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WHO: Himeko and Taue
WHAT: The first in-person meeting! Also tomfoolery.
WHERE: Outside the girls' dorms.
WHEN: After Himeko's dance class.

Counting on his fingers as he walked the last few feet over to the steps in front of the girls' dorms, Shinichiro realized he'd made at least three enemies so far -- a bad rate even by his usual standards. More people usually were okay with his brand of...whatever he was, but with the MiMi Connection (his private name for them, don't ask) and Rules-kun already on his bad side (and vice-versa) he badly needed some friends, lest he spend his entire Chitoku Academy term in classes and actually doing significant quantities of work.

That was why he was here now. He and Himeko had, if not completely hit it off, at least gotten off to a much better start than he had with his other Persona-wielding classmates.

It would be nice to meet someone without any tension hanging over it, he decided, pulling up a seat on the step and awaiting the arrival of his kouhai.

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Himeko reached the girls' dorms shortly after her senpai.
Luckily, training finished a bit earlier for her today, so she had enough time to head over to their meeting point without hurrying too much...Or so she thought. Seeing Taue already waiting by the time she arrived, left a slightly surprised expression on her face.

"Taue-senpai~! You’re too early!", she commented cheerfully, putting on her usual innocent smile. "...Or am I just late? Did I make you wait for too long? If so I’m sorry!", she added, apologetically bowing down a little.

Taue greeted her with a grin and a nod. "Nope, haven't been here long at all. No need to worry." He chuckled a bit at her exuberant earnestness -- a far cry from what he'd been surrounded by lately. This had definitely been a good idea. "I didn't have much to do today, so I just came straight here," he explained.

Rising up from his seat, he returned her bow with a broader smile.

"So, Himeko-chan, where do you want to go? Did you eat? We could go get dessert or something, or wander the city, or, well, anything you want. Just say the word!" She was rubbing off on him a little bit, her pace not quite his own, but close enough that he didn't seem to mind.

"I see! That’s good to hear!", she replied, looking a bit relieved. Being late was one of the things, people in the entertainment business hated the most. It wouldn’t have been the first time for Himeko to enrage somebody by simply coming too late to an appointment.
She was well aware of the fact that Taue-senpai probably didn’t care much about those rules, she had to strictly follow up until now. But she didn’t know it any better and she didn’t want him getting mad at her just a few seconds after they met.

"Um... Let’s see. I wouldn’t mind getting something to eat or drink, first. Doesn’t have to be a lot... I’m not allowed to eat that much, anyway. Just cocoa would be fine! I assume there is a small possibility that you know the best places to get some?", she was watching him closely while talking. Her love for cocoa was always a rather tender subject. Many people thought of it as too strange and childish; even for someone like her. Himeko simply wanted to ensure what he might be thinking by watching his expression change.
"After that you could show me around a bit, if you like. I haven’t had the time to see much of Kobe, yet.", she continued in her cheerful manner.

Taue was fine with just about anything, really, especially after the past few days.

"Chagall Cafe's probably the closest. Their cocoa's not bad, if I remember correctly. It's a chain, but it's probably one of the best spots for people watching in town."

He liked taking a cup of coffee and just...watching people, sometimes. People with different worries than his, more or less or even no worries at all. It helped him relax, somehow.

Her cocoa habit was more than fine with him -- life was a short thing, after all, and from what little he could tell about her so far, she seemed fairly busy and slightly stressed. Cocoa was a much healthier way to deal with her issues than his own methods.

"And sure. It's big enough that we can't cover it all in one day, of course, but I can give you a basic tour. That shouldn't be too much trouble at all, Himeko-chan. Shall we?"

With a grin, he gestured for her to follow for the shortish trip to Chagall.

Even though she tried her hardest to find even the slightest hint of mockery in his expression, surprisingly Himeko couldn’t make out any of that. She had to admit that he really seemed to not care about it, at all.
This, however, made her somewhat happy and earned him a little bit more of her trust.

Hearing the words ‘Chagall cafe’ her eyes sparkled a little in excitement. She had heard of this place several times before, but hadn’t been able to visit it even once.
At home she never had met with people from the same school and went to town to do something fun. Secretly, she had always envied the students from the less-strict high schools in the area. Whenever she saw them returning home, unlike her, they seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.
But since coming to Chitoku she really felt like she was able to live a more or less normal school life for once as well. (Aside from the whole Persona stuff, of course. This was still far from normal for her.)

