DOUBLE STORY

Aa-ah. I've been so busy. Final year project takes such a toll on one's mind and body... A university student's life isn't easy.

But anyway... Here's Chapter 8 - after looooong consideration and fixes here and there. As DeVelicious (the one who pestered me into writing this) says... "Finally." XD

Chapter 8

Fuji paced the floor. "I'm not keen on this. Maybe I should take leave…"

"Don't be stupid. That's just extreme. I'm sure Yu would say the same. You can always take her out some other day after you're back. Then you two can have a joint February kids' birthday dinner. Besides, this way you can bring back some crabs from Hokkaido for us."

He stopped pacing and glared at the blank space before him, wishing Saeki was there in person. Glares didn't transmit over phone lines.

"You know it's not that I'm worried about. Can't you wait until I'm back?"

"And waste the booking at that restaurant? It was hard enough to get that booking so near Valentine's Day…"

"I'm not joking." Fuji kicked aside a pillow that had somehow fallen off the sofa.

There was a sigh on the other end. "What exactly are you afraid of, Fuji?"

"I don't know." He sat down heavily on the sofa. "Sae…"

"Relax. You don't need to worry. I'm not going to do anything unless I'm sure of myself. You think I'm going to throw away a perfectly good friendship on a whim?"

The thin photographer raised his free hand to massage his forehead. "I know, I know."

Fuji knew it and yet he felt uncomfortable.

The extent to which the whole thing was bothering him became evident to him when the next day at work, it seemed like a good many people noticed his preoccupied air. Even some of the accountants in the auditing firm next door whom he had met a few times noticed it! He had passed two of them on his way back from lunch and exchanged a few words, only to have one say, "Is everything all right? You look worried."

"I'm fine," he had said, feeling like a broken radio after the amount of times he had repeated it that day. "Just got some stuff on my mind. Anyway, I'd better not keep you from work. It was nice seeing you again, Sato-san, Nakamura-san." He bowed slightly to the man and woman before leaving.

By the time Fuji got home, he was thoroughly out of sorts. A rare mood for him, but he was quite fed up with the whole triangle he seemed to be inadvertently stuck in the middle of.

----------

"This is rare – you inviting me out without Atobe along," said Oshitari musingly, as they walked through the mall. "You do remember, of course, that I already have a girlfriend."

"I told Kumiko that I'd be borrowing you today and she said, 'Sure, go ahead!'"

"Nice to know I'm so treasured," mumbled the blue-haired man.

Suzume laughed. "Be a good friend and help me pick something out for my parents. Their wedding anniversary is coming up and I want to get them something really nice."

"Why didn't you just ask Atobe? I'm sure he'd be more than happy to accompany you."

Suzume pretended to be absorbed in a carved clock in a window display and answered as carelessly as she could manage, "Oh, I didn't want to bother him. He's busy these days. Anyway, it's been a while since I last hung out with you."

"Hmm. True, all that you said. But I think that right now, you could ask Atobe to go anywhere, anytime, and he'd go without question."

To Oshitari's great interest, Suzume said nothing, but a pink colour rose in her cheeks at his remark. It was faint and faded fast, but Oshitari was looking for a reaction, and he found it. Definitely something to tell Kumiko later, thought Oshitari. Perhaps Atobe was making some sort of progress after all.

Unaware of the blush and Oshitari's amusement, Suzume continued to stare at the clock. She knew that wasn't the whole reason. Truth be told, ever since the day she dragged Atobe to the doctor's, she had begun to feel just a little awkward around him sometimes. Specifically whenever he showed any sign of what he really felt for her. The occasional longing glance, the way he now seemed to be trying to emulate Tezuka in opening doors for her and pulling out chairs for her to sit in...

Takahashi Suzume was no fool. She knew just what this awkwardness could translate to or could become. But she dismissed it for mere pity and assumed that it was just an initial reaction to his altered ways. In any case, she didn't want to dwell on it.

"Are there secret words written on that clock that you are so enchanted by it, Suzume?" queried Oshitari in his smooth Kansai drawl.

She turned to him. "I was just admiring it."

"I see."

"As for Keigo," she said, picking up on their previous subject. "If I keep hanging out with him, he might start thinking that… Well, I don't want him to get the wrong idea." She started walking towards another shop. Oshitari followed, a smirk on his face. He didn't think Suzume would be able to get Atobe to stop just like that.

