Chapter 10

When Ami left the building she had to stop and catch her breath. She leaned against a wall as she took slow and deliberate breaths, clutching the envelope she received to her bust. She could feel her heart still pounding from disbelief and excitement. She was still having the hardest time wrapping her head around the fact that she had managed to place in the top three. She let out a sigh as she then looked at her phone when she felt it vibrate in her pocket.

Looking down, she smiled brightly with a blush when she saw that Ren had sent her a text. 'Aoi-me, how would you like to have dinner with me tonight? As a way to celebrate.' As she read the text she smiled brightly. A dinner date…with Jinguuji-san? That sounded almost too good to be true. She started to reply when she thought back to what he had said earlier.

If she went on this date with him…would it be a distraction? She didn't want to be a distraction to him at all…and why did he send Hijirikawa-san away before talking to her? Was she just some kind of secret he wanted to keep from getting out?

Ami shook her head and slapped her cheeks. No, she needed to stop thinking like that. It couldn't have been that bad….it shouldn't be that bad! He's the one that made all of the advances so far…so…it wouldn't be wrong of her for accepting his date. She nibbled on her bottom lip as she started at the empty reply box on her phone. "Okay…snap out of this," she told herself as she started to reply to him.

'I would love to. : 3' she replied.

Ren was in the studio, going over some of the recorded tracks with Haruka and Masato when his phone buzzed. He looked down at it and chuckled under his breath. She was still adorable, he thought as he sent his reply.

'I'll pick you up at your place around 7 then. See you my little Aoi-me.'

Haruka blinked and looked over at Ren when she saw that he had stopped paying attention to the music. "J-Jinguuji-san?" Haruka peeped.

Ren blinked and turned to Haruka, leaning in close to her. "Yes, my little lamb?" he asked.

"Wh-Who were you texting? Y-You should really be paying attention to the music," she stammered out. No matter how much he would flirt with her, it still made her uncomfortable.

Ren blinked and gave an apologetic chuckle, blushing slightly as he scratched the back of his head. "Heh, sorry about that, I was just…handling something." He looked over his shoulder when he heard Masato scoff. "What was that Masa-chan?" Ren asked.

Masato looked at Ren and rolled his eyes. "You could at least wait until we're done for the day before you continue to string that poor girl along." Masato huffed, causing Ren to growl.

"Excuse me? I'm not stringing anyone along Masa-chan," Ren snapped.

"I highly doubt that," Masato sighed as he went back to his work. Ren glared at the back of Masato's head, before deciding to bite his tongue.

"So this is what it's like to see you jealous, Masa-chan~" Ren cooed in an obvious attempt to redirect the tension in the room.

Ren's statement caused Masato to spit out his drink and then look at Ren incredulously. "J-Jealous? Why would I be jealous of a shameless womanizer like you?" Masato demanded, causing Ren to just smirk.

"Probably because I can at least get a woman."

"She's more like a little girl…"

"She's innocent," Ren defended. He wrapped his arm around Haruka's shoulder and smiled. "If you haven't noticed, I like them when they're innocent." He said as he made a motion to Haruka, causing the young composer to blush.

Haruka pushed him off, her face beet red. "J-Jinguuji-san!" she exclaimed, completely flustered by his actions. Ren chuckled as he ran his hand through his hair. She sighed as she turned back to their work. "I-I…really hope Jinguuji-san finds someone of his own soon," she muttered under her breath, at least she thought she did. Ren overheard what she said but didn't reply to her. He turned back to focus on his music.

When Ami received Ren's text, she was on cloud nine. She rushed back to the housing development where she and the other girls lived and started to rummage through her closet to find something to wear. She muttered under her breath as she kept switching the clothes around on her couch. There had to be something that she could wear for her date with Jinguuji-san. Her date…just thinking of it like that was bittersweet. Of course she would think of it as a date, but would he? She was pretty damn sure that he had other women he could have chosen from, so why her? She was just a half-Japanese, half-Black girl that was a little on the plus-size side. She was lucky to have any friends at all…

Ami bit her bottom lip as memories of her past came back. Before they could cloud her mind a loud knock was on the door. Ami answered it, her look and suite disheveled. "Y-Yes?" she asked. In her door stood Kanae and the rest of her friends

"Ami-girl, what happened to you?" One of her friends asked as the group entered her suite.

"Yeah, it look like a tornado ran through it." Her other friend chimed in.

"Heh…sorry, I'm trying to find an outfit, Chiyo," Ami explained.

"An outfit? For what?" Chiyo asked.

"I-I got asked out on a date," Ami explained. She looked up as all of her friends stared at her wide-eyed. "Wh-What?" she asked.

"You finally got asked on a date?! Congrats!" Chiyo squealed as she wrapped her arms around Ami's neck, squishing the poor girl into her. Ami gave an embarrassed laugh as she patted her on the shoulder.

"Th-Thank you. Now can you let me go? I need to get dressed," Ami smiled nervously.

"When is your 'date' supposed to get here?" Kanae asked very shortly, causing collective stares and sighs from the group.

"He said he's going to pick me up at 7." Ami answered with a slight frown. Kanae was so rude…it had to be because of the results from the contest. She sighed mentally as she bit her bottom lip, Kanae probably hated her guts right now.

"Well, we don't have much time to spare!" Chiyo said with a grin as she placed her hands on Ami's shoulders. "We have three hours to go and get you ready for your date!" She spun Ami around before snapping her fingers. "Sanako, go and get my makeup bag from our room!"

Sanako nodded before taking off down the hall. When she left, Chiyo pushed Ami down the hall of her suite to her bedroom.

"Chiyo! H-Hey, stop pushing me!" Ami exclaimed as she pushed back against Chiyo's arms. Damn her friend was strong.

Kanae followed behind them quietly, biting her bottom lip as she seethed on the inside. First Ami makes it to the finals of the contest…next she gets a date with who had to be "Jinguuji Ren."

Wasn't this some shit…?