"Yep! That sounds like a plan, Taue-senpai! Let’s go, let’s go~!", she answered him in high spirits, while striking one of her usual cute poses to underline her words.
It was easy to tell that she was overly excited to leave the school grounds again.

Seeing how happy she was made him grin -- especially after the past couple of days, having pleasant company for a pleasant day was a nice distraction from his growing personal and professional problems.

"Off we go, then," he replied, easily enough, leading the way off of campus as the pair made their way towards Chagall for cocoa and coffee.

As they walked, he looked down at the shorter girl. She was cheerful and full of exuberance, seemingly. She also seemed to be better known than he was, or at least a source of more curiosity, judging by the looks passersby gave them.

It wasn't something he was used to, really, given his local celebrity, but he didn't mind much at all.

"So, how was dance practice," he asked, guiding them around a turn. "You seem so busy, Himeko-chan."

Walking alongside her senpai, Himeko noticed the looks they were getting, even though she tried not to be bothered by them too much. She should have known that this was most likely going to happen. Her family was full of famous people, after all. Even given the fact that she was a ‘no-name’ in the idol world, still, everyone, including the general media was expecting her to enter the entertainment business herself, as soon as possible.

However, she decided to simply ignore all of that gossip floating around. There was nothing to worry about as long as only passersby were staring at them.
It was a different story when the press was around but she couldn’t imagine them hunting for her, out of all people.

“Busy? Nah, I’m fine. I’ve done training since I was little, so I’m used to it! Well... it’s true that finding time to practice is a little harder, now that we also have that Persona stuff going on.”, she replied, chuckling a little. “Today’s practice was fine, by the way. I just still lack...something important.”, Himeko sighed. She didn't even know why she was telling him about that in the first place. It was always the same with dancing. She had a good sense of tact and her moves were sharp and well learned as usual. But there was that one thing, the missing feeling, her instructor in Tokyo had criticized as well. She wondered if she was able to master that, anytime soon.

“But Taue-senpai you must be pretty busy as well, right? Balancing school, clubs, that strange Persona training and company work sounds like a tough job.”, she added, facing him curiously.

"Something important," he asked, looking at her carefully, unsure of what to say. "That...random little /something/ that they always say makes stars and all? I never really understood that, myself."

She was cute as a button, obviously eager and energetic, and bubbly to boot. What else did they want, really?

"You'll get there, though. I have faith. People who want something as badly as you seem to always do in the end."

It made him slightly jealous, in a way -- he had no vision of the future that he looked towards anywhere near as eagerly.

Probably because, as she'd just reminded him, he had his family business to worry about.

"It's not always fun, no," he admitted. "I get old ladies in town tell me I'm not as good looking as Dad or Grandfather and that they expected more." He sighed a bit -- both had apparently been quite the ladykillers in their day. Sure, the women would usually explain just how much so, and that it wasn't REALLY a slight in his direction, but...

They both, it seemed, had some issues with family members in the spotlight.

"I'm pretty busy, but I do my best to make sure I have time to be me. That'll never change." He nodded firmly, as if this was a question he'd given considerable thought to on many occasions.

Gesturing to her, he pointed in the direction of the nearby building. "That's Chagall. Come on. It'll be my treat. Let's forget about our problems and wacky head creatures for a bit."

“Yeah that’s probably it! But don’t worry about that. I don’t really know why I brought it up in the first place.”, there was a short pause in which she seemed to think.
“Anyway~ thank you! I’ll try my best!”, she continued, putting on a bright smile. It really made her happy hearing words like these once in a while, when all she normally got was strict criticism.

Himeko listened to what he said about his own problems with a rather serious expression. She somehow could relate, even though the situations they were in were completely different. Honestly, she had gotten tired of being compared to her younger sister or her mother in her idol days, quite some time ago. She didn’t want to hear how much more beautiful and talented they were and that she would never reach them. She felt like blurting it all out from time to time, but she just couldn’t.

“I wouldn’t worry about what old women say. They don’t have a clue about anything anyway, when they are talking like that. As long as you do your best, there’s nothing to complain about, right? I can just talk about myself here, but I wouldn’t want to be a copy of anyone, even if it’s my own mother.”, she finally stated her opinion. As usual in situations like these, she just said what was on her mind without thinking too much about it. She realized that it didn’t come off very cute this time, but she somehow came to the conclusion that she didn’t need to force the cutesy act around Taue-senpai as much as around the other people at school.

