Yes! I am now Lord Muffintops! Behold my glory, glory that doth spill over! Also, thank you so much for the reviews and continued support. Enjoy the story.

~ Michi ~

When Kent said date, I had no idea whether he meant an actual date or just a casual get-together between friends. So I was panicking over the thing at the time that seemed most worthy of panicking about: what to wear.

"You're going to drive yourself insane before you even leave the house," Musca sighed.

"It's not like you're helping! Telling me to wear what I want isn't constructive!"

"Still. You should wear what you want."

"Ugh!" I picked up my phone and dialed.

"Hello?"

"Sawa! EMERGENCY! Come over NOW!"

She dropped her phone from shock; I heard it clatter to the floor. "Okay, I'll be there!" She yelled before hanging up. She arrived panting on her bike. "Are you okay?" She grabbed my shoulders once I let her in. "Not hurt?"

"Help meeee!" I threw my arms around her. "I dunno what to wear today."

"That's… That's it?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you say so? You had me worried for a second." She smiled to let me know she wasn't mad. "Okay, let's see…" She stared at the multitude of clothing I had strewn around. "What's the occasion, even?"

"I'm hanging out with Kent today, and since he wouldn't tell me where we were going I don't know whether to dress up or down. When I texted him asking he didn't reply."

"Well that's lame of him." She paused as she rifled through my clothes. "You've been spending a lot more time with him all of a sudden, recently."

"Yeah. I thought it'd be good to make a new friend, you know?"

"I think that's good for you. And he's been acting differently too. Smiling a lot more…" She trailed off, staring into space as her cheeks turned red.

I frowned. "You okay there?"

"Huh? Yeah!"

"Michi, my spirit senses are tingling here… She's not. At least, there isn't nothing on her mind."

I nodded. I'd been thinking that too. "Sawa, do you by any chance… Er…"

"Do I what?" She looked at me nervously.

"Do you like him? Kent."

"W-What, I mean…" She twiddled her fingers. "I just, I haven't told anyone yet…"

"Well who can you tell if not me?"

"You're right." She moved some clothes aside to sit on my bed, and I sat next to her.

"I liked him not long after he started tutoring me. He was just so weird!"

"So that's what you're into? Hm."

"Shut up!" She laughed. "No, he was awkward, but in the end well-meaning and sweet. You know?"

I nodded. Yeah, I knew it very well. That was why I was already so conflicted over him. Such was the way things worked when one was the center of a harem of bishies. "So have you thought about asking him out?" The words tasted bad since jealousy was rising up in my throat. Stop it…

"I have, but I really wanted him to ask me out, since I never have any idea what he's thinking. It'd be really painful and humiliating if I asked him out only to be rejected calmly, you know?"

"Yeah…" I took a breath. "Well…" In terms of what was more important, Sawa got top priority over anything I might be feeling for Kent. "Maybe I could pretend I was sick, and you could go out with Kent today instead."

"Huh? But what would I wear? He didn't even tell you where you were going…"

"My problems don't seem so trivial now, do they? Ha!" I laughed.

"Thanks, but I don't think I can. I'd be too nervous to make any good conversation… It's hard for me to talk about anything than tutoring with him because I get so tongue-tied…"

"That's… Kind of adorable." I ruffled her hair. "Okay, then how about I just steer the conversation towards you a few times, get a feel for what he might think of you? That okay?"

Her face brightened. "Really? That'd be great!"

"Okay, cool. Now pick my outfit. And I'd really like it to match with this scarf, by the way…" I pointed to a yellow scarf I'd tied in an off-center bow around my neck.

"Why are you wearing a scarf inside?"

"No reason!" What a certain idiot had done on my neck needed to be covered up.

"Okay? Wear this, then." She held up a pink dress. "Pink and yellow go fine together, right?"

"Yeah, thanks." Well that had been stupidly simple. I changed fast, and we both went outside when I was ready to leave.

"Look, Michi, you don't have to feel pressured to help me. Just have a good time today and don't stress about it. Even though I really do appreciate the offer."

"It's not really a big deal. I don't mind helping the ship sail a little bit." It was better this way. Putting someone else's feelings above mine was a good thing to be doing in this situation. Right?

Sawa smiled, cheeks red, and hugged me tightly. "Thanks…"

"Y-yeah." I hugged her back for a second before pulling away. "Thanks for your help, too. See you." I hurried away before I could think about it too much more.

The directions Kent had given me were to wait at the same place we had agreed to meet on the night of the goukon. Besides that he hadn't given me the slightest bit of knowledge as to what else we'd be doing.

So for now, I was busying myself with pacing back and forth while I waited for him. "Geez… He's late again!"

"It's only a minute past seven-thirty, Michi. Calm down," Musca sighed, a bit weary of listening to and watching me freak out. "But hey, while he's still not here… Are you sure you want to wear the hair clip Ikki gave you while you're on a date with Kent?"

"It's not a date. I mean, I don't think that's what he really meant. It's probably similar to how he wanted to ask Sawa out, right? He's just… Experimenting." Crap, and I'd been the reason Kent hadn't asked Sawa out in the first place. But it was better for him to ask her out not to gain insight into relationships but because he felt something. I'd acted correctly, I felt.

"Really? I'm not so sure… He seems to have been learning… But anyways, my question still stands."

"It feels weird to not wear it now that I'm used to it. Besides..." I frowned. "Why would he care?"

