"Aki-chi!" Aki nearly fell down when she was attacked with a hug. She stumbled back and struggled to keep her balance, but eventually managed it.
"Kasumi, be careful," Aki grumbled while her best fried snuggled into her chest.
"Aki, I wish you could have gone to the dance with me! It was fun!" Kasumi said, her voice muffled by Aki's chest.
"Well, I had another dance to go to."
"I know, I know. How'd that go, by the way?"
"Fine, now get your face out of my chest."
Kasumi stepped back and smiled up at Aki.
"Better?" she asked.
"Better," Aki said with a nod.
Kasumi was a tiny thing compared to Aki, and probably every other girl in their neighborhood. While Aki was about five feet and seven inches, Kasumi was four feet and eleven inches. What she lacked in height she made up in energy, and looks. She was adorable even without make-up. She had big brown eyes (really helped out when she was doing puppy dog eyes), nearly white skin, a button nose, a cute round face (almost like a baby's), and her eyebrows were a nice in-between of thick and thin. Her long hair was naturally dark brown, but she'd had it dyed to it was a light chestnut color, and it was naturally straight but she often curled the ends so they made big, thick curls. She had a childish look, but not as much as Honey, and there was a hint of maturity under all the cute. But it was pretty well masked by how cute she was, and she wanted it to be that way.
"You didn't go home and change, huh?" Aki asked, looking at Kasumi's outfit. She was wearing a short pink dress with white hearts dotting the skirt, a pink headband, white flats, and a bunch of jewelery that had a heart somewhere on it.
Kasumi shook her head, making her extra curly curls bounce. "Nope. I mean, I went home, but only to get my things. Mom had them ready for me." She gestured to the duffel bag across her shoulder and the plastic bags in her hand. The plastic bags looked like they were being weighed down by an excessive amount of sweets.
"That's a lot..." Aki muttered, peering into the bags.
"Well, we're going to drown ourselves in sweet sorrow, aren't we?" Kasumi replied with a laugh. "By the way, where's Michiko? She's joining us, right?"
"No actually. Auntie has a date." Lucky.
"What? Really?! With who?"
"Jin." Michiko appeared behind Aki, finishing putting on her last earring. She was wearing a simple floor-length red dress that hugged her figure and had red lipstick, black eyeliner, and thick black mascara on. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun.
"Really?! You finally said yes?"
"Yes, I finally said yes."
"And about time, too," Aki commented. "That crazy guy's been going after you for three years!"
"I know, I know, he kept going on about that when I said yes," Michiko said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I think it's only been two."
"The first time he asked you was in January. It's been three, Auntie."
"But he had some girlfriends during that time, right?" Kasumi said. "Didn't he have a girlfriend last year?"
"Well, he had one in the first year I think to make me jealous – I'm not joking, either, or making it seem like it's all centered around me," she added when Aki raised her eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure that's what he told me after they ended it...it was her choice, by the way, and he actually really liked her in the end. Then he had another girlfriend for a week, then a steady girlfriend last year for a few months. That's all I can remember, though."
"He's finally got his dream girl, huh?" Kasumi said.
"I don't know if I'm his dream girl..."
Aki rolled her eyes. "Auntie, he's been asking you out for three years. I think you're his dream girl."
"I think that's exaggerating."
At that moment the doorbell rang. Kasumi turned and opened it, revealing Jin who was wearing a tuxedo. Aki had to hide a smile. He looked pretty silly and strange compared to his normal appearance. He'd even tamed his hair.
"Jin!" Kasumi exclaimed.
"Kasu-chan!" Jin said, grinning at the girl. He reached out a hand and rubbed her head. "Nice to see you."
"Hey! I spent a lot of time doing my hair!" Kasumi said, pushing his hand away and smoothing out her hair.
"You only curled the ends," Aki pointed out. "And the strand of hair in front of your face."
"But I spent time brushing back my hair and making it look perfect."
"Michiko!" Jin said, spotting the woman. He walked up to her and bowed a little, holding out a vibrant red rose. "Got this for you. A beauty for a beauty, although you're much, much more beautiful than this rose."
"I would hope so," Michiko said with a small laugh. Jin straightened up and she took the rose, then kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Jin. I'm gonna go put this in a vase before I forget, alright?"
"Alright." He and the teenagers watched Michiko leave, then turned to each other. Jin punched the air while the girls gave him thumbs up.
"Heck yeah! Already got a kiss!" he said.
"Good job," Aki said.
"A kiss this early!" Kasumi said, clapping her hands and smiling. "That's good, really good!"
"But it's not like a kiss on the lips," Aki added. Kasumi stopped clapping and shook her head.
"Nope, not at all like that."
"Psh, how would you two know? You haven't even had your first kisses yet," Jin said, rolling his eyes.
Kasumi frowned and stuck her tongue out at him. "Nyeh!"
