Everyone was whispering to each other anxiously, doing last-minute memorizations before the rehearsal. Ishida and I checked with each group to make sure they'd be ready, since we were going to be cutting it close with the amount of time we expected the rehearsal run to take. The rehearsal was going to be a glorified dramatic reading without costumes for today, but everyone seemed to be as nervous as they'd be before a live performance.

The last group I checked in with consisted of Shig and Shinohara. Shig seemed to be calm, waiting patiently for the others to be ready. Shihohara was a lot less prepared from the looks of things: sweat was forming on her forehead and she bit her lip as she muttered lines under her breath.

"Are you going to be able to do the rehearsal, Shinohara?"

Shinohara looked up at me and forced a smile. "I'll be fine~ I just need another minute or two…"

"You do know that we can't use our scripts for reference during the rehearsal," Shig intoned as he turned to face Shinohara. "Correct?"

Shinohara nodded frantically, shutting the script she was reading from. "Yeah! I don't need this anymore! I know Ori's lines by heart!"

I tried to think of something to say to that. Shig sighed and adjusted his glasses. Ishida walked over from the previous group and smiled at Shinohara.

"D-don't worry about getting it p-perfect this time, Shinohara. Just try to g-get as far as you can without help, and w-we'll work out the details before the next rehearsal."

Shinohara nodded, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Okay. Are we starting?"

I nodded and walked up to the front of the clubroom. "Attention, everyone!" I called out to the others, making sure they were looking my way before continuing. "We're starting the rehearsal. For those of you that are new to this, don't worry about getting everything exactly right. Just keep the show going and we'll sort out the mistakes for next time."

Everyone nodded and I went back to a seat I had prepared. Ishida and I were going to observe the rehearsal and make notes on what needed to be improved on, so I made sure my pen worked and opened my notebook.

"Let's get started! Act one, scene one."

—-

The rehearsal went about as well as expected for our first try. Most of the bit parts were able to remember all their lines, but there was still a number of flubbed lines and missed cues that needed to be accounted for. I tried not to think too hard about how Shinohara's mistakes accounted for almost a third of the notes I took.

Ishida was quickly swarmed by a group of kids that were sure they messed up somewhere, and while I wanted to help her out, she waved me away before I could intervene. I hoped that she really was able to handle all of them herself and started seeking out the people who needed the most work on their parts.

We finished with just a few minutes to spare before the club meeting ended, so a number of people started heading home. Kokowa handed me a list of measurements that she collected from the others for the costumes and waved before heading out. I sat at a desk and started going over the measurements, calculating how much material we'd need to make the costumes.

Harada walked up to me with his bag slung over his shoulder, not-so-stealthily trying to take a peek at the measurements sheet. I pulled the sheet closer and narrowed my eyes at him.

"What are you doing, Harada?"

"I just thought I'd take a peek at the measurements, see what sort of gi— err, people we've got in the club."

I sighed and shook my head. "That's not information you need to know, Harada. How about you focus on getting your lines right instead of looking for girls' measurements?"

"That's not what I said, though…"

"That's what you wanted to say."

Harada's cheeks turned pink and he spun around so his back was to me. "Yeeeaaaah… I'll just be going now…"

I chuckled as Harada tried not to be too conspicuous as he left the clubroom. Almost everyone had left by this point. I went over a few things with Ishida before packing up my own bag to get ready to go.

As I waited for the last few people to trickle out of the room before I locked it, Shinohara bounded up to me and clasped her hands together as if begging.

"Suzumoto, is it alright if you come over to my place tonight? Morishige and I are going to go over my lines, but I need someone to watch the kids so I can focus…"

The request was sudden, but as soon as I processed the question I nodded and smiled. "Sure! I'm free tonight."

"Thanks, Suzumoto! You're the greatest!"

Shinohara ran back into the room to grab her bag. Shig walked over to me and nodded in Shinohara's direction. "I take it she asked you already?"

"Yeah. We're all heading over to her place now, right?"

Shig nodded. We waited for Shinohara to join us in the hallway before I locked the door behind us and we headed out.

The trip over to Shinohara's was uneventful, as she spent most of her time looking over her script every few steps and I didn't want to distract her. But when we reached Shinohara's house and she opened the front door we were hit by a burst of activity.

"Shig's here, Shig's here!"

"Yay! Shig's here!"

