A/N: I'm a dolt. High schools in Japan have sports days, this I knew. A day full of relay races, tug-of-war, gymnastics, and other fun events. The problem is it would've been in early-mid October. I completely missed out on some prime Hejjiguchi/Naoi rivalry opportunities! Among other things... I've edited Chapter 24 only by a sentence or two to mention it, which is better than nothing. But seriously, fiddlesticks!

I'd have Akuma High postpone it to late November, but I just don't know if that's worthy of belief-suspension. Oh well. At least the school festival is up ahead. My Clannad feelings are strong with this arc.

Anyways, just got home so this'll be half an hour late. But I'm kinda fond of this chapter, so... enjoy!

[Chapter 26]: Solus

At school on Monday, Ayato used silent reading time to prop a book upright and sleep for fifteen minutes because weekends were useless and didn't recharge him at all. Usually he didn't try to pull this since he was never a class snoozer. Plus Kurimu sat behind him, and while she might be too polite to disturb him, he was sure Hejjiguchi would sense her disapproval and gallantly do it for her.

But today he took the chance. He was too damn tired to care, plus Kurimu was too busy turning around and checking on Hejjiguchi to notice. Apparently her boyfriend's sour attitude from Friday had carried into the next week. She whispered to him; he muttered an unintelligible response. Ayato caught her teensy frown in the reflection on the window. She turned around again, whispered some more.

"Nothing," Hejjiguchi grumbled.

It took three more exchanges of that for Kurimu to give up and look sadly at her book. Even Ami sat quietly, after one furiously scribbled note.

Ayato rested. He didn't know when he was going to get a chance like this again.

If Kurimu's pouty boy toy skipped lunch again, Yuri didn't know about it. She respectfully declined Ami's invitation over text and headed outside. If Ami wanted some extra help on stage or behind the scenes for the play that the drama club was working on, Yuri was going to need to get her ass back into recruiting. She needed to find a new member by, uh, last week.

Ami had kindly given her the plot and script over a week ago, just to look it over. But even if she found someone today, she'd only have three weeks to learn the ropes and help out. Ami's friend Jinko was a good writer, and claimed she'd be able to quickly create a role for Yuri if she wanted, but Yuri suspected that was just niceties. At this point it would be lighting and tech work for her.

Stupid Naoi. This was partially his fault. First with not being any help – she could have at least used moral support – and then putting her into a funk that cost her two whole weekdays! Two weekdays she could have been doing something to be useful to the drama club, to the upcoming festival, actually getting involved and giving back to the school for the first time in ages. So excuse her for being overly focused on one topic!

But no, he decided what was important to talk about. And behaved like an asshole and made it about him when she wouldn't get into it.

One thing! One little thing that wasn't worth mentioning, that belonged in the past! He just had to hone in on that one and pitch a big entitled baby fit over it. Calling her a bad friend just because he didn't get what he wanted. And she was the spoiled one?! Who the hell did he think he was?

Oh, right, "the son of the biggest bastard in Akuma." He was seriously over-glorifying himself, but he tended to do that a lot. Meanwhile, she'd laughed in his face at the idea of him ever being a delinquent, and only ever treated him as her friend. But after all these months, he thought he could talk to her like that? Lecture her on Friendship 101?

What a jerk. She was glad he wasn't in her class. Strategically planning her lunch spot was the only thing she had to do to avoid dealing with his crap. When you made friends at school in a small town, it wasn't always as easy as that.

She ate her lunch, quietly scoping out the campus. There was a decent October overcast sky hanging over the school, but no rain, so students were eating outside and enjoying a light breeze that coupled nicely with the season's lingering warmth. Some were loners, lying under trees with their arms crossed behind their head. Others were athletes or generally upbeat kids who crowded together in a boisterous tight-knit group on the grass. And then there were a select few who might be artsy or dramatic, the ones who sat on the fountain edge for the aesthetic.

That had been Naoi's theory, anyway. But she'd gone up to the spot once as he'd suggested and tried to recruit, and the two she'd asked were already in the art club. They'd be happy to illustrate scenes for the drama club, of course! That was great, just not what Yuri had needed at the moment. She eyed the crowd now. Different girls, but they were laughing together and comparing sketchpads.

The grass rippled invitingly towards a small group of students lounging under the shade of a tree. Yuri took a long sip of her drink and regarded them for a moment, trying to read their vibe.

