I don't belong Kagerou Project, it belongs to Jin.

"Haruka-san?" he heard a familiar voice, a soft voice he hears everyday except on weekends, a voice of a kind girl, a girl who he's glad to have the right to call her a close friend.

"Hello, Ayano-chan!" Haruka looked up at her, and both smiled at each other when he did so.

"Oh, it was you, after all!" she said, chuckling behind her scarf. "Can I sit with you?"

Haruka quickly nodded, and pushed himself aside to make her a space on the bench. She sat beside him, and sighed, still with her characteristic smile. "Funny seeing you here, I was just drawing you!"

At that, instinctively, Ayano turned her head to him. She did it a little fast, making the boy jump by the sudden "rough" movement of his serene companion. He was holding his pencil and looked a little confused, and she took advantage of his distraction to look at the sketchbook laying on his lap.

"Wow, look at that!" she chirped enthusiastically, pointing at the page with her finger. "You really are an artist!"

"W – what? Haha…" he sheepishly laughed, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Artist? No, I – I'm not an artist… it's… it's just a sketch, it's not even done–"

"Just a sketch? I barely can draw stickmen, haha! Do you really call that just a sketch?" Ayano moved a little closer to have a better sight of the drawing. "No! It's really, really good!"

"Ah, well… thank you! I would like to see those stickmen someday!"

"Maybe someday!" The brunette seemed to be having fun by just talking about these things, and Haruka couldn't help but feel a little relieved. He loves Ayano's companion, she is always really nice, and somehow makes him relax from everything. (What is that everything? He doesn't know.) "When you finish it show me! You're making me look so pretty there!"

"What? But Ayano-chan already is pretty!" he innocently said, and she snickered.

"Haha, what? Are you flirting with me?" of course, she meant it jokingly, but Haruka seemed confused by her comment.

"Flirting?" repeating the word she used, he tilted his head to the side. "Why?"

Ayano couldn't help blushing a little, and shyly chuckled. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that!" she rubbed the back of her head with embarrassement, but kept her smile. "I was just joking! …If you tell something like that to a girl who doesn't know you well enough, she could misunderstand it, you know? But don't worry, I know that wasn't you intention!"

Now, Haruka laughed, and once Ayano knew she was safe from making things awkward, she laughed as well.

"I see!" he put his pencil on his chin and looked up. "So, does this mean I'm always flirting with Takane?"

At that moment, Ayano knew how strong she was, because of how she could handle herself from breaking in laughter.

"Oh, well, that depends on you!" was her reply, and he looked down to his sketchbook, in an attempt to dissimulate his blush. Too late, this hero saw him. "Speaking of which, weird seeing you without Takane-san around!"

"Right back at you, Ayano-chan! Where is Shintaro-kun?" he asked, and Ayano's face became a little serious (as serious as her face can get in front of people) at the mention of the boy.

"Well, he said he was going to the bathroom. But he didn't come back, he was probably running away from me… I am really annoying, after all, haha."

"No, you're not annoying!" he smiled at her, and she did the same. "What if he just… was sick of the stomach?"

"Haha, who knows!" laughing behind her scarf, she decided to ask him back the same thing. "And where's Takane-san?"

"Ah, well… she yelled at me to leave her alone and then ran, but I couldn't catch her…" he scratched his cheek with his finger, and Ayano rolled her eyes, amused. Who knows what Haruka had done to make Takane run away. "I guess we both are kind of annoying."

"I guess we are," she sighed, and then they stayed in silence. Haruka continued drawing, and Ayano just looked down to the floor.

"Say, Ayano-chan," finally, he spoke up, making the girl's attention focus on him once again. "You like Shintaro-kun, isn't it?"

Just a question. A little silly question that teenagers have the habit of asking, just because. Yes, that little silly question made Ayano's cheeks go pink, and she right away hid her blush behind her scarf.

"Of course I like him! Despite of how he acts, he's a really good friend!" knowing that Haruka probably wouldn't like the answer of 'I'm not good for him', she decided to fool away the question.

The boy looked at her, he had such a strange expression. His face was practically replying to her 'do you really think I'm that dumb?'
Yeah, she does. But apparently, he isn't.

Even so, the kind and angelic Kokonose Haruka wouldn't let his friend get offended by his look, so he gave a verbal answer. "Yes, I know! But you see, I meant if you like him in a way… oh, I think you know what I mean."

It looked like she couldn't run away from answering that, but that was alright. It was Haruka. She could be sincere and just let those thoughts of 'he doesn't need someone like me' and stuff just disappear from her head.

"Yes, I know what you mean," one of her hands made its way to her face, to remove the hair failing on her eyes. "…Yes, I do like him. In that way, in… yes, that way."

"Since when do you like him?" when they stopped chuckling because of how she had said those words, Haruka asked a second question.

"Mmm… since middle school, to be honest…"

"That's a long time!" he looked at her, and she awkwardly laughed. "Aren't you going to tell him?"

"Maybe… but it'd be pointless, I would get rejected right off the bat, haha…" at that, the male opened his mouth to answer, but closed it. He couldn't just say that it was true or false. Ayano knows better Shintaro than he does, after all. But then, she spoke again. "Or even if he likes me back, he wouldn't know it or admit it… he has trouble with understanding feelings, you know?"

"…I see…" he didn't undertand everything, and was a little confused. But he did know what she meant by her words. "Well, good luck with that!"

