Broken Fragments

Chapter 19: The Shrine Festival

"Yuuhi. Yuuhi," Hiroto called, shaking Yuuhi's still sleeping body.

"Wake up. The building's closing soon."

Yuuhi slowly opened her eyes, finding Hiroto's face close to hers. Her face quickly turned red and her eyes widened when she realized what was going on.

"N-no!" she screamed, out of nowhere, her hand hitting Hiroto's face.

Hiroto was shocked from the impact of Yuuhi's hand on his face that he fell to the ground. When he felt his cheeks, not only was it warm, but it also stung.

"S-sorry. I'm so sorry," Yuuhi said, turning away to hide her embarrassed face.

"It's okay. It didn't hurt much," Hiroto awkwardly smiled as he rubbed his cheek to ease the pain.

After the awkward atmosphere disappeared, Yuuhi and Hiroto prepared to leave the building. While Yuuhi put away all her things in her purse, Hiroto finished all the emails he needed to send out.

He clicked the 'archive' button again to view the message he sent to that section earlier. He was going to press it to read the email again, but Yuuhi interrupted him with her usual impatient, tsundere voice.

"Okay. Coming," Hiroto replied, turning the computer off.

He turned the lights off and locked the door before they headed down to the parking lot. When Hiroto and Yuuhi finished getting situated and comfortable, Hiroto turned the engines on, including the air conditioner.

"You don't really have a busy schedule tomorrow since it's a Sunday, so do you want to go anywhere with me tonight?" Hiroto asked, looking at the beauty sitting beside him.

"Wow, aren't you a little aggressive tonight, Manager-san?" Yuuhi jokingly smiled, looking at Hiroto with her cold eyes.

Hiroto sighed, not even feeling offended since he was starting to get used to Yuuhi's personality. He stepped on the pedal and drove out of the underground parking lot before he answered Yuuhi.

"That's not it. It's just…you've been working hard lately. Seeing you earlier, passed out on the couch from stress, made me think of you and how you probably haven't had rest in a while. You probably haven't even gone to the bar since that night I saw you there."

Yuuhi's face blushed a little when Hiroto said that he was thinking about her. Once again, she turned her face away and looked at the lights outside the passenger seat's window.

"I want to go somewhere…but I don't have any idea where to go to," she replied, her face blushing, eyes twinkling while she fidgeted with her hands in nervousness and embarrassment.

Hiroto gently smiled at the thought that Yuuhi was starting to open up to him. When the vehicle stopped for a red light, Hiroto took a pamphlet from the glove compartment and handed it to Yuuhi while he kept his eyes on the traffic light.

The pamphlet was on the events being held nearby that week. Since it was June, festivals were everywhere, including shrine festivals and even movie festivals. However, one event caught Yuuhi's eyes.

"C-can we go…see the fireworks in the shrine festival?" she shyly asked.

Hiroto's eyes widened, for he was quite surprised that she actually picked something out. He never thought that Yuuhi, the always-cold-towards-her-manager girl, was actually picking an event they could go to, like an ordinary girl.

Yuuhi looked at him to see if he would agree, but when she saw his widened eyes, she felt embarrassed.

"What?" she exclaimed, her face red.

"N-no. It's nothing…and y-yeah, we'll go," Hiroto smiled, his eyes still wide, though.

When the lights turned green, he turned his gaze back to the road and continued driving to the event Yuuhi wanted to go to. The silence was in the car with them after the conversation they had just now. They didn't know what else to say to each other, both nervous.

The fireworks viewing was being held for the Sannou festival at Hie Shrine, always held in the month of June. Since the two arrived early for the fireworks viewing, they decided to roam around to check out the stalls.

Before they got out of the car, they put on hats and glasses for disguise to prevent people from crowding them. They walked up to the main building of the shrine to pay respects before they visited the stalls.

"Wow! It's so cute!" Yuuhi cheerfully smiled, seeing the cute masks in one of the stalls.

She placed a fox mask on her while she put an alien mask on Hiroto.

"It suits you very well, Manager-san," Yuuhi sarcastically complimented before she busted out, laughing.

Hiroto paid for the two masks before they proceeded to look at other stalls. On their way to get food, they bumped onto two familiar people.

"Hiroto?"

It was Fubuki with Seiji, both of them in disguise.

The two pairs greeted each other, still keeping their disguises. They walked to a food stall, where they had tables, to not draw any more attention on them. They ordered their food first so they could just socialize while waiting for their orders to come.

"I haven't seen you two in a while! How's it been, Yuuhi-san? Like being an idol?" Seiji asked.

"Of course, Seiji-kun. This had always been my dream," Yuuhi friendly smiled.

"How was the country-wide tour?" Hiroto asked.

"It's great. Yeah, it's tiring, but you forget all about it when you see your fans having fun and supporting you," Fubuki smiled while recalling the memories she made during her tour with Seiji.

After Yuuhi's debut concert, the two set out on a collaborated country-wide tour. They were away for two whole months, visiting the major cities in all the prefectures. They also promoted their upcoming works during their concerts. Since they were always busy, they rarely watched TV in their hotel rooms. Since they just came back from their tour, the two decided to just relax and enjoy the festival.

