It wasn't hard to tell with Honoka; the way her eyes lit up when she looked at you, bright enough to outshine every star in the galaxy, told you enough about how she felt about you. You suspected from the beginning that she might've wanted more from you, and she wasn't the least bit subtle about it, or anything for that matter. Your suspicions were confirmed when she pulled you aside in the morning on a lazy Monday just a few weeks before summer break, fidgeting and pulling nervously at the bottom hem of her uniform vest. She confessed to you, and you, tired as you were, stood there with your eyebrows furrowed in silence for so long that Honoka had to ask you if you were okay. You told her you'd think about it.

Following that, for the past few days, every time you caught her gaze she'd give you the most hopeful looking puppy-dog eyes she could manage, and truly, you felt a little bad for her. You weren't sure if what you were feeling was really on the same level as what she was feeling, but hardly knew anything about things like love, and you also didn't particularly want to reject her. A part of you knew that if your friendship started to fizzle out into awkwardness, you would miss the sheepish smiles she gave you when you caught her staring, and the way she would pull at your sleeve when she needed to get your attention. And you hated to leave this weird ambiguity floating between the two of you, so here you were, standing in the 2nd year hallway at lunch time on a rainy Thursday, waiting for her.

"...And I hear they have the best new kind of bread-" you hear the ginger girl say rather loudly to the two other girls beside her as they leave the classroom.

"Honoka," you say quietly, but you're not sure if it was loud enough for her to hear over the sound of her own voice. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Maki-chan!" She practically shouts, her face lighting up with excitement, before faltering to a look of slight confusion. "You were waiting for me?"

"Can we talk?" You ask again, curling a lock of your hair around your finger and glancing away from her and to the two fellow Muse members standing beside her. "Alone?"

"Sure thing, Maki-chan!" She hops forward a bit and looks at the other two 2nd years. "You girls go on ahead?"

And so they do, and you have Honoka follow you up to your music room, setting a quick pace that the shorter upperclassman only managed to keep up with because she was practically skipping behind you. You can tell that Honoka has no suspicions anywhere in her mind that this might not go well for her. Or maybe she was just exceptional at reading you all of a sudden.

When you reach the music room, you let her in and then step in yourself, closing the door behind you.

"What did Maki-chan want to talk to me about?" She asks innocently, as though she doesn't know your reason, but the way she starts pulling at the hem of her vest in that way that she always does when she's nervous says otherwise.

"You know what I want to talk about," you sigh.

"Does that mean you accept...?" She asks, and her eyes get that twinkle in them that you know all too well, and you find yourself staring dumbly into them and you only just realize that she's standing right in your personal space bubble in a way that would aggravate you if it was anyone else.

"I guess I do," you mumble, forcing yourself to avert your eyes from her freckled little face.

"Huh?" She asks with a squint, motioning to her ears. "I couldn't hear you."

"I said okay..."

"What?"

"I said I'll go out with you, Honoka!" You almost yell, feeling your face heat up in a mixture of exasperation and embarrassment. You're afraid to look at her because you just know she has that big stupid grin of hers on, you can just tell. She leans just a bit closer to you and you still don't look at her, you can't.

"So does that mean Maki-chan," she pulls at your sleeve, her voice just a little quieter than usual, "...likes me too?"

"I guess I do," you say again, still not looking at her. "I guess I do like you, Honoka."

She tugs at your sleeve again and you finally turn your head to face her again and her round little face is sunnier than you've ever seen it and her bright eyes are just the tiniest bit teary, and you think for just a moment how much she reminds you of the summer sky just after it rains. The hand on your sleeve shakily slides up your arm to rest on your shoulder and you feel her leaning her weight forward as she stands on the tips of her toes. She leans a bit closer to you and your eyes widen in a moment of panic, you bring your hands up in front of her face, pushing her back a little. She stumbles almost out of your personal space bubble, her hand flying off your shoulder in surprise.

"What do you think you're doing?" You almost yell again, and the heat in your cheeks has returned in full force. She blinks a few times before scrunching up her face into a confused pout.

"I thought that since we're dating now, I should kiss you. Is that not okay?"

"Don't try something like that without warning me!" You scold her, crossing your arms before continuing, quieter, just above a mumble. "And you should take me on a date first, at least."

"Maki-chan wants me to take her on a date?" Honoka grins up at you and you almost regret saying something like that because of the disgustingly expectant look she's giving you. "We could go to the park! Or a movie! Or we could sit in the living room and eat manju! Or walk around the neighborhood and pet all the dogs..."

You roll your eyes as she trails of, probably thinking about any number of other dumb date ideas.

"Honoka," you speak up, and it startles her out of her daydream. "Are you busy this weekend?" You ask, twirling your hair around your finger.

She shakes her head in response.

"Well, then you should take me out for dinner on Saturday." You don't even try to make it sound like a question.

"Sure!" She nods, and that eager smile of hers softens a bit as she lowers her voice again. "Hey, Maki-chan?"

You're almost offended at how softly she says your name, likes it's the most precious thing in the world to her and she's desperately afraid of letting anything happen to it. You look at her but her eyes are cast down sheepishly at the floor.

"What?"

"Is it okay if I kiss you now?" She looks up at you and her smile is nervous, but it's still there and she's pulling at her vest again. "It's okay since I asked this time, right?"

"...I guess," you mutter for the 3rd time this afternoon, but you know you were never really guessing anything, you know that kissing you is exactly what you want her to be doing. She takes a step closer to you and her hand in back on your shoulder, brushing clumsily against your red curls, and you close your eyes when she presses her weight on you again and raises herself up to meet you.

Her lips are as soft and warm as you expected them to be, but it's also as clumsy as you had expected. You lean into it and move your hand to trail down her side and rest on her hip, and you feel her jump, a little startled by it because of how hard she was concentrating just on kissing you.

Honoka pulls back after a few seconds that seemed longer to you than they actually were, a wide smile and a noticeable blush adorning her face. She opens her mouth to say something when an incredibly loud noise starts playing from the pocket of her skirt, causing you both to jump back in surprise. She fumbles for her phone, hands shaking just a little, and answers the call.

"Helloooo?" She asks, trying and failing not to sound suspicious.

"Honoka-chan, where are you?" A squeaky voice calls out worriedly on the other end. You think that Honoka seriously needs to turn down the volume on her phone. "Lunch is half over, you know!"

"Oh crap, I totally forgot to check the time!"

"Don't talk on the phone at school!" You hear a different voice on the other end this time.

"It was an emergency!" Says the first voice.

"I'll be right there! Give me just a second!" She ends the call and looks at you again, the smallest bit of panic evident in her eyes. "Maki-chan! I'm sorry, I promised I'd have lunch with them today!"

"Go ahead," you say, almost rolling your eyes again. Honestly, you were the one who dragged her up here in the first place so you couldn't get annoyed at her for leaving.

"I'll see you at practice," she says, nodding. "And... I'll see you on Saturday?"

"Yeah," you say and give her just a tiny bit of a smile and the look she gives you in reply makes you think her heart skipped a beat. Before you can say anything else, she dashes past you and out the door, her phone still in her hand.

And when she disappears around the corner of the hallway, you let loose the huge smile that you had been holding back since the moment she kissed you.

Ckik here. It's my first upload in over a year, in a fandom I've only just started to write for, so I can only hope that you found this work enjoyable. I'm not too well-versed in 2nd person perspective, but I feel that it flows better than 1st or 3rd person, and I enjoy writing from Maki's perspective because she seems the type to analyze everything around her in a way that's conducive to descriptive writing. If you stick with me, I have plans for more Maki-related writings while I practice 2nd person present tense.