Chapter 4

Hanging Out Together

A/N: Hey, everyone! Sorry for the late update. To be honest, there were other yuri-like anime that I was interested in, including the ones that are currently airing, so I started to watch those. So, I wasn't entirely inspired to write the next chapter. However, I'm clearly surprised of how much reviews, favorites and follows I had for the past few months, which was awesome to see. :) So, here's the next chapter everyone~!

One late morning, Rise sits on her bed alone, reading a book when she hears her phone ring from her night stand. She stands up and picks it up to look at the caller ID. Akari, she thinks to herself while staring at the familiar number on the screen. Akari had given her number just yesterday after school while walking home. They promised to stay friends after all, so they exchanged numbers before leaving school. Rise is so happy that she had a friend's phone number for the first time in her life on her contacts list other than her parent's. She can call Akari whenever she wants to and vice versa. She presses the green button on the touch screen.

"Hello?" she whispers.

"Hey, Rise-chan!" Akari says on the other line. "I was wondering if you're free today. Because I want us to hang out together to go to the park and . . . um . . . well, walk around town together."

Rise's eyes widen at the words "hang out". She had never been asked that by anyone either. She excitedly nods while whispering a "yes".

"Oh, that's great! How about we meet at the park around 2:00?"

Rise nods again while whispering.

"Okay! I'll see you there! My sister is going to drop me off, by the way!"

Rise whispers an "Okay" and then says good-bye to her and hangs up. Tossing the phone aside, she glances at her clock on her nightstand, which reads "10:00". Only 4 hours left. She plops down on her back on the bed, facing the ceiling while sighing softly. I'm going to spend time with . . . Akari, she thinks to herself. She couldn't wait any longer as she smiles while putting her hands on her cheeks. However, upon touching them, she can feel warmth on her hands. Was she . . . blushing just now? No, it couldn't be. Maybe it's just hot in the room and she hasn't adjusted the thermostat in a while. She stands up and turns the temperature down a little and walks back to her room while picking up a book to read.

**Later That Afternoon**

The hour has finally arrived and Rise is sitting on a bench, waiting for her first friend to arrive. She fiddles with the hem of her skirt while a light breeze blows past her, making her dark hair sway. It's the first time she and Akari are hanging out together and she is already feeling nervous. Now that she thinks about it, it can be a bit strange to hang out with a friend when she herself can only talk in a quiet, whisper-like voice. And Akari, on the other hand, is treated like she's invisible. It's only just the two of them hanging out. No problem. But . . . why does it feel that this won't work out for them?

"Rise-chan~!" a happy, cute voice calls her name.

The raven-haired girl lifts her head up to see Akari waving at her. She is wearing a blue sweat shirt with a brown skirt and white knee-high socks. Rise, on the other hand, is wearing a purple striped long sleeved shirt with a red short skirt and black-knee high socks.

"Oh, that's a nice outfit!" Akari compliments. "Did you pick it out yourself?"

RIse nods and whispers back a compliment in return.

"Oh, thank you~!" Akari says. "To be honest, it was hard to pick out what to wear when you're hanging out with someone for the first time."

Rise nods in agreement.

"Well then, shall we go for a walk?" Akari asks. "It's a really nice day out anyways, even though it's chilly."

Rise whispers a "Sure", then stands up. Out of the blue, Akari takes Rise's hand, which makes the raven-haired girl blush. She turns toward the red-head with ruby eyes widened as she whispers her concern.

"Oh, I just felt like doing this!" Akari says happily. "After all, we are friends. So, it's nice to do things once in a while."

Rise nods a little while glancing at the ground. A small, cute smile comes across her face. Akari holding her hand makes her feel more relaxed and is very happy about that. The two friends walk along the park, observing some adults talking, kids running around playing with their pets and on the playground. They even stop to watch an elderly woman feed the birds and decide to help her out a little. While feeding the birds, Rise looks over at Akari, who is enjoying herself. Akari turns to the raven-haired girl and smiles while giggling.

"Are you having fun, Rise-chan?" she asks.

Rise nods and whispers.

"Mm. Feeding the birds is a lot of fun," Akari says as she tosses a bit more crumbs on the ground and 2 more birds fly down to take some.

Rise tosses a bit of crumbs as well while her eyes are glued to the ground. When was the last time that she had this much fun? Probably never since she lacks presence and she made no opportunity to make any friends. When they run out of crumbs to feed the birds, they wave good-bye to the elderly woman and the two continue their lovely walk until they enter the streets around town. Cars and other people pass by them. Rise looks around nervously at the huge crowd around her. She had never been in such crowds in a while, not since she was little. However, she feels a gentle squeeze on her hand, making the raven-haired girl swiftly turn towards the red-head, who is smiling at her reassuringly. Rise then smiles back and nods, knowing that she'll be okay as long as Akari is around.

The two cross the street as the light changes to "WALK" and look around for a bit. Rise's eyes wander aimlessly around the stores and restaurants. She rarely goes around town like this, so she's happy to experience such an amazing atmosphere with her friend by her side. Just then, Rise points to a small stand across the street and whispers.

"Oh, would you like a crepe?" Akari asks.

The raven haired girl nods. Akari smiles as she holds up her wallet that she snatched out from her bag. "Great! Then, I'll get one, too!"

