A/N: Here we go readers. The final chapter for the year 2020. And it didn't take a year and a half this time, yay!
Yeah... Sorry about that again. But at least the last few chapters will now be out within a reasonable time.
It was a normal weekend for the Hiryo household. Normally, Alicia would be in her study working on her latest novel. But instead, she was multitasking. She sat in the kitchen, typing on her laptop for her novel while watching over her daughter's playdate with her friend from school.
Luna and Hana giggled together as they played, bringing a small smile to Alicia's face. She remembered Rin being the same way when she was younger. Lilly had a few issues with her shyness at a younger age, so she hadn't been as quick to show her emotions outside of her close friends.
Nothing made her happier as a mother than seeing Luna get along so well with someone from her class. She had been worried that Luna would be ostracized from the other kids after her secret about being an AI was revealed. But according to Luna, Hana had continued to be by her side no matter what. She was lucky to have found such a loyal friend.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Alicia set her laptop aside and went to the door. When she opened it, she found Hana's mother standing on the other end.
"Ah hello." Alicia greeted. "Hana's in the other room. I'll go tell her you're here."
"Before that…" the woman spoke. "I was hoping I could have a chance to talk with you for a moment."
Alicia nodded her head. "Of course." She stepped outside and closed the door behind her. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"
Hana's mother kept her gaze low on the ground. "It's just… I wanted to apologize to you." she explained. "I've been meaning to for some time now."
"Apologize? Whatever for?"
"When the news first revealed that Luna was an A.I… I wasn't sure how to react to her. I wondered if it was best for Hana to still be friends with her." the woman explained. "But the first time Luna came over to play with Hana… I was honestly surprised. She seemed so alive. She was such a sweet and polite girl too. I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell she wasn't human if I hadn't already been told so. And Hana's been so happy having Luna as a friend. So I wanted to apologize. For thinking differently of Luna, and for not thinking about the hardship you and your family must have faced when the truth about her was exposed."
Alicia shook her head. "There's really no need. I realize it can be difficult to understand Luna's… unique origins. But the fact that you've been willing to accept her is more than I could ask for. And having a friend like Hana has made Luna so happy. If anything, I should be thanking you."
The sound of Luna and Hana giggling inside caused the two mothers to let out a small chuckle as well. "That daughter of yours really is something special." Hana's mother said.
"They both are." Alicia agreed. "My friends were what helped me through some of my hardest times when I was younger. I hope they'll grow to have that kind of close bond too."
"I couldn't have said it better myself."
After the two mothers finished chatting, they went inside. There was a bit of disappointment between Luna and Hana that their playdate had come to an end, but they still couldn't deny that they had a lot of fun.
After Luna waved goodbye to Hana as she and her mother drove away, she went back inside. Alice was happy to see her daughter having a social life with other kids her age.
A few minutes later, Rin came downstairs from her room. She opened the fridge and took out a can of soda. "Alright, I'm heading out to see a movie with a friend. I'll be back in a few hours." she said as she popped open the can and began to drink.
"I see…" Alice noted, as she eyed her daughter. "So, who's the boy?"
As she heard her mother say this, Rin choked on her drink and coughed for a short bit before speaking. "B-Boy?! What boy?! Who said anything about a boy?!"
Alice let out a giggle. "No use hiding it Rin. I know the face of a girl in love when I see it. I was the same at your age."
No matter how hard she tried to hide it, Rin's cheeks were blushing red. "I-It's no one, mom."
Luna tilted her head. "There's a boy you like? Is it-"
"Oh would you look at the time! I better get going!" Not wasting another second, Rin hurried out the door before her family could ask anymore questions.
Rin made her way through the city streets as she headed towards the movie theater. She was glad to have gotten out of the house before her family could look too heavily into their inquiry. She had played it off cool right? Yeah, totally cool. There was no way her mother had gotten too suspicious.
'Oh who am I kidding? She's got me pegged.'
After about an hour, she finally arrived at the movie theater. Waiting for her at the entrance was the boy she was meeting. The black haired teen she had met a couple months prior, at least in the real world. Kenta, or Shade as he was known in ALO.
As she walked up to Kenta, her mother's words kept echoing in her mind. She did her best to keep her cheeks from going red. "Hey Kenta. Sorry if I made you wait."
Kenta shook his head. "No, it's fine. I only got here a couple minutes ago."
After buying their tickets, the two teens walked inside. The movie they were seeing was an action thriller with lots of hand to hand combat, something Rin personally loved. With Kenta being a ninja fan, she was fairly certain that he would enjoy the movie as well and had called him last week to see if he wanted to go see it together.
Rin had convinced herself at the time that she had only done it because it was better seeing a movie with a friend than going alone. But now that she was walking alongside Kenta, she could feel her heart beating faster. There wasn't anything to be nervous about, was there? It was just two friends seeing a movie together. She had done that more times than she could count.
So why was this time so different?
Once they took their seats and the movie started, Rin found her focus wavering. Half the time she was watching the movie in front of her, being amazed by the action scenes and inspired to try them out the next time she logged into ALO. But the other half of the time, she was glancing at Kenta sitting right next to her.
Almost a year had passed since she had first met Kenta, back when she only knew him as Shade. He had been her opponent in the finals of a small ALO tournament. He had won back then, partially due to Luna's interference at the time. Later on, he had shown up out of nowhere one day and helped her in dealing with a group of unsavory players. At the time, he had told Rin that she didn't have what it took to compete in the annual ALO tournament. If she was being honest, she hated his guts back then, but his words riled her up and got her to train even harder for the tournament in hopes of beating him in a rematch. Lucifer and his team had prevented the two of them from having their rematch in the tournament, but they had still faced off not long after the tournament. Throughout that time, she had grown closer to the mysterious Spriggan. Her feelings of animosity turned into feelings of admiration and respect. She had even partied with him from time to time for quests and dungeon exploration.
