There may come a day when I don't forget to update this on time, that day was not yesterday, and it probably won't be tomorrow either, because I'm not sure if I'm going to post tomorrow. Anyway, lets cut right to the reviews.

Guest: There is a sequel manga that takes place when they're already married, though I don't think it's ... officially in English yet, you'd have to check a scanlators website, and a lot of people have mixed feelings about that. Also, just because they made a sequel manga doesn't mean that the main one is finished.

Scorpio2292: I'd like to thank you, you were the one who reminded me that I need to post this story on this site. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.

The day had come to an end and the following day had arrived faster than Nishikata could have anticipated. "Damn it, Takagi's going to try and contact me any minute now, what the heck is she going to suggest we do?" Nishikata asked as he paced his room. "I mean, yesterday wasn't too bad, sure, her bathing suit was ... distracting ... but it was fun being with her." He smiled as he began to feel a warmth in his chest. "She did tease me a lot ... but ... I could eventually get used to this ... who am I kidding? It's Takagi, I'm already used to the teasing." He sat down at his desk and looked at his phone. "She hasn't called yet ...and it's already noon ... am I over eager?"

A moment later, his phone rang, catching off guard, causing him to almost drop it before answering. "Hello?"

"Good morning Nishikata." Takagi-san replied from the other end of the line. "You sure answered quickly."

"I ... I was expecting your call." He said as he began to blush.

"Right, anyway, what do you think I have planned for today?"

Nishikata began to get nervous. "I ... I have no idea really."

"What if ... I told you that it involved you coming over to my house?"

Nishikata felt his heart skip a beat as his blush intensified. "I ... is ... are your parents okay with it? Me going over your house I mean."

"So long as you don't go upstairs."

"Oh ... so ... um ..."

"And make sure to bring your bag."

"Huh?"

"So we can do homework together, of course, what did you think I meant?"

Nishikata felt himself melt into his seat as he covered his eyes in shame. 'I really need to remember that this is Takagi we're talking about, she'd never suggest that we do anything ... um ... yeah, anything.' "Sure, what time should I come over?"

"I'm busy for about two hours so ... let's say around 3, just so I have time to get things ready."

"Okay, I'll see you at 3 then."

"Great, I'm looking forward to it." There was a long pause as he waited for her to hang up, only for nothing to happen. "Nishikata?"

"Huh?" He said a little nervously.

"You're supposed to hang up first."

"I-I know that ... it's just ... I ..."

"You want to continue talking with your girlfriend? Is that it?"

"N-NO! It's ... I ... I ..."

"I know, you just don't want to be ruide."

"Y-Yeah ... I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'll see you later."

"Yeah." Nishikata removed the phone from his ear, and reluctantly ended the call. "I ... I should get ready."

He grabbed his bag and began going through it to make sure he had all his homework, so they could work on anything. "I should bring my project notes, not that I have much, but it pays to be safe."

He continued to grab whatever he thought he needed, until he ran out of ideas and glanced at the clock, only to find that fifteen minutes had passed. "I'm ... going to eat breakfast."

He began making his way downstairs, where he found that his mom was sitting, drinking coffee while reading the newspaper. "I see you've finally woken up." She said playfully before looking up to see him carrying his bag. "Are you planning on going somewhere today?"

"Um ... yeah, I'm meeting with a friend to do homework today." Nishikata said as he began making his way over to the rice maker.

"Really? That's so unlike you to do homework this early in the summer break."

"Yeah, well, it was her ide-" He stopped himself as he froze as his mom put down the newspaper once again.

"Her?"

"I ... well ..."

They stared at each other for what felt like forever until his mother cracked a smile. "So you're finally on a date with Takagi?" She asked as she picked up the paper again. "I'm so proud of you."

"It's not a-" He stopped himself as he remembered that it was, in fact, a date. "Well ... we're just doing homework together."

"I swear, that girl can make a scholar out of you if she tried."

"I have my own free will thank you very much." Nishikata retorted. He finished getting himself some rice and sat down at the table before eating his breakfast, all the while glancing at his mother, waiting for her to make another snarky remark.

"Well, just make sure that you brush your teeth the night before kissing her for the first time."

Nishikata looked down and to the side before bringing his hand up to his mouth to check his breath; he usually brushes his teeth every night, but for some reason, he felt like he needed to make sure. 'What's she talking about? My breath smells fine.'

