Sorry this chapter is not that good; you can totally see where I lost the will to keep writing.

~The 68th day~

Like Takane had said before, she was really dreading this date. Now that she thought about it, should she even call it that? No, no, this was a scheme. A scheme formulated by those two foreigners, and it pissed her off that she got dragged into it. They could both just go die.

Right now she was waiting outside. She was sitting on a bench located near the park-ish area of a shopping center, her foot tapping impatiently on the hard sidewalk. Takane had only been waiting ten minutes, but she really hated waiting in general.

Sitting on the bench, Takane shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She really wished she'd brought a jacket, but when she'd been about to leave it hadn't occurred to her that she'd have to wait real long outside for everyone else.

Takane didn't really take much care in what she wore, since she was usually either in her school uniform or in her pajamas 99.9% of the time. She found out while going through her drawers that she had a lot more clothes than she had originally thought and made a mental note to clean some of it out later. But since this was going to be a 'date' she had decided it would be better not to come in her school uniform and seem like a complete idiot. So, after rummaging tirelessly, she settled for a light blue, long sleeve shirt and a black skirt with her leggings. It wasn't anything fancy, she didn't own anything fancy, but at least it made her look nice. Then misfortunes started happening as she went to fix her pigtails one of the bands snapped and she was forced to tie her hair into a ponytail instead because she was unable to find another band.

So much for that, Takane thought bitterly as she continued to tremble. She would have called or texted Haruka, but for some reason she couldn't seem to make the effort of pulling her phone out of her small little purse she carried. She would have called Hannah to yell at her for making such a stupid arrangement of a date, but she didn't have the girl's phone number.

"Hey! Hey, Takane." Takane turned at the sound of someone calling her name. When she did she saw Hannah running over to her. "Sorry if we kept you waiting."

Takane breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Hannah wasn't dressed any fancier than she was. She had a dark purple blouse, some jeans, and a grey jacket decorated with a million pink Hello Kitty designs.

"About time." Takane huffed and got up from the bench. Though Takane was still mad at Hannah, the coldness she felt was surpassing that emotion at the moment. She tried to control the shiver than went down her spine, but was unable to.

"Ah, Takane are you cold?" Hannah asked. Before Takane could answer the other girl had already started taking off her own jacket and handing it to her.

"No, no, I couldn't." Takane protested, partly from consideration and the other part from not wanting to feel ridiculous in a jacket like that. She wasn't five years old.

"Oh stop with the tough act; just take the damn jacket Takane." Hannah said rolling her eyes. Takane blinked somewhat in surprise. She didn't think Hannah could be anything but annoying, much less ever get irritated. Grudgingly Takane took the jacket and Hannah grinned triumphantly as she put it on, mumbling 'Thank you' while doing it. "Better?"

Takane frowned. "Yeah. Whatever." she mumbled. "Where's everybody else?"

Hannah swayed back and forth on her heels with her hands behind her back. She seemed rather hyper. "Hmm? If by everyone else you mean Javier and Haruka? Well Javier and I split up and he went to go get Haruka, and I came here because I didn't want you to get lonely, but they should be here in a few minutes." she said and smiled innocently.

Takane crossed her arms, glaring at the curly haired girl who seemed like she was enjoying herself a bit too much. "I hope you know that I'm never going to forgive you."

Hannah stopped her bouncing and looked at Takane. "Oh Takane, you're over exaggerating. I'm trying to help you." she said and waved her hand at the girl.

Takane's jaw tightened and her fists clenched. "Help. Help. By making my life a living hell? Oh yeah, I feel so relieved."

"Sarcasm isn't a virtue, Takane." Hannah pointed out to the seething girl.

Takane was about to retort when Javier's voice cut her off, "Hey guys~"

Both girls turned, one smiling and waving and the other now trying to swallow her rage.

Takane tried to wipe the bitter look on her face. Everyone but her seemed like they were enjoying herself, and she knew that if she didn't want Haruka suspect anything she'd better suck it up as best she could and act like she was happy. Okay maybe not happy, but at least to a certain degree of interest.

"That's an interesting hairstyle Takane." Takane was snapped back from her thoughts at Javier's comment about her hair.

She had to suppress the look of pure hatred her instinct told her to throw at the boy, but instead she suppressed her mouth into a hard line, but still holding her eyes in a glare. "Yeah, my hair tie snapped so I had to settle for one." she said in monotone.

"It looks nice Takane." Haruka said, agreeing with Javier while Hannah also nodded her head in agreement.

Takane blushed slightly, feeling self conscious with everyone's eyes on her. "Yeah, yeah, thanks. So, where are we going?" she asked, not that she really cared, but it was an attempt to get all eyes off her.

