This chapter is dedicated to the coming out of the OVA. God bless Isshiki, my best canonically possible endgame girl. Also, 400 followers! Woo! Once again, thank you all for all of your interests and supports, I'm definitely not dropping this soon, there is still so many things in my mind. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 14: To Love-Miyu

Friday. Morning. Train Station.

Somewhere in front of the station, I'm leaning against a street light, not the boring, cold, and metallic kind; but the ornate, green-painted, lantern-like kind that you see in a park. It's another sunny day. The bright sunlight is blazing on the pearly streets, a little bit warmer than usual. The spring breeze is blowing leisurely, brings about a touch of coolness. Leaves are humming and cherry blossoms are already blooming. As I watch their thousands of petals taken off by the wind and raining down the streets like confetti, I draw in a long breath of freshly produced oxygen, then exhale slowly, not just to enjoy the nature, but to soothe my racing heart as well. At least that's what I've been trying to do. I've been here for almost fifteen minutes, and the meeting time is approaching zero minute. Mock date or not, a date with the Queen Bee is just nerve-wracking, there is just no way I can stay calm for that. Here I am, internally shaking like an idiot while she probably couldn't care less, and I can only have my delusional self to blame.

I get on the phone to distract myself from overthinking. not bothering to look at the little number on the top right of the screen. For some reasons, a part of me wishes that I can just stay like this forever.

"Hikio~"

That dream doesn't last, but it's okay, because the dream I'm seeing at the moment is on a different level.

Her golden, neatly curled locks shine under the light, almost as if she is the personification of the sun itself. Her glossy greens eyes are big and bright. Her lips are as pink as cherry blossoms. She wears a short white dress with frilly teal accents. A large teal silk belt ties the dress together, just right under her chest. A teal jacket wraps around her exposed collarbones and two white shoulder strings. Half or her pure white thighs and all of her lean calves are showing, accompanied by a pair of white lace up high heel sandals. Accessories are everywhere; white heart chokers, matching earrings and necklace, gold-cladded bracelets. Her slender fingers run across the strap of a leather white purse, and her nails are glistening pink. I can already scent her usual poppy fragrance, but something about it today just makes it fresher and more overwhelming than usual. Every time she blinks, her long eyelashes flutter, almost like they are calling me in.

She greets me with a pompous smile while I stare at her. My throat is dry; I can barely breathe. What the hell? You just look way, too.. beautiful. My body heat is rising and my heart is pumping profusely. This is not good! I feel like she's going to get hit on every six minutes. The pressure increases, my uncontrollable urge to protect her is raging, I can't possibly let anyone get close. At least the place we picked is quite far away from school, the chance that we may come across familiar faces is relatively minimal,

"Sorry I'm a bit late," for an apology, Miyu seems to be quite cheery.

"Y-yeah." I utter.

"Wrong!" her eyebrows slope upward, "You're supposed to say 'No, I'm actually just here early'."

"My bad," I glance away from her and scratch the back of my head, "It's just… you look really good today."

"Huh?!" A light pink shade flashes on her cheeks, "Hm! Don't get too full of yourself! I'm just doing this to put more pressure on you, you know, to see how well you can handle going on a date with a pretty girl."

"I don't exactly recall you as a pretty girl." I blurt out as I'm trying to find a retort. That doesn't come out right.

"Huh?! But you were totally speechless just then!" Miyu sulks.

"What are you talking about? That's just how I am all the time."

"Mo, stupid Hikio! If you want to compliment, do it properly! That's why you're not able to get any girlfriend."

"So what?" I have gone this far, might as well go all the way, "Do you want me to compliment you?"

Those words of mine take her aback. With a still sullen look, she stares down at the ground.

"I don't need it!"

I sigh through my nose.

"Like I said, you look pretty, today."

"Hm!" Miyu flicks her hair, "well, I guess you also don't look half bad."

Her frown turns into a pompous smile as her gaze goes lower and stares me down from top to bottom.

"Not bad, not bad at all!" She sounds like she's gloating at herself instead.

"You don't have to tell me that."

"Remember, it is all because of me. You should at least be thankful."

"I don't remember asking for your help anyway."

"Some attitude you have there, no wonder you're such a Hikimo!"

Heh… out of all people, it's the Queen Bee who lectures me about attitude.

"Whatever, ok!" she sulks. "Anyway, let's just go instead of standing her like this."