When they finally arrived at Chagall cafe, for a moment Himeko was overwhelmed by her excitement again. “Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea! Let’s head in, then~! I can't wait to see what it looks like from the inside!”
It was only when they already entered the building that she realized what he exactly had said. “Um… about that being your treat, Taue-senpai…I don’t want to cause any trouble so…you don’t really have to pay for me.”, A situation like this was completely new for her so she didn’t know how to correctly react to that.

Shinichiro was also likely considerably less strict than anyone else in Himeko's life -- the things they had in common had ensured Taue wasn't going to be anything resembling strict about, well, much of anything.

"I know, I know," he replied, with a wry shake of his head, "but it's easier said than done. Besides, I'm kinda competitive, you know? Don't like hearing my old man was better looking than me."

He wasn't vain, per se, but he did take some pride in his appearance -- that, and considering he was a teenager, hearing things like that was a blow to his ego and potential love life.

"That's a good thing, I think," he said, in reply to her desire to be, well, herself. "All we can ever be is who we are, who we want to be, you know? I've been fighting for that for years. Just hope I'll be able to keep it, even with everything going on. It's...kind of scary, really."

He frowned for a moment, but smiled again at her exuberance at seeing Chagall. For him, it was a normal trip, but having such an exciteable companion made the simple excursion feel a lot more like an event.

Reaching into his pocket, Taue came up with several yen bills, enough to cover a cocoa and a pastry for her, if she wanted. Extending them in her direction, he nodded, encouraging her to take them.

"Seriously," he said, "it's no trouble at all, Himeko-chan. Your money's no good here."

There were, he figured, a couple of reasons she might not want him to pay -- the first being a more literal reading of her statement. In that case, he would have insisted until the end of the day anyway -- he had more money thanks to his birth than he would likely ever figure out what to do with.

The second -- the town's unyielding gossip cycles -- were why he'd handed her the money here, at the door, rather than offered to pay for it up front. Much as he hated the way the rumor mills worked, Shinichiro
Taue had spent as much of his life learning to circumvent them as anything else.

Even so, though, he couldn't resist a bit of teasing.

"What, afraid people will think we're on a daaaaatte or something?"

Himeko nodded. She could relate to most of the things he said.
She had a similar competition going on, even though it was with her sister. But she also didn’t want her to be the ‘better looking’ out of the two.

Being herself was difficult for her sometimes, given the fact that she wasn’t really always the cute, innocent girl she tried to make everyone believe she was. Her cutesy act was part of her, she wouldn’t deny that. But it wasn’t all she was about. Even so, it was the only part of her, people expected her to show.
“Well…all we can really do is trying to be true to ourselves, then. It’s worth a try at least, isn’t it?”

She sighed deeply at him handing her the money. “You wouldn’t accept if I’d refuse to take it, would you Taue-senpai?, she concluded, watching his expression. She knew that he wasn’t the type, who did something like this with any bad intentions. He probably just wanted to be nice and she did appreciate it. Himeko just wasn’t used to people doing things for her, out of the blue.

Hearing his teasing words, however, made her jump a little in shock.
“Se-senpai! What are you saying? NO…just no! Of course not!”, she flinched away from him ,blushing a little in embarrassment.
Her actions combined with the loud protest caused some of the other people in the cafe to curiously staring at them, which made the situation even worse.

"I'll drink to that," Taue concurred. "Well, I'll drink to it once we get our drinks, anyway." it was, after all, kind of hard to drink to something without a drink in the first place.

"Yup, I wouldn't accept. It's yours now. Get yourself something nice and sugary with it." Though he was getting coffee, not cocoa, he fully intended on getting himself something sugary to go with his drink.

Seeing her jump scared him at first, such was the surprise of her reaction. A split-second of...something flickered over his face, her embarrassment seemingly only deepening as the cafegoers turned their attention to the new arrivals.

He couldn't help but chuckle, really -- he was used to people giving him such looks, and besides, she was sort of adorable when she was flustered.

"Sorry, sorry," he whispered back, hands raised in mock surrender. "Didn't know it'd bother you so much. I guess I'm a little hard to fluster by comparison..."

There was an undertone of good-natured teasing, though, even in that comment, though he was speaking the truth.

“Fine~ I’ll surrender!”, she replied, still not looking fully convinced. She figured that he wouldn’t give up until she took the money. At least he gave it to her directly and didn’t insist on doing the payment for both of them right in front of the counter, where everybody else could see.

