, Nodoka-chan!" Yui pleaded as she pulled back from Nodoka.

"With all my school duties I barely have enough time to study myself. Sorry, Yui-chan," Nodoka replied apologetically. Yui proceeded to empty her eyes onto Nodoka's shoulder and continued to plead desperately. Nodoka sighed in exasperation then dragged the crying girl off to their next class.

o o o

The lunch period came around and Yui carried her dark cloud of depression around wherever she went, including the Light Music Clubroom.

"Would you like some tea, Yui-chan? Maybe a madeleine?" Tsumugi tentatively offered in an attempt to bring Yui out of her gloomy state. Yui did not respond and instead kept her head down on the clubroom table, tears slowly leaking out into a puddle around her head as she quietly sobbed.

Ritsu and Mio entered the clubroom together and sat down at the table while exchanging afternoon greetings with Tsumugi.

"What's up with Yui?" Ritsu asked as Tsumugi poured up the tea and distributed it among the girls along with some madeleines. Yui instantly sat ridged in her chair, a look of hope shining on her face.

"Ricchan! Help me study!" Yui begged, the hopeful desperation clear in her voice. Ritsu and Mio exchanged looks as realization slowly washed over their faces.

"Sorry, Yui, I don't even study myself," Ritsu replied casually as she laced her fingers behind her head and leaned back in her chair with a large grin on her face.

Yui's face shattered but after a moment a light bulb went off in her head. She slowly turned her head towards Mio with a devious look on her face, causing the other girls to look at Mio as well. Mio began to sweat rapidly as their eyes turned to her.

"Mio-chan~ can you help me study?" Yui asked in a sugary sweet voice, a pleading smile on her face.

"W-well..." Mio replied nervously as Yui leaned over the table with stars twinkling in her eyes. Tsumugi and Ritsu also seemed to be staring Mio down, awaiting her answer. "A-alright..." Mio said softly after a moment, reluctance clear in her voice as she stared down at her lap. Yui beamed happily then sat back down in her chair.

"Thank you, Mio-chan!" Yui said happily then Mio looked back up at her.

"Come over to my house tonight after school," Mio said as Yui rapidly, and happily, nodded her head.

o o o

The end-of-school bell rang, causing the students of class 3-2 to excitedly jump up from their desks and pack their textbooks into their bags. Mio, however, took her time in packing up, as she liked to have everything nice and neat. She turned around after packing up her bag and almost walked face-first into a beaming Yui, who had been standing behind Mio for quite some time.

"Study time!" Yui declared happily as she followed Mio out of the classroom, much to Mio's dismay.

Ritsu and Tsumugi joined up with their two band mates as they exited the school and began to walk their usual route home. The girls conversed lightly until they came to the part of their walk where Tsumugi and Yui usually branched off to go their separate routes, however this time Yui intently followed Mio and Ritsu as they kept on, heading to the same street together.

"Have fun~!" Ritsu called out teasingly as she waved to Yui and Mio then headed up to her own house.

Yui returned the wave enthusiastically and Mio shot Ritsu a pleading look, receiving a grin in return, before she continued her journey home. Yui hummed a random After School Tea Time tune as she and Mio entered the Akiyama household together and went straight up to Mio's room. Yui immediately gasped as she entered Mio's room.

"Wow!" Yui said as she looked around. "You have a laptop?" Yui asked as she excitedly bounded over and poked at the white laptop.

"Y-yeah..." Mio replied awkwardly, taken aback by Yui's enthusiasm over her room. "You really are excited," Mio commented as Yui went over to Mio's bed and poked the stuffed animals with a goofy grin on her face.

"I've never been in your room before, Mio-chan!" Yui replied excitedly as she sat on the comfortable bed, yawning widely as the urge to fall asleep suddenly overtook her.

"Oh, sorry..." Mio replied as an embarrassed blush lit up her cheeks. She saw that Yui was on the verge of falling asleep, and on her bed too, so she noisily set her school bag down on her desk which caught Yui's attention.

"We should start studying now," Mio said as Yui hopped up from the bed and snapped to attention like a soldier.

"Yes ma'am!" she replied resolutely before breaking down into a giggle. Mio set her laptop aside and pulled up an extra chair for Yui to sit at beside the desk.

"Tomorrow's exam is on math," Mio said as she pulled out her mathematics notebook.

"You're just lucky I do all my studying in advance," She admonished as Yui rubbed her head sheepishly.

"Sorry, Mio-chan," she replied as Mio cracked open her notebook.

Thirty minutes of studying later and Yui looked as if she was about to die from boredom.

