Once his bedroom door was shut Kaoru sighed heavily and slumped down to the floor. After a few moments to collect his thoughts, he pulled the cuff of his shirt back on his left hand. Hikaru usually had pretty good attention to detail, especially concerning clothes as he took after their mother, so Kaoru was amazed he didn't pull him up on having one cuff undone. But he was grateful he hadn't! He stared at the number he'd had to scratch into the back of his hand because he couldn't find a pen to write on the piece of paper that Hikaru had taken from his pocket. If Geni could see it she'd think he was a freak. Heck, looking at his twin brother's secret girlfriend's mobile number scratched into the skin on the back of his hand, even he had to admit this was a bit much. Slowly he pulled out his phone and started tapping the numbers into it, quite aware that he'd dug in too hard and now resulted in bleeding in some places. He hoped it would heal before he saw her again. If not then he figured he'd just make an excuse and wear gloves or something.

He hesitated for what felt like forever, triple checking the number several times before pressing the 'call' button and holding the phone gingerly to his ear. The ringing seemed to go on for an eternity but finally it ended and a girl's voice answered. "Hey..." she said and a wave of relief washed over Kaoru. "Hey Geni, it's..." he stopped as her voice interrupted him and went on. "...it's Geni. Sorry I can't get to my phone right now but leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you a-sap!" Kaoru's smile fell at that but he didn't have long to mull over it as the answer machine on her phone beeped. "Ah... erm... Hey, Geni, Genevieve, it's Kaoru... Hikaru's brother... erm... sorry this is a strange call... but I was wondering if you could meet me in the café we passed in the park today? ... I mean tomorrow... can you meet me tomorrow at the café that we passed today... erm... well... drop me a text on this number when you get this... I hope you don't mind, I got your number from Hikaru... ok... bye." he hung up quickly and felt instantly stupid as he went over what he'd said in his mind. It was all over the place, it was indecisive and sounded utterly UNCOOL.

He groaned heavily and put his phone on charge, deciding there was little more he could do about it but wait for her reply. He sat in his room for an hour or so then started getting ready for bed as it was now about 10pm. Waiting for Hikaru to fall asleep, getting the phone, finding the number and 'looking' for his phone as well as plucking up the courage to actually make the call to Geni's phone had taken a lot longer than he'd expected, something he reflected on as he had a quick shower. He was just about to turn the light on in his room when he saw his phone's screen light up. Forgetting the light he rushed over and picked it up. She'd replied. His hands trembled as he slowly unlocked his phone and his finger hovered over the 'messages' on the screen. It was from the number he'd dialled, the one that was still on the back of his hand. Finally, now sat leaning against his bed still wet and only with the towel around his waist, he pressed it and opened the message.
"Hi Kaoru. sorry I couldn't get your call. I was at work and they're strict about phones. When do you want to meet up? Geni x"

Kaoru felt his cheeks flush at the little 'x' she'd put on the end of the text. He shook his head hard and mentally called himself an idiot for getting excited over a single letter she probably added to every message, no matter whom it was to, without even thinking about it. He wrote out his reply three times before double checking it and sending it. It read as such:
"Don't worry about it, I thought you might have been and it was rude to call without asking you for your number in person. I apologise. Any time tomorrow is fine. Maybe in the morning when you're walking Bane? I loved getting to meet him. I'm a real dog fan."

Kaoru had added and taken away an 'x' at the end of it several times before sending it without. Girl code was a minefield to the average boy. Her reply came swiftly but didn't help him decode the elusive 'x' as it read:
"Don't worry about it. Really. I walk Bane around 9am so is 9:30 good for you? x"

He stared hard at the 'x', mentally willing it to give him answers. That was twice she'd used it and he was none the wiser. What did it stand for? Did you get more 'x's depending on how well she knew you? If so, how many did Hikaru have? And did she think him rude for not using it when he replied? His head was swarmed with questions now. He quickly tapped out his reply having realised that a few minutes had passed.
"Yeah. 9:30 would be great!" After sending it he regretted the exclamation mark but there wasn't much he could do especially as she messaged back quickly with,
"Awesome! See you tomorrow then. Good night and sweet dreams Kaoru x". Hikaru read that text several times over. She seemed to be excited about meeting up with him... and she still added the 'x'... right after his name... and she hoped he'd have sweet dreams...

Kaoru felt himself blush and tapped out a final reply, unable to keep from blushing at her sweet text even though he firmly told himself that she was just being nice.
"Cool. Hope you sleep well and have sweet dreams too." He hadn't wanted to come across as flirtatious, because he had no intention of flirting with his brothers girlfriend, but he still wanted her to like him as a friend.

Now that the meeting had been arranged Kaoru felt much more at ease. He got into bed and settled down. The final thoughts he had as he drifted off to sleep was a praying hope that he'd be more cool tomorrow after the epic fails of the answer machine today.