"We're going to be late." Kyoko called from the foot of her bed, where she sat putting on her heels.
"No, we won't!" Chiaki called from the bathroom sink. "I'm almost done."
She left the bathroom with a twirl, causing her shiny pink dress to sparkle in the moody lighting of Kyoko's bedroom. "Ta-da! What do you think?"
Kyoko looked up with a warm smile. "You look beautiful."
Chiaki held out a black eyeliner pencil to her. "Do you think you could help me with this? Then I'm ready to go, I promise."
"Sure."
Kyoko gently lifted up Chiaki's chin, using her free hand to draw a set of perfectly winged lines on Chiaki's eyelids.
"Did you hear from Makoto at all today?" Chiaki asked innocently as Kyoko put the lid back onto the eyeliner pencil.
"No, why do you ask?"
"You know why." Chiaki said, teasingly prodding Kyoko. (Who kept her back turned to her under the guise of checking her purse.)
"We'll see each other tonight, but I doubt anything will come of it."
"You should ask him to dance with you!"
"What, and have him turn me down, embarrass myself in front of the entire school, and ruin our friendship?"
Kyoko's cheeks turned pink when she realized that she had just said that out loud.
"Are…you sure we're talking about the same person?" Chiaki asked, raising an eyebrow. Kyoko stood in the middle of the room, staring at the floor. She finally looked up when Chiaki approached and placed her hands gently on her shoulders.
"Hey, I know nothing about love, but I even I can see that Makoto likes you. Even if nothing does come out of tonight, we can still have a great time with just the two of us! Right?"
Kyoko smiled in spite of herself. "Right."
She reached over and ruffled the younger girl's hair. "Thanks, Chiaki."
"You're welcome! But you know, now I have to go and re-apply my hairspray."
"You're joking –"
"Nope! You did this to yourself." Chiaki teased, closing the bathroom door behind her.
Kyoko sighed behind a laugh. "You know, for someone who only wears hoodies 90% of the time, you're surprisingly high maintenance."