Hello, my darlings! Thank you again for reading thus far :D Soooooo i have two things to say: 1) I know he has already appeared, but since i always forget his name i figure you guys would too XD. Tomochika's composer is named Yajima. 2) Don't be afraid at Tokiya's involvement in the story, i won't repeat what Masato and Ren went through, but there won't be a love triangle either... I just wanted to make that clear jfc.

With all of that said, please enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

Back at Tomochika's

Still in utter shock at Ren's response to her usual outburst, Tomochika stared at his back as he walked towards the door. He unlocked it fast and dashed out without giving her a second glance.

She was having an internal debate about whether he was trying to get a specific reaction out of her or if he was genuinely hurt, but either way she didn't want to be left with the bitter feeling that perhaps she had gone too far.

So she walked fast, and caught up with him right before he left the building. "Wait!"

As he heard her voice, he stopped in his tracks, but he didn't turn to face her. "What is it?" he asked back.

"Are you really walking away just because I told you I don't think we're friends? I don't understand how that could possibly surprise you, much less offend you" she replied.

This time, he turned around. She thought he'd look sad considering how low voiced his earlier apology had been, but he looked just plain angry. It seemed as if he was ready to yell at her so she braced herself for whatever new side of the idol she was about to meet.

"What do I have to do to please you, huh Shibuya-san?"

"Shibu-?" she tried to repeat her last name, completely taken aback by his sudden formality, but decided against it midway, seeing as he clenched his teeth at the sound of her voice.

"Why is it so damn hard for you to just give me a cordial response?!" he yelled out of exasperation. When she didn't answer instantly, he continued with his rant. "We've spent enough time together to at least talk without permanent insults, wouldn't you think? But no, Masato comes along and he's instantly your friend after talking a couple of freaking times!"

After he finished talking, he grabbed his hair with one of his hands, taking deep breaths as he tried to calm down.

"Is this what it's all about? You're jealous?" she asked, content with her discovery.

"Jealous? I-" he was starting to deny any possibility of feeling that way towards her, but he realized that refuting it in any form would only make her more certain of its truthfulness. So he tried to think of a way to get out of the whole situation, but in doing so, he took too long and she took the chance to speak first.

"You are jealous! I can't believe it! You're the one that asked me to befriend him in the first place; you have no right to get jealous about it. And why are you anyways? It's not like you like me or anything; you're just constantly trying to get in my pants. Like with every other girl you come across"

He stared her down as his only response. His expression remained stoic as he seemed unfazed by her question. As the moment passed, she started to feel extremely self-conscious; it was as if he was looking through her, what the hell was up with him?

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Otoya turned to his confused girlfriend and smiled at her puzzled expression. So as a way of explanation, he looked at his friend and pointing, said: "It's impossible to stay serious staring at this guy!"

"Me? Come on, I didn't do anything. You're the one that started making weird faces!" Tokiya retorted.

"Yes, because I was trying to control my laughter!"

Still completely lost, Haruka decided to ask again: "I… I don't get it, what's so funny?"

"I don't know, ask the crazy dork that's standing next to you"

"I'm not-! Okay. Just… Just hear me out" he started saying while putting both hands in front of himself, palms facing her as a way to emphasize his request. Seeing her nod, he started: "So, you see, when we had barely met I saw Tokiya like the hardworking guy that he is, but he was also super boring and… I don't know. It's gotten to the point where I find his serious face hilarious… I just… I just do"

"Oh" was all she could think to respond.

After her short reply, silence settled in. Partly because nobody knew what to say after the situation was explained and partly 'cuz once the laughter died down, they started thinking about what they had been doing before it had all started.

Otoya was the kind of person that didn't feel comfortable in long uninterrupted silence: it would always feel awkward to him. And that's why he always tried to say a little quip or make at least small talk to get out of the moment. This time though, he saw that his two friends were completely avoiding any type of eye contact. Possibly they were doing it to mitigate the awkwardness, but it had the opposite effect. And truth be told, the other two weren't that really against prolonged moments of silence, they relished on it, actually. But he really couldn't take it.

Then, he looked up at her and saw that she was biting her lip. He turned towards his friend and found him focused on his intertwined hands. By then it felt like it was too late to break the silence, too much time had passed.

Unbeknownst to him, just as he settled for staring at his own feet and wished for a magical solution to start up a conversation again, Haruka finally looked up at him. She saw how he was clutching onto his hoodie and realized he wasn't very comfortable at all. "So, Otoya-kun… Ichinose-san was helping me write more songs, seeing as I have run completely dry of inspiration to compose, would you like to join us?"

Her question brought them all back into reality, but it also made him remember the reason why he had walked into her room in the first place… He figured maybe this was all a sign for him to disregard Shining's offer… or to at least put it as a second priority after helping her with the song. He guessed he'd have to tell her about it sooner or later, but considering how worked up she got about their boss, he finally decided to go for 'later'. "Sure, let's do this!"

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Tomochika's house

"You know what? You're right, we're not friends. I should've figured that was the case after that horrible meeting we had. And yes, I'm not calling it a date because there was honestly no romantic undertone to it" Ren said.

She took a moment to gather her thoughts as his cold demeanor took her aback once again. She was so used to his warm, flirty-self that being around him when angry was still too much of a new feeling. "Really? No romantic undertone? Then why in the world did you kiss me?!"

