Aki floated through the next day at school. She didn't even dare to tell her friends about her encounter, scared that she would look like an idiot if Hedeon never contacted her. After all, she hadn't had her phone on her last night at the dinner table, so it was entirely up to him to reach out to her if he wanted to talk. She checked her phone obsessively between classes, to the point where her best friend Sabina asked as they were leaving their group study session at the end of the day, "Akiya, are you all right? Expecting a callback from an audition or something?"

Aki shoved her phone back into her bag, shaking her head with what she hoped was a light smile. "No, just checking my messages. You never know, right?" She laughed and changed the subject as they put their helmets on and got onto her motorcycle, but the empty notification log didn't leave her mind.

When she got home, she immediately ran into the apartment in an attempt to locate her papa. He wasn't sitting in the living room, but her otousan heard her enter and poked his head out of the kitchen. His face lit up with a gentle smile as he greeted her, "Aki, okaeri!"

"Tadaima, Otousan!" She hurried through the greeting as she kicked her shoes off. "Do you know where Papa is?"

Yuuri pointed down the hallway. "He's in our room, finishing up some work. He said he would be done in time for dinner."

Aki barely heard this last sentence, as she was already rushing down the hallway. Her otousan called after her, "It will be ready in about half an hour!"

She reached her parents' room and knocked on the door, hurriedly throwing it open. Her papa looked up at her in surprise at her rushed entry. "Akiya, okaeri. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Tadaima, Papa," she responded almost impatiently as she flung herself across the room and plopped next to him on the bed. Smiling at him, she asked, "How was your day?"

He shifted his hands off his laptop so he could turn to her more fully. "It was good. I mostly worked on programs for the upcoming season, so I've been holed up in here all day." He smiled at her. "How was your study group?"

She felt disappointment in knowing that her papa hadn't been to the office today. There was no way he would have talked with Hedeon, then. She shrugged at his question, flipping over and curling her back up against her papa. He patted her shoulder lightly, then rested his arm on her as he went back to finishing up his work.

The two of them sat in amiable silence until Yuuri called down the hallway that dinner was ready. Aki bounced off the bed, her papa following her as they trailed into the kitchen. As she claimed her spot at the table, Aki asked, "Isn't Nika coming?"

Her otousan shook his head as he put the last dish on the table and seated himself. "No, he sent a message that he's eating with Aliya today."

Aki nodded. Her brother had been infatuated with the daughter of her parents' friends for as long as she could remember, and frequently the two floated between their houses. Besides, having a break from her eleven-year-old brother for an evening was never something Aki was upset about. Particularly today, when she had a lot on her mind. Hedeon occupied her thoughts so much, in fact, that she had a hard time concentrating on dinner and the conversation her parents were holding.

She managed to eat her fill and excused herself to her room, saying she had homework to do. In reality, the only work she had was a long-term essay that she had already written the outline for, but she sat down and idly attempted to work on it anyway, simply for the sake of doing something. Her task didn't stop her from checking her phone every few minutes, although the notification log remained empty.

Finally, she gave up for the evening, going through her nighttime routine and getting ready to crawl into bed. Just as she turned off her light, however, she heard her phone go off.

Stomach turning over, she flicked the phone open, and saw to her delight a message on WhatsApp from a number she didn't recognize. She opened the app and read the message:

'Hey, this is Hedeon. What's up?'

Her heart pounded in her chest as she quickly saved his contact info. She replied:

'Hey. Not much. You?'

As she sent the message, she wondered if maybe she should have waited a little longer to respond. She didn't want to seem too desperate to hear from him.

Even though she was.

For a few minutes, no reply came. Then her phone went off, and even though she was holding it with the WhatsApp screen open, she still startled and nearly dropped the phone. She hurriedly opened the new message:

'Not much.'