"I heard about the identity confusion, Yuuhi-san," Fubuki said, looking a little worried.

"Yes. It was a little troublesome, but we fixed it right away," the auburn-haired idol replied.

Right after their conversation about Yuuhi's misunderstood identity, their food came and the four of them ate happily. Few conversations were started between their eating time since they were all pretty hungry.

After they ate, the four of them visited the other stalls, including the goldfish scooping game stall. They also played the shooting game, where Seiji won a giant stuffed bear for Fubuki. Fubuki and Yuuhi also bought some yukatas that were on sale since they weren't wearing them. While Seiji waited for the two girls, he noticed that Hiroto had disappeared. However, before he started panicking, Fubuki called for him to ask for his opinion.

"How does it look?" she asked, spinning around for him.

Seiji's eyes opened in shock to see Fubuki look so dazzling in a yukata. Her purple hair was fixed by the worker in the stall in a half-ponytail with a butterfly pin made of dazzling, royal purple gems. Her peach-colored yukata had purple butterflies that matched her old hair color. The way she spun made her hair flow in a heavenly manner.

"Y-you look…g-gorgeous," Seiji stated, his eyes fixed on Fubuki's.

"Th-thank you," Fubuki blushed since she didn't expect that compliment from Seiji.

Before Seiji could tell Fubuki that Hiroto was missing, the lavender-haired beauty told him to wait because she was going to get Yuuhi, who sounded as if she was having troubles in the stall.

"What did I miss?" Hiroto suddenly asked, scaring Seiji.

"Where'd you go?" asked Seiji.

"Toilet."

A tiny yelp interrupted Seiji from asking another question, giving Hiroto some relief. However, Hiroto felt a little worried when he realized that the yelp came from Yuuhi.

"Come on, Yuuhi-san," Fubuki said, coming out of the stall with her hand tugging on Yuuhi's hand

"N-no!" Yuuhi yelped as she came out of the stall, revealing her outfit.

Hiroto's face looked enlightened when he saw Yuuhi in her red yukata with pastel-pink cherry blossom designs. Her hair was too short to put up, but it had a decorative cherry blossom pin on the side. What made her look more attractive, to Hiroto, was her shy side that she rarely shows anyone.

Yuuhi took quick glances at Hiroto's face to see his expression about how she looked. When she saw the same face expression he made when they were in the car about how she wanted to go to the fireworks viewing, she started panicking.

"I knew this was bad! Jeez, I'm chang—"

"No, wait!" Hiroto interrupted, grabbing her hand before Yuuhi could go back in the stall to change.

"You look very beautiful."

Yuuhi kept her head down to hide her blushing face, something she always does.

"Why is my heart beating so fast? Stop it!" she thought, panicking in her head.

"Let's go," Hiroto said as he pulled Yuuhi from the stall when they heard the announcement on the fireworks viewing.

The four of them went to a nearby hill that nobody else went to. Since there were a few trees that surrounded the edge of the hill, it became the best spot for them to see the fireworks. Also, they were safe since there were railings on the edges. Not only was the spot good for viewing the fireworks, but also for stargazing.

"Wow, the stars look beautiful," Yuuhi exclaimed, looking up with a smile on her face.

"Yeah," Hiroto agreed, not realizing that he was still holding Yuuhi's hand.

Yuuhi, on the other side, started panicking when she turned to Hiroto and saw his hand holding hers. Hiroto also started blushing when he realized that Yuuhi was as red as a tomato because of him. They both turned away from each other, feeling awkward and embarrassed. Luckily, Fubuki and Seiji didn't see them because they would've made it more embarrassing with their playful remarks.

Suddenly, the fireworks shot up the sky and spectacularly bloomed their stunning lights. They lit up the night sky along with the stars and the new moon. The two girls continued to exclaim, their breaths being taken away by the beauty of the fireworks.

"This is so nostalgic," Hiroto painfully smiled.

"I remember how I helped Kirari in her competition with the fireworks on her performance," he said, as if he was looking up to see the fireworks that were lit during that night when Kirari sung the first song she wrote about her feelings for Hiroto.

"Yeah, that was amazing," Seiji agreed, the sparkling lights reflecting on his foreign blue eyes.

"I miss her so much," Hiroto, once again, smiled in sorrow.

When Yuuhi noticed the smile he painstakingly showed, she got frustrated at the feeling she had in her chest.

"Why? Why does my heart feel like it's shattering?" she thought, lowering her head to hide her eyes and clenching her fist to her heart.

"Why do I feel this way?"

Author's notes:

Hey, everyone! So, I've been able to write and update my stories lately. Thank goodness, right? Well, I have a little fun quiz for this chapter. Towards the end, Hiroto was talking about how he helped Kirari in her performance. To the first three people that can correctly tell me the name of the song she wrote, in Japanese or English, will get mentioned in the next few chapters of this story. To the first two people who can correctly tell me what happened in that episode, will get a cameo (you'll be a part of the plot) in a chapter or two with whatever name you want to use for your character (may it be your FanFic pen name, real name, or made up name). Thanks for reading my story! Keep supporting. :D