Sorry guys for the really late update! MASSIVE writer's block hit me and words just didn't word well and I can't let myself post a terrible chapter so... Anyways enjoy~!


Today was the sports festival in Saotome Academy, which Ai thought was completely useless. Why was there a festival for sports? And why did Shining put weird twists to all of these events?

Ai participated in tug-o-war, which surprisingly wasn't the last thing in the set list. But this was no simple tug-o-war, right in the middle was a huge hole filled with something Ai didn't know and rather not want to know. Luckily the match ended as a tie for him and Natsuki, Syo's roommate and in class A, they were evenly matched in strength, or that's what Ai got from his data during the tug-o-war.

Ai sighed as he leaned against a tree, watching the crazy event unfold in front of him. He didn't have anything else to do so might as well see Masato from class A and Ren's dynamic in whatever this event was in the sports festival.

"Is someone sitting next to you?" a soft spoken high toned voice entered his ear.

Ai looks up to see Haruka standing in front of him,

"No." Ai answers.

She hesitates slightly before she lowers herself on the ground next to him. She fidgets with her fingers for awhile awkwardly looking away from Ai. If this girl is going to do something she better do it now, Ai thought.

"Um…you really gave a fight against Shinomiya-san, Mikaze-san." Haruka strikes up a conversation.

"Yeah." Ai says nonchalantly as he kept looking straight ahead of him.

The conversation between the two of them ends there, that was a waste of 7 seconds. Ai boringly stares at the ongoing verbal fight between Ren and Masato. Ai couldn't hear the exact words they were saying because the two were 2.94 feet away from the edge of his hearing range.

"I've heard that Shinomiya-san is pretty strong so I was surprised that the match ended up as a tie." Haruka's voice enters his ear.

Is she still trying? "Yeah."

The girl doesn't pursue the topic any further.

"Did you happen to find out what was in that large hole in the middle?"

"No."

She goes silent again.

"Are you in any other events?"

"No."

Silence.

Why was she asking these questions? To Ai these questions would not do any justice to her if she keeps going on with them. It sounded unnecessary to Ai, knowing that she now has 6 days, 3 hours, 45 minutes, and 19 seconds left until the one month period of trying to overturn his words of her not worthy of being his partner. She hasn't given him anything to him the past 23 days, 20 hours, 14 minutes, and 41 seconds, she doesn't have much time left, but what does he care? He doesn't want a partner so this was good news to him.

"Um…Mikaze-san?" the composer spoke up once more.

"What now?" Ai raised his voice.

"I-I was wondering if you have time today to listen to my composition." She stutters as she looks down at her knees.

Ai blinked, the robot thought this girl would try to start another unnecessary conversation but she actually said something necessary. So she did finish, he thought.

"Do you have any events after this?" Ai asked.

"No." she shook her head.

Perfect, Ai thought, the sooner he listens to her composition now the sooner he can throw this partner away and the sooner her could find a new partner, as much as he hated having a partner.

Ai grabs her wrist and stands up, pulling Haruka up with him.

"Wha—?"

"We're going to an open classroom right now to listen to what you made." Ai starts walking towards the school.

"B-but that means we're ditching!" Haruka says as she gets dragged by Ai.

Ai abruptly stops and turns to Haruka who was regaining her balance, "Ditching?" That was the first time he heard that word before.

"You know, not attending class!" Haruka exclaims looking very worried.

Ai cocks his head to the right, "But we don't have class right now so we aren't ditching right?"

She opens her mouth, but then closes it and nods slowly, still looking very worried.

"Then that means we aren't ditching. C'mon." Ai proceeded to drag Haruka into the school.


Ai led Haruka to the S class, which was completely empty of course, since everyone was participating in the sports festival. He pulled Haruka all the way to the piano and made her sit on the seat.

Haruka being forced to do all of this looks at Ai confused.

"What are you waiting for? Play what you composed." Ai leans against the wall right next to the piano.

"O-okay." Haruka opened up the piano to reveal the black and white keys.

She repositioned herself so her right foot was in front of the 3 pedals of the piano and hovered her fingers above the white keys. He hears Haruka take in a deep breath in, he sees her shoulders relax after she lets the air out, and her eyes look down at the piano keys, full of determination, unwavering.

Then she presses down a key on the piano, letting the first grace notes ring throughout the empty classroom.

Ai stood up straight, moving himself away from the wall. She delivered more than he expected, it still wasn't good and there were many points to fix even after she played for 37 seconds but he was, awestruck. Each note she played, each key she hit on the piano, the more he felt something from this composition, something warm in his chest, just something. Ai placed a hand over his chest, what was he feeling right now? What was he experiencing right now?

"Um…how was it Mikaze-san?" Haruka's voice stops his train of thought.

Ai realizes he was looking down and looks up to Haruka, who seemed to be waiting for him to say something. When did she stop playing? How long was he thinking for? For the first time Ai lost track of time, he got lost into another person's music, or that's what he thinks he did. This was a first for him so he didn't understand what just happened, so many questions popped in his head. Ai had to calm down before he starts to overheat with so much things to take in and comprehend.

"Mikaze-san?" he heard Haruka call out his name.