----------

Yumi walked into the office, noting the proliferation of red, white and pink things all over the place. She smiled at the secretary, Miyu, as she went past her desk.

"Ishida-san's Valentine's gift?" she asked, tapping her finger on the small packet of chocolates wrapped in Miyu's careful, dainty manner.

"Yeah," replied Miyu. "I'll be seeing him for lunch, so I'll give them to him then."

"That's nice. And I see Shizuka has her gift all ready for Komeda," said Yumi, glancing over at another woman's table.

Miyu nodded. "He sent her flowers too."

"Ah. So that's what that bunch of pink on her table is."

"Speaking of flowers…" Miyu jerked her head towards the door to the studio-office Yumi shared with Suzume. "Go take a look."

"He did it again?"

"Just like last year."

When Yumi opened the door, the first thing that caught her attention was the blaze of bright red covering Suzume's table. Then she saw her partner standing by her table, looking a combination of perplexed and exasperated. A downward glance showed her a pot with a single white and purple orchid – Suzume's favourite type – on the floor.

"Someone really went all out this time," said Yumi. "That didn't come last year." She nodded towards the orchid.

"And what does he expect me to do with these?" said Suzume, flinging a hand out over the roses that covered her table, ignoring the potted orchid. Yumi counted two huge bouquets and any amount of red petals scattered over the rest of the table. Some had fallen on the floor too.

"Admire them and then put them in water? After which you can call him to tell him how lovely they are and how much you adore them."

"Not helping."

Yumi laughed.

"How am I supposed to get this carpet of petals off my table without sweeping everything under them off as well?" Suzume said irritably.

"Guess you'll just have to pick them off little by little," said Yumi, putting her things on her own table before going back to Suzume's. "What's that?" she inquired, seeing a box of dark brown leather with gold edging on the table.

Suzume made a frustrated noise. She picked up the box and held it out to Yumi. "Take a look."

Yumi took the box from her and opened it. She stared, blinked, and looked up at Suzume, who was still glaring at the rose petal-covered table.

"Suzu… How expensive is this?"

"Don't know. Probably exorbitant, knowing him."

Yumi gingerly touched the diamond-studded pendant with a finger. The necklace looked too precious, too expensive to touch. White and blue diamonds. And was that a sapphire in the middle? It wasn't just the pendant of the necklace either. The whole thing looked like it was made of diamonds. The clasp looked suspiciously like white gold too, not even silver.

"Are you going to help me clear this table or not?" asked Suzume.

"Yeah, sure." With a last amazed look at the necklace, she closed the box and set it down.

It was a while before they got all the petals off her table and off the floor. The roses in the bouquets were relegated to an extra chair in the room, whereas the orchid was put near the window to get more sunlight.

"No use killing a perfectly good orchid," Yumi had said to Suzume, who didn't seem inclined to do anything about it.

"Whatever," Suzume said, picking up some invoices to look over. "Any plans yourself, Yu?"

Yumi shook her head. "Nope."

"But I'm sure you're full of plans for tomorrow, right? Don't tell me you're going to sit at home on your birthday…"

"Well, there's lunch with you and the rest, and then there's dinner with Sae. By the way, I'm expecting grand presents from the lot of you," joked Yumi.

"Dinner with Sae?" repeated Suzume, as though she hadn't heard anything else.

"Yeah." The dark-haired designer fished out her sketchbook from a drawer and settled down to draw. "Syuusuke was supposed to come too but something came up at the last minute and he can't make it. So he'll be taking me out some other day."

"So it's just you and Saeki?"

A nod answered her.

Suzume let out a meaningful "hmm."

Without looking up from her drawing, Yumi said, "Don't start thinking things, Suzu. You'd waste less time thinking about those roses in the corner there or that necklace than thinking illusions about me and Sae."

She mentioned the flowers on purpose as a distraction, if not a deterrent, for Suzume. She didn't want to hear Suzume talk about herself and Saeki. Thinking about the "possibility" there always made her think of Tezuka and the seeming "impossibility" there.

Yumi's instinct paid off as her friend sank into silence, casting a baleful gaze at the two huge bouquets. For the rest of the day, Suzume ignored the flowers; roses and orchid all. The box with the diamond necklace she put under the roses on the chair. Only before she left the office in the evening did she stop and stare long and hard at the roses.

