"Chizuru" .
"Mizuhara" .
"Chizuru" .
"Mizuhara.
Chizuru stopped walking, stared him right in the eyes and repeated , poking his shoulder with each syllable.
"Chizuru " .
Kazuya swallowed nervously and sputtered ,
"I can't just ... all of sudden ... start calling you that " .
Chizuru raised an eyebrow and asked ,
"Why not ? "
"It's.. uh ... just a bit embarrassing..." , he started and then immediately corrected himself,
"No , I mean ... uh ... I'm not embarrassed but ... just kinda difficult to start ... all of a sudden "
"But when we're with your family, you call me Chizuru without honorifics " , she countered
"Yeah but ... that's different " , Kazuya squeaked out .
Chizuru was slient for a few seconds before she let out a sigh and relented,
"Fine , let's go " , she said as she resumed walking.
Kazuya stood still for a couple of seconds though as he mumbled to himself,
"Stupid Kawanaka" .
He slowly continued walking as his mind traveled back a few hours,
It had been a bright and frankly normal morning that day as Kazuya and Chizuru made their way to University
As the minutes and hours together passed by they were slowly becoming more and more accustomed to each other's presence and the changes it made in their lives.
It had been just a couple of days since they had visited Ichinose Sayuri's grave together.
They talked and laughed as they walked, stopping only for coffee and bite to eat .
Things had been just as they had been for the last three days, the new normal , one could say ,until Kazuya noticed Chizuru glancing at him through the corner of her eyes.
He got the sense that she wanted to ask him something.
In fact now that he thought about it,over the last couple of days, she had seemed like she was about to say something but it had turned out to be something mundane each time and so he hadn't thought much of it .
But now he wondered if there was something more to it.
"Hey , is something on your mind ? " , he asked her .
She was startled slightly but answered ,
"No , nothing ".
"Are you sure, Mizuhara?"
He didn't notice it at that moment but she inhaled just a fraction of a second longer than usual before she nodded and replied,
"Yeah "
Soon they split up and went to their classes, Kazuya finished first and headed out into the campus to find Kibe , Kuri and Shinbo already in deep conversation.
He joined them and found them in an intense conversation about some famous actress .
Kazuya had heard of her (the actress in question was one of Kibe's many self proclaimed girlfriend options and the subject of much dispute between Kibe and Kuri) , but beyond that he didn't know much about her and just listened to the three of them till Chizuru and Kawanaka joined them.
Kawanaka dropped a huge bomb as soon as she had caught up with the conversation. She claimed that the actress had been secretly dating one of her colleagues , an equally famous actor , all this time .
This shell-shocked everyone into silence. Kazuya however, rolled his eyes and glanced at Chizuru hoping that she would reciprocate his disinterest in the whole matter but was surprised to see her invested in the matters of the actress as well .
"Huh , maybe it's like an acting thing " , Kazuya thought to himself.
Chizuru ended up breaking the silence by asking Kawanaka ,
"How do you know ? "
Kawanaka grinned and explained,
"I was watching a talk show last night and both of them were in it and he totally called her by her first name , without honorifics. And he was super casual about it and at first she was normal too for a second but then once they realized it ,he made a big scene about it being an accident and she acted all flustered but it was so obvious and you just know that they've been together for a while and ... "
The conversation went on for a while before Kazuya finally managed to escape. He then waited for Chizuru just outside the campus and once she had found him, they started on their way back .
She was unusually silent for a while, just nodding and shaking her head as he spoke until finally she interrupted him and asked him ,
"Hey can I ask you to do something for me ?"
Kazuya was thrown off and slightly confused but he nodded,
"Yeah , sure ".
Chizuru took a few deep breaths before she spoke slowly but with more firmness than what one might expect from a question,
"Can you call me ... Chizuru ? "
Kazuya watched Chizuru carefully as they walked side by side .
At first glance it might have seemed like they were in perfect sync but a closer look would reveal that Kazuya was a half step behind her .
They were just a little out of sync.
An irony which did not escape Kazuya's notice .
He noted the little changes in her , a slight stiffness as she walked, the little glances at him through the reflections of the stores they passed , the miniscule crease in her forehead where her eyebrows were just an inch closer than normal and the little white in her knuckles as she gripped her bag a little too tightly.
"No " , Kazuya thought to himself.
"I'm the real idiot.
She's unhappy. Way more than she's letting on .
She just played it off for my sake but...she actually really wants me to use her name .
But why now ? What's changed all of a sudden ? Is it that stupid gossip about the actress ? " , he wondered .
"No", the realization hit him almost instantly .
"This has to be what she wanted to tell me in the morning .
That means it's been on her mind for a while now. For the last couple of days at least .
Ever since ... "
Immediately he understood. Clarity washed over him as he realized exactly when it started.
"Since we visited Grandma Sayuri " .
He glanced at her again and this time saw the littlest hint of wistful longing on her cheeks , almost as subtle as her fluttering eyelashes .
