A/N: None of these have to be read in a particular order :) Enjoy!


Chapter Eighteen.

The Moments In Between.


1. Karaoke Night (Part 1)

"...Who's gonna talk to me on the phone till the sun comes up, who's gonna take your place, there ain't nobody better. Oh baby, baby, WE BELONG TOGEEETHERRRRR…"

Asami sings Mariah Carey's final run in her number one hit song, "We Belong Together", smiling in satisfaction when the song ends. Turning around, Asami gives her friends a wide grin, happy with her performance.

Quietly gulping, Suguru, Satoru, and Shoko force themselves to awkwardly clap.

"So, how was I?" she asks, genuinely unaware of just how …. unique … she sounded, "Not to boast, but I think I sang this song better than the last."

Awkwardly looking at each other, Shoko and Suguru subtly nudge at Satoru's side, forcing him to give the girl an answer. Considering he was the one who was most often blunt about things, they decided that perhaps he should be the one to let her down "gently".

Fact was, the girl couldn't hold a note, even if her life depended on it. No wonder she was always humming! It was her only form of singing that wouldn't pop anyone's ear drums. Of course, the point of renting out a karaoke room with your friends was to socialize and laugh at each other's lack of singing skills, but the fact that she was convinced she was a good singer was quite shocking to say the least. She'd even been hogging the mic for the past half hour.

By now, the trio weren't sure just how much more they could handle, convinced that if they didn't put an end to this, they'd be leaving their karaoke room with bleeding ears and a loss of hearing.

Preparing to give an answer, Satoru clears his throat, "If I'm being really honest Asami, that was terri—"

But before he can complete his harsh statement, Asami does something that completely changes his course of action….

She lowers her gaze.

The excited expression that had been on her face, now becoming one of nervousness and sadness. That's because for her, his opinion actually held weight.

"-FIC!" he changes his choice of word at the last second, Shoko and Suguru comedically spitting their drinks out.

Getting up from his seat, Satoru decides to keep the ball of compliments rolling, "Amazing! Superb! Marvelous! I mean seriously, the singing muses got nothing on you!" he says, his infamous grin now plastered onto his face.

"R-Really?" Asami begins to smile, unable to contain her childlike excitement.

Satoru throws his arms in the air, truly becoming a contender for an Oscar, "Of course! Why would I lie?"

Shoko and Suguru look at one another, simultaneously rolling their eyes as they realize they had forgotten the weighting factor in all of this...

Satoru's ginormous crush on her.

A crush so deep, that he was willing to convince himself that she sounded like, if not better, than Mariah Carey herself.

Turning to his friends, he looks at them for support, "Isn't she amazing you guys?" he asks, subtly winking at them.

Sighing, the two nod their heads, deciding to go along with Satoru's antics, "She's amazing all right," Suguru feigns a chuckle.

"See," Satoru says, further convincing Asami.

Glancing at the wall clock, Asami sighs when she reads the time, "Too bad our time is up," she frowns, "I feel like I was just getting started!"

"I'll pay for another hour," Satoru quickly offers, making his friends once again spit the drinks in their mouths. Now he was going too far! But before they could even bother to try and mitigate the situation, Asami was already celebrating Satoru's offer.

"Nice!" she quickly begins to pick out her next song. From there, Asami and Satoru childishly dance when they hear the opening tune to Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" begin to play.

"When you walk by every night, talking sweet and looking right…" Asami playfully points her mic towards Satoru, expecting him to sing along with her. And of course, without fail, he does.

"I get kind of hectic inside," he raises his pitch, mimicking the little girl from the movie "Rush Hour."

Sighing, Shoko and Suguru facepalm themselves, realizing they had a long night ahead of them.

"Come on you two," Asami passes them some mics, tugging at their hands in an effort to get them to stand up.

Chuckling to themselves, the two ultimately join in on the fun, synchronizing their side step with Asami and Satoru's. And for a small moment in time, the four teens who always found themselves in larger than life situations, were nothing more than a group of regular high school students, enjoying their Friday night by singing their hearts out in a karaoke bar.


2. Disconnections

"To your left!"

"Wait, cover me!"

"Damn it, hand me some ammo!"

Rolling her eyes, Asami sighs before turning her lounge chair around, "Will you two keep it down?" she frowns at Satoru and Suguru, the two boys currently (and not to mention loudly) playing Halo 2.

Too caught up in their game, Satoru and Suguru blatantly ignore her while continuing to shout commands at each other like a pair of rabid dogs.

"Watch out!"

"Nice!" one of them laughs, a grotesque looking Unggoy having been killed in the most brutal way possible.

Sighing, Asami realizes that they weren't going to listen to her no matter what she yelled. Getting up from her chair, the redhead considers unplugging their console.

Knowing she'd only be met with ….dramatic... reactions, Asami ultimately decides to stick with her second best option ….

Standing in front of the TV.

"Hey!" the two boys shout, immediately moving their heads to the side, in an attempt to get around their blocked view of the TV screen.

Placing her hands to her hips, Asami continuously moves from side to side, making sure their view remains blocked, "I told you two since yesterday that I was going to need the lounge to myself for today," she says in an annoyed tone.

Taking a quick moment to look up, Satoru shoots her a faint glare, "No you didn't," he says before looking back at the screen, managing to kill another creature in the process.

Continuing to block their view, Asami gives the white-haired boy a glare of her own, "Yes, I did," she states, agitated at the fact that he had once again not bothered to listen to her endless rambles.

Of course, what she didn't know was that his lack of listening skills were due to the fact that he had been fawning over her appearance. More specifically, how her newly-bought pearl headband framed her face, finding it to be a neat addition to her collection. Would he ever admit that to her? Maybe, but definitely not now. Right now he had to focus on leading his team to victory against the wretched Covenant Empire, something Asami was currently getting in the way of.

"Mm," Satoru hums while frantically moving his joystick around, clearly not caring for the topic at hand, "Well I don't remember," he states before softly placing a hand onto her hip and tapping it, motioning to her that he needed her to move.

Huffing in annoyance, Asmai crosses her arms, "I'm not moving," she grits her teeth, stubbornly remaining in place, "I'm sure you remember Suguru," she turns her attention to the infamous curse manipulation user, who had purposely remained silent this whole time in order to avoid the red headed girl's wrath.

"Don't you?" she adds, knowing he didn't have it in him to lie.

Quietly gulping to himself, Suguru avoids eye contact, "I um—" he mistakenly stutters when trying to think of a lie, knowing damn well that he had been listening to her yesterday during lunch break when she had informed him, along with the rest of their friends, that she would need the lounge for today. Especially because her finger had been pointed directly at him.

"But everyone is online on Fridays!" Asami recalls him complaining.

