"It's not too cold , right ? ", Kazuya asked her , tentatively .
"Mm , I'm fine " , she nodded back
"Oh that's good " , he responded
"You ? " , she asked .
"I'm fine too " , he quickly responded.
A minute passed silently . Then another and then a few more before she prompted ,
"How's your job ? At the Karaoke place ? "
"Yeah , no problems " he answered and then continued,
"What about you ? Do you have a client or acting classes you need to get to after this ? "
She shook her head in reply .
A few more minutes of silence passed as they walked along the sidewalk while snow fell around the
Kazuya glanced at her again , trying desperately to think of something to say but he couldn't. His mind was preoccupied or rather fixated on that moment.
Back at the park , after they had pulled apart , they had sat there for a while smiling at each other for a while before snow started its descent all around them .
At that point they had gotten up and started to hurry back towards their apartment .
That was when it had hit him . What he had just done . The magnitude of it . His initiation of the whole thing , when he pulled her closer to him.
Maybe it was just that the adrenaline had finally worn off but Kazuya immediately descended into sheer embarrassment .
One glance at her and it was obvious that was currently in that same pit and that had lead to this awkward conversation as they walked back.
"The weather ? My job ? How dumb is that?" , he thought to himself frantically.
"She knows about all this. We already talked about this is in the morning ".
However one anxious thought stood at the forefront,
"She's okay with it right ? ", he worried.
"She didn't think I was ... pushing it or that it was too soon " .
He had probably been staring at her too much by this point, because she suddenly whipped her head around and caught him looking at her with what Kazuya knew was a combination of dazed embarrassment and guilt on his face .
He saw it click through her mind immediately . The realization of what he had been thinking about . He saw her eyes widen and cheeks flush with colour .
She opened her mouth to sat something and then closed it before she could say anything.
Kazuya hurriedly tried to jump in and change the topic but before he could , she suddenly dropped her gaze to the ground and stated , so softly that he could barely hear it ,
"It was ... nice " .
For a second , her words floated over his head. And then it clicked.
"N...Nice? I... uh ... " , he began to sputter before she suddenly pulled her gaze back at him ,now with some shock in her eyes as she asked, hesitatingly,
"You didn't... It wasn't... n...nice ? "
"No , no . It was . Really good ", Kazuya blurted out before he stopped .
She smiled for just a second before her embarrassment overtook her .
She looked away for a while till she finally managed to compose herself and then gestured to a nearby Cafe.
Kazuya nodded and they both went in , sat down and ordered a cup of coffee and muffin each .
After the waitress walked away , Chizuru interlocked her fingers and told Kazuya,
"Hey , I'm really sorry for acting all weird ".
"It's fine ", he told her .
"It was , I mean , it is kinda weird for me too, you know. All this. "
She nodded and continued,
"At least you tried to keep the conversation going. I was just nodding my head .
I couldn't help it though. After all , it... " .
Chizuru suddenly stopped herself with a panicked look on her face .
Kazuya was puzzled and asked ,slightly worried
"It what ? "
The waitress delivered their coffee and so Chizuru fiddled with her cup for a while before she finally spoke , so soft that it was almost imperceptible.
"It was my first " .
Kazuya blinked in confusion before light dawned.
And then he exploded,
"Your first ? You mean ... "
A glowing Chizuru rapidly waved her hands around trying to get him to calm down which took a couple of minutes but he did eventually.
They both drank their coffee in silence before Kazuya spoke again,
"Um... Mizuhara , I wasn't too forward or anything, was I? " , he asked .
Chizuru hurriedly swallowed the bite of the muffin she had just taken and replied , stuttering as she did ,
"No ... it wasn't . I mean ... I was taken back when you .. started . But... it wasn't too much ."
She stopped for a second and then added ,
"Just ... give me a warning next time ".
"N..Next time ? What... when .. " , Kazuya blurted out without thinking.
Chizuru nearly shrieked out aloud , but just about managed to stop herself, before telling him ,
"I didn't mean ... like that.. or now ".
"Oh... sorry ", an embarrassed Kazuya apologized.
"You idiot ", she muttered .
