The night of the party had arrived and Kosaki found herself busy with just getting ready. She hadn't given it much thought beyond looking nice, but Chiffon had insisted upon it.
"Kosaki, we need to make sure it looks just right." She said, putting immense attention on all the little details. "It would be a shame to be invited to such a nice event only to make a fool of ourselves."
"I don't know how much they'll notice." Kosaki replied, her arms had to be held up as her friend checked down along the sides of her dress. She ruffled and pulled the fabric along to keep things perfectly straight. "We're just students from his school. I think most of the guests are going to be more interested Mr. Miyanagi."
"You don't know that." Chiffon disagreed. "You're a newish student, so people are still going to be talking about you. Beside, I wonder if there's going to be any cute guys there?"
"I guess there's that too…" Kosaki laughed weakly. In the adult world, things were much more different than what she had gotten used to during high school. The more innocent times where she only had to contend with a crush. Though ever since she got rejected, she hadn't found herself interested in anyone else. Sure, there were a lot of boys whom she had their attention, but no feelings ever came from her to them.
While she was confident she had moved on, it still was a weird feeling for Kosaki to have. She had lived much of her middle and high school life believing she was in love. It had been so long that it had basically become a part of her, but now she was free to pursue other things.
Such as the schooling to improve her baking skills, which had been working much better than even she had expected. It was more important to her to focus on why she came to this country in the first place, then she could return a better person, particularly at her job. Afterwards she could just go home and run the bakery as planned for the rest of her life. Enjoying her normal life with… Well just Raku and her sister at this point since the rest of her friends had either left or were going to leave for college.
"Okay, now everything's perfect." Chiffon was finally content with everything as she allowed her to drop her tired arms. "Now let's head out before we're too late." The girls left their room, now all gussied up for the formal event to meet up with the men.
The Anadama and George were waiting in the main foyer of the mansion. There Chiffon announced themselves when they were atop the stairs so they could make their grand entrance. Kosaki could've lived to not have anyone see them when they were walking down, but Chiffon had worked too hard to have that effort go unnoticed.
"You know, we've been waiting for a while now." Anadama commented as the girls walked down. Chiffon would not get her warm welcome as the man ruined it all. "I'm not sure if it was worth the wait either."
"Hmpf, you should at least appreciate the effort." She crossed her arms and pouted. "Not everyone is lucky enough to just get attention because of their name."
"Not like I want it." He replied, getting up from his seat. "Now let's just go and get this over with." He was more than ready to have the night end as he walked out the front door. When they followed along with George as well, they saw the limo parked in front.
"Sweet!" Chiffon's eyes lit up from the sight. "Now we're going to arrive in style too."
"This is mostly for us. You're just along for the ride." He implied that they were in mind when the choice of transportation was decided. Anadama then opened the door to let himself inside, closing it on his way in to get a few moments of privacy.
"Where's Mr. Miyanagi?" Kosaki asked, noting the strange absence of the one who had invited them in the first place.
"He's already at the party." George answered. "So have no worries and just focus on yourselves." He assured them as the gentleman ushered them into the limo so that he could take his spot as the driver to their destination.
As they rode along, Kosaki couldn't help but notice Anadama taking a rather absurd approach in putting distance between them. He made sure to sit as far away as possible from the two girl as well as positioning himself to look out the car window so as to not even face their general direction.
Chiffon didn't seem to mind his actions as she was more preoccupied with chatting up with her as they rode the short trip downtown to where the event was being held. So it wasn't an awkward trip for her to take, but she did feel a bit bad for the man despite him being the one to put himself in this situation.
Finally they had arrived at their destination and immediately upon stepping out of the limo, Kosaki was floor at the sheer size of where their event was being held. She knew it would be a fancy party, but she hadn't considered that a party near Hollywood would bring about some stars. If only she was American, then perhaps she might've recognized more of them, but even she was aware of some of the celebrities around.
"Try not to be too starstruck." Anadama told them, not moved by the sight as it was more normal for him. "You don't want to make fools out of yourself."
"I'll be back at midnight to pick you all up." George said as he took each girls' hand to guide them respectfully out of the limo. "So do be mindful of the clock."