"Expecting a romantic night?" She asked, causing Nishikata to look up shocked.

Nishikata went back to his breakfast as his mom smiled and chuckled. "I'm sorry, I'll stop."

"Thank you." Nishikata finished up his breakfast before going back upstairs to pass the remaining time by playing a few video games.

Though it felt like it took longer than it should have, two thirty rolled around, and Nishikata felt like it was as good a time as any to head out.

Elsewhere, some time later, Takagi-san was nervously pacing about her house worrying about the upcoming date. "It's going to be okay, mom said it was fine, and she's going to be out all day, so she won't be walking in while I'm hanging out with him, not that we'd be doing anything embarrassing anyway. Everything always works itself out in the end, so there's no need to think that tonight will be any different."

A few moments later, she heard her doorbell ring and took a deep breath before walking over to answer it. 'Easy, this is no big deal.' As she opened the door, she saw Nishikata, standing there, acting about as nervous as he usually does.

"H-Hi ... Takagi."

"Hey Nishikata." She replied. "Would you like to come in?"

"Y-yeah, sure." He made his way inside, taking off his shoes before stepping into the main portion of the house. "So ... um ..."

"We'll work on the kitchen table." She said as she directed him to the kitchen. "Would you like anything to eat?"

"I ... no thanks, I ate before I got here."

"That's fine, I'll make something later, for now, let's begin."

They made their way to the kitchen table, where Nishikata placed his things on the table. "So ... what should we start with?"

"Hmm ... well, there's our report, and then there's science, and math."

Nishikata cringed a little when he heard the word Math. "Why do we have to learn math again?"

"Because, unlike a lot of people like to believe, it's used in almost all walks of life. And unless you want to count slowly on your fingers when adding things up-"

"I get it."

"But that is a good idea now that you mention it."

"Hm?"

"Let's do our math homework first."

"HM?!"

"Oh, come on, we have to get it out of the way eventually, and what better way than to do it first. Then we don't have to worry about it later."

"I guess." Nishikata said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "But why do we have to have so much of it?"

"So people can practice and get faster at it."

Nishikata sighed as he took out his math homework and began organizing it. Before long, he had his work ready, as did Takagi.

The two of them started on their summer homework, much to the chagrin of Nishikata, who couldn't help but feel a little guilty, as he glanced up at Takagi-san. 'I still haven't apologized to her ... and I had already decided to do that before I suspected that she could be telling the truth ... damn ... I really need to find a good opportunity to do that.' As he continued to look at her, she glanced up, and noticed his not too subtle gaze.

"Is everything okay?"

"I ... yeah, I was just ... I'm sorry." He looked back at his homework.

"Do you need some help?"

He glanced up, before looking at his homework some more and reluctantly nodding. "I ... am not too good at algebra."

"I've heard that before." She said as she walked over and sat down next to him. "So, what do you need help with?"

"Just ... some algebraic things, I get the details of the rest of it, but doing the multiplication and division is ... hard."

"Well, teachers say you won't have a calculator in real life all the time."

"Yeah but ... how did you get good at something like this?"

"Well ... it's simple, if not difficult."

"Which is?"

"Memorize your times tables." Nishikata just stared at her as if he was expecting a punchline. "I'm serious; it's not easy, but if you can memorize them, then it'll be a lot easier to do a lot of this stuff."

"Do you know how many different multiplications you'd have to memorize for that?"

"If we're talking for every combo between one and ten ... fifty-five."

Nishikata stared in disbelief. "How-"

"Ten plus nine, plus eight, plus seven, plus etc."

"Okay ... but that's still fifty-five things you need to memorize."

"Not necessarily, all you really have to do is memorize the seven times tables."

"Huh?"

"All of the five times tables are easy, because counting by fives is easy, the same can be said for the tens times tables. Four and below are simple ... when calculated between themselves, and there's a nifty trick you can do with your fingers with the nines. Once you memorize the sevens, you only need to subtract or add the other number from that for six or eight."

Nishikata stared at her in disbelief. "That's ... actually ... what's that trick you can do with your fingers?"

She smiled and pushed her chair back. "Hold out your hands facing you."

"Okay." Nishikata did as she said and looked at his hands in confusion.

"Now first, remember, this works for the nine times multiplication tables, pick any number to multiply nine by."

"Okay ... five."

"Now counting from your left to right, put down your fifth finger."

