OH DEAR PLEASE DON'T KILL ME GUYSSS. I AM VERY VERY VERY SORRY, if you've been following me through twitter you probably know that school and Yuri on Ice ate me whole these past few...uhm, weeks, months? Anyways, I want to apologize for this VERY late update. I revised this for like EIGHT times until I am finally satisfied with the outcome. Kicchin's brain cells were scattered all over, forgive me. So yeah, thank you for everyone who despite that fact is now here, and very excited to know what will happen next.

Also just wanna say hi to all Yuri on Ice fans there, hi guys, how was episode 12. Yep, me too, I dont think I will be over it until for the next forty years. Oh and Yuuri with LONGER hair and in RUSSIA, yep definitely so worth waiting for, right? Oh and I MIGHT do a Yuri on Ice story too!

So today's chapter haaas a very personal touch, I've been meaning to write this chapter for a very long time. I love this song and I just dont know which character suites it most. Somehow the story made it's own spin so yeah, now I've got it here. Hanataba is for me by far the MOST romantic song in Japanese I've heard yet. Ahahaha, Hanataba is sung by Back Number and I swear you will appreciate it EVEN more if you listen to the song and find the english trans of the whole things, also note the last part of the song. It's the key to the end of this chapter. AHAHAHA i'm such a bummer curse me.

Anyways, you know the drill guys. Read and enjoy, review and give it a fav or a follow! I miss you and I REALLY hope to hear from you, tell me how you find the song and the story!

PS.

TO EVERYONE WHO LOVED LION...THANK YOU SO MUCH BECAUSE...

*whispers* I'm officially making the sequel!

Chapter 26: Hanataba

Takao dated a lot in the past, it was basically how he got ideas about his works. He knows how women acted around. He isn't as experienced as the others but he could say at least that he knows much to be able to write things about love. And with that minimal knowledge, he knows how difficult love can be.

Of course he knows that, he writes about it. He knows the risks, the pain, sometimes he'd justify pain in his works, that without it there will be no joy, no delight—but pain is still pain. Love is like a free fall, you don't know if you'll survive the landing or not, will there be someone to catch you, or will you slam hard and get broken into thousand pieces.

Humans are such an enigma, they fear and yearn love.

"Thank you." Takao says as he looks at the boquet he settled in the table.

He took Suzuhara Rei's invitation to a dinner. He isn't an idiot, he has seen this scene over so many time. And the way Rei acted around him earlier confirmed his suspicion. He is more than a fan, maybe he is but he wants more than an autograph or a picture with him.

Rei smiles at him and calls the waiter, Takao allows him to order for the two of them. As the other spoke in complete comfort and casualness in a very fancy restaurant, Takao watches him closely. What does he intends to do, why is he doing this.

"Kazunari-kun can be very quiet too, hm?"

Takao's attention perks up, and he smiles at the other. "I'm just not used to this."

"Is that so?" Rei smiles back looking right at Takao. "So—"

"I don't wish to sound intimidating but can you please tell me the reason why we're here?"

"I told you—"

"That's not all, yes?"

Rei sighs, "I like you Kazunari-kun."

Takao doesn't react. He doesn't smile or look away, he doesn't say anything. He continues to look at the other looking for a hint of lie, there was none.

Rei laughs humorlessly, "Are you disgusted now?"

"I could care less." Takao says quickly making Rei's eyes wide as the saucers, "But why do I feel that there is something else?"

Rei purses his lips and reaches to the back pocket of his jeans. He licks his lips before putting a ring in the table.

"I'm about to get married." Rei says chuckling, "Would you believe it, a fixed marriage out of financial benefits and business partnership in this age? I don't have much time left as a free man."

"I'm sorry I…"

"The first time I saw you, it was an accident. The camera focused on you and suddenly all I hear was your bass, and all I saw was your eyes." Rei continues. "I thought that maybe if I met you in a better situation I'd come to every concert and performance and I'd ask you for your name and sign, and pursued you to like me back. And maybe you'll tell me about yourself too, tell me what you like best and what you like worst."

"Rei I—I'm not…" Takao shakes his head, "I'm sorry but I don't feel the same way."

Rei laughs, and Takao hears the small quiver and crack in his voice. He looks up at Takao, he is smiling but his eyes are not.

"I know." Rei takes the ring and holds it in his hand, "Yeah, I know."

"I'm so sorry."

Rei shakes his head, "I just wish the person you love feels the same."

