•[•]•[•] Noire [•]•[•]•

"Gah!" My eyes shoot open as I hear a repetitious beeping sound next to me. Next to me was the alarm clock, which had been screaming at me for at least a few minutes now. Sitting up, I find myself buried in the covers. Letting out a yawn, I slide out of the bed and make my way over to the bathroom, where I had found Hiroshi brushing his teeth.

"A-ah, good morning, Noire," He says after he spits out his toothpaste.

"G-good morning, Hiroshi." I awkwardly pass him and grab my toothbrush, applying toothpaste and beginning to brush my teeth. The two of us didn't converse any further, leaving me to finish brushing my teeth and Hiroshi leaving the bathroom without another word. This is the state that Hiroshi and I have been in since the day I had confessed to him. It had been a few days since then, the outcome of our conversation had created an awkward barrier between the two of us.

~~ Flashback ~~

"I-I think I like you." My face had gone completely red at that point, and all I could do was wait for Hiroshi's response. He remained frozen, the only thing changing being a blush that had risen on his cheeks.

"D-did you just confess to me?" He finds control over his body and rubs the back of his head, averting his gaze.

"U-uh… I think so?" Oh, dear Goddess. This is so awkward. H-how do I even respond to that!? I think to myself, beginning to play with my hair.

"H-how do I respond?" Hiroshi awkwardly laughs, the two of us falling back into silence. What did I expect from this? I wasn't expecting for him to return the same feelings, was I? I probably should've waited to confess once I knew that he liked me back or something… I vent to myself, regretting that I had said anything in the first place. Whether it was out of embarrassment, frustration, sadness, or a combination of them, the emotions began to overwhelm me and I felt tears well up in my eyes.

"U-um, just ignore everything that I said, okay? I'm gonna head back inside." I say, trying not to lose my composure and let the floodgates open in front of Hiroshi. I quickly get up from the log and escape from the scene, leaving Hiroshi on the log by himself and running back to the house beginning to feel the tears flow from my eyes.

~~ End of Flashback ~~

"Everyone welcome back to the Extradimensional Dispersion club!" Neptune announces to the club members that had gathered in the Extradimensional Dispersion clubroom, signaling that the meeting had begun. I had decided to sit next to Neptune, who happily accepted my presence, while Hiroshi had made his way over to Uni, who just looked between the two of us with a confused look. "We're gonna start today off with some good news! Vii, would you like to tell us what, or who, you found yesterday?"

"Fortunately for us," Vii starts, taking over the conversation, "because Vert had sent me a letter to her, she sent me her contact information so that the two of us could get in touch. I managed to contact her and now Vert is kind enough to take some time out of her day to join us tomorrow in our meeting. Unfortunately, she is currently busy in a dungeon of an MMO and can't help us so she isn't available for today. Nevertheless, we are successful in acquiring another key person in our mission of returning to Gamindustri!" Everyone looks around with glee, Hiroshi and I avoiding eye contact.

"With that said, we know where everyone is except for Nepgear and the Loweeans." I speak up. "Assuming that we will be able to find Nepgear via Vert, all we need to find is Blanc and the twins."

"Does anyone have any clues on finding Histoire?" Hiroshi looks around the room as he speaks, waiting for any responses before continuing. "I'm pretty sure that someone earlier mentioned that Nepgear has some sort of connection with Histoire, and if the device that she uses is able to contact her, then we won't need to worry about that. Now, if my hypothesis is correct, that means that the Loweeians will be the hardest to find, depending on how reliable Vert will be upon tomorrow's meeting."

"So basically what you're saying is that Vert is the person that we need to get a hold of in order for us to go back to Gamindustri?" Uni looks at Hiroshi.

"Pretty much, yes. If she has information on both Nepgear, or possibly Blanc, then Blanc will know where her younger sisters, the twins, will be, and Nepgear will know where Histoire will be." He responds to her question, receiving a nod from her. "The only thing left is to find Histoire in order for her to help you girls return to Gamindustri."

"And what about you?" I speak up, looking at Hiroshi but quickly averting my gaze as he looks back at me.

"I-I'm not too sure." He awkwardly rubs the back of his head. "I don't think that it would be likely that I'm even able to go to Gamindustri, but seeing that you all came from a different dimension sheds a bit of light on the idea of people on Earth going to Gamindustri." I feel my heart thump as Hiroshi spoke. Is it really a possibility that Hiroshi is able to come with us to Gamindustri? I-it's not like I would be super lonely without him if we had to leave him here on Earth or anything! I-it's just that he hasn't given me a response to my confession…

•[•]•[•] Hiroshi [•]•[•]•

"Thank you all for attending today's meeting! We will see you all next time when Vert is available to join us!" Neptune's announcement had adjourned the meeting. Watching a few of the club members exit the room, I watch as Noire gets up and grabs her bag.

"W-wait, Noire!" I get up from my chair and call out to Noire, who had stopped from exiting the room and turned around to look at me.

"What is it?" Her tone had changed from warm and comfortable to cold and blunt, as if she had reverted back to when we had first met.

"U-uh…" I trail off and avert my gaze to the floor. "Wh-where are you going?"

"I'm going home." She says before turning back to face the exit. "If you don't have anything else to say to me, then I will be taking my leave."

Unable to stop her once more, I let out a sigh and slump back down into my chair. What am I supposed to do in this situation!? I wasn't even able to give her a response yesterday. I've really screwed up now, haven't I? She's probably not even gonna let me go into the house at this point! As I was swamped up in my thoughts, I felt a poke at my shoulder, making me snap back to reality.

Turning to look at who had disturbed my thoughts, I find Neptune looking down at me with a smile. "How's it going?"

"Not too great, if I'm being honest." I slump back down and lean into the backrest of my chair.