She stared at her screen. What was she supposed to do with that? Did he just not have much to say to her? Or was he as nervous as she was? She cast about in her mind for something, anything to say to continue a conversation. She was still trying to find something to say as she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning she awoke with a start, phone still in her hand. She stared at it in horror, realizing that she hadn't responded. Was it too late for a response now? But what would she even say? Would it be really lame to say she had fallen asleep? Or would he think it was endearing? She noticed the time, and realized she didn't have time to worry about it at the moment if she was going to pick up Sabina and get them to school.

Aki rushed through her morning routine, and somehow managed to pull up in front of the school on her bike with Sabina just minutes before the school day started. As the two dashed inside, Aki decided that she would have to ask her friend over lunch what she should do about her crush.

She mulled it over in her head by herself through most of the morning, but by the time the girls were sitting down with their lunches, she hadn't made any real progress towards a decision. She sighed and opened her phone, and to her surprise noticed she had another message. Quickly, she opened it:

'You said your name is Aki?'

Aki squealed, and Sabina gave her a questioning look. "What's with you?'

Bouncing in her seat, Aki clutched her phone to her chest. "I met this cute guy at my papa's work a couple days ago, and he came to my house to work on some things, so I made him dinner and I gave him my WhatsApp. He sent me a message last night, but I didn't really know what to say, so I ended up falling asleep. But he just sent me another one!" She pressed her phone into Sabina's hand and watched intently as the other girl scrolled through the short message history.

When she was done, Aki demanded, "So what do you think I should say to him?"

Sabina flipped her short platinum hair out of her eyes to scrutinize her. "Wow, Akiya, you really like this guy, huh? I've never seen you interested in anyone before." She passed the phone back and grinned. "He must be really cute or something, I guess."

Aki sighed dreamily. "Yeah, he is. But that's not the point right now! If I want him to date me, I need to be interesting! Witty! Charming!"

Sabina laughed. "I don't know how you expect to do all that in like three words, but let's try. For right now, this is a good chance to tell him your full name. Since everyone calls you Aki or Akiya, that's probably why he's asking."

"Oh! You're right!" She grabbed her phone and typed a response:

'My name is actually Akilina, but since my dad is Japanese, we shorten it to Aki a lot. It means bright in Japanese.'

She sent the message and tried her best to eat her lunch, but nevertheless when her notifications went off she was opening WhatsApp within seconds. The girls crowded their shoulders together to read:

'Oh, that's right, Victor Roksanaich mentioned he was married.'

The girls traded looks. "What am I supposed to say to that?" Aki asked blankly.

"I...don't really know, honestly. Really, he doesn't seem to be very good at conversation, does he?"

Aki bristled. "Hey, that's not fair. He's just...busy, that's all. He's debuting in Men's this year, so he probably has a lot on his mind." She thought for a moment, then typed:

'Yeah, my Japanese dad, my otousan, skated too. That's how my parents met. My otousan is actually the one who taught me how to cook.'

She paused and looked at her friend. "Do I ask him if he wants to try Japanese cooking? Would that be weird if I invited him over like that?"

Sabina laughed. "I don't know when other people's opinions have ever stopped you before. But yeah, it might be a little too soon to directly invite him over just for dinner. Maybe you can just say you can cook for him sometime, and leave it open-ended? A little suggestion that you're interested in seeing him repeatedly without putting pressure on him."

Aki hugged her friend around her shoulders. "You're the best, Sabisha! What would I do without you?" She added another sentence onto her message:

'Maybe I could make Japanese food for you sometime.'

She sent it, satisfied with herself, and returned to her lunch. Soon, the girls started talking about an upcoming test, and Aki was able to ignore the fact that her phone remained dreadfully silent. For the rest of the day, in fact, it refused to go off at all, despite her frequent checks of it.

Finally, at night when she was getting ready for bed, her notification went off. She scrambled for it, opening it to read:

'That might be nice. But I want to get to know you a little better first.'

Aki couldn't keep the foolish grin off her face. Luckily for him, she had the same desire.