"I feel kind of bad." Said Chiffon. "You're just going to miss out on all this?"
"Ah, it's not a worry at all." He chuckled and waved off the concern. "I don't care for the festivities, so I'm going to enjoy a night alone with some tea and quiet reading."
"He's not lying, he really does prefer that." Said Anadama as he walked past the girls. "So don't worry about him, just get inside."
"I'll see you later as well, master." George gave a respectful bow, which only got a small wave as the young man continued to head inside, leaving the rest of them behind. "And you two nice young ladies enjoy yourselves too."
"Thanks, we'll make sure to do that!" Chiffon gave a much more enthusiastic response as she took Kosaki and led them into the party themselves.
Entering the building proved to be even more impressive than it looked on the outside. Though at this point it was no surprise for Kosaki. It already looked much larger than Chitoge's house when they went to her birthday party. This was more compatible to where they were when Marika was nearly forced to marry.
For someone who always called herself an average girl, she realized that she had been through surprisingly a lot.
There were also dozens of people she didn't recognize. While they had ran into a couple who were fellow students, Kosaki couldn't tell what else she should be doing besides idle chitchat with a room full of strangers.
"Congrats on passing your first exam." Said one of her classmates as she was going around with Chiffon. "Hope the teacher wasn't that mean to you."
"He wasn't mean at all." She nervously laugh in response. It seemed that everyone had a negative view on him. Speaking of Anadama, she couldn't help but wonder where he went off to. "Where is he, anyway?"
"Why are you so interested in him?" Chiffon couldn't understand her friend's constant need to know about the man. "He's handsome, but he's a complete jerk."
"It's not that." Kosaki couldn't help but blush in response to the insinuation that she might be attracted to Anadama. While they weren't wrong in complimenting his good looks, there was more to having romantic feelings for someone for her. At least that's what she believed for herself, but it was hard when she only ever liked one boy in her life.
"Besides, he's just gone off on his own to sulk." Her friend pointed out where she saw him. Anadama had simply taken one of the tables to sit at. While his plan had to just be hanging around idly by, it seemed there was a pretty girl sitting besides him talking to the man. "He probably doesn't like hanging out with us peasants." Chiffon made a comment on the likely status of whoever it was talking with him.
"Hmm, I don't know." Kosaki wouldn't believe it. Not after what she had seen him do already for people he had never met.
"Anyway, let's not get so hung up on some los-" Chiffon was interrupted when someone had accidentally bumped into her from behind. This had the effect of spilling the drink she had in her hand onto her dress. "Oh no." She said, quickly taking a napkin to try and dab it dry. "This is no good. I can't let this stain." The girl apologized to everyone for making a fast exit, then did so as she headed straight to the restrooms to take care of the mess.
"I think I'll just get a drink now." Kosaki was now left alone and it immediately made her feel out of place. At least with Chiffon she had someone anchor with to give her some guidance. So she did what she needed to do to find a way to get some space and buy herself some time while her friend was gone.
So she went to the punch bowl to scoop up more liquids for her glass. She assumed she'd be able to idly move around and pretend to be doing something alone, but it didn't work.
"What's a lovely lady such as yourself doing all on your own?" A man voice spoke from besides her. She turned to see him reach down to pick up one of the biscuits. "I don't believe I've ever seen you around here before."
"That's probably because I'm new around here." She answered with a wry smile. "I'm a student of Mr. Miyanagi. I'm the new student, actually."
"Wow, so we have a new star baker then, huh?" He replied with a grin on his smile. There was nothing about him outright that she could point to as a problem, but Kosaki couldn't help but feel defensive around him. "If you'd like, I'd love to be able to chat more with you."
"That's okay." She wasn't in the mood and hoped Chiffon would be returning sooner rather than later. "I'm just going back to the other students."
"Are you sure?" He was insistent as the man took a step blocking her step towards safety. "Really I'd like to believe I'm much more interesting than any of your classmates."
"Don't tell me you're harassing one of my students." Another voice entered their conversation. Kosaki couldn't believe what she had heard and she couldn't believe her eyes either when she turned to see Anadama made his appearance.