"Yeah, well you two can go a day without gaming," is what she had said in return, ignoring his blatant eye roll.

"Fine," he huffed, ultimately agreeing with her demands. At least that's what Asami had thought. Come Friday evening, she ended up finding the two boys loudly playing their game, stomping past them as she made her way to the desktop computer. Thirty minutes later and she was now here, standing in front of them, demanding that they keep it down.

Continuing to stammer with his words, Suguru ultimately ends up cracking like an egg, "Yeah, well you don't actually need the whole lounge," he dramatically says.

"With how loud you two are! Yes, I do!" Asami throws her hands in the air, unable to wrap her head around how selfish they were being.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing that needs the whole lounge?" Satoru finally asks, eyebrows raised as he once again looks up for a moment, meeting the blatant scowl on Asami's face.

"I have a video call with an old friend from Okayama," she answers, ignoring his rude way of speaking, at this point very much used to it, "And I'm not going to have you two loudly screaming at each other in the background."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Satoru scoffs, "Video calls are like ten pixels per frame, not to mention it's always freezing and lagging," he says, recalling the number of times he'd see Shoko almost hit the computer screen out of frustration during her video calls with her parents, "Might as well just do things the old fashion way and give your friend a phone call."

Asami rolls her eyes, "You're only saying that because you want to keep playing your stupid little game," she mutters, turning to look at the TV screen, "I don't get it, what's so interesting about it anyway?"

Laughing, Satoru shakes his head before frantically pressing some buttons on his controller, "Just look!" he says, moving his character across the battlefield and performing some kind of sniping combo, grinning when the blue blood of the alien-like creature splatters onto the walls.

Narrowing her eyes, Asami carefully stares at the screen in front of her while also glancing at the childlike expressions on her friends' faces.

"You just don't get this kind of stuff in the real world, Asami!"

Quickly turning around, Asami looks at them in disbelief, "Huh?!" she makes a funny face, "But you two kill curses that are just as ugly as those things on a daily basis!"

Comically side-eyeing each other, Satoru and Suguru realize that she has a point. But rather than agree with her statement, Satoru instead shouts, "But not with guns!"

"Yeah, what he said!" Suguru adds, killing another Brute.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Asami sighs, "Look I'm not telling you two to stop playing, all I'm asking is that you keep it down for the duration of my video chat," she says, giving them a pleading look.

Feeling somewhat bad, Suguru and Satoru quietly nod.

Giving them a tiny bow, Asami whispers a tiny "Thank you," before returning back to the desktop chair. Humming to herself, she clicks her way through the home screen, and types in her login password for the chat account.

Seeing the tiny green button aside Yasu's name, Asami quickly moves the cursor to the "Accept Chat" button, not wanting to make her friend wait any longer than she already was.

"PLEASE CONNECT WEBCAM."

Asami's eyebrows immediately knit together at the message, confused as to why she was receiving it. Looking around the desk, she assumes that perhaps the webcam had accidentally fallen. After several minutes of finding absolutely nothing but tangled wires, Asami sighs, deciding to expand her search to a wider scope.

And so her search began. From looking behind the couch the two boys were sitting on, to checking every inch of the carpet floor, her efforts were ultimately fruitless. That was until…

"Are you serious?" she stomps her way over to the TV screen again, her fists completely shut tight as she tries to contain her anger.

Sensing the girl's spike in cursed energy, Satoru and Suguru simultaneously gulp, knowing they were in trouble. Towering over the two, Asami gives them a chill-running glare before pointing at the webcam, which was currently on top of their Xbox console.

"Oh…" one of them whispers, a nervous laughter then follows, "There were rumours that if you connected a webcam, you'd receive a special badge and…"

Closing her eyes, Asami takes a deep breath in, knowing she was close to reaching a breaking point with the two, "Just put it back," she quietly says, interrupting the two. And immediately the boys nod.

Pausing their game, Satoru nudges at his best friend to go and help her, for Suguru was more tech-savvy between the two.

Muttering a slew of curses to herself, Asami follows behind Suguru, plopping herself onto the desktop chair as he begins to move around different colored cables.

Meanwhile, Satoru remains on the couch, playing a game of Tetris on his flip phone.

Placing the webcam back to its rightful spot, Suguru motions to Asami to scoot over, wanting to double check that everything was functioning smoothly. Sitting next to her, he corrects the camera position before clicking a whole bunch of other things. Asami on the other hand, simply watches with a bored expression on her face, resting her head against the palm of her hand.

"Any slower?" she mumbles, clearly in a bad mood now.

Ignoring her sarcasm, Suguru proceeds with testing the mic, unaware that he had accidentally clicked "Accept Call" in the process. Soon enough, Yasu along with a black-haired girl appears on the screen, the looks on their faces telling Asami and Suguru that they too were having technical difficulties.

"Can you see me?" Asami asks and the girls then shake their heads no.

"We can only hear you," Yasu says, watching her friend click around the desktop, trying to find a solution to her problem, "I think it might be on your end, I'm not too sure though," she adds, causing Asami to give Suguru a stern look that said "Fix it."

With a sweatdrop appearing on his forehead, Suguru quickly gets to work, double checking that everything was plugged in correctly. Meanwhile, Asami begins to make conversation with her childhood friend.

"Are you at the high school?" Asami chuckles, taking note of the girl's setting. If she was assuming correctly, it seemed that Yasu was currently at an after school club meeting, for there were a number of girls sitting and talking amongst themselves in the background. In fact, Asami could actually recognize some of the girls, a handful of them having gone to middle school with her.

Nodding, Yasu displays her journalism notebook to the camera, "Yeah, my WIFI back at home has been lagging a lot, so I decided to use one of the computers the journalism club provides," she explains, "And let me tell you! These things are fast! I mean seriously!" she laughs, recalling the number of times her computer back at home would crash on her whenever she had too many programs open.

"I never took you as someone who was into journalism," Asami says, making Yasu laugh.

Bringing a hand to the side of her mouth, Yasu looks around as if she was about to tell Asami some kind of top secret, "If I'm being really honest, I wanted to get into the tennis club, but since I turned in my application late, I'm sorta stuck here now," she whispers the last part.

"Hey," her black-haired friend says, clearly offended by the comment, "Don't act like it's so bad around here."

"It's not, it's not," Yasu raises her hands to her defense, "but sometimes you guys take your job wayyyyy too seriously. I mean seriously, who cares if I spell the word "definitely" wrong! Pretty sure half of this school's population doesn't know how to spell it."

"Mm, well—"

But before Yasu's friend could say anything in return, the black screen in front of them suddenly began to glitch. Turning to face the screen, a tiny, simultaneous, gasp could be heard escaping from their lips.

