DISCLAIMER: The song "Make You Feel My Love," was written by Bob Dylan. I do not own Hibike! Euphonium. All rights belong to Ayano Takeda and Kyoto Animation.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: More HaruKao, because I just LOVE this ship.

Make You Feel My Love

Kaori sat in her Business 100 class staring at what she felt was the world's slowest clock. She tried willing the hands to move faster, but they steadfastly refused. Unfortunately, her preoccupation with the classroom clock distracted her from the professor's current lecture.

"Nakaseko-san?"

When Kaori finally heard the professor call her name, she embarrassingly found all her classmates' eyes upon her. She immediately turned beet red and stammered, in order to buy time to think.

"Nakaseko-san, can you tell me what factors contribute to Japan's current inflation problem?"

Kaori glanced down at Asuka in the front row, staring up at her. The former trumpet player could feel tears welling in her eyes, so rather than risk sobbing her answer she shook her head.

"Well, perhaps you should pay more attention to my lectures, than to the classroom clock."

Two seconds later, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Kaori quickly gathered up her possessions and dashed out of the classroom. She ran towards the Business building's exit and kept running until she reached her dorm room.

When Kaori finally woke from crying herself to sleep, it was dark out. She sat up in her bed, flipped open her mobile phone, and saw she missed two calls. One was from her mother and the other was from Haruka. After three years of high school, she knew she should not be surprised Asuka did not try to contact her, but it still stung. She stood, gathered her toiletries, and headed to her dormitory's communal floor bathroom.

Upon her return to her dorm room, she found her dorm mate quickly scribbling a note. When the young woman saw Kaori, she crumbled up the note and threw it in the trashcan.

"OH! There you are. I'm going to spend the night with my girlfriend, so you have the room to yourself," the young woman stated and headed out the door, "Night!"

"Good night," Kaori weakly responded.

Kaori put her toiletries away and sat down on her bed. She checked the time and called her mother back first, knowing the call would not take very long. Taking a deep breath, she called Haruka next.

"Kaori? Are you alright?" Haruka asked, even before saying hello.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Kaori lied.

"Asuka told me what happened in class."

Kaori bitterly smiled. She already knew this, as soon as she saw the earlier missed call from Haruka.

Shrugging off the sadness threatening to return, she cheerfully replied, "It wasn't anything. I don't know why Asuka called you."

"Because…,"

"…she's Asuka," Kaori finished Haruka's sentence.

Both friends laughed. Kaori felt better and was soon laughing at Haruka's story about how a freak summer storm caught her university's concert music band during marching practice.

"And don't you tell me the freak summer storm was my fault," Haruka humorously chided.

An hour later, the two friends finished catching up and ended their call.

As Kaori tried to fall asleep, she pondered why Asuka always called Haruka whenever the former euphonium player felt her friend needed cheering up.

"Why doesn't she call me?" Kaori wondered aloud.

The next day, Kaori went to her Business 100 class on a mission.

As Kaori listened to her professor drone on and on, she half listened to his boring lecture. She did not want to be blindsided by him again, but she was on a mission and determined to complete it, no matter the outcome. As soon as the bell rang, Kaori sprang from her seat and headed directly for Asuka.

"Asuka, can I speak to you for a moment?"

"I can't right now."

"Why? You don't have a class now?"

"I…have…to get to the library!"

Asuka waited, confident Kaori would back down.

"Asuka…," Kaori paused in thought, "…we need to talk."

The usually meek former trumpet player grabbed Asuka by the wrist and pulled her in to an empty classroom. Asuka flopped down in an empty desk and stared at Kaori with saucer-sized eyes.

"Asuka, I want…no, need the truth from you."

Asuka pulled on her mask and flippantly answered, "Of course."

"I mean it Asuka!" Kaori firmly stated.

For the second time within a short time, Asuka's eyes grew to the size of saucers. Unfortunately for Kaori, Asuka's sadistic side roared to life when cornered.

"You want the truth?"

Kaori nodded.

"You can't handle the truth!" Asuka channeled Colonel Nathan Jessup in perfect Engrish and stood to leave.

Kaori, finally at her wits end with Asuka's evasiveness, uncharacteristically barked out, "ENOUGH!"

Asuka, shocked by Kaori's outburst, flopped back down in her seat.

Kaori gathered up all her courage and began, "Asuka, I need to know why you always call Haruka, every single time you think I need cheering up? Why don't you speak to me directly?"

While Asuka silently stared at Kaori, the lovelorn young woman softly sighed and wondered how her friend grew so closed off from her own emotions. After Asuka finally spoke, the two friends spoke for over two hours, leaving Kaori emotionally drained as she shuffled back to her dorm room. Once again, Kaori cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, Kaori packed up her belongings, wrote a note to her dorm mate, texted Haruka one sentence, withdrew from all her classes, and left.

By the time Haruka was able to check the text message she received during practice, two hours earlier, she knew she was too late, when all her frantic calls to Kaori went directly to voicemail and her text messages went unanswered. In between all this, she called Asuka, and for the first time in their years of friendship, Asuka was on the receiving end of Haruka's emotional distress.

Haruka began her second year at university with a heavy heart. From the day Kaori disappeared, the saxophone player spent every free moment praying at the local shrine. She doggedly refused to believe the worse and continued to pray for Kaori's safe return.

"Why didn't I tell her my true feelings that day?" Haruka sadly thought as she sat in the cafeteria staring at her lunch.

She continued to stare at her lunch, completely lost in thought.

"Perhaps you'd prefer Yakiimo and milk?"

Haruka blinked several times at the Yakiimo and milk placed on the table in front of her. She turned slowly, hoping she had not finally lost her mind.

"Haruka? I'm sorry for…,"

Before Kaori could finish her apology, she found her arms full of a crying Haruka.