I sat at the table in the writing club's room with Takeo sitting across from me smiling at me.
"You know, it's funny. You really couldn't have come at a better time." He said as he poured me a cup of tea.
"Well I'm really happy to help, though to be honest, I never would've guessed you'd be into writing."
"Heh, yeah." He smirked. "Believe it or not, my mother was a writer. She wrote a lot of really popular romance novels."
"Really?" I sat there slightly stunned. "I guess it must be in your blood then."
Takeo chuckled at me. "You could be right about that."
Damn he was cute.
"So, who's this other member?" I asked trying to distract myself.
"Oh, she's a junior girl named Sumiko Mori. To be honest, she can be a little crabby at times but she's really a nice girl."
"You said she was away with a bad cold, she's not in hospital is she?" I asked as I sipped my tea.
"Oh, no. I wouldn't say it was 'that' serious. It's just that, she's been away all week. But I don't think that it's as bad as I'm making it out to be." Takeo chuckled.
"That's good to hear, I guess." I gazed out of the window looking at the beautiful view which had been painted gold by the ever-gorgeous sunset.
"Uh, excuse me for asking, but have you ever written anything before?" Takeo asked.
"Well why would I want to join if I've never written anything?" I smirked at him.
"Yeah, I guess that's true. What kind of stories do you write?" He asked, giving me a warm smile.
"Well…" I began as I placed my teacup on the table and leaned back in my chair. "I haven't started any new stories in a while. In fact, I recently picked up a story that I started back in middle school."
"Oh really? What about?"
"Uh, I don't like telling people about what I'm writing." I frowned at him.
"How come?" He asked, tilting his head to one side like a puppy.
"Because I don't consider myself a real writer." I told him while staring at the ceiling. "It's not like my stories are ever going to get published, so I prefer to keep them to myself. They're all pretty stupid anyway"
I looked back down to Takeo who had a kind of sad looking smile on his face, as if he was a character in a tragedy manga. "Well, you don't know that for sure." He argued. I merely shrugged.
"Trust me, they're nothing special."
"If that's the way you feel, then why do you write in the first place?"
Takeo's question caught me a little off guard. I had to wonder for a minute. "Well, I guess I do it because I've got nothing better to do with my time." I didn't really mean it. It was just the first answer which came to mind. But even so, it was a bad answer, and I could see that Takeo was upset because of it.
"Is that seriously your answer?" He asked.
I sighed. "No. To be honest, I have no idea why I write. I guess I just do it to escape from boring, everyday life. I know that you can do the same with reading, but I just feel like I have a lot more freedom when I write."
The next thing I know, Takeo slams his palms on the table and stands up from his seat. The sudden outburst shocked me to the point where I almost spilled my tea.
"That's exactly it!" He exclaimed.
The shock that his outburst gave me was nothing compared to the next minute when he sat back down and held my hands in his. My heart immediately began to pound and my face flushed red, though he didn't seem to notice. "See, I knew you'd get it." He smiled warmly at me.
"Uh… Get what?" I asked.
Takeo's face snapped from his over-the-top, beaming glow back to his usual cheerful smile. "Uh, sorry about that." He chuckled while scratching the back of his head. "I always go a bit weird when it comes to this sort of stuff.
"It's alright." I told him while flashing him a quick wink. "It's good for the club leader to be passionate."
The next minute, all of the colour seemed to drain from Takeo's face. "You want me to be the club leader?"
"Well, I can't imagine anybody else taking up the role."
"Uh, well… I think that we should wait until Sumiko comes back to school before we make that decision." He said with a nervous cough.
"Alright then, that sounds fine to me." I agreed as I stood up from my chair. "It's getting kind of late, we should probably call it a day."
"Oh yeah, I didn't notice." Takeo said as he grabbed his bag. "If you don't mind me asking, where do you live?"
"Huh?" I looked at him with a slight frown. "Uh, I live in an apartment near the shopping district."
"Great!" Takeo exclaimed with another bright smile. "My house is just past the shopping district. What do you say I walk you home?"
The blush once again returned to my face, my eyes immediately shot to the floor to avoid making eye contact with him. "Uh, sure… You can if you want."
And with that, the two of us headed out of the room, out of the school and down the hill, together. The whole way, I fiddled and fidgeted. I couldn't understand why I was so nervous, but I really wished the feeling would stop.
"So, you said you lived in an apartment, right?" Takeo's voice cut through the nervous feeling in my head.
"Uh, yeah."
"Who do you live with?"
"Oh, you know… Just me, myself and I." I told him while looking everywhere but at him.
"You live by yourself?" He asked sounding as shocked as Ushio did when I told her.
"Y-yeah, but it's not really a big deal." I reassured him while finally looking up to his concerned face and cracking him a nervous smile.
"Where are your parents?"
"Uh… At this time of year, they'd be in Tokyo."
Our entire descent down the hill was spent with me explaining my parent's situation to Takeo. The look on his face by the time we reached the bottom was a little bit heartbreaking.
"I'm sorry, I know it's really none of my business, but to me, that sounds like something right out of a nightmare."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad. Besides, I've got heaps of friends at school, so it's not like I get lonely or anything. You don't have to get so upset." I reassured him.
Takeo simply sighed. "That's true. I guess it just upsets me because I'm not used to being lonely."
"Oh really? How big is your family?" I asked.
