The person she's been staring at all along, in truth, he never noticed her at all. It's probably because she was never an eye-catching person to begin with, she thought to herself. 'click' And as usual, she snapped a quick photo of him. She lowered the lens slowly, "Kirino-kun... he doesn't seem to have much energy today." Akane stared at the person far away while mumbling to herself. For some reason, she thinks that the Kirino today seem to give off a depressing vibe towards others.

"Akane-!" Standing some distance away, Aoi shouted towards her while raising her arm high above her head, trying to catch the other girl's attention, snapping Akane out of her thoughts.

"If only I could offer him some help..." Before leaving, Akane didn't forget to glance back at Kirino's direction one more time, "Coming-!" She picked up her pace as she walked towards where Aoi was. But she seemed to be a bit too self-centered, for she didn't know Kirino as well as she thought she did... if she gives him trouble, that would certainly not be good. After club activities ended, Akane stayed behind to round up all the pictures she took for today just as usual, including the picture which she had taken earlier... Kirino's picture. Because there won't be anyone going in or out of this club house at this time, she can put her mind to putting these pictures into their rightful collections.

"Yamana? You haven't left yet?" Suddenly, the club room's slide doors were slide opened, Kirino popped half of his head in and questioned Akane, who was sitting alone inside, with a slightly surprised expression while stepping behind her. He had just finished cleaning up the grounds, and had heard some sort of soft rustling noises after walking out of the locker room, that's why he decided to come see what the situation was, he had know idea she hadn't gone home yet.

"Ah- K-Kirino-kun!" Akane replied while leaping off her chair and hiding the pictures on the desk in front of her using both hands by instinct, if... these pictures were seen, she will definitely die of shame.

"...Sorry, did I startle you?" Kirino said with an apologetic grin, it seems that he should have at least made some noise before fully approaching her, looking at her now, she's like a small animal who had just been scared out of its wits.

"There are still some pictures, I haven't finished putting away yet." Akane said while quickly swiping a few certain pictures into a pile in her hand.

"Then... the sky's darkening, maybe I should stay here with you? After you finish this up I'll walk you home." Even though Kirino was only suggesting this to Akane, he had already put down his backpack and took a seat across from Akane before she had even given him an answer.

"Eh, eh! There's no way I can accept such a troubling offer..." Akane waved her hands around even more frantically, the pictures in her hand nearly slipped out.

"It's not troubling at all." Kirino said, resting his chin on his palm, supporting it with his elbow on the table and a trace of a smile appearing on his face. He didn't have any special plans later anyways, only that he'll be home later than usual.

"If that's so... then I guess I'll still have to trouble Kirino-kun." Seeing Kirino insisting on walking her home, Akane was too embarrassed to refuse. Because it was the first time they were alone like this, Akane felt even more embarrassed.

"Yamana really likes taking pictures, huh?" Kirino randomly picked up a picture of Masaki standing beside him, posing a victory sign towards the camera with a forced smile. Ever since his first impression on her, she was always carrying that camera with her at all times.

"Yeah... by taking pictures, you can capture many wonderful moments." Akane smiled slightly and held up a photo of everyone laughing happily together in a group hug. By taking photos of happy moments like these and placing them in albums, you can save many wonderful memories. During the conversation, Kirino started rummaging through the pictures out of curiosity, even though she loved taking photos, he noticed that there were extremely few pictures of herself. "Oh right, Kirino-kun... doesn't seem to have power lately." In the end, Akane finally summed up all her courage and spoke out the thing she had been worrying about the most throughout this entire day. She just couldn't leave the problem unanswered, even if she gets accused of sticking her nose in someone else's business, it wouldn't matter.

"Ah?" Noticing the comment, Kirino raised his head in a confused way, replying with a confused sound instead of a full sentence. "...It's probably because the Finals are nearing, and something like that actually happened to Shindou, I'm just feeling a bit uneasy." Kirino replied after drooping his eyes down and sighing. He thought he had covered his emotions up well, at least his team mates hadn't noticed his true thoughts yet.

"Kirino-kun, there will definitely be no problem." Akane suddenly stood up and said with a loud voice, the usual her will probably not have such an emotional response, but right now at this moment... she needed to tell him her feelings of wanting to be there cheering for him out loud. "Because from the very beginning... I've always been gazing at Kirino-kun, so, there will be no problem." Akane took out one of the photos from the pile she had hidden away, squeezing it tightly with both hands, she offered it to Kirino. That was a picture of Kirino smiling brilliantly, Kirino himself probably didn't know he could amke this kind of expression either. That expression had always been pasted into her mind.

"..." Kirino was half-stunned by this, he even forgot what to say as a reply.

"I..." As if she just noticed she had a sudden outburst just now, Akane was so embarrassed she wanted to disappear from the club room in front of Kirino right now.

"Thank you, for always silently encouraging me." Kirino took the photo of himself smiling brilliantly after winning a game from Akane's hands.

"You... noticed?" Akane covered her mouth with her hands, her voice choked out as if she couldn't believe it. She thought...

"Yeah." Kirino stood up and walked to Akane's side, patting her on the head gently as if to comfort her.

She had always let her gaze rest on Kirino, who was always standing beside Shindou Takuto, but as she turned around to gather up some supplies, she never noticed the thin smile the person behind her was wearing, his gaze was set on her busy figure. "When are you going to notice?" Staring at her busy figure during practice, Kirino said to himself with amusement.

"Is there anything wrong, Kirino?" Takuto noticed Kirino seemed to have said something beside him and questioned curiously.

"No, nothing." Kirino returned to his position and continued practice, aiming his pass perfectly to Takuto.

Fin.

Matsurei: Of course I just had to write a story for such a cute coupleeeeeeeeeeeeee. Kirino, I understand you, Akane is just too cute. I just noticed I have a Takuto x Akane fic which I have not yet uploaded ORZ