Ayano blinked back as if that was her answer, as the sudden thought of that maybe confessing wasn't a bad idea appeared in her head. Maybe dating wasn't a bad idea. Maybe… maybe she's good for Shintaro, too.
She could let herself be a little selfish… isn't it?

"Thank you! It seems like I'll need it, haha!" after a couple of seconds, she gave her real answer, as she shook her head to make those thoughts go away. She'll think about that later.

When there was silence between them again, Ayano saw her chance. Her chance to talk to a member about the other member. Members, of her little secret named HaruTaka (name given by her, of course.)

"And you like Takane-san, don't you?"

As soon as Takane was mentioned, Haruka's face heated up and his lips started to twitch as he babbled, trying to answer.

"I'll take that as a yes!" she laughed, and her friend's blush got worse.

"I guess I'm kind of obvious, am I?" He covered his cheeks with his hands to calm down his face, and smiled at her. "With clinging on her all the time, haha…"

"Don't worry, don't worry. I'm sure she doesn't know it!"

"She doesn't? Oh, I thought she knew!"

"Not at all!" oh, now this was perfect. If she couldn't encourage Takane to confess, she could encourage Haruka to simply do it first! It was genius! But now, she'll take advantage and listen to all he has to say about it. "So, what do you like about her?"

He laughed, and removed his hands from his face, though his blush was still there. "Um, well… she's great! She's really nice and cares about me a lot! She's also really strong, and super-duper cool! And–" he had so much to say in response, but then he saw Ayano grinning at his words, and that made him stop talking, feeling embarrassed for talking too much. "W – well… even so… it's… pointless, too. She's too much in her own business… she's clearly not interested, haha."

Ayano rolled her eyes and sighed. Both of them are completely blind! They totally belong together!

"You know, Haruka-san," she began, and the boy paid attention to her. "She is really, really shy. That's why you think she's not interested."

Haruka blinked in confusion.

Shy? Takane? Takane is shy?
He'd think of her being stubborn, loud, obstinate, competitive… but shy?

"Shy? Really?" he asked, and Ayano gladly nodded. "That is… so cute!"

She chuckled, and Haruka smiled to himself, looking excited by sudden.

"You said that was why I think she's not interested," he repeated her recent words, and the brunette nodded again. "Then, this means she–"

"Oh, my, my, who knows! You'll have to find out by yourself!" she shrugged, and then looked at him. She closed one of her eyes, and put a finger on her lips. "Shh! Don't tell her I told you that, okay?"

"Okay!"

They stopped with their chuckling thingy when they heard a familiar voice.

"There they are!" they could recognize Takane quickly walking to them, and Shintaro was following her.

"Don't walk so fast, geez!"

"I don't walk fast, you just are too slow!"

Takane stood up in front of the two cheerful teenagers, as they looked up at her. She was with her hands on her hips, and her face told them that she wasn't exactly happy. Ayano felt safe when Takane's angry gaze was on Haruka, and he tensed up by that.

"Idiot! I've been looking for you in all the damn building! Why weren't you in the classroom!?"

"Well, when you were gone I thought of drawing out here, since the weather is nice today…"

"Ugh, don't just go by yourself! What if something happens to you!?"

Haruka snickered, as Ayano watched the situation with amusement. Finally, Shintaro arrived, and tried to catch the breath he lose.

"Sorry for worrying you, Takane."

"I – I wasn't worried! I was just– Hey, wipe that smile off of your face! I'm serious!" she yelled, when she noted Haruka grinning bigger than usual. "Oi, stop smiling like that, it creeps me out!"

"Huh, why? Taka– ouch, ouch, ouch!" as usual, she started pinching his cheeks, and Haruka started to beg to her to let him go. "It hurts, Takaneee!"

Ayano laughed at her seniors, and then looked at Shintaro.

"How did you find Takane-san?"

"I bumped to her when I was going back to the classroom, where you weren't," he crossed his arms, and it almost looked like he was scolding her.

"But you were taking so long, I thought you ran away from me…!"

"What? Don't be stupid. It's impossible to run away from you, I already tried," rolling his eyes, Shintaro did his best to keep his cool. Ayano just smiled. Yes, he wouldn't escape from her that easily. "If I take too much time being in the bathroom is my own problem, besides it's– Fucking hell, Enomoto, shut up for a second!"

He interrupted himself to scream to the yelling girl beside him, who let go of Haruka when that happened.

"Oh, I have to shut up! Oh well, I'm deeply sorry, my highness, I didn't know you had the fucking right on telling me what to do!" her sarcastic voice was probably heard by the whole school, but she was too pissed to even care about that. She's been alone with him for a long time while they were searching for the airheads, and she was already mad at him from their discussions from before.

"Yeah, I do, now shut your mouth and never open it again."

"Okay, while I'm doing it, please kill yourself. That would be absolutely wonderful."

"Just shut up!"

"I fucking shut up if I want, you little piece of…"

"You guys…" Haruka sighed, as the both of them started to yell at each other. Ayano, again, laughed and let out a big sigh.

Even so, the mood seemed to have came back to normal. When they were both alone, everything was so quiet. And yes, it's nice to just sit and talk nicely to each other, without Takane and Shintaro screaming things that five years old kids would say, but now they could see how much they missed them, even if it was just a while.

Ayano looked at Haruka, and guessed that he was thinking the exact same thing as her.

"We really need those two, don't we?" she whispered to him, and he looked at Takane laughing because Shintaro suddenly had an eyelash in his eye, and then nodded.

"We really do."