With that, the two walk over to the stand, order two crepes and head toward a nearby bench to enjoy their little snack. While Akari is happily eating hers, Rise just stares at the crepe a little. Another thought comes to the quiet girl's mind. She actually never been out buying crepes with a friend either. It makes her really sad that she's left out in the dust, just sitting around at home, helping out her family and being by herself in her room all day. Akari turns over to her quiet friend and her smile fades when she sees a sad expression on the raven-haired girl's face.

"H-hey," Akari says. "Are you okay? You don't like the crepe I gave you?"

Rise shakes her head.

"You seem a little down," Akari says while scooting closer to her. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Rise lifts her head up to see Akari's concerned face and whispers.

"Oh . . ." Akari says softly. "I can understand why. No one really cares anyway, though since both of us lack presence."

Rise whispers while trying to smile at her as best she could.

"I'm glad, too," the red-head says as she strokes her hair. "Hey, cheer up. This is your first time hanging out with me, so let's enjoy it while we can."

Rise stares at her friend for a bit before nodding and fully smiling. There's no time to be moping around during their wonderful time together. After about a few minutes, both of them finish their crepe, stand up and continue to walk through town.

**Yui's House**

Meanwhile, at Yui's house, Chinatsu, Kyouko and Yui were playing some video games when they become bored and just lie around on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

"What a day!" Kyouko blurts out loud. "I can't believe Yui beat me 4 times already!"

Yui looks at the energetic blonde in annoyance. "Maybe you should work harder on leveling up your character."

"Well, at least we had fun, right?" Chinatsu says while sitting up. "What should we do now?"

Yui stands up. "I'll go make us some tea."

"Oh! I'll help, Yui-sempai!" Chinatsu quickly jumps on her feet and follows the short haired girl to the kitchen to help make the tea.

Kyouko looks around the room, already feeling bored. She looks over at a shelf, full of manga that Yui just bought from the library a few days ago. The blonde wanted to know if there's any Mikakurun books she bought as well since Kyouko comes over more often. She happily goes over to the shelf to pick one out, however, she accidentally bumps her head from being too quick on her feet, making the shelf shake a little. And then . . .

BONK!

"Ow!" Kyouko cries and rubs her head in pain. "That hurt!" She looks down at the item that dropped and realizes that a frame had fallen on her. "Oh, it's just a picture frame. Ahahaha~! No matter! I'll just put it back up, so that no one will even notice!" She starts to pick the frame up when her eyes catch what's on the frame. It's a picture of her, Yui, and a certain red-head behind Kyouko. She squints her eyes a little at the red-head until suddenly . . . it hits her.

"Sorry, to keep you waiting." Yui says while holding the tray of tea. She goes over to put the tray down when she notices Kyouko staring at the picture frame. Her body is shaking for some reason and her expression isn't cheerful like she usually is. Yui slowly comes over to her childhood friend and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Kyouko," she says. "Is everything alright? Is it the picture?"

"Yui . . ." Kyouko whispers. She can feel a lump on her throat as she speaks, trying to hold back any tears that might come out. "I feel like . . . we're forgetting someone. Someone very important."

"What do you mean?"

Kyouok turns and smiles weakly. "I'm sure you know what I mean." She places the picture on the shelf and stands up. "Now then, time to get some rum raisin!"

Yui sighs. Just when she's getting serious . . . she thinks to herself. While the energetic blonde is searching for the ice cream, Yui decides to take a peek at the picture and try to figure out what Kyouko was talking about.

She examines it for about a minute until her eyes dart over at Akari. She gasps softly as she realizes what Kyouko meant. She sets the picture down with her head hanging and her long bangs hiding her expression.

"Um . . . is everyone okay?" Chinatsu asks, showing a face of concern.

Yui lifts her head up and smiles. "It's fine, Chintasu. I'm just looking at a picture of us when we were little."

"Oh! Let me see!" the pink haired girl says as she reaches out a hand.

Yui nods as she picks up the frame and goes over to show Chinatsu.

**At sunset**

Akari sighs happily as she twirls around while walking back to the park. "That was a lot of fun, wasn't it, Rise-chan?"

The raven-haired girl nods in agreement. She holds up a pendent that Akari gave her when they were looking around at a store one time during their hang out. The red-head wanted to buy the teal colored pendent just for Rise as a token of their friendship. When the red-head gave it to her, Rise was really happy. She would remember this moment for as long as she lives. For the rest of the day, the two just walked around town, browsed through some small shops, looked at some clothes and just chatted up a storm as they walked. For Rise, this has been the best han out ever, or so she said to Akari.

The raven-haired girl whispers a "Thank you for everything" and smiles happily.

"You're very welcome!" Akari says. "I'm so glad we got to hang out for the first time. It was a lot of fun."

Rise nods as she is about to turn to leave. A hand gently takes hers and feels lips lightly touch her cheek. Rise blushes and swiftly turns to the red-head while whispering in surprise.

"Hehe~!" Akari says. "It's a 'thank you' for hanging out with me." She sees Akane's car arriving. "Well, I'll see you later, Rise-chan!"

With a wave, Akarai skips off and enters front seat of the car and Akane drives away. Rise still has a blush on her face as she puts a hand on her cheek. It feels really warm. A small, cute smile comes across her face as she closes her eyes while clutching the pendent with her other hand.