Takao feels a deep bitterness rise in his throat at the other's words. It was his turn to feel deeply sad. The waiter returns with their order, he quietly puts them on the table before politely bowing and leaving them. Takao doesn't speak anymore.

"What is this person like?" Rei asks.

"What makes you think it's because of someone?" Takao asks.

Rei laughs before taking a sip in his water. He looks at Takao tilting his head in the sides, "You don't think I know what I look when I look at you? You look just the way I look at you."

"That doesn't actually make sense."

"I guess that's how things works, sometimes it doesn't really has to make sense."

Takao doesn't dare to touch his food, somehow he is filled with his own thoughts. Perhaps people seek answers to questions all too often that they lose hold of the real things that matters. Sometimes the world doesn't has to explain itself, sometimes there are things that doesn't need to be told, sometimes it just happens. Has he been looking too much too?

Has he been looking way too far?

Takao was about to say something when he felt a buzz inside his back pocket. He takes it out muttering a quiet excuse to Rei, he slides the screen lock and sees the message. His eyes widen at the message.

Subj: I know you

From: XXXXXXXX

Kazue is a female version of the name Kazunari. T was meant for your last name Takao.

Takao raises an eyebrow, what is this sender trying to do, intimidate him?

He was about delete the message when another pops out.

Subj: I know you

From: XXXXXX

Your first guitar was an second hand acoustic guitar from your classmate in high school, you bought it with your own money.

Takao blinks, nobody knows that, and if anyone does, he's sure it would be the readers of his manga. Has someone found out about him? he feels his heart racing, then another message pops out.

Subj: I know you

From: XXXXXXX

You're a Scorpion and even if you don't believe in Horoscopes you read them.

"Kazunari-kun are you alright?"

Takao hears Rei asks but he doesn't answer, especially when another message pops out.

Subj: I know you

From: XXXXXX

Look outside.

Takao's eyes widen at the last message, he stands abruptly and turns around. His sudden actions caused the other customers to look at him. But instead of apologizing and thinking of how people might start recognizing him, he walks to the door. If someone finds out, his career might get endangered. What will people think of him, hiding under a girlish penname and writing girlish manga.

He hears Rei calling his name but he doesn't look back, he runs towards the door of the restaurant without hesitation.

Then he opens the door, and his eyes stares in surprise at the sight before him.

"W-What…" Takao's voice quiver.

.

.

.

Two hours earlier…

The café has always been quite nostalgic for Emiko Midorima. This was where she would bring her son, he loved the parfait they served there, and he would look at her with his big green eyes and chubby cheeks. But things change. Emiko found her son growing a bit too fast, if it was just her, she wants him to do what he wishes.

Ever since his son reached the age of four, his father fought tooth and nail to send him to the best schools. He was expected to follow his father's footsteps into the medical field, become a doctor and continue what the man has started. But Emiko knew better, her son loved music, the moment he touched a guitar and played it she knew that he loves it.

There are too few things Emiko knows that her son enjoys. He was raised by a strict father, she understands that most things he does if all out of obligations he feels towards his father.

Emiko wanted to do something for him, she wanted to stand up for once for her son so when the opportunity came, she tried her best to make it possible for her son to truly pursue his passion. Emiko knows despite risking the fact that his son may rarely see them anymore—having the chance to leave—she still gave it away.

And she enjoys it, her son's own freedom, and even if he didn't explicitly told her, she knows he loves the people he plays for and with. It was the greatest thing she could have given her son.

And that was why she felt a strange flush of shock and bitterness when she finally heard a call from his son after so long saying he wanted to speak with them, only to hear him say yes to an old engagement. She swallowed it bitterly, as her son nodded in agreement to his father's will once again.

"Mother."

Emiko turns to her side and finds her son standing there in a gray sleeveless sweater over a forest green dress shirt. Emiko was about to stand when Midorima places a hand on her shoulder encouraging her to take her seat. She watches as he quietly takes a seat across her.

"I'm surprised you called, it's not that I do not wish to see you." Emiko smiles, "I miss you."

"I know," Midorima says. He breathes in. "I miss you too."

Emiko chuckles, "I remember when you were a child, you'd call us, me and your father at work to tell just that."

Midorima chuckles, "Mother please."

Emiko looks at Midorima, "You've grown so wonderfully."

"Thank you, Mother."

Midorima purses his lips and takes out his phone, he clicks on a familiar song in his playlist and slides the device towards his mother over the table. His mother takes the phone and without asking clicks the play button. A soft music plays of bass, it was obvious even to an amateur's ears that the music is recorded by the device with no editing, there were lots of noises in the back.

