A/N: I'd like to send this out first, mostly aimed to the ones who haven't (never) reviewed... Where's the love? C'mon, at least leave one review. Help me out here, eh?

(11/13/10)

Tuesday...

I was awakened by my alarm clock at around 6:30, New York time.

Grudgingly, I woke up and went out to take a bath, even though the jetlag still bit my mind.

I went inside the bathroom and bathed for a few minutes. After that, I went out and got dressed. A little while later, the gang went out. After the usual morning rituals, we all agreed to go down to eat the morning buffet.

I whispered to Minako, "So, uh, what exactly happened yesterday?"

"You fainted yesterday. And It wasn't me this time, I swear." She said, "You got overly nervous."

Yukari sniffed, "Well, Minato, I hope you're ready for tonight." She said loudly.

"Oh, yeah." I said quickly, "No worries."

She beamed at me.

Minako rolled her eyes and looked at the elevator buttons.

We had a hearty meal with everyone. Naoto was relating a rather interesting anecdote about one of her cases.

"So, the butler did it? I don't believe it." Junpei said.

"Yes indeed. He did not want the Young Master to marry a woman of different birth than he." Naoto said.

"What a cold-hearted dude." Quan said as he was about to pop a vitamin.

"Hey Quan, STOP!" Minako cried.

Quan stopped and looked at Minako.

"What?" He said.

"That doesn't look like vitamins." She said cautiously.

He squinted at it, "You're right, Mina-chan... This isn't my vitamins. Thanks for the heads up."

Junpei laughed, "Remind me never to let Quan's mom pack my meds." He said, "Might pack rat poison instead of my multivitamins."

"Haha, I think Quan's mum is trying to kill him." I said jokingly as I chewed on a pancake.

"Yeah, but she's so damn fine! She can kill me!" Kenji said excitedly.

Rio narrowed her eyes at him. Kenji shrugged.

"Yo, don't talk shit about my mom or my freaking meds. I can hear everything." Quan cried he stowed away the faux-meds.

"Great. Wendy Wu's a ninja now." Junpei snickered.

Quan gave us the skunk eye.

"Enough about me, how was your night, Junpei?" Quan asked.

Junpei's smile faded.

"Junpei here snuck out of his room to give Chidori a good night kiss." Quan said.

"Well, love makes people do crazy things." Junpei said, turning red.

"And seeing as how you loved everything back then, that statement explains a lot." Yukari said.

"Oh, go suck on a lemon, Yuka-tan." He said annoyedly.

"Why is she here anyway?" Rio asked, "I mean, I thought she lived in Iwatodai?"

"Oh, get this," Junpei said excitedly, "She's living with Mitsuru-san and is also her E.A."

"E.A.?" Minako said.

"Executive Assistant." I said.

"Though, it could stand for Executing Assistant." Yukari said.

Junpei and I gulped.

Naoto seemed rather glum today.

"Homesick?" I asked her.

"Oh, please don't worry about me. I'm fine." She said as she tried to smile.

"C'mon!" Junpei cried, "We've been living together for, what, two days now!? We'd know if you're glum or not."

She let out a deep, mournful sigh, "Apparently, a group of students feel that I am not at all deserving of this. They say I'm a stranger who reaps the rewards of the school." She said, "And I was hoping that they'd be rather nicer."

"Well, waddya expect?" Junpei said harshly.

"P-pardon me?"

"You heard me." Junpei said.

"Naoto, this is HIGH SCHOOL! We don't embrace differences, we EXPLOIT them!" Minako said, greatly flustered.

Naoto nodded, "Indeed, I am learning quite a lot."

"Yeah, you'd also learn about friendship." Yukari said.

"Right. Show me those losers and I'll stove their faces together." Lee said.

"P-Please! Don't trouble yourselves!" Naoto pleaded.

"Also, how did we pay for this trip? I'm so damn broke, I'd need to save up a whole year to buy a set of socks!" Lee said.

"Oh, last I heard, this was already part of our miscelleneous funds from last year," Fuuka said.

"Beats me. There's an underside to everything that you can't see." Naoto said.

We spent the next few moments debating with her.

After that, we went to the buses at 12:30.

Our first stop for the day was the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. It was a tedious trip, since it rained heavily today.

The art tour was led by a rather neurotic tour guide, who insisted we don't picture anything, even though cameras were allowed, because the flash might "further deteriorate" the paintings.

We still took pictures behind her back. Then, Minako pulled me aside. I was slightly scared.

"Minato..." She said and I sensed the gravity of it.

"Yeah? What's up?" I said.

"I...I... L-Lo-" she stuttered.

"Oh, look at you, you're choking up..." I said, looking away for a bit, and when I did look back, Minako WAS choking. In fact, she was purpling.

