Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Super Gals Characters. I am only using them for this fanfic. Thank you for understanding.
Chapter 3: A Night to Remember
"Hey! I totally forgot! Ran and the others are waiting for us at the Square!" Aya exclaimed as she remembered her best friend's reminder.
She rushed to the Statue to find the others no longer there. Aya sighed.
"I guess they got tired of waiting..." Aya said quietly.
"They probably just went to get a snack. Do you want to wait for them?" Rei asked coolly.
"If that suits you just fine..." Aya said as she looked at him.
"Anything for you... But just to make sure... Are you willing to wait for at least 30 minutes?" Rei asked smiling but obviously, trying to hold back a laugh.
"30 minutes!? That's an awful lot of time!" Aya exclaimed.
"That's for how long I wait for them... Probably, they'd gone home or gone shopping..." Rei added.
Aya had noticed that he is trying to persuade her not to wait any longer. "Are you by any chance trying to dissuade me from waiting for them?" She asked jokingly.
"Ha? I am? Really?" Rei asked, jokingly, as well.
"Really Mr. Otohata... You changed a lot since-"Aya was cut off by Rei, putting his pointer finger on her lips, "-you arrived..." he said. Aya was blushing profusely now. Rei averted his gaze as he was also slightly blushing.
30 minutes later, after they circled the whole Shibuya Square...
"Uh, want me to give you a tour of the whole Shibuya after you left for three years?" Rei asked.
"Sure! Any new changes - evident changes?" She asked him, while looking around.
"Nothing much... Well, the most noticeable is that no one will ever glare at you anymore for being with me..." Rei said in a very light mood.
"Yes, I've noticed... Very 'new' isn't it?" She asked trying to fight back a smirk.
"I know that tone Ms. Hoshino! I'm warning you... I can pounce at you for that!" Rei readied his stance, about to attack Aya.
"Just you try, Mr. Otohata! Just you try!" Aya exclaimed.
"Thank you for the invitation!" Rei finally said as he ran towards Aya, tackling her and then embracing her tightly but gently. Then slowly, snow began to fall from the night sky. It was almost Christmas, though it was only the first week of December.
"It's beautiful..." Aya commented as she held her hands near her face and watched as snow dropped on her palms. 'God, she's so beautiful...' Rei thought to himself while staring at her, smiling.
"Rei, before anyone says it... Merry Christmas..." Aya smiled.
"Merry Christmas, too, Aya..." Rei replied as he hugged her. She hugged him back, to his surprise. 'This feels so right...' he thought. 'I missed him so much...' she thought. They held each other for quite a time when Aya pulled away gently.
"Rei, I really think I need to go home now... Wouldn't want my mom to ground me now would I?" She smiled.
"Yeah, if she does that, I'll just have to go to your house to see you, hm?" Rei replied squarely.
"Really, you didn't mean that did you..." Aya said a bit disbelieving, though trying hard not to expect.
"Who says? I mean it. And I'm going to do it!" Rei smiled with a tone of finality.
"Hahaha... Don't freeze to death when you see my mom!" Aya exclaimed. 'He'll do that? I can't believe it!' Aya thought.
"Don't worry, I won't... Let me walk you home... Shall we, my lady?" Rei asked her gesturing her to lead the way and bowing.
"REI! What do you think you're doing?" Aya asked in disbelief. She was blushing profusely.
"Showing my princess a bit of chivalry?" Rei asked with puppy dog eyes and pouting with his lower lip sticking out. 'He looks so cute on that...' Aya thought, smiling.
"Surely, young sir. How courteous of you..." Aya replied smiling her sweetest smile.
"Your smile lights up even the darkest places on earth, my lady..."
"Really Kind sir? You flatterer..."
Later...They walked, talked and laughed and ran with each other until the time they reached Aya's house. They were soon placed on a tense silence again, but this time, it was Aya who first spoke.
"Rei, would you like to come in and have a glass of coffee?" Aya asked, as she turned to him.
"Well, no, but thank you... Go, maybe your mom's waiting for you..." Rei smiled half-heartedly, the other part didn't want to let Aya go.
"Uh, thanks for everything Rei..." Aya said as she kissed him on the cheek. He blushed a bit and so did she. Tense silence began to fill the air once again and Rei finally spoke.
"Uh, see you tomorrow Aya... I want you to know that I enjoyed this night very much... in fact, it was my happiest so far..." Rei said smiling.
"Yeah, me too..." Aya said looking down, obviously blushing. To her surprise, Rei closed the gap and hugged her tight and said, "Good night, Aya..." in a very romantic way. This made Aya blush once again. Then adding to her surprise, Rei kissed her forehead and bade goodbye as he slid off her embrace.
"See you tomorrow Aya..." Rei said as he started on his way.
"See you..." Aya replied silently, watching his figure disappear in the shadows.
Rei's Room...Rei tossed and turned in his bed for the 22nd time for he cannot sleep. Surrendering to his 'insomnia', he picked up a Calculus book and started solving some problems. For a guy his age, he might consider gallivanting, vices and indulging in sexual activities but Rei is different. He is concentrated merely in his studies. He doesn't want to be deviated from it. He shuns vices, peers, girls and sex as he usually spends most of his time working for extra finances to aid in his studies. He doesn't want to be like his father who was a gambler and a womanizer with no money. He simply wants to make the woman of his life the happiest woman who ever lived the earth...
