Author's Note: Spot the reference!

"That was so stupid."

"Was it? I couldn't really hear over you complaining the whole movie."

"Did not! It's critiquing. Not that it's a loss." Miu grumbled. "I can't believe I spent money on that."

Shinsou looked at her, a few kernels of popcorn halfway to his mouth. "You snuck in pretty much everything we brought, excluding the popcorn."

"Sh! Hitoshi, do you want everyone to hear?"

"No one cares."

The other patrons, some of who were voicing similar opinions to the movie like Miu's, did in fact not stop to reprimand her for her minor rule breaking. Before they entered the theater and purchased tickets, Miu had taken the time to stop by a few snack places in the mall. Two boxes of chocolate covered peanuts, two personal sized bottles of sodas, and a pack of beef jerky were smuggled inside the theater. Shinsou insisted on paying for the large popcorn (Miu refused to not include it) and the tickets to make things about even.

Shinsou himself really wasn't hung up on counting up the costs; although, that could have been due to being more preoccupied with keeping track of how many times Miu's hand brushed his when they both reached for popcorn when he wasn't being mindful of their shoulders solidly connecting every time Miu shifted in her seat. Now that Shinsou really thought about it, he wouldn't have been able to pay too much attention to the actual movie, especially not with Miu leaning in every so often to make a joke or whisper a criticism in his ear.

"That was awful. I figured the trailers made it look scarier than it was actually going to be, but I had no idea it'd get so dumb." Miu laughed as she packed their wrappers into her purse. "I hate jump scares like that. They're not even scary, they're just annoying and you can always hear when they're coming because of the loud music."

Shinsou doesn't mention that he jumped in his seat a few times himself; if he had been holding Miu's hand during the film, he likely would have crushed it by accident a few times. Not that he was thinking of doing so at any point in the show.

There were a noticeable amount of couples in the theater though, and a good few of them were basically snuggling each other throughout the movie. This did not help matters.

"Why go to see a movie if all you're going to do is talk about all the things wrong with it?"

"It's not just complaining. I'm actually making good points." Miu frowned. "Besides, you haven't even let me say the things I liked about it."

"Okay, what'd you like?"

"Well, when they weren't constantly showing the monster up close, it was actually creepy looking. They screwed it up by shoving them in our face the last third. The sets were impressive and the acting didn't usually suck, but that doesn't mean much when I couldn't care less what happened to anyone."

"So?" Shinsou followed Miu down the aisle outside the theater, careful not to step on a pile of popcorn someone spilled all over the stained carpet. "It's a horror movie, we already know someone's going to die."

"Yeah, but what makes a movie worth watching? Actually getting an emotional response out of it. I mean, action movies make us excited, funny movies make us laugh, romance movies are supposed to either tug at your heartstrings or make you ugly cry, etc. And the basic purpose of a horror movie is to scare you."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, if we couldn't care less what happens to the characters, there's no tension or suspense or sense of fear! If we don't want to see the characters get killed and have these freaky things happen to them, then we get scared for them and it adds to the atmosphere the movie is trying to set up. But all the characters in this movie were just assholes. We want to see bad things happen to them, but the movie kept making it out like we were supposed to be scared not cheering on the monster. In another format or plot, that could work, but this movie was trying to scare us and make us connect to it. The whole thing was just botched. And the jump scares? That's just lazy. Hardly any of them had anything to do what was actually going on or moved the plot forward."

Shinsou stared openly at Miu as she held open the door for him. She stared back with a quizzical look on her face.

"What?"

"Just getting used to what a chatterbox you can be. You could give Toga a run for her money."

Miu grimaced. "Sorry Hitoshi. I know I get too into it. I hope I didn't ruin the movie for you."

"It's not a bad thing. It's just...different. You're not what I thought you'd be like."

"Huh?"

"I guess it just hit me how little I know about you. All these years we've been in school together, but I had no idea you were this into movie. I didn't know you could make expressions like those."

Miu chuckles a bit. "What expressions?"

"Annoyed, excited, happy."

Miu's smile fell somewhat at this. "Oh. Yeah, I can see that. It's not like I made much of an effort to share my interests with anyone. And I...well, to be honest, I wasn't all that happy."

"No one can blame you."

Miu shrugged; they walked through the lobby and through the exit, this time Shinsou holding the door open for her.

"I wish I hadn't...I know this is going to sound weird, but I had so much fun today. It makes me think about how fun it could have been if I was doing stuff like this when I was a kid."

"Doing what?"

"Going to the movie and walking around with a friend." Miu's eyes flew up to Shinsou's. "Is it okay if I call you that? I know technically we don't know each other that well, but I always thought you seemed nice."

"You...wait, nice?"

"Well, yeah. I heard about what you did for Toga. I didn't know the details, but I heard some girls talking about it. They didn't sound happy though." Miu frowned. "You know, I heard from Camie that Toga was bullied for a while."