"...So, if X is equal to five, where will the line fall on the graph?" Mio asked as she finished painstakingly drawing a graphing box on the page. Yui stared at the page for a moment as the gears in her brain tried to turn, smoke visibly rising from her head.

"Nagasaki!" she blurted out suddenly.

"That's not a coordinate on a graph!" Mio replied with an exasperated look on her face.

Mio spent another thirty minutes reviewing the material she had just spent the previous thirty minutes going over. Every time Yui's attention would waver, Mio would snap her back to attention. Eventually, Yui's wandering attention found a more suitable target: Mio herself.

"...So again, if Y is equal to three, then what is X?" Mio quizzed as Yui stared at her from the side.

"You have really pretty hair, Mio-chan," Yui said randomly which elicited a blush from the black haired girl.

"T-thanks..." she replied awkwardly as she tried to suppress the rising heat in her cheeks. There was a short silence before Mio broke it, trying to get back on track. "So if-"

"You have a really cute blush too, Mio-chan," Yui blurted out as she stared intently at Mio's face. This newfound attention caused Mio's face to heat up even more, her blush covering the majority of her face now.

'Why is she so interested in my looks now..?' Mio thought as she coughed to break the awkwardness.

"As I was saying-" once again, Mio was cut off.

"And you have such cute fingers!" Yui cried out enthusiastically as she eyed Mio's fingertips now. Mio actually seemed to get into this comment and smiled a little.

"B-but they're so big..." she said as she held her hands up and examined them.

"No, they're cute, Mio-chan!" Yui replied reassuringly with a large smile plastered on her face. Mio's smile grew a little more as she laid her hands back down on the table. She was about to thank Yui for the compliment but the hyper girl acted before she could.

Yui's eyes sparkled and narrowed in sudden focus as she mumbled "A chance!" to herself as her hand shot out and grabbed Mio's exposed hand, clasping it in her own. Mio's eyes went wide in shock and her blush exploded across her face. Yui's expression devolved into sly bliss and she began to squeeze and feel Mio's hand, mumbling "Squishy, squishy," as she did so.

"Y-Yui!" Mio stuttered as her face felt like it was about to melt off, but was promptly ignored by Yui as she continued to play with Mio's hand. Soon, the contact actually began to feel oddly pleasant, which only made the shy girl feel even more awkward.

"Yui!" Mio pulled her hand out of Yui's grasp and cradled it in her other hand, almost as if it had been burned, even though the contact had felt nice.

"Aww, Mio-chan!" Yui whined as she grabbed at the air. Mio put on a resolute face as she picked up her pencil again.

"We need to get back to studying," Mio said as Yui sucked on her finger pitifully.

"No fair, Mio-chan," Yui whined as her face fell. Mio's face remained resolutely set, despite the odd tingle that she felt in her hand at the absence of Yui's touch.

o o o

"So, how did tutoring Yui go?" Ritsu asked with a mockingly large grin on her face as she sat down next to Mio at the Light Music Clubroom's table. Mio raised her head from the table.

"Well..." she replied as she felt the odd feeling in her hand from the night before return. "...I don't know," she continued as Ritsu's grin grew.

"That bad huh?" Ritsu said as she patted Mio on the shoulder in mock comfort, earning her a glare from the tall girl.

"I guess we'll see after Yui is done with her exam..." she replied as she laid her head back down on the table.

"Where's Mugi?" Ritsu asked curiously as she looked around the room, as if she had only just noticed the blonde's absence.

"Still taking her exam," Mio replied simply.

The door suddenly and slowly creaked open, which caught both girls' attention. Yui came wobbling through the door, a test sheet in her hand.

"Did Sawa-chan give you your grade?" Ritsu asked as Mio stood up from her chair, very much interested in the results. Yui shakily held up the paper, a large, red, underlined '110' was written on the center with 'how is this possible...?' written in much tinier writing underneath it.

"Woah!" Ritsu exclaimed as she stared in amazement.

"Thank you, Mio-chan!" Yui cried happily as she brightened up. Mio blushed as Yui's face glowed with accomplishment and gratitude.

"I-it wasn't really-" but Mio was cut off as Yui leapt through the air and encased her in a tight hug.

"It's all 'cause of you!" Yui said cheerily as she planted a warm kiss on Mio's cheek. Mio's entire face lit up in embarrassment as Ritsu gawked at the pair. After a moment, though, a smile slowly spread across her features as Yui gratefully rubbed her cheek against hers.

'You're welcome...'

END


Author's Commentary: Short. Simple. Sweet. I hope you all enjoyed reading! All feedback is happily welcomed.