"The integral of x is dx and is distributed to the trinomial 4x2 4x 1, by doing so, the equation becomes 4x3/3 4x2/2 x, then substitute x with a, which is –2, followed by 3, which is b..."
After a while of solving 'easy' problems involving the use of the definite integral in calculus, he closed the book and smiled to himself, "I'm going to be successful and I'm going to make Aya the happiest girl ever... " With that, he took out a photo album taken 2 years ago. He looked at Ran and Yuuya's photo in the beach where Ran's cheering while Yuuya's drinking an awful beverage, Miyu and Yamato hugging each other, his picture working at Starbucks (a stolen shot) and finally another stolen shot, a picture of Aya looking out of the window of their classroom at the sky.
"Aya..." he whispered, "maybe I should call her... Or then, maybe not... Well, I suppose so, nothing's wrong if I call her right? Is there?"
"Damn! I'm not supposed to be like this! Why is she always on my mind!?" Rei groaned.
'Because you love her' a voice inside his head replied.
"What?" He asked, seemingly confused.
'I said because you love her' replied the voice. He recognized the voice as his, probably his subconscious talking to him. Wait a minute, there's a term for that, let me think, ah yes... Self-Empathy, that's it...
"I love her!? Are you out of your mind? How can I love her? I-"he replied defensively but the voice interrupted him. ' you missed her, so much, that you'd thought you'd never make it to another day if you didn't see her soon...'
"Fine, so let's just say I love her. Now what happens?" Rei asked curiously but a little insistent.
'That's where you come in...' replied the voice.
"'That's where you come in?' What does that suppose to mean?" Rei asked impatiently.
'You'll figure out in due time, when the sun and moon battle against each other and darkness falls, but after that, light comes out, signaling a new day and a new hope. So now, sleep. You deserve it... By the way, have I told you that I also noticed the way 'she' looks at you? Well, it's pure of love and affection... Ok, goodnight!'
"Darkness falls? New day and a new hope? What does these all mean? Love and affection...? Am I really that dense not to notice that?" Rei thought as he fervently closed his eyes then slowly opened them as he went to get the phone. He finally decided to call her up.
Aya's Bedroom...Aya cannot sleep as well. She was also thinking of him and his sudden softness to her. Well, she actually liked it, very much in fact but it really needs compromising. Aya also shuns vices but due to lack of freedom, she was forced to do escort services but luckily, Ran saved her from that occupation and she wasn't able to sell her body, keeping the important "V" factor still intact. Aya, like Rei, is also very intelligent. She is the top ranking student of their batch and was also a representative of quiz bees outside the school. She gets straight A's though this is not what she wanted – this was what her parents wanted. But fortunately, she was able to bring this plague out of her and she now enjoys student freedom as long as she doesn't get 'low' grades.
As Aya turned to her right side, she felt like she had, sort of a vision where Rei was lying down beside her and looking straight at her lovingly. She suddenly shook this dream off.
"I can't be in love with him? He shunned me twice already... He can do it again..."
"But why do I still like him? Why doesn't this feeling just go away? I need to forget him, if it's the last thing I do..." Aya said with a tone of finality.
"But why do I feel like I can't? Why can't I forget him? Why?" She murmured as tears fell through her raven eyes. 'I still love him... I still do...'
Just then, the phone rang. This made her insides jump and gave her the strength to rise. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the time. 10:47 pm. 'Who's calling at this time of hour?' she asked herself, then an unexpected reply came to her, 'Maybe it's Rei...' it said. 'Shut up!'
"Hello... Good evening... Hoshino Residence..." answered Aya.
"Aya?" replied a very familiar voice. 'It's...'
"Rei?" Aya replied with a tone of confusion. "Why did you call? Something the matter?"
"Nothing's wrong. I just want to check up on you."
"Check up on me about what?" Aya asked curiously.
"Uh, how are you doing? Have you eaten well?" Rei didn't know what to say, or even if he does, he wouldn't know how to say it.
"Well, uh, fine, I suppose..." Aya blushed, "how about you?"
"I'm fine... Thanks... Listen, tomorrow's Saturday... Can I invite you to the Okiwari forest-garden park, just us?
"Sure! Uh... I mean, yeah... sure..." Aya blushed at her sudden outburst – of joy.
"Uh, I'll meet you there at 9 in the morning..." Rei said, fighting back a smirk.
"Here, at home? Are you sure?" Aya teased, sort of threatening him.
"Are you threatening me?" Rei asked jokingly.
"Depends on how you take it..." Aya replied squarely.
"Well, mother mad or not, I'll still go there no matter what... Uh, ok, don't forget, 9 in the morning..."
"Wait a minute... Okiwari... That's a park for..." Aya continued but stopped midway. She was blushing tremendously.
"A park for lovers, you mean? Yes, I am fully aware of that... Anything wrong?" Rei asked her, hoping and praying that she will not change her decision.
"Uh, nothing... It just seems that a lot has changed in you Rei, not physically though... it's emotional..." Aya smiled as she commented.
"Really? Bad or good?" Rei asked a little serious, as usual.
"Good change!" Aya exclaimed, giggling. Rei giggled as well. It's Aya's first time to hear him giggle.
"Ok, so I guess you're tired and all so, good night Aya... See you tomorrow..." Rei said.
"Yeah, thank you for calling... Good night..." Aya replied.
As the two headpieces have been replaced in the phone, both of them whispered the words people kill to hear... "I love you..."