A/N: Is it weird getting excited over your own characters? I hope not. Things seemed to be heating up a little (figuratively and literally [Slight warning - I'm sure everyone remembers Nozomi's...habit. But she didn't do anything bad on purpose though.]) and I enjoyed writing this chapter, though I was at loss at to what to write before Honoka showed up. Her appearance was unplanned though. It just came out that way... I'll try make Rin, Kayo-chi, Kotori appear somewhere in some chapters. After all μ's is not μ's without all its 9 members-! (Eri's words, not mine :D)

Anyways, I forgot to mention this in the previous chapter but reviews are appreciated! Criticisms are welcomed as well - but try not to K.O me in one sentence. My heart is more fragile than I would like to think it is.

2 - Nozomi

After rehearsing the vocals with the members of μ's after school, Nozomi and Eri were back in the Student Council Room again. The practice was torturous. Nozomi was paired up with Eri since they drew sticks to decide the pairing. Unbeknownst to Eri, her voice captivated Nozomi, entrancing her to the point that Nozomi couldn't concentrate well. Each time Nozomi got distracted, Eri would move closer to her, trying to catch her attention by shaking her shoulder. Each touch that Eri placed on the purple head's shoulder made her shudder, sending electrical waves throughout her body. The purple head wanted to touch her and it took every ounce of her self control not to do that.

Nozomi bit back a gasp when Eri accidentally brushed against her arm. Seeing the pained look on her best friend's face, Eri asked worriedly, "Nozomi, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she refused to elaborate further, gritting through her teeth.

"You're lying." The blonde's eyes bore into hers.

Nozomi bit her lip, sighed and finally relented, "It's just…that…something's on my mind. That's all."

Worried about her best friend, Eri wanted to probe further but decided against it. She knew that Nozomi wouldn't say anything further.

"In any case, we should start on our work soon," Eri stated as she started to move towards her desk.

"Yea," Nozomi agreed but before she could take another step, her lost her footing and tripped – very unbecoming of her – and went sprawling against Eri, resulting in them squealing before landing with a loud thud on the floor.

"O–Ouch–!" both girls cried out. Nozomi slowly opened her eyes and tried to survey the situation.

Somehow, Nozomi landed on top of Eri, their legs tangled together, with Nozomi's hands pressing against something soft. Don' tell me…Nozomi gulped as she realised what her hands were touching. Her whole body burned and her face turned scarlet red when she saw the position she was in and her green eyes inevitably drifted to where her hands were – Eri's chest.

So Soft.

That's the only coherent thought left in Nozomi's mind as her heart started to beat erratically. To make things worse, her face was barely a few centimetres away from Eri's face and she was breathing a little heavily. Her whole body was hot and she couldn't think straight. Her green eyes glazed with something that deeply shocked the blonde – desire.

She lowered her head down unconsciously, enraptured by the blonde's beauty, her self-control slipping away in a matter of seconds as she stared intently on her soft cherry lips.

"N-Nozomi–!" the voice of the purple head's best friend immediately snapped her out of her daze and Nozomi immediately stopped herself before pulling away immediately, scrambling as far as possible away from Eri.

Crap. What have I just done? Nozomi thought, horrified.

I have to get out of here before I do anything stupid again. What the hell was I thinking? For the love of God, I almost kissed her! And…her b-b-breast…feels so soft…If only...Wait. What am I thinking?! Nozomi slapped herself inwardly.

"I-I'm sorry!" Nozomi immediately apologised, not daring to look at Eri as she stood up slowly, her face still red. She didn't know how she should face Eri now. Aside from the fact that she accidentally touched her best friend's boobs – that's not the main problem, the members of μ's are often her victims of her groping every other day (except Eri) – , she'd almost kissed her and the purple haired girl was very flustered and confused now.

Eri

When she fell down, she didn't expect her best friend to fall directly on her. It would have been fine if her best friend's hands didn't touch…her…chest. But every second that Nozomi lingered and stayed on top of her, was every second that the Student Council President stayed flustered and flushed beneath her beautiful friend. The feeling of Nozomi's hands on her chest sent shivers down her body and Eri was quite, if not, a little confused about the growing warmth in her body.

She knew of her best friend's favourite past time in "punishing" girls (especially members of μ's) by groping them but Nozomi had never done that to her. Not even once. Not that wanted her to.

Till now.

It left her with a complex and mixed feelings. When the unexpected fall inadvertently made Nozomi's hands rest against her chest, her heart started racing, for reasons that she didn't know. Her head was spinning and her eyes widened in surprise when Nozomi started lowering her head towards her face, her normal green eyes darkened slightly. She was almost sure that Nozomi would kiss her and for some reason, that scared her a little. She wasn't sure if she'd wanted her best friend kissing her.

She unconsciously called Nozomi's name when her face was barely a few centimetres away from her. The purple head abruptly stopped and her green eyes returned to normal though she immediately backed away frantically, as if afraid of her.

Now the both of them were stuck in an awkward silence – something that didn't happen often.

"Nozomi…" Eri said, breaking the silence.