"Well, do what you want. I've got to admit, I'm curious as to what's going to happen…"

"Me too! I'm going crazy over here!"

"I can tell! Just spend some time calming down, why don't you?"

"Okay!" I sat down on the ground. "Calm… I will become calm. Serenity… Inner peace." I closed my eyes for a time, trying to let feelings of non-panic wash over me. And it worked, at least for a while, until I opened my eyes when I felt something brush against my leg.

"Ah. Hello. Are you awake now?"

"Kent." He was sitting next to me; what I'd felt was his knee bumping my leg. My eyes bugged out when I was hit with a delayed reaction of shock at him suddenly appearing there. I let out a string of curses as loud as I could while he just listened calmly, more serene than I had ever been able to become. "Asshole!" I finished, panting.

"I'm very glad to see you as well. You looked peaceful so I didn't want to interrupt."

"Yeah, he's been here for a few minutes, just sitting there," Musca informed me.

I stared at her. Why didn't you tell me?!

"Because I didn't think you'd have calmed down yet. I see now that it was useless either way. You're just doomed to be a nervous wreck. Good luck now!"

I cleared my throat to prevent myself from yelling at her. "Um… Well, thanks for waiting… I guess."

"Shall we go?" Kent stood and offered me his hand.

"Yeah, but go where? You haven't given me any information."

"True, but isn't a modicum of unpredictability seen as an attractive trait?"

"Maybe, but predictability in itself is good too." I took his hand and he pulled me up before twining our fingers. I couldn't bring myself to pull away.

"Yet another double standard in the web that is interaction with others," Kent sighed as he started walking. He was making a concentrated effort to match his strides to mine, I noticed. How adorable…

"You're right," I realized. "There's no telling what someone's going to want from you really…"

"That's why I decided long ago that simply sharing my honest thoughts was the best way to get things done. Yet because of this I ended up with remarkably few friends. Is this regrettable? What do you think, Michi?"

"Well… I think that the ones you do count as your friends are true ones then. And those people are lucky, too… As long as you're happy, Kent, you shouldn't regret the way you've chosen to live your life."

"I don't believe that I do."

"And that's what's most admirable about you. Don't doubt yourself, okay?"

He laughed softly. "Of course not, except when it's necessary."

"When's it ever necessary?"

"Never mind. In the end, do you want to know where we're going or do you want it to be kept as a surprise?"

"Um… A surprise, I guess." I'd waited this long to find out, so waiting for a few more minutes really made no big difference.

As we strolled along silently Kent kept glancing at me sidelong. Eventually he piped up. "Whose turn is it to make conversation now? It's meant to operate on a turn-based system, correct?"

"Life isn't an RPG, Kent, even if we wish it was. You just gotta go with the flow. But I was actually enjoying the silence. You know, it's a rare thing to find someone you can be comfortably silent with. Appreciate it, if you can."

"Ah." He nodded slowly. "Yes… It's quite enjoyable. But I like to hear your voice, too."

"O-oh. Then… Um…" I usually didn't, but now I was getting all flustered and anxious trying to figure out what to say. "Well, uh… What are your parents like?"

"What are they like, you ask…" He tilted his head, considering, and his mouth curved downwards in a slight frown. "They're logical people. Very efficient."

"That wasn't very informative," I noted. "Like, are they nice, and what do they do for fun with you, stuff like that."

"We don't spend much time together. The occasional meal… My father is quite fond of Thai food."

"Hm. Does talking about them make you uncomfortable?"

"Uncomfortable? Am I?" He pondered it for a while. "Yes. I'm uncomfortable."

"Sorry. I don't mean to do that."

"No, it's of no consequence. Also, why are you wearing a scarf in this weather?"

"No reason! I wear what I want."

"By the way…" He shifted uncomfortably. "I believe… I think…"

"Dude, spit it out."

He coughed. "Never mind. I believe you've lectured me on multiple occasions about timing? It can wait."

"Okay? Way to keep me in suspense."

"Apologies." He smiled. "However, I believe you'll forgive me when we reach our destination."

"Oh, so you're hiding something tricky up your sleeve?"

"You could say that, I suppose."

"Hmmm…" I frowned slightly as he smiled to himself. Compared to when I had met him, did he seem more easygoing? Wait… I didn't even remember how I had first met him. I had never once gained new memories of him. We were doing fine now, but it still felt a little bit troublesome… "Hey, Kent?"

"Yes?"

"How did we first meet?"

"Hm…" He tilted his head and glanced down at me, then shifted his gaze to look around. "Come sit with me on that bench ahead."

"Okay?" We took a seat on a roadside bench, him still holding onto my hand and lessening the distance between us so our legs were touching. "What is it? What?" I got uncomfortable when he just looked at me for a while.

"You have amnesia, don't you?"

"Eh… Eh?!"

"I've watched you experience some symptoms: confusion and an inability to recognize things that should be familiar to you. It's simply not possible for you to have forgotten my face after only six months of not seeing me."

"A-and why's that?"

He smiled again, but it was bitterer this time. "Because of how we met."

After a minute I spoke up slowly. "Well, are you gonna tell me?"

"Do you really want to know? If you haven't remembered it yourself, there might be a reason…" Musca chimed in cautiously.

"I want to know!" I exclaimed, and Kent blinked at me, taken aback. "There's a big hole there whenever I'm with you… I don't want to be worrying about the past when I'm trying to build a future."

"I understand." His grip on my hand tightened, as if he was scared of something.