Rin had always assumed her association with Shade would only be in the virtual world. That she would never see him in the real world. But by pure chance, she had met Kenta, the son of two friends of her parents from their SAO years. And that same boy had turned out to be none other than Shade himself. The startling revelation of now knowing Shade's identity irl hit Rin like a ton of bricks. She had convinced herself that friendship was the closest she could ever get with him due to not knowing each other irl. But now that she no longer had that excuse, her feelings were gushing forward and her mind was a total mess.
Was this it? Her first serious crush?
It had been a two hour movie, but when the credits started rolling Rin had felt like only ten minutes had gone by. As they walked out of the movie theater, Rin felt just as flustered and confused as when they had walked in.
Not wanting an awkward silence to form, Rin said the only natural thing she could think of. "So… good movie, huh?"
"Yeah." Kenta replied. "It was pretty good."
Rin kept her gaze away from Kenta. She wasn't entirely sure how red her cheeks were, but she didn't want him seeing them if they were as red as she thought they were.
'This is stupid. I like him, don't I? Then why can't I just tell him and see where it goes?' Rin asked herself.
"Rin?"
'Yeah… Ok… I'm gonna do it.' Rin thought. She began to turn her head back to Kenta. "Kenta, I-"
The rest of the statement died on Rin's tongue. Due to her not watching where she was going, she accidentally tripped and began to fall over. Kenta grabbed Rin by the arm to prevent her from falling down and pulled her up. But Rin had been turning to face him just as he did.
Which led to both of their lips accidentally pressing together.
Both Rin and Kenta had their eyes wide open as they stood still. They each slowly backed away a few inches, still stunned by the accident that had happened just now.
Kenta was the first to speak. "Rin, I-"
"I gotta go!" Rin said as she turned around and ran off.
"Rin! Wait!"
Rin ignored the call from Kenta as she continued to run. She didn't know whether or not her cheeks had been red before, but she was certain they were crimson now. She wasn't sure what she felt, but she couldn't handle it right now.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID! Ugh, I can't believe I did that!'
Rin continued running as fast as she could. What had she done? Sure she had been planning to tell Kenta just now that she liked him, but there was no way she could do that now. After what had just happened, Kenta would only think she was weird and creepy if she said those things now. Heck, maybe he was thinking them anyway after the way she had run off out of nowhere.
Rin's mind was a scrambled mess. So scrambled in fact, that she didn't even realize she had run out onto the crosswalk while the light was green.
"RIN, LOOK OUT!"
Out of nowhere, Rin felt herself get tackled away, just in time to avoid getting hit by a passing car. Traffic came to a halt as people looked to see what had just happened.
Rin's breathing was rapid as she slowly realized just how close she had come to getting run over due to her absent mind. But what was even more surprising was the person who had saved her just now.
"Are you okay?" Kenta asked.
After a couple seconds of silence, Rin nodded her head. "Yeah… Thanks for that, Kenta."
"Just don't do it again. You nearly gave me a heart attack."
The two teens got to their feet and moved off of the road. Traffic slowly started moving again, with everyone relieved that nobody had gotten hurt.
Standing on the sidewalk, Rin found herself wondering what to do now. No matter what she did, the universe seemed to want the opposite to happen. She wanted to confess her feelings to Kenta, and instead got the most awkward kiss she could have ever imagined. She wanted to get away from Kenta, and he saved her from getting run over.
"Um… Kenta?" Rin finally spoke. "Thanks… for saving me just now."
"You already thanked me for that."
"Oh right. I guess I did." Rin realized. The two teens shared a small chuckle. "Look… um… I'm sorry I ran off suddenly."
"It's alright. That was a pretty weird moment."
"Yeah." Rin nodded. "Um… just out of curiosity… weird good, or weird bad?"
Rin wasn't sure, but she thought she saw Kenta's cheeks turn red for the briefest of moments. Kenta was silent as he rubbed his head in an awkward manner. "Umm… well… weird good?"
"That sounded more like a question than an answer."
"Well then you tell me. Was it weird good or weird bad for you?"
"I… well… You can't ask me that out of nowhere!"
"But it's alright for you to ask me?!"
The two teens stared at each other for a second before breaking out into laughter. It was probably the first time today that Rin had been able to let out a genuine laugh. She looked at Kenta with a warm smile. "Weird good." she said as she leaned in and gave Kenta a peck on the cheek.
Kenta's cheeks went bright red from the kiss. "Wh-What? What was that about?"
Rin let out a giggle at Kenta's stuttering. "My, my, is the cool and collected Shade of Alfheim flustered? This is truly a rare sight."
Kenta rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "So… that kiss… does that mean you…"
"Oh for crying out loud, do you need me to spell it out for you?! Yes! I like you, you big dummy!" Rin told him sternly. "Well? What's your answer?"
Kenta took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself. He stared into Rin's eyes. "Rin… Will you go out with me?"
Rin couldn't help but wonder if this was what her mother felt like when she had first confessed her feelings to her dad. A tear rolled down her cheeks as she hugged Kenta tightly.
"Yes."
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. There's still two more chapters planned for this fic, so look forward to them. Until 2021, readers.