Then an unfamiliar but beautiful voice starts to resounds in the tiny speaker. Emiko blinks, and looks at Midorima but her son doesn't say anything. Emiko took this as a sign to listen further and she does.

She listens to the lyrics quietly.

And she finds herself closing her eyes. The voice is strong, but has a strange coolness of it. It was like a winter breeze, cold but gentle. Then suddenly as the words sinks to her, she finds herself opening her eyes.

She presses the pause button.

"Shintarou is this…this song…"

"I made that song mother." Midorima admits, "I was told to do it for a show, I had the opportunity…to make for the person I have been meaning to know."

"And?"

"I realized the person I have been dying to meet, the person I pursue…the person I was convinced that I love…is simply something I did to convince myself for I was afraid to truly be in love." Midorima says, "I was so sure, since I love that person who is so far from me, so unreachable, the risk of being rejected or accepted will be reduced. I threw off the chance to experience joy to elude pain. I denied the truth from myself."

"Why?" Emiko asks.

Midorima was a very quiet child, Emiko rarely hears him complain or show significant stresses in emotions. He was not angry, or sad, or happy, he was just quiet. It worried Emiko often that her son never shared his thoughts with others. It took her years to realize his music was his words, it is his way to talk about things he isn't used to discuss.

Emiko looks down at the screen of the phone, the song was titled—How Affection.

"I have realized it but I didn't want to admit it, I was scared of myself. I was scared of him."

Midorima waited for a change of expression from his mother, disgust, shock, anger…but none of those she shows. Instead she nods and takes an inhale. She reaches out her hand and places it on top of Midorima's, and she smiles encouraging him to continue.

"To love is…to give, it leaves you vulnerable and so susceptible to that person. It leaves you at their mercy, one word and they can leave you broken into pieces. I…I was frightened at that moment when I confronted my own feelings, I was scared to beg him to stay and hear him say no." Midorima feels his mother's hand grip his reassuringly, "I…I was stupid, Mother. I thought that it would have fixed me, that I would forget when I force myself to lose hope by agreeing with father's proposal."

"But you are wrong." Emiko says, she looks at his eyes and saw it there, "You never wanted to agree with your father's proposal because you knew it too."

Midorima nods, "And I saw him, I thought it would be fine but when I pictured him with someone else I felt envy and greed consumed me…I wanted nothing more than him."

"I'm sorry…" Emiko says.

Midorima shakes his head and slips away his hand from his mother's surprising her. Midorima reaches to the back pocket of his jeans and puts the item in the table—a ring. He pushes the item towards his mother.

"I'm sorry." Midorima says. "I have written father a letter that I expect him to see tonight, I am withdrawing from the engagement."

Emiko's eyes widen, she takes the ring from the table and looks at her son with amusment and a sense or pride.

"It wasn't just me." Midorima starts, "I was selfish and all I have thought was how I felt. I never looked at him truly, deeply. I hurt him from the things I did, I hurt him by being not strong enough to beg him to stay. And yet I acted like I was the only person who knew pain."

Midorima stands up from his seat and bows his head to his mother in a perfect angle. Emiko doesn't speak and lets him do as he pleases.

"Forgive me, for the path I have chosen is astray from your desired." Midorima raises his head, he looks at his mother, "This time for sure, I am no longer frightened."

Emiko nods.

"I understand."

Midorima doesn't say anything more and excuses himself. He slips out of his seat and turns away ready to leave, when suddenly he stops. He turns towards Emiko again flashing the brightest smile he could in all his life.

"His name is Kazunari."

…

There are many things that has surprised Takao Kazunari in the years. There was the fact that he actually likes a guy, and then there was the breakup of the Generation of Miracles, then Kuroko Tetsuya appearing before them, and then winning the annual Battle of the Bands. But of all those things, nothing could be compared for this moment. A number of people have now gathered around the LED screen in right at the building in front of the restaurant with the video of a very familiar man arranging the camera and basically everything in the whole set and background to look romantic.

Takao shakes his head, he has no idea what his stalker actually wants now watching Midorima embarrass himself.

"I don't really know how to do this." Midorima says in the video, he sits in a stool and fixes the acoustic guitar in his lap. Midorima looks up at the camera and scoffs before raising his hand to fix his glasses.

He strums to test the tune and nods in satisfaction.