"Holy Hell! You're really choking! Ah-" I went behind her to give her the Heimlich Maneuver.

"One-Two-Three!" I growled as I applied the manuever at her, "One-Two-Three!"

She spat out gum and it landed on some expensive painting.

"Hope I wasn't interrupting anything." A cold voice said.

It was Yukari.

"Oh, uh, hey Yukari. Minako choked on her bubblegum, so I gave her the Heimlich." I said, and let go of her.

"Dinner's still on, right?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. Of course." I said quickly.

She nodded, "Come on. We're moving on."

She went ahead.

"So, uh, what were you gonna say?" I asked Minako.

She blushed heavily, then said, "I said... Uh... Nevermind!" And ran away like a bat out of hell.

I shrugged and went ahead with the tour some more and then we left for the Staten Island Ferry at around 3 P.M..

The school somehow reserved a boat big enough for all of us. Fuuka, Quan, Kenji, Junpei, Minako and a few others kept "feeding the fishes" with their seasickness. I didn't understand it, since we weren't even out of sea yet.

"Ugh, thank America to discover new ways to cause new means of motion sickness..." Minako said as she retched from the boat as the tour guide yapped about the various places in the riverbanks.

Junpei kept hurling in his hat. Lee was rubbing Fuuka's back. Rio did the same for Kenji. I decided to do the same for Minako.

When I did, it seemed as if she emptied the contents of her breakfast into the river.

She turned around and sheepishly wiped her mouth and smiled at me, "Thanks."

"You're welcome." I said.

The moment seemed ripe yet again... The sun casted a pre-twilight shadow upon the city, making it seem like the world revolved around us. The sea breeze sent gentle winds that made my skin tingle strangely.

I smiled as the bitter tang of the city mixed with the salty breeze of the nearby sea.

I looked again at Minako's eyes. They never cease to amaze me with how sparkly and red they are. Yet they always remind me of how gentle Minako could be.

Suddenly, I imagined me and Minako living together with our six children. Though it was quite too soon indeed to think of that, I couldn't help it.

"Minako..." I whispered as I brushed her bangs past her ears.

No one could see us, since we were at the back of the ship.

I drew close.

Minako's eyes closed as she seemed to anticipate it as well.

Then, due to another twist of fate, someone shouted: "We're landing in a few moments!"

Again, I drew away, looking redder by the minute.

"Uh, shall we go down?" I asked.

"Yeah, right." Minako agreed.

We went down, trying not to make eye contact.

"Hey guys- uh, did something happen?" Junpei asked.

"No!" Minako and I said at the same time.

"Oh, then why are you two so red?" Lee snickered.

"Zip it, Lee. Or you'll be taking a dip in the Styx." Minako warned.

"A'ight, a'ight." Lee said as he held his arms up, "Last one to the bus is a rotten egg!" He cried as he ran off with Quan, Junpei and Kenji.

"Yeah, well first one's gonna eat it!" Minako cried, "Let's go?"

I nodded and contemplated on telling her how I felt, but before I could, she ran and outstripped Kenji, Junpei and Quan.

I groaned as I went ahead, then felt a reassuring hand on my shoulders.

"Hey Yukari-chan." I greeted.

"I didn't see you in the boat." She said.

"Oh, yeah, I was out back." I said.

"With who?" She asked.

I considered lying, but decided against it, "Minako. She was sick, so I stayed with her."

"Ah." Yukari said, "Can I ask you something?" She said as we walked back to the bus.

"Of course." I said.

"Do you have feelings for Minako?" She asked while biting her lip.

"I... Uh..." I stammered, "I'm still figuring it out."

She nodded and looked relieved,"Phew. Alright. Be ready tonight at nine, okay?"

I nodded and went to the bus with Yukari.

When we did return to the hotel, we, especially those who emptied their stomachs into the river, ate a big buffet.

After that, I went back to the room.

After a bit of resting, Lee jumped, "Guys, check this out; they got a gym on the sixteenth floor!"

"Moron, we were there yesterday..." I muttered.

"No, a different one! I meant a multipurpose gym! They got a basketball court there!" Lee cried.

"Whoa, seriously?!" I said, "Man, I could use a bit of a warm-up. I'm a little restless."

"What are we waiting for?" Kenji said, "Let's gear up!"

"Okay."

We geared up and got ready.

We then went to the basketball court to play. Since we're odd-numbered, we decided to ask the girls if they wanted to play. Yukari and Minako were going to try the Hot Springs and Fuuka obviously wasn't up to it for obvious reasons, so she decided to go with the two.

Pinky was having a massage, and Quan was about to go with her, but we kidnapped him. Naoto bluntly stated she had better things to do. So the only girl available was Rio. And she actually agreed on it.

My team consisted of me, Kenji and Quan while we went up against Lee, Junpei and Rio.