"I told you back then that it was an accident, there's nothing more to it than that"

"… I don't believe you"

"I don't care whether you believe me or not, this is the truth" he said, then took a deep breath and continued: "And now if you'll excuse me, I need to get out of here so that I can get your face out of my view"

"Wow, really? Not pretending to be a gentleman anymore, are we?"

At her question, he regarded her again. And then, looking straight at her, he took a single step back. "I honestly thought you were really cute. The way you constantly play hard to get and blush when you think I'm not looking was… charming. But now that I'm thinking straight again I can finally conclude that perhaps it would be better not to be around you anymore" With those final words, he walked away from her. And before she knew it, a limo parked right in front of him and he took off.

The whole ordeal was difficult to comprehend for her, maybe even to him. But unbeknownst to her, the real reason why he had walked out was because he was afraid of damaging their relationship any further. Because under all the masks and the play-pretend, he cared about her more than he wanted to admit: as he had said before, all of Haruka's friends were his friends by default, and that included her.

The truth was that Ren wasn't jealous about Tomochika and Masato being friends or even lovers. His deal was that he really liked her and he didn't want her to think that ill of him. He wanted her to view him just like Haruka did, but she constantly shot him down. In all actuality he was just going to keep on standing her mistreatment and misunderstanding of his persona 'cuz he knew that he had screwed up a little too much on their date adding to the fact that Tomochika wasn't quite fond of the way he handled his attraction to Haruka. But after seeing how little it took Masato to get through her after his own confession towards Haruka fiasco, he just couldn't understand why she didn't just accept him as well. He thought it unfair, envied it even. It wasn't the jealousy she thought about, it was much more complicated than that. But he had come to the conclusion that in order to get rid of the misunderstanding he would need to involve a third party because otherwise the situation would get heated once again. Was that the right choice though? Only time will tell.

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After a couple of hours of hard work and Tokiya's endless incomprehensible explanations about how to be inspired, it was time to have dinner.

And as luck would have it, he was kind enough to leave first and let the two love birds have a few minutes for themselves. In fact, the second he closed the door behind him, they both turned towards each other at the same time, anxious to share how their day had been. The eager expressions on their faces made them giggle a little before he gestured for her to talk first. Of course: she did the same.

They could've kept at it forever, but they didn't have that much time so he just went for it. "The meeting was… interesting… I didn't get in trouble though, so that's a good thing"

"Oh, so… Why did he call you?"

He was about to answer when he remembered what he'd decided. So in the interest of not going against the current that early in the game: he just tried to change the topic with the actually real excuse that they didn't have much time and that his story was a bit too long. Right after doing so, he tried to ask as nonchalantly as possible about how Tokiya got to help her.

"It's hard to tell, really. He just showed up, it was as if he could tell I was stressed out" she replied.

He hummed in agreement and said: "That's Tokiya for you". And so they made their way to the dining room before anyone went to get them.

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Tomochika was still staring at the empty road when Yajima arrived. And it wasn't until he shook her by the shoulders that she went back to her senses. But in doing so, everything that had happened finally dawned on her. She really wasn't sure about whether to be extremely angry or just plain sad at the insults the idol had directed towards her, but she finally decided on the former in her last attempt to hold on to her belief that he was indeed an asshole.

Her composer was not exactly pleasantly surprised as her face contorted with fury and she turned around, stomping back inside the house. He tried calling out to her, trying to figure out what in the world was going on, but the only thing he got in response was something resembling angry animal noises. The poor guy was going to have one of those nights again. He sighed as he realized that, but he figured it was only fair: you can only have so much good luck before it all goes a little bit to hell, right? Well, at least that's what he told himself in an attempt to maintain his composure.

Fortunately for him, right after they got inside she rampaged towards her room, no words exchanged in the process. "Another dinner on my own, then" he said to no one in particular.

On the other hand, she closed her door as hard as possible, trying to feel a little bit better by using force. It didn't really work, but she was so upset that she just ran all the way to her bed and grabbed a pillow to cover her face. She hated how he got to her, how could he dare to tell her such things? What if he didn't actually like her and was just playing around? What in the world could he possibly gain from making her so mad? The questions haunted her as she screamed against the pillow, but that didn't do anything to push them away. She thought she was finally… no, her first impression had been right: he was just another playboy. But then… why did he apologize to her back in the kitchen? No. She wasn't going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He didn't deserve it after what he had said, but… 'No! I need to stop looking for reasons to forgive him! He hurt Haruka, Masato and now he's trying to take me down?! No, sir, I won't give you the pleasure of breaking me, you're certainly doomed. I can't believe I thought that maybe you could care for someone but yourself' she thought.

She set the pillow down, content with the conclusion she had come to. But there was something still bothering her, it was almost as if a part of her brain was itching and she couldn't shake the feeling away. She sat down at the edge of her bed, looking down at her hands. For some reason, she felt… sad. She couldn't come up with a reason why. Well, that was until her phone started vibrating. 'Who could it be now?'

Without realizing what she was doing, she dashed towards her purse on the floor. It was just where she dropped it before she got to grab the pillow. She took her phone out and as she noticed that she had just received some spam, sadness settled again, stronger this time. Tomo-chan put the phone back to where it was and as she made her way back to her bed, it hit her: what was she expecting? She tried to convince herself that she was waiting for Masato's response to her last advice e-mail, or even a simple text by Haruka, but… the truth was that she was waiting for him. And that realization only made her angrier. She let herself lay her back on the bed, and as she stared at the ceiling she couldn't help but ask out loud: "What's up with him?"