After lunch at a small vegetarian cafe of Oliver's choosing, they wandered around town talking. Oliver dragged a not so unwilling Mai into a bookshop.
They both perused the shelves, happily lost in their own little words. Mai browsed the sci-fi and fantasy section while Oliver ended up in the pop-sci books
"Found anything good?" Oliver asked, a few books resting in the crook of his arm.
"Huh?" Mai mumbled, eyes glued to pages in front of her. "Oh hi, sorry I was just seeing if this was any good."
"Is it?"
"Yeah, I'll have to add it to my list."
Oliver took the book from her and glanced over the blurb.
"A slight departure from what you usually read, isn't it?"
"And how would you know?" Mai challenged.
"Well all of your fanfiction is teen and period romances… Not interplanetary space travel thrillers."
Mai sometimes wondered why her cheeks bothered to drain themselves of blood considering how often Oliver made her blush.
"Just because my fanfiction is of that genre doesn't mean I don't read other things," she defended.
"Of course not," Oliver said, smirking just to irk her. "Come on."
He rested the book he had taken from Mai on top of his own stack and began towards the checkout.
"What are you doing?"
"Buying these books," Oliver said simply.
"But—"
"Mai, my Father gave me fifty quid this morning and told me that if I brought home any change that he would ground me. I have no intentions of getting grounded. Considering the cost of lunch and these books, I will have enough change afterwards to buy us both a drink before we head back. Unless you would prefer for me to be grounded?"
"No, of course not," Mai muttered.
"Good."
"Why did your Dad give you so much anyway?"
"When he takes Luella out for dinner, he would spend more than that easily," Oliver explained. "So I'm sure he did not realise quite how ludicrous the sum was for two teenagers spending the afternoon together."
Mai sighed, jealous that Martin thought nothing of just handed over fifty pounds. One day, she hoped to be financially stable enough to do the same.
Oliver bought the books, took Mai's hand and guided her to the nearest coffee shop.
"Hot chocolate?" he guessed.
"Please," Mai said. "I'll find us somewhere to sit."
Oliver nodded and Mai glanced around the coffee shop. Did she go for the table, where they could stare lovingly at each other? Or the sofa, where she could be closer to Oliver? Such tough decisions.
Mai began towards the free table, thinking that the sofa might be pushing her luck, when someone sat down at it. Scowling, Mai diverted to the sofa and plonked down.
But Oliver made no comment about her choice of seating. He sat down beside Mai and turned the cup of her mug towards her.
"Thanks."
"Well, when I get home I will be inundated with questions about how this all went, so could I have a summary from you to report to my Mother with?"
Mai smiled at Oliver's question.
"Just tell her I had a lovely time and would be more than happy to do it again if you wanted to too," Mai said.
"Good. Maybe I should just give her your phone number, then she can annoy you instead," Oliver mused before taking a sip of his tea.
"I should put her on conference call with Masako then," Mai said, groaning. "She is going to want a blow by blow account of the whole day."
"Perhaps you should write it in fanfiction format as a one shot and send that to them instead."
"Write based on my own life with other people's characters?" Mai questioned in mock horror. "I could never!"
"Yes, the idea to write about Fitzwilliam Darcy hiding chocolate for Elizabeth Bennet as a — What were your words? — 'A poor attempt at flirting' was entirely your own idea?"
Oliver smirked as Mai spluttered beside him.
"How did you even find my fanfic?"
"A magician never reveals tricks."
Mai pouted.
"Spoilsport," Mai said. "You're no magician."
"You think? So how did I get the chocolate in your bag without your noticing?"
"I…" Mai's eyes widened suddenly. "Masako did tell you about my fanfiction, didn't she? That cow! She promised not to tell anyone!"
Oliver chuckled and sipped at his tea.
"Drink up."
Mai lifted the cup to her mouth.
"I'm going to murder her."
"Really?"
"No. But I will be very annoyed with her for at least ten minutes."
Oliver chuckled again.
Mai drank some of her hot chocolate.
"So was drinks and bookshops amongst Masako and Gene's suggestions?"
"Gene suggested keeping it casual, wandering around and getting drinks so as to 'not put pressure on the situation'," Oliver said. "But I thought of going to the bookshop all by myself."
Mai giggled.
"I can't believe some of their suggestions," she muttered.
"Yes, they had a lot of fun with those."
Mai finished her drink and leant back on the sofa.
"Thank you, for today," she said. "It's been nice to just hang out."
"Agreed."
Oliver walked Mai back to the boarding house and handed over her book.
"I expect to see some fanfiction of it soon," he teased.
"I'll try my best."
They looked at each for a whole minute without speaking.
"Well, this is awkward," Mai mumbled, looking away.
"I was trying to decide something," Oliver said quietly.
"Hmm?"
Mai looked back, hopeful.
"Our previous foray into kissing lead me to believe the action was not entirely unpleasant."
"That's good."
"But as a scientist I would like a repeat."
Mai grinned at his dorky excuse.
"Such a romantic."
"I try."
Oliver bent down and kissed Mai gently on the lips.
"I like kissing you," Mai murmured.
"Good."
And he kissed her again.