With a deep breath, Himeko tried to calm down a little. For a moment, she mustered him with literally no expression, at all.
She was unhappy with the whole situation, as well as her reaction to it. For him this was probably no big deal. But for her it definitely was.
After a few more seconds of just standing there, she finally regained her speech.
“Don’t ever do that again! I won’t guarantee for anything otherwise!”, she said, glaring at her senpai. Himeko knew that he most likely didn’t intend to bring out a reaction as intense as hers had been. She also accepted his apology. However, she didn’t want to let him get away with it this easy.
“I assure you, if you even think of doing something like that again my revenge will be horribly painful! Got it? ”, she asked, trying to look as furious as possible.
Her acting wasn’t the most convincing, though. She did look a little mad, maybe, but definitely not as much as she had planned to.

Having more or less successfully finished her little lecture, she felt a lot better. The only thing missing now was some of her beloved cocoa to fully regain her cheerful attitude again.
“All right, then! I’m really in need of some cocoa, now. Let’s go get some!”, she requested, putting on her usual smile again, as if nothing had ever happened.

If nothing else, this entire ordeal had made him realize that he was right about giving her the money here, rather than in front of everyone.

As she yelled at him, even if it was only half-serious (and he couldn't quite tell -- she obviously wasn't JOKING, but how serious she was exactly he couldn't figure out), he winced, head cocked to one side.

"Understood," he finally replied, still more flustered than he would have liked to reveal.

He kept comments to himself, looking at her quietly for a few moments, until her mood had brightened.

He nodded, and let her walk in front as they approached the counter. He'd decided on his order long ago - coffee and a Western pastry, probably a danish.

Himeko never had faith in her acting skills. Except for her natural cutesy act, other people never fell for any of the other acts she had tried out so far.
But seeing Taue-senpai after her yelling, she got the feeling that she probably had overdone it a little this time.
She somehow felt the urge to apologize, but was unable to since they stood in front of the counter and naturally the salesperson stood right behind it.
Her apology would have to wait a little, then.

She carefully inspected everything available before deciding for her beloved cocoa and a few little profiteroles.
After placing her order, she had to wait for the cocoa to be made, which resulted in the salesperson leaving her position behind the counter for a moment.
Himeko, still feeling guilty, took advantage of that situation immediately.
“Taue-senpai~ Sorry for yelling.”, she mumbled loud enough for him to hear. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just not used to that kind of teasing.”, without waiting for an answer she stepped away, awaiting her cocoa again.
Apologizing, after having done something really regrettable was the worst and most embarrassing thing she could think of. She always had been bad at doing it. In a situation like this it was typical for her to not face the one she had to apologize to or wait for any response. This was already the second time she felt embarrassed today. She really needed to be more careful from now on.

"Kind of surprised," he replied. "Figured you'd be used to that sort of thing by now." She was clearly fairly innocent, though how much of that was real and how much of it was persona -- err, her chosen personality was another story entirely. It was difficult for him to believe she'd never had suitors -- impossible, almost.
Taue ordered his coffee and danish fairly quickly, in an effort to distract himself and buy a bit more time to think.

Still, he wasn't totally surprised when she apologized. The outburst had felt out of place, somehow, from what he knew of Himeko, which admittedly wasn't too much at all.

"Don't worry about it too much," Taue said, after another moment. "What's done is done, and I won't do it anymore. Let's just enjoy our drinks and desserts. I've got a bad feeling things are about to get a lot worse, given what happened in school."

There were, much to Taue's chagrin, many things he couldn't make go away with a sarcastic comment. Headgods were most certainly one of them.

“Not as much as you might think... Even aspiring idols are forced to stick to certain rules.”, she glanced at him for a moment. “In fact, my whole family would definitely kill me now, if they knew about our meeting here.”, Himeko chuckled a little at this thought.
She wasn’t as innocent as she tried to make everyone believe, but it was true that she had no idea how it was to date someone and was a little afraid of it, even.

Of course, there had been boys who confessed to her or sent her love letters. But situations like these were always extremely embarrassing and it was typical for her to react somewhat awkward, when she had to face them.
Additional to that, there had always been this “no dating” rule, her family introduced to her from a very young age on, in order to protect her from possible scandals. Normally, she was mostly disobedient when it came to rules, but since there hadn't been a boy she was really interested in until now, she had never felt like breaking this one, at least.

“But it’s fine! I don’t really care. Next time when you decide to tease me I’ll try to act more...um...normal? Could be a good training...”, she looked at him, somehow questioning.