First game was ours, but the second one was a close game... Lee and, surprisingly, Junpei were quite good, leaving us in the dust. Rio was actually good. She handled the ball like a pro. It was mainly due to Rio passing the ball to Kenji just because she felt sorry for him (and us in general,) that we were kept from losing.

Quan was guarding Lee.

"Next point wins the game! Hurry up!" I said.

"Hold on to your earrings, Wendy Wu," he said as he circled Quan, "Because I'm gonna embarrass you and it's gonna hurt cause I love you."

"Give me that, man, you're full of shit!" Quan said as he grabbed the ball forcibly.

"Hey, foul! Foul!" Lee cried.

"What?" Quan cried back.

"C'mon Bro, you hit my hand." Lee said.

"No I didn't!" Quan said.

"Oh yeah?" Lee said, then shot the ball, where it connected to the basket, "Three points!"

"Yeah baby, yeah!" Junpei cried.

"Sigh..." I shook my head.

"Let's run again, same teams!" Kenji suggested as he handled the game ball.

"Good plan." Rio said as she stole the ball and dribbled it as Kenji tried to get it back.

"Naw, I got to go do something." I said as I took off my shoes.

"Come on, we're tied! Someone has to lose!" Junpei said.

"You know I have to do "that" thing today." I said.

"What thing, bro?" Quan asked.

"I need to go to hang out with Yukari." I said quietly.

"Really?" Junpei said.

"As 'best friends' as she would put it." I said.

"Oh man, you're stuck in the friendzone!" Lee bemoaned.

"What the hell does that even mean?" I said.

"What, friendzone?" Lee said.

"Yeah!"

"Er, explain it to them, Rio." Junpei said.

"Friendzone... Is when a guy, or in this case, a girl decides you're no longer a dating option, you've become a non-sexual entity in their eyes, like a sister... Or a lamp." Rio said bitterly.

"Friendzone..." Kenji shuddered, "A horrifying, lifeless limbo of lovelessness and sorrow."

"Like what you did to Rio..." Junpei muttered, "A moment of silence, for our brother in the friendzone."

Everyone put their right hand in their breast and bowed their heads grimly.

"What? No I'm not." I said indignantly, "Ask Rio. She might know."

"Don't drag me into this." Rio said as she dribbled the ball, trying to keep it away from Kenji, but she wasn't really trying too hard.

"Listen to me... We've been friends for a long time... You gotta dump her." Junpei said.

"Why? I'm not even going out with her." I said.

"That's the point." Lee said.

"Whatever you guys don't have, it's gotta end." Junpei said.

The guys roared in assent.

"Okay, for all those who actually listen to this clown, let it be known that I, Minato Arisato, shall never be stuck in the friendzone. Understand and believe that, fools. And besides, we're going for dinner as friends. Peace." I said and walked away.

"Friendzone! Friendzone!" They jeered.

"Don't say we didn't warn you! Friendzone-boy!" Lee hollered.

I flipped them the bird as I went up to get ready.

I picked up my suit from the twelfth floor (yes, they do have a laundromat) and got ready.

When I finally went to the dining room, I was shocked at Yukari's appearance.

As if by magic, she suddenly became even more beautiful. Her peach colored gown looked so good on her. And her hair was just regal. She looked like Titiana with a peach dress.

"Wow. You look good." I managed to say.

"Thanks." She winked.

I took a seat and began ordering some food, this time Japanese food.

"I love Japanese food." Yukari said as she took a bite from a piece of sashimi.

"Hehe, but since we're from Japan, don't you mean you like food from back home?" I joked.

She just smirked politely.

"You know something Minato? I like you." She said.

I nodded, "I like you."

"Really?" She asked.

"Oh yeah."

That was a bit of a lie. I didn't feel anything for her anymore. When I said those words, I felt hollow... Was it because my feelings were conflicted...? Had I really fallen for Minako just like that?

"Good." She said, "Gimme a kiss then." She said as she puckered up.

"What, right now?" I asked urgently.

"Yeah, it'll be a blast." She said.

I tried my best to force myself to, but I kept imagining Minako's face.

"No, I... I can't do it." I said, "I'm sorry."

Instead of throwing a fit, she smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked.

"Because now I know how you feel about Minako." She smiled.

Great Messiah on high... She was playing mind games on me from the start.

"I... Uh... Not true." I said pathetically.

"Don't deny it." She said.

"I'm not. I'm really trying to figure it out. I truly am!" I said.

"Fine. That only makes me more determined to do anything it takes to win you back." She said.

"Okay, I'll bite. Why do you like me so much?" I said.

She gave me a look, "You kidding me? You're sweet, kind, gentle and you listen to my problems. You always seem to care for me. You look out for me even if I wouldn't do the same. Which is why you have my love. Forever and always."

