Hey everyone, so this is the first chapter of the story, and I hope you guys like it. If there's anything you guys want to leave a comment about please let me know, if I'm portraying the characters incorrectly or anything just let me know and I'll try to make those adjustments. Other than that I hope you guys enjoy, I tried to make it lengthy enough so it serves as a first chapter, but I'm not sure if I want to set it up so that chapters are this length, longer, or shorter. Enjoy guys, please let me know if there are any concerns.
Reading Guide:
Statements like this = Thoughts
Statements like this = Emphasis/Emotional Meaning
*Statements like this* = Action (Ex. *Cough*)
"STATEMENTS LIKE THIS" = Yelling/Louder tone
"Statements like this" = Character's speech (Whichever character will be clarified)
Statements like this = Scene development (Ex. Kazuya walked into his room)
Statements like this = Text Message (Ex. Good night :))
:Statements like this: = Emoji (For texts) (Ex. :Winking Face:)
Please refer to emojipedia (Apple) for which emojis I use in the fanfic. It'll be important to understand the mood.
PLEASE READ: I'm not too sure how the school system works currently, based off the manga they say Spring is right around the corner, so I'm assuming they are currently in school!
EDIT: I just read chapter 244 at the time of this message and even thought I was mostly done with this chapter I took extra time to make a couple adaptations to the new chapter and some character development things. Sorry for the delays!
EDIT 2: Thank you to the guest user that corrected how Kazuya refers to Chizuru. I made slight changes in the dialogue whenever Kazuya would refer to Chizuru, changing it from Chizuru to Mizuhara!
2 Days after Chizuru's stage play (We'll say the play was on a Saturday, so right now it's Monday):
Kazuya found himself waking up a bit later than usual, its almost noon, and he feels absolutely exhausted. Luckily for Kazuya he doesn't have any classes today, and so he can afford to wake up a bit later than usual. The reason for why he's been up so late is because he's been overthinking that every time Chizuru doesn't text him back for a couple hours that she's ignoring him, but in reality she fell asleep. That aside, he also couldn't help but think, I really need to do something about Ruka-Chan.
I really can't let her get in the way between us anymore, and I feel bad for making Chizuru feel guilty about hurting Ruka-Chan's feelings. I feel like now especially, Chizuru and I are really starting to make progress, so our trial relationship can't go on anymore.
Kazuya then begins to stare at the ceiling as he tries to figure out how he can solve the problem, he could try talking to her, but all logical reasoning ends up being omitted when it comes to them being together (For Ruka). He then thought about maybe trying to ghost her, but that wouldn't work either since she knows where he lives and they are still working together. And the last thing he thought of was to keep everything with Chizuru under wraps, but he just doesn't like the sound of that since if he really did start dating her he wouldn't want to treat her like she isn't his girlfriend.
After thinking about the situation for about 5 minutes Kazuya drew a blank and started rolling around on his bed and then yelling out loud, "What am I gonna do? Aghhhh!"
Before he knew it he heard his door bell ring, and immediately jumped up. His first instinct was that the person at the door was Chizuru and he jolted straight to the door. He longed to see her after only two days, and didn't bother to check the peep-hole to see if it was somebody else.
Kazuya immediately unlocked the door as soon as he got to it, and opened it as fast as he could, "Good morning Chizur... Mini-chan..." As soon as Kazuya saw that it was actually Yaemori standing in front of him he instantly felt upset that it wasn't Chizuru that he was laying his eyes on.
"Good morning master!" Yaemori responded with a smile as she intruded into his home without asking.
Kazuya was flabbergasted by her entering his room and before he knew it she was already taking off her shoes and making her way to the living room to sit down. "Hey, hey, hey. You didn't even ask if you could walk in and why are you even here this early?" Kazuya then stared at her and knew that there was no chance he could make her leave and so he locked the door behind him to go up to talk to her.
"I wanna know what's happening with you and Mizuhara-san! You're lacking again with the updates, I know you guys just went out the other day."
"How do you even know that?"
"I have my sources." Yaemori replies as she crosses her arms and puffs up her chest a little. After saying that to Kazuya she felt like an FBI agent as she reminisces her Saturday night where she was looking out of her window, seeing Chizuru and Kazuya walking back to the apartment complex together. And seeing that scene made her assumed that they came back from a date.
After realizing that Kazuya acknowledged that they did went out Yaemori yelled, "OH, SO I WAS RIGHT AFTERALL!"
"What?"
"Nothing... So... how was the date?"
Kazuya stared at her for a few seconds before replying, "It wasn't a date, I just went to watch her play. She gave me the tickets to it when I ran into her at the laundromat."
Hearing what Kazuya said caused Yaemori to freak out. She never thought she'd see the day that things would end up like this and yelled, "MASTER! That's progress, she asked you out."