Three young voices rang out upon seeing Shig, using the nickname I thought only I used. Shinohara's siblings ran up to us and smiled up at Shig.

"I am indeed here…" Shig said nonchalently. Despite the bored tone he used, I thought I could see a bit of a smile on his face.

Shinohara hugged each of her siblings and then turned to me. "Suzumoto, these are my siblings. This one is Yuu, and this cutie is Aya, and the little one is Kei."

"I'm just as big as Aya!" Kei muttered, pouting. Shinohara ruffled his hair and chuckled, and I couldn't help but chuckle with her.

"Anyway, you three should play with Suzumoto for a bit. Shig and I need to practice for the play." Shinohara looked to me. "You ready for them, Suzumoto?"

I smiled at the kids and nodded. "Yeah, go ahead." I pulled out the notebook I had written in during the rehearsal and handed it to Shig. "Oh, and use this if you need to know what to work on."

Shig nodded at me and opened the notebook. "Thanks, Mayu. This will help us focus on the problem lines."

Shinohara and Shig went into another room to work on the play, and the kids led me to a room with a bunch of toys. Yuu seemed to have a fair idea of how to keep his younger siblings in line, though I could see why Shinohara asked me to help out when the others didn't always listen to him about what you're supposed to do with certain toys.

Kei was amusing himself with some action figures while Aya was doodling something when Yuu sat next to me and looked up at me. "Hey, Suzumoto?"

"Yeah?"

"Are Shig and big sis dating?"

I felt like I had been punched in the chest with the surpise from that innocent question. "Wh-what?"

"Shig bro has been coming over a lot lately, and big sis keeps talking about him when he's not here. And Naomi sis has a boyfriend, so I thought maybe big sis was dating Shig…"

I strained my head to think of whether Shinohara ever told me how old Yuu was. I think Nakashima said he was about nine last year, so that would make him around ten now? Either way, it felt strange trying to explain dating to someone as young as Yuu…

"Uh… I don't know, really…" I ran a hand through my hair while I tried to think of how to explain. "Maybe she already told you this, but your sister is playing Shig's girlfriend in the festival play, so maybe you're just hearing her practice her part."

Yuu shook his head. "No, big sis talks about Shig a lot, even when she isn't practicing."

I scratched my head. I'd known Shig for a while now, and I thought I'd be able to tell if he had a girlfriend or not.

Yuu stood up and walked over to Aya, who had broken a pencil. "Um, if you don't know about that, could you go ask big sis when she's going to make dinner?"

I stood up and nodded at Yuu. "Okay. I'll be right back."

Yuu's question stuck with me, though I wasn't sure why. I tried to imagine Shig and Shinohara together as I headed over to where they were practicing.

I was about to knock on the doorframe to get their attention when I saw Shig holding Shinohara tight, her script on the ground and her face covered in tears. I instinctively hid behind the doorframe, feeling my heartbeat race. As I stood there, I heard a few whispered words from the next room.

"—tter off just recasting… I'm just going to make you all look bad…"

"Don't be ridiculous. You've put in too much effort to just give up over a few mistakes."

I gulped as I eavsedropped on the conversation, listening to Shig reassure Shinohara that she'd be able to pull off her part without embarassing herself or making the drama club look bad.

After the initial shock of seeing them so close, a part of me got really interested in peeking in on them. I now understood why Yuu thought they were dating: they must have gotten real close in these past few weeks.

My curiousity eventually got the better of me, and I peeked in after their voices went quiet. I was rewarded with the sight of Shig and Shinohara kissing each other on the lips.

I suddenly realized just how bad it would be to get caught staring like this and ducked back behind the doorframe. Remembering what I came for, I tiptoed back the way I came and pretended to bump into a doorframe on my way back, hopefully alerting Shig and Shinohara that I was on my way.

"Hey, Shinohara?" I asked innocently, peeking into the room to see that Shinohara was wiping her tears and Shig was picking up the fallen script. "Yuu wants to know when dinner will be."

Shinohara's eyes went wide. "I almost forgot! Th-thanks, Suzumoto! I'll get started on that right now!"

Shinohara ran out of the room to the kitchen. I walked in and picked up my notebook from a desk before looking over at Shig. "How are things coming along?"

Shig studied my face for a moment. I wondered why he was taking so long to respond. Then he adjusted his glasses and frowned.

"You saw, didn't you?"