Hello again! i love Ren. Ehem... So yeah, resolution yay! Which is to say... resolution to a certain plot point not the whole story XD I hope you enjoy!

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

When she was a good twenty steps away from him, she heard him yell back at her: "The exit is the other way!" And she embarrassedly made a U turn and passed by him at full speed.

He stared at her back as she walked faster and faster towards the main entrance and once she was far enough, he decided to follow her.

Tomochika on the other hand was trying her best to move as fast as humanly possible without running. She didn't want to do that because of the ice, she could already picture herself falling and a certain Casanova jogging up to help her… There wasn't anything she feared more than that.

Finally spotting the huge iron gates, she looked through the spaces in between to try and see if she could spot a car outside. And that's when she remembered: 'I didn't call anyone to pick me up' She felt like screaming and her fingers were freezing, but she took out her phone from her pocket and called for the taxi service she had already memorized. She considered calling her agent or her composer, but it was getting pretty late and she honestly didn't feel like talking to anyone.

"Hmm. So, you're still here" Ren said from behind her right after she hunged up.

"And you're following me" she replied without turning around.

"In fact, I am not. You never told me whether you preferred me to accompany you or not, therefore: I made the choice for you"

She turned around to face him after that and crossed her arms. "Of course you did. But you know what? I want you to leave –as if it wasn't clear enough before- so please: vanish from my view"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's- woah!" Before she had a chance to finish her response, he quickly moved through the space that separated them and promptly trapped her between his arms and the metal gate. She completely lost control of the situation as she stuttered attemps at asking him to leave, staring at the floor and blushing, averting her gaze from his. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

His question made her quiet down completely, blushing more and more as she felt the warmth of his body radiate towards her. 'He's too close… If I try to push him away I just… His face is so much closer than his torso: he'd sure take the opportunity to… Ugh, I can't get away' she thought, helplessly.

She then sighed and raising her head to meet his eyes, pleaded: "Could you please let me go?"

"I will when you admit that you indeed have feelings for me"

'No…' She had feared he would ask for that, but hope had truly been her undoing this time around… She had though that maybe, just maybe he wouldn't ask that much of her… "I can't do that, Jinguji" she said, sadly.

"Hm? You can't tell me the truth?"

And that's when she snapped. She took a deep breath and… "Why the hell do you want this so much?! You said yourself that you don't like me! Do you want to humiliate me?! Are you seriously so pitiful that you'd despise me to the point where all you want is to win?! This isn't a game!"

Her words hit him so hard that he inavertedly took a couple of steps back, releasing her from his grasp. He stared at her then, wide eyed, mouth open and completely frozen in place.

"Thought so" she said, each word pronounced with every ounce of rage she could muster.

~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~

Inside the warmn dorms, Haruka was intently trying to read up on some theory books about musical composition when she heard a soft knock on her door.

"Come in!"

Masato timidly walked inside her room, apologizing with every step for "the inconvenience". But he was a man with a purpose, and nothing was going to stop him from doing what he had set himself to do.

"Nanami-san, I really need to talk to you about something"

"Mmmm?"

"It's about Shibuya-san"

"Tomo-chan?"

"Yes, she…" he started, cleared his throat and then continued: "When she arrived earlier here with the intention of talking to me… She found me resting my eyes in the couch, yes, but I wasn't asleep… although she wasn't aware of that, and she… She told me something before I drifted off…" While he spoke, his tone of voice got more and more distant with each word. It took Haruka a moment before realizing he wasn't going to finish the sentence.

"Hijirikawa-san, are you okay?"

He had been staring out the window when she startled him, interrupting his thoughts.

"I am"

"Then, um… Would you mind finishing what you were saying?"

"What I was…" He stared at her, eyes completely blank as if he had completely lost notion of what he was doing there in the first place. Suddenly, realization hit him: that nap really had done him a disservice. "… I was telling you about Shibuya-san, yes." Haruka nodded in confirmation and he continued: "She said, and I quote: 'I need you to help me understand Ren'. Or something among those lines"

"Jinguji-san? She calls him by his first name, already?"

"I wouldn't know. I hadn't heard her do so until now…"

~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~

Recovering his composture, Ren finally managed to give her a response.

"Here we are again. You really do think that low of me, don't you? You believe I'm akin to human trash, and yet…" he seemed so sure, incredibly tranquil in accepting what he understood as her take on him. His tone of voice, the inherent sadness of his statement didn't fail to captivate her, to keep all of her focus on him as he inavertedly stopped talking.

"And yet…?" she asked, trying to encourage him to continue. She felt extremely weird, it was only seconds ago that she was yelling at him for being a horrible person. What power did he hold over her?

He looked up at her question, a grimace gracing his lips right before he said: "… and yet I would've expected you to react differently to my rejection towards you… I thought that maybe bringing it up would finally confirm that what you've been saying was true, but… my gut was right, every little thing you've done has proved time and time again that you do like me"

Tomochika bit her lower lip in an attempt to prevent herself from bursting out at him again, and after a couple of deep breaths, replied: "Is that your way of saying that you win the game?"

"You really are a complicated lady, aren't you?"

"Answering my question with another question? Are you trying to give me a compliment?"

He sighed at her inquery, doing his best to remain calm. He was having a really hard time figuring her out. It was painfully obvious to him that she liked him now, but if that was the case then why was she being so rude…?

'But what if she's…!' a thought crossed his mind as realization hit, of course! He had been on the other side of the argument so many times that he had failed to catch on the small actions, the literal pushes… It was blantantly obvious.