“Anyway, thank you for accepting my apology! I promise I won’t do something like that again.”, she said and bowed down, still a little ashamed. “...as long as you don’t bring up dating anymore...that really scares me...”, she added quietly, hoping that he wouldn’t hear.

When Himeko looked up again, her order also seemed to be ready and she excitedly as always inspected her cocoa. “Wow~! It looks delicious! But there is so much whipped cream on top! That’s gonna be a problem...but no, it will be fine if it’s just today!”, she soliloquized, while facing her cocoa with sparkling eyes. Just by getting her beloved drink, she seemed to have forgotten all the trouble she had dealt with just a moment ago.
Being back to her normal, cute self she started looking around for a place to sit and finally reacted to the last part of what Taue-senpai had said.
“You mean that Persona stuff? Well… one problem I see, is that we all have to work together. Aside from that, we still haven't seen those monsters they told us about”, she simply replied.

"I know about the idol rules," he replied, shaking his head a bit as they waited for their food to be prepared. "The whole thing's...kind of depressing, really. So much work goes into creating this...image that may or may not be who a person really is. For marketing, and such. The whole 'no dating' thing is supposed to make you look more ~attainable~"

Taue sighed -- if there was anyone else who knew the pressures of walking an expected path, it was him.

"Part of why I never got into the whole idols thing like a lot of my friends. Makes me feel bad, somewhere deep down. Get the feeling I'd like the people they actually are more than what they're being made to portray." He thought for a moment about what Himeko would be made into, if her dream came true. He wasn't quite sure, but even having to have the thought saddened him.

Having to change to achieve one's dream was a non-starter for him, and the fact that so many people had to was a source of great sadness.

As she continued, the corner of his mouth quirked up. "Are you asking me to tease you more," he, well, teased. "I can handle that. I'll just stay away from the verboten "D" word."

Everything was about perception. A single idol was a more marketable idol -- never mind the fact that said idol could only date one person and the odds of her dating you were astronomical. It was...so unrealistic to his line of thinking, and yet it was worth altering the idol's life for?

Sometimes Taue wished he was in charge of things. Like Japan. Or the universe, to correct all of its silliness based on such niceities as perception.

Soon after that, he usually started wishing he hadn't been born in Japan.

He brightened, though, watching her stare at her beloved hot chocolate drink. His own food was ready soon after, and he took his tray and guided them over to a table in the far corner of the establishment -- better for discussing magical headgods and the like.

"We do," he replied, voice lower. "We know nothing, and I'd really like to know something if they're going to be sending us off on some crazy mission. It feels like a movie. Or a video game. Or something."

Himeko had never thought that he would know a lot about the idol business. Maybe a bit, but definitely not that much.
“You know a lot, don’t you Taue-senpai? Well, I kind of expected it to be that way.”, she said, smirking a little.
“To tell you the truth, I’m not very obedient when it comes to rules. It probably would be the same with that ‘no dating’ rule, but I have never fallen in love with anyone before and...you know? It may sound strange, but to me the whole dating thing really is a little awkward. I’m just not used to it.”, normally, she wouldn’t tell anyone things like these so easily. However, after that embarrassing situation, she felt like telling her senpai the plain truth was the least thing she could do.

She listened carefully to what he said about the whole idol culture. She could totally understand what he meant.
Himeko loved idols and was never forced to become one herself. Or so she liked to believe. It was true that her parents did let her choose if she wanted to go that path, at one point. But she knew that if she would have refused back then, she would have also brought shame on her whole family. Even more than she already did now.

Nearly her whole family worked in the entertainment industry. Most of them were strict people, who were constantly loading more pressure onto her than she could handle. Honestly, she hated being around them, but there was nothing she could do about it.

“There are things in the idol world that I clearly don’t like, as well.”, for a moment she thought about how to phrase the next part of what she wanted to say. “I've always wanted to become an idol that could be true to herself. Just be me or something like this. I realize that this won’t happen by now. Everyone is expecting me to become something I’m not and I gave up fighting it, quite a while ago. But even if I have to act out a role in front of others, I don’t want to lose myself while doing it.”, she nodded to herself, while talking.

“I bet you can relate to at least a part of it. People must be expecting a lot from you as well, don’t they?”, she didn’t know why, but she somehow was happy to talk to someone, who had probably just as much pressed on his shoulders as she had herself.

“Maybe~~”, she replied to his teasing. “But remember that it’s an exclusive offer, only for you. Nobody else is allowed to tease Uehara Himeko without receiving a punishment! You better be proud, senpai!”, a mischievous smile flickered across her face.