"Look, I'll be the first to admit, Toga's pretty….off. She doesn't always know boundaries and she has almost zero filter. Sometime I get annoyed. But once you really get to know her, she's not bad at all. When all's said and done, once Toga decides she likes you, she's for you tooth and nail."

They walked the sidewalk looping around the mall, looking for a spot to sit. The sun had already all but disappeared over the horizon, leaving the sky a hue of gold and purple and deep blue. If someone squinted, they could see the first few stars beginning to shine.

"Are you cold? We can go inside."
"Oh no, I'm okay. Let's sit over there."

The spot Miu pointed to wasn't exactly a garden; it was a rest area located in the center of the mall. The overall structure was a circle with branches, but the middle of it was built a place to relax outside. The wooden benches were placed in a circles all around a large fountain; around the fountain was pots of flower. For fall, the large pots held mums, not unlike the ones Ume had Miu plant outside her home to be sold before the frost set in.

"I've never been here before. I should come here more often." Miu commented as she looked around. The only other people there was a group of middle schoolers on the other side of the court and a couple scrolling through their phones and holding hands. Shinsou internally sent them a dirty look we get it, you're happy, piss off as he took a seat next to Miu on a free bench.

"I come here now and then, but I've never come out here. Toga usually comes with, but I leave before she gets into her shopping frenzy." Shinsou shivers remembering Toga's ferocity in a sale.

"Thanks for staying. I'm glad. This was a lot of fun." Miu grinned, but Shinsou could see her shoulders tremble faintly.

"Are you cold?"

"Oh no, I'm fine."

"I see you shaking. That dress can't be too warm."

Shinsou shed his jean jacket; he already had on a hooded sweater and a t shirt underneath. He draped it over Miu's shoulders.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. And don't thank me again."

Miu drew the jacket closer around her. "I knew you were nice."
Shinsou stuffed his hand in his pockets and shrugged.

"I mean it. Do you remember when we had to do that project in the third grade? We had to write a paper on what we wanted to be when we grew up and make a poster board detailing the pros and cons?"

Shinsou shook his head. "I remember doing a lot of dumb assignments that never served a real purpose."

"You did this whole thing about wanting to run a cat shelter. All you put on the poster was pictures of cat." Miu laughs out loud at the memory of Shinsou's completely deadpan face, even at roughly right years old. "And when the teacher tried to make you say what the cons were, you kept saying there wasn't any."

Shinsou blinks. "Oh wow I forgot about that. I only got half the points."

"I think you had a good point though. I mean, is there a bad thing about wanting to give stray cats a home?" Miu asks idly. "Unless you have allergies I guess."

"Are you allergic to cats?"

"Yeah. I can pet short hairs, but I have to wash my hands right afterward. My older sis had a cat, but he stayed in her room all the time. My dad got her for her; she was really depressed and moody in high school, so he thought a cat might help. He always loved animals."

"I can't believe an asshole like him likes anything. Ah, sorry."

"No, it's okay. I'll say this, my dad had a real gift with animals. I guess it was easier for him to be around them. It's funny, in a messed up way, but it's true."

"I'm surprised you have anything nice to say about your dad."

"Oh, he wasn't all bad. Most people aren't. In some ways I was lucky; my dad could have been a lot worse. It's too bad he...um, sorry." Miu sniffed.

"What did I just say?" But there was no bite to Shinsou's chiding; after a second of hesitance, he reached over and put an arm loosely around Miu's shoulder, making sure to only make as much contact as necessary to comfort a friend.

"That's what we are. That's all we are."

"It's just so sad. He died so miserable and the only person he can really blame is himself. All the things he went through, they all add up to him dying alone in a prison cell with his only family barely having anything to do with him. I...I should have-"
"Miu, you said it yourself. At the end of the day, it was his actions. What were you supposed to do? Let him treat you like crap your whole life?"

"No."
"It's okay to feel sad. I get it, he's still your dad. But it's not right to feel guilty when you've done nothing wrong. We had fun today, right? I'm sure deep down your dad wouldn't have wanted you to end it feeling bad for his mistakes."

"I know."

"You wanna hear something?"

"What?"

Shinsou rubbed the back of his neck. "I remember in the second grade you shared your birthday cupcakes with everyone in class, even with that one girl who was a bitch to everyone. No one else wanted to pass her a cupcake, but you gave her one herself. Then in the fourth grade, you were always the one who picked up the markers left on the ground after art class. You always paid attention when people spoke. Even if someone was giving a really boring presentation, you never made jokes or acted like an ass."

Miu wiped her eyes and smiled sheepishly, though she didn't deny any of these observations. Shinsou took this as a sign to keep going.

"All I'm saying is, you always seemed decent to me. You never gave me any grief at least."

"Thank you, Hitoshi. I'm sorry, we were having a good time and I spoiled it."