"I might not have had a real kiss yet, but I'm sure it's not like kisses on the cheek," Aki said.
Michiko came back a second later and Jin quickly held his arm out to her. "Shall we?"
"We shall," she said, accepting his arm. "Tomi-chan, Kasu-chan, you two be good, alright? Don't burn the house down, don't do or look at anything inappropriate, don't drink any alcohol or do drugs, and don't do other things a responsible guardian would tell you not to do, okay?"
"Got it," the girls chorused. "Bye! Have fun on your date!"
"Bye!" Jin and Michiko said before walking out of the house.
"Did you know that you look more radiant than the sun?" Jin said.
"Oh, don't bring that one up again," Michiko muttered.
"That deserves a kiss!" Aki called. Her aunt laughed and shook her head.
"It does!" Kasumi agreed.
"Goodbye, you two!"
"I think it deserves a kiss," Jin muttered.
Aki smiled at the two, then pulled Kasumi inside and closed the door, locking it. "Okay, you go get changed and I'll turn on the TV. Oh, TV or movie? Or cartoon?"
"I wanna watch...I Give My First Love to You."
"Sure thing, Kasu." She wanted to start off with a sad movie? Okay, then...
"Yay! Thanks, Aki-chi!" With that Kasumi skipped off to Aki's room to change.
Aki stepped into the living room and grabbed her book full of dvds. She flipped a couple pages until she finally found the disk, then popped it into the dvd player.
"Hurry up, Kasumi!" she called, sitting with her back against the couch.
"Hold on, hold on!" There was a long silence. Finally she heard Kasumi walking down the hallway, probably swinging the plastic bags. She appeared in the living room, wearing a short white nightgown and fuzzy pink pants with white polka dots on them. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, tied with a white ribbon. She had wiped off all her make-up, too.
Kasumi sat down next to Aki and immediately dumped out the contents of the plastic bags. It was like a waterfall of sweets.
"We're going to get cavities after tonight," Aki said.
"That's the plan, isn't it?"
"I guess so."
Aki played the movie, but they quickly stopped paying attention and focused more on the sweets and talking about the dances.
"I danced with a lot of guys," Kasumi said after finishing off her truffle. "Nobuo mostly 'cause he 'wanted to make the other guys jealous' or something. I wish he wouldn't do that, though. I'm going to end up single forever if he keeps that up."
"Maybe he likes you, Kasu," Aki said, popping a grape hi-chew into her mouth.
"Don't start that up again! Anyway, he's got a boyfriend as you know."
"He said they aren't official."
"They might as well be. Whenever he wasn't dancing with me he was dancing with that guy."
"Ooh, 'that guy'. Someone sounds jealous."
"I'm not jealous! Even if I am, it's only because Nobu has a boyfriend and I don't," she said with a pout on her face. "It's no fair. Am I not cute enough? Or maybe I'm too cute?"
"You're very cute, Kasumi. If anything, you'd be too cute."
"Maybe boys just don't like me..."
"Of course they do, idiot."
"Then how come they don't ask me out, huh? I'm not good enough, right? Oh, I'll never get a boyfriend! I'll be single forever! An old, single lady. I'll become a shut-in!"
Aki stuffed a small chocolate cake into Kasumi's mouth. "Shut up, Kasumi. Of course you're going to get a boyfriend. You're too cute to not have one. I just think all the guys are nervous. And maybe you should try dating Nobuo like I've been telling you to."
"But he's got a boyfriend!"
"Well not now of course."
"And, anyway, he's...Nobuo."
"He's cute."
"Yeah, but he's my childhood friend."
"Still."
"Anyway, he's never made an attempt to date me, so why should I make an attempt to date him? The guy's supposed to make the first move, aren't they?...Let's not talk about me. How about you? What was the dance like?"
"They had a ballroom."
"What?!"
"Yeah, no gym, though I'm sure it wouldn't be too much different if it were held in the gym."
"Wow! I've never heard of a school having a ballroom."
"I don't think they're supposed to."
"Was it big?"
"Duh."
"How big?"
"Real big."
Kasumi rolled her eyes. "Nevermind. Did you dance with all the guys?"
"No, of course not. There are too many of them, and some of them didn't even want to dance."
"Wha – no, that's not what I meant! I was talking about those host club guys! Did you dance with them?"
"Oh, yeah, all of them."
"Really? What was it like? Was it romantic?"
"No, of course not. I'm pretty sure none of us like each other in that sense."
"Aw, boo. Well, was it fun at least?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I pretty much just swung Honey-senpai around. Kyoya-senpai dipped me one time –" Cue a gasp from Kasumi. "And Mori-senpai let me stand on his feet while he pretty much danced for both of us –" Gasp. "Tamaki-senpai called me a princess –" Gasp! "Hikaru and I argued – playfully argued – and me and Kaoru made funny faces at each other."
"Cute!" Kasumi squealed. "You're all so cute together! I don't know who to ship!"