"There you go," Suguru fixes the camera angle one more time, having finally managed to plug the webcam cable into its correct slot. Facing the camera, he fails to notice the girl's blushing expressions, waving a quick hello to them, "Can you guys see us?" he asks.

The two girls gulp, side-eyeing each other as they struggle to form any coherent words, "U-Um," they tuck any loose strands of hair behind their ears, "Y-yeah."

Nudging at her friend's waist, Yasu signals to her that her tech services were no longer needed. Lips slightly parting, the black-haired girl begrudgingly gets up from her seat, silently mouthing, "No fair," before making her way back to her friends.

Eyebrows furrowed, Asami notices how the girl lingers in the background for a minute or two, practically stretching her neck out for a good view of the computer screen. Choosing to shrug off the weird encounter, Asami prepares to thank Suguru for his services.

"Thank Y—"

"So that's what being in a regular high school is like," he interrupts her, his attention now completely focused on the screen in front of him.

Eyes widening, Asami roughly nudges at his side, reminding him that her childhood friend didn't know anything about their world, and how different it was from her own. But sadly, Yasu had caught onto his words, a look of confusion appearing on her face.

"O-Oh, are clubs not mandatory in Tokyo?" she asks with a schoolgirl stutter, cheeks still tinged pink as she strikes conversation with Asami's classmate.

Suguru shakes his head, "Nope," he pops the p, "A lot of things aren't mandatory around here," he jokes around, the purple-haired girl clearly unaware of the double meaning behind his words. Either way she still laughs for rather …. obvious …. reasons.

Meanwhile, the black-haired girl from before informs her friends about the cute boy Yasu was currently chatting with on the computer. Subtly turning around, the group of girls feel their jaws hit the ground, pink hearts appearing in their eyes when they get a glimpse of the boy on the screen.

Recognizing the red head beside him, the group of girls are quick to think on their feet, "Is that Asami?" one of them loudly asks, causing Yasu to turn around. And once they confirm that the boy on the screen was quite the looker, they waste no time flocking themselves to it. Soon enough, they found themselves surrounding Yasu, hogging every inch of the screen.

Looking at each other in confusion, Suguru awkwardly chuckles at the sudden attention they were receiving, feeling quite flustered. Asami on the other hand, confuses the attention Suguru was getting for herself.

"Oh my God, I feel like I haven't seen you guys in forever!" she enthusiastically says, smiling at the faces she recognized, "How have you guys—"

"Is this your boyfriend?" one of them outright asks. And almost immediately, the pair's eyes go wide, a ferocious blush appearing on their cheeks at how outrageous the question was. Everyone knew that Asami had something going on with Satoru, and Suguru well …. was Suguru.

Meanwhile, a certain white-haired figure hears the word boyfriend and without a second thought, pauses his game of Tetris. Looking up, he sees the redness in both of his classmate's faces, his eyebrows immediately knitting together. Flipping his phone shut, Satoru quickly makes his way over to the computer, for his green-eyed monster was beginning to make its reappearance.

And it's in those seconds that he runs over to them, that Suguru and Asami immediately shake their heads to the question, "No, he's just a friend! I swear!" Asami frantically motions to them, and it's at her words that the girls (who had been holding their breaths) release a collective sigh of relief.

From there, they outwardly fawn over the boy, shamelessly asking him things such as "What's your name?" and "Are you looking for a girlfriend?"

Hell, even Yasu was asking questions of her own!

"What's going on over here?"

Asami looks up to see Satoru towering over them, gulping when she sees the stern look on his face. Though they weren't dating or anything, for some reason it still felt like she'd been caught doing something wrong, which was funny considering she'd done absolutely nothing.

"O-Oh just talking to some old friends," she says, "But Suguru here is about to leave, aren't you?" she turns to her classmate, who was currently giving his so-called "life story" to the group of girls, foolishly enamoring them with every word that escaped from his lips.

Ignoring Asami's question, Suguru continues to talk up a storm, no longer caring for his paused game of Halo 2.

Noticing the figure beside him, one of the high school girls wonder if it was perhaps another handsome student. Due to the angle of the camera, they could only see Satoru from his neck and below, but if there was anything they had learned in their past 16 years, it was that good looking people liked to hang out with … good looking people.

"Who's that beside you?" they once again ask without shame.

Suguru then makes a dismissive motion with his hands, "No one important, trust me," he says, resulting in a scoff from Satoru.

With a smirk now on his face, Satoru laughs in a smug manner, "What? Afraid I'll grab all the attention?" he taunts his best friend.

"Tch, you wish," Suguru retorts, and it's at his words that the competition begins. Though they hadn't declared anything outloud, they knew it was on. The competition of who could get the most attention commencing right at that moment.

Pushing Suguru to the side, Satoru plops himself onto the side of the desktop chair, unknowingly causing Asami to almost fall to the ground.

"Oh my God," the girls begin to shriek, unable to believe that there was not only one extremely hot boy in front of them, but two, "What school do you guys go to?!" they ask, prepared to ask their parents for a transfer.

And though Satoru didn't find any of the girls attractive (as he only had eyes for a certain redhead), his competitive nature just wouldn't allow him to let Suguru win. It's for that reason that he butts in before Suguru could get a chance to respond.

"Ummm a private religious school," he says, knowing he couldn't be completely honest, "And um … what about you guys?" he awkwardly asks, his "cool boy" persona beginning to falter. That's because at the end of the day, Suguru was more popular with girls due to him having the one thing Satoru didn't….

A decent personality.

Unlike Satoru, Suguru knew how to talk to girls and make them blush. He could pretend to care about boring topics and laugh at someone's lame jokes. He was the textbook definition of "the boy next door." You know, the one who you could always rely on, and never failed to give you a shoulder to cry on in times of need. He was charming, polite, and approachable. Everything a girl could ever want, all in one person.

Meanwhile Satoru was someone who was often blunt and made it painstakingly obvious whenever he was annoyed and/or bored. He couldn't fake a smile for others nor did he ever try to. It was why Suguru often thought to himself how much of a miracle it was that Asami could actually put up with him. In fact, Asami was probably the only girl who could handle Satoru's brash attitude, for she had one as well. At the end of the day, they went hand in hand with each other, almost like two perfect puzzle pieces.

All in all, Suguru was everything Satoru wasn't.

While Satoru used his looks, Suguru used his personality. Hell, it was probably for that reason that the white-haired boy hasn't had his first kiss yet. That's because at the end of the day, looks could only take you so far.

"Obviously they go to a regular high school! I mean can't you see their uniform, " Suguru jokes around, making the girls all laugh, "Anyways, you guys should come visit Tokyo sometime, I'd love to…"

And so from there, the two boys continue with their petty competition, failing to notice a fuming Asami standing beside them, her hands placed onto her hips as literal steam comes out of her ears. She could not believe this! How was it that her video call had become their little "Who can get more attention?" ego-fest. Seriously! Did these people have no shame? Based on the way they were throwing themselves at the screen, clearly they did not!