----------

Tezuka leaned back in his chair and covered his face with the book he had been trying to read. It was no good; he just couldn't concentrate on anything. He had tried doing some work that he brought home, but his mind kept wandering away. He had tried watching television, but everything seemed either inane or unutterably boring. He had tried feeding the fish in the pond, but the fish had all decided that they weren't hungry and had ignored him almost completely. Then he had tried to read a book he had been meaning to finish for a long time, but that obviously wasn't working.

He lowered the book until it was just below his eyes and gazed over the book edge to look at the slender box on the table. The box had been sitting in that corner dutifully collecting dust for some months now. Rather, it would have collected dust – if he hadn't dusted it every few days. He could have put it into a drawer, but somehow… He didn't want to.

And it was the person that box was meant for that kept distracting him now.

Today she turned twenty-five. He'd known her for over ten years already. In middle school, he would never have thought that he would fall in love with Fuji's quiet (and equally clever) friend. He hadn't even thought of the possibility in high school. But something changed in years after that. He didn't know exactly when, but by the time he had even an inkling of it, he was already fathoms deep in love. He felt like a tremendous idiot for being so slow to come to full realisation of it. And he felt like an even bigger fool for not speaking up after he'd come to that conclusion.

And now she was having a birthday dinner with Saeki.

He laughed – a short, dry laugh. Perhaps there was a bitter note to the laugh. He wasn't sure and he didn't care. He was alone in his room and no one would have heard it.

It could well have been him she was dining with. But it wasn't him. It. Wasn't. Him. Instead, it was the third member of the cunning trio, the cheerful and annoyingly handsome – Oh, now he's annoyingly handsome, is he, mocked the voice in his head – Saeki Kojirou.

Saeki Kojirou. Tezuka Kunimitsu's rival. Who'd have thought it? A distinctly wretched feeling welled up inside him. He let go of the book. It slid down his face and fell into his lap. He took off his glasses and covered his eyes with one arm. His heart ached, but there was nothing he could do about it at that point.

----------

"How's the food?" Saeki asked.

"Delicious as always," said Yumi, poking her fork into her food again. "I have the most superb best friends – you all know how to spoil me with my favourite foods, you and Syuusuke and Emiko and Suzume. You always manage to pick the places I like best"

"It's not very hard, actually. You're so picky there aren't many places you really like."

"True, true. So thank me for making your lives easier," she said with a laugh.

Saeki grinned. "So where's Fuji going to take you? Has he told you yet?"

Yumi shook her head. "Not yet. But we'll probably go out this weekend when he's done with work."

"Ah." Saeki let a few moments of silence pass before he ventured, "What about Tezuka?"

"What about him?"

"Is he taking you out too?"

"Not that I know of," she answered – a little too quickly and a little too cheerfully. "He called me this morning to say happy birthday and we talked a while. Said something about maybe treating me sometime… But we didn't decide anything. So… I don't know. Doesn't matter. It was nice of him to call anyway."

"At least he called," said Saeki, turning to glance at her a moment and send her a reassuring smile. "Better than nothing. Means he remembered."

She smiled wryly. "True."

Saeki pushed his plate away slightly so he could place his elbows on the table. "Tell me something, Yu. Why is it you don't seem to think that he cares for you?"

Caught by surprise, she stared at him for a few seconds before lowering her eyes to the table. She put down her knife and fork and ran a hand through her hair, sighing.

"He hasn't said anything to me."

"But he shows it, doesn't he?"

"Oh, really?" She gave him a sceptical look. "I don't see how."

"You're kidding me."

"No, I'm not."

He put two fingers to either side of his head and massaged his temples a little. "Yu… Hime…" It took him a second to gather his thoughts. "This is the most striking example I can think of at the moment. When you had to postpone a movie outing with him to help take over babysitting chores from your sister, he actually offered to accompany you. Give up a whole day – or even half a day – to technically help take care of kids? Guys wouldn't normally do that. Fuji or I might do it for you, but that's because we're so close that we're practically siblings, we three.

"He also likes your company – otherwise he wouldn't hang out with you so often. And he actually talks around you. Well, he does talk a lot more now than he did at fourteen or fifteen, but he still talks relatively less than most –"

One part of his mind poked at him a little. Why in the world are you pushing her towards Tezuka? Isn't he your competition now?