"Uh... I don't know. I think she just did it since I helped her get the role." Kazuya responded in disagreement to what Yaemori stated.
"If you think like that, you'll be a virgin forever."
Why am I even talking to her right now. Who does she think she is. Kazuya thought to himself, a little annoyed by her previous remark.
"If she went out of the way to give you tickets to come watch her I would think that means something." Blurted out Yaemori, in efforts to convince Kazuya that Chizuru really did ask him out. "Also think about it, why would she give it you in a laundromat. Like did she knew you were going to be there?"
After Yaemori said these things Kazuya took some time to think about it. He wondered to himself, Why did she give it to me there? I guess she probably had the tickets with her and was planning to give it to me after or something.
"I guess you're right, maybe I'll ask her about it later, but I don't think it means too much. She's still trying to understand her feelings if anything."
"You really might be single forever." Yaemori said with an unamused face, feeling annoyed that Kazuya is so dense. "The other week on my way home, I saw her going up the stairs, and I heard her talking to herself on the railing in front of her apartment. I think she said something about how she shouldn't have made such a big deal about giving you those tickets... OH, she also called herself a dork." Yaemori said as she chuckled at the last part.
"She probably just thought that she may have made the conversation awkward or something."
"WRONG! She was probably nervous. C'mon like think about it. She went up to you and gave you tickets to come see her, and that was after you guys confessed to each other, right? From what I can tell she was definitely blushing and really was nervous talking to you. I'm sure she never did anything like this before."
"She's probably trying to understand her feelings still. I wouldn't think it was that big of a deal."
"Exactly, but who knows maybe it was a big deal for her. You should really stop thinking that you barely have a chance to get with her!" Exclaimed Yaemori, trying to give Kazuya more confidence so she would see their love story bloom. "Did she act differently when you guys went out?" Yaemori continued.
"I don't think so, I didn't notice anything. Honestly I think I was more concerned about making sure I act right that I may not have noticed anything. She did say she had fun and was happy that I showed up. And aside from that we just talked about the play and occasionally I would complement her, and I guess she started to fluster? I don't know, it sounded like she enjoyed talking to me about it on the way back with how she was smiling."
Yaemori's eyes started to shine brightly with entertainment after she kept listening to Kazuya rant on about Chizuru. "Ask her out! I think now especially is the best time. Her feelings are starting to bloom so you need to do something or you two will be stuck forever."
Kazuya almost collapsed hearing Yaemori's statement, "What? No, there's no way I can ask her out, especially now. Didn't you say it was the heroine's turn, shouldn't I just wait until she's ready?"
"Look master, a girl's heart works strangely, when I said to wait for the heroine this is what I meant! She already asked you to go out so she can reaffirm her feelings, and I'm sure she thought it went well. Listen, now its your turn to ask her out, especially while her feelings for you is at an all-time high. It'll leave an even bigger impact on her!"
"*Sigh* Maybe, I didn't think about it like that." Kazuya replied, realizing that maybe his relationship with Chizuru is starting to solidify and that Yaemori has a good point.
"Don't worry master, you might be stupid but at least you can listen to advice. Has anything else changed in y'alls relationship?" Yaemori said truthfully, without realizing she called him stupid.
Did she really just say that? Kazuya thought as he got even more annoyed by her little remarks, but he decided to let it go and carried on, "I guess we started texting more. We text pretty often on Line now."
"THATS EVEN MORE PROGRESS! How late do y'all two text? Do y'all text everyday? Did you text her today? Are you two flirting with each other yet? Do you guys send nudes to each others? SHOW ME! SHOW ME!"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! WE DO NOT SEND NUDES TO EACH OTHER!" Kazuya yelled as he started to blush at the thought of receiving nudes from Chizuru. After he found his composure he let out a sigh and resumed, "I think we text everyday, and we usually text up until we go to sleep. I sent her a text before you came, but I think she's doing rehearsals for another play so she hasn't responded. And I don't think we flirt either."
Yaemori was intrigued by the last part of Kazuya's sentence and questioned, "What do you mean by, 'you don't think y'all flirt?'"
Kazuya didn't know if he wanted to answer or not, but he felt like Yaemori was giving good advice, so he went on and says, "I don't know I guess its really subtle flirting. Like one time she was at a store and saw a shirt of a Regal Tang on it, so she sent me a pic of it and she said I'd look good in it."
Yaemori looked at Kazuya with a confused look as she slightly tilted her head, "A regal what..? Never-mind... But Master do you know what this means?"
"Not rea-" Before Kazuya could finish his sentence he was cut off by an even more excited Yaemori, "YOU HAVE TO FLIRT BACK! I CAN"T BELIVE YOU'VE BEEN KEEPING ALL OF THIS FROM ME! AFTER ALL I'VE DONE FOR YOU TWO!"
"I don't think she's flirting." Kazuya addressed as he really didn't considered what she's been saying as flirts.