"Helloooo," she throws her hands in the air, desperately trying to get their attention. Childishly crossing her arms, she dramatically stomps her foot onto the ground, having reached her peak with the two boys. Deciding she wasn't going to waste any more energy on them, she prepares to go back to her room, but not before eyeing a certain someone.

And even though deep down she knew Satoru was only doing this to satiate his own ego, still, she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit jealous. Just the idea of him genuinely trying to entertain one of those girls was enough to have her fuming.

Narrowing her eyes at the computer screen, Asami feels her eye slightly twitch when she hears the group of girls laugh, "Tch, whatever," she bitterly scoffs to herself. She was outta here!

Meanwhile, one of the girls currently had her eyes set on the blue-eyed boy, feeling confident enough to not only make a move in front of her group of friends, but through a computer screen.

"So, Satoru…" the brown haired girl starts off with, the rest of her friends immediately quieting down.

And though Satoru wasn't really one for using formalities or honorifics, he does find it quite… weird … when the girl he'd just met through a computer screen, chooses to address him by his first name. Especially because there were only a handful of people who liked addressing him by his first name. One of them of course being Asami, who he had personally given permission to, something he did quite rarely.

But before he could even bother correcting her, Satoru remembers Suguru's lectures on "being more polite" and "acting kinder", so that people wouldn't be so scared of him. Of course, most of the time it went into one ear and out the other, Satoru never failing to act shocked whenever he'd hear his best friend's same old lecture. Deciding to let it slide, Satoru hopes his kind "deed" would earn him some points in the attention fest.

"Were you being serious about us visiting Tokyo sometime?" she asks.

"That was Suguru who said th—"

"Because if you were, then I have family out there and well winter break is coming up soon…"

Satoru furrows his brows, an involuntary blush appearing on his cheeks. To say he was flustered at her boldness was quite the understatement.

"And I was thinking that maybe we can go on a date?"

Eyes widening, Satoru nervously scratches the back of his neck, "I'm flattered, really, but—"

"No fair!" a different girl shouts, "I was gonna ask him out!" she glares at her friend.

"No, I was!" another voice comes out of the woodworks. From there, the teenage girls begin to argue with one another, fighting over who had dibs on who, acting as if they ever stood a chance with either one of the boys.

"I have family in Tokyo too!"

"Liar! You're from Miyazaki!"

"As if he'd want a pimple-face like you!"

"Well, you have a unibrow!"

Meanwhile, Yasu tries to get things under control, beginning to regret ever taking this call at school, "You guys, stop fighting!"

Gulping, Satoru and Suguru realize they may have taken things too far, trying their best to help the purple haired girl through the screen, though their efforts were of no avail.

"Stop hogging the screen, big head!"

"Let him answer my question!" the brown-haired girl screams at the top of her lungs, everyone immediately going quiet, the only audible thing being their pants for breath.

"So, what do you say? Wanna go on a date?" she asks with hopeful eyes.

"I'm sor—"

But before Satoru even gets the chance to reject the girl, the screen suddenly goes black.

Click. Click. Click.

Suguru immediately moves the mouse around, "Huh?" he frowns, wondering what in the hell happened, "That's weird…."

Taking a big whiff, Satoru tilts his head in confusion, "Do you smell that?"

Following suit, Suguru sniffs the air, "Yeah…" he gets up from the desktop chair, "It smells…" he begins to follow the long extension cord behind the computer, eyes widening when he sees what's at the end of the trail, "...burnt."

Suguru shows Satoru the unplugged cable wire to the computer, smoke coming out of the plug in.

"How the hell did that—"

Satoru stops midway through his question.

"Yeah… '' Suguru sighs, realizing that whoever said "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" was absolutely correct.

That's because all around the power strip were the residuals of a certain redhead's cursed energy.


3. Scouting and Contracts

"Hey there, got a minute?"

"Sorry, I'm running late!"

"Hey there, ever think of modeling?"

"Sorry, not interested."

"How ya doing there, young man?"

"Leave me alone."

Mr. Masumi sighs in misery, running a hand through his thinning hair as he tries to concoct a different method in scouting. Looking at his wrist watch, the middle-aged man shutters at the thought of going to his bosses empty handed once again.

For some reason, out of all his colleagues, he was the one with the worst luck in scouting, having only scouted a handful of D-list commercial actors throughout his long career. Meanwhile, the rest of his peers were scouting A-list actors and worldwide supermodels.

Unable to think of anything, Mr. Masumi decides to wrap it up and call it a day, 'I'll just have better luck tomo—'

But before he could even complete his own thought, Mr. Masumi found himself on the cement ground, having been roughly pushed by an unknown person. Groaning in slight pain, the man feels his knees begin to ache, knowing he'd be left with two heavy bruises by tomorrow morning.

"Oh my Goodness!" a young girl's voice could be heard from above, "I am so sorry! Satoru, I'll call you back," the girl flips her phone shut, immediately picking up the business cards on the floor before offering him a helping hand.

"I wasn't seeing where I was going! Are you okay?" she cries out.

Exhaling deeply, Mr. Masumi slowly gets up on his own, patting the dust off his knees.

"Please, let me help you," she says in a worrisome voice.

Making a refusing motion with his hand, Mr. Masumi only sighs once more, "It's fine," he says, his day having gone from bad to even worse. That's until he finally looks up…

Cha-Ching.

Dollar signs appear in his eyes when he lays eyes on the red head in front of him, immediately beginning to picture the number of magazines with her face on the front cover, as well as the giant billboards she'd be plastered on.

Bahamas? Fiji? Bora Bora? Which island should he visit? Because surely this young girl was going to get him a one-way ticket to them!

"Hello?" the red headed girl waves her hand in front of the man's face.

Bringing himself back to reality, Mr. Masumi gives the young girl a wide grin, "Have you ever thought about modelling," he begins his sales pitch, "Or perhaps acting? Because let me tell you, if you work with me, you'll become an overnight sensation, I promise! I'm talking about billboards, magazines, commercials, red carpets, and more!" he enthusiastically blabs on.

Blinking in surprise, the young girl tries to keep up with his rate of speaking, the man's excitement causing him to talk extremely fast.

"I mean, seriously! I won't—I mean you won't ever have to work a day in your life! So, what do you say….."

"Asami," she completes for him.