I bit my lips. And I needed to max out my popularity to even talk to you.

"Which is why I don't want to hurt you. I want to remain friends, at least until I work out my feelings." I said as I kissed her on the cheeks.

She smiled, "Okay. Thanks Minato. For being a good friend." She said, "Thanks for always listening to me." Yukari said as she held my hand, "You're such a great friend."

I smiled as well.

"The friendzone is for losers only." The P.A. sounded, "Please unload your friend and get on with your life."

"Did you hear that?" I said, looking around.

"I didn't hear anything." Yukari said truthfully.

"Is that so?" I said as I scratched my ear.

We stayed there, talking for a while until we decided to go back up. Everyone was asleep already.

I said good night and went to take a bath. After that, I went to sleep, hoping for a normal day tomorrow.

A/N: I told you guys if you reviewed more, I'd post faster. Believe me now?

Anyway, be sure to post anything you find wrong and I will sort it out asap.

Anyways, review, review, review! If you liked the story, then review! And when you do, you're just gonna love it even more!

Q/A time:

Romance it is...but I have 95% bad felling that they kissed, but answer me this...how in the frigging world did Minato pass out...what did someone hit him in the head or rather Minako got freaked out and hit him with a champagne bottle? (In which I hope that's the case!) Or is it because of the dinner (like you said in the story). If so, was he drugged?

Very, want to the next chapter...because of MinaKari's dinner!

P.S: It's kinda embarrassing, but when I posted that review, I was, well, "out of zone" so to speak...like a zombie...

,but you answered it anyway's, so thanks.

Pretty much, good chapter, bro!

Sigh... Okay, I'll try to explain it in an easily understood manner...

First, if you read it thoroughly, like I keep telling you to, you would've noticed that they did not kiss.

Second, it seems as though you have something against Minako. I'd hate to disappoint you but the answer is a solid... No, that wasn't the case. She did not smash him in the head with a champagne bottle. Nor was the dinner drugged. He simply passed out. Why? Two simple words. Anxiety. Attack. Unless you're immune to it or something, that's the cause,

It causes fainting, so there.

Also, it's MinaYuka. Minakari is a type of jewelry, just to clarify things with you.

Now for another question from someone familiar...

Hey, i'm the guy from your first question. I mean side stories like the pageant. I found myself skimming through the stories because it's not developing the three main characters. You tell me that I don't know that these stories should connect together but you're obviously not doing it. I'm talking about stories where the characters are just put in a situation and then deal with it. Not very exciting. Stories that affect characters and then see what happens to them. How they change and grow. That kind of character development. If you're telling me that there was CD (I'll just shorten it from here on out), then let me tell you. Its happening at a very sluggish-rate. And about my last statement from my previous comment.

I'm talking about like when you put the walking dead thing in this chapter? It really lessens the world when you put things from real life. It should be the Persona Universe and it should be faithful to that world. All in all though, this was a more decent chapter. Its kind of sad though because the first few chapters really gave this Fanfiction this incredible premise.

First of all, it's really good to hear from you again. Truly a pleasure.

While I do agree that the sidestories are a bit of a drag with this story, I have to disagree with you. The game implemented these "sidestories" so as to add a moment of bonding within the cast. So I don't see why I shouldn't do it as well.

I also have to disagree with your statements on it being a "slog-feast". Some of my other readers find those chapters hilarious, so I have to object that statement, unless they make an uproar of me being wrong. But it's been duly noted.

If you're feeling impatient, then wait for a few chapters. Don't spoil it for others. Everything will meld together perfectly. Also, if you haven't noticed, Minako did develop. She was a hopeless romantic, unsophisticated girl and she found her love in Minato and became more graceful. She became more knowledgable about love and life. That sort of jazz.

As for your final words... I'll keep that in mind.

Though this isn't a question, I've elected to answer it...

dude, this chapter is amazing! finally minato is in love with minako. it's the moment i've been waiting for this whole summer. (it's summer here in the philippines.) i hope you reache 60 chapters. :) (the half is minato's life with minako as his gf) good work brother. ggod work. i hope ATLUS would read this and and publish it. :)

Thanks! I've been thinking if it was too early, but looks like it turned out well.

Summer there, eh? I was from there before. Sorry for the wait.

You're too kind with the compliments.

Also, I had the same idea of the duo living a college life. Just wait and see.

Hope to hear more from you!

Anyway, if you guys see or want to ask anything, put it on your review and I'll sort it out ASAP. Let's see if you got what it takes to make mincemeat out of the maestro!

5/24/13 Update:

-Junpei explaining Chidori's presence in New York. Credits to Solidthanatos.

-Explained who funded the trip. Much credits to solidthanatos.

-changed 'gym' to 'basketball court'. Credits to Urter.

-changed ,y to my. Credits to Urter.