"Maki-chan!"

The sounds of frantic panting and clumsy footsteps echoed from behind the cool and composed musical prodigy, Nishikino Maki, who was inching her way towards the exit gates of Otonokizaka Academy. Upon hearing her name being called by a familiar voice, she turned around.

It was already near the end of March, so it wasn't an unnatural sight to see sakura petals floating around the school grounds and subtly sticking onto the small Yazawa Nico's beautiful black hair. As the spring breeze rolled through the trees and ruffled the leaves, the two girls stood only a few metres away apart and stared into each other's eyes.

"What?" Maki responded in the usual calm demeanor of hers. Out of habit, she examined Nico's tiny figure. Although she would typically find herself lost in Nico's mesmerizing red eyes, this time, the graduation diploma tube that was being gripped tightly in the girl's hand stood out like a sore thumb. She decided that she couldn't bring herself to look at it any longer and instinctively turned her head away.

"You know, everyone's been looking all over for you. Did you really think you could escape from us? It's our last day together, and we just want some pictures together," Nico spoke in a righteous tone with her hands by her hips.

"Is that so... I just forgot about it," Maki replied as she twirled her blazing red hair with her fingers.

"...Liar."

"Y-You don't know that!"

Nico arched an eyebrow at Maki. The first year girl knew that Nico could see through her easily - it had always been that way.

"Well, never mind that now," Nico said with a sigh after deciding not to push it any further. "Just close your eyes and stick out your hands for me."

"Huh?" Maki wore a baffled look on her face. She didn't quite understand why Nico would demand for something that strange, but she didn't argue with her. Maki did as she was told, and waited patiently as she listened to Nico slowly getting closer.

Much to Maki's surprise, a small, round and oddly warm object was dropped into her palm. Out of reflex, she opened her eyes and stared at the item.

"This..." Maki tried to straighten her mind out to formulate proper sentences, but to no avail. Her eyes wandered towards Nico's blue blazer, and she immediately noticed the absence of the second button from it.

"Hehe," Nico flashed the underclassman her trademark smile before lowering her head. "You know, I had fun this year. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to become an idol, and I'm glad I was able to carve my own starting path with Muse. Even if the rest of you decide to disband the group after Eri, Nozomi and I leave, I think I'm going to continue being an idol after all."

Maki simply stared at Nico blankly. It wasn't uncharacteristic of her to occasionally give meaningful talks out of the blue, and it certainly was not surprising in the slightest that the girl had aspired to pursue a professional career as an idol, but for some reason, it still came as a shock to Maki.

"I want to become the type of idol that everyone would admire every time they turned on the TV. I want to let my smile bring happiness to my fans and also inspire them to find what makes them passionate. I'm positive that things like bringing joy to people through my singing and dancing is what I want to do, but most importantly..." Nico clenched her fists, and even though she was almost a whole head shorter than Maki, the strong and determined look in her eyes made the musical prodigy feel like Nico was bigger than anything else at that moment. "I want to be able to come back to you, Maki, so I can share all of my successes with you and make you proud of me. I'll come back and I promise I'll sweep you off your feet."

The cool beauty was sure that the weak and flustered expression on her face gave her emotions away, but Nico continued, knowing full well that the words to come were exactly the ones Maki did not want to hear.

"But that also means we won't be able to see each other for a while. It's not all about the age difference, but if I am to make a name for myself, I'll be busy working hard. I'll be singing and dancing on all kinds of stages almost everyday, I guarantee it! ... But before that, I-" Nico paused in the middle her speech and took a deep breath.

"Maki, I love you."

Upon hearing the words come out of Nico's mouth, Maki wavered. She flinched at the completely unexpected and very clumsy confession from her upperclassman. It was clear to Nico that she had broken down Maki's stoic persona. The red-haired girl was speechless, so Nico took the opportunity to speak again.

"Eheh, that's all I wanted to tell you. I don't need a response now, but I'll make you come to feel the same way in the future," Nico said as she stuck out a pinky, "I promise."

Maki's cheeks were flushed, which made Nico smile. Maki whipped her head away out of embarrassment, but somehow managed to muster up the courage to utter a few words herself.

"Y-You better," was all she could say. Nico giggled innocently in response.

"Anyway, let's head back. We've all been waiting to get some pictures with you, Maki!"

"I-I got it," Maki replied. Nico turned around and headed towards the school courtyard while Maki followed the small girl from behind. Maki knew very well that the possibility of never getting to see each other again was real, but even so, as she always would, Maki blindly placed her faith in Nico's big words and dreams.

Maki's expression softened as she watched Nico's confident posture from behind. Although Nico was silly at times, she was also a reliable upperclassman to Maki. Not only did they work together, along with the other members, to become school idols, but when Maki had her insecurities and fears, Nico was always there to cheer her up. Of course, Nico would always pass it off as "just something the club president is responsible for," but Maki knew there was something else.

'Thank you, Nico-chan, for the amazing year together,' Maki thought to herself. 'I love you too.'

A/N: Pretty lame ending, huh? This was just something I wrote on a whim, but I'm planning to write another story and I may continue 'A Complicated Love'. Unfortunately, I usually drop stories when I lose inspiration, but next time, I'll actually complete the story first before publishing it. This is a really strange one-shot, but I would continue it if there was a popular demand for it. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it!

*The second button on the blazer refers to a tradition in Japan where underclassmen typically ask for the second button on the blazer of a graduating student OR the graduating student decides to give their button to someone else (and if there are lots of people that ask a popular student to give them their button, the student typically picks the person that they care about the most). The reason why the second button is chosen instead of the other buttons is because the second button is seen as the one closest to the heart. Cute, right?