" That must have reminded her " , Kazuya realized.
" That there's no one left to call her
"Chizuru" .
Sure Shinbo and Kawanaka do and maybe some of her other friends, but ... this is different .
I'm different.
I know that.
It's more important when it comes from me .Or from Grandma Sayuri or anyone else she ... loves ."
Kazuya exhaled loudly as his guilt began to punch him in the gut .He accepted it though , as it was well deserved .
He stopped walking and with as much firmness and volume as he could muster up in that moment, he spoke ,
"Chizuru " .
Her reaction was not as he expected .
She froze on the spot.
"Umm... Chizuru ? " , Kazuya called again, this time more tentatively.
This time she turned her face away slightly but he could still see her reflection which revealed exactly how stupefied she was .
"Wait, did I read this whole situation wrong?", Kazuya began to panic and hesitatingly called out .
"Mizuhara? "
She was still for a second more and then slowly shook her head .
Kazuya cleared his throat and said again , this time even louder and slightly forcefully,
"Chizuru" .
She closed her eyes for a second like she wating for his voice to travel through her, before she nodded firmly .
She then began to walk again suddenly, pulling Kazuya along by grabbing his hand .
"Eh .. Are you okay ? " , Kazuya asked her .
"I .. yeah .. I am " , she replied in a dazed voice which matched her expression as well .
They walked like that for a bit longer before she stopped again
Kazuya felt her hand let go of his arm and instead force open his palm instead .
As he held her hand , he felt her sigh with relief .
She squeezed his hand just a bit and told him,
"Thank you " .
Kazuya smiled in return and was about to continue walking when his mind suddenly latched onto another thought.
"That's right. That's not all it is. Miz... Chizuru would definitely want to... "
He spoke up before he had a chance to stop himself,
"Hey ,what about you ? "
"What about me ?" , a puzzled Chizuru asked.
"Aren't you going to call me Kazuya?", he blurted out.
"Huh ? " , a flabbergasted Chizuru stepped back for a second.
"Me ? I mean ... it's not like ... I wasn't calling you Kinoshita anyway . And I wasn't calling you Ka.. your name in front of anyone else " , she babbled .
"But you use my name too " , an emboldened Kazuya continued.
"Like that time when I was sick on New Year's Eve, I definitely heard you say
"Kazuya " .
Her eyes widened in horror as she gaped at him for a few seconds before continuing to sputter,
"Y... You weren't awake ... You weren't supposed to hear that . It was just that once . And a couple of times , like when I heard Ruka-chan say it... i didn't like it , so I said it to myself and ... "
"What ? " , a confused Kazuya interrupted .
Chizuru only now realizing her words, clamped her mouth shut with her own hands .
Kazuya watched incredulously as her cheeks slowly reddened before he asked her,
"So ? "
"Give me a minute ", she shot back, before taking a few deep breaths.
She then proceeded to stare intently at her feet before speaking again, almost imperceptibly softly ,
"Fine . I'll call you... Kazuya " .
Kazuya felt a little explosion of happiness in him and felt even more of the same emotions as he watched her face go dangerously close to the shade of a tomato , like all the blood in her body had rushed to her face .
Kazuya gently took hold of her hand again and asked her ,
"Let's go ? "
She interlocked her fingers with his once again and nodded.
They continued walking home, Kazuya barely taking his eyes off of Chizuru, noting every little change in her expression and was soon delighted to see a radiant smile on her face .
"That's right ", he thought to himself.
"She didn't just want to be called by her name.
She wanted to use my name too
Though I can barely believe she was jealous enough back then to say my name to herself ".
Kazuya chucked just a bit and almost like she could sense that it was about her, she asked him suspiciously ,
"What ?"
"I was just thinking about you whispering my name to yourself ", he cheerily replied.
A bit of the dissipated scarlet returned to her face but she hit back almost immediately,
"At least I wasn't going around jumping in out of nowhere,screaming every time I had a conversation with a guy for more than a minute".
"That was one time and Umi was really shady that day " ,Kazuya indignantly told her .
"If you say so Ka..", she stopped for just a micro second before she continued ,
"Kazuya " .
He watched as the smile spread across her face again and couldn't help smiling as well .
"She so wanted to call me Kazuya ", he thought to himself.
"All this time , she was waiting for a chance . I'm just glad I figured that out ".
He watched that indescribable smile shine at him and reflected ,
" But I had no idea it would make Ch..Chizuru this happy .
But ... I'm really happy too, calling her Chizuru
And .. I'm really glad I'm starting to understand her better " .
He beamed back at her as they continued walking back home, matching their strides ,in perfect unison and harmony once again.
A/N : I'm so ecstatic to be able to resume writing Resonance after such a long gap . My dearest thanks to everyone who continued to support the story through the hiatus and I hope that you will all enjoy this chapter and all the others that are on their way .
Resonance will once again have a new chapter every week .
Next Time : The Solitary Heartbeat .