Hmm… One girl was cloud-gazing – with some very unnecessary and flashy (but admittedly cute) sunglasses. Just lying there in a tranquil state, apparently saying something that made the dark-haired guy next to her peer down at her through his own glasses with fond puzzlement. Behind them, closer to the tree, another lanky guy was happily arguing through a mouthful of food with a bushy-haired girl who possibly just wanted to read the open book in her lap.

Yuri had read enough manga to recognize the situation. This had all the potential ingredients of a driven group of students who were just lazy enough to not yet have anything better to do until it was dropped into their laps. She crushed her drink can in excitement. It was perfect!

A jolt of inspiration bringing her to her feet, she glanced over her shoulder with a grin. But she caught herself just in time to close her mouth before she could tell a soul that wasn't there, "Target spotted."

Damn muscle memory. Naoi wasn't in this with her. Well, he never was, but now he wasn't even in his spot.

It was his spot. And it was empty. She was people-watching alone.

The thought was instantly sobering. There was absolutely nothing fun about people-watching when it was just her. She'd only ever done it with a friend – it was at least a two-person sport. And while she still did it on her own from time to time, for knowledge purposes, actually going up to people after staring at them for a long time was way different. She didn't just go up to people she barely knew and start a conversation.

Then again, she had done that with Naoi. But it was different with him for some reason, the… the blood bond and all.

Yuri frowned. She hadn't thought about that in what felt like a very long time.

It was a ridiculous label, really. A cheap, flowery title she'd come up with to explain why she'd cared, why she'd bothered to seek him out the way she did. The reality was, it didn't have to be some sort of "souls destined to meet each other" concept. That was dangerous thinking, misjudging a bond's mortality. Some people just clicked together – and the right impact could tear them apart.

Her energy zapped, she went to sit back down. Maybe brood for a little bit. Her nails dug into the stone of the bench as she toed the dirt with her shoe. Then she growled under her breath, jumped up, and started walking in the direction of the dramatically billowing grass. It was stupid to let Naoi indirectly hold her back on this mission for one more second.

After all, she could do whatever she wanted. It was up to her and her alone, and she didn't have time for anyone who thought otherwise.

Traffic was sparse outside the club room after lunch, so Ayato took to the halls at a leisurely stride, hands stuffed in his pockets as he made a few necessary mental calculations. There was no rush, considering who he had a good chance of running into.

Now that she had no obligations to him, she had likely eaten in the cafeteria with her new good friends. Meeting them head-on at the classroom door was the last thing he wanted to deal with today. Though – Hejjiguchi was still in a hilariously foul mood, so he could've bailed on the other three again. Which meant… ugh, a prattling group of schoolgirls. There was already something unfathomably tense about girls giggling together and falling pin-drop silent when they saw you. For Yuri to be in the middle of it…

He shook his head and decided to pick up the pace. It might be better to just get there first; unless she walked into his classroom, which he doubted she would, there would be no problem between the two of them.

After all, he'd hate to be a time-waster. He scoffed to himself. God knew she already had plenty of those.

He drifted around corners and down hallways increasingly populated with faceless nobodies. If he kept walking and staring ahead, they would weave around him, their voices a dull thrumming lost on the air.

It was better this way, more peaceful. He'd just needed to recalibrate and screw his head back into place. Now he could go back to coasting through the school day without worrying about idiotic things, like which complete stranger of a classmate seemed more like a thespian, or was that guy staring at him or just drooling over Yuri, or whether or not one annoying classmate secretly liked the other, or how long could he risk lollygagging after school with Yuri without enraging Kimito?

In fact, he could make the argument that most of his problems as of late had originated with Yuri somehow. Like at the baseball game – it was Yuri who talked about Kurimu and called her cute. Ami had overheard and pulled it all out of proportion. His stricter schedule? A consequence of hanging out with Yuri. And the coffee mug incident – well, that was self-explanatory.

These past few months had been… unstable, to say the least. He had spent them making every effort to be her friend. Being stupidly daring, reckless—just like her. Extending his boundaries upon her request! And for what? For her to push him away when he dared test hers?

"Friends don't hide from each other!"

"What the hell would you know about it?"

That, there. That had been telling. She'd all but plainly revealed what she thought of him. A friendless fledgling, a paltry sidekick. It was true he'd been socially negligent before he met her, due to name and circumstance and just not giving a damn. But then she came along and made her mark, she was new and interesting and she understood, and he had done what he could to spend time with her since she made Akuma seem like more than just a prison.

And all along, what was she doing? Dragging him places, calling the shots. Letting him into her home life but nothing else. There was a wall up between them and he didn't know what it was made of.