Mai danced back to her room singing Disney songs to herself. On her way, she walked straight into John, who looked like he hadn't been back long himself. Mai twirled him around and continued on her way, oblivious to his gentle laughter.
She placed her new book on her desk, took of her coat and hung it up, then picked up her phone and called Masako. She gave a hasty account of her day before rushing down to dinner.
Yasuhara avoided her at dinner, but Mai was too happy to care at that moment.
Once full, Mai returned to her room and settled onto her bed to start reading her new book when her phone rang.
Twins — home is calling you! Accept or reject?
Mai had a bad feeling she knew exactly who it was going to be.
"Hello?" she said tentatively.
"Mai, it's Luella, but Gene and Martin are here too. You're on speaker phone. Noll is being such a bore. He won't tell us anything, but he assured us that you would be more than willing to!"
Mai groaned.
"Of course I will…"
"I can't believe he did that to you," Masako said the next day as they walked to the canteen for lunch.
"One day, he'll go too far and I'll actually murder him," Mai joked.
"And I will be there to help you hide the body."
"What are best friends for?"
They collected their food and started towards their usual table when Mai remembered.
"I promised to sit with Yasuhara today," she said.
"Huh? But the twins were going to sit with us today," Masako whined. "You're ditching us?"
"I promised him," Mai said. "Because I couldn't hang out with him yesterday. He was really down on Saturday too, I felt bad."
Masako gave her a sympathetic look.
"Twins won't be happy."
"I can't make everyone happy," Mai complained.
"I know, I'm sorry. I'll tell them where you are."
"Thanks."
Masako indicated with her head that someone was behind Mai.
Mai turned and spotted Yasuhara.
"See you later," she added to Masako, then walked over to Yasuhara.
"Hey," he said. "What do you want?"
"I promised to sit with you, didn't I?"
"I would have thought you'd be too busy snogging that idiot."
Mai pursed her lips.
"Do you want me to sit with you or not?"
"If you want."
Mai rolled her eyes, but followed after Yasuhara to a free table. She sat with her back to where she knew the twins and Masako would be sitting. She did not want to see the glares that she could feel on her back.
"Did you have fun yesterday?"
"Yes, I did," Mai replied. "What did you get up to?"
"Nothing really."
"Really?"
"Did some reading…"
"Anything good?" Mai asked.
"Mostly just nasty internet forums."
"Why were you reading nasty internet forums?"
Yasuhara shrugged.
"Trying to get the answer to a question and the internet is a dark, dark place…"
Mai thought about all the horrible things she had seen promoted in fanfiction.
"Yeah, it can be," she agreed. "People hide behind anonymity a lot."
Yasuhara hummed and returned to his food.
Mai honestly expected the backlash from her lunchtime escapades to be a lot worse. Oliver had not deigned to message her and Masako had been impartial to the whole thing from the start.
But Eugene had texted her.
Eugene: I know it's none of my business, but please don't get too friendly with him. I don't want him to hurt you too. Don't be alone with him at all, ever! Please Mai, promise me you won't…
Mai thought his text came across with somewhat pleading tone.
Mai: I am not taking sides, Gene. If he needs my help I will give it to him! Just like if you asked for it, I would give it to you too.
Eugene: Then help me by staying away.
Mai: I can't do that. He's my friend too.
Eugene did not reply after that. Mai could not help but think that it was slightly odd. Two weeks ago, Eugene had been wanting to talk to Yasuhara and try and sort it out. Now he was warning her away from him?
What had changed?
Growling in frustration, Mai locked her phone and refused to look at it for the rest of the evening.
Only her friends were not finished.
The following day, Oliver cornered her in a corridor and repeated the same advice. Mai repeated her answer and stalked off to Physics.
"Have you considered that maybe you should listen?" Masako asked as the class entered.
"Oh not you as well," Mai huffed. "I can't just ignore a friend who is obviously hurting!"
"But the way the twins talk about him, it's like he's done something really bad…"
"Yeah, but neither of them will say what? Am I just supposed to take their word because I've known them longer?" Mai questioned, her voice laced with anger.
"Do you really think they are lying?"
"No, but I have no reason to think Yasuhara is either. I am not picking sides."
Masako looked like she wanted to argue, but the teacher called the class to order, so she let the topic drop.
On Thursday night, Mai was interrupted from her English homework by her phone ringing.
Masako is calling you! Accept or reject?
Mai accepted the call and immediately held the phone away from her ear.
"Mai! You'll never guess what?"
"What?"
"They accepted me!" Masako squealed.
"Oh wow! Masako, that's amazing!"
"Because I'm new, they didn't want to give me a major part. But I am understudying one of the main characters and then have my own smaller part!"
"That's…" Mai was speechless.
"I know! I can't believe it. I've been pinching myself ever since I got the call!"
"When do you start?"
"After Christmas, every weekend until we perform at Easter."
"Let me know when tickets are on sale," Mai said. "I will be first in line!"
"I don't know if I get free tickets, but if I do, you will be the first person after my parents!"
"You're the best!"
"I know," Masako said, still giggling.
Mai sank back in her chair, glad something good had happened this week.
Author's note: Well. You all know what's gonna happen next chapter right? Enjoy this while it lasted because... Yeah...
Please review!