"Stop thinking like a virgin. Of course she's flirting! Trust me I can tell just by that, but you should just show me everything so I can... analyze it... to make sure, y'know?" Mini-chan said with a grin, trying to get a glimpse of what their private messages look like.
Kazuya immediately figured out her scheme and denied her, "Nope, not happening. I don't think I should flirt with her either, I don't want to rush it, I mean it hasn't even been that long since I finally made contact with her again, so I don't want to mess things up by rushing."
"Well just don't be aggressively flirting. Like you guys probably send emojis to each other at this point right?"
"Yeah"
"Ok, so maybe send like a heart emoji here and there and see how she responds."
After hearing the suggestion from Yaemori, Kazuya began to think about what their texts would look like if they started sending heart emojis to each other. His heart is already starting to pound, and his face burning red by the mere thought of that so he couldn't even imagine how he would be if he actually did it. He didn't know what to say since he was so caught up in his thoughts and the two just sat there in silent for a few seconds.
Yaemori could see Kazuya's reaction to what she said and decided that she should carry on the conversation with something else, "Don't be scared master just try it once and see what happens. Oh, and if you do, you better keep me updated. This is only the beginning of the greatest story ever to be told in the history of Nerima! Now let's talk about ex-san and girlfriend-san."
"Why are we talking about all of this?"
Yaemori tilted her head to the side in response to his question and answered it with her own, "Because they're in the way of your relationship, why else?"
"No, I mean why are WE talking about this together." Kazuya stated since he feel like Yaemori is diving deeper than she should with everything in his personal life.
"Because... I must absolutely 100% see the outcome of master's path to happiness!"
"*Sigh* Well I haven't heard from Mami-chan ever since the trip. I'm not sure what she's been up to, and Ruka-chan has just been back to normal. I still see her at work and she still texts me, but she thinks I moved on from Mizuhara. I don't really know what to do about it yet."
"Hmm, okay so what's your thoughts on the two. Aside from like y'know Ruka-chan still being deeply in love with you."
"I'm sort of upset with the both of them, but its in the past now." Kazuya confessed as he's been wanting to let that off his chest.
Yaemori's interest was piqued when Kazuya mentioned that he was upset with both of them. She could suspect why he was mad at Mami, but couldn't figure out what Ruka did to make him upset. "Why are you upset with them?"
"Well for starters with Mami-chan I'm pretty sure she exposed my relationship with Mizuhara on purpose to break us apart, and I think there's more to it but Mizuhara hasn't really told me anything else. And with Ruka-chan well she did something to Mizuhara that really was uncalled for and its been bothering me for a while now, but it happened months ago, so there's no point in me worrying about it now."
"WHAT SHE DO!? WHAT SHE DO!? WHAT SHE DO!?" Yaemori asked while getting all up in Kazuya's face, trying to make sure he tells her.
Before Kazuya digs an even bigger grave for himself he tries to end the conversation, "I think you should go, I need to get ready for... class."
"You don't have class today master."
Kazuya surprised that Yaemori knows his schedule and screamed out of curiosity, "And how would you know that!?"
Yaemori smiles back at Kazuya as she picks up a piece of paper off of his floor that shows his schedule and pointed to the very first column, showing that his Mondays are clear.
Kazuya lets out a sigh in disbelief and ultimately gives up, "She went up to Mizuhara and gave her a condom and said that we done it and that we were each other's first."
Yaemori's jaw drops to the ground from hearing that as she went on to yell at him, "AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME! MASTER THIS IS A HUGE PLOT TWIST!" Yaemori took a deep breath after that to recollect herself and asks calmly, "What if Mizuhara-san completely cut you off because of that?"
The question that Yaemori asked hit Kazuya a little harder than he thought, and he could only give a half-hearted reply to hide the truth. "I guess I would've just thought she got tired of me and decided that we shouldn't see each other anymore. Haha."
"Master, go confront Ruka-chan about it or I will." Yaemori exclaimed as a stern look took-over her face.
Kazuya almost fell over from the demand she made and tried to think rationally, "Woah! Woah, you don't have to do that."
"Did you even consider how Mizuhara-san must have felt when Ruka-chan gave that to her? I bet you she was super depressed knowing the guy she fell in love with lost his virginity to a high schooler before she could take it."
"I don't think Mizuhara thinks like that... and how would you even know she was in love with me at the time?"
"You really might turn 80 before you find true love master, Mizuhara-san has probably been in love with you ages ago and you just never realized it. Whenever you two start dating I want you to ask her and see what she says. She must have been super upset though, how did you even found out anyway?"
"She gave the wrapper back to Ruka-chan during the trip." After saying that, Kazuya thought to himself that maybe Yaemori was right. All of the points she made so far makes sense, and he feels kind of guilty that he didn't do anything about it after so much time has passed. The other remarks Yaemori made in her last statement is starting to sink into Kazuya now as well.