Ai was for sure of one thing, Haruka is the answer to complete his task of singing with emotion and her music should give him the answer. He couldn't let her go as a partner as much as he hated admitting it, he thought Haruka was a competent partner.

"There's a lot of things that needs work." Ai finally said.

"Oh." Haruka looks down, "Was it not good enough?"

"I wasn't done with my sentence." Ai said.

Haruka looks up, curious to what he was going to say.

"There's a lot of things that needs work," Ai repeats what he said before, "but it's good enough."

"So does that mean?" Haruka's eyes started to twinkle.

Did she really need a confirmation? Ai thought his words were enough to state that he accepted her as his partner.

"Yes, you can be my partner," Ai sighs, he might as well state it, "do you really needed me to say it explicitly?"

She shakes her head, "It's not that, I just couldn't believe that—"

"Is someone there?" Ryuuya's voice came from the hallway, he was still far away from the classroom but it was a matter of time until he comes here.

Ai was slightly baffled at why Ryuuya was here in the hallways. The sports festival was still going on and if he remembered correctly, shouldn't their instructor be over there at the field and not here in the school building?

"What should we do?" Haruka whispers, starting to panic, "we're going to get caught if we stay out here!"

Even if Ai knew very little about school life the one thing Ai knew for sure was that getting caught doing anything in secret was bad and the solution to preventing from being caught, was to hide.

He quickly searches the room to find somewhere to hide: the cabinets were too small for them, the piano wasn't the optimal hiding spot, they'd be found in no time, time kept ticking and Ai couldn't find a good place to hide until something enters his eyes, a locker.

It was tall enough for him and Haruka to hide in and barely wide enough for the two of them to fit in it. This will do for the time being, Ai thought. He proceeds to grab Haruka's wrist and pulls her up from the piano chair and rushes towards the locker. He stuffs Haruka in first them pushes himself into the cramped space, closing the locker door shut.

"Don't talk." Ai whispers to Haruka who is up against his body because of the lack of space in the locker.

He sees her move a bit in the cramped space when her foot hits the locker wall, emitting a metallic clang sound that was actually louder than Ai thought it would be. He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her closer so she doesn't hit any other place in the locker that would reveal their hiding spot. Ai knew Haruka can mess up at the most important times at least 85% of the time, judging by his past observations so he couldn't let her mess up now.

They hear the classroom door slide open.

"Anyone here?" Ryuuya's voice echoes through the empty classroom.

Ai hears the sound of the footsteps start to get louder as Ryuuya approaches the locker. Ai tightens his grip on Haruka to keep her from moving even the slightest bit.

"Guess I was hearing things." Ryuuya says and the sound of his footsteps starts to get quieter, then the classroom door slides shut.

The robot keeps his ears pealed, waiting for a few seconds to make sure Ryuuya was actually gone from the room.

"Alright coast's clear." Ai sighs out.

Was this the time that you can call "to be thrilling"? Ai actually enjoyed hiding from someone, not knowing if they would catch them.

"M-mikaze-san…" Haruka's stuttering voice enters his ear.

Ai forgot about Haruka's existence for a couple of seconds, another first, forgetting the existence of someone.

"Right, let's get out of here." he said but as he was going to open the locker door he noticed Haruka's heartbeat was faster than normal and from his angle her face was red.

"Do you have a fever Haruka?" Ai asked, that was the only logical answer he could get from her symptoms.

"Huh? N-n-no!" Haruka tried to move away from Ai but she couldn't for some strange reason.

Ai looked at her confused, "You're face is red, how is it not a fever?"

"I-I'm fine." Haruka insists, "Can you let go of me please?"

Ai remembers he had her arm around her, that's why she couldn't move away from him. He swiftly lets her body go and the two of them step out of the locker.

Ai pats himself down then remembers that Haruka was say right before Ryuuya came in. He didn't like incomplete thoughts staying incomplete.

"You were about to say something," Ai said, "what were you going to say?"

"Wha-?" Haruka jerks her head up.

Ai sees that she's still flustered, what was wrong with her?

"Before Hyuuga-sensei came in, you said 'I just couldn't believe', believe what?" Ai gestures with his hand to have her complete the sentence.

Her amber eyes show that she was drawing a blank. Did this girl forget something that just happened?

"O-oh!" Haruka's eyes lit up, she seemed to recall the event, "I didn't believe that you would say yes so I'm really happy that you did."

Happy, weird, Ai thought, why would someone find that happy? He just said yes to her composition, how does that release dopamine to the brain?

Putting that aside Ai, needs to make up the time from the past month they haven't practiced together. If he was going to partner up with her until the audition they needed to be in perfect shape and the two of them aren't even close to 10% ready, much to Ai's dismay.

"You're free after school right?" Ai asks.

Haruka nods, "Yes, I am."

"Alright, we're going to practice after school together starting tomorrow." Ai says, "Don't be late partner-san."

Haruka's eyes twinkle and nods eagerly, "Yes, I will not be late Mikaze-san!"

Ai notices her reddened cheeks were back to normal. So it wasn't a fever.


When Ai hid in the locker with Haruka in ASAS I found it pretty cute how Ai actually liked the thrill of hiding. Hope you guys have a great week. School must be starting very soon for some so good luck in school!