"Asami! Oh my goodness! You even have the name of a star! Asami," he repeats her name in a more mystical tone, "Wow, just wow! You are going to be Japan's next super—"

"I'm sorry, but I should really get going," Asami interrupts him, giving him a small sympathetic smile, "I have something to attend to and well, bumping into you was nothing more than an accident…"

His expression immediately falters into one of panic, "No, no, no!" he cries as she tries to hand him back his business cards, "Please! You don't understand! You'll be Japan's next superstar, I'm telling you!"

"I'm flattered, but I'm already busy with a lot of things, and as much as I'd love to be an actress, I already have a different career in mind…" she says, secretly referring to her sorcery activities.

"So you've considered acting before?" he asks, staring at her with hopeful eyes, the only words he heard being "I'd love to be an actress."

"I mean yeah, but—"

He claps his hands, "Great! All you have to do is come to the location that's there on the business cards, and say I sent you! From there, my company and I will get you started on your road to fame!"

"Like I said, I already have other priorities," she begins to walk away, knowing there was a curse she needed to exorcise, "and well I've never actually looked at acting as something I should take seriously…"

Internally panicking, Mr. Masumi does something so desperate that only those in his situation could understand…

"Ahh!" he groans in "pain", falling to his knees in a last-ditch attempt to get her to stay, "My knees!" he cries out, trying his best to sell the act.

Immediately turning around, Asami runs to the man in worry, "Oh my god!" she crouches down, a wave of guilt washing over her as she remembers how hard she had bumped into him earlier.

"W-Why? Why did you push me!" he yells, grabbing the attention of the people around him.

"HUH?!" Asami's jaw hits the floor, "What the hell are you talking about old man?!" she yells, getting up from the floor.

"You heard me! You pushed me just now!" he says, unashamed with his lie.

Sassily placing her hands onto her hips, Asami scoffs when she realizes what he was doing, "Oh you are a desperate old man! I'll tell you that much!"

"Someone help me! This girl is trying to—"

"Will you shut it?!" Asami harshly whispers, noticing that a crowd of people were slowly beginning to gather.

"Not until you agree to audition for my talent company!" he says before returning to his "old man" act, "Ah, it hurts so much!" he whines.

Clenching her jaw, Asami glares at the man, ready to give him a piece of her mind, "You are so—"

"Woah, what's going on here?" a familiar voice says from behind. The person being none other than Satoru.

CHA. CHING.

Mr. Masumi immediately jumps off the floor, convinced that today was his lucky day, for this was a jackpot!

"Have you thought about modelling?" he hits Satoru with the same exact question he had asked Asami.

"Hey!" she crosses her arms, offended at the fact that the attention had gone from her to Satoru.

"Why, yes I have," Satoru smugly responds, following his answer with a tilt of the sunglasses and a wink.

Mr. Masumi comedically fawns over the boy like a fangirl. Snatching one of the business cards from Asami's hands, he quickly hands it over to Satoru, "All you have to do is come to the location that's there on the business cards, and say I sent you! From there—"

Ring. Ring.

"Hello?" Satoru picks up his flip phone, "Mmm, yeah yeah," the voice on the other line could be heard rambling about God knows what, "Sooooo, you exorcised it, is what I'm hearing?"

"YEAH BUT—"

"Great! Asami and I will head over to you right now! BYEEEEE!" Satoru shuts his flip phone before the person on the line could try screaming at him.

"Look old man, we gotta get going, but—"

"Wait! No!" Mr. Masumi finds himself in the same position as before. Attempting to stop the boy by grabbing his hand, Mr. Masumi is met with some kind of halting force. Eyes widening in shock, the middle aged man somehow finds himself on the ground once more, this time the fall being genuine.

"Oh my goodness!" Asami throws her hands in the air, believing his fall to be another act of desperation, "Come on Satoru," she says, motioning to the boy that they needed to leave.

Shrugging, Satoru follows her lead.

"What are you two doing?" an irritated voice says.

Turning around, they see an annoyed Suguru standing across from them, the boy's hair being a complete mess due to the curse he had just exorcised. A curse he had to exorcise on his own.

Gulping, Asami and Satoru nervously scratch their necks before simultaneously saying, "Nothing."

Sighing, Suguru walks over to the scouter, preparing to help him up.

And perhaps it was due to the heavy fall, but when Mr. Masumi saw the face of the young man hovering over him, he was convinced that he could hear angels singing from the sky above.

CHAAAAA. CHIIIING.

Mr. Masumi once again jumps up from the floor, feeling good as new, "Have you ever thought about modelling?" he asks the infamous question.

Satoru and Asami then roll their eyes, the two seething in jealousy.

"Look sir, we'd love to take you up on the offer, but we really gotta get going," Suguru politely shoots the man down, eyeing his friends in a way that said "Start walking."

"But—"

"Perhaps some other day!" Suguru yells from afar, as this wasn't his first time dealing with a scouter.

Lowering his head, Mr. Masumi begins to sulk as he watches his bags of money walking off into the sunset, knowing that he had to kiss his vacation to the Bahamas goodbye.

"Damn it," he mutters, kicking a rock beside him. And to think that all he needed was one student to give him his big break, and yet somehow all three ended up rejecting him! Sighing, Mr. Masumi tries not to dwell on it too much, but deep down he knew…

He knew one of them was going to be a star.


Meanwhile…

"And trust me, you two definitely owe me for this! Not only did this curse jump around like some kangaroo, but it also sucker punched me right in the face like one," Suguru rambles on with his complaints while fixing his hair.

Satoru, on the other hand, notices Asami skeptically staring at the scouting card in her hand, "Thinking of becoming an actress?" he teases her, grabbing her attention.

"Maybe," she playfully says in return, knowing she wasn't actually being serious.

"They're just scammers looking for money, trust me," Satoru says, having seen enough news on the TV about people getting their life savings wiped out due to one of these supposed "scouters".

"You sure?" Asami asks, taking a double look at the card, "They seem to have some pretty big connections. I mean they even claim to be an affiliate for Shochiku Movie Studios."

Satoru shrugs, "Don't they all?" he chuckles, "But hey, what do I know? At least Suguru here got us out of that situation," he places his hand on top of his best friend's shoulder, purposely annoying him.

"Tch," Suguru rolls his eyes, still annoyed at the fact that he had to exorcise the grade one curse on his own, despite it being Satoru's fault that they had lost track of it to begin with.

"Don't be like that, man!" Satoru laughs, accidentally nudging his friend a little too hard.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The imaginary wrestling bell rings, the two boys playfully going at it as they make their way to the bus stop.

Laughing at their foolish behavior, Asami stays a couple of steps behind them while playing with the scouting card in her hands, still wondering if the man was nothing more than a scammer. Yeah, he was certainly annoying, but who knows, perhaps he really was her one-way ticket to fame.

"Become Tokyo's next superstar!" is what was plastered on the front side of the card.