"No you didn't. I'm glad we hung out today. I wanted to be here. When Toga asked me to hang out with you, I was looking forward to it."

"You were?"

Shinsou felt his mouth dry up; he hadn't meant to say that, but Miu heard it all the same. Not that she seemed offended or weirded out. Miu was looking up at Shinsou in what might have been disbelief, but it wasn't the kind that said, 'what is this creep talking about and why am I sitting here instead of heading for the hills?'.

"Yeah. I was."

Miu's nose scrunches. "Really?"

"You think I'm lying?"

"No. I just don't see what there's to look forward to."

"Well, I was."

Miu gripped the lapels of his jacket and tugged it closer around herself; in response, Shinsou shifted his arm around her shoulders, gaze on Miu's face to see any signs of discomfort. When Miu's face showed no such thing, Shinsou tentatively pulled her in closer to his side.

The group of middle schoolers were gone; the dim sunlight was all but gone entirely and the other couple had just taken their leave, so there were no other sounds in the court aside from their own voices. The gentle rustling of dead leaves, or what was left of them, on the thin trees around them barely registered in Shinsou's mind.

"Why?"
Shinsou chuckled, hoping Miu didn't think he thought he was laughing at her. As far as he could see, the only fool here was him, losing himself over someone who wasn't in the market to be pursued.

"I just do. I...I always wanted to say sorry."

"What? Why are you sorry?"

"I never said anything back then. I knew what was going on, at least I knew enough to see you were in trouble. But I couldn't even go up and ask if you were okay. All those years and I never even came close."

"But that's not your fault. Hitoshi, it's like you said, everything bad that happened to me was because my dad wasn't right in the head. He messed up. You and me...we were kids. And you had nothing to do with it. Not to bum you out, but there really wasn't anything you could do."

Miu spoke softly, but firmly. Shinsou could feel her warm breath on his face. He could smell beef jerky and popcorn.

"I could have at least talked to you."

"I could have too. I had plenty of chances to make friends. I just didn't know how...I was so tired...all the time...but that's not your fault. I was stand-offish and wouldn't talk to anyone."
"If I was as nice as you think, that wouldn't have mattered. Maybe it wasn't any of my business, but that doesn't make it less wrong." Shinsou laughs coldly and Miu looks troubled. "Almost everyone knew what was going on. I saw you were in pain...I did nothing."

Miu musters a weak grin. "Maybe we both could have handled things better."

"Yeah. A lot better."

Miu shrugs and puts on a half smile. "Well, we're here now. And it wasn't such a bad time."
Shinsou shakes his head slowly. He can see himself in her dark, glassy eyes as clearly as if he were looking into a mirror. When did he get so close? Shinsou's at a loss; he can't remember moving an inch despite the fact they're sitting barely an inch apart now.

"No. It was a great time, actually."

Shinsou feels warmth spreading to his fingers and toes and neck. The smile Miu gives him is something else, softer and more captivating than anything he's ever seen. It's like watching a flower bloom, slowly but surely, and it's twice as nice to look at; not even the rose clip holding back locks of Miu's sweet smelling hair from her beaming face can compare.

Of course, it's entirely possible Shinsou's just being biased.

"I still don't get it though."
"What do you mean?"

"Why you were…" Miu's bright smile dims to something more self conscious. "I always thought you seemed like a good person, but I don't get why...why it meant so much to you-helping me, that is."

"It's not complicated. I thought it was wrong. I wanted you to be okay...more than okay. I thought you should be safe and...you know, happy. Smiling. I barely ever remember you smiling." Shinsou tells her, internally sifting through his memories; true to his words, Shinsou's coming up with little instances where he could say Miu looked neither sad or tired or lost. "I didn't like it. I wanted to, uh..."

"What?"

"I wanted to help you."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to."

"Oh...why did you want to?"

Shinsou stops his hand from rubbing his neck. He feels odd enough without his nervous ticks surfacing. Miu is still looking up at him; she looks cute in his jacket. Shinsou realizes that if anyone else were to see them, they would assume he and Miu were together, not unlike the couple that had left seemingly hours ago since they began talking.

"I wanted to be there for you."

Miu still has this look on her face, this uncomprehending, borderline awestruck expression. Her voice is hardly more than a mutter as she looks into his half lidded gaze searchingly. Shinsou leans in closer to hear.

"Why?"

Shinsou smiles a little, a silent, half hearted reprimand for such a silly question. He supposes a question like that deserves an equally silly, albeit honest, answer.

In that moment, Shinsou also realizes that if anyone saw them right now, they would assume Miu was his girlfriend, wrapped in his jacket to keep warm as they talked under the stars. Shinsou would like to assume such a thing was possible as he leaned in the rest of the way, deciding in the same instance that he would go after what he wanted, doubts and setbacks be damned.

"Because...you can't help what your heart longs for."