She sat down at the table he guided her to and immediately took a sip from her cocoa. It was still a little hot, but utterly delicious. She didn’t even need to put in into words, her content expression spoke for itself.
“I know, I know!”, she said excitedly. “It feels like we are heroic heroes straight out of a movie! Don’t get me wrong... the whole situation is pretty bad and probably dangerous, but I can’t help it. The ‘hero’ vibes are too strong.”, she added.
“But... speaking of heroes! What you did, when we had to use that evoker thing for the first time, really impressed me! It looked very heroic, senpai !...Even though, I honestly thought you would die.”, Himeko chuckled, while recalling that scene. She really couldn’t help it. It was normal for her to go all excited over dangerous situations.

"Most of it's on the internet, you know," he replied, with a shrug. "Most of the scandals have articles that explain why what this idol or that idol did is the Worst Thing Ever."

It was hard to miss -- and even more so lately, because of Taue becoming much more in tune with societal events as he'd gotten older.

"Dating is kind of awkward," he admitted, "but that's just because romance and love are also totally awkward. Especially at our age, still bundles of hormones and emotions." Right. And his dad wanted him to *marry* someone. Now. Thank God he'd gotten the kibosh put on that, for now at least, or he'd have lost his mind.

"It's not good to be too obedient," Taue said, a moment later. "Keep that with you. It's a good thing. It makes the right people nervous. And if you can become the idol you want to be, all the better."

He was hopeful for her. She was headstrong enough to get there.

He couldn't help but chuckle at her animated pronouncement. "I'm honored, Himeko-chan," he replied, barely resisting a comment about how he didn't necessarily *mind* punishments, depending on the sort. But he'd set her off once already, no need to do it again.

Her general excitement about the entire Persona situation was cute, though he was surprise that she didn't seem more worried. Her explanation...oddly enough, made sense. Heroes got through this sort of thing okay most of the time, right?

"No need to be impressed," he managed, after an embarrassed moment, cheeks tinging pink. "I was just angry, and I didn't think it would kill me. I wanted to show that teacher up so damned bad..."

“Yeah, it is. But most people who don’t care about it just skip those news.”, she replied. “And all scandals are like the worst thing ever. At least for the hardcore wota.”, Himeko said in disgust.
As an aspiring idol she probably shouldn’t think bad about any fan. She had been scolded for this behavior often enough, already. But if one thing about the whole idol culture did bug her more than anything else, than it was definitely the attitude of the hardcore wota, who were at least three times older than she was.

Idols existed only for their fans and betraying them, even if it was just once, could destroy the idol's whole life entirely. She was sad, whenever an idol had to apologize in public and retire shortly after. It just wasn’t fair and they were people like everyone else, who naturally made mistakes. But this was just how the whole idol culture worked and she surely wouldn’t change it.

“See? You agree with me!”, she was happy that at least someone seemed to understand her. “A good friend of mine once told me that it becomes less awkward, when you actually fall in love, though…”, for a moment she was thinking about the person, who made that comment and sighed a little. “I guess, I’ll have to see that for myself to believe it…”, in some of the dramas she had watched, the couples did look cute and dating didn’t seem as awkward as she thought of it. But dramas hardly resembled reality in most cases.

She nodded at his words of advice and showed him one of her bright smiles again. “I’ll keep that in mind and become an idol that will make you proud!”, she said half-jokingly, saluting in front of him. “But even if you don’t care about idols in general, you have to become my first fan, Taue-senpai! We’re allies, so you have to!”, shortly after saying it, she realized that this wasn’t a very strong argument and not even an appropriate reason to acknowledge her if she would become an idol.
It wasn’t even true that he would be her ‘first fan’, if he agreed. At all schools she had visited so far, there had been a group of boys following her around and claiming to be her biggest fans and supporters.
But since she never did anything to earn their admiration, she always found this behavior to be rather irritating.

Himeko was contented with his answer. She still had a feeling that he didn’t take her statement as serious as she was with it, though. “You better be! It’s the one and only time I’ll make such an exception!”
It was rare for her to act that way. Strange enough, that she didn’t mind him teasing her, but almost demanding for it was more than untypical. She didn’t know a lot about him yet, but it seemed to be enough to determine that he could be trusted.