"Tap out!" Satoru says in between his fit of giggles, the boy currently holding Suguru in a headlock.

"No way," Suguru tries to fight him off, the two unapologetically being themselves.

'Superstar, huh?' Asami softly chuckles to herself, throwing the card into a nearby trash bin. For now at least, she was quite happy with her career choice.


4. Halloween.

"I expect you all to be back here by twelve, you got it? And if I get even a whiff of liquor off of you four—"

"Masamichi-sensei, we get it," Asami, who was currently dressed as a circus ringmaster, chuckles, understanding that the man didn't want a repeat from the last time they had all gone out to party.

"I don't think you do," he says, "Shibuya isn't exactly teen friendly. The fact that I'm even letting you—"

"Yaga," his fiance places a hand on top of his shoulder, "Just let the kids have fun," she softly laughs, aware that Masamichi's concern for the kids came from a place of worry, he just had a rough way of showing it.

"Yeah, what she said Masamichi-sensei!" Satoru appears out of nowhere, dressed in a dark purple suit. Tonight, he was dressed as none other than the Joker, his white hair having easily been sprayed painted green. Aside from that, he of course also had the infamous white and red clown makeup, Asami having helped him.

Sighing, Masamichi pinches the bridge of his nose before looking back at Asami, "Twelve," is all he says.

Asami nods, "Twelve."


Shibuya Crossing.

12:01 AM

"You guys, we should really get going," Asami glances at the time on her phone, gulping when she sees it's past twelve. God, were they going to get an earful….

"Asami, we're already in trouble. Might as well push it to its fullest extent," Satoru says, currently using his infinity technique to help him and his friends make their way through the crowd of party-goers.

"I hate to say it, but the loser has a point," Shoko says, already accepting that they were probably going to have to scrub dirty windows all week long.

"Mm," Asami hums, still feeling bad, but choosing not to say anything, out of fear of being a buzzkill.

But surprisingly enough, Suguru ends up saying something, "No, she's right. We're already an hour past Japanese curfew and well, if one of us gets ID'd…"

"No way is Masamichi picking us up from the police station," Shoko says for him, shuddering at the thought of staying a night in jail.

"Alright then," Satoru yawns while stretching his arms out, "Let's get going then," he says, leading them into an alley so that he could use his teleportation technique on them.

"You guys ready?" he asks, his friends then nodding, "Alright, one, two…" they all shut their eyes, "Three!"

POOF!

Roughly landing on the forest ground, the four teens groan in pain as they slowly get up, Satoru being met with a hit to the shoulder.

"I thought you said you had mastered long distance teleportation already!" Suguru scowls at his best friend.

Rubbing his eyes, Satoru frowns, "What are you talking about? We're at the school, aren't we?"

"Look around, dimwit," Shoko sighs, taking off her black Mia Wallace wig, the sound of chirping crickets filling the air.

"Wait …. What?" Satoru makes a funny face, "I could've sworn I pictured the school," he places a finger to his chin, genuinely confused by the mix-up.

Shrugging, he decides not to dwell on it, "I mean technically we're at the school. We're just in the forest…."

"Mm," Suguru rolls his eyes, "I guess…"

"Man, you guys are being dramatic!" Satoru says, "Why are you acting like you can't just summon a flying curse and lead us back to campus?"

"Did you forget what happened to my flying curse, or are you just acting dense on purpose?" Suguru narrows his eyes at Satoru, having been on the lookout for another one since the incident.

"Oh …. Right ….." Satoru nervously laughs, "I mean, I can always try again?" he motions to them to come closer, making the hand sign for his technique, "One, two…."

POOF!

But just like before, the group of teens are met with the rough forest ground.

"Damn…." Satoru mumbles to himself, rubbing his head.

"You're probably too tired," Asami frowns, "You've been using your technique all night," she says, a chill running down her spine as she looks at the dark forest around them.

Quickly getting off the ground, Asami tightly shuts her fist as a way to comfort herself, "Let's just start walking already. We're bound to find the trail that leads back to the school…."

OWOOOOOO!

The four teens' eyes widen, suddenly remembering that it was still Halloween night. Quietly gulping, they all try to hide their fear, not wanting to be teased by one another.

"So … who's leading?" Shoko asks.

"Not me," they all say at the same time.

"Well someone has to," Asami whispers, currently feeling her heart thumping out of its chest.

Glancing at each other, Suguru and Satoru immediately stick their hands out, "ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!"

Suguru sticks out paper.

Satoru sticks out rock.

"Damn it," Satoru hisses at himself, "Fine, but don't blame me if we're wandering around in circles, all right?" he says, and the three then nod.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you won't get us—"


"LOST. L-O-S-T! That's what we are," Asami yells into the wooden forest, the four teens having gone in circles for the past hour.

"Asami, calm down!" Shoko tries to comfort the girl, despite being just as much of a wreck as she was. She just wasn't outright displaying it.

"CALM?! I AM CALM!" Asami says with a crazed expression, her friends comedically going white as a result.

"Satoru, do you have ANY idea where we're at right now?" Suguru asks, stomach now growling.

Smacking his lips together, Satoru tries to think of a well thought response, "Well…." he makes a ticking sound with his mouth, "We've passed this rock like four times now soooooo," he purses his lips, "I'd say we're still in the same spot as before."

Suguru facepalms himself, checking for the twentieth time if he magically somehow had phone service.

"Worst case scenario, we have to sleep here till the morning and wait for help," Satoru says in an effort to calm everyone down. He'd seen Lord of the Flies before, as well as some other stranded island documentaries, and no way was he going to get eaten first! Based on the current reactions he was getting, he definitely had to keep an eye for Asami! That girl was going nuts!

Tired of walking, Asami gets into an Asian squat position, trying to calm herself down, "We're going to get help. We're going to get help. We're going to get help," she repeats to herself.

"That's the spirit!" Satoru squats right next to her, immediately receiving a laser-like glare from the girl.

"Sato—"

HOO! HOO!

Closing her eyes, Asami takes several deep breaths in, "Satoru…" she whimpers, "I'm scared. Really, really scared," she admits, her skin covered in goosebumps.

"But it's not like we're stranded or anything. We're just temporarily lost," he attempts to comfort her, not exactly good at this kind of stuff.

"I know, but still…" he bites her lip, "It's Halloween and—"

"You're with the strongest duo of jujutsu sorcerers," he interrupts her, "Meaning absolutely nothing is going to happen to you," he says, "At least not on my watch," he gives her a small smile.

With her heart rate now slowing down, Asami slowly feels herself become more relaxed, "Thank you Satoru," she whispers, a warm smile now on her lips.

"If anything, we should all be more worried about what Masamichi-sensei is going to do to us," Satoru laughs, "No way is that man letting us off the hook so easily."