"Y-Yea…?" Nozomi reluctantly turned towards Eri's direction but still could not bring herself to look at Eri.

"S-Shall w-we continue with our Student Council work?" The blonde stammered a little, trying to pretend nothing had happened.

Nozomi nodded slowly as both of them headed to two opposite ends of the table.

I'm such a coward. Eri sighed inwardly. It's obvious that something is happening to Nozomi but I'm just too scared to ask her. But if she really was about to kiss me…does that mean that she…Eri immediately dismissed the thought. That's impossible. Nozomi wouldn't…

Troubled, Eri shifted the pile of papers aside and turned on her laptop. She peeked over at Nozomi over the laptop and saw that she was swiftly stamping on the reports and papers by her right.

It was then someone burst through the door. Startled, both Nozomi and Eri looked up from their work, only to see Honoka, the unanimous leader of μ's, rushing into the room, beaming as she held a piece of paper. She practically shoved it in Eri's face, exclaiming excitedly.

"Look! Look! Eri-chan!"

Overwhelmed but smiling slightly, Eri asked, "What's that?"

"A new song! Maki-chan wrote it!" her voice was bubbly and cheerful as the second year girl pointed at the paper excitedly.

"W-What are you doing? H-Honoka?!" another voice exclaimed as she too ran into the room, panting. Obviously she'd been chasing ginger-haired girl.

"Maki did?" Eri raised an eyebrow.

Honoka nodded enthusiastically, turning to grin at the newcomer, "Right, Maki-chan?"

The red haired first year blushed slightly as she shifted her eyes uneasily, "W-Well…I did write it…but it's not like I w-wrote it for μ's…or anything. I just felt like composing something…"

Eri giggled as both she and Nozomi exchanged knowing glances. Maki is still not being…truthful…as usual.

Nozomi immediately looked away when their eyes caught each other's again as she blushed slightly. Seeing her best friend blushing, Eri could feel heat creeping up her face.

Sensing the awkward tension between the two, the ginger haired girl took a step back, feeling uneasy. She didn't know what was going on as she looked at the red hair beside her who looked equally at lost as to what to do as well. She wanted to do something to dispel this awkward tension but she couldn't think of anything. The fact that the two seniors were sitting opposite of each other – the furthest distance possible – didn't go unnoticed by Honoka and Maki.

"W-What do you guys think about this…piece?" Honoka asked, trying to break the tension.

"I think it's beautiful," Eri said seriously, as she read through the lyrics after grabbing the paper from Honoka.

"How about you, Nozomi-chan?" the second year asked, glancing at Nozomi.

"I love it," Nozomi whispered softly, as if taken in by the song when Honoka passed the piece of paper to the third year.

"Really…?" Maki asked, a huge smile creeping onto her face as she sighed in relief.

Nozomi nodded and her expression softened a little as she saw the title of the song.

"What's wrong, Nozomi?" Eri asked, seeing her change in expression.

"Nothing," the purple head said in her usual Kansai-accent, smiling at Eri.

Eri froze when she saw the smile that her best friend had given her. Her heart started to beat faster and she could feel herself heating up. She immediately looked away from Nozomi.

"Hey! Are you guys done yet?" a voice yelled as a twin-tailed girl burst into the room.

"Niko-chan!" Honoka greeted the petite twin-tailed third year.

"What took you guys so long? Have you asked for Nozomi's and Eri's opinions already?"

Honoka nodded, "Yep."

"Then let's go. Umi's gotta make some minor changes to it and organise the choreography with Kotori. We also have to decide who's gonna sing which part." Niko stated as she turned away and walked out of the room, while Honoka and Maki trailed behind her. Before Maki stepped out of the room, she turned around and said, "Say, N-Nozomi. Remember what y-you said about me back when we had the summer training camp?"

Nozomi looked up at Maki, surprised before understanding crossed her eyes and nodded her head, giving Maki a huge smile, "Thanks, Maki-chan."

Maki turned red and was about to say something but Nozomi interrupted her. "But It's not like you wanted to help me right?" the purple head teased.

Maki answered by blushing further and turned around quickly before leaving the room, running after Honoka and Niko.

Eri looked at her best friend questioningly. She had no idea what they were talking about and she couldn't remember Nozomi having talked to Maki about anything serious. For some reason, seeing Nozomi smiling at Maki like that made her heart clench.

Ignoring that feeling, Eri continued staring at Nozomi. Nozomi caught her best friend looking at her and she raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong?"

She's…back to normal? Is she pretending that nothing happened just now…?

"N-Nothing," Eri mumbled.

"Great. Shall we continue our work?" Nozomi suggested.

"Okay."

And the two buried their heads into the pile of papers.

A/N: This is perhaps the fastest update I've ever done. :3 Though I wouldn't be able to do that next week when my oh so boring lectures start again along with hours of Project Work. Nonetheless, I'll try to update ASAP~

I highly doubt this fanfic would be very long, I certainly hope not since I have this tendency to stop writing for a long time when the story gets too long. Yesterday...I dug out an unfinished fic that I wrote three years ago from the depths of my trusty laptop...