He's not, replied another part. I'm not his competitor either. Never was. There's nothing to compete for when she's already decided who she wants. Besides, first and foremost I'm her friend and as a friend, I'm bound to help her out. Right now that means trying to shake her out of her insecurity.

"Talks less than you, definitely," said Yumi.

"Less than me," agreed Saeki. "And less than Fuji. Anyway, he's comfortable around you, that's obvious. He seems to trust you too. Remember when his grandfather passed away a few years back? I recall that you were the first of his friends to know it. And from what Fuji told me, you knew – even when everyone else didn't seem to know – just how deeply he felt the loss."

"Oishi knew."

"Okay, you and Oishi knew then," he conceded. "Oishi should know, being one of his oldest friends. But still, you knew. To me, that just shows that you know him better than you think and that there's a closer bond between you than you imagine." He raised his hands, palms outwards in a placating gesture, seeing that she was about to protest again. "I meant friendship, Yu."

"So we're close friends. I'd acknowledge as much," said Yumi. "But that doesn't mean there's anything more. I… I'm not the attractive type – you know that!" She folded her arms and looked at her glass on the table.

"You're not a conventional beauty. So what?" He leaned forward a little. "I think you're great as you are. Fuji thinks so too."

"You two say that because you're my friends."

Not to be deterred, he went on, "Bane thinks you're not bad-looking. Bane. Hard-to-please Kurobane Harukaze thinks that you're not bad-looking. I'd say that's a fair compliment from the guy who wouldn't call even Suzume-san gorgeous. He just says she's 'pretty.' I've no idea how that guy's going to ever find a wife with those impossible standards of his..."

"Has he seen Suzume before?" Yumi asked, trying to think if she had ever introduced Suzume to Saeki's friend.

"In photos. There's a couple of pics I have with you and Suzume-san from Ohtori's party in December."

"Oh."

"Back to the topic. I don't think Tezuka counts looks as an important criteria. He's not as picky as Bane in that department, I should think."

"Looks are looks, but you can't ignore the 'attraction' factor," countered Yumi.

"Attraction?" Saeki felt like smacking his forehead. "My dear Yumi… I know how men look at women they're attracted to. After all, I'm a guy myself. I think he has the look of a man who is more than just 'attracted' to a woman."

Her unconvinced expression became tinged with a hesitant hope, but not much. Saeki sighed inwardly. He'd guessed as much that nothing would convince her short of Tezuka telling her himself. But he smiled anyway and just said, "I do wish you'd stop being so hard on yourself, Hime. You're really not as bad or as plain as you think you are."

She smiled – just a little. "Thanks, Sae."

----------

Having been shown into the living room where Suzume was, Atobe dispensed with the formalities and got straight to the point.

"I need some help. Go out with me next week."

She arched her well-shaped eyebrows at him. "You know, it's considered common courtesy to greet someone when you meet them. Sit down." She gestured to a chair. "And why? What sort of help would that be?"

"An excuse," he replied, dropping into the nearest armchair. "My parents are trying to get me to attend an omiai."

"Formulate some other excuse. Like a business meeting or something."

"My father still runs the company. You think he wouldn't know if I had a meeting or not?" Atobe said, looking at her as if he couldn't believe what a stupid question that was.

"Go out with Yuushi or someone else."

"He just told me to ask you."

You're dead, Yuushi, she thought darkly. "Why can't you just say no?"

"I did. But my mother's insisting that if I don't have anything to do, I should go. By 'anything to do' I think she means seeing some other woman. You know how she can be…"

"Who do they want you to meet?"

"Masuda Shiori."

"Hmm… Good choice. I've met them once. I remember Shiori-san was really sweet. And her parents run some import-export thing – I forget what – don't they? That'd fit nicely with your family's businesses."

"I didn't come here to hear you say that I should go," he interrupted, irritated.

"Then? You should know better than to think I'd agree."

"Perhaps I thought that as a friend you might be willing to help!" snapped Atobe, standing.

"Because I'm your friend I'm telling you that you should go!" Suzume felt her temper rising. "The Masudas are nice people and Shiori is a nice girl. Who knows – you might actually like her if you bothered to at least try meeting her once!"

"I don't want to like her!"

