"Sure, I'm free this evening" said Kyoko Mogami, who just had finished her work as the mascot on the popular variety show; "Kimagure Rock".

"R-really?! Are you sure?" asked the oldest of the three show hosted, Hikaru.

"Yes, for once I don't have anything planned". She smiled at him, he looked a little like an excited puppy. `I can almost see his tail wiggling behind him´ she thought, giggling.

"Well then!" he said, throwing his arms in the air "I'll let you get changed and we'll meet at the exit? Okey? Is that okey?"

"That's fine. I'll try to hurry, Hikaru-san"

"No, um, take you're time. It's okey. Um, I'll just, ah run to the guys and tell them tha...Tell them something!" And with that he ran backwards out of her dressing room, knocking over a chair as he went.

`What in the world made him so flustered?´ she thought to herself. `It's...cute´

Meanwhile, the cute young man that is Hikaru Ishibashi ran as fast as he could towards his and his Bridge Rock brothers room.

"She said yes! She said yes!" He screamed as he flung the door open, making the others jump. Hikaru skipped into the room while singing "She said yeeeees, she said yeeeees!" Jumping around in the room while the other two just looked at each other.

"Say, Hikaru...call me crazy but I get the feeling that maybe something good happened?" Shin'ichi said.

"Really? Because all I see is an idiot who dances around like a ballerina" said Yuusei, while lifting up the hat that had covered his face while he had been trying to sleep before Hikaru came barging in.

"Be as cranky as you want to, little boys! You can't bring down my mood today. Because she. Said. Yes!"

"Fine, I'll bite" Shin'ichi grumbled, and then continued with an overly excited and sarcastic voice "Who said yes? And yes to what? Golly leader, tell us!"

Hikaru smiled and sat down on the chair opposite from his sleep deprived friends.

"Kyoko" was all he said. That wiped the sarcastic face right of Shin'ichi's face and made Yuusei sit straight up.

"What!" they both screamed "Are you serious?" Shin'ishi asked, at the same time Yuusei asked "Are you sure?". Hikaru frowned at the later on but decided to ignore him and instead turned smilingly to Shin'ishi and answered

"Yep! I was just at her dressing room and asked her. She said she was free and agreed to go out with me!"

"Dude, that's awesome!" Shin'ichi said and patted Hikaru on the shoulder.

"Yeah, congrats! You will make a cute couple" Yuusei beamed almost as big as Hikaru, he was their number one fan boy.

"Hey, I don't know about that yet..." Hikaru said, blushing fiercely "We haven't even gone out yet" he continued.

"Are you kidding? You have had a huge crush on the girl since you met her! This will only make it grow. I promise, you will turn into a thing!"

"Shut up, Yuusei, you will make me over think everything tonight and I will scare her off!" Hikaru cried out. He knew she was in Love Me. And he knew that she might not be ready for a serious relationship yet. He didn't even expect her to say yes to a date, but he always kept asking. What is someday she was ready and he was not the first guy to ask her out? That would be a nightmare, to lose her only because you were to slow.

"I bet that we soon can call her our sister in law"

"Shin'ichi!"

"I'm starving Hikaru-san, were do you want to eat?" Kyoko asked as Hikaru opened the car door for her.

"You're the girl, so you get to chose" he answered as he had gotten into the driver seat.

Kyoko just made a humming noise, and looked out the car window with a little smile on her face.

"What is it?" he asked her, nudging her shoulder when she didn't answer.

"Well I was just thinking, how great it is to be a girl."

"Huh?"

"Yes well, we had to endure hundreds of years being ruled by men. Never got to make our own decisions, that was left to our fathers, brothers or husbands. We just got to be living dolls. But now, now it's our turn!" She had her hands clasped dramatically over her heart and her eyes was as big as plates when she leaned in to him and whispered "Now we can even decide where to eat...!"

Hikaru laughed "Isn't it amazing how far we've come?" he asked her.

"It is" she agreed "But I am humble and fair, I shall not misuse my power. I shall ask for you're opinion. How about Italian?"

"Sound's delicious, fair food ruler."

This was what Kyoko loved about being with Hikaru. She could laugh and joke without ever being self-conscious and worried that he might take her seriously. He had such a relaxed aura around him (even if he seemed a little skittish tonight) that it made her fell calm too. Not even with Moko, who was her best and most amazing friend in the whole wide world could she be this relaxed.

They soon found a nice Italian restaurant, or Hikaru found it. Kyoko said that something more simple would do, this particular one was a bit fancy but Hikaru insisted, saying that in a place like this they could have a more private evening. So she agreed, thinking about his reputation. Of course he didn't want people seeing them together. They were both singles, people would get the wrong idea.