Nishikata once again did as he was told and continued to look at his hands confused.

"Now, how many fingers are up to the right of that finger that you just put down?"

"Um ... four?"

"Put that in the tens place, so fourty, and how many to the left of that finger."

"My entire right-hand so ... five."

"Put that in the one's place, put them together and you get what?"

"Forty five ... wait." He quickly counted by fives until he reached five times nine. "That's ... right ... hold on ... how about ... times eight." He put down his eight finger, being his right middle finger, and counted the fingers that were to the left of it, then counting the fingers to the right. "Seventy ... two? ... How ... does that work?"

"Luck of having ten fingers, but I think it has less to do with luck, and more to do with the fact that the numeric system was created based on the number of fingers we have."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it, when it comes right down to it, basic algebra is just adding or subtracting from something you already memorized or found a trick to."

"Except seven?"

"That's one of the ones you have to memorize, there are no other short cuts with that one."

Nishikata let out a frustrated sigh. "I see."

Takagi-san smiled with her eyes closed. "You can't advance, until you have a solid foundation."

"That just means that this will take even longer."

"Well once you have it down, it'll go faster. For now, though, let's see what else you need help with."

They continued working together for some time, and before either of them knew it, three hours had already passed. "Would you look at that?" Takagi-san said as she looked at the clock on the wall. "I think we've worked enough, how about we call it and do something fun?"

"I ... sure, what did you have in mind?"

"We could watch a movie while we eat some bentoes I prepared earlier."

"Uh ... yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"Great!" She got up and walked over to the counter where a small bag was, and pulled out two bento boxes. "Here." She said as she handed one of them to Nishikata.

"T-thanks." He said as he took it. "So ... what movie are we going to watch?"

"That's a surprise." She said as she smiled.

"Why do I feel like you're trying to tease me again?" Nishikata asked as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Well, maybe I am a little." She turned around and began making her way to the living room as Nishikata followed close behind.

'It's probably a romance movie or something.' He thought as he followed her. 'Then again, I am feeling a little exhausted after all that studying, I'll settle for anything.' He made his way over to the couch in the living room as Takagi-san began putting a movie into the DVD player.

"I actually haven't seen this movie myself yet, and I've been looking forward to it for quite a while."

"You weren't able to see it when it was in theaters?"

"No, I wasn't interested in it until it was already out on video."

"What got you interested in it?"

"You did."

Nishikata stared at her in disbelief.

"You like action anime, as well as romance anime, so I heard about this one and figured I'd try it out."

"Wait, why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She asked as she began walking back. "You like it, and I want to check out the things you like."

"But ... why?"

"I already told you." She said as she took a seat next to him. "Because I'm in love with you." Nishikata's face turned red, as Takagi-san placed a finger on his lips. "Let's just enjoy the movie for now."

"I ... I ... didn't ... have anything I wanted to say anyway." He said as he turned away.

She gave a mischievous smile as she opened her bento and turned on the T.V. "Lier."

"Hey, I ... I'm not lying!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really, I have no idea what I would say to something like that."

"Really?."

"I ... okay, I do have something I want to say to you."

She placed a finger on his lips again and smiled. "Like I said, let's just watch the movie." She turned on the DVD player and opened her bento as the two of them waited for the movie to start.

'Damn, what am I doing?' Nishikata thought to himself. 'I should just suck it up and tell her already; even if she was joking, I need to get this off my chest.' He turned to the television as he opened his bento. 'But ... I think I'll wait till after the movie is over.'

Some time later

Takagi-san's mom had just returned home after a long day, and was fiddling with her keys as she tried to unlock the door. 'That took a lot longer than I thought.' She thought as she pulled out her key. 'I hope she managed to find something to eat, if not, then I'll just have to make something myself.' She unlocked the door and walked inside, finding the lights still on. "That's strange."

She made her way inside and looked around before noticing that the living room T.V. was on, with just a static screen present. 'Did she leave the T.V. on? That's not like her at all.' She made her way into the living room, but as soon as she got there, she noticed why the T.V. was left on. There, sitting on the couch, was her daughter, fast asleep with what she could only assume was the boy she has a crush on, also fast asleep, with his head resting on her shoulder. 'Oh, that explains it.' She picked up the remote and turned off the T.V. 'I probably shouldn't wake them ... BUT ...' She took out her phone and started the camera app. 'Just one for the album.'