The more he thought about it, the more the injustice seared under his skin. Why was she allowed to heroically interfere with his issues when he wasn't even allowed to know hers? Whatever it was, it clearly bothered her if she refused to talk about it.

Ayato scowled as the irritating hum of socialization grew louder, and escaped down a quieter corridor to untangle his convoluted thoughts in peace.

Or else, she just didn't want to talk about it with him. And he couldn't think of any plausible reason for that, for him knowing less than Hejjiguchi and Ami, other than simply this: he had severely overestimated what he was to her. Little more than a phase who had misjudged his place. The power had always been in her hands; until now he had been too blind to see it.

Clenching his teeth, he growled quietly. There was some sort of arguing going on within earshot so he buried the urge to kick a locker.

She had played him. Played him like—

"—played us like a fiddle! Her words exactly!"

Ayato's ears pricked up. Though he'd never heard it so shrill, the voice was one he recognized. He rounded the corner with piqued curiosity and confirmed his suspicions. The infamous secret couple was huddled up in a corner near some lockers, Hejjiguchi clearly extremely riled up about something and Kurimu looking unhappy and confused at the other end of it. They instantly went quiet when they noticed him, but the air remained tense between the two.

What were they doing here alone? Ayato eyed them speculatively, then glanced down the hall. No sign of Ami or Yuri. Hadn't Kurimu joined their happy little group for lunch today? Or was it just the two of them here, having a lover's quarrel?

Hejjiguchi's face, having gone sheet white at the sight of him, had now twisted into blatant impatience and intolerance. It made Ayato grin for the first time that day. Seeing him still in such a rotten mood… the stark contrast to his usual perky confidence was laughable.

"Trouble with the missus?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at him.

Hejjiguchi wasn't as amused as he was.

"Look who's talking," he said curtly. "Why don't you stay out of our business for once?"

Ayato sucked in his cheeks, dumbfounded. The sheer hypocrisy of that question – he could've choked on his tongue!

"Idiot," he huffed, turning and dismissing them with a small headshake as he headed down the hall to their classroom. "I never wanted anything to do with you in the first place."

Which still had every ounce of truth to it, he'd mused to himself as he took his seat, so it thoroughly annoyed him that he was still wondering what those two could possibly be at odds about. He found peace of mind by attributing it to mild sadistic interest in Hejjiguchi's displeasure. But it was still disconcerting, that lingering attachment.

Again, Yuri's fault.

But with seating the way it was, some involvement was unavoidable. Ami came in with Hejjiguchi a mere minute before class started, chattering incessantly about costume design and outlines and just how was she supposed to keep track of all this stuff when she couldn't even keep track of her own best friends? Hejjiguchi only replied in grunts and mindless agreement. Knowing she had lost her audience, Ami heaved a theatric sigh and hoped aloud that dear Kurimu wouldn't take too much longer in the restroom.

In fact, Kurimu was an entire seventy seconds late. She took the baffled teacher's chastising submissively and returned to her seat in silence.

But the silence didn't last all day. Oh, no. The whispering from earlier this morning came back with a vengeance, only this time it was snippy. Ayato didn't even know the docile girl was capable of being snippy. Indignant, yes, but that never carried quite the same bite.

This was highly entertaining at first. By the end of the day, the cold quips had lost some of its charm. They could at least have the courtesy to pass notes.

After school, during cleaning time, the threat of a teacher's agitated shush was gone. Suffice it to say, they took that time to speak a little more freely to each other. He didn't care to eavesdrop this time, but whatever it was they were on about, it sounded rather petty.

At one point, unthinking, he turned to Ami and said, "What's with them?"

Ami, likely just as fed up or too concerned to be angry with him, had gone back and forth between chewing her lip and rolling her eyes at her friends.

"I don't know," she said, throwing her hands up in exasperation, "but they're driving me crazy."

A little unnerved by their civil exchange, and frankly bored of Hejjiguchi's bad mood for the day, Ayato went to clean up the counters on the other side of the room. Masuda was there by the chalkboard, dutifully wiping off the dust, and seemed to be safer company. He saw him coming and tossed him a cleaner washcloth.

"What's going on over there?" he asked, throwing a subtle gesture over his shoulder.

Ayato shrugged, pretending to be very interested in the counters. "Don't know, don't care."

Masuda laughed. "Spoken like a true detective."

"I'm told that's more your specialty."

Ayato tried to hold back a grimace, then. He'd forgotten – Yuri had mentioned that about him, because she and Masuda were such good friends now. Hopefully he wouldn't want to talk about her.