The evening was a very pleasant one, they ate tasty food, talked for hours and laughed until her stomach hurt and she had to beg him to stop making impersonation of the cranky producer they had at Kimagure Rock.

"Please stop! I can't take it anymore!" She cried out, actual tears falling from her eyes.

"Sorry" he said, handing her another napkin.

"It's fine. I haven't laughed like that in a long time. It feels as if I have done a work out, my stomach will be sore tomorrow. So I should thank you, since I've even had dessert tonight."

"Are you still on that diet thing? You should stop, you are already so pretty" he said, blushing.

"Yeah, I'm sure I'm really pretty right now. With mascara running down my eyes" she said without seeing him blush, she was busy looking for her pocket mirror.

"Kyoko" he used only her name to get her attention, which worked. She immediately looked up at him. "I always think you're beautiful" It was her turn to blush, her whole face and neck got the same color as a tomato. Neither of them said anything and soon his face became to mach hers. "Ah jeez, that was embarrassing" he laid his head down at the table to hide his red cheeks.

"Um, thank you Hikaru-san" she whispered, not sure what to say.

"I just wanted to say something really bold. I've been so nervous the whole evening. I'm sure you've noticed." She had, but she didn't know what he was so nervous about. She had thought about asking him when he had spilled his drink for the third time but decided not to. If he wanted to share the reason, he would. She didn't want to force him. "Ah, why am I telling you this? Yuusei always says that you should never tell a girl that you are nervous."

Screw being polite, she couldn't help asking anymore.

"Then why are you nervous, Hikaru-san?" he lifted his head to look up at her. Did she not get why?

"It's okey if you don't want to tell me!" she added "It just seemed like you wanted to talk about it."

"Well.." he started "to be honest with you, I didn't think you would agree to come with me tonight."

"Why is that?"

"You have turned me down so many times, I didn't think tonight would be any different" he smiled slightly to her to make her understand that there were no hard feelings about it.

"I'm sorry Hikaru-san! I've been really busy but you are right, I should have made the time for my sempai, I'm so sorry!"

"No, no it's okey!" He reached over to touch her arm to stop her from bowing to him "Really, it is!" he added when she looked at him doubtfully. It stayed an awkward silence for a while. Kyoko wanted to continue her apologize but before she could start he opened his mouth

"Then, Kyoko-chan...if you hadn't been busy, would you have agreed to this sooner?" He looked so nervous, fidgeting with the table cloth and didn't even dare to meet her eyes.

"I guess?" she said, still not getting where his nervousness came from. But as soon as she had uttered those two words his head shot up and he had the biggest smile she had ever seen. "Uh, Hikaru-san, what.." But she got interrupted when he started laughing. "That's amazing, Kyoko-chan! You know I sometimes thought about giving up! Shin'ichi said I should. Well wait until I tell him this!" He looked so proud.

"Giving up?" She asked. She didn't really understand his reaction, he seemed overly exited to have dinner with a co-worker/friend.

"Yeah, I thought that maybe you would find me annoying you know. But I didn't want to give up! Not until I heard you say `Hikaru-san, you are annoying, I don't like you and please give up!´" He laughed and the continued "I'm very persistent that way. Ups, maybe I shouldn't tell you this, maybe I'm scaring you off?" He said jokingly. His nervousness was gone now, whatever she had said seemed to have boosted his confidence. She started to get a bad feeling about this. Hikaru-san couldn't be..? No there was just no way!

"I certainly not want to scare you off, Kyoko-chan. This evening has been so great, I would love a second one!"

"A-a second one?"

"Yes, a second date!"

"A second date!" She screamed out for the whole restaurant to hear. And then she went full melt down. She didn't see the waiters looking at them suspiciously, or hear the guest whispering. She didn't notice when Hikaru paid the bill or feel when he took her hand to lead her out of the restaurant.

Not until they were outside, well hidden from any audience thanks to a big tree next to the restaurant and Hikaru started snapping his fingers did she start to come to life.

"Kyoko-chan" he said, trying to catch her eyes but she didn't dare to meet them. Instead she looked at the big tree and started to realize her location.

"How did we end up here?" she whispered to herself.

"I took your hand and led you here." He had heard her silent voice.

"Oh, but the bill!" She started to walk back in so that she could pay but he grabbed her arm lightly.

"It's okey, I took care of it." Her head snapped up and she finally met his eyes.

"No you shouldn't! We should split it! Otherwise it would be like a..."

"Like a date" he interrupted. She looked down again.