I'm walking alongside her but have no idea where we are heading. The warm sunlight caresses on our backs, blending perfectly with the cool spring air. I'm staying a bit closer to her than usual this time. My protective urge is still running strong. I feel like I can't keep my eyes off her for second. A couple times Miyu takes a glance at me as well; some are instantaneous, some are a few seconds of lingering. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't seem to be opposing.

"Where are we heading?" I ask.

"What do you think?" She says absentmindedly.

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you."

"I mean, if this were our first date, where would you take me?"

There it is again, one of her quizzes. I hesitate for a moment, trying to come up with a good answer. Where do people go on a first date? My thought is recalled to my first date with Isshiki.

"I guess.. a movie?"

"EEEhhh!" she makes a buzzer sound. "Listen! Rule number one: never take your first date to a movie," her index finger points upward and toward me as she lectures me like a mother scolding her child. "On a first date, you must be able to talk a lot and find out about each other. You can't talk during a movie, that's why it's so bad."

"Well, technically, this is not exactly our first date." I glance away from her as I say.

"Heh?! I mean.. those times don't count. Beside, just pretend that it is, okay?!"

"Yeah yeah.."

"Anyway. For a first date, you must be able to talk and being able to do something fun together. So for this morning, I will give you an example."

"Like what?"

"We are heading there, you'll see"

As we continue walking, I can sense gazes aiming at us with my heightened loner sense. It shouldn't be a surprise, someone like Miyu right now would definitely attract a couple of looks. But some reasons, I feel like I just saw something quite familiar; something blond, something flaxen, drifting up and down among the sea of people. I can't tell, but I also don't pay much thought to it. Either way, after a couple more minutes, we finally arrive.

"Billiards?"

"That's right! What do you think?"

"I don't really mind." I make a flat remark.

"Jeez, so rotten."

What do you want me to say anyway?!

Come to think of it, my first date with Isshiki also involved an activity, ping pong. And now it is billiards, it seems like she is on something here.

As we walk inside, Miyu asks:

"By the way, have you played before?"

Billiard huh? I wouldn't say that I know nothing about billiards, but it's true that I haven't played a game in real life.

"I got the basics."

I can't tell her that all of my billiards knowledge comes from mangas and light novels.

"I don't play a lot either, so it should be ok."

We pick a table in the corner. The place is spacious but no window. All light comes from a collection of dangling light balls hanging from the ceiling like vines. Some drop lower and right on top of the pool tables, illuminate the light teal surfaces. Across the walls lay various wavy neon strips. The floor is made of dark wood, rugged from being walked on too many times. In our corner, there is a set of two armchairs and one small table. Light, electronic pop music plays faintly in the background.

We decide to play the classic 8-ball. I line up all the balls, but Miyu is the one who has the first shot. With a swift motion, she launches the cue ball across the table, while I stand at the long side of the table watching the balls disperse. One striped ball goes inside the pocket, and with that, I will be the one who plays solid balls. Miyu continues her turn, but with still so many balls on the table, it's difficult to aim for a good shot. The only open ball is right across the table, and as expected, she decides to go with it. It doesn't work out.

It's my turn now. I'm nervous. This is the first time in my life I make a real life pool shot. I know all the rules and techniques from light novels and video games, but being good at something in video games doesn't equate being good at it in real life. If so, then every sports player would just sit down and play video games all day long.

My left thumb makes a cross with my index fingers as my four fingertips touch the table. My cue stick rests against the cross section. Keep my one of my feet straight, keep my body parallel to the stick, keep my right lower arm perpendicular to the ground, hold the stick with only my thumb and index finger. I should be able to swing my lower arm like a pendulum. Stance, set! Now on to aim. The principle is to shot the cue ball so that the cue ball, the object ball, and the pocket line up straight at contact. There are of course other techniques like curve ball where you need to offset your aim, but for now, I should aim for a straight shot. And thus, I thrust the stick. The cue ball is propelled through the clothed surface and hits the object ball. But the ball doesn't go in.

"My turn," Miyu says while meticulously observing the table. Seems like I put my cue ball in a rather difficult position for her. She has no choice put to continue to hit random to disperse the clusters of balls and pray that one of them goes in. None of them goes in.

"I guess to many balls on the tables is difficult, too," Miyu laments.

I nod slightly while stepping to the table. I pick a target, line up my cue stick with the cue ball and the target, steadily drop the stick onto the table, then shot.