"Oh, grow up!" She stood up and faced him, glad that she was tall enough to not have to tilt her head to look right at him. It would have been rather difficult to lecture someone you had to literally look up to. "There's nothing wrong in just meeting her. You've had girlfriends before – goodness knows how many – so why are you unwilling to even meet Shiori-san? Be sensible."

"What about you?" he shot back. "If I tell you to meet one of those guys your aunts are always trying to set you up with, would you?"

"I might – just to get them off my case!"

"Yeah, right."

She rolled her eyes. "This is stupid –"

"For crying out loud, Suzume! I've told you that I love you, I send you gifts for Valentine's Day and White Day, I do my best to do whatever you say and I've proposed to you I don't know how many times before –"

"Twice at least," she muttered, hoping that this wasn't going to become the third instance.

"– And yet you can still tell me to go for an omiai and meet someone else! Do you not get it?"

Suzume returned his infuriated gaze with a hard look of her own, trying not to yell back at him. "I get it. But you seem to be the one who doesn't 'get it.' I never asked for gifts! And I – I don't love you like that. That's why I'm telling you to go for this omiai. If you like Masuda Shiori then maybe you can start getting over me already."

He glared at her for another moment, but if he was stubborn, then she was even more so. The hard mask on her face didn't falter in the slightest.

"What do I have to do to make you love me?"

The question came so suddenly that the hard expression on her face vanished, replaced by a stunned look, and then a blank one. But she said nothing, instead averting her eyes to the painting on the wall. Even so, she could feel his angry gaze on her.

A thick silence hung in the air for some moments.

"Fine." Atobe strode towards the door and opened it. "I'll go, but I'm not going to marry her." He didn't look back at Suzume. "I won't marry anyone except you. Remember that."

With that he was gone and the door clicked shut behind him.

----------

"We could have walked or taken the bus, you know," said Yumi.

"What, let you walk in the cold night on your birthday? You must have a low opinion of me if you think I'd do that," said Saeki.

"And you must have a low opinion of me if you think I'd object to it. You really didn't need to rent a car just for the evening."

"What sort of friend would I be if I did anything less? Besides, Fuji's going to pay for half of this," he said, tapping the steering wheel with one hand. He just doesn't know it yet.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It's his fine for going off to work and leaving us like this," joked Saeki. "Come to think of it, maybe I should make him pay the whole rental fee."

She laughed. "That, I leave to you to handle. In any case, it's a pity he couldn't come tonight."

"It's good for you, though. You get two free meals – one from me and one from Fuji. Has he said where he'll take you?"

Yumi frowned a little. "Didn't you just ask me that during dinner?"

"Oh? Hmm… So I did. Sorry, forgot."

"Getting old, are you?"

"Only as old as you are," he responded with a grin.

Saeki turned into the road that led to Yumi's home. As they neared her house, he spotted a vaguely familiar car parked a little way in front of her gate. Then he saw a very familiar figure leaning against the side of the car, staring up at the sky – or maybe at the telephone wires; he couldn't tell.

Well, well, thought Saeki. He looked at Yumi. She was digging in her bag for her keys and didn't seem to have noticed anything.

"Hime-san."

"Hm?"

He took one hand off the steering wheel, tucked a finger under her chin and jerked her face towards the front. "Your prince is here."

Her eyes widened. "What –?"

"I wonder what he's doing here," said Saeki in a sing-song voice, slowing the car to stop at her gate.

Yumi cast him a dry look. "You're as bad as Suzu. Don't start imagining weird things."

"Who, me?" he said, giving her an innocent gaze. "But really, what do you think he's there for?"

"I don't know. I hope nothing's wrong."

The car stopped right in front of her gate. Saeki said, "Better go see what's up then. But don't stand outside talking too long. It's cold out there."

"Now you sound like my parents," she said, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Thanks for tonight, Sae. I enjoyed myself."

"Glad to be of service, Hime."

"I'd tell you and Syuu to stop calling me that, but I like the term too much." She leaned over and gave him a sidelong hug. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome. Now, shoo! Don't keep him waiting."

----------

Tezuka turned when the car drove up to her gate. It was a little hard to see who was in the car because of the glare of the headlights, but he knew it had to be them. A couple of seconds later, Yumi got out of the car. She waved at Saeki as he drove off.