Mercifully, Masuda just nodded and continued scrubbing the blackboard.

"To an extent. I usually leave sleuthing out of the classroom." Ami's angry squawk in the background made him flinch for a second, then he shook his head. "Today, those three are hard to ignore."

"You're telling me," Ayato scoffed, unleashing his wrath on a particularly stubborn dirt spot. "I swear the universe strategically placed them around me purely for the sake of my suffering."

Masuda looked quietly amused by this. "That's an interesting branch of solipsism."

He stopped wiping. "Solipsism?"

"A philosophical view. The holder of the belief sees himself as the only entity in the universe that's sure to exist – anyone else is ornamental."

"I knew that," Ayato insisted. "I just…"

"You don't relate?"

He chewed the inside of his lip and wiped down the side of one of the cabinets. It wasn't that Masuda had purposefully insulted him – his classmate sounded genuinely into philosophy – but the concept of solipsism as attributed to him rubbed him the wrong way.

"Well, it makes me sound narcissistic, doesn't it?" he said.

His mind, of its own accord, traveled back to Wednesday. You act like it doesn't matter, just because you don't like Ami and you don't care about it! Maybe Masuda and Yuri spent their afternoons talking about how selfish he was, and this talk of solipsism was no coincidence.

Ayato stopped that thought in its tracks and rolled his eyes at himself, opening the window for Masuda so he could clap the erasers outside. Honestly, when did his thoughts get so irrational?

"It's a little egocentric in theory," Masuda said agreeably, reeling his head back to acknowledge Ayato's question and avoid chalk dust at the same time. "But solipsism is more about certainty. You are the only consciousness you can verify to exist."

"Huh," Ayato said, skeptical. If that were the case, it would mean that theoretically, it was possible for certain people to vanish from existence. It'd be his existence, after all. With enough mental power he could do it himself.

Kind of like God in a sense. What a world to live in. It seemed philosophy was more interesting than he thought.

A minute or two passed as they left each other in a thoughtful silence. Masuda wiped residual chalk dust from the windows while Ayato swept the cracks under the blackboard and contemplated a world of his own.

"What's the opposite?"

Masuda glanced over his shoulder at him, puzzled. "Opposite…? Of solipsism?"

"If you aren't even sure that you yourself exist," Ayato said.

His classmate looked intrigued and a little impressed. He disappeared into his head for a moment, as if thumbing through a mental philosophy textbook he hadn't finished yet.

"Cotard's syndrome," he answered with a wry grin. "Have you ever been dead?"

"Depends on who you ask."

Masuda laughed first, and then the absurdity of the statement hit Ayato and he snorted too, shaking his head at the direction this conversation had gone. He was glad he'd stopped himself before making a dark quip like "my father says I'm dead to him," though he imagined his nihilistic humor would be better received by Masuda. With Yuri it was always a swing and a miss.

Admittedly, Ayato had never heard of Cotard's syndrome before, so they talked about that until cleaning time was over. It was by all accounts a macabre conversation, and he had more existential crises coming out of it than he did going in, but it had its perks. Like drowning out all other obnoxious things into non-existence.

Including, most blessedly, his own thoughts.

In Yuri's personal opinion, everything was terrible. Most of all the month of October, which was obviously cursed and going way too fast to be anything other than supernatural.

She was hanging out in the classroom after school again, just as she had done on Friday. Ami had texted her and said since they didn't see each other at lunch, she really hoped they'd get to hang out after drama club. Apparently Hejjiguchi and Kurimu were stressing her out and so were some of her fellow drama members, so she needed some distance from all that.

And though Ami didn't know it, Yuri was probably responsible for at least 60% of that. Hejjiguchi was probably still mad about being duped, and on top of that, recruiting had been a failure during lunch.

To think, Naoi had claimed once that she had charisma. Another thing he obviously didn't know what he was talking about! She couldn't persuade a fish to join a river. It just wasn't in her anymore.

You're giving up too easily, a thought mused to her. You're not trying hard enough.

Screw that! She'd been busting her ass! Hadn't she? Focusing so hard on the damn thing she'd bored a whole best friend away.

It's not enough. It shouldn't even be this hard! If you were really doing everything you could, the operation would be over by now and Ami wouldn't be struggling—

"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!" Yuri clutched her hair and sunk her head onto the desk.

"Homework problems?"

Her head shot back up. She hadn't even heard the door; maybe she'd accidentally left it open all this time. Then again, Masuda had a quiet way to him. He'd probably snuck in while her brain was chewing her out.

