There was a huge crowd around and inside the cinema as Natsuno had guessed. People were gathered together in small groups, eyeing the cinema. A lot of them had no intention of seeing a movie.

Megumi made her way through the crowd.

For some reason when she entered she felt a weird sensation, like she was lost, like she wasn't there, then she felt like she was disappearing, or was she being seperated, seperated from what?

She shook her head and snapped out of it. She had no time to waste on games her mind was playing with her. She was probably just too excited. She squinted her eyes and focused on what was ahead. Kaori and Akira were checking out the movies. Without paying attention to them,she got on her tiptoes to see who was behind the ticket counters. Jackpot! It seemed like there were two guys and a girl. One of the guys and the girl looked young enough, the other one was a middle aged man. She wanted to squeal but she had to keep her calm. She got in line to get tickets from the boy. He seemed a few years older than her, she had always wanted it that way anyways. Wait, no, no this wasn't it, Natsuno was... She had always wanted an older brother figure too! Someone cool, someone everyone would be jealous of, yes that would work!

"Megumi, you already made a decision?"

Of course, she still hadn't got rid of them.

"Hey! No force in this world can make me watch that mushy stuff, count me out."

After Akira said this, he started walking away. Megumi and Kaori looked confused, then Megumi realized she was standing in line for a rom-com. How had she got so lucky. Now there was only one last obstacle in her way.

"Uhmm..."

Kaori wasn't sure what to do. Her brother would be fine but at the same time she didn't want to watch this movie. It wasn't like she had anything against rom-coms but this one had terrible reviews.

"It's alright, you should go with your brother. It's not like we have to go to the same movie or anything."

"Oh, okay then I'll see you after."

Megumi watched with a victorious smile as Kaori walked next to her brother in line. Her eyes followed the line and widened upon seeing one particular face. He was there too. Yuuki Natsuno. He was there with The Mutous and another boy she had seen around the Mutou household several times. She had the urge to get in that line, but, The Tanakas were standing there as well. If she went there she would be seen with them. There were only a few more people ahead of her, she had to make a decision quickly.

"Oh, Megumi you changed your mind, cool. This'll be fun."

She didn't answer Kaori, she wasn't sure what she was thinking really, she was blowing this for herself.She was suddenly regretting getting out of line and reuniting with Kaori and Akira, they would embarass her for sure. She shook her head. Not yet, nothing was ruined for now. She would have plenty of opportunities to make a good impression on the cinema staff. She just had to keep a low profile while she was around the Tanakas so no one would remember her being with them. Then some other day, a day where the crowd wasn't

as big, she would come by herself and blow their minds.

The cinema gave Tohru chills as soon as he entered. He looked at the others faces to see some weird expressions, Natsuno's brows were furrowed, but, then again, they always were. Aoi also had a sour look on her face and Tamotsu seemed dazed. He then turned to Masao who was already looking at him.

"The cinema is sort of creepy huh."

"Yeah, that's what i was thinking, it is boiling outside but I still got chills. Maybe its just from the judgy looks the elderly are sending this way, hah" Tohru said. They were just standing around the cinema, surrounding it with that look on their eyes.

"Well I personally appreciated it, why is it so hot today, is the universe tryna grill us or something"

After Tamotsu spoke the rest kind of relaxed and laughed it off. The cinema building was huge so it made sense that it was a bit chilly.

The building seemed pretty big for a cinema on the outside, but on the inside only a small part of it was available for the people who came to watch a movie. Tohru assumed the rest was where the staff lived unless they lived outside the village. That would be very unpractical for them, Tohru knew from experience, he had a part-time job outside the village. The bus hours were pretty messy and didn't match with his schedule. That was why he was trying to get his driving licence recently and thanks to this he was able to get to know an amazing person because that person was tutoring him.

He had known the name Ritsuko Kunihiro for a while. His dad worked at the clinic and Ritsuko was one of the nurses there. He knew he didn't really have much of a chance . He had heard that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend. Apparently he had asked her to get married and come to the city with him. The city. Natsuno wanted to go too. Tohru never really thought of leaving but he understood Natsuno's reasons. Tohru had a nice calm life here, he got along with everyone, he already had a future ahead, his whole life was settled in a sense. He had no reason to leave, really.

He felt like he was in one of the hardest yet most enjoyable parts of his life. It was surely tiring managing school, work, driving, friends and family. Yet it made him appreciate times like this more, just hanging out, having a good time with people he appreciated. Even listening to Natsuno and Masao bickering was almost comforting in some sense. Almost...