"Actually, I'm the oldest of four kids." He said, giving me a goofy looking smile.
Holy cow. Being an only child, that really shocked me. "You have three siblings?" I asked.
"Yeah, two twin sisters in middle school, and a little brother who just started elementary school."
I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Takeo having to watch over a bunch of little kids. "I bet you're a great big brother."
"Well, I try to be."
After a few more minutes of chatting, we eventually reached my apartment building. "Do you want to come in?" I blurted out without thinking of the possible repercussions that could follow.
"Uh… If you're willing to have me." He chuckled.
"Of course, come on in." I said as I turned around to hide the blush which was once again spreading across my face. I opened the door and immediately had to apologize for the mess. There were blankets and throw pillows all over the room due to my bedroom and the living room being one in the same. I managed to do a quick tidy up before Takeo and I were seated at the table with a cup of coffee and a few slices of castella which I baked myself.
"Um… I hope I'm not being too forward," Takeo broke the silence, "But are you doing anything tomorrow?"
"Actually, I promised my friend, Ushio that I'd hang out with her tomorrow." I told him. "Why do you ask?"
I could see Takeo looking down and fiddling with his cake. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, his eyes being hidden by his wavy bangs. "I… Uh, I was just going to ask if you wanted to hang out tomorrow."
The coffee I was sipping on ended up going down my windpipe and I coughed and spluttered at those few words. "You seriously want to spend your one day off hanging out with me?" I asked.
"Well, I just thought we could discuss more about the writing club." Takeo raised his head to reveal an adorable blush spreading across his face.
"Well… I'm expecting a call from Ushio to see if she's up for hanging out tomorrow. If you want to stick around until she calls, we could organize for you to come with us. How does that sound?" I asked.
"How do you know she'll call?"
"Trust me, she'll call." I told him with a wink. Takeo simple chuckled at me and continued to eat his cake. "Want some more?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah. That'd be great, thank you."
I stood up from my chair and headed to the fridge to grab some more castella. It only took a few minutes but when I turned back I caught Takeo with his back turned to me, his eyes fixed firmly to the brown leather satchel I kept at the foot of my bed.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Oh, sorry." He apologized with an awkward little grin. "I was just looking around the room. That bag that you have, I think my mom had one just like it."
"Really?" I asked as I placed the castella on the table and went to pick the satchel up. I brought it over to Takeo and put it down on the table. "I'm surprised this caught your eye actually. This is where I keep all of the copies of my stories."
"It is?" Takeo asked with a curious gleam in his eye. "Could I read some?"
I couldn't help but let out a loud groan. "I did say that I don't like people reading my stories, didn't I?"
"Oh, right. Sorry." Takeo apologized as he shuffled awkwardly in his seat. I felt bad, he was so adorable.
"Though, If you promise to keep them to yourself…" I could already see Takeo glancing at me anxiously. I sighed and reluctantly reached into the satchel and pulled out several papers which had all been clipped together. "This is the one I've been working on lately. It's a romance/tragedy. I've been meaning to spellcheck it but since you want to read it so badly, I guess you could do it for me."
"What's it called?" Takeo asked as he grabbed the papers from me as if they were made of gold.
"Actually, I haven't come up with a name for it yet. Maybe you could help me with that." I smirked a little bit as I saw Takeo's face. He seriously looked like he was about to cry.
Suddenly, the phone began to ring. "Perfect timing." I joked as I stood up from the table and went to grab my phone.
"Hello?"
"Ah! Hey Ayumi, its Ushio."
"Oh, hey Ushio. I was wondering when you were going to call." I winked at Takeo who was still clutching the papers, looking a little surprised.
"Yeah, about tomorrow, mom says I can go out but I need to be back before dinner because my grandparents are coming over."
"That sounds okay to me. What do you want to do?"
"Uh… How about we go shopping? Then we could grab lunch somewhere."
"Sounds like a plan to me. Hey, it is okay if I bring a friend?" I asked her, grinning at Takeo who had already begun to skim over the papers.
"That's fine by me. I was actually going to ask you if I could bring a friend of my own."
"Sure. Bring them by my apartment in the morning and we'll all walk to the shopping district together."
"That's perfect! I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Great. Bye." I hung up the phone and turned back to Takeo who was still reading. "You can either come over here in the morning or meet us at the shopping district if you'd like." I told him.
"Oh, right. I guess it'd be easier to meet you at the district if that's okay." He said, looking up from the papers.
"That's fine with me." I said looking out the window at the dark, moonlit street. "It's pretty late, you should probably head home. Your parents are probably worried about you."
Takeo glanced outside and immediately stood up from his chair. "Yeah, you're right. I didn't notice it had gotten so late."
I lead Takeo to the door and waved goodbye to him as he headed down the street. To my surprise, I saw him turn back to me and cup his hands around his mouth before yelling: "THANKS FOR THE CASTELLA AND COFFEE!" and with that, he disappeared down the road and into the night.
I giggled at the door for a few seconds before I went back inside. I took a look around the now empty apartment and let out a long sigh before I cleaned up all of the dishes, slipped into my pajamas and fell face-first onto my bed, dozing off in an instant.
I know that you guys probably wanna see more Ushio, and trust me, it's coming, but I really wanna get you guys to know my character a little better. If there's anything you guys wanna see in this story I'm still completely open to any sort of suggestion.