For a few seconds, she watched him with amazement. He was obviously embarrassed by her words. Something she hadn’t quite aimed for…but it was funny, nonetheless. After chuckling a little, she put a mischievous grin on her face. “Senpai~! I didn’t know you are that easy to embarrass!”, there was actually a little bit of teasing in her statement this time.
“But that teacher really is the worst, isn’t she? We should play her a prank or something sometime!”, it was a rather childish idea and she knew that herself, but playing pranks was something she was secretly skilled at... plus, it was fun.

"If you hold up to your end of the bargain, Himeko-chan, I'll definitely be your first fan. But you have to do it your way, okay?" Her pace was somewhat easy to get swept up in, especially because Taue was nowhere near as serious as the title of heir could often indicate that he might be.

"Oh, I'm fairly easy to embarrass. I get as good as I give most of the time, really. You just have to have the courage to go through with it, really!"

He didn't mind being teased - particularly not by a cute girl by Himeko, but in general, too. Being teased meant that he was part of something, like everyone else.

Being the heir to the Taue Corporation had undeniable benefits, but there were also days when the expectations ran him ragged.

"No pranks, though," he said, sighing a bit as he sipped his coffee. "The school's already probably irritated enough at me as it is. Gonna have to dial it back a little bit."

He frowned; otherwise, he might have been onboard with the childish plan. Any resistance he could muster was still resistance, after all.

“Of course! It’s a promise, then!”, she declared, seeming highly motivated by that.
Having someone in her fan base she kind of liked, made it a lot easier to try hard at auditions. It was much better than having to think of all those strange people, whose behavior was just plain irritating.

Himeko was fast as always when it came to her cocoa.
“I’ll definitely keep that in mind, senpai!”, she replied with a smile and took her final sip.
They hadn’t been seated long and she had already finished it completely.
It had been delicious, even better than the cocoa she had at this luxurious restaurant she went to with her family once. Probably, because she had fun drinking it right now, while she just felt out of place when she was at that restaurant.

“Aww~, that’s too bad!”, there was a small hint of disappointment in her voice, when they talked about her prank idea. “But it can’t be helped! I wouldn’t want to make your situation worse and maybe I shouldn’t overdo things, either. I still haven’t gotten my punishment for all the uniform modifications.”
The thought of the uniform problem made her sigh. Without her modifications the uniform was just boring and not cute at all.

Topics like these were just depressing and originally they had been coming here to have fun and forget about that for a while. Himeko immediately thought of something to brighten up the mood a little.
“I know! Let’s take some Purikura, when we’re both done with our meals here! I haven’t done that in ages and... Ah, wait!”, she suddenly stopped. “We can’t. You’re not a girl, so this is gonna be awkward...”, there had been those unwritten rules concerning Purikura, she totally forgot about.
She giggled at her own stupidity. “Well~ you better only give me that sightseeing tour, after this!”

(So so sorry for the delay on tagging you. Won't happen again, I promise!)

She was far more enthusiastic than he generally was about pretty much anything. Unlike most enthusiastic people, though, she didn't really annoy him. There was something genuine in her that Taue seemed to enjoy, a far cry from his own ways, and just sitting and listening to her was nice.

"This place is basically a military academy," he said, sipping his coffee. "A really well appointed military academy, and only a small percentage of the students are actually "soldiers," but one nonetheless. Makes sense why it's so strict." He sighed and took a bite out of his pastry, listening as she continued on, raising an eyebrow at her offer.

He'd been just about to comment on how it would look for the two of them to be in a photo booth together when she promptly corrected herself. Damn. That would have been an entertaining moment if she realized mid-pictures. Probably red as a tomato, too.

"There kind of are, aren't there," he chuckled, grinning at Himeko widely. "No worries, then. Just the sightseeing tour, unless you come up with any other ideas."

(It's fine~. Don't worry about it!)

“A military academy, huh? I don’t really like the sound of that and I can’t see myself as some sort of soldier either…but I guess you’re right with that.”, she sighed.
“That’s definitely not what I’ve been coming here for. Then again, in my case this invitation came at the right time. If I wouldn’t have received it back then, I would have probably already ki….”, killed myself. That was what she wanted to say.
Fortunately, she was able to stop herself from blurting it out. There was a small possibility that he already understood what she wanted to say, though. Once again, Himeko observed her senpai’s reactions for a few moments, before she continued speaking in a more cheerful manner.
“Never mind, never mind~~! Um… By the way! Why did you originally change schools, senpai? I mean before they forced us to be soldiers or heroes…. Because of the higher chances to be able to go to a good university?”, she tried to change the topic away from herself. She really wouldn’t want to get depressive now.

