a/n: I'm super excited to start this drabblefic, it's based on the 30_kisses challenge and I'm going to try to evolve a friendship into a relationship through these 30 prompts. enjoy!

goukon: a group date

o~

prompt 1: look over here

"Not having fun?"

Tsumaki Shizuka turns around abruptly, one hand still on the bathroom door handle. Sengoku grins at her, and she rolls her eyes. "No, I'm having so much fun sitting with a bunch of strangers in a karaoke booth."

"That's the point of a goukon, you know." Sengoku points out, leaning one shoulder against the wall. "You're supposed to be socializing, not running to the bathroom every thirty minutes."

Shizuka lets go of the handle, sighing as she leans against the wall too. "I'm sorry, it's just so… I don't know. You wouldn't understand, Mr. Popular."

He laughs, patting her on the head. "You'd be just as popular if you weren't always on your phone, Shizu-chan."

Her hand grips her phone tighter and she fakes a laugh, "Yeah, guess I shouldn't be waiting for a text that won't come, huh? Thanks for telling me." She hates how easily she gets riled up over this subject, hates how she's stuck at this stupid goukon, hates how she's being a complete bitch to everyone.

"I arranged this goukon for you to find someone new." Sengoku says quietly, eyes worrying. She knows he cares, knows that they've been friends for two years and all he wants to do is help, but all she can feel is petty anger.

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't want to find someone new." She snaps, running a hand through her hair frustratedly. "Look, I know you're trying your best or whatever, but I'm not like you. I can't just date people back to back and not care at all." The second she says it, she flinches. She sounds so bitter, so ugly. "I'm going to the bathroom now," she mutters and quickly turns around and slips through the door.

As she washes her hands for the fourth time that night, she glares at her own reflection. All her friends, not just Sengoku, had tried to help her get over her last break up. She doesn't know why it's taking so long, it's been a month already and he was just a stupid boy, but she can't seem to forget him.

When she leaves the washroom, she's surprised that he's still waiting there. She looks at the ground, embarrassed over her outburst. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said."

"Hey, Shizu-chan," Sengoku's voice comes from somewhere above her head. She doesn't look up. "It's okay." He rests a hand on her head, and she doesn't know why but she starts to cry.

"It's his birthday today," she says through her sniffling, bringing her hands to cup her face and hide her tears.

"I know."

She stands there, crying into her hands with his hand on her head, and she tells him how there's a present hidden in the back of her closet, a present she had bought for him a month ago, two days before they had broken up. She tells him how she can't throw it out, can't even look at it, and everything just hurts and she doesn't know why, but he was just special.

Shizuka says all of this as he takes his hand away and rests it on her arm. She continues to talk about all the little things he did for her as he leads her out of the hallway and out the karaoke house doors and onto the empty sidewalk. She doesn't look up because she is ugly and undesirable and that's why he left her and that's why she's taking it out on Sengoku, her best friend, and she keeps crying and explaining and she feels… she feels so lost.

He waits until she pauses, and he tugs on her arm gently. "Hey, Shizu-chan, look up." She shakes her head, but he keeps tugging until she finally brings her hands down, mascara streaked down the sides of her cheeks, looking up at the night sky.

"It's cold out here, isn't it?" Is all he says.

She laughs bitterly, because it's all she can do at this point.

"It'll get warmer in the morning though," he says, and she looks up at him. He kisses her on the forehead reassuringly, and puts his arm around her shoulder.

And for some crazy reason, she believes him with all her heart.