It still doesn't go in.

"Mah, I guess it's your first time, anyway."

Hey, you still haven't pocket any balls aside from the first one. I don't think you can judge me here.

Two fail attempts foul my moods for a bit, so I decide to sit down to unwind myself. In front of me is Miyu with her back facing me, getting ready for her shot.

"!"

My eyes are pried opened. As Miyu drops the stick onto the table, her body also bends over! Her already short dress raises up even higher, exposing nearly the whole length of her smooth-looking thighs! The silky fabric caresses her skin, accentuate the shapely curves from her behind. Just millimetres higher and I can see heaven's doors! Mein Gott! I can't look away, I can't help staring that that as-

"Yes!"

Her body jerks up as she cheers; and at that moment, I finally figure out the truth.

Teal lace.

You did put a lot of attention to your outfits, didn't you? Have them all matched and stuff. Maybe this billiards idea isn't so bad after all.

Miyu suddenly turns to me, making me advert my gaze instantly. She doesn't look too pleased.

"Hikio! You just miss my awesome shot just now! Don't just sit there, we haven't even been here long."

"I get it," I stand up, trying to get my vision occupied by the running neon lights on the wall.

This time I stand in front of her instead. Although, I kind of miss sitting on the chair.

But just before I have a chance to calm myself, I got hit by another attack! As Miyu drops lower to aim her shot, I see two other curves rubbing against each other! The while neon light bounces off her skin, so bright that I feel like I'm staring at the sun, or two suns. And just like the sun I don't think I'm supposed to look straight at them.

Nowhere is safe!

After a while, I just kind of the gave up actually aiming for the ghost ball and just started aiming straight at the ball. Strangely, that actually improved my game a little bit. First game ended with my victory, not because I was good, but because Miyu accidentally pocketed the 8 ball before she was allowed to, and that made my instant victory. We continued to the next round, and have been well into the game for a while now. But honestly, I couldn't care less about the game at that moment.

So. Many. Eye candies.

Sitting on the chair, I look through the gaps between my fingers as I'm trying to hide my flustered face, physically and mentally. My body is all heated up and my heart is thrashing around like a hungry monkey. Miyu, you are just way too carefree.

"Your turn," she says.

"Uh.. ok."

I utter some random words as I step up to the table. I only have two balls left and she only has one ball. One of my balls is resting next to the bank on the opposite side and the other, while close to a pocket, is blocked by her ball.

"Did you do that on purpose?" I lament.

"Hm," She makes a smug smile, "who know? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

I leer at her for a bit before coming back to examine the table, trying to gauge the choices I have. I know it, I read about it. No matter how impossible it is, it is my most probable choice.

"Miyu, can I borrow your stick for a moment?"

"Hm? What for?"

"I need a shorter stick."

I extend my long stick toward her as she grabs it firmly with both of her palms and strokes it for a bit before standing it straight up the ground. My fingers run across the smooth surface of her stick, and I can feel the warmness where her hands used to touch. No, this isn't the time to think about that.

I point the stick toward her round object that is blocking my ball. I pull it backward, raise the butt up high and point at the cue ball. This is the moment of truth. If I do it right, I should be able to make this shot.

I thrust. As the tip grazes on the table surface, I see something truly magical. The cue ball leaps into the air, over Miyu's ball, slams into my ball and pockets it cleanly. I did it! Although, it was actually an illegal shot since I scooped the ball instead of just pounding it hard against the table. But I did it, and it's not like she will notice anyway.

"What the hell?!"

My body jerks up as Miyu clings to my shoulders from behind. Her hair grazes my cheek as she looks over, and her body is pressing against my back! Too close, too close, Miyu-san! Your scent is choking me!

"That's amazing!" she gasps.

No, yours are amazing!

"Did you mean to do that?!"

"Well…" I return her the smug look she just gave me. "who knows? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

Miyu turns frozen for a second before she starts giggling and pokes my cheek. I can't help staring at her glistening pink nails.

"Hm! That's definitely a lucky shot. Don't get too cocky!

In the end, I still lost the game. But all was not lost, at least I still had my wicked jump shot to tell my children, and "that" as well, but like hell I would ever tell my children that part.

And thus, our morning date ends. Time for lunch, I guess.

A/N: ok not the tremendous chapter I intended since the chapter is getting long. But rest assured, the genuine tremendous part is coming shortly!