"Kyoko-chan," he said again "you do realize that this is a date, don't you?"

She tried to answer him, she really did but all that came out was a strange strangling noise in the back of her throat. "I'm such a big idiot!" he exclaimed as he sank to the ground.

Kyoko have never felt this awkward. She didn't know what to do or say. She wanted to run away but Hikaru was her friend and she couldn't do that to him. It was better to be honest with him. She just had to find the ability to speak again. `Come on, Kyoko, you can do this!´she thought to herself.

"Hikaru-san" she still had that strangling sound to her voice but at least she could talk. `There you go!´she mentally cheered. "Hikaru-san, I'm sorry about this misunderstanding." She thought he was going to say something but all she heard was the biggest sigh ever. It sounded as if it started in is toes and then reluctantly traveled his whole body. "I´m really sorry about this Hikaru-san. But I'm not the kind of girl that dates." At that he got up and looked her straight in the eye, she had to force herself not to look away.

"Why is that?" He asked.

"Well, I, um. I don't believe in love." She said as a matter of factly.

"That´s it?"

"Huh?" That was not the response she anticipated.

"Kyoko, is that it? You don't believe in love? It has nothing to do with me?"

"I...no it has nothing to do with you. I do not believe in love"

"Then what's the problem?" he carefully took her hand and stepped a bit closer.

"I just told you?"

"I don't think that is a valid reason"

"What?" She pulled her hand out of his grip "How is that not a valid reason?"

"Didn't I tell you already? I would only stop is you told me, told me what, Kyoko-chan?"

"If I told you that you were annoying and I didn't like you..."

"That's right. Am I annoying?"

"Hikaru-san, that's"

"Am I annoying, Kyoko-chan?" Right now he kinda was, saying her reasons wasn't reasons enough.

"No."

"Then let me ask you another question Kyoko-chan. Did you enjoy this evening? You know, until this mess started."

"I really did" it wasn't often she got to go out and tonight she had so much fun with him.

"And if let's say, this wasn't a date and I too just wanted to be friends, would you have wanted to do this again?" She didn't need to think for that one.

"Absolutely"

"Then let's!"

"But if you want to have dates, Hikaru-san I don't think I could..." again she was interrupted.

"Kyoko-chan I am not in love with you. I like you, a lot. I like you too much to just be friends. But I am not in love with you. Not yet, anyway. And I know you don't love me. So you don't have to worry about those kind of things at all for now."

"But Hikaru-san, I will never love again! I am broken!" She could feel tears burning beneath her lids but she refused to let them fall.

"To be honest, I don't believe that. I know that you love people. You love you're best friend that you always talk about, you love those nice people you live with. And that's just a few. Tell me I'm wrong Kyoko-chan."

She didn't tell him, she just sniffed. She did love those people.

"Kyoko-chan, I'm not asking for much here. Let's just go out and have fun once in a while, okey? We'll take it really slow. I promise I won't pressure you to do anything you are not comfortable with."

"You are kind of doing that now, though" She sniffed again.

He thought about that one for a little while.

"Fine, after you agree to go out with me, I promise I will be much kinder. I am a much better date then I am a friend, apparently." She couldn't help but smile.

"You are an amazing friend, Hikaru-san. Besides Moko-san you are my closest one."

"I like you Kyoko" was all he said. She couldn't keep the tears from falling anymore. She wondered how she would feel if she never had gotten her heart broken by that idiot. This was the first time she got confessed to. And by such a sweet and caring guy like Hikaru-san too!

"Kyoko, let's just try this out?" He put his hands on her cheeks and started wiping away her tears. "Please?" He added.

"I do not know how to...I can't be anyone's girlfriend!" She cried out.

"You don't have to be my girlfriend, Kyoko. Not much needs to change. Just that you agree to see me after work sometimes. On dates."

"I'm not the kind of girl who dates, I'm not good with these kind of things..."

"Well, I am. Just give me a chance." She just continued crying and crying while he wiped all of her tears away. After a while he said;

"Kyoko, do you know what I see when I look at you?" She didn't answer but he continued anyway.

"I see the most beautiful woman. A woman with the biggest heart I have ever seen. She is smart, funny and just amazing. I can't help but wanting to spend more time with her. The only bad thing is, she has zero self confidence. And she doesn't seem to think she is worth anything. I want to change that. I want to tell her how beautiful and brilliant she really is. If she would only let me?"

Nobody has ever said such kind words to her and she was so touched and by them. She slowly wrapped her arms around him.

"Kyoko-chan, will you go out with me?" He whispered in her ear.

"Okey"