His reaction to the Purikura topic embarrassed her a little. Judging his expression, she had the feeling to know at least vaguely what he was thinking. “I really didn’t do that on purpose! It’s just… except for my cousin in Sapporo, I haven't been meeting up with boys before. My old school forbid it, too. Sometimes, I tend to forget that you can’t do specific things with someone of the other gender.”, she playfully poked her tongue out at him. “It’s a good thing, though. That just means that I don’t think of you as weird and irritating… and trust me. Most of the people in my old class were and it doesn’t seem to be a lot better here.”

For a moment she kept quiet, thinking about something.
“Say Taue-senpai isn’t there anything you’d like to do? Since we came here because I wanted to, I wouldn’t mind doing something you want to next. Unless… you have some dirty secrets you don’t want me to know about or~~~ you are too embarrassed going somewhere you usually go to, accompanied by a childish looking girl!”, she said jokingly.

Taue regarded her carefully for a few moments -- and he most certainly caught the start of the 'k' word.

He wouldn't push the point, though. It would simply be another piece of information filed away about a girl that was rapidly growing far more complex than she seemed and/or wanted others to perceive her as.

"I'm here because I got in, and mom and dad thought it might be good for my image," he explained. "The Taues are pretty well liked here, but we're a bit international for the liking of a lot of the higher ups in government, and society's starting to turn on us a bit for it. Not sure it'll help, but it was worth a shot, I guess."

Taue shrugged. Not so worth a shot in retrospect, he figured.

"Not accusing you of doing it on purpose," he grinned, "but nor would I put it past you. And yeah, this place isn't bad minus the obvious drawbacks. I take a lot of grief, but I'd take a lot of grief anywhere."

Her question caught him a bit off guard, and he took a moment to think about it.

"There are lots of things I'd like to do," he said, smiling sweetly at her, "and I'm not too embarrassed to go there with you. You're less childish than you let on. But I'd like to do it when we have more time. Today's about hot cocoa and showing you around."

He thought for another moment, and stretched, finishing off his pastry.

"Besides, I've got to leave something to the imagination so you'll want to hang out with me again, Himeko-chan!"

Honestly, Himeko was relieved that he kept quiet.
The whole thing was indeed pretty complex and she wasn’t even sure if someone, not very familiar with her situation would understand it.

“I see! The whole business stuff seems to be as much about a good image as idol work is, right?”, she remarked, not quite sure if that was an appropriate comparison or not.
“I really don’t get why everyone is that much against being international, though….”, she added, thinking about it before continuing. “If my English wouldn’t be as bad as it is, I’d love to travel to a different country someday!”

Himeko nodded a few times while he was talking. She seemed to be contented with what he said.
“Got it~! It’s a pity that we don’t have that much time… but getting to know this place a little better isn’t bad either.”, she replied, returning his smile.
“I’m looking forward to the places you’d like to go to, then. Not knowing what kind of places they are really makes me want to hang out with you again as soon as possible!”

There was a little moment filled with silence, in which she realized that he could possibly get a part of her statement wrong.
“It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to hang out with you without a reason, of course!”, she hastily added.
“I actually think it’s fun talking to you… um… is it alright to say that or does it sound weird again?”

((Going to try and move towards wrapping this one up. We can start a new, more recent in time thread. Ton of stuff in game's happened since we started this. xD))

"Not weird at all," Taue replied, smiling. "I understand. You clearly just want to flirt with me subconsciously. Such things happen."

The grin he favored her with seemed to indicate that he was kidding.

Mostly, anyway.

"Naw, I know how bad that'd look for you, so don't worry about it. Now, if you're done with your pastry, come on. I've got a town to show you, after all."

(I think so,too! We should probably just skip the whole "sightseeing tour" and end it here...otherwise it would take too long :"D
We can start a new one whenever you want to~ Just tell me to start one or start one yourself when you feel like it!)

Even though she assumed that he was only kidding by observing his facial expression, the comment was still enough to somehow embarrass her.
“I-I’m definitely not flirting! I would…I would know if I intended to do so, even if it was subconsciously! “, she replied, trying to avoid looking at him directly, so he couldn’t see that she was blushing in embarrassment again.

“How do we always get to these kinds of topics anyway… I just wanted to say something nice…”, Himeko muttered. But after a moment of sulking, she decided to get up from her seat and just act as if nothing had happened. “I’m ready! Let’s go senpai!”

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