"You really think I'd hurt you, don't you?" he asked.

Looking away, she replied: "I don't know what you're talking about"

"I'll clear things out for you, then: every time I manage to get closer to you, to actually form a human connection with you, I get pushed away. You're trying to keep me at arms length and yet you came here today, you ask my bandmates where I am and how I'm doing and you expect me to not find out about it…"

If she had a hard time repressing her emotions before, this was definitely close to impossible. She felt so exposed, so weak… Had Otoya told him about what they had talked about? Well, she hadn't exactly asked him not to, but…

Suddenly she felt a pair of hands cupping her face. She raised her eyes and found him incredibly close to her. She could feel his breath against her face, his sight focused right at her lips, and his own were…

"Do you think we can start again? Be friends from the start?" he asked interrupting the moment.

Her focus shifted from his lips to his eyes before he spoke again. "Do you think we can mend our bond? Be able to trust each other?"

Now she was intrigued, she could almost taste every word he pronounced, the proximity of their mouths almost made her dizzy but, the content of them… He sounded hopeful, he was waiting for her intake and she was honestly anticipating what he'd do depending on what she'd say.

She licked her lips in nervousness, swallowed hard and in a barely audible tone, she replied: "We can try"

In her attempt at gathering courage, she had missed the way he followed the movement of her tongue, the intensity with which he stared at her, all of his attention on her.

She braced herself for a kiss and closed her eyes, but all she got instead was cold air, and then… She felt a pressure against her forehead, a soft, warm one… She opened her eyes to find him tenderly kissing her there. No more than ten seconds passed before he pulled away, but the smile that covered his face made up for it all.

"Let's try" he said, and for the first time: she felt like she could trust him.

~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~

Still pondering on what Masato had told her, Haruka sat at her desk thinking about her best friend. She remembered how upset and doubtful she had been about that impromptu date she had with Ren, about his strange request and how angry he made her feel. She wondered if she had some sort of influence in this. Because yes, she had asked Tomochika to befriend Masato, but it was her friend that in the end decided to do it on her own volition. And now…

The sound of a text message made her jump in her seat as the music interrupted her silent calm. 'It's… Tomo-chan?' she thought, confused.

"ヾ(=^.^=)ノ going back home!" it read.

'Well, that's… a really happy message, hm?' she thought. How weird. When she left her friend earlier she had been visibly upset for whatever reason. It could be just her way of texting as usual, but it felt off. 'I should call her'

Haruka pressed the call button and not even two rings passed before her friend picked up.

"Hello?"

"Tomo-chan?"

"Oh, Haruka, it's you… What's up, miss me already?"

"Umm.. I just… I was… Are you gonna be okay?"

"This again? Hey, I'm really sorry for worrying you but really, I'm superb. I can handle this, yeah? So please please stop asking if I'm okay? Sorry but it's kinda getting out of hand and…" her voice trailed off at the last word, almost as if she had taken the phone away from her mouth.

As the minutes passed and the silence grew thicker, Haruka couldn't help but wonder if her friend had hunged up.

"Tomo-chan? Are you still there?" she asked. Suddenly she heard the beeping tone confirming her suspicions. Maybe she had run out of battery or credit, right? That had to be it. But anxiousness started to chew her up as she tried to call again and got sent straight to voicemail. What if something had happened to her?

A text message arrived just as she was debating whether she should go look for her boyfriend for help.

"Chill (〜￣▽￣)〜 Call u l8tr"

And with that she was beyond intrigued. First of all: what was she doing? Second: What was her extreme fascination with emojis? She texted just like Otoya, as if she had all the time in the world, but still not enough to write full sentences with actual words.

Haruka sighed, 'I guess I'll have to wait to find out…'

~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~

A couple of minutes earlier ~

"It would be real sweet if I could stay over with you tonight" he said, sitting right across from her in the limo. He had insisted upon cancelling the cab and, without waiting for input, called up his chauffeur.

"You really shouldn't push your luck here, you know? Besides, I doubt your senpais would be too happy if you went out for a night. You already got in enough trouble as it is"

He smirked and replied: "You clearly weren't around during my rebel fase"

"I pity your former teachers, to be honest"

"Well, I was homeschooled so I didn't have that many, but… I can tell you that I was an excellent student"

"Sure, you were"

His smile widened as he tried to suppress his laughter. Who would've thought that her teasing would make him feel so nice? It was a really peculiar thing. There seemed to be something there, a reason why whether she liked you or not she would still insult you. But her tone of voice, the things she said and what she truly meant behind it all was completely different. Perhaps this was her way of dealing with him and it wasn't exactly that unfamiliar. It was quite similar to his relationship with Masato, actually.

"Could you give me back my phone, now?" she asked.

"Oh, forgive me, Lady"

Right as he was passing it back to her, it started ringing again. "That's gotta be Haruka" She pressed the ignore botton and hurried to text a reply.

Watching her in silence from the other side of the car, he wondered why she was being so secretive with her friend. Maybe she intended to inform her of their new amicable pact in person. Or maybe…

"Lady?"

She stuffed her phone in her pocked and replied: "Are you ever gonna call me by my name?" Seeing as he stared at her completely mute, she gave up. "Yes?"

"Are you hiding our relationship from the Little Lamb?"

"Eh? Ah… No, I'm just… We're friends now… I guess. I'll just... I'll tell her later"

Suspicion filled him as he tried to figure out what she was thinking, but for the time being he'd have to trust her. Otherwise all of his efforts would be wasted shortly after he had finally made his way past her walls.