"Tezuka!" She jogged a few steps to him. "What are you doing here? Were you waiting for me?"

He nodded.

"Geez, why did you? Did something happen? And it's so cold tonight too! Couldn't it have waited until tomorrow?" Yumi shook her head. "Come inside where it's warmer and we'll talk."

Tezuka stopped her before she opened the gate. "It's okay. This'll just take a moment."

"Oh?" She let the key ring slide onto her index finger, the keys clinking together as she did so. "What's up? Just come to bring me my birthday present?" she said, jokingly.

"As a matter of fact, yes." He opened the car door and took out a thin box, which he handed to her. "I wanted to give it to you before the day was over."

"Aw, that's so nice of you!" said Yumi, accepting it. "Thank you." She looked at the box and gave it a slight jiggle. Something rustled inside. "Sounds interesting. Can I open it now?"

"If you like."

She pried off the wrapping paper. Inside was a plain red box with a grey line – maybe it was silver, a bit hard to tell in the lamplight – running across its length. She opened it and gave a small gasp.

There lay a silver necklace with a beautiful pendant of curved pattern and a single small semiprecious citrine stone in the middle. It was a necklace that she had once seen some time ago while out shopping with Suzume and Tezuka. Unable to decide at that time if she wanted to get it because it had been rather expensive, she had left first. But when she came back the following week after deciding to buy it after all, it had already been sold.

"Tezuka, you…" Yumi stared at it a moment longer, then looked up at him. "I don't know what to say… Thank you!" She put her keys into her bag and then took up the necklace from the box, fingering it gently, and observing it with a look of awe mixed with surprise. "This is too much," she said, resting the pendant in the palm of her hand, before returning it almost reverently to the box. "You're a really good friend…"

"I didn't do it just because of friendship," he said suddenly.

"Hm?" She lifted her eyes from the necklace to his face. And found herself riveted to the spot again by his gaze.

"I did it because… Because I'm in love with you."

For a second, all she could do was stare back at him in shock. Then she looked down at the box in her hand, blinking almost disbelievingly.

He stood very still. The silence – hers and their surroundings' silence – seemed to heighten his tension. Either his whole world was going to come crashing down around him or heaven would come temporarily to earth. He didn't know which to expect. He didn't dare to expect anything. He hadn't really planned to say that.

She raised her head once more. She didn't say a word, but the look in her eyes, on her face, was all the answer he needed. He pulled her into his arms and held her so tightly he was half afraid he would crush her.

So warm…Yumi felt like she could cry; she was so happy. He was holding her close, like he never wanted to let go. She felt the slight pressure of his cheek resting against her hair. She loved this closeness. And she loved him. She wondered if midnight had passed yet or if this was the most marvellous birthday gift so far in her life.

Tezuka had no idea how long they stood that way, but he didn't care. She was there in his embrace, and she loved him too. That was all that mattered. A few more seconds ticked by, and then he slowly loosened his hold, but didn't let go of her entirely.

He withdrew, but kept his face close to hers, just centimetres apart. "I love you," he whispered again, feeling like he could never say it enough. "I'm sorry – I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before."

Yumi found her voice at last and shook her head slightly. "It's okay," she said, her voice barely a whisper. He ran the back of his fingers down her cheek in a gentle caress, his eyes speaking the volumes words could not.

And then he was kissing her. Soft. Tender. A little uncertain in action, but definitely not in feeling.

She felt like she was floating. Everything was forgotten as she let herself be lost in the warmth that coursed through her and in the feeling of his lips on hers.

When they finally broke apart – from the kiss and from each other's arms – he looked almost regretful and seemed loath to even just let go of her hand. But he did anyway.

"I – I should go," she said, gesturing in the direction of her gate. Or at least what she hoped was the direction of her gate. She had a feeling she had waved towards the fire hydrant instead. All of a sudden she felt a little embarrassed and overwhelmed.

He nodded slowly. "It's late," he agreed.

She managed a "good night" and turned to her home, but he stopped her with a hand under her chin. He kissed her cheek gently and said in a low voice, "I'll see you tomorrow." Slightly trembling fingers lingered a moment longer on her face, and then he left with the air of one who knew that if he didn't leave then, he never would.

Tsukareta...

Did you like it? I hope so

Next time I update, it'll be two chapters at one go. So... Wait for it, minna-sama! )