Their tension was usually one sided. Natsuno didn't really seem to care about Masao but he wouldn't stay passive when Masao did or say something that bothered him. Whereas Masao was obsessed with Natsuno in a bizarre and most definitely negative aspect.

Natsuno wasn't the only person Masao unreasonably despised. He also hated his sister in law and his niece and nephew. Tohru who had known Masao for as long as he could remember, felt like Masao didn't like change.

This was a trait a lot of the villagers shared, that was why the village was drifting farther away from the reality outside of it more and more each day. It was because the village refused to adapt the ways of the constantly improving world. The world kept on moving forward while the village stayed the same. As if it was seperate from the rest of the world, as if it had a mind of its own.

Of course this was where Masao was different. Tohru realized that Masao copied a lot of Natsuno's behaviour and sayings in the worst way possible. Natsuno knew when to be sulky and displeased and when to not, he balanced it well and made it work. He was a surprisingly smart 15 year old. However ,with Masao, his attempts at trying to pull off that kind of attitude where painful to watch. Masao was seeking the Natsuno treatment, but, he wasn't getting it. That made him even more frustrated with Natsuno and he was cross with everyone around.

Tohru knew 3 things for sure about Masao. He didn't like new people entering his life. He didn't want to grow up and he didn't want to be treated differently in any situation. Even if there was a newborn baby in a house Masao would be jealous for not getting the same treatment.

They finally got their tickets and reached the screening room. It seemed normal enough. Tohru had been to the cinema a few times with his family when he was younger. They made their way towards the seats which were based on the front, they were actually pretty early so they could find good seats

Megumi was looking over at the seats ahead with a strange look on her face

"Uhm, is everything alright?"

"Yuuki is here, he is sitting on one of the fronts seat over there"

Kaori turned her eyes to see what Megumi was seeing. There were a bunch of boys and a girl there, she didn't know any of them. It was pretty dark and the boys had similar haircuts. Kaori could not make sense of how Megumi could tell the rest apart from the boy she liked. Then again, it was only natural considering she had been visiting his backyard ever since he moved.

Megumi had only told Kaori about Yuuki. She kind of figured Kaori would be suspicious sooner or later and would act like an inspector, trying to pinpoint where she went or something. Or not... Megumi had to admit she also wanted to share how she felt with someone. No one from her school was a possibility and talking to her parents about such a thing, even the idea of it, made her grimace. That left Kaori or Natsuno himself which was also not an option.

She also had to confess that Kaori had been pretty loyal. She had kept her location a secret and even covered for her a few times.

"Well, are you going to talk to him?"

Megumi sighed and shook her head.

"I don't have anything to say."

Kaori gave Megumi an understanding look. She really got what it was like. To not know how to approach someone, not being sure how to start a casual friendly chat... She knew it all too well.

Almost all the conversations that they had ever since Megumi returned to Sotoba revolved around that guy. It was more of Megumi ranting and Kaori nodding than consversations though. Kaori was happy that Megumi found someone and all but Kaori found it weird that they never even had a single conversation. Then why does Megumi like him so much, if they are just classmates and nothing more, not even friends. She wouldn't say this out loud though.

The more concerning thing was the visits. She did these after sunset so that she wouldn't be seen. Megumi was scared of stray dogs and at the nighttime the streets were their territory. She had told her about this to stop her from going but she had just shrugged it off by saying:

"I'm used to them by now, besides if they aren't attacking me during the daytime, I think it is safe to say they won't in the nighttime either."

Kaori wasn't satisfied with this answer but if Akira and Megumi had one thing in common it was that they were both stubborn. There was no way to convince Megumi not to do something when she put her head into it. If you insisted, she would just get mad at you.

Overall, learning about Megumi's crush on Yuuki Natsuno made Kaori very happy for a selfish reason. Megumi sharing such thing, a secret that nobody else knew with Kaori meant that they were still intimate.

Throughout the whole movie Megumi couldn't focus one bit, it wasn't compatible with her taste either, It had lots of cars, big muscly men fighting each other, guns and Megumi was completely detached by the time a huge explosion had covered the screen so she was startled by Akira's surprised yet enthusiastic gasp.Her eyes were fixated at one point. She had to make a move.

The film wasn't a masterpiece, but it was fun. It was the kind of movie you could enjoy without having to think about the plot. So when the ending credits rolled and Aoi said:

"That was fun,yeah, we should do this often you guys."