"Oh, you guys wanna go now?" Hannah asked.

"S-sure." Takane said and Haruka nodded in agreement.

"Alright, then follow us." Javier said and both he and Hannah started off side by side, leaving both Takane and Haruka behind them.

"Uh, we should follow them right?" Haruka said looking at Takane.

She sighed, shoulders drooping, "Apparently so." She pulled the jacket tighter around her before looking at Haruka. It seemed no one had overdressed for this occasion, and to that Takane was glad. Haruka still looked like he always did with the same day dreamy expression on his face. He wore a green pullover with a white shirt underneath and black slacks somewhat covering his shoes. Yeah he still looked the same. And the fact that there was something constant made Takane's head ache a little less.

As they walked a little farther behind Hannah and Javier, Takane noticed Haruka looking at her. "What?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." he said turning away and flushing slightly in embarrassment.

"Tell me." she pressed.

He was avoiding eye contact with her. "It's just... I think you're jacket is cute." Haruka said.

Takane's ears grew red, and it was clearly shown now that her hair was tied back. Immediately she opened her mouth to protest. "It's not my…" but when Hannah and Javier looked back at her she stopped. "Never mind."

Hannah and Javier decided they were going to the arcade ("Ayano-chan said you like videogames, right Takane?").

Takane didn't know what to do. It was incredibly noisy and crowded with people in there, but what should they expect. It was an arcade after all. And somehow it ended up where the only two games they could play was either Street Fighter 4 or Mortal Kombat, neither which sounded very appealing to Takane. Well, it was either that or Dance Dance Revolution, and there was no way she was playing that. So it was settled on Mortal Kombat.

It ended up with her fighting against Hannah and Haruka against Javier. Then Haruka suggested that the winners between the four should battle each other. Unexpectedly, Takane found herself having fun. It was Kind of amusing when Hannah would have to look away from the fatality.

Haruka was fumbling with controls at first, but still laughed it off when it looked like Javier was going to beat him. Surprisingly though, Haruka managed to win against Javier in the last round, leaving him to battle Takane. But judging by the looks on both Hannah and Javier's faces, she had a feeling they'd done this on purpose.

Poor Haruka didn't stand a chance.

"Wow, this game is really bloody." Haruka laughed nervously, as Takane's character ripped his character's head off.

Takane's face darkened in color. "Y-yeah I guess so."

It was a little after that, when Haruka tried as subtly as he could to suggest the prospect of food and also when Hannah had flinched about a thousand times at the fatalities that their little group decided to go eat.

"You guys can get anything you want." said Javier as he sat down beside Hannah.

"You're paying for it?" Takane asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh? No. Hannah is." he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Takane just rolled her eyes.

"Gee, thanks, you're so considerate." Hannah said.

"I'm sorry, but I need my money for more important things."

The atmosphere wasn't as awkward as Takane thought it might have been. Even when she was forced to sit next to Haruka, it wasn't as embarrassing as she had feared. There was silence when the food came, and it seemed that everyone was stuffing their faces except for her as she just picked at her food.

Right in the middle of eating Javier got up. "I'll be right back." he said and then left. Takane was the only one who really seemed to notice, since Haruka was still eating and Hannah acted as if nothing had changed. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, Takane thought to herself.

But a few minutes later, after Javier still hadn't gotten back, Hannah then stood up. "I'll be right back too." she said and left just like Javier had before. Takane looked at Haruka, but he still paid no attention.

…

"They ditched us. They fucking ditched us!"

Haruka looked over at Takane. He had seen her upset before, but this might have been a record on how red her face turned in rage. "Uh… Takane are you okay?" he risked asking the girl.

She closed her eyes and gave a dry smile. "Just peachy." she said tersely, "Looks like we'll be paying for this after all."

"No we don't." Haruka said reaching into his pocket, "Hannah gave me her money to hold onto. She said she was too shy to pay for it herself, so I offered to."

Takane looked at him in disbelief. "You idiot! You believed her?" she asked incredulously.

Haruka shrugged. "I had no reason not to."

"Fine, fine, can you just pay so we can go."

"Takane, are you mad at me?" Haruka felt the need to ask when he saw the seething expression on her face as they walked out.

Takane's look of anger was replaced with surprise as she looked at him. "What? No, I'm not mad at you. Why would you think that?" she asked.

"You don't seem very happy, and I was wondering if it was because you didn't have a good time."

Her hands were warm and Haruka wouldn't have known if she hadn't taken his hand in hers. It felt weird. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, it was just weird and something he didn't expect Takane to do.

"No, no, it was fun. I did have fun." she assured, blinking rapidly and trying very hard not to look embarrassed.

All in all, it seemed like a pretty good 'date'.