She offered him a weak smile. "Among other things."

She'd hung out with him on Friday, but they hadn't talked a whole lot. She hadn't wanted to, and he seemed okay with that. Didn't really press the matter after a couple of initial questions. Something told her today he wouldn't be giving her the same courtesy.

Ten, fifteen minutes or so passed with them working on homework in comfortable silence. In the few days they'd done this together, she'd learned his homework state was extremely focused, almost meditative. In his own little world. And so she foolishly allowed herself to let her guard down.

Was that… was that what she'd been like with Naoi? So fixated on one thing that you couldn't snap her out of it?

No, it wasn't like that. She'd talked to him, tried to include him, kept him by her side. She knew he didn't like Ami very much so she did what she could to keep both sides happy with the least connection between the two. And it still wasn't enough for him?

She wondered what he and Hisakawa had talked about. Maybe she'd put a bunch of petty thoughts into his head, maybe that was why he started acting so weird. Some bullshit about novelty and hiding and questioning her loyalty.

Because God, she was just such a horrible friend…

"Are you alright?" Masuda asked.

Yuri startled in her seat for the second time in less than twenty minutes. Why did he always sneak up on her like that?!

"I'm fine," she sniffed, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were prickling and she hadn't noticed until now, but he probably had. Like a creep. What was he, spying on her? "It's nothing."

As expected, Masuda wasn't convinced. And why should he be? She'd thrown in "it's nothing," like a complete moron. Of course he would immediately suspect it was something. That always meant it was something.

Masuda regarded her calmly for a moment, narrowed eyes clearly trying to put something together in his head.

Then he said, "Is it Naoi? Are you guys fighting or something?"

God! Why were boys so nosy?

"Why does it have to be about Naoi?!" she hollered defensively. "What is he, the center of the universe? Everything doesn't revolve around him!"

Masuda broke into a grin in the middle of her rant. What the hell was so funny?!

"Sorry," he said, once his smirk had faded. "I just assumed. Lately in class he's been acting kind of—"

"Like an asshole?" Yuri raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "That's just him."

"I was going to say peaky, or blasé…" Masuda shrugged, sitting back in his chair. "But I suppose you've answered my question."

"It's not just Naoi," she grumbled. She really hated the idea of anyone thinking she would ever cry over a boy. Not that she was actually crying. "It's a whole bunch of things."

But as she spent the next, what, seven minutes complaining to him, there was just enough mention of Naoi in the conversation to be noticeable and embarrassing. And Masuda took to getting this awful sympathetic look whenever she abruptly switched topics on him. Maybe it wasn't obvious, but he was usually solemn for the most part so even a tiny change in expression was more pronounced in his features.

He did agree with her, though, on the privacy thing.

"So you don't think I'm being unreasonable either, right?" she'd asked him.

Masuda had shrugged it off. "I'm not one to play counselor to anyone's trust issues," he said. "On the one hand, it sounds like it'd be easier to just tell him. Then again, everyone has their secrets."

Yuri had nodded, basking in the vindication for a moment. Then he'd let her rant about recruiting some more, but he'd cut in briefly and asked her "wait, why are you doing this again?" and ugh, he'd sounded just like Naoi! So she reminded him about the drama club thing, which branched back to her scheme to befriend Ami to… Well, then she'd had to entrust him with the secret of Hejjiguchi and Kurimu's relationship, but it wasn't like she was being careful with their romance lately anyway. And Masuda was the private type so she doubted very severely that she'd have to worry about him blabbing.

She even told him about her first operation, the matchmaking scheme to free Naoi from the flirting. Masuda had gawped at her. "My roommates and I did something like that once," he said, with the widened eyes of a tired soul who had seen some shit. He then regaled her with the time Miyake and Hachihama got it into their heads a few years ago that Hirohashi had a crush on a shy classmate of his. Laughing over the zany schemes Miyake dragged him into (deliberate power outages and trying to scare the poor girl into his arms), Yuri felt soothingly normal in comparison.

It was nice. Watching the range of emotions that flashed across Masuda's face as he recalled the bizarre things Miyake convinced him to do even as a younger teen. The face-palm he did when he told her how Hachihama accidentally kicked a soccer ball at the girl's face. Snorting with laughter when Masuda said that in their defense, she did fall for Hirohashi after he saved her.

Geez, no wonder Masuda did homework here at school. For that, she was grateful to his silly roommates.

