"You hurry up and find your "answer," then come back, and we'll become a family!"

It's been three years since Ume blamed what she said on alcohol. Now, she's sitting in the front seat of his car humming a sweet tune while fiddling with her phone. There were several times when he thought he'd lose her, but she always stayed by his side even when he was on the other side of the world. They went through a lot together, clumsily trying things and making mistakes but they persevered through them and somehow made it work. They were driving Yuzu and Mei to the College where Mei was enrolled. The results were to be announced in two hours.

Ume was making space on her phone so that she could take lots of pictures in case of good news. When Sho tried to contact people he knew so that he could get the results early, she yelled at him. She apologized later, admitting she was not ready. Shou told her to believe in Yuzu and relax. The big liar was looking up alternative options for Yuzu behind her back. She pretended not to know. She suspected he did make the phone call and learned Yuzu failed, and that's why he kept on locking the screen of his laptop whenever she got in. She was too afraid to ask, so she let him be. She was also worried for Mei. She noticed her unhealthy jealous tendencies. It was cute sometimes, but she knew Mei took everything seriously. If Yuzu went somewhere and made a friend there, God knows how Mei would behave... She made a mental note of talking to her about it whatever the outcome is.

On drives that exceeded one hour, Mei usually put her head on Yuzu's shoulder and pretended to doze off. She didn't do it that day as she wanted to give Yuzu somebody to talk to. She offered to go to Yuzu's second choice college, but both her parents refused. Mei didn't budge because she knew that she could have her way eventually, but Yuzu said: "I won't be happy with that..." and all the fight in her was gone. They agreed she'd get a phone and they'd keep in touch. Mei was sure Yuzu was going to blossom wherever she goes, but she wanted to be there to witness it. Plus, one "Harumin" was enough.

Yuzu couldn't come up with enough stories to pass the time, so she asked her dad, which he kindly did. He made "dad jokes" here and there, and she pretended to laugh. Ume made fun of him, and she pretended to laugh at those too. Mei was as stoic as ever. It made her happy that Mei wanted to be with her, but she didn't want to drag her down. She asked her dad to look for alternatives just in case and to keep a secret from her mom and Mei. He agreed despite saying that she shouldn't keep it a secret because it was a positive attitude from. She felt guilty because she was pretending to be confident. Having her dad around helped her go through the motions, but doubt came in waves.

"You know what?" said Ume "No matter what happens, let's go on a double date."

Sho and Ume agreed on that the day prior, deciding that no matter what the result was Yuzu and Mei would want some privacy to sort the resulting initial emotions. They'd slip away and let them deal with it.

Since the results were displayed sorted per rank, each one of them was assigned an interval. Shou scanned the 1st to the 250th, Ume the next 250 names, and so on. Yuzu chose the last 250.

"578th - Aihhara Yuzu."

Mei almost jumped from joy. She ran towards the general direction where Yuzu was.

In a crowd of a Million, Mei would never fail to spot Yuzu. She saw Yuzu jumping in place. She was trying to see the names, but the people in front of her were too tall.

Mei tried calling out to her, but the crowd was too noisy. She wished she had a phone. The more time passed, the more distraught Yuzu become. She couldn't bear seeing her like that. Instead of spending 10 minutes trying to get her, she decided to stand on the fringe of the mass of people so that Yuzu could see her in case she got her attention.

"Yuzu! Over here!" She waved while calling out as loud as she could muster. Once Yuzu spotted her, Mei opened her arms and smiled. Yuzu understood what she meant.

Yuzu made her way out and ran at Mei, hugging her. Mei responded with such enthusiasm that she lifted Yuzu of her feet. She then planted a kiss and Yuzu's cheek and didn't let go until she heard the click of a camera shutter.

Ume was there taking pictures.

"Delete that!" protested Mei, but it was Ume's turn to get a hug. She wrapped both of them.

I wasn't long until Shou joined them into an embarrassing huddle.

In the car, Ume checked her pictures.

"Look! I caught Mei smiling!"

Yuzu was off her seat, and Mei was petrified.

"Oh my god, oh my god!" Shrieked Yuzu "Send it to me!"

"That's an invasion of privacy, you know" protested Mei.

Before she knew it, yuzu was grabbing her collar, kissing her full on the mouth.

Ume took another picture.

"Look, dear!" said Ume, showing Sho the picture she just took. "Aren't they precious?"

"Don't show him that!" said Mei, struggling to get off Yuzu's hug, trying to grab Ume's phone, who just extended her hand forward to put it out of Mei's reach.

"Yes, they are!" said Sho, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Now, let's get our Yuzu-chan a gift... any suggestions, Mei."

Yuzu was showing Mei the pictures Ume just sent her. Mei loved all of them, but she decided not to give her mother the satisfaction.

"It'd be more appropriate to ask Yuzu."

"How about..." Ume pondered "... a phone for Mei?"

Yuzu gasped "Can we get matching ones?"

"I guess we're getting two phones" laughed Sho.

Mei thought that with new phones, they could be each other's first contacts. She had no reason to protest.

She already knew what picture she wanted for her lock-screen

She whispered in Yuzu's ear, "When I get a phone, send me that picture of you in a wedding dress... The one they took in our last date before I-... You know?"

Yuzu beamed at her and kissed her on the nose.

"I want to sleep..." said Yuzu

Mei knew Yuzu didn't sleep much the night before.

"Alright"

Yuzu took off her shoes and put her head on Mei's lap.

Ume took another picture "Do you want me to delete them?"

"Just until you send them to me," said Mei, stroking Yuzu's head.

Author's Note:

This chapter has been proofread by demosthenes56

Well, this was fun! See if you can spot the "Harry Potter" line?

This series of interconnected ~1k-words-long one-shots relates to my headcanon my main Citrus fanfic "The Other Side of the Story". They will be fluffy pieces born from ideas I couldn't fit in the main fanfic. A way to mitigate the long process of writing that story where I have to think about the plot, reread the manga, etc.

I'll try to make this a weekly series. I'll be taking prompts and requests for it. A way to mitigate the long wait for my main one

Don't worry about "The Other Side of the Story". Writing is ongoing. The chapters keep getting longer somehow XD and I keep discovering new things in Citrus thanks to the awesome people of r/CitrusManga

Dedicated to chigoonies, TheAbsoluteSword, demosthenes56, theJJoKR, rainspugs, and 1crazydame

You guys are Awesome