Natsuno kind of agreed for a split second. He still wanted to get out of the village as soon as possible though which meant he couldn't slack off, even during summer. So he quickly brushed it aside. He had only come this time to get them off his neck. There wouldn't be a second time.

"Hey, what are you brooding on about,Natsuno. Admit it, you had fun. You'll come next time too, right?

"Nope."

"To which one?"

"If I say both will you be convinced?"

"Nope"

Natsuno smiled a bit, Tohru was truly something else. He never really cared about labels like "best friend" but if he thought about it Tohru's image would be the first thing to flash to his mind. At first he was put off and annoyed with his overly friendly attitude. As time passed by before even realising he had started spending more time in the Mutous house than his own, thus getting close with Aoi and Tamotsu as well.

Her mother was a little unhappy with this, she had said he wasn't spending enough time with his own family, as if they were even a family. His mom and dad weren't even married. They rejected the standards of the society and did whatever they pleased. So when they didn't want to live in the city anymore they had just moved to Sotoba. Natsuno had no say in it.

In a sense Natsuno who did or say whatever he wanted and believed in, was just like his parents. He was consistent, he stood by what he believed in and what he wanted to do. He wasn't going to meddle in with the village.

"Stop calling me Natsuno already!"

"Kaori why aren't we leaving already?!"

"We are waiting for the ending credits to finish in case there is an extra scene."

"They finished like a minute ago."

"Oh?"

Kaori looked up from her hands. Akira was right. The screen was now pitch black, the lights had opened like 5 minutes ago. She looked at Megumi. Megumi was still looking over there and it seemed like the friend group were taking their time. Kaori didn't know what to do, should she just tell Megumi it was time to leave, but she was so focused. It seemed like she was trying to gather some courage. Kaori felt like Megumi would dissolve into pieces if she touched her, she was so tense she would fall apart with the smallest contact.

Tamotsu had accidentally caused quite a mess. The chairs were those chairs that immediately got back to their original folded state as soon as there wasn't enough weigh on them. They had all put their stuff and extra popcorn(3 bucket sized popcorn was apparently too much for 5 teenagers)on the same seat. Once Tamotsu took his jacket the results were disasterous. All their stuff fell on the ground and there was popcorn everywhere. Tamotsu was looking at the sight ahead of him with a dumbfounded face. When he turned his face he was met with glares. He put his hands up in defense.

"Hey now you guys saw it, it wasn't my fault! It was gonna happen anyways, I am just a victim of circumstance."

"Well so are we because we are not leaving without cleaning this popcorn, this place is a mess already."

"Come on now Aoi-" Masao started but his sentence was cut off by a sharp glance.

Kaori felt more and more nervous with each passing minute. Everyone else had left about at least 3 minutes ago, everyone but them and those people. Was this what Megumi did everyday when she went to watch over that boys house. If so Kaori really didn't get it, she had always thought of crushes as fun things, this didn't seem fun at all. Akira was getting impatient too and when he was bored he even made more noise. He was tapping his foot so loudly that Kaori wanted to beg him to stop, if they saw them standing over there Kaori would probably die from embarassment, she just wanted get out of there already.

Akira never thought he would want their mother to call and scold them about how late they were(It was Akira that mostly,actually basically always, got these calls)so they could just leave. No one was even explaining why they were still there. Kaori was just staring at her hands(she could stare at them at home for all she wanted.) Megumi's eyes were glued on something ahead. He faintly saw a bunch of teens trying to gather around popcorn from the floor. Were these the staff of the cinema, he thought they were outsiders but all of these faces were familiar, though he didn't know any of them personally.

Suddenly he felt bad about the situation, he and Kaori had also spilled some popcorn. The cups were just filled too much and they were two teens with lots of energy watching an action movie, it was kind of unavoidable. He nudged her and said:

"Hey, if we are going to wait around anyways, we might as well clean up our mess."

Kaori looked at him bewilderedly for a few seconds than as soon as she processed what he said she nodded and got on her knees to help her brother pick up the popcorn pieces.

While all this was happenning none of the teenagers noticed a head peek through the room as most of them were on the floor and Megumi was leaning forward to see what was going on. This made the situation mutual, and so the figure, thinking the room was empty, locked the door. None of the teens were aware of anything in between all the commotion.

Not until the lights went off and everywhere was pitch black.