She didn't realize how much she'd lost track of time until she casually glanced at her phone while Masuda was telling her about the time Hachihama drew on his face. Had it seriously already been an hour?

"Wait, crap!" Yuri said, grabbing her books. "I've gotta go meet up with Ami."

Masuda checked the time himself and nodded. "I should get going too. The story's almost over, do you want to walk and talk?"

"Sure, sounds good."

Then she paused in the middle of putting her things in her backpack and considered him for a moment as an idea came to her. Where was her head? Why hadn't she thought of this before?

"Hang on…" Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she eyed him hopefully. "Masuda, why don't you join drama club with me?"

The poor guy stared back at her as though she'd asked him to wear a clown suit.

"The drama club? Me?" he repeated, skeptical. "Yuri, I stay here after class to avoid drama."

"Masuda, this is a high school. You can't avoid drama."

Her delivery must've been spot on, because Masuda's stubbornness faltered as he failed to hide a smirk. They both at least had an inkling of how true that really was. His resistance was clear in his furrowed brows, but she saw something wavering behind his eyes. Curiosity? Temptation? Whatever it was, she knew she had to jump on it.

"Come on," Yuri prodded him. She went and leaned against the doorway, arms crossed. He wouldn't get past without a guilt trip. "There's only a few weeks until the school festival. They're counting on me, but I can't join unless you're the tenth! Nine is unlucky!"

"That's just superstition," Masuda said, unimpressed.

"Theatre groups don't take any chances!" She batted her eyes at him – an undignified move, but it had a good success rate. "Please? It'll be fun. You don't even have to act or anything. You could be in charge of the lighting or curtains or directing! Behind the scenes stuff!"

He gave her a stony, dubious look. But she knew… oh, she knew his resolve was breaking.

Now for her ace in the hole.

"It'll mean more time away from Miyake and Hachihama…" she singsonged.

Bingo. The cogs in his head turned faster at the suggestion, making his eyes just a bit brighter. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"…Alright, I'll do it," he said, and picked up his bag. "I suppose I could use an extracurricular activity."

"YES!" Yuri practically screamed, pumping a fist into the air in triumph.

And that was the last Masuda had free rein of his arm. Yuri happily pulled him along down the hall to the drama club. Right on time, too – just as she was about to knock, the door to the club room rumbled open. A few girls who were just leaving might've said hello to her, but she barely heard them as she navigated her way past them into the room. Ami was still inside, leaning down to put some CDs into her backpack.

"Ami!" The girl jumped at the noise. Yuri knew she was being loud, but she didn't care; she could hardly contain herself from doing an embarrassing little dance. "I finally found a tenth member!"

Apparently she wasn't alone in her excitement – Ami stood up so fast she forgot to zip up her bag.

"That's great!" she squealed, and half her CDs clattered noisily to the floor.

As she stared down at them in open-mouthed mortification, Yuri and Masuda quickly joined her to help pick them up. She smacked herself in the forehead with a little sigh and knelt down to join them.

"This could not come at a better time," Ami said tiredly, holding her bag open so Masuda could drop a handful into it. "Thank you."

Despite the CD fiasco, Yuri was still grinning to herself when they all got back on their feet.

"Now that that's over with," she cleared her throat and gestured to Masuda, presenting him to Ami. "Meet the second new addition to the drama club."

Ami beamed, sizing him up as if trying to place him from somewhere.

"Welcome aboard!" she said cheerfully, extending a hand to him. "I'm Ami Kawata of Class B."

"And I'm Eisuke Masuda." He gave an awkward chuckle. "Also Class B."

A rosy pink bloomed in Ami's cheeks. She retracted her hand and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Oh, I'm sorry! I knew you looked familiar. I'm just really out of sorts these days…"

"It's alright, I sit closer to the front and don't draw a lot of attention to myself," Masuda said nicely. He grinned and bowed respectfully. "It's very nice to meet you, Kawata."

"You can call me Ami if you want. All the drama club members do."

Yuri sank down in a chair with a sigh of relief, exhausted but happy to listen to the two get acquainted. Operation: complete! And a job well done, if she did say so herself.

It just… She frowned to herself. It was missing something.

Someone to celebrate with.

A/N: Hope you like Masuda as much as I do. Let me know if there are any inconsistencies I missed!

Preview:

"Meet the newest addition to the drama club!"

"Was this kid okay?"

"Everybody, do your best!"

"What did you get me into?"

"You have got to be KIDDING me!"

"We never should have been dating in the first place."

"Any parts resonate with you?"

"You just got back."

[Chapter 27]: Saudade.