"Would you like to talk to me about it? I'm free for a while so if you would like to go somewhere, we can chat it up at someplace like a cafe or restaurant." That would be a pretty good idea. Noire seems to want some alone time, and I don't even know how to approach her at this point, so getting some advice from Neptune would be pretty helpful.

"Sure, that would be great. There's a lot that's happened recently, and I haven't been able to talk to anyone about this."

"Well I'm glad to be of assistance!" She then makes her way over to the doorway before turning back to me. "Would you like to eat some desserts with me? I know a pretty good cafe nearby."

...

"One matcha parfait, please." I set down my menu as I order.

"I would like an egg pudding. Thank you." Neptune orders as the waitress writes the items down before taking our menus and returning to make our desserts. "So, what's been on your mind?"

"I've been thinking about what you had said earlier-how I felt about Noire. Soon after you and I had gone shopping, I came home and sorted out the groceries with Noire. She seemed super bothered so I wanted to make sure that she was okay, so I offered to lend an ear. So we talked outside and ultimately confessed to me."

"Wow." Neptune looks at me with raised eyebrows. "She was the one who confessed to you? I'm surprised that she even mustered up the courage to say something like that. You're really something special. So, how'd you respond?"

"This is where things got a little awkward between the two of us. I was taken aback, because it was all so sudden. It seemed like you knew that she was about to confess to me, and I failed to notice the hints that you were giving. I didn't really give her a response and she just ran off, looking like she was about to cry. After that, we never managed to hold a conversation. Today was the most that we've talked since that day."

"Yeesh. I take it back. You've really done it now." Neptune whistles, glancing out of the window. "Sure, it was pretty abrupt, but you could've at least attempted to spare her from complete misery."

"S-so what should I do now?" The waitress comes back with our desserts and places them in front of us.

"First of all, apologize to her." She takes a bite of her pudding and points her spoon at me. "It's never good to leave a girl hanging, especially when she just confessed to you. Has anyone ever confessed their feelings to you?"

Shaking my head no, she sighs and continues. "Well, no matter what, if you're prepared or not, at least tell her 'oh, give me some time to think about it' so that she knows that you've at least acknowledged the fact that you're aware of her feelings."

"Thanks, Neptune." I say after taking a bite of my parfait. "I'm really new to all of this stuff so I have no idea how to react or what to do in situations like these. How are you so well versed in this stuff?"

"A-ah…" She hesitates, using that moment of silence to take a bite of pudding. "W-well, let's just say that I've dealt with these kinds of situations. M-maybe not personally but…"

"Well, I think that you're a really nice person to talk to when it comes to these things. I thought that I would be talking to Uni about this stuff, so I'm honestly surprised that you were the one to reach out to me."

"W-well, I have my reasons!" She blushes and avoids eye contact with me. "W-we don't need to worry about that, now do we?"

"Whatever you say, Neptune." I say, finishing my parfait. "Now that I think about it, you've been helping me out, and I haven't asked about you. Is there anything that you would like to talk to me about?"

"Well, if you insist…" She looks back at me. "I'm a bit worried about Nep and I splitting. None of the other CPUs have split up as far as we know, so I'm wondering how that will affect Nep and I when we return back into Gamindustri. I believe you're aware that we, CPUs, rely on Shares to transform, right? So with that said, I'm more worried about myself because I'm the one who relies on the Shares in order to maintain this form."

"That's true. Noire is able to transform into her HDD form and revert back to her human form. Although we don't know about Vert and Blanc, I think that it would be safe to assume that you're the only CPU that was separated from their human form." I furrow my brow, trying to process everything that she was saying. "Hopefully there won't be any setbacks when you girls return to Gamindustri. Optimistically speaking, being separated from Nep may benefit you because you may not feel the effects of the lack of Shares."

"I would like to agree with you, in fact I have no choice but to agree with you. It may be quite deadly if we had returned to Gamindustri and the conditions remained the same." Neptune shudders at the thought.

"I'm sure that things will go in your favor." I smile at the purplette, who returns the smile. "I can pay for the food."

"Are you sure? I'm the one who invited you so I should be the one to pay." She begins to reach over to her purse to pull out her wallet, but I interrupt her.

"No, really, it's okay. I can pay for it. You've done so much to help me so I'm truly in debt to you." I pull out my card and call the waitress over, receiving the check and paying.

"W-well, thank you for paying. A-and thank you for buying me the pudding and chocolate the last time we were together." Neptune blushes and stands up. "We should get going; you wouldn't want Noire waiting for you any longer than she has, right?"

"That sounds like a good idea. Let's head home." I agree with Neptune and the two of us make our way back to our homes.

Arriving at the same place that we had separated, I turned to Neptune. "Thanks again, for everything that you've done to help me. It really means a lot. Hopefully I can follow your advice and mend things with Noire again."

"Of course, Fujita-san. I have my own reasons for helping you." She smiles and takes a step closer. "Here, come a bit closer."

"Wh-what is it, Neptune?" I follow her lead and lean closer. Is she gonna tell me a secret or whisper something to me? Expecting her to whisper into my ear, I feel something soft press against my cheek. Quickly pulling back with a blush, I turn to look at Neptune, whose face had gone completely red.

"That was for paying for the food. Th-thanks for spending time with me, Hiroshi! I'll see you later!" She hurriedly turns around and takes her leave, leaving me to raise a hand to the cheek that she had kissed. Wh-what was that all about? I shake the thought out of my head before turning to the street that led to my house.

A/N

How are you doing today? I hope you're doing better than Noire, who didn't really receive the best response to her confession :/ But besides that, wh-what happened between Neptune and Hiroshi!? Love triangle confirmed? What's going on w/ that!? How will Noire react when she finds out? Will she even find out? Who knows? ;) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have an amazing rest of your day!