The two soon finished their coffee and headed outside walking for a bit more before Chizuru suggested that they take a bus to which Kazuya readily agreed .
They reached the bustop and sat down in the enclosed space , glad for the heating inside .
There were a couple of others there, but a young girl in her high school uniform caught both their eyes.
It wasn't that difficult. After all she kept stealing glances at them .
"Do we know her ? ", Kazuya muttered .
"No , definitely not ".
"Then why is she staring at us ? "
"Take a guess ", she replied drily .
He turned and glanced at Chizuru and was surprised to see her staring back at the young girl , with a rather patent unfriendliness.
"Huh ? I don't get it ", a puzzled Kazuya told her.
She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow and stated ,
"Really ? It's quite obvious ", she stated .
"What ? "
With an exasperated sigh , she told him ,
"She's interested in you ".
A startled Kazuya immediately whipped his head around towards the high-schooler again ,who had been looking at them but turned away ,the second she saw Kazuya staring at her .
"Me ? " , Kazuya asked Chizuru incredulously.
A clearly irritated Chizuru turned to him again and retorted ,
"What do you mean "me" ? Why not you? You're a good looking guy . You're dressed pretty well and your hair might be messy but it kind of looks like it's fashionably messy, which I... uh.. some girls find endearing ".
"Huh ? ", was all a confused Kazuya could manage while wondering to himself,
"Mizuhara thinks I'm good looking ? ".
For some reason a silly grin broke out on his face which did not please Chizuru at all .
"Why do you look like you're enjoying this?", she asked him, accusatorily.
Finally things clicked and before he had run it through his head , Kazuya asked her without a hint of delicacy ,
"Are you jealous or something?"
"Wha... " , a flushed Chizuru managed to get out before her plain-as-day jealousy intensified once again and she hissed at him,
"Why wouldn't I be ? Especially because you seem to be having a fun time ."
Kazuya opened his mouth to deny that notion but before he could she shot back ,
"And look who's talking ! Who's the one who got jealous when I met up with Umi-kun that time while we were campaigning for the movie ?"
"Th...that was different ", Kazuya spluttered out.
Suddenly they heard a soft shuffling noise and turned to the front . The young girl had gotten up and was slowly inching towards them.
Kazuya beginning to panic , turned to Chizuru and relaxing that she was on the verge of letting loose , immediately tried to appease her .
"Mizuhara , it's fine . I'll just turn her down ".
He watched her clench her fists before she slowly exhaled ,
"20 seconds , then I give her a piece of my mind "
Kazuya gulped and focused back on the young girl who had stopped in front of them.
He was just about to speak when the girl bowed her head slightly, suddenly revealing the anxiety on her face before she nervously stammered,
"Umm...Ex..excuse me . C..can you t...tell me how to get to ..."
Supremely embarrassed , both Kazuya and Chizuru immediately helped the young girl figure out which bus to take before she bowed again, just about managing to thank them before she sat back down.
"I feel like an idiot ", Chizuru muttered.
"I told you ", Kazuya whispered back to her.
They were both apologetically silent for a couple of minutes before something about the girl caught Kazuya's attention again and so he glanced at her for a few seconds until he suddenly felt a sharp poke in his ribs.
He turned back to Chizuru and saw her expression smoldering ,just a bit , once again as she asked,
"What are you doing? "
He hurriedly replied,
"No , no , it's not like that"
He paused for a second before he continued as a puzzled expression came over him .
"It's just something about her seems familiar but I'm sure I don't know her ".
He watched as Chizuru glanced at the high-schooler as well for a few seconds before a look of recognition settled over her.
She turned back to him and replied,
"It's her uniform. She goes to the same high school I did ".
Kazuya also turned back to the young girl and realized that Chizuru was right.
The green blazer, white shirt and red pleated skirt , it was all the same . The only difference was the absence of the lined cardigan which was probably what made Kazuya take so long to figure it out .
"Huh , you're right ", Kazuya commented .
The girl finally noticed them staring at her and began to visibly shiver , clearly anxious about the attention they were giving her .
Both of them hurriedly flailed their hands around and Chizuru managed to reassure the girl just before the bus came.