He turns once again to the camera, "I don't know how to say this so yes." He nods and he starts to strums.

Takao listens quietly with the crowd. The strumming is quiet but very passionate, he remembers this style, it was just like the song their band sung in the Battle of the Bands. The beat is the perfect combination of slow and rock. For some reason, Takao feels his heart starts to race, his body starts to shake.

"Dou mo kore kara futari de yatte ikeru to omou

Nando kana demo toriaizu wa, Issho ni itai to omotteru kedo

Souda ne dakedo sa saigo wa watashi ga furareru to omou na
Nandou kana demo toriaezu wa Issho ni ite miyou yo."

Takao's eyes goes wide at the last line, his heart beats a mile per second as he sees a glint in Midorima's in the video. The emerald haired man looks at the camera briefly miniscule smile is in his lips before he turns back in his instrument. Takao is used to looking at people, he pride himself as a good observer, and what he saw there was not the confident and normal Midorima Shintaro but a very nervous Midorima Shintaro.

Pass the squeals of the crowds and the murmurs, Takao can see the way one of Midorima's leg is shaking, he constantly looks at his hand and strings to check if he's correct which he does not usually do. He's trying not to mess up which is comically because he never mess up.

Takao feels a flood of emotion sweeps him, his heart swells and he feels tears wells up in the corner of his eyes as he listens to the next stanza.

"Uwaki shite mo iwanaide yo ne
Shiranakereba kanashiku wa naranai desho

Shinyounai naa boku wa boku nari ni
Massugu ni kimi to mukai aitai to omotteru yo"

Takao feels his knees betray him as the flood of confessions fills him with every streams of words. He grips the phone in his hands and presses it to his chest as if it was his only lifeline.

"Boku wa nankai datte nanjuukai datte
Kimi to dakiatte te wo tsunai de kisu wo shite
Omoidasu tabi ni niyakete shimau you na omoide wo kimi to tsukuru no sa
Sorya kenka mo suru darou kedo
Sore nara nankai datte nanjuukai datte
Ayamaru shikansha no kotoba mo kitto wasurenai kara
Gomen gomen arigatou gomen kurai no
Baransu ni naru kiken sei wa sukoshi takame dakedo
Yurushite yo"

Before the chorus even ends Takao is already a crying mess in the corner, the people are too engrossed to care for a crying man that his existence blurred in theirs. He could care less because his heart aches from too much emotion. He couldn't explain it, it was like drowning, like being squeezed, like the world is forcing all the love out of you.

He wanted to scream and curse the very existence of Midorima Shintaro, because how dare him.

He tries to wipe off his ugly tears with his hands but more falls down, it felt endless. As the interlude comes in, Takao feels his phone vibrates in his hand. He quickly fiddles in the device and opens the message.

Subj: I know you

From: XXXXXX

You're romantic and you want to be serenaded in front of the public.

…I think it's stupid though.

Takao laughs amidst his tears reading the message. Of course, yes, of course it has to be him. The phone vibrates displaying a new message as the interlude comes to an end.

Subj: I know you

From: XXXXXX

I'm sorry.

As soon as Takao reads the message he hears the next stanza loud and clear on the screen in front of him.

"Ima made no boku wa
Magatta koto bakka datta ki ga suru'n da yo
Dakara semete kimi no toko ni wa
Massugu ni massugu ni hashitteku yo"

Takao purses his lips, he couldn't believe this is happening. He wish someone would wake him up now because if this is just a prank he would have someone's head in a platter at any second now. He's far too invested for this.

He remembers it's almost like this when he first saw Midorima SHintaro, he was so far, he wasn't even looking at him. He looked straight ahead with his bright green eyes hidden behind his glasses. His waved at the crowd nonchalantly. He wondered then if ever happens that someone so insignificant like him actually can be seen by someone like them.

Maybe fairy tales do come true too.

"…Sorenara nankai datte nanjuukai datte
Ayamaru shikansha no kotoba mo kitto wasurenai kara
Kimi to nara donna asa mo yoru mo yuugata datte
Warai atte ikite ikeru'n ja nai ka to
Omou'n da yo…"

Takao hears another buzz in his phone and he opens the phone again and reads the message.

Subj: [none]

From:XXXXXXX

Look behind you.

Takao turns around and finds himself pressed against a warm and strong chest as a pair of strong and familiar arms wrap around him. Takao doesn't need to look to know who it is, he listens as he finally finishes his song whispering the lyrics to Takao's ears.

"Yes."