"You're right, I'm not," a deep voice says from behind, causing all the teens to jump.

Landing on their butts, they all look up to see a fuming Masamichi. But at that moment, it didn't matter, because as soon as they recognized him, the four teens jumped on him, shouting things such as "Thank goodness!" and "Hallelujah!"

Rubbing his forehead, Masamichi fails to hide his rare smile, "Come on you four," he sighs before carrying them back to campus like a bunch of children.


5. Baking

"Hmmhmmhmm," Satoru hums to himself as he happily makes his way into the dorm building, having returned from an intense workout session. Ready to go up the stairs, the teenage boy suddenly comes to a halt when he smells something… delicious.

Following the scent trail, Satoru somehow winds up outside the building's kitchen, something which was hardly ever used. This was due to the fact that he, along with the rest of his classmates, all had their own mini-fridges and microwaves in their rooms. Not only that, but the campus already had a cafeteria set in place for staff, students, and sorcerers to all eat at, rendering their own kitchen useless.

Cautiously entering, Satoru looks around to see a bunch of baking materials on the counter.

Continuing to follow his nose, Satoru grins when he sees a tray of freshly baked sugar cookies in front of him, immediately reaching out for one until…

"What do you think you're doing?" someone startles him from behind, causing him to jump in surprise.

Turning around, he comes to face a scowling Asami. Tilting his head in confusion, he studies her appearance up and down, confused as to why she was wearing a pink fluffy apron.

"Hello?" she continues to wait for an answer, placing her hands to her hips.

"W-Wait…. You made these?" he asks, still in a state of confusion.

"Duh," she says, walking over to him.

And of course, in his mind, "Duh" means "Grab as many as you like." Once again, reaching out for a cookie, Satoru winces when his hand is met with a small slap.

"Hey, what was that for?" he frowns, "I thought you said you made them?"

"I did," Asami says, "But they're not for you," she adds, grabbing the tray and setting them somewhere else.

Lips parting in surprise, Satoru quickly goes from confused to offended, knitting his eyebrows together, "Then who the hell are these for?" he frowns.

"For the school staff," she says, "Meaning the kitchen cooks, the auxiliary managers, teachers, and anyone else who works for the school," she grabs the tray of cookies with her mitten and places it onto the kitchen island, ready to decorate her baked goods.

"But why?" Satoru asks, fighting the urge to grab a cookie and run away.

Raising a brow, Asami studies Satoru's facial expression before sighing, "Did you really forget? Tomorrow's Labor Thanksgiving day. You know, the day where we show our appreciation for those who work in the labor sector."

Rolling his eyes, Satoru crosses his arms, "I know what the day is Asami. I just didn't realize it was tomorrow," he huffs.

"Then? Why are you pouting?' she says while filling her piping bag with vanilla flavored icing.

"Becauseeee," he dramatically mopes around, "I want one."

"Sorry Satoru," she says, softly squeezing the icing onto her cookies, "I only baked a certain number of cookies for the staff. If you would've come in here earlier, then I would've put in an extra tray for you…"

"Fine," he mumbles, "They look way too sugary anyway," he mutters, watching her draw small happy faces onto the cookies.

Asami rolls her eyes, "Satoru, don't be like that," she says, "I just didn't think you'd want any. Especially considering you're more of a candy person than you are a baked goods one," she states her reasoning behind the decision, having genuinely considered making him some earlier in the day.

Satoru remains silent.

"Satoruuuuu," she repeatedly pokes at him, knowing he was being nothing but bitter, "You're not actually mad, are you?"

Silence.

"Oh come on," she laughs at his stone-cold expression, "Come on," she tugs at his shirt, but the boy refuses to relent, adamant on giving her the silent treatment.

Realizing he wasn't going to give in, Asami caves in, "Fine, I'll make you some cookies," she scowls, a small smile then appearing on her face when she hears Satoru's mischievous laughter, "BUT…"

Satoru quickly stops laughing, waiting to hear what she has to say.

"...You have to help me prepare the ingredients."

He quickly tilts his head in confusion, "But…"

"But what?" she playfully raises a brow, giving him a knowing look.

"But why can't I just decorate those cookies…" he says in a childlike tone, making Asami laugh.

"Because knowing you, you'll eat one when I'm not looking," she says, Satoru once again pouting as a result, for he had nothing to say to that.

"Now go and wash your hands," she makes a shooing motion at him before adding an extra set of decorations to her cookies.

Groaning in annoyance, Satoru begrudgingly follows her orders, grabbing himself an apron of his own in the process, "Okay, let's do this," he gives her an enthusiastic thumbs up, ready to help make some sugar cookies.

"First, I want you to turn on the oven, and set it to 190 degrees celsius," she instructs him.

Nodding, Satoru quickly does as told.

"Okay, now in a small bowl, I want you to mix three cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking soda, and half a teaspoon of baking powder. I left all of the measuring tools on the counter."

Setting his bowl beside her, Satoru carefully measures the objects, wanting to make sure that everything comes out perfect, "Okay, now what?" he eagerly asks.

"Set that aside and grab a large bowl from the cabinet," she says, adding sprinkles onto her cookies, "I want you to then cream one stick of butter and two cups of sugar together…"

"Cream?" he gives her a confused look.

"Mix, I want you to mix the two," she shakes her head while laughing.

"Then say that instead! " he throws his hands in the air before continuing, "Anyways, when the hell did you learn how to bake?" he finally asks the question that had been running through his mind.

Asami shrugs, "Since I was a kid," she answers truthfully, "My mom and I liked to bake during the circus off-season, it was our little hobby to do together," she says, recalling the days of burnt cookies and experimentations.

"And you've never bothered to share this with us because?"

"I'm not exactly a pro or anything," she laughs, "The only things I know how to make really well are sugar cookies, chocolate brownies, and lemon pound cake. Everything else is always a coin toss," she explains, "That and it's wayyyy too time consuming to do on my own," she adds, placing her cookies into polka-dot treat bags.

"Well…" Satoru cracks an egg into the bowl, "Now you have me!" he gives her a toothy grin.

Asami gives him a skeptical look, "Really….?"

"Yeah! Why not? Next time we should make hanami dango though…" he says, mouth drooling at the thought of eating the sugared dessert.

Asami raises a brow, "That's not a baked good…" she laughs, tying her treat bags with a small ribbon, "Well, now you just need to add a tablespoon of vanilla," she gives him the final instruction, washing the dirty cookie scoop she had used earlier while he finishes that up.

Greasing the cookie sheet with butter, Asami begins to scoop out the dough, carefully spacing out the tiny balls across the sheet.

"Open the oven for me please," she says to Satoru once she's done, placing on her mittens before sliding the pan into the oven, "And now we wait!" she gives Satoru a warm smile.