Chizuru insisted on seeing her to the bus and came back once she had done so .
"All things said and done, you handled her quite well ", Kazuya remarked.
"It wasn't that difficult ", Chizuru explained with a smile.
"She's not too different from Sumi-chan ".
The mention of Sumi-chan and the memory of Chizuru's school uniform suddenly brought up a particular memory for Kazuya.
One he impulsively and rather impulsively decided to tell her about .
"Hey ... um ... do you remember that time we went on a rental in our uniforms ? " , he asked .
"Huh ? Yeah . Didn't I just refer to it ? " , she answered, slightly confused.
"And do you remember that we nearly bumped into ..." , he began.
"Yeah , Sumi-chan nearly saw us ", she completed before continuing,
"We were so lucky we got away before she saw us ".
"Yeah..." , Kazuya's voice faltered as he began to wonder if he should have just kept his mouth shut .
"What was that? ", she asked sharply.
Realizing that it was too late for him to back out , Kazuya swallowed nervously and answered sheepishly,
"Well ... it turns out that ... Sumi-chan...actually did see us that day ".
Kazuya had never seen a person's expression change so much in so little time as a crimson red Chizuru nearly screamed out loud ,
"What ?"
Kazuya sat down on the bus seat next to a Chizuru who was clearly unsettled .
"How on earth am I supposed to face Sumi-chan now ", she groaned softly before staring at him accusatorily and continuing ,
"She looks up to me , you know? Or at least she
used too ".
"Well... that was a while ago so ... technically... you've already faced her since and ..." , Kazuya began .
A furious glare made him rethink his words before he tried again,
"Don't worry . She guessed correctly that the whole uniform thing was because of me . "
That would have been the perfect place to stop but Kazuya once again continued talking before running it through his mind .
"Seriously , Sumi-chan even thought that I had a thing for school uniform and ... "
Finally common sense had kicked him and he stopped immediately .
It was too late . Chizuru picked up on it immediately.
"What do you mean ? "
Knowing instinctively that there was no way to play it off , Kazuya gave up and told her ,
"She turned up to the practice date in ... her own uniform ".
"What ? " , Chizuru yelled out loud for the second time that day.
"No , no , Mizuhara, I swear it wasn't like that . It was an honest mistake ... "
It took him a good five minutes but he managed to appease her finally and that brought a sigh of relief from Kazuya .
"I guess if there's one thing I've learned today, it's to not do anything that could make her even remotely jealous ", Kazuya thought to himself.
Kazuya watched her beside him, still a little pink staring out the window.
He could tell that she wasn't really paying attention to the view .
A few loose strands of her hair flitted past her eyelashes ,tickling them as they danced past each other, but she made no motion to brush her hair back , a telltale sign that she was engrossed in thought.
Kazuya waited patiently and soon enough in about a couple of minutes, Chizuru turned back to him and told him ,
"You were right ".
"Huh ? About what ? ", a confused Kazuya asked .
He watched her fidget awkwardly for a few seconds before she admitted ,
"That day, during the movie making campaign, when Umi-kun invited me out , he ... asked me to be his girlfriend ".
A stunned Kazuya was silent for several seconds before he asked , irrational panic building in his chest ,
"W...What did you say ?"
She glanced at him like the answer was obvious,
"I turned him down " , she stated .
"Eh ? Why ? ", Kazuya asked
"You honestly can't think of any reason I would say no ? ", she asked slyly .
But ...back then...we weren't... " , a nervous Kazuya began before Chizuru completed ,
"Together ? "
Kazuya nodded shakily after which Chizuru sighed and replied , but in a much softer voice ,
"Like I told you , I hadn't really figured out my feelings. But I wasn't dumb enough to go off with someone else .
Even then I knew that you made me feel something different than any other person in my life " .
"Mizuhara...", Kazuya managed to say before Chizuru added ,
"And don't say that you think Umi-kun is better than you for some reason or anything like that. I'll get mad if you do that ".
