Two days later Sousuke and Haru were waiting in a limo as they drove up to the production studio for the talk show. Rei and Gou were talking over everything they had discussed, but at this point, Sousuke was hardly listening.
"Alright, once more, how did you two meet?" Gou asked. Haru sighed and repeated their story.
"At the beach. Sousuke ran into me while I was out swimming then we got talking." Haru repeated.
"First date?" Rei said.
"We went to the aquarium." Haru said with a little smile. Sousuke smiled back at him, though he couldn't shake a disappointed feeling in his chest. Haru deserved more than made up dates, he was starting to wish that they were real. Trying to ignore the guilt in his gut, he looked over at Haru as they kept reviewing their stories. As he watched him though, he noticed that Haru was starting to look a little nervous as they finally pulled up.
"It'll be fine." Sousuke whispered to him before the limo door opened up and the cheers of the crowd of fans came pouring in. He put on a bright smile as he stepped out and offered his hand to Haru. Haru took it, allowing Sousuke to help him out of the car. "You're going to do great." Sousuke told him as he slid an arm around Haru's waist. They walked up to the studio like that, both smiling at the crowd as they went inside. Once in, a stage hand quickly ushered them to the correct place.
"Sousuke, Haruka!" A woman said excited as she came up. Sousuke recognized her as the show's host. "My name is Chigusa Hanamura, It's so great to meet you two!" She introduced and Haru smiled at her.
"Nice to meet you too." Haru told her and Chigusa smiled brightly.
"Now then, I'm going to go get the show started and when I call you in, you can just go right across the stage to those couches right there. Then all you have to do is answer some questions and it will be great!" She told them as she motioned to the stage they would be on.
"Sounds good." Sousuke nodded and the hostess smiled again before she headed out on stage. Sousuke and Haru waited as the show got started and she did the introduction. Haru looked around the turned to Sousuke.
"We need to practice one more thing." Haru whispered.
"Um, what else is there?" Sousuke asked, confused and before he realized what was happening, Haru lean up and kissed him. Sousuke stood absolutely froze for a moment, but by the time he finally processed the kiss, Haru pulled away.
"Payback for the date." Haru said, looking a little smug and Sousuke blushed a little.
"Well… I don't really think that counted as practice." Sousuke said, glancing at the ground as he said it. Haru's eyebrows raised a little. He glanced out to the stage, but it looked like they had a few minutes.
"Alright…then we should try again." Haru breathed as he lean up, sliding a hand up to Sousuke's shoulder as he kissed him. This time he was slow and gentle about it, carefully pressing his lips against Sousuke's as Haru's other hand went up into his hair. Sousuke hooked an arm around Haru's waist and pulled him closer as he kissed him back this time.
"And today we have two very special guests, the new hit celebrity couple, Sousuke Yamazaki and Haruka Nanase!" Chigusa announced and Haru pulled back, leaving Sousuke a little breathless.
"Let's go" Haru said, looking a little out of breath himself as he quickly reached up and wiped a smug of lipstick off Sousuke's lips. Sousuke nodded, his head still spinning a little as he took Haru's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before they walked out on stage together. The crowd cheered excitedly as they went out and sat down across from Chigusa.
"Welcome to you both, we are so excited to have you!" She said eagerly.
"Thank you for having us." Haru said with a small smile.
"Of course, everyone is hyped up over the new couple since this little snap shot a few days ago," She said and motioned to one of the several large screens on set as one of the paparazzi pictures of Sousuke and Haru's kiss popped up. Sousuke blushed a little as everyone cheered again. "So for today's so we're going to do things a little differently!"
"…Differently?" Haru echoed, squeezing Sousuke's hand tightly as he looked nervous. They had practiced for the usual interviews, they had rehearsed it all for the past two days.
"We are opening questions to the audience!" She said and Sousuke glanced over at Haru, his own heart pounding as he realized there was a line in the audience in front of a microphone so they could ask questions.
"It'll be okay, just base it off the stories as best you can." Haru whispered to him and Sousuke gave a quick nod.
"Let's get started! First question please!" Chigusa said with a bright smile as a young girl came up.
"Sousuke, have you written Haruka a love song yet?" She asked and there was a collective sound of giggles and excited sounds from the crowd.
"Ah, well, I started one… but it's not nearly ready yet." Sousuke said quickly. This one wasn't a complete lie actually. He had a few song ideas stirring in his head since he had met Haru. The girl looked excited then stepped to the side as another guest came up.
"Haruka, what do your favorite thing about Sousuke?" They asked and Haru paused, glancing at Sousuke.
"Um well he's clearly very talented. But also, he is really thoughtful… and he has an attention to detail which I really admire. I know he has the bad boy reputation… but I think he's a lot more than that." Haru said, smiling over at Sousuke and Sousuke's face heated up a little. It wasn't until Chigusa said his name that he realized the next question had already been asked.
"S-Sorry, what was that?" Sousuke asked and there was a few laughs from the audience as well as Chigusa.
"They asked how you two met." Chigusa repeated for him and Sousuke was relieved to get a question they had practiced.
"At the beach… I ran into Haruka while we were both out swimming." He told them. That was how much of the rest of the interview continued, some questions they had practiced and a few unexpected ones. Throughout it, Sousuke found himself focusing on Haru more and more and as he did, he was again wishing that their little love story was true.
"Well I think that is all the questions we have time for, thank you so much for joining us today!" Chigusa told them when the interview came to an end.
"Of course, thank you." Haru said with a smile before taking Sousuke's hand again and walking off stage with him.
"You okay?" Haru whispered when they got off stage "You seemed… distracted at the end."
"Oh, sorry. Um….You did a great job out there" Sousuke told him as they headed out to their limo. Haru smiled a little.
"Thank you, you did well too." Haru told him. They soon were in the limo and heading back. Sousuke walked as Haru took out his hair piece, letting out a little sigh of relief to have it out. The thought "cute" definitely crossed Sousuke's mind and he blushed a little and quickly looked out the window instead of at Haru. As they began to get close to Sousuke's apartment, he looked back at Haru.
"Um… Haru?" Sousuke said, swallowing a bit hard.
"Yeah?" Haru replied, looking up at him.
"Do you… want to come over to my place for a bit?" He asked and Haru looked a bit surprised.
"…Yeah sure. That sounds like fun." He told Sousuke and Sousuke smiled brightly and his heart sped up. They soon pulled up to his apartment complex and stopped.
"Great, let's go."