Aki sighed. Kasumi was a lot like Michiko in a way. "How about you don't ship me with anyone?"
"No way. You ship me with Nobuo, so I get to ship you with one of the hosts."
"What if I don't even like any of them like that? Because I don't."
"I don't even like Nobuo romantically."
Aki gave another sigh and dropped the subject. Kasumi was going to ship her with someone anyways, whether she wanted her to or not.
"Oh, oh, Aki, do you have any pictures?" Kasumi asked, turning to her.
"Yeah, actually. On my phone, wherever that is." Aki felt around on the floor for her phone, then turned to the couch for it. She eventually found it between the seat cushions.
"Okay, here," she said, going to the picture app. She pressed on the first picture of the day which was of her in the short dress.
"That dress is so cute! I wish I could wear it! It's better than the dress I was wearing today, that's for sure."
Aki shook her head. "No way, your dress looked cute. And it looked a lot more comfortable than mine was."
"It's still really cute, though."
"Yeah, it's still really cute."
She flipped through two more pictures of the dress for the host club, then got to the dress for the dance.
"Ooh, that's pretty," Kasumi said, leaning towards the phone. Aki pushed her head back.
"Don't lean in too far, you'll screw up your eyes," she muttered.
"My eyes are fine! And glasses are cute."
"Blurry vision isn't."
"Oh, how would you know? Your vision's fine."
"I just know."
"Okay, back to the dress! That's really pretty. I want it.".
"Then go commission Mrs. Hitachiin for it, but you probably won't be able to afford it."
"I know..."
"Where would you even wear it to?"
"Dances, of course."
"Well, yeah, but how many dances can you go to?"
"Not a lot." Kasumi stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry. "I guess I can't ever get it. It's too expensive and I have no good reasons to wear it to anything."
"It's alright," Aki said, patting her friend's back. "You have a bunch more dresses that are cuter than this one, and you can wear them pretty much anywhere. And I'm sure that combined they're worth more than this dress."
"I doubt it. None of them were made by Yuzuha Hitachiin."
"I doubt that they aren't more than Mrs. Hitachiin's dress." Aki closed her phone and tossed it back on the couch. "Okay, no more talk of dresses or shipping or dances! Let's focus on the movie before we miss our chance to cry at all the sad parts."
Kasumi grinned and nodded. "Alright!"
So they shut up and watched the movie. In no time Kasumi was already crying. It took Aki a while, but she ended up crying anyway, and by the end of the movie they were both crying buckets of tears and the knees of Aki's pants were stained with tears.
"Poor Takuma!" Kasumi blubbered. "Poor Mayu! Why couldn't they have a happy ending?"
Aki rubbed Kasumi's back. "Calm down Kasu," she said, wiping her own eyes.
Kasumi didn't listen or continued to go on about the movie, but she was stuttering and mumbling so much that Aki couldn't even make out what she was trying to say. Eventually, after Aki had put a box of tissues in front of her, Kasumi calmed down.
"You always cry more than you should during these movies," Aki said with a sigh, cleaning up Kasumi's face.
"More than I should? I think I cry a good amount!" Kasumi retorted. "More than I should would be like crying so much that I can't breathe! That's too much for a movie."
"Even still...Let's watch something different. Something happier."
"Love For Beginners?"
"Fine." To be honest, she was tired of love already (she'd heard enough about it during her time with the hosts today), but what was one more movie?
Aki got up and replaced the first disk with the second, then left to the kitchen. "I'm making popcorn!" she called to Kasumi as she pulled out a bag. "Want some, Kasu?"
"No thanks. There are still a lot of sweets."
"Okay, but don't go asking for my popcorn."
She stuck the bag in the microwave and waited while the kernels popped. After it was ready she put it all in a bowl and salted it more than a normal person would, then went back to the living room. Kasumi pressed play on the remote.
The rest of the night was spent pretty much the same. They watched an animated movie, then switched to variety shows, ate snacks, Aki comforted Kasumi when she'd cry over a movie or go on about how she hated being single, and talk. It was fun to do this since they hadn't in a while. Lately they hadn't hung out much, and Aki had to skip out on running on the weekends to finish up homework. Sometimes the damn club was exhausting so she'd end up falling asleep when she got home and putting off her homework until the weekend, and then she was so tired of social interaction that she didn't want to be around anyone during her breaks. This time it was different. She'd finished all her homework, made sure she had nothing to do over the weekend, and now it was all dedicated to her best friend.
Eventually the girls got tired, but they tried their best to stay up. Whoever fell asleep first got a mustache drawn on their face, that was the rule they'd decided on when they were kids. Aki was determined to fall asleep after drawing a mustache on Kasumi's face, but they both ended up falling asleep around the same time. When Michiko returned home she found Kasumi sleeping peacefully on one of the couches and Aki sleeping with her head in the popcorn bowl.