Kazuya nodded again and the two were silent for a couple of seconds, being Kazuya spoke again,
"Mizuhara, you're really the only one for me "
Once again ,like a flip of a switch, just like he had been doing all day , Kazuya managed to reduce Chizuru into a flustered mess with a few words.
"Why ... all of a sudden ?", she manged to get out before Kazuya replied dead-serious ,
"Because you were being all jealous before and I wanted you to know that from the day we met you've been the only one for me ".
That didn't help with Chizuru's composure but it quite plainly made her happy and after a few seconds she playfully asked ,
"Really ? So when someone is the "only one" for you , you take them to a public place and yell at them ?"
A little bit of guilt and shame flitted through Kazuya's face for just a second before he smiled and replied , artfully,
"Well ..let's just say ," from the second day I met you" then or maybe since the hospital ".
The two of them laughed at that little witty remark before settling back comfortably on their seats.
And then it hit Kazuya.
Something he could barely believe both of them had forgotten about.
But it was to be expected . Bliss often hides that which is not encompassed by it .
The bus halted and even though it wasn't their stop , Kazuya suddenly stood up and told Chizuru,
"Let's go " .
"Huh , wait ..." , she tried to say but instinctively followed him out of the bus .
"This isn't our stop . What are you doing?", a confused Chizuru asked .
Kazuya didn't say anything and instead checked the bus schedule .
She repeated her question but all Kazuya would say was ,
"We forgot " .
He refused to explain any further and instead led Chizuru into another bus .
It wasn't too long before Chizuru realized too . Of course not , once they were close enough, it would have been impossible for her to not understand .
She took a deep breath before glancing at Kazuya telling him
"I feel horrible now for not even remembering .
I'm a pretty bad granddaughter for not even thinking of visiting her own grandmother ".
"That's not the case at all ", Kazuya gently told her.
"In fact ,I think Sayuri-san would be overjoyed that you've been so happy that she hasn't been weighing on your mind ."
She smiled a bit and then replied,
"Thank you ".
They got off the bus and stopped at a flower shop , before heading to the cemetery.
Chizuru led him straight to Ichinose Sayuri's grave where they lay the bouquet of flowers together before they both knelt down and closed their eyes, before praying silently .
Kazuya got up first but waited for Chizuru marveling at her strength as he did . How she had kicked Atlas off his perch and taken the weight of the sky on her back , how she was able to keep going despite losing everyone.
"Almost everyone ", a voice spoke in his head, reminding himself that he too was now most definitely in that small but special group of people that had earned her love .
"And if she ever needs the slightest help", he promised himself.
"I'll be there , by her side , ready to carry the weight of the world with her " .
After a few more minutes , Chizuru opened her eyes.
Kazuya immediately stretched out his hand which she gratefully accepted without hesitation.
But even after he had pulled her onto her feet , she didn't let go of his hand.
They walked slowly out of the cemetery ,silently , content with holding each other , though Kazuya was troubled in his mind .
He knew that it wasnt just Sayuri-san. They had to ...eventually..
"Tell everyone"
Kazuya stopped and turned towards Chizuru ,in surprise, because she was the one who had spoken .
"You're thinking the same thing aren't you ?", she asked him .
"We have to eventually tell everyone ".
"Yeah we do ", Kazuya grimaced before continuing,
"But we don't have to tell them right now . For all of them , the lie they believed became the truth.
I'm not saying that we were right to lie to them or anything like that . But ... right now ,none of them are hurt by the truth.
We will tell all of them the truth one day but we don't need to do it now .
But ...".
Kazuya hesitated for a second and looked away as he felt guilt wash over him.
He immediately felt that firm grip of hers squeeze his hand tightly .
He turned to her and met her warm hazelnut eyes and he realized that Chizuru had understood the rest of his thoughts as well .
"But there's someone who will be hurt by the truth ,isn't there ?", Chizuru stated with a sad smile before Kazuya nodded .
The two understood each other perfectly and so they continued on , walking back to their apartment , knowing exactly what they had to next .
Author's Note : This was Chapter 27 and you might have seen that there is a chapter 28 on the site/app right now .
It's not another chapter but rather an important announcement regarding Resonance that has been published under the name Chapter 28 for now.
Please make sure to read it.