"Wait… that's it?" Satoru scrunches his nose, surprised at how easy that was.

"Yup," she pops the p, "Easy, huh?"

Satoru's stomach then loudly growls, causing him to frown.

Stifling her giggles with her hand, Asami finds his embarrassed expression to be cute, "It's just a couple of minutes Satoru," she adds for comfort.

"Hmm," he hums, cheeks tinged pink. Placing a finger to his chin, he tries to think of a way to get them out faster, "Wait…" a lightbulb suddenly goes off in his head, "If we bake it at a higher temperature, it's going to be ready a lot faster, right?" he asks, immediately turning around in order to raise the heat.

"Do not touch that oven!" Asami yanks his hand away, "How about we get started on cleaning instead," she recommends, forgetting how impulsive Satoru could be sometimes.

"Fine," Satoru huffs in annoyance, voicing his complaints out loud when he sees the flour covered kitchen counter.

Choosing to ignore him, Asami simply hands him a cleaning wipe, assigning herself the task of sweeping and mopping.

Continuing to mutter complaints, Satoru grumpily wipes off the kitchen counter, "Do not touch the oven," he mocks Asami's voice.

"You do realize I can hear you, right?" Asami sighs, understanding that he was only being grumpy due to his hunger.

"Hmph," he continues to clean. Moving onto the kitchen island, Satoru pouts when he sees the number of items on the counter covered in flour. Too lazy to wipe everything, he instead chooses to huff out a giant breath of air onto the counter.

And then out of nowhere, Asami shouts at him, "Hey!"

"What happe—"

Floof.

Satoru immediately begins to spit out the flour that's thrown onto his face, "Plah, plah plah!" he sticks his tongue out in disgust, staring at Asami in shock, "What the hell was that for?!" he dramatically waves his hands in the air.

"You know what you did!" she yells at him, placing her hands on her hips.

Already in a grumpy mood, Satour decides to get revenge of his own, "No…" he grabs an egg from the open carton, "I DO NOT!" he cracks the egg on top of her head, her mouth immediately gaping wide open in shock.

Staying silent for a moment, Asami tries to process what he's just done, "Oh, you did not just do that!' she screams in a prissy tone, yolk now dripping off of her bangs.

He smirks, "But I did!"

And so the food fight begins.

Running around the kitchen, the two sorcerers throw their baking ingredients at each other, not caring for the mess they were creating. With maniacal fits of giggles now filling the room, Asami and Satoru chase each other around like little kids, grabbing at each other's hands in an attempt to stop one another, unaware of the slippery flour on the floor.

Attempting to reach out for his shirt, Asami's fingertips manage to graze the bottom. And from there, all it took was one wrong move for them to end up on the floor, Satoru being a casualty of Asami's slippery fall.

Landing on their butts, Asami and Satoru continue to laugh uncontrollably, their chests heaving from all the running. Playfully hitting Satoru on the shoulder, Asami shakes the flour off her head, "You are such an idiot sometimes," she says, flicking the boy's forehead.

"Ow," he frowns, giving her a flick in return.

"Even?" she offers her hand to shake.

"Even," he shakes her hand, feeling his heart thump when he sees how close they were to one another. Failing to let go of her hand, the two continue to pant for breath, slowly leaning in towards one another, until...

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Asami's eyes widen, "Oh no…" she whispers, jumping up from the floor and grabbing her mittens. But by then it was too late. Not only was the fire alarm fully ringing, but smoke was also coming out of the oven. And before the two could even try and mitigate the disaster, Masamichi was already in the kitchen, Suguru and Shoko standing behind him with raised eyebrows.

Soon, a deep exhale could be heard coming out Masamichi's mouth.

Gulping, Satoru and Asami glance at each other's messy appearances before simultaneously saying, "We can explain…."


A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed these small glimpses into their daily lives! Funnily enough, some of the ones you guys sent me were things I already have planned for future chapters while others were um … a bit more on the R-rated side (?) which didn't make sense to me considering they haven't even shared a kiss with each other yet haha!

I should clarify that I'm not planning on writing anything "steamy" until we're back in the present-day of the story where they are adults or until we reach the end of this arc where they are 18. By steamy, I mean full-on lemons. Considering I'm 19, I just don't think it'd be cool for me to write two (current) fifteen year olds doing the deed lol. Hope you guys understand.

Karaoke Night (Part 1) will obviously have a part 2 in the future, but I decided to push it for when they're officially a thing as what I have planned for it, will make more sense if they're a couple. Part 1 just sets the foundation for it. And no, Asami will not magically become some amazing singer. I personally cringe a bit when I see OC's busting a song in the middle of a story, so I guess this drabble was a way of poking fun at it. A lot of you guys wanted jealous Gojo, while others wanted jealous Asami so I decided to give you guys the best of both worlds with Drabble #2. Also, perhaps careful readers caught it, but in Drabble #5 I made a tiny callback to Chapter 7 where Asami gives Yuuji a hanami dango she and Gojo had made lol!

(EDIT: One last thing, there will be no love triangles in this story! Do not worry! Geto and Asami are strictly friends in this story BUT (SPOILER) later in this arc, there is a bit of mix up(?) I think that's the best way to describe it. It's not a friendship ending kind of thing, nor it is a cheating thing. Mm when we get there it'll make sense, but I just wanted to clarify that Asami and Geto are close friends only! Also in terms of Shoko and Geto, I purposely leave their friendship/relationship open for interpretation. If you guys want to headcannon them as being a thing, go ahead!)

Let me know which drabble was your fave! My personal faves were 1, 4, & 5. They were the most fun for me to write. Now onto the next thing i have to say :/

I live under the PST timezone lol. Meaning for this who live under the EST timezone, 3:00AM means the end of a day for me. As I write this, it is currently 11:24 PM meaning I fulfilled my promise of posting on April 26 under my timezone. This leads me to my next point. As a writer, it warms my heart when I see I've received a comment/review! It's what keeps me going, and really motivates me to write! And when I first published this story, I remember saying I have no problem with you guys asking where a chapter stands at, and I still don't (I'm being serious)! But there's a big difference in asking where a chapter stands vs demanding for an update. Recently (like 30 minutes ago lol) i got a review on ff that was reasonably harsh, but also a bit discouraging. It sorta made me feel like writing was a job/chore more than a fun hobby.

But at the end of the day, I'm not mad. In fact, it really does make me happy to know that there's people who like this story so much that they're willing to stay up for an update, but please remember that there is a human behind this account. That's really all I ask for haha. I hope you guys aren't reading this in some angry tone because like I said before, I am not upset. Once again, updates on chapters can be found on my profile! And I will see you all next update!