"SEE, SHE DOES CARE! Why would she have kept a used condom wrapper for that long? Master I'm honestly disappointed." Yaemori mentions as she crossed her arms and started to pout while shaking her head left and right in disappointment.
Why am I taking this from her?
"*Sigh* I'll talk to Ruka-chan about it. I'll have her apologize, but first I need to figure out how to bring up the fact that Mizuhara and I are on even better terms than before."
"The only thing you can really do right now is be honest with her. I know she's not going to accept it, but it's not fair for you. You found the girl of your dreams and you're this close to dating her, why let Ruka-chan mess everything up. Besides, love has to be mutual if you really don't love Ruka-chan you need to tell her."
"I did before the Hawaiians trip, but all she did was shut it down and told me no."
"That's exactly why you're in this predicament! You can't let her keep bossing you around like this. If you really want to start a serious relationship with Mizuhara-san you really should handle this before it makes it harder on you."
"Okay. I'll figure it out. I promise." Kazuya said as a genuine smile appeared on his face, showing his gratitude to Yaemori for giving him all of this advice.
"Anytime master, and I'm sure you know this but don't even bother trying to be friends with ex-san. She'll just try and ruin your relationship again."
"Yea I think within these past few months I was finally able to let her go. Since she was my first girlf... I guess I wouldn't even consider her as a girlfriend during our time together anymore... Yeah you're right, thank you for everything, I think it really helped a ton."
"Of course master, oh yea another question. Is Mizuhara-san a virgin?" Yaemori asked without any facial expressions, expecting Kazuya to know the answer.
As soon as Kazuya heard Yaemori's unthought-of question he immediately choked on the water he was drinking and started coughing viscously. At the same time however he couldn't help but think if Chizuru is a virgin or not and the thoughts of another man enjoying her started to cloud his mind, causing him to blush and lose confidence. As soon as he got his act together he tried to reply in a way to make it seem like he didn't care and said, "I... I don't know. Its not my business anyways if she had a previous lover."
"If you want my opinion I think she is." Yaemori contributed to the discussion to help ease his mind.
"Well even if she is or isn't there's no point worrying about it. I don't think we'll ever find out until way later anyways."
"I'll handle that for you master." Yaemori said as she smiled. She then reaches into her pocket to pull out her phone and exclaimed, "Alright I'm taking a picture for progress. Say Mizuhara-san on 3. 1... 2... 3... *Snaps Picture* Nice, okay byeee now, I have class now."
"Hold it, what do you mean by you'll handle it?" Kazuya asked as he tried to reach out to Yaemori.
Before Kazuya could reach her, Yaemori dashed out of his apartment and slammed the door behind him in an effort to completely ignore his question. Kazuya fell behind as Yaemori somehow managed to lock and close the door behind her which delayed him. As soon as he was able to open it Yaemori was already down the stairs, leaving the apartment's front gravel area. Kazuya's sight of her began to parish as she made a left to go down the road and the scenery nearby hid her completely.
I can't stand her sometimes, but I guess I won't have to worry about finding out if Mizuhara has had a first or not. *Sigh* I really do need to talk to Ruka-chan about this... and... should I really try to flirt with Mizuhara?
After Yaemori left, Kazuya was completely drowned in his thoughts about everything she said, he wasn't sure how he would handle Ruka going forward, and more importantly his curiosity about whether or not Chizuru is a virgin or not is killing him. And then there's also the thing with trying to flirt with her and asking her out too. He's even wondering if he should really go through all of his texts to see if there was any other signs of flirting in their conversations just because he's so curious.
A few moments later Kazuya returned into his apartment and saw his phone lit up from a notification, and he already had a feeling of what it was from the faint color of the notification's icon. It was a text from Chizuru: We just finished rehearsals :Tired Face:
Hello everyone, if you're reading this that means you made it to the end, or you just scrolled down here lol. Umm yea I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter, I know there wasn't much but I think this chapter helps setup a lot for what's to come especially with Kazuya and how he handles all of his problems. I'm not really sure how it got so long either. Additionally I'm glad that I ended up finishing this chapter after chapter 244 of the manga came out. That chapter gave me more things to implement and honestly with the texting its really wholesome and just adds a lot of development in my opinion. The next chapter will be released as soon as I can finish it. I have some finals coming up the first week of August, but after that I'll have nothing but time to write. I'm also juggling another story right now with this so I'll be trying to do everything fairly, but yea guys if you have anything you want to say please feel free to leave a review, I'm trying to make sure I write everything in character but I may slip up so let me know if one of the characters are represented incorrectly. Also can somebody correct me on how Kazuya refers to Chizuru, is it